"Shine On" | Summer On The Mount | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we're continuing our sermon

series, Summer on the Mount, where we are diving

into Jesus' sermon on the Mount, one of the most

important collection of teachings in the Gospels.

And this week we are joined by guest preacher,

Reverend Peter Blundell, who's going to talk

to us about salt and light. These are two images

that Jesus uses to show us what the life of his

followers should look like. And so tune in to

find out more about whether you are salty and

full of light and what that looks like in our

lives today. Good morning church. Today's reading

is taken from the book of Matthew chapter 5 verses

Matthew 5:13–20

13 to 20. You are the salt of the earth. But

what if the salt loses its saltiness? How can

it be made salty again? It is no longer good

for anything except to be thrown out and trampled

on the foot. You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither

do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives

light to everyone in the house. In the same way,

Let your light shine before others, that they

may see your good deeds and glorify your Father

in heaven. Do not think that I have come to abolish

the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish

them, but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you,

until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest

letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by

any means disappear from the law until everything

is accomplished. Therefore, anyone who sets aside

one of the least of these commands and teaches

others accordingly will be called least in the

kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and

teaches these commands will be called great in

the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless

your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees

and the teachers of the law, you will certainly

not enter the kingdom of heaven. This is the

word of the Lord. Well, good morning. Good to

be back here again. It's been a year. So if you

were here a year ago and you came back, well,

it's on you. It's on you. My name's Peter. Thank

you, Kerlin, for that reading. Really appreciate

it. He did it at the first service as well. That's

why he's leaving. He said, I don't need to hear

this one twice. It's it. This famous sermon that

we're studying as a church, the Sermon on the

Mount, Without question, greatest sermon ever

preached. I think we'll agree on that one. Which

also means, don't look at me, all right? There's

Jesus, that sermon, and then whatever you're

about to hear. Barra's very different. It begins,

as you remember, with those first eight foundation

stones. We call them the Beatitudes. They build

one on top of the other. That's the foundation

of a follower of Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus

started that. You might have read to the end,

and I'd encourage you to read to the end of the

Sermon on the Mount as soon as you can to get

the whole picture. By the way, I'd encourage

you to have your Bibles open right now to follow

what's going on. Matthew chapter five, it would

be really helpful. When you get to chapter seven,

Jesus finishes with a parable. And the parable,

as he effectively says, you need to have foundations.

And if you listen to what I say, If you hear

my teaching, not just about those beatitudes,

but all the way through the rest of my teaching,

and you don't apply these truths to your life,

Jesus is really blunt. He says you're a fool.

Jesus said that, I wouldn't say that, but Jesus

said that. True wisdom according to Jesus is

to listen to his teaching and then to obey it.

So with that in mind, and before I say anything

else, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so

grateful that you have a better plan for our

lives than we do. Holy Spirit, we invite you

to speak to us through the scriptures. We give

you permission to challenge us and to equip us

so that we live godly lives that obey your son

Jesus and make us shine as witnesses to him in

this dark, lost, sin -soaked world. and we ask

this confidently in the mighty name of Jesus

our Lord. And everyone said, amen. Thank you

for saying that. So that reading we had, it is

actually quite a short reading as far as number

of verses go, but it's jammed packed with stuff.

And I'm not clever enough. I really am from the

shallow end of the pool. I'm not clever enough

to cover all of those verses in one talk or do

justice to it. I'm just going to confess that.

So I'm going to focus most of this talk on the

first verses, verses 13 through 16. But I don't

want to miss out on the other verses. So I think

the phrase in this country is I'm going to use

the Cole notes. Cole's notes, is that right?

You're gonna get the Coles notes of verses 17

through 20, but please don't dismiss them just

because I'm gonna talk about them relatively

briefly. Here's the context of all that's going

on. Jesus is about to make some extravagant claims.

Claims about himself, claims about his disciples,

and claims about the kingdom of God. And Jesus

was, he was acutely aware that his teaching,

and particularly his interpretation of the Jewish

scriptures, that's what we call the Old Testament,

his teaching was gonna challenge and it was gonna

upset the religious leaders, the established

ones. And we know that. If you look on through

the biographies of Jesus, that's what happens.

They're really shoved off with Jesus. Because

in their eyes, Jesus was unschooled. Jesus didn't

have any pedigree. He hadn't gone to one of their

seminaries. He was a nobody from backwards Galilee.

And that led to the inevitable questions. What

authority, Jesus, do you have? What authority,

Jesus, do you have to speak about the scriptures?

What authority, Jesus, do you have to make these

extraordinary claims about yourself? What authority,

Jesus, do you have to make, as we will discover

in this passage by the way, these mind -blowing

claims about your disciples. What authority,

Jesus, do you have to make such challenging commands?

So that's what's going to happen as Jesus teaches

this sermon. There are people even in the crowd

who are judging him, who are dismissing him,

who are taking offense to what he is saying.

And as we go through those earlier verses, you're

gonna see again why they were offended. So what

Jesus is doing in verses 17 through 20 is he

is preempting these questions. He's giving them

the answers, as it were, ahead of time. So first

of all, in verse 17, he made it clear, abundantly

clear, that he was not going to abolish the law

and the prophets. I'm not gonna do that, he said.

We know, we believe that the Jewish scriptures

were inspired by God the Holy Spirit. In fact,

we believe that the Christian scriptