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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Be Salt and Light

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January 5, 2025
Matthew 5:13-16
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Evangelism

Sanctification & Growth

The Church

Transcript

0:19Good morning and happy new Year. It's good to be together as we kick off a new year and as we come to God's word. So keep your Bibles open in Matthew five. This morning we transition from the beatitudes to these two metaphors that Jesus gives us of how his people are to impact the world around them. So would you join me as I pray and ask the Lord for help?

0:51Father, we want to hear from you through your word this morning. So incline our hearts to see the goodness of Christ and how your grace enables us to be salt and light in our world for your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. In the first century, uh, Roman author and naturalist named Pliny wrote in his encyclopedic work. For those of you who don't know what encyclopedia is, it's kind of like Wikipedia, but in paper form, in his encyclopedic work, natural history, he wrote the following sentence. Nothing is more useful than salt and sunshine. Nothing is more useful than salt and sunshine.

1:49And uh, I think if we reflect on this for just a moment, this rings true to both experience and observation. Now consider the significance of salt. Salt was important throughout history. It was often called white gold. It was a precious commodity that was traded along the Silk Road and by Sharran salt caravans before refrigeration, salt was the primary method for preserving meat and fish and vegetables. It's where we get some classic foods like anchovies, prosciutto, kimchi, and salami. Salt was used to tan hides for clothing and used in pottery and bread. It was used in medicine, salt baths, salt rinses for nasal cavities, salt spas during the American Civil War, salt production facilities in none other than Saltville, Virginia, where targets of the Union army salt was used to clean wounds.

2:50Today we use salt to de-ice our roads. Salt was used in religious ceremonies. It often symbolized purity. It was used in incense, in grain offerings and a sign of cleansing. It was invaluable, precious, and essential for everyday life. Similarly, light is equally indispensable. If you listen to any of the health gurus out today, they'll tell you in the morning, as soon as you can, get as much sunlight as you possibly can. It regulates our circadian rhythms. Vitamin D is produced when we get exposure to ultraviolet B light, which is essential for bone health and our immune systems. It helps us combat depression and anxiety.

3:38And it's why so many Minnesotans like to flee to Arizona or Florida around this time of year. Light is essential in photosynthesis. It sustains much of what we eat. If your newborn baby is jaundice, what do you do? You bring them out into the light so that the sunlight can break down the excess bilirubin. Some people go out and buy expensive red light therapies thinking that might help their health. Light influences hormone regulation, insulin sensitivity. It's a biological necessity critical to health and flourishing in nearly almost every single way. And Jesus takes these two indispensable aspects of life and he likens them to his people.

4:31Be salt and be light. This would've sounded outrageous. In Jesus' day, his disciples were no more than this small ragtag band of misfits, and yet Jesus calls them the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And so I think Jesus' main point here this morning is rather simple. It's that Jesus' disciples are to impact the world for good and for God's glory. Jesus' disciples are to impact the world for good and for God's glory. And what Jesus is doing here in this section is he's anticipating the temptation of his disciples. If you remember, look immediately at the proceeding verses in verse 10.

5:26He said, blessed are those who are persecuted. Blessed are you when you're reviled and when others utter all kinds of evil against you. That doesn't sound all that pleasant. And one might be tempted to withdraw, to disengage from public life. How many of you have at least at one point in your life imagined maybe setting up a Christian commune might be a good idea? You know, some of you during covid were like, how can I buy a few more acres? Maybe we should look into that real estate in South Dakota. Yet Jesus tells his disciples, despite the temptation to disengage and to withdraw, be salt and light, not to cloister away, but to influence this world for good and for God's glory.

6:17So our plan is to take these two metaphors one at a time and to see in what way does Jesus want his disciples to be salt and light? So look with me at verse 13. Here we come to the salt of the earth. Let me read it again for us, you are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. As we saw earlier, salt has dozens, hundreds of uses. So which does Jesus have in mind? The text doesn't tell us he, he does mention taste there. So it includes its function as a flavor enhancer.

7:02In the Old Testament, salt was often used to purify. It was used in sacrifices. And yet I think in the ancient world, salt's primary function was as a preservative. Here, here's one way a pioneering missionary put it in this speaking of salt, he says, this was absolutely imperative under the high temperatures and hot weather of the region. Decay and decomposition of meat was astonishingly rapid. We had no winter weather or cool frosty nights to chill the flesh. Besides this swarms of ubiquitous flies soon hovered over the butchered carcasses. The only way to prevent them from ruining the meat was to soak the slabs of meat in a strong solution of salt.

