Do you know who I am?
• My parts alone could be deadly. As a soft metal I can explode in water. As a yellowish gas I am poisonous to breathe. Do you know who I am?
• You consider me common, but I have been considered of great value; I have even been used like money. Others have used me as a bond of friendship. Do you know who I am?
• You will find me in water and in the ground. Sometimes I’m thrown on the ground to keep you from slipping. Do you know who I am?
• I have been used as a preservative, but too much of me will spoil a good meal. I’m odorless, but I will add flavor to your food. You will even ask for me by name to improve the taste of a meal. Do you know who I am?
I am Salt.
Do you know who I am?
• When I am absent you’re sometimes afraid, but too much of me in the morning makes you wish I would go away. Do you know who I am?
• I’m full of color but if you look at me I hide them all. I bring out the colors you see everyday; without me your world turns to grey. Do you know who I am?
• When I pass through the rain or a prism my colors separate for you to see. Do you know who I am?
I am Light.
Do you know who you are or ARE YOU HAVING AN IDENTITY CRISIS? I’m not asking for your name. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, male or female. I’m not interested in who you are within your family as a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister. It’s not important what your occupation may be, or what kind of student you are.
Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. . . You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14 NIV). As a follower of Jesus Christ, do you know who you are, or are you having an identity crisis? Are you sometimes salty and other times bland? Does your light shine one moment and get turned off the next?
Matthew 5:13-16 13Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. 14Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. 15If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. 16Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (MsgB)
We are salt and light, but what does that mean? If you are not sure, then you are having an identity crisis. Jesus wants to make our identity clear in our minds who we are; certainty with no guess work.
The Sermon on the Mount began with the beatitudes, eight paradoxical statements of joy. Jesus not only showed us how to be joyful; He also showed us how to live our lives like Him. Remember we called the beatitudes the “BE-ATTITUDES,” the qualities and characteristics needed in our lives to be like Jesus.
Jesus knew some of the people listening to Him would have a hard time understanding what He was saying. Many of us perhaps still aren’t sure how to apply the beatitudes to our daily lives. Therefore, Jesus didn’t stop there. Jesus showed us in a more concrete way, so we can get our hand on whom we are as His followers.
Salt and light are things we can understand in our everyday world. We know how salt and light are used and how other things in the world respond to salt and light. Jesus wants us to apply what we know about salt and light to how we live our lives as His followers. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world! When we live as salt and light then we are living out what Jesus said in the beatitudes. Being salt and light is what it means to live like Jesus.
1. We learn the real condition of our world because Jesus says we are salt and light.
WE LIVE IN A DECAYING AND DARKENED WORLD. The first step toward living out our identity as salt and light is to understand the real condition of our world. The world we live in is in desperate need. Christ wants to use us as salt and light to bring about a transformation in the lives of others.
The implication of Jesus’ words is clear. The world is decaying, tasteless and searching for satisfaction. The world is groping aimlessly in the dark. Our world is in need of salt and light. Our world needs us to live our lives as Jesus wants us to live.
Unfortunately, we won’t live by our identity as salt and light until we acknowledge the world is in desperate need. We all agree the gospel of Jesus Christ offers a new life for those who believe, but what are we doing to bring Jesus to our world—our neighborhood? Instead of the church being active, penetrating our society with the gospel of good news, we sit in our pews and wait for the world to come to us. If Jesus’ words are to be believed then such salt has lost its savor; “You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.”
Being salt and light is more than just a line in the sand; it is a line that cannot be erased. A distinction is made between those who follow Christ and those who don’t. A peculiarity or difference should be noticed in the way we live our lives. The Christian who claims to follow Christ but does not live differently from the world is salt without flavor or light hidden under a bucket. The salt and light is useless that way.
2. THE AMERICAN CHURCH IS HAVING AN IDENTITY CRISIS.
How can the church be salt and light if people around us are not affected by the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Around the world the church is growing: 80,000 -100,000 new believers daily; 3,500 new churches planted every week. Through the last 5 years we have witnessed greatest church growth ever.
Unfortunately, in the United States of America Christianity is not growing. Could it be we have become a mission field instead of a Christian nation?
During the past ten years all Protestant denominations have declined 9.5%, A LOSS of 4,498,242 people. The US the population however has increased 11.4%, A GAIN of 24,153,000 people.
In the past 50 years evangelicals have failed to gain an additional 2% of the American population. “Not one county in America has a greater churched population today than it did ten years ago.” - Chip Arn
Since 1972 church attendance in the US has dropped from 50% to 43% in 1997.
