“The Hands and Feet of Jesus” –Series

Matthew 5: 13-16

I. Introduction

A. Read the Text??

B. Opening Comments

1. In these four verses the Lord summarized the function of believers in the world.

a) Reduced to one word, that function is influence.

b) Whoever lives according to the Beatitudes is going to function in the world as salt and light.

c) Christian character consciously or unconsciously affects other people for better or for worse.

d) As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.”

2. An ancient Greek myth tells of a goddess who came to earth unseen but whose presence was always known by the blessings she left behind in her pathway.

a) Trees burned by forest fires sprouted new leaves, and violets sprang up in her footprints.

b) As she passed a stagnant pool its water became fresh, and parched fields turned green as she walked through them.

c) Hills and valleys blossomed with new life and beauty wherever she went.

d) Another Greek story tells of a princess sent as a present to a king.

(1) She was as beautiful as Aphrodite and her breath was as sweet as perfume.

(2) But she carried with her the contagion of death and decay.

(3) From infancy she had fed on nothing but poison and became so permeated with it that she poisoned the very atmosphere around her.

(4) Her breath would kill a swarm of insects; she would pick a flower and it would wither.

(5) A bird flying too close would fall dead at her feet.

3. Woodrow Wilson told the story of being in a barbershop one time.

a) “I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a powerful personality had entered the room.

b) A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself to have his hair cut and sat in the chair next to me.

c) Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him.

d) And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended and evangelistic service, because Mr. D. L. Moody was in that chair.

e) I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular affect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop.

f) They talked in undertones.

g) They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.

4. Many years ago Elihu Burrit wrote, “No human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness, not only of the present but of every subsequent age of humanity.

a) No one can detach himself from this connection. There is no sequestered spot in the universe, no dark niche along the disc of nonexistence to which he can retreat from his relations with others, where he can withdraw the influence of his existence upon the moral destiny of the world.

b) Everywhere his presence or absence will be felt. Everywhere he will have companions who will be better or worse because of him…

5. In these few verses, Jesus spoke about the influence of His followers on the world for God and for good.

a) In His high priestly prayer Jesus said to His Father, “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

b) They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world … As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” (Jn. 17: 15, 16, 18)

c) Christ’s kingdom people are not to reflect the world but they are to influence the world; they are to be in it but not of it.

6. When we live the life of the Beatitudes some people will respond favorably and follow, whereas others will ridicule and persecute us.

7. The figures of salt and light emphasize different characteristics of influence, but their basic purpose is the same.

II. Body

A. The Presupposition: Corruption and Darkness

1. The world needs salt because it is corrupt and it needs light because it is dark.

2. One college student told of his professor who recently told the class that marriage was on the decline because man was evolving to a higher level.

a) Marriage was something that man needed only at the lower stages of his evolutionary development.

b) Now that man had ascended farther up the evolutionary scale, marriage was falling off just as his prehensile tail had done millions of years ago.

3. Any person who knows the history of mankind, even the history of the past hundred years, and thinks that man is evolving upward is “deceiving and being deceived,” just as Paul said.

a) Man has increased in scientific, medical, historical, educational, psychological, and technological knowledge to an astounding degree.

b) But he has not changed his own basic nature and he has not improved society.

c) Man’s knowledge has greatly improved, but his morals have progressively degenerated.

d) His confidence has increased, but his sense of purpose and meaning have all but disappeared.

e) Instead of improving the moral and spiritual quality of his life, man’s discoveries and accomplishments have simply provided ways for him to express and promote his depravity faster and more destructively.

f) Modern man has simply invented more ways to corrupt and destroy himself.

4. Along with freedom and ability is responsibility (moral responsibility to-boot).

a) Martin Heidegger, “Most thought-provoking in this thought-provoking age is that we still are not thinking.”

b) The last vestige of free speech, the Internet.

B. Being Salt

1. Salt has always been valuable in human society, often more so than it is today.

a) During a period of ancient Greek history it was called theon, which means divine.

b) The Romans held that, except for the sun, nothing was more valuable than salt.

c) Often Roman soldiers were paid in salt, and it was from that practice that the expression “not worth his salt” originated.

2. In numerous ways Jesus’ hearers – whether Greek, Roman, or Jewish – would have understood “salt of the earth” to represent a valuable commodity.

a) Though most people could not have understood His full meaning, they knew He was saying that His followers were to have an extremely important function in the world.

b) Whatever else it may have represented, salt always stood for that which was of high value and importance.

3. Possible Interpretations

a) Some have suggested that Jesus was defining salt as something that is pure.

b) Others see these comments as though Christians, being the “salt of the earth,” means we add a divine flavor to the world.

(1) The problem with that view, however, is that, from the earliest days of the church, the world has considered Christianity to be anything but attractive and “flavorful.”

(2) It has, in fact, often found the most spiritual Christians to be the most unpalatable.

(3) In the world’s eyes, Christians, almost above all others, take the flavor out of life.

(4) Christianity is stifling, restrictive, and a rain on the world’s parade.

(5) After Christianity became a recognized religion of the Roman Empire, the emperor Julian lamented, “Have you looked at these Christians closely?

(a) Hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, flat-breasted, they brood their lives away unspurred by ambition.

(b) The sun shines for them, but they don’t see it. The earth offers them its fullness, but they desire it not.

(c) All their desire is to renounce and suffer that they may come to die.”

(6) Oliver Wendell Holmes reportedly once said that he might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen he knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.

c) Because salt stings when placed in a wound, some interpreters believe Jesus meant to illustrate just the opposite characteristic to that of flavor.

(1) Christians are to sting the world, prick its conscience, make it uncomfortable in the presence of God’s holy gospel.

(2) This also has some merit.

(3) Example of standing for God’s word and offending someone who is not a believer.

(4) The church cannot stand for the Lord if it does not stand for His Word, and when it stands for His Word its witness will often sting.

d) Salt creates thirst.

4. The Primary Meaning of Salt

a) But I believe the primary characteristic Jesus emphasizes is that of preservation.

(1) Christians are a preserving influence in the world; they retard moral and spiritual spoilage.

(2) When the church is taken out of the world at the rapture, Satan’s perverse and wicked power will be unleashed in an unprecedented way (cf 2 Thess. 2:7-12).

b) Until that day Christians can have a powerful influence on the welfare of the world.

(1) Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “Most competent historians are agreed in saying that what undoubtedly saved [England] from a revolution such as that experienced in France at the end of the eighteenth century was nothing but the Evangelical Revival.

(2) This is not because anything was done directly, but because masses of individuals had become Christians and were living this better life and had this higher outlook.

(3) The whole political situation was affected, and the great Acts of Parliament which were passed in the last century were mostly due to the fact that there were such large numbers of individual Christians found in the land.”

c) As Christians, we represent God’s presence in the earth – we are the salt that prevents the entire earth from degenerating even faster than it is (Lot).

C. Being Light

1. Jesus also called us to be light.

a) Whereas salt is hidden, light is obvious.

b) Salt works behind the scenes but light works openly.

c) Salt works primarily through our living, while light works primarily through what we teach and preach.

d) David wrote, “For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light we see light.” (Ps 36:9)

2. God’s people are to proclaim God’s light in a world engulfed in darkness.

3. Christ is the true light and we are His reflection.

4. By nature and by definition light must be visible in order to illuminate.

a) Both in daytime and at night, “a city on a hill cannot be hidden.”

b) It is exposed for all to see.

c) Christians are to be both subtle salt and conspicuous light.

5. God did not give the gospel of His Son to be secret, hidden treasure of a few but to enlighten every person (cf. Jn. 1:9).

a) It is not our gospel but God’s, and He gives it to us not only for our own sakes but the entire world’s.

b) True believers are salt and light, and must fulfill that identity.

III. Conclusion

Series: The Hands and Feet of Jesus

I. Introduction

A. Read the Text??

B. Opening Comments

1. In these four verses the Lord summarized the function of believers in the world.

a) Reduced to one word, that function is influence.

b) Whoever lives according to the Beatitudes is going to function in the world as salt and light.

c) Christian character consciously or unconsciously affects other people for better or for worse.

d) As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.”

2. An ancient Greek myth tells of a goddess who came to earth unseen but whose presence was always known by the blessings she left behind in her pathway.

a) Trees burned by forest fires sprouted new leaves, and violets sprang up in her footprints.

b) As she passed a stagnant pool its water became fresh, and parched fields turned green as she walked through them.

c) Hills and valleys blossomed with new life and beauty wherever she went.

d) Another Greek story tells of a princess sent as a present to a king.

(1) She was as beautiful as Aphrodite and her breath was as sweet as perfume.

(2) But she carried with her the contagion of death and decay.

(3) From infancy she had fed on nothing but poison and became so permeated with it that she poisoned the very atmosphere around her.

(4) Her breath would kill a swarm of insects; she would pick a flower and it would wither.

(5) A bird flying too close would fall dead at her feet.

3. Woodrow Wilson told the story of being in a barbershop one time.

a) “I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a powerful personality had entered the room.

b) A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself to have his hair cut and sat in the chair next to me.

c) Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him.

d) And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended and evangelistic service, because Mr. D. L. Moody was in that chair.

e) I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular affect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop.

f) They talked in undertones.

g) They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.

4. Many years ago Elihu Burrit wrote, “No human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness, not only of the present but of every subsequent age of humanity.

a) No one can detach himself from this connection. There is no sequestered spot in the universe, no dark niche along the disc of nonexistence to which he can retreat from his relations with others, where he can withdraw the influence of his existence upon the moral destiny of the world.

b) Everywhere his presence or absence will be felt. Everywhere he will have companions who will be better or worse because of him…

5. In these few verses, Jesus spoke about the influence of His followers on the world for God and for good.

a) In His high priestly prayer Jesus said to His Father, “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

b) They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world … As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” (Jn. 17: 15, 16, 18)

c) Christ’s kingdom people are not to reflect the world but they are to influence the world; they are to be in it but not of it.

6. When we live the life of the Beatitudes some people will respond favorably and follow, whereas others will ridicule and persecute us.

7. The figures of salt and light emphasize different characteristics of influence, but their basic purpose is the same.

II. Body

A. The Presupposition: Corruption and Darkness

1. The world needs salt because it is corrupt and it needs light because it is dark.

2. One college student told of his professor who recently told the class that marriage was on the decline because man was evolving to a higher level.

a) Marriage was something that man needed only at the lower stages of his evolutionary development.

b) Now that man had ascended farther up the evolutionary scale, marriage was falling off just as his prehensile tail had done millions of years ago.

3. Any person who knows the history of mankind, even the history of the past hundred years, and thinks that man is evolving upward is “deceiving and being deceived,” just as Paul said.

a) Man has increased in scientific, medical, historical, educational, psychological, and technological knowledge to an astounding degree.

b) But he has not changed his own basic nature and he has not improved society.

c) Man’s knowledge has greatly improved, but his morals have progressively degenerated.

d) His confidence has increased, but his sense of purpose and meaning have all but disappeared.

e) Instead of improving the moral and spiritual quality of his life, man’s discoveries and accomplishments have simply provided ways for him to express and promote his depravity faster and more destructively.

f) Modern man has simply invented more ways to corrupt and destroy himself.

4. Along with freedom and ability is responsibility (moral responsibility to-boot).

a) Martin Heidegger, “Most thought-provoking in this thought-provoking age is that we still are not thinking.”

b) The last vestige of free speech, the Internet.

B. Being Salt

1. Salt has always been valuable in human society, often more so than it is today.

a) During a period of ancient Greek history it was called theon, which means divine.

b) The Romans held that, except for the sun, nothing was more valuable than salt.

c) Often Roman soldiers were paid in salt, and it was from that practice that the expression “not worth his salt” originated.

2. In numerous ways Jesus’ hearers – whether Greek, Roman, or Jewish – would have understood “salt of the earth” to represent a valuable commodity.

a) Though most people could not have understood His full meaning, they knew He was saying that His followers were to have an extremely important function in the world.

b) Whatever else it may have represented, salt always stood for that which was of high value and importance.

3. Possible Interpretations

a) Some have suggested that Jesus was defining salt as something that is pure.

b) Others see these comments as though Christians, being the “salt of the earth,” means we add a divine flavor to the world.

(1) The problem with that view, however, is that, from the earliest days of the church, the world has considered Christianity to be anything but attractive and “flavorful.”

(2) It has, in fact, often found the most spiritual Christians to be the most unpalatable.

(3) In the world’s eyes, Christians, almost above all others, take the flavor out of life.

(4) Christianity is stifling, restrictive, and a rain on the world’s parade.

(5) After Christianity became a recognized religion of the Roman Empire, the emperor Julian lamented, “Have you looked at these Christians closely?

(a) Hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, flat-breasted, they brood their lives away unspurred by ambition.

(b) The sun shines for them, but they don’t see it. The earth offers them its fullness, but they desire it not.

(c) All their desire is to renounce and suffer that they may come to die.”

(6) Oliver Wendell Holmes reportedly once said that he might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen he knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.

c) Because salt stings when placed in a wound, some interpreters believe Jesus meant to illustrate just the opposite characteristic to that of flavor.

(1) Christians are to sting the world, prick its conscience, make it uncomfortable in the presence of God’s holy gospel.

(2) This also has some merit.

(3) Example of standing for God’s word and offending someone who is not a believer.

(4) The church cannot stand for the Lord if it does not stand for His Word, and when it stands for His Word its witness will often sting.

d) Salt creates thirst.

4. The Primary Meaning of Salt

a) But I believe the primary characteristic Jesus emphasizes is that of preservation.