MATTHEW 5:13-16 - Salt and Light

Bethel Baptist Church

A New Way of Being Human: The Sermon On the Mount • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago • 38:21

Matthew 5:13–16

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Introduction

The Sermon on the Mount is our Savior’s description of the Kingdom He came to establish—a Kingdom that represents a whole new way of being human. For the past two weeks in our series, we have been considering the Beatitudes: Jesus’ declaration of true happiness that only comes to the heart that has been born again by the Gospel. Happiness is knowing and mourning over the depth of your sin, and hungering and thirsting for the righteousness that God freely gives you as He counts Christ’s righteousness to you.

Jesus took on your sin and gave you His righteousness, and the happiness that comes from that right relationship with God is a happiness that will not only make you a certain kind of person, but will lead you to a certain kind of life. The first six verses of Matthew 5 describe what happiness is, and verses 7-12 describe what this kind of happiness leads you to do in your life. The true happiness God creates in you in the New Birth leads you to rejoice in mercy, rejoice in purity, in making peace; a happiness that even rejoices to suffer for the sake of the Name of Christ.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:1-12 that those who inhabit His Kingdom have been totally transformed into a new creation. And as we have observed, reading the description of these Beatitudes we come to realize that Jesus Christ is the happiest Man Who ever lived! And when you come by faith to Him for salvation, you are likewise transformed:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

And as Jesus goes on with His sermon in the next four verses, He makes it clear through the images that He uses to describe citizens of His Kingdom that, when you have been transformed in this way; when you are a new creation in Him, you will stand out in this world. You will be a savor that cannot be ignored; you will be a light that cannot be hidden.

And so the way we can summarize our text this morning is to say that

The New Birth is an UNMISTAKABLE transformation into UNDENIABLE likeness to Christ

Christian—the New Birth that you have experienced in your salvation means that you will stand out in this world. Jesus describes the effect that He expects your presence in this world to have in verses 13-16. In verse 13, He calls you to

I. Be SALT to a world in DECAY (Matthew 5:13)

In verse 13, Jesus says

Matthew 5:13 (ESV)

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.

It’s hard for us to feel the impact of Jesus’ words in this verse—we are far removed from the times when salt was not just a garnish on a dish, but an essential element of survival. In days before refrigeration, one of the only ways to keep food from rotting within days was to preserve it with salt—and whoever controlled the salt very literally controlled the world. (In fact those days are not all that long ago; even as recently as the 1840’s, a war was fought between Mexico and the US over access to the El Paso salt beds in Texas).

Jesus says that the citizens of His Kingdom are as vital to the survival of this world as salt—it is your presence in this world that keeps it from rotting away altogether. If you think about it for a moment, you can see from your own experience how your presence is a purifying agent in the lives of people around you. Have you ever noticed that when you walk into a room, the language tends to get less foul, jokes tend to get less raunchy? It happens all the time when someone finds out in the middle of a conversation that I am a pastor—the first thing they do is apologize for their language.

Even if you never scold or get huffy or act scandalized at someone’s language, when they find out you’re a Christian they seem to automatically feel the need to clean up their act. This is not just because Christians have such a terrible reputation for being fussypants about bad words or dirty jokes—there is something deep and significant about your purifying influence in this world. And so Jesus warns you:

Don’t lose your PURITY

The Greek word order that underlies the English translation “You are the salt of the earth” conveys a very emphatic note: “You and you alone are the salt of the earth...” There is nowhere else that the world will find this purity, this preserving influence. If you give in and start guffawing right along with the raunchy TikTok everyone is passing around, and you start using the same kind of language as everyone else on the shop floor, you really are doing something destructive to them. You are robbing them of their only source of purity and cleanness.

And it seems to me that this is why the world is so extraordinarily hard on Christians who fail morally. Yes, there is the surface-level reaction of “You thought you were so good, lecturing us on morality, and now you are shown to be no different than us!” But I wonder if there isn’t something deeper than that in those reactions: Is it possible that, on some very fundamental level, a non-Christian’s angry condemnation of a believer’s moral downfall has something of disappointment in it? That there was part of them that was reassured and encouraged by the purity and goodness they saw in that Christian, and when they screwed up and lost that purity it was a betrayal of their desire to have that purity themselves?

