Sermon Tone Analysis

*How many of you remember singing that song, ‘this little light of mine’ as a child in Sunday School?

I do.

I remember that this song told me that I needed to do something, I needed to shine.

But what does it mean to shine?

And what are we shining?

This morning we are going to look at Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5 about being lights in the world.

And its not such a “little” light either!

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*Please turn in your Bibles and follow along with me as we study together Matthew 5, verses 13-20**:*

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*Last week we studied Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes about what it means to be truly blessed in His kingdom – not all what the world would consider a blessing: being poor in spirit (humble), mournful for our sin and sin in the world, meek yet truthful, hungering after God’s righteousness lived out in our lives, living with mercy for others, purity of heart, peacemakers like God, and willing to suffer persecution for the sake of Christ.

Though these may not sound like blessings, they are the keys to living in the kingdom of God.

Today, we will study the great purpose of these things lived out actively in our lives – it’s not just for our blessing!*

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13.  “YOU are the salt of the land; but if the salt has become useless, how can it be salted again?

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trodden down by men.”   

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*Genuine salt can never lose its flavor.

In ancient times salt was not pure, but rather it was laden with impurities – when the salt would leach out, the impurities would remain (to be disposed of).

The main point here, is that salt does not lose its taste, and neither does the gospel.

The power of the gospel working in the heart of the true believer (who lives out the beatitudes in their attitude of dependence on God), /must/ have its effect in the life of the believer.

Jesus uses the salt analogy in Luke 14 and Mark 9 to show that the believer who does not take their discipleship seriously and take up their cross and follow Jesus, is not a true disciple at all, and He warns that such a person, is in jeopardy of being cast aside by God.*

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14-15.

“YOU are /the/ light of the ordered creation (cosmos), a city on a mountain is not able to be hid.

Nor do they light a lamp, and put it under the container, but on the lamp-stand, and it shines forth to all those in the house;”

 

       *The ‘you’ here is in the emphatic position, as in verse 13.  *

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\\ *In our Old Testament reading this morning, we see that God has ordained it that He will establish a people for Himself that will be a light to the world, - and people will stream to it!

Isaiah 2:1-5 says:*

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Now it will come about that

In the last days

The mountain of the house of the Lord

Will be established as the chief of the mountains,

And will be raised above the hills;

And all the nations will stream to it.

3     And many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

To the house of the God of Jacob;

That He may teach us concerning His ways

And that we may walk in His paths.”

For the law will go forth from Zion

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4     And He will judge between the nations,

And will render decisions for many peoples;

And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not lift up sword against nation,

And never again will they learn war.

*5         *Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

*Jesus said to the crowd in John 12:35-36a:* “For a little while longer the Light is among you.

Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become */sons/* of Light.”

*Here in our passage in Matthew 5, Jesus is describing what it means for us to live as ‘sons of the light,” – that is, to be like Him, the true light of the world.*

*Jesus uses the illustration of a lamp on a stand shining forth its light in Mark 4 to show that the Gospel light must shine forth now to all the world, it must no longer be hidden as it was in ancient times.

NOW is the time of God’s revelation and if we use what gifts we have to show His light to our world, He will give us even more gifts: *“Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed?

Instead, don’t you put it on its stand?

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued.

“With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.

Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

(Mark 4: 21-25)  *Are we shining our lights so that God can give us more light?

Are you?  Am I?  . . . .

.*

 

16.

“Thus shine forth (imperative) your (plural) light, so that they might see your (plural) good works, and give glory to your (plural) Father who is in heaven.”

*Look back with me at the beatitudes, we see there: an attitude of poorness of spirit and mourning for personal sin, meekness, striving for personal righteousness, mercy, pureness of heart, peacemakers, and a willingness to suffer persecution for the sake of God’s righteousness.

These are not works that draw attention to us (our world does not admire these things!), but rather these are works that bring Glory to God!

This is how we SHINE in a dark world!!

And this is how the world will know about the Kingdom of God – by us living it and showing it to them.

*

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*Dwight L. Moody often told this terse, but moving story of a violent storm on Lake Erie:*

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*On a dark, stormy night, when the waves rolled like mountains and not a star was to be seen, a boat, rocking and plunging, neared the Cleveland harbor.

“Are you sure this is Cleveland?”

asked the Captain, seeing only light from the lighthouse.

*

*“Quite sure, sir,” replied the pilot.

*

*“Where are the lower lights?”*

*“Gone out, sir!”*

*“Can you make the harbor?”*

*“We must, or perish, sir.” *

*With a strong hand and a brave heart, the old pilot turned the wheel, But alas, in the darkness he missed the channel, and, with a crash upon the rocks, the boat was slivered and many a life lost in a watery grave.

*

*“Brethren,” concluded Mr. Moody, “the Master will take care of the great lighthouse.

Let /us/ keep the lower lights burning.”

*

* *

*God sees it, when our lights have gone out – and the world will not see the glory of God because our lights have gone out.

God has called us to live as His people and His Lights to the lost world around us.

When we live out the truths of the Beatitudes that we studied last week, we become His Lights and we proclaim real hope in this hopeless world.

*

* *

*Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred for his faith by the Nazis in World War II said: “a community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.”

Are we hiding ourselves as followers of Jesus?

What about our church?

Are we visible to the world?

Are we willing to suffer for it?

How do we become more visible to the world?

To Danvers?*

 

\\ 17-18.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish but to complete (fill with content).

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all has come into being.”

*Jesus has not come to abolish the Law or even to remove its smallest part.

As part of the dawning of God’s kingdom on earth, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Law & the prophets by His teaching.

This does not mean that He merely kept certain laws or that He fulfilled specific prophecies, but that He “fills up” the law and the prophets – that is, He gives meaning to what was prepared for in the Law (that is, the new age, the age of the Messiah).

And the law will remain until Jesus’ redeeming work is complete.

The Law, and all of the Old Testament were not given as rules alone, but as pointers to Jesus and to the “law of Christ” referred to by the apostle Paul (1 Cor 9:21 & Gal 6:2).

We understand the law perfectly through Jesus, who taught it to His disciples and lived it out before them.

Jesus shows us the true meaning to which the Law points.*

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*      The dawn of the last days does not eliminate the need for law keeping.

The Law remains in force “until everything is accomplished” (v.18)—that is, until the kingdom is consummated.

In Scripture, we can see three purposes for the law (as developed by John Calvin and summarized by R.C. Sproul):*

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*1)  *The first purpose of the law is to be a mirror.

On the one hand, the law of God reflects and mirrors the perfect righteousness of God.

The law tells us much about who God is.

Perhaps more important, the law illumines human sinfulness.

Augustine wrote, “The law orders, that we, after attempting to do what is ordered, and so feeling our weakness under the law, may learn to implore the help of grace.”