7:51So I think Jesus has this particular use of salt in mind. It's a preservative, it's a flavor enhancer. And Christians are called to let our words be seasoned, to be gracious, seasoned with salt according to Paul and Colossians four, six. But salt was essential in that first century in preventing decay, decomposition and rot. And so this means Christians and the church are to be the salt of the earth. Meaning we prevent the moral decay of society. We are the moral antiseptic upon the infected wound of our world. We are the global moral preservatives in a world that is decomposing as we speak. We are the hydrogen peroxide on the open wound of this crooked and twisted generation.

8:49We, we'll see, we'll come back to see what this looks like. But Jesus goes on to say, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? Now, I didn't do so great in college chemistry, but those of you, you who did know that sodium chloride is a stable compound, it, it can't lose its taste or properties. So did Jesus not know his chemistry very well? Well, no, I don't think that's what he has in mind. Jesus is describing how salt in the first century was often impure it. It was gathered from sea water evaporation, salt flats or collected from the dead sea. It's a little bit like how our sea salt today might be contaminated with microplastics.

9:35In those days it was often contaminated with other minerals. And it could be that the salt was leached out or dissolved, leaving this substance that would remain tasteless. And he says, salt that loses its taste is useless. It, it's a rhetorical question, how shall its saltiness be restored? It can't be. It's lost its use entirely. It, it goes on to say in the second half of verse 13, it's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. Saltless salt is useless it. And I think Jesus is drawing the analogy. If believers lose their distinctive quality, we too become useless.

10:24The the word has lost its taste in the Greek can also mean to become foolish. And so I think he's saying that if Christians lose their distinctive qualities, we actually become fools. So we're to be moral antiseptics, global moral preservatives. And one of the ways we do that is by not being conformed to the ways of the world. When we, when Christians, when believers, followers of Christ are conformed to the ways of the world, we have become fools and we have become useless. We must be different. We must be counter-cultural. We must be conformed to Christ and His kingdom, the beatitudes and the rest of the sermon on the Mount.

11:14Additionally, our saltiness though is not just bound up in our qualities and our distinctiveness, but it's also bound up in our mission. Jesus does not say to them, you are the salt of Israel, you're the salt of Jerusalem, you're the salt of Judea. He says, you are the salt of the earth. I think this has in view that our mission is to extend to the Gentiles and it anticipates Jesus great commission. Our beliefs and our behaviors and our mission to make disciples and be fishers of men is what makes us salt. Let me try to illustrate this both negatively and positively. Negatively do we look just like the world around us?

12:03Do Christians in America, in in Minnesota, in our church look just like the world around us? Are we addicted to pornography, engaging in adultery and abortion, pursuing divorce enraptured by success and entertainment, idolizing youth sports just like the world, if we know, if we look no different than the world around us, then we are rotting and decomposing just like the world. Have we compromised on the Bible's teaching on men and women and marriage and sex and procreation? Do we stand against things like euthanasia and ethnic partiality and racism? Do we care for the poor? Do we share the hope of the gospel?

12:48Our counter-cultural beliefs and behaviors is what makes us salty. Don't lose that or to put it positively, the church has in every age by God's grace, functioned as a retardant to the decay of the world. It's the substance. Christians are the substance that are to be rubbed into the wounds of the world. To halt its decomposition, just consider the these various areas in education. Christians have established some of many of the world's universities, including Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard and Princeton and Yale. And it was mainly to teach the Christian faith. Protestants have labored to promote literacy for hundreds of years around the world in Europe and Africa and Asia and the America, so that people could read their Bibles in the realm of medicine, healthcare and hospitals often spread alongside Christianity.

13:46The church cared. The early church cared for the sick and needy Catholics and Protestants established the first hospitals to care for the poor. Even the Mayo Clinic and St. Jude's Children's Hospital were founded on Christian principles. Medical missions brings care to remote parts of the world in the realm of justice. William Wilberforce in Britain and abolitionists in America fought against slavery because of their Christian faith, believing that all men were created equal. The civil rights movement was rooted in Christian belief in arts and culture. The masterpieces were inspired by the Christian faith.