I say that because I think there is another element to Jesus’ description of believers as salt that bears exploration here. Because salt does not just preserve; it also creates thirst, doesn’t it? (In fact, Dr. James Montgomery Boice entitled his sermon on Matthew 5:13, “Do You Make Men Thirsty?”) Part of what it means to be salt in this world is that you create a craving in others—a thirst, if you will, for the kind of purity that you have. Because of the New Birth that Christ has worked in you, because of the true happiness you have found in repentance and faith in Him, you now display the kind of character that other people aspire to. And so Jesus reminds you in these verses that you and you alone are the salt of the earth—so

Don’t lose your SAVOR (cp. Ecclesiastes 2:24-26)

Matthew 5:13 (ESV)

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.

If there is nothing to differentiate you from anyone else in the world—in other words, if you don’t stand out as a believer—then what good are you? (Jesus says in the condensed version of the Sermon on the Mount in Luke that you’re not even fit to be thrown on the manure pile!)

Jesus says that in the New Birth, you have been given the keys to true blessedness in this world—real joy in Him, real delight in His mercy to you, real satisfaction in His provision for you. You have what Solomon described in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26:

Ecclesiastes 2:24–26 (ESV)

24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

The ability to enjoy this world—your work, your possessions, your lot in life—comes only to those who please God! As we’re fond of saying, everyone in the world gets a can of peaches, but God only gives a can opener to those who fear Him! And so you, Christian, are the supreme example of joy and delight and happiness and contentment in this world—you have been given the ability to delight in this life like no one else can!

And so, Jesus says, don’t lose that savor. If you become as depressed and miserable and complaining as everyone around you; as dissatisfied and anxious and unfulfilled in this life as if you did not possess the key to real happiness, then what good are you? Where will people turn to see what real joy, real contentment, real blessedness looks like, if the only people in the world who have it act just like them??

The New Birth is an unmistakable transformation into undeniable likeness to Christ. The regeneration you have experienced in your salvation, Christian, means that you will stand out in this world. In verses 14-16 of Matthew 5, Jesus describes just how utterly your New Birth causes you to stand out. He calls you to

II. Be LIGHT to a world in DARKNESS (Matthew 5:14-16)

Matthew 5:14 (ESV)

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Once again, we have to put some work into getting into the mindset of the people who heard Jesus’ Sermon. You and I live in a world that is simply innundated with light, 24/7. In fact, in our present day it is harder to find a place where light is absent—people flock to Cherry Springs State Park up in Potter County, just to get somewhere where light from a city can’t be seen!

But when Jesus walked on this earth, light was a scarce and fleeting thing. Aside from the Sun, the only light that people had was from a candle or an oil lamp or a campfire. (For comparison, the typical candle that you would use to light a room emits 12 lumens of light, while the typical 75 watt bult emits over a thousand lumens!)

So put yourself in the context of first century Israel for a moment— you are outside in the darkness at night, and you are trying to find your way through unfamiliar terrain—and then your torch burns out. It is a cloudy night, the Moon and stars are obscured. You have no idea where to turn, which way to go. And then, in the distance, you see light from a city! Now you know which way to turn, what direction to head in—you are able to find your way because of the light coming from that city on a hill!

Jesus says that you, Christian, are a light in this world that cannot be extinguished—He says that you are to

Live with a BOLD WITNESS (v. 14; cp. John 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:6)

Jesus calls you “the light of the world”. And it is a powerful statement for Him to make about you, because He says to His disciples in John 8:12,

John 8:12 (ESV)

12 “I am the light of the world...”

