Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Background - Jesus just finished preaching on the Beatitudes (Blessed Sayings) which is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

The Beatitudes set the tone for the entire sermon by emphasizing man’s humility and God’s righteousness.

The Beatitudes makes a list of the characteristics of Christians or what is the ideal heart condition of a kingdom citizen.

A real Christian is someone who has a radically different relationship with God through belief in the gospel message.

()—Those who depend on God

()—The poor in spirit - awareness of our spiritual bankruptcy apart from Christ

()—The mourners - to be grieved and broken over sin

()—The meek - those that know how to exercise gentleness and self-control

()—The hungry and the thirsty - those who crave God’s righteousness

()—Those who live for God

()—The merciful - those who know how to be forgiving and compassionate

()—The pure in heart - refers to THE INTERNAL CLEANSING NECESSARY FOR ENTERING GOD’S PRESENCE () [PUT A PIN IN THIS BLESSING]

()—The peacemakers - those who love to invite men to be reconciled with God and with one another

()—Those who are persecuted - those who would rather be praised by God than praised by man and who don’t mind suffering for His namesake

But, beginning at v.13, the focus shifts from our relationship with God to our relationship with the world or how we should relate to the world.

Jesus says, from v.13-16, “Here’s how My disciples will relate to the world.” .

In other words, He is saying, “I just finished telling you the characteristics of being My disciples and now I’ve got to show you the PURPOSE of being my disciples.

In v. 14 Jesus says that ‘You are the light of the world.’

In the Bible light:

symbolizes truth because light exposes falsehoods and lies.

light also symbolizes hope and joy because light shines in the darkness and makes everything look better

In one of His 7 I Am Statements, Jesus said that He Is THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

We are light but He is THE LIGHT.

In one of His 7 I Am Statements, Jesus said that He Is THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

We are light but He is THE LIGHT.

He said that He is the The Way, The Truth and The Life (truth - there’s that word truth again, meaning the Truth of who Jesus is sheds light on the fact that He is the only Way to Eternal Life.

So when the Bible says that we are the light of the world, it means that we should expose the lies of the devil and bring hope and joy through the truth; THAT JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS, PAID THE PENALTY AND NOW SITS IN GLORY WITH ALL POWER IN HIS HANDS.

Body

Our focus this evening is v.13

Definitions:

Salt - We (disciples) are the salt, the seasoning, the flavor.

Salt – in the spiritual realm Jesus said that WE are the salt – in other words we are the seasoning or the spiritual flavor that the world needs TO ENRICH ITSELF

Earth – salt of the earth.

In the natural salt is not found everywhere in nature but has to either be mined or produced using some method of evaporation to extract the water out of the salt and leave pure, dry salt behind.

So, salt can be found in the earth but it takes work to get it out.

Earth - society.

In other words, we as God’s disciples are the seasoning of the whole world

In the spiritual, earth represents society.

In other words, we as God’s disciples are the seasoning of the whole world

Explaining the Outline

Although salt has any number of different purposes, for the remainder of the message, I want us to explore the PURPOSE OF SALT AND THEN THE PLACEMENT OF SALT THEN WE’LL BE ON OUR WAY HOME.

just 5 purposes and see what God has for us: [is that alright?]

raised on a farm - take nothing for granted

Couldn’t just go to Safeway or Winco

Things today that used to be valued are often taken for granted.

Salt as an example of being taken for granted

highly valued

Roman soldiers paid with it

NT folk couldn’t go down to Jerusalem and pick up a box of Morton’s

[PRAISE BREAK] Interrupt our regularly schedule program with a 30 second commercial break to let every saint of God in this know that they are valued and highly favored!

· My God my God we ought to walk with our heads held high and claim our value!

· Don’t let the devil tell us we have no value

· Don’t let some man or some woman say we are worthless

· Don’t let a lack of education or a lack of money diminish our worth

· We are blessed!

We are valued!

And we are highly favored!!

Salt used to be highly valued in the Bible days.

In fact salt was more valuable than gold.

Roman soldiers didn’t get paid in coins or bills, they got paid in salt.

The New Testament folk couldn’t run down to the Jerusalem General store and pick up a box of Morton’s.

I know we got all kinds of fancy salt these days, sea salt, Himalayan, Mediterranean salt but how many of you remember that blue box of Morton’s that was always sitting on your momma’s shelf ready to be used?

Seemed like every time you tried to sneak in and use the salt, you picked up the box and it was nearly empty; there was only a little bit of salt left.

Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure there’s some folk in here tonight that have a good old box of Morton’s sitting their kitchen cabinets right now just waiting for the next batch of buttermilk fried chicken or that next plate of golden fried catfish?

Raise your hand if know what I’m talking about!!!

PURPOSE of Salt:

SALT PRESERVES

Just like the NT folk couldn’t go down to the Jerusalem General to buy salt, they couldn’t go to the Rome Depot to buy a refrigerator so they had to come up with some other method to preserve their food.

That method was salt.

DEFINITION: Salt is rubbed deep inside the meat, covering every inch to Preserve meat and food to prevent it from spoiling, decaying and being destroyed.

Salt goes in so decay can’t spread.

Christians must permeate society as agents of redemption.

Jesus calls for us to GO IN stop corruption and moral decay in our homes, our cities and the whole world.

POINT: if we call ourselves salt then we have to be willing to step into the lives of men and women to preserve them from being destroyed.

IF CHRIST DWELLS IN US THEN EVERY TIME WE SEE THE ENEMY COMING IN ON THE ATTACK TO DESTROY ANOTHER:

Every time we see a marriage about to break up, we need to come in and preserve it

Every time we see a family going thru crisis, we need to step in and help them stay stand strong

FAMILY, WE COME IN TO PRESERVE IT

Every time we see a child’s innocence being taken away we need to come in and let the devil know by the blood of Jesus, their covered!

Move on devil cause you ain’t getting them today!

CHILD’S INNOCENCE, WE COME IN TO PRESERVE IT

I am salt and I’ll preserve what God shows me to preserve!

Look at your neighbor and say I’M NOT GONNA LET THE devil DESTROY WHAT GOD HAS TOLD ME TO PRESERVE!

WE ARE THE SALT AND WE ARE THE PRESERVATIVE TO KEEP THE ENEMY UNDER OUR FEET!! [SHOUT]

SALT PURIFIES - Salt purifies; in other words in cleans or cleanses

Salt in the Bible also represented purity or to purify.

Ezekiel tells us that newborn babes were rubbed in salt to help clean them when they came out of their mother’s womb.

Elisha treated a bad body of water in Jericho by throwing salt into it and it purified the bad water and was made clean.

Even today, salt is a better cleaner than Ajax or Comet.

Spill some juice on the carpet and you can use salt to get that stain out.

But for salt to really work well as a cleaner it must be 100% clean.

Its got to be pure salt.

Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth.

In other words, our lives should be so pure (not perfect, but pure) that we are able to step into a messed up world and clean the stains of sin where ever we go.

People should be able to see the Jesus in us, that hope of glory and recognize that He and He alone is the Way the Truth and the Life!

Holy Spirit empowers:

Wait a minute – science time: natural salt is what’s known as a compound.

It is made up of one substance called sodium and another substance called chloride.

Separately they are not salt and cannot do what salt does but when you put them together, the two become one and salt is formed.