The United States of America is now the third largest Mission Field in the world. Across the US today there are 195 Million Unchurched Americans. The United States of America has become a nation that, fifty years ago, every Christian denomination would have felt compelled to evangelize.
What will we do? We have been called to be salt and light, to transform our world by the power of Jesus Christ within us.
What can we learn from how salt and light is used naturally to better understand how Jesus wants us to interact with our world—not just the world globally, but the world where we live? Let’s learn who we are as salt and light. Instead of having an identity crisis, let’s embrace our identity and be who Christ has called us to be.
3. WE ARE CALLED TO BE SALT.
What does it mean for you and me to be the salt of the earth? Christ’s meaning should come into focus as we think about how salt is used.
1. SALT IS A PRESERVATIVE.
For thousands of years, salt was the most commonly used as a preservative. Believe it or not we have not always had refrigerators and freezers to keep our food and meat from spoiling. Salt was used to keep things from going bad and becoming rotten, especially meat. Salt kept food pure.
Apart from God we are all rotten, our lives are rancid, but Jesus has changed all that. As followers of Christ He has made us to be the salt of the earth. As salt you and I are to preserve the earth.
As salt Christians should stand for biblical truth. We should speak out about immorality and sin. No, we can not legislate morality, but we should not sit quietly on the sideline and allow sin to be accepted in our culture. We are to preserve and purify our community and nation.
Understanding your responsibility to be salt within our world will keep you from two critical errors. Both of these mistaken beliefs silence the church effectively removing a Christian voice from being heard in the debate over social issues.
The first error says the world is basically good and will get better if we just leave it alone. Some would say our society may even reach perfection if religious views are not forced on the public.
• While this not openly stated, this is Senator John Kerry’s belief. The Catholic Church has taken a stand in opposition to the politically correct climate of the day in regard to abortion. Individuals, including politicians who actively support abortion rights will no longer be permitted to receive communion. Kerry’s response? Church doctrine allows Catholics the freedom of conscious to choose. In other words religion (i.e. the church) is a matter of personal conscience and should not speak out on personal issues.
To believe the people are basically good and will just get better stands in opposition to Jesus and the teaching of the Bible. Scripture clearly states “all have sinned” and we were “dead in transgressions” (See: Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:5). Christ says the world is basically rotten. Even though the world may appear healthy for a time it remains spiritually dead. Without life sin will continue to decay society and the individual until all that remains is a foul-smelling carcass.
Christians are the salt of the earth to preserve and purify the world. Without the salt our society will only continue to go from bad to worse!
The second error says because the world is so bad, the Christian should disassociate him or herself from society as much as possible. Let’s all retreat to a monastery or stay safe inside one of our middle class self-serving churches. The world is on the broad road to hell and we are all safe on the narrow road to heaven, and let’s just leave it that way.
Jesus sent us into the world saying, “As the Father sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21 NLT). The disciples were not told to wait in Jerusalem until Jesus returned to take them to heaven. Jesus told them to wait for the gift of the Father and then to go into all the world as witnesses empowered by the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:4-5, 8). In other words Jesus never told his followers to just be thankful they were safely on the way to heaven and to just wait for His return.
Jesus wants to get the salt out of the salt shaker! The salt does no good just sitting on the table. The salt must come into contact with the meat to prevent it from spoiling.
The church is not a salt shaker, but we do dispense salt. The church is the body of Christ. If the human body retains salt, what happens? The body retains water and becomes bloated; this is a potentially deadly situation. When fluids are retained by the body this causes an increase in your blood pressure. High blood pressure increases your risk of heart or kidney disease, or of suffering a stroke.
Likewise, if the church does not dispense salt but keeps the salt safe within the confines of the church, then it will become swell up with spiritual pride becoming deathly sick (remember the church means you and me, not the building!). Do you get the picture? We are not to isolate ourselves from the world, but to preserve the world by being salt.
2. SALT IS A SOURCE OF FLAVOR.
Food without salt is like seeing the world without color. A little salt brings out the flavor of the food we eat. Likewise, a life lived without Jesus is tasteless.
The Bible says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who trust in him!” (Psalm 34:8 NLT). Those who have not come to Christ should experience His goodness through our lives. We should wet their appetites for more of God.
Those who pursue pleasure apart from Christ are doomed to a constant and relentless search for what will bring real satisfaction to the soul. A man or woman may acquire all the things this world has to offer, yet their hearts are empty and barren.
• Micah 6:14 No matter how much you get, it will never be enough—hollow stomachs, empty hearts. No matter how hard you work, you’ll have nothing to show for it—bankrupt lives, wasted souls. (MsgB)
Jesus wants us to sprinkle a little salt into the lives of our family and friends so they might taste the goodness of the Lord.
3. SALT MAKES YOU THIRSTY.
Why do some restaurants and bars give you chips, peanuts, popcorn, or pretzels to eat? Because salt makes you thirsty.
Do you make people thirsty for Jesus? Does your life show the evidence of joy, peace and satisfaction making people say, “You’ve got what I want! What is it, and how do I get it?”
• John 7:37-38 37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (NIV)
Only Jesus can satisfy the great thirst of the human soul. Your responsibility is not to try to satisfy their thirst with what you can provide. You are only to be salt giving them a thirst for Jesus. When you draw people to the living water, Jesus will satisfy all who choose to take a drink.
4. WE ARE CALLED TO BE LIGHT.
Light does not create the darkness; light makes the darkness be felt.
What is darkness? Simply stated—DARKNESS IS THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT. Look back to the very beginning and what do you notice about creation? Before light was created there was darkness, but God was there to change everything.
• Genesis 1:2 The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. (NLT)
God saw the darkness and created the light. Now the darkness was separated from the light. Why? Darkness is overtaken and defeated by the light.
Darkness creates anxiety, fear and all kinds of trouble within the human heart. Darkness is felt, but light dispels the darkness!
You may say, “I’m not afraid of the dark.” Your confidence comes from your knowledge the light will return. But imagine if tomorrow morning the sun didn’t come up; imagine you had no light would you be afraid then?
Apart from Christ people’s expectations and hopes are empty. Sometimes their dreams come true, but all too often their dreams become another nightmare. They are living in darkness—darkness so thick they can feel it.
You and I bring the light of Christ into a sin darkened world. Jesus said, “You are the light of the word!”
What purpose does light fulfill?
1. LIGHT ILLUMINATES OUR WORLD.
Light brings sight to our eyes! When light dispels darkness, blind eyes can suddenly see in full living color. Light gives us sight to see what had been previously unknown. Without light we would go through life unaware of the colors filling our world.
Our understanding and knowledge grows and increases because light gives us sight to see our world. We can respond and interact with people and things in a new way because we can see!
• Matthew 4:16 The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. (NIV)
Jesus calls us the light of the world. We are to open spiritually blind eyes to have sight. The light of Christ within us enables the “pre-believer” to see God and His love for them in His Son Jesus Christ.
2. LIGHT SERVES AS A GUIDE.
• I know pilots are trained to land an airplane by just using their instruments, but what would happen on a dark night the runway had no lights and the instruments failed. The likelihood of such an event happening is small, but the pilot and the passengers will feel better about landing on a runway they can see. The lights show the way.
• Likewise the red, yellow and green lights at an intersection serve one purpose—to guide people safely through the intersection. Without the lights to serve as a guide, you would take run the risk of an accident each time you went through an intersection. (ILLUSTRATION: A New York taxi driver picked up a man at the JFK airport. The taxi driver drove quickly through all red lights but went cautiously through all the green. Nervously the rider asked why he drove so recklessly through all the red lights, but proceeded slowly through all the green. The cabbie replied, “My brother and I found this is the best way to get quickly around the city.” “But why do you drive so slowly through all the green lights?” “You never know if my brother may be coming the other way.”)
We are the light of the world and show people the way to Jesus. Let your light shine!
• John 1:6-9 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. [7] He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. [8] He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. [9] The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. (NIV)
John was not the true light. He was a witness, a guide to direct people to Jesus, the true light, who was coming into the world.
Jesus said of Himself, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5 NIV). However, Jesus knew He would not always be in the world. After his resurrection Jesus ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. YET JESUS DID NOT WANT THE WORLD TO BE LEFT IN DARKNESS. THE LIGHT JESUS BROUGHT INTO THE WORLD IS NOW REFLECTED THROUGH US.
You are the light of the world! Like John the Baptist, we are not the true light. We reflect the light of Christ through our lives in order to guide people to Christ. Let your light shine!
CONCLUSION:
Being salt and light means we are living our lives like Jesus. Jesus was called a friend of sinners. His purpose was to seek and to save that which was lost. Let’s not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s share God’s love story with others.
As salt let’s preserve and purify a sinful world; speak out for righteousness and truth. Let’s give people a taste for God and make them thirsty for living water!
As light let’s illuminate our world with the love of God; let’s bring out the God colors so people can see what God has done for them. Let’s be a guide to show people the way to Jesus. He is the true light and will set people free from their lives of darkness.
