June 4, 2023
Matthew 5:13-16

The title of the sermon is “The Church: Salt, Light, City on a Hill.”

Last week we studied the Beatitudes; we read we are supposed to be blessed meaning spiritually happy or if you will filled with joy when we are bankrupt in spirit, in mourning, during our meek conduct, while hungering and thirsting for righteousness, while being merciful and being pure in heart, while being peacemakers, and while being persecuted for righteousness sake.

In the world’s wisdom and reason, this simply should not be the case. The world would have us release ourselves from these kingdom principals and choose an easier path, a successful path by its standards. We must fight against the wisdom of the world in our efforts to adopt the wisdom of God into our lives. We are to fully align ourselves as Christians to the Kingdom of the Heavens and as taught by our Lord.

This morning, we are going to see the specific applicational truths that Matthew recorded for us in the immediate context of the Beatitudes.

A quick note: I will speak continually of the Church in Jesus’ ministry even though we typically say that the Church started at Pentecost. Why? For the Lord is the Foundation of the Church and the Apostles the first building blocks of it. Right here in Matthew are the words of the New Covenant. While the supreme event that made the Church’s role in the world possible was Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have nothing to say without the words of our Savior, Brother, Friend, Almighty God, Jesus. So from here on out I will apply all of Jesus’ words that were directed to people of faith to the Church.

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

• Here we see Jesus’ use of “the simplest and most familiar object” of nature, salt “to convey highest and most important truth.” (EBC)
• So, on the heals of the Beatitudes, we see that we are to apply these words to our lives so as to become and stay salty.
• A modern way to say this is, The Beatitude “Attitudes” are the spice for the world.
• And while today we “think of salt primarily as a spice giving flavor,” “given the amount of salt needed to preserve meat without refrigeration, it is not likely that many ancient Jews considered [salt’s primarily purpose] as enhancing taste.” (Blomberg, p 102)
• This is not the scientifically impossible notion of salt becoming flavorless but rather the common problem in the ancient world of salt being mixed with various impure substances and therefore becoming worthless as a preservative. (Blomberg, p 102)
• Salt was used to keep meat from rotting.
• So salt “kept life in the meat —so to speak.” (Barclay)
• Taken this way then, the metaphor means that, when we are salty we preserve life in the world.

Loosing saltiness
Caveat here: this passage is not teaching about eternal security. “Rather, … this phrase refers to the world’s response to Christians if they do not function as they should.” (Barclay)

• This phrase “loses its saltiness” is interesting in the Greek.
• Given here in this specific biblical context, it the Greek word picked us a new definition in the lexicons meaning “to lose flavor” (LSJ, Thayer, et al.) or “is defiled” (Blomberg, p 102).
• But it’s classic definition and in other places in the Bible (Romans 1:22; 1 Corinthians 1:20 ) the word mōrainō means to be or act foolish. (LSJ, Thayer, et al.)
• Salt is being used as a metaphor and being personified.
• So a translation could be “but if salt becomes foolish, how shall its saltiness be restored?”
• Jesus perhaps used this word --lose of saltiness-- to describe a Christian who has chosen to approach life foolishly.
• Nevertheless, we have in the ESV, “but if salt has lost its taste”
• In practice, if we live our lives in worldly ways by not being “diligently watchful” we lose our primary purpose in this life.

What’s the outcome when we refuse to apply the Beatitudes to our Christian lives according to Jesus’ teachings?

• The salt is trampled under foot.
• “The Talmud [Jewish writings and commentary on the OT] shows … that the salt which had become unfit for sacrificial use in the store-house was sprinkled in wet weather upon the slopes and steps of the temple to prevent the feet of the priests from slipping, and we may accordingly see in our Lord’s words a possible reference to this practice. . . .” (Plumptre, p 22)
• We see this happen again and again in civilizations around the world during modernity.
• Often as societies become quote “more modern” in its advances in technology, civil engineering, manufacturing, etc., etc., these advances usually seems to be “accompanied by a degeneracy in morals, which in course of time has brought about the ruin of mighty states.” As the EBC put it, “All that is best and most hopeful in mere worldly civilisation has in it the canker of moral evil,” That slow “rotting” from within. (EBC, British spelling retained)
• Jesus places the fault of world rot squally onto the people to which it belongs, at least to a big part, the Church.
• Listen to these sharp words from J. Monro Gibson …