So how can this be? How can Jesus say that He is the Light of the world and, at the same time, you are the light of the world? This is not some cryptic hint from Jesus that means you and I should consider ourselves divine, or that we are somehow equal with Jesus in this world. Not at all… Far better for us to understand the light that we bear as being reflected light from Him. He is the Sun, and we are the Moon—

2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Christian—if Christ has shone in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in your salvation, then you will shine with a light that cannot be hidden. Jesus says that when you walk in Him, you will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. And that light will be visible to everyone who sees you.

The light of your witness will shine into the hearts of men and women who love darkness rather than light (as Jesus says in John 3:19) so that their evil deeds are exposed and they recognize their need for a Savior. Your unmistakable transformation into the undeniable likeness of Christ is the means by which you

Acts 26:18 (ESV)

18 ...open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Christian, your life and the Christlikeness in which you walk is an unhideable light that shines to everyone that knows you. And right away, as you consider this, surely it becomes clear to you that living with a bold witness means that you must therefore

Live with a HOLY LIFE (vv. 15-16)

Jesus goes from describing a city to a home:

Matthew 5:15 (ESV)

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.

Far too many Christians strike a great light of grace and joy and faithfulness at church or at work, but at home the basket of selfishness, temper and pride douses that light--their family is deprived of the light they would freely share with outsiders. But Jesus says that the light you kindle for your neighbors must be more perfectly shared within your home! It’s one thing to be a faithful Christian witness to people who don’t live with you… But the grace of the New Birth must be present for those who know you best...

If being salt in this world means that you cause people to thirst after being the kind of person you are, then the light that shines in your home, Christian, causes them to crave the kind of life that you have. But nothing will shut down that craving for the life you have like hypocrisy and strife in your home. Who wants that?

It is in your home that your good works that flow from the New Birth are put on display—your godly marriage, your faithful and obedient children, your hard work and godly industry that has created comfort and security and peace that is freely shared with everyone who enters your home. People are drawn to a home like that; a home whose occupants are as happy, pure, godly and content inside its walls as they are outside.

The Gospel does not go forward through arguments won, but hearts won. And hearts are won around a godly hearth.

The New Birth is an unmistakable transformation into undeniable likeness to Christ—Christian, you will stand out in this world like the light from a city on a hill. You will be the preservative and the savor to purify a decaying world and make men thirst for the purity that they see in you. Jesus doesn’t say that you should be the light of the world, or that you should try to be the salt of the earth; He says that you already are those things.

So Christian—live with integrity. Live with a purity that draws others up. To use one of my favorite analogies at CSF; don’t be the thermometer in the room that takes on whatever temperature is prevalent; be the thermostat that sets the temperature in the room. Be the one who elevates the attitudes and conversations of those around you—not as a fussy Mrs. Grundy who waits to pounce on anyone who says a naughty word, but as a joyful, gracious example of the satisfaction that you have in the perfections of Christ that have been counted to you!

Live a life of boldness in this world. Yes—these are dark times. Yes—there are dark and menacing forces that are arrayed against you. Yes—there are people utterly and totally lost in that darkness. And in that darkness the light of Christ’s work in you shines that much brighter! Are you intimidated by how lost people around you are? Do you know what—a lot of them know how lost they are too! And to someone who is stumbling in the pitch-black darkness of a world that tells them there is no heaven above them, no God to hear their cries, no meaning beyond their own cravings, no absolution for the guilt and shame that devours them, and no rescue for their despair beyond the inevitability of death and the infinite nothingness beyond it—do you really think they will hate and despise you for offering light to them in the Gospel? Live with the boldness of knowing that you have been given what they are so desperately groping for—light and hope and freedom and cleansing through Jesus Christ!

We live in a dark and twisted age; a realm of howling wilderness that has been created by the rebellion of a people who hate the light of truth that shines through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that means that one of the most powerful weapons that you have in the darkness and turmoil of these days, Christian, is the weapon of normalcy. The precise point of attack by the wickedness of our day is to destroy the idea of a normal life—a husband and wife who love each other and raise their children together in a stable and loving home. A life of hard work and achievement and enjoying the fruit of your own labor. Delighting in laughter around a dinner table, sitting on the front porch at twilight listening to the katydids, getting up at 4 in the morning to take the grandkids duck hunting, mowing the lawn on Saturday, the smell of fresh-baked bread coming out of the oven, gathering together on the Lord’s Day to worship and confess sin and magnify the grace of God mediated to you by the work of Christ.