14:26Like the Sistine Chapel or the Last Supper, Christianity gave rise to classical sacred music. Christian writers wove great Christian themes into their works such as Suez Lewis and JRR Tolkien In science and technology. Early scientists were Christians who saw their work as exploring God's creation. Isaac Newton Galileo, blaze Pascal in humanitarian aid. Christian charities like the Salvation Army provide food and shelter and aid to millions feed my starving children. Food drives at a smaller level. Christians are often exemplars of honesty and integrity, or at least we should be secular people, even if they don't like Christians, would much prefer Christians as neighbors.

15:19Christians help promote high trust societies. I remember when I was a kid, I would go with my dad to a place called Thrifty. It was sort of like a Walgreens or CVS and they would often serve a scoop of ice cream for 39 cents. You can't get hardly anything for 39 cents these days, but he and very often the kid behind the counter who was making, you know, 6 75 an hour would always get the change wrong. After we'd buy a couple of ice cream cones and every single time my dad would always correct them and then give back the nickel or the extra pennies to make sure he got exact change. He, he was always modeling honesty.

15:59Now the question is this morning, if you went missing from your work or your school or your neighborhood or your group of friends, would your absence be felt? If the church and Christians in the Twin Cities disappeared, would our absence be felt? We are to be the salt of the earth. Jesus is saying that ineffective and useless kingdom citizens are an oxymoron. There should be no such thing. Salt seasons preserves and flavors. And so we are the salt of the earth. We make the earth a better place. What does your ribeye steak absolutely need before you throw it on the grill? It needs to be salted, otherwise it's just a dull piece of meat.

16:58Are we making our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our communities a better place as a result of our presence? This is our identity, our calling, and our purpose. That's what Jesus is saying is his disciples by nature, you are salt. You don't have to try to become that. You are that because of who you are in Christ, in what you believe and the mission I've given you. And so therefore, go and be engaged in this world for its good and for my glory. This leads us to the next metaphor. In 14 to 16 light of the world, he says, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand.

17:51And it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. So he follows telling them that they're the light of the world with two examples city on a hill and a lamp in the house. And so in the same way that we're to be global moral preservatives, we are here now to be global moral illuminators. And if we're the lights, then it assumes that the world is dwelling in deep darkness. And the Bible does teach us though that God himself is light. One John one five or Jesus himself says in John eight 12, I am the light of the world.

18:36So Christians reflect the light of the glory of Christ. We shine forth with the derived light. Ephesians five, eight tells us that we are children of light. And so in in the salt metaphor, the world was to taste the goodness of God through his people. And in with this metaphor, the world is to see the goodness of God through his people. So in one sense, we should look morally attractive as we live out our faith. Even though our righteousness will both solicit and elicit persecution, it'll also look admirable and attractive. And then he goes to his examples, A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Most of Jesus' listeners would've thought of Jerusalem in that moment situated up on a hill.

19:28And many of those ancient cities were built of white limestones so that they glisten in the sun. And so Jesus followers are to shine forth like that city that's on a hill. You can't hide that city. And at night when when the lights are lit within each of the homes, it, it has that glow. We call that light pollution. Nowadays we think the glow of the city where you can't see the stars. But in those days, that would've been good shining forth so that everything else would have light. The second example is this lamp on a lampstand in the house. No one lights a candle and then puts it under a basket.

20:05You're either gonna snuff it out or you're gonna light that basket on fire. Instead, you put it up on a stand. And Jesus disciples are to be that light. What does light do? Light helps us to see, but it helps us to see everything else as well, doesn't it? It helps us to see what is truly real. It reveals reality. And so Jesus disciples are to live and behave in such a way that they reveal what is God's good design. So what does this look like? Christians reveal by their beliefs and behaviors and values, what truly matters in life. So, so for example, if Christians work hard to earn lots of money in order to be generous and hospitable and cheerful in giving, we reveal that we, we we don't serve money, but rather money serves us.

21:07It's a great tool, but it's not our master. Or when Christians forgive and show compassion and exhibit justice and kindness, we're humble and grateful. We reveal what is the path of flourishing in our world. The church is to shine forth the light of Christ and to illuminate what is true and right and beautiful. This happened to me when I first moved to Minnesota from California. So in California I grew up in, uh, community and a culture that saw children primarily as a nuisance and as a financial burden. And I remember when, when my wife and I got here, we had no kids. We went down to the south campus, which was meeting at the Burnsville High School at the time.