• Alas! with what sad certainty has history proved the need of this warning! The salt lost its savour in the churches of the East, or it would never have been cast out and trodden under foot of the Mohammedan invaders. It lost its savour in the West, or there would have been no papal corruption, growing worse and worse till it seemed as if Western Christendom must in turn be dissolved-a fate which was only averted by the fresh salt of the Reformation revival. In modern times there is ever the same danger, sometimes affecting all the churches, as in the dark days preceding the revival under Whitefield and Wesley, always affecting some of them or some portions of them, as is too apparent on every hand in these days in which we live. (EBC)

• PAUSE

ILLUSTRATION

The early church often made spiritual truths into physical illustrations. According to one commentator, there was a practice in the synagogues that was adopted in the early Church. “[T]here was a custom that, if a Jew became an apostate and then returned to the faith, before he was received back into the synagogue, he must in penitence lie across the door of the synagogue and invite people to trample upon him as they entered. In certain places the Christian Church took over that custom, and a Christian who had been ejected by discipline from the Church, was compelled, before he was received back, to lie at the door of the Church and to invite people as they entered [with these words], ‘Trample upon me, [I] am the salt which has lost its savour.’” (Barclay, British spelling retained)

APPLICATION

• Question ourselves, “Have I lost my saltiness?”
• How do I get it or get it back?
• We must “prevent the corruption” from worldly forces. In McCree’s day in the 1800s, he saw taking action this way …
  • 1 The disciples of Jesus Christ should seek to prevent the corruption of literature.
  • 2 They should seek to prevent the corruption of public amusements.
  • 3 They should seek to prevent the corruption of … political life.
  • 4 They should seek to prevent the corruption of commercial life. (G. W. McCree, in BI.)
• In the 21st century it may go something like this: We need to prevent the corruption of ourselves from entertainment, from the internet, from our work places, from our concerns about politics, etc.
  • The world’s standards are corrupted. The world gives us situational ethics with a goal of replacing honesty with a lesser standard. The world gives us laziness instead of hard work. Our world hates not only morals, but seeks to lower all standards. (Barclay) We must take the words of Paul to Timothy to heart from 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”
  • The Church today, in looking to make “peace with the world” and to avoid persecution, become —as Barclay put it— “impotent to fulfill its divinely ordained role.” We then are now are in the process of being fully rejected even by those with whom the Church “sought compromise.”
  • Don’t we see this today? The worldwide Church is being rejected today for we have lost our saltiness. We have lost our joy and spiritual happiness and holiness in the face of hardship and the world now has no need for the Church. The world new coming goal will be to ultimately trample us underfoot,
• We therefore must repent!
• Hopefully you won’t mind Gibson again.

• There is as much need as ever to lay to heart the solemn warning of the King. … “Of what use,” He asks, “is tasteless salt? It is fit only to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.” Equally useless is the so-called Christian, who has nothing in character or life to distinguish him from the world; who, though he may be honest and truthful and sober, a very respectable citizen of an earthly kingdom, has none of the characteristic marks of the kingdom of heaven, none of the savour of the beatitudes about him. It is only because there are still so many savourless Christians that the value of the Church as a conservative influence on society is so little recognised; and that there are so many critics, not all unintelligent or wilfully unfair, who begin to think it is time that it were cast out and trodden under foot of men. (EBC, British spellings retained)

• The Psalmist knew these truths well. Turn to Psalm 51:10-13
  “Create in me a clean heart, O God,
  and renew a right spirit within me.
  Cast me not away from your presence,
  and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
  Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
  and uphold me with a willing spirit.
  Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
  and sinners will return to you.” (Emphasis mine.)

Jesus illustrates the Church in another way:

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 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.

• Right in the middle of the lamp/light metaphor, Jesus added another quick metaphor for the Church, a city on a hill.
  • Cities in antiquity were mostly built on hills.
  • This provided better safety and security for the inhabitants.
  • There are places in Israel where one can see the location of multiple ancient cities from a high vantage point; all on top of another hill. This would have been a very familiar illustration for Jesus’ audience.