A dark and twisted world hates the normalcy of a godly life and godly family and godly home. So, Christian, you fight back by rejoicing in that normal! Be known for hospitality, Christian—Jesus tells you that the light that shines to all who come into your home is the means by which your Father in heaven is glorified. Not the kind of perfect home life that people post pictures of on social media so that they can get “likes”--the kind of light and warmth this home shines with can’t be uploaded to Facebook; it can only be seen and felt by those you open your life to and invite to that table and bring into that joy. As Rosaria Butterfield put it, “the Gospel comes with a house key”—one of the most powerful tools for evangelism you will ever have is an open door to a home filled with the light of the joy of your salvation in Jesus Christ!

Take your Savior’s words with you from His Sermon on the Mount as this day draws to a close. If you can, go outside after dark, and look up into the sky. Whether the clouds obscure the light of the Moon or whether you can see into Deep Heaven, notice the light cast into that sky by the cities that shine all around you. Christian, you can no more hide the Light that lives in you than those cities can simply shut off the light that pours into the night from them. The Light of the glory of God in the face of Christ that dwells in you, the New Birth that has transformed your heart from its sin and darkness into a heart washed by the sanctifying blood of Christ, that heart is a heart that will shine in the darkness of this world.

Once again—what do Christ’s words here reveal about your heart? Does your life shine with this kind of purity, or are you as liable to indulge in the dirt and mire of this world’s rebellion as anyone else? Do you cause people to thirst after the kind of integrity and uprightness of character you have, or do people get their fill of your same kind of attitude from every other sinner they know? Does your home shine with the kind of light that draws people hungry for life and light and contentment and peace, or is your home just as full of division and strife and selfishness as every other messed-up house on the block?

Jesus doesn’t say you should be light; He doesn’t say that you ought to be salt. He says that the heart that lives in you by the salvation He purchased for you makes you salt; makes you light. If the world around you—your friends, your co-workers, your classmates, your family members—get no more light or purity from you than they do from any other sinner, then you need to ask yourself what you think it means to be a Christian. You need to come before God and plead with Him to show you where you need to repent; you need to consider again why your life looks no different from anyone else.

The blood of Jesus Christ is the only way that you will be cleansed of your sin; the only remedy for the sickness of failure and cowardice and indifference and pride. It is not in righteousness that you have earned by your good, upstanding moral character, it is not in the statistics of how many tracts you have passed out or how many doors you have knocked on; it is not established by how often you open your home to strangers or give to the needy. Your only hope for this New Birth and the righteousness that satisfies God is found in repentance for your sin and faith in God to keep His promises that all who call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. This is a trustworthy saying, and worthy of full acceptance—Jesus Christ came into this dark and decaying world to save sinners, and to transform them into reflections of His glorious grace and mercy and holiness and joy. So lay aside all hope of bringing this heart into life by your own efforts—come by faith and call upon the Name of your only Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What is the connection between Jesus’ description of true happiness in verses 3-12 and the behavior of believers as salt and light in verses 13-16?

Where do you see decay around you? Where do you see darkness? Why is the New Birth essential to your effectiveness in acting as a purifying, illuminating influence in your world?

In what ways do you have a purifying influence on those around you? How does your own love of purity and beauty affect the attitudes of people who know you?

Why do you think Jesus uses the particular metaphor of a city on a hill to describe the visibility with which believers live their lives? What does this suggest about the way you are seen as a Christian?

Read Matthew 5:15 again. In what ways are we liable to “put under a basket” the light of the New Birth in our lives? Why is a bold witness for Christ so often undercut by a believer’s home life?

What are some things in your life (e.g., fear, pride, peer pressure, ambitions) that prevent you from acting as salt and light in your world? Spend some time in prayer this week bringing those issues before God in repentance, and call on His grace to empower you by His Spirit to shine for His glory.

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