21:54And we met big families, like 15 passenger van, big families and kids would just start streaming out. And we, we, we had never seen such a thing. You know, I had one sibling, my wife, she had one sibling and big families was three kids. So, and and one family in particular. It was the donaldsons. They stuck out like a sore thumb. They had three adopted, I think 10 kids total. And for the first time I saw the biblical truth. Children are a heritage from the Lord. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. It was the first time that I saw someone living out that truth. And it was stunning. It was so amazing.

22:38Like people actually want more children. That family helped us to see what was always true, but that which we couldn't see their lives illuminated the beauty of God's truth. And that's what Christians are to do in our world today. Our families, our marriages, our children, this community, our love for one another. Our generosity is to tell the world what really matters.

23:13And it's not just our strengths, it's to say if you've made a shipwreck of your life and squandered everything, oh by grace you can come to the foot of the cross and find hope and healing in Jesus. That's what our lives are to declare. That's what it means to be light Again. Notice Jesus says, you are the light of the world. This is not just this little local lighthouse, but it's this worldwide light. It has this missionary impulse at work. The church is to shine the light of Christ into all the dark places of our world. We should undermine sex trafficking and the pornography industry and advocate, advocate against the abortion industry both here and abroad.

24:06And unfortunately our government seems to do the exact opposite. And in verse 16, Jesus concludes his metaphor with two purposes. Our light is to shine so that people may see our good works and as a result give glory to our Father who is in heaven. So he's to people are to be able to see our good works or see our righteousness. We saw righteousness called out earlier in chapter five, verse six, where to hunger and thirst for righteousness we're to be persecuted for righteousness sake. So there's a tension here in our text and I wonder if you see it. Jesus says, people should be able to see our good works.

24:47But then just a little bit later in the sermon on the Mount chapter six verse one, he says, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Or chapter six, verse two, when you give to the needy sound, no trumpet, don't draw attention to yourself. Or verse five of chapter six, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites who love to be seen by others. Or verse 16, when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. So which is it? Are our good works to be seen or are they to be not seen? Are they to be practiced in secret? And the answer is yes.

25:29Jesus warns against the hypocritical attitude that does good work in order to look good and win praise for yourself that has the wrong motives, self serving and not God glorifying. And yet we are to exhibit good deeds. We're to practice good deeds, compassion and kindness and gentleness and love and service to others. And people are to be able to see that and to give glory to God our Father. These good works are to lead others to give glory to our Father who is in heaven. The the use of the word Father here is the first of 44 times and it's 16 times in the Sermon on the Mount. And it points to this new relationship that we have with God.

26:21The reason we're salt and light is because it's now part of our identity and calling. We are sons and daughters of the most high king. It's who we are. It's not just what we do, it's who we are at the very core. Now that phrase give glory to your Father, suggests that some are going to see our good works and then come to saving faith in Jesus. Now how do I get that? Well, this language is the same that's used in revelation in several other places in the Bible. But we'll look at revelation and it says this, revelation 14, verse six and seven says, fear God and give him glory. Or Revelation 16, nine, it says, they did not repent and give him glory.

27:14The idea here is that give him glory is synonymous with saving faith. God expects our good works to lead some to faith in Christ. They're gonna see these good works. It's gonna have this attractive smell of the aroma of life and then turn to God in repentance and faith. So Jesus' disciples are salt and light by their very nature. It's our very identity. And Jesus is telling his disciples, this is who you are. Embrace your true identity as salt and light. So Jesus' disciples are to impact the world for good and for God's glory. And the way we do that is as global moral preservatives and global moral illuminators.

28:12Our distinctive quality is that we are indeed different from the world. We have different values, we have different beliefs, and we ought to have different behaviors as a result of being children of God. We are the Laurie's seasoned salt on what would otherwise be a dull and bland ribeye. We help stave off the decomposition and the wr of our world through our obedience to Christ. And we do this together as the church, as the people of God. We're trying to shine forth the glory of Christ so that the world, they, they might see our righteousness and persecute us, but they might also see it and say, man, you guys really care about each other.

29:00Like why is that? Like why did so many people come and help you move? 'cause that's the last thing most people wanna do. Or when you were sick, all those people brought brought you meals. Why is that? Well, they're from my church and it's because they love Jesus. So how do we apply being salt and light in our world? I wanna draw out two final observations and they dispel some of the lies at work in our culture. The first is that Christianity is good for the world. Christianity is good for the world. This is under attack in in our world today. Many, many in our world would claim that Christianity is oppressive and toxic.