Lamp

• The first century lamp was shaped “like a sauce-boat,” (Barclay) filled with oil with a wick floating in it. If one has ever tried to start a fire in a primitive way, one understands how difficult that can be. So people would try to keep some kind of fire burning.
• Normally the lamp was placed on some type of lamp stand verses being on the ground
• Jesus continued to illustrate the Church by describing what the lamp and the city have in common; they are both lifted up and bring light to its area of influence.

Light

• Notice, in verse 14, we are not to observe the light, we are not to “carry the light,” but We “are the light.” (EBC)
• Our King used this metaphor to teach another concrete truth: “He placed the hope of the future and the hope of dispelling the world’s darkness squarely in our responsibility.” (EBC) >>
• He placed a variable too of God getting glory based on our willingness to shine as we should. >>
• Jesus is the Light of the world we love to say rightly. But we forget that Jesus said in John 9:5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
• We love to say Jesus is the light of the world, but have you ever said “I am the light of the world?” This is a big part of the Church’s problem. We push away this supreme responsibility back to Jesus to handle from heaven (it sounds more spiritual that way). But Jesus said too, “You [!] are the light of the world.”
• After Jesus’ earthy ministry, He dedicated all the ministry functions to the Church, and the Church has continued to push these away by not understanding well these most simple words.
• We need to embrace our roles as witnesses of the gospel, messengers of truth, workers of mercy and grace, with confidence in our conditions.

That we are light is a given, so Jesus APPLIES to His audience what the outcome of this truth should be:

• v 16 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.
• [Christians] need to discover the lost radiance of the Christian faith. In a worried world, the Christian should be the only [person] who remains serene. In a depressed world, the Christian should be [the one] who remains full of the joy of life. (Barclay)
• We must do these things as light bearers for God’s glory.
• A few great quotes here:
  • From an unknown author, “There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.” (in Barclay)
  • Greenhough wrote, “The Church exists for the world’s sake more than for its own.” (J. G. Greenhough, from biblehub.com)
  • Adeney wrote, “The Church … has a large vocation; the whole earth is the field of her work, and there she is to labour not for her own ends, but to benefit mankind.” (W.F. Adeney, British spelling retained, from biblehub.com)
  • Gibson wrote, "our Lord lays His finger on a weak spot. The Church suffers sorely, … [from Christians] who do all they can to hide [their faith], refusing to speak on the subject, afraid to show earnestness even when they feel it most, carefully repressing every impulse to let their light shine before men, doing everything, in fact, which is possible to render their testimony to Christ as feeble, and their influence as Christians as small, as it can be. How many in all our Christian communities are constantly haunted by a nervous fear lest people should think them forward! (EBC)

How do I shine better?

• Repent, change our minds knowing that actions follow.
• We shine by living holy.
  • We are to adopt the beatitudal lifestyle with joy.
• We shine through reliance on God. Because Jesus shines I too shine.
• We are to open our mouths to give God glory and the benefit of others.
• We shine for God’s glory.
  • Christians should never think of what they have done, but of what God has enabled them to do. We should seek to glorify God because He works through us. We should point to our source of inspiration, example, equipping, and strength.

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and sometimes include other citation information from Constable.

Other Works Cited

^{Note: Not all of these resources listed below were used in this particular sermon outline.}

Augsburger, David. Dissident Discipleship. Brazos Press, 2006.

Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom)

________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/2up)

Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Training of the Twelve. Ed., A.C. Armstrong and Son, reprint 1984, Kregel Publications, 1971 edition.

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. Our Daily Bread Publishing, Online ver.

Chan, Francis. Crazy Love. David C. Cook, 2008.

Evans, Craig A. The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew-Luke. Victor, 2003. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/bibleknowledgeba00crai/mode/2up)

Hendriksen, William. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. Baker Book House, 1984.

Phillips, John. Exploring the Gospels: John. Loizeaux Brothers, 1988.

Platt, David. Follow Me. Tyndale, 2013.

Plumptre, E. H. “The Gospel According to St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke.” A New Testament Commentary for English Readers, Charles John Ellicott, editor, vol. 1, E. P. Dutton & Co., no date. Sourced from achive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/newtestamentcomm01elli/page/n9/mode/2up)

Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. Zondervan, 1995.

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