• The various names God gives His children in the Bible. (Some are: sheep, brethren, little ones, etc.) When Jesus gives us the name of "salt" and ‘light”, He is reminding us that we have the opportunity and the responsibility to be an influence in the world.
• In the first twelve verses of Matthew 5 in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount we find the beatitudes.
• These blessings–
• “Blessed are the poor in spirit. . .” “Blessed are those who mourn. . .” “Blessed are the meek. . .” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and so on–are descriptions of the character that Christians must have.
• But from verse 13 on, we are told how we must function in the world as the church of Jesus Christ. In this section, Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus tells his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world.”
• In this study, therefore, we will examine what it means to be salt and light
There are two things that we value that seem so insignificant at first, they don’t even come up on our radar, but they’re actually needed for our survival.
The first is salt. Too little of it and your food can be under seasoned, but too much can ruin the taste of your food.
The second is light. We all need light to navigate at night or in the dark, otherwise we’ll run into something and/or stub our toe and then wail in totally agony.
I. SALT
"You are the salt of the earth." (v.13a)
THE PURPOSE OF SALT
Jesus did not tell his disciples, “You are the sugar of the world,” but “You are the salt.” Let us, then, examine what the purpose of salt is and how Christians function as salt.
Why does Jesus refer to us as salt?
Salt is a miracle. As you know, it is chemically composed of sodium and chloride. Now pour a little hydrochloric acid on your hand, and it will be burned away in less than a minute. Drink hydrochloric acid and you will die in unbelievable agony very quickly. But when you add sodium to hydrochloride you have salt, which is one of the most common useful substances on planet earth.
You need to understand how valuable salt was in the days of Jesus.
• What we take for granted today was like pure gold to them. You see, salt is a preservative, and 2,000 years ago people did not have refrigeration.
• Salt was so valuable in Bible days that it was often traded ounce-for-ounce with gold.
• Roman soldiers were paid in salt. In fact, the word salary is derived from the word for salt. If a Roman soldier didn't do his job, he wouldn't get all of his salt. That's where we get the phrase, "He is not worth his salt," if someone does not do a good days work.
• Sodium chloride is one of the most stable compounds in all of the universe; it doesn't change and it never loses its character. But there is truth to what Jesus is saying.
How to be a salty Christian.
We are called salt because of:
A. Our Preserving Ability –
? In the days before iceboxes and modern refrigeration, salt was the main means of preserving perishable food. Food would be heavily salted to keep food from spoiling.
? What happens if fish sits out for a few days? It get very aromatic. In Jesus day, fish was one of the main staples of the diet. Fish had to be transported from the seas to the various markets in the towns and villages. Fish would be salted in order to preserve it from rotting and decay.
? salt functions as a preservative. It is an antiseptic which performs the negative function of preventing spoiling meat from becoming even more rotten and corrupt. In tropical countries where there is no refrigeration, people rub salt into meat to keep it from going bad. In the same way, when Christians come in close contact with the sinful people of the world, the world is kept from progressing further into unspeakable foulness. Christians benefit secular society. Without their presence, the world would degenerate at an even faster rate. As a moral antiseptic, Christians keep the corruption of society at bay by opposing moral decay by their lives and their words.
? We are to impact our world to preserve it from moral decay.
? Our world is decaying, our world is rotting, and it is our job as salt to preserve the holiness of God, and the goodness of Jesus as much as we can.
We are called salt because of
• Our Preserving Ability
We are called salt because of
B. Our Penetrating Ability –
• Salt will penetrate and infiltrate whatever it touches. It is an aggressive substance.
• The early church - Acts 8:1, 4; Acts 17:6.) I believe that we have been called by the Lord to be an active force in the world around us. The church should be a militant army charging the very gates of Hell, Matt. 16:18.
We are called salt because of
• Our Preserving Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Penetrating Ability
We are called salt because of
C. Our Purifying Ability –
• Salt has remarkable cleansing ability.
• The Romans saw salt as a symbol of purity, in that it came from two pure things seawater and sun. Most salt in ancient times was acquired by evaporating seawater.
• 2 Kings 2:19-22 - Elisha cleansed the waters at Jericho with salt.
• In ancient times, newborn babies were washed in salt to cleanse their bodies and to give firmness to their skin, Eze. 16:4.)
• Salt in a wound can cleanse the area.)
• Often, Christians have a purifying effect on the world around them. They ought to behave differently when the child of God walks up.