29:49It's on the wrong side of history. We're standing in the way of sexual liberation and progress. And yet though the church has not been perfect, not by any means, God has used it for good throughout the history of the world, Jesus disciples everywhere that they have gone have challenged injustice, provided care for the poor and needy and marginalized, pursued justice, exhibited Christlike compassion, exhibited integrity and selflessness and service to others. For example, uh, some today would accuse Christians of just being pro-birth but not pro-life. You guys just care that people give birth to those babies.

30:35But where are you after those babies are born? This is simply a myth. Christians have established nearly every pregnancy resource center for vulnerable women. Christians are engaged in child sponsorship programs around the world. The adoption rate is more than double among professed believers. Many Christians are highly engaged in foster care. Some would accuse Christians of being repressed prudes. Yet churchgoing Christians are shown to have the most fulfilling sex lives in America. Church attendance is often correlated with less depression and suicide and substance abuse and greater meaning and satisfaction in life.

31:18Regular church attendees give more time and money to the poor than those who are a religious. Robert Woodbury, a professor at Baylor, found the following in his research. He says, this areas where conversion is Protestant missionaries had had a significant presence in the past, are on average more economically developed today with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment, especially for women and more robust membership in non-governmental associations. The gospel has brought glorious transformation wherever it goes. And so beware of the lies that paint Christianity as a destructive force of oppression in our world.

32:10Quite the opposite is true. And the way that this should embolden us is that we should believe what the Bible teaches and live it out completely unashamed of what the Bible says. Don't be embarrassed that we believe what the Bible says because the Bible has truth. It has the message of life. It tells us how to live the blessed life. And oh, there is a world out there that is grappling around in the dark, trying to feel out what was gonna bring me satisfaction, maybe a little bit more money, maybe a little bit more sex, maybe changing my gender, maybe a little bit more self attainment. And the world just can't find life.

32:58And yet believers, we have the words of truth. Don't ever, ever, ever be embarrassed of what God's word says and instead live it out. Show the world the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ Jesus. Disciples, when we obey his commands and hold fast to his word, turn the world upside down, we transform the world. Second, therefore, be salt and light for Christ as salt, preserve and flavor the world around you. As light shine forth, let your good deeds lead others to see the beauty and the majesty of Christ. And one of the things that is at work in our world when there's maybe a little bit more hostility against Christians, is that we go undercover.

34:01We, we stop putting our faith on our sleeve in a sense. We, we just downplay, we we pray more quickly and silently at at at the table because we don't want others to see. We don't talk about what we're excited about or what we did over the weekend. We downplay the things of faith and of Christ. And my encouragement for us is, is just let that light shine. That's what the world needs to see. Let your light shine forth. Hold unswerving, lead to God's word, un embarrassed by his teaching that is objectively good for human flourishing. Living according to God's word, always leads to life. And rejecting his word always leads to heartache, pain, and suffering.

34:51And it's not just we who do that kind of on our own out there, but we're doing this together as a church. So pray that the Lord would cause us to shine forth brightly. That's one of our aspirations that we would be oaks of righteousness. And when you gather a bunch of oaks together, uh, we're a garden city, like Central Park in the middle of New York, in the midst of this concrete jungle, we're a garden city. And that we would shine forth the light of the glory of Christ. I, in the midst of a world that is saying, is there anything more to life than just what I've lived? And so pray that God would do this through our global partners, through our partnership with places like New Life Family Services and the Ralph Reader Food Shelf and the Mounds View Police Department and arrive ministries among refugees through our church plans and our college ministry and our ESL Ministry.

35:50God is using the church as a whole and each one of us individually to go forth and shine the light of the glory of Christ. And we can be confident that when we do this, when we live according to God's commands, holding fast to his word, not compromising in any way, shape or form, God is pleased to use that to draw people to himself so that there would be some on that final day who will give glory to our Father who is in heaven. They'll say, we, we saw why you did what you did. We see something fundamentally different about your family, about your children, about your integrity at work and why you do what you do.

36:38And as I looked more and more I found Jesus, oh, may that be true of us, that many would find and discover life in Christ, in and through us. Let's pray. Father, oh, help us to be salt and light that would magnify Christ in all of life. Pray this morning, Lord, that in the various places that we influence and have impact, oh, make us salty for Jesus and use us in 2025 so that we would have the joy of seeing some give glory to our Father who is in heaven. So cause many in this coming year to come to saving faith in Jesus as a result of seeing our good works, both us as a church and individually as well.

37:37I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Matthew 5:13-16

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