• Don't be offended if they stop talking when you come around. Just thank God that you are acting as a purifying force in the world around you.)
All Christians, then, are the salt of the earth. Why? We have been given new birth and a new nature–the divine nature–through union with Christ. Therefore, we must also live for the benefit of this rotting and rotten world
We are called salt because of
• Our Preserving Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Penetrating Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Purifying Ability –
We are called salt because of
D. Our Pleasing Ability –
Salt blends and adds flavor to food.
In fact, there are some foods that are better off not eaten, if there is no salt!
So too, the Christian should flavor the world around him.
As salt, we are to so live our lives that we bring out the best in those around us. That is what Jesus did time and again, and that what you and I are supposed to be doing for His glory! (Ill. Phil. 1:27)
As Christians, we have the function to provide flavor and taste to the world.
We are called salt because of
• Our Preserving Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Penetrating Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Purifying Ability –
We are called salt because of
• Our Pleasing Ability –
We are called salt because of
E. Our Poisoning Ability –
• Salt kills some things! Ever poured salt on a slug? (cartridge , pellet, shell) Slugs and salt do not mix!
• Salt poured on a lawn will kill the grass.
• Too much salt is not good for your blood pressure.
• Abimelech, in Judges 9:45, took a city and the sowed the city with salt to prevent the ground from being used to grow crops. He killed the fields with salt.)
• By the same token, when true Christianity is sowed into the lives, homes and communities of the world, some things will be put to death.
• We can make an impact on our world by the very fact that Christianity is pure poison to sin. When Jesus comes into a life, drinking, cussing, fighting, hating, killing, drugging, loose living, etcetera, are all put to death in the name of Jesus - 2 Cor. 5:17.)
We are called salt because of
• Our Preserving Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Penetrating Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Purifying Ability –
We are called salt because of
• Our Pleasing Ability –
We are called salt because of
• Our Poisoning Ability
We are called salt because of
F. Our Promoting Ability -
Salt creates a thirst for water in those who are exposed to it!)
salt causes people to become thirsty. In the same way, Christians should cause people to thirst for Jesus Christ and his gospel.
As salt, the Christian has the wonderful opportunity to promote a thirst for Jesus in the world..
We are called salt because of
• Our Preserving Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Penetrating Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Purifying Ability –
We are called salt because of
• Our Pleasing Ability –
We are called salt because of
• Our Poisoning Ability
We are called salt because of
• Our Promoting Ability
We are called salt because of
Our Proven Ability –
• Salt changes nearly everything it touches. Food, ice, etc.
• We are called to be thermostats and not thermometers in the world around us. We are to be the instruments that God can use to implement change in a wicked world.
• When genuine, New Testament Christianity touches this sinful, wicked world, there will be change of some variety.
• We just need to be sure that we are changing the world and not the other way around! (Ill. The modern mentality, "We have to be like the world to win the world." We'll win more if we are like Jesus!
What does it mean to be the salt of the earth and what applications can we draw from this passage?
Salt of the Earth
How does this metaphor apply to believers?
1. To be the salt of the earth means that believers are valuable to the world.
2. To be the salt of the earth means that believers preserve society from moral decay.
How do believers preserve society from moral decay practically?
• Believers preserve society by keeping back God’s destructive wrath.
In Genesis 18, Abraham petitioned God to not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there was a righteous remnant of only ten in the city, and God promised he would not.
• Believers preserve society by praying for it.
In Ezekiel 22:30-31, God said he sought for a man to stand in the gap but because he found none, he destroyed the land. Like Abraham interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah, Christians should often pray for presidents and kings, holiness in nations, the spread of the gospel, and the church to be salt and light.
• Believers preserve society by being a righteous influence on it.
3. Believers are salt by bringing flavor to society and creating thirst for Christ.
Growing in Our Saltiness
Application Question: How can a person grow in saltiness and therefore maximize one’s effectiveness in blessing the world and other believers?
1. To grow in saltiness, we must be different.
2. To grow in saltiness, we must allow ourselves to be sprinkled into ungodly places.
3. To grow in saltiness, we must commune with other faithful Christians.
4. To grow in saltiness, we must commune with Christ.
5. To grow in saltiness, we must not be discouraged by our smallness.
Believers are the salt of the earth—they are valuable. They preserve society from decay, and they flavor it—creating a thirst for Christ.
II. LIGHT
You are the Light of the World Mathew 5;14
THE LIGHT PIERCES THE DARKNESS
• Light is extremely important to us.
• Without light there would be no life on earth. In the Book of John the word “light” is mentioned 21 times.
Who is the light of World Now?
• Many would say yes, Jesus is the light of the world. Yeah that’s true, Jesus says in Mat. 5:14, its you, you and me.
• Is that arrogant? I amazed to see that most of the Christian that has not taken this simple verse seriously.
• You are the light of the world. When you start saying I am the light of the world, then this is going to change your attitude towards Christianity.
• Jesus said that I am the light of the earth. He also said in John chapter 9:5 while I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. After I go up to heaven he said in Mathew 5:14, he told his disciples , you are the light of the world.
When Jesus was on the earth, he was the light, once he went up, we are the light of the world.
• Why are we afraid to say that yes, I am the light of the world. We always say that, I always live in sin and darkness, and sin, don’t call me light.
• Devil wants us to live in third rate useless Christianity, we see people around us living in defeated Christian life and then we say, this is the Christian life. It is not the normal Christian life. The crooked devil has cheated of you, your inheritance in Jesus Christ , that he purchased you on the cross
I want to tell you my brothers and sisters in Christ, I don’t know whether I am able o convince you with my words, my words are poor.
• But I wish the holy spirit will convince you this. You can live a 1000 life better than the life you are living now. If you tell the devil that he is a liar and tell him that I live by the word.
Name of Jesus is dishonored in every countries. Because of Christians. Not because of non Christians.
When you got married, your wife got your name, my wife became Misis Sajayan, and your wife became whoever you are.
She could not ruin your name until she married you. Its only she married you and took your name, that she could dishonor your name and bring a bad reputation to your name. not before.
Think about all the non-Christian around the world who are not married to Christ. They cannot bring dishonor to Christ, because they were not married to Christ.
But we Christians we say that we are married to Christ. By its our conduct , our behavior that we bring dishonor to Lords name.
Jesus was the light of the earth, when he went up to heaven and send the holy spirit on the day of Pentecost like a fire. Those days the fire where they got the light. Holy spirit came on to those hundred and twenty on the day on of Pentecost to make them a flame , a light of the world
Our shining is essential for the salvation of the world.
Jesus told his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
That is why we must never cover our light with the bushel of worldliness and compromise.
The more holy we are, the more brightly we will shine and the more easily the elect sinners of the world will come to trust in Jesus Christ.
Every Christian has a God-given responsibility to shine
We can walk like Jesus walked, God is light , if we walk in light we can , plug and fellowship with him
This bulb is like me. Absolutely incapable of producing little bit of light.
We are incapable of having life of Christ, the moment that bulb plugged into the power socket, all the sudden the darkness disappear.
That is what can happen when we plug in God and fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we have loose contact, we see that sometimes in our house.
When we plug in the lamps comes in and goes off, comes in goes off. Electricity is there, why this going on and off,
Sometimes very happy, sometimes very depressed. Just like the lamp goes on an off. It is called loose contact. Loose contact with God. It can be repaired.
See that, how that light is been burning almost 2 hours, God can do that for you. When we walk in the light and fellowship with God , our sins are cleansed away. We can have the life of God manifested through our life.
Shining Within
Shining Out
Shining together
It’s a command
1. Light dispels darkness
• 2 Cor. 4:6 it was the light of God that shined into our hearts
• 1 Peter 2:9 Says God called us out of darkness into His marvelous light
• Jesus says unto us now "Ye are the light of the world"
2. Light is to be exposed
• Matt. 5:15 We are told it is not appropriate to hide our light under a bushel
• In the Lord’s time light was to be put on an lampstand that it may provide light
• Phil. 2:15 Tells us we should shine as light in a crooked and preverse world
3. Light provides life
• Without light all vegetation would die, and the affect of that would be devastating to all other living creature. It is light that produces life!
• Matt. 5:16 Jesus says let you light shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
As Christians we are the only chance for life this world has from the place of outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The Function of Light
Application Question: What are typical functions of light and how do these apply to believers in this world?
1. As light, believers expose darkness.
While Christ was on the earth, he exposed the false teaching of the Pharisees and scribes. He exposed the corruption taking place in the temple. It should be the same with believers. They shine light on dishonest practices, gossip, corruption amongst leaders, racism, etc. This often angers people. They are the ethical lights within a friendship, a family, a business, an education system, or a government.
Are you willing to expose the darkness? We expose darkness indirectly simply by living a moral life, but we also expose it directly by calling sin as it is. Kent Hughes put it this way:
We need to be ethical light when we are in the office, in the classroom, in the shop, and in the Church. We must be willing to risk being called “negative,” “narrow,” “judgmental,” “puritanical,” or “bigoted.” If God’s Spirit is calling us to stand up against wrong, it is up to us to be faithful.5
2. As light, believers give off light.
Ephesians 5:13 (NIV) says: “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.” “When light touches something, it becomes light. It is lit up; and, to some degree, the object gives off light itself. It is converted and changed.”6
In the same way, the light of a believer’s life often changes a work environment, as sin is exposed and righteousness replaces it. It changes people’s lives, as they repent and give their lives to Christ. Light by nature is more powerful than darkness. It transforms environments.
In 1 Peter 2:12, Peter said this to believers: “and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears.” Though persecuted and mocked by the world, believers, through their conduct, often change those around them, even if only slowly. When Christ comes, many will glorify God for the chaste lives of a Christian co-worker, friend, or family member who led them to Christ.
Light makes other things light—it gives off itself. We’ll consider several other functions of light which, in one sense, arise from how light gives off light. However, they are worth noting for emphasis.
3. As light, believers help others grow.
Plants can grow in a dark cave as long as light is present. In addition, research tells us that broken bones heal faster when they are soaking up sunlight.7 This all should be true of Christians in a dark world. As they shine their lights, friends, family, and co-workers grow.
Are the people around you growing—getting to know God more, changing their language, attitudes, and actions?
4. As light, believers wake people out of slumber.
When it’s spring time, people tend to wake up earlier because of the gradual increase of sunlight into their bedrooms. It’s also true that if you immediately turn on the lights while somebody is sleeping, it will often quickly wake the person up. In the same way, the ethical light of believers who are on fire for Christ will often awaken those who are spiritually lethargic or spiritually sleeping. They stir spiritual zeal in those who are spiritually lazy and help awaken those who are spiritually dead. As light, believers wake people out of slumber.
5. As light, believers warm those who are cold.
Light not only illuminates, it warms. When people are cold from standing in a shadow, they move to a place with more sunlight to get warm. When in a home that is cold, people go by the fireplace. Heat is emitted from light. Therefore, when believers are light, they warm people’s hearts—provoking them to love God and others. The impact of their warmth helps others repent of bitterness and anger and instead show acts of kindness. By loving, believers warm up homes, workplaces, and communities. Often people run to them to find fellowship, comfort, and encouragement.
How can we grow as light? How can we be most effective?
1. To grow as light, we must stay near Christ, who is the Light.
2. To grow as light, we must continually congregate with other godly believers.
When you place many burning coals together, the light becomes more intense, hotter, and burns longer. In fact, the “you” of “you are the light of the world” is plural referring not just to Christians individually but corporately. We are more effective as lights together. We strengthen our individual light by being around other godly believers who are on fire. We also increase our light by listening to messages and reading books by great lights in our community. As we do this, our light increases. Similarly, if we continually put ourselves around people who are not walking for Christ, our light and effectiveness will diminish. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who associates with the wise grows wise but the companion of fools suffers harm.”
We are light because we know God Romans 1:21-23
We are light because we know gospel Second Corinthians 4:4
We are light because we pratice righteousness Romans 13:12-14 says,
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
In conclusion, let us examine how we can apply this teaching to our lives.
1. First, we must ask ourselves: Are we salt and light?
2. Second, if we are salt and light, we must be different and glory in our difference.
3. Third, we must live in the world and yet not be of the world. We must not try to get out of the world..
4. Fourth, we must be the best we can be with God’s power in our work life, our family life, our school life, our political life and every other aspect of life. We must be the best for Jesus Christ so that we can be winsome and attractive and draw attention to our heavenly Father.
5. Fifth, we must practice the beatitudes every day, being poor in spirit, mourning over sin, and so on.
6. Sixth, we must be filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. We cannot shine without the oil of the Spirit of the living God.
7. Seventh, we must trim our wicks on a daily basis, meaning we must engage in biblical self-examination.
What will happen when we do these things? We will be useful to God and to the world, and we will not be thrown out to be trampled by men.
COnclusion:-
As Christians, we must always remember that we alone are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. As we represent Jesus Christ to the world, we are the hope of the world.
May God help us even this day to be different from the world, that the world may benefit by our difference and come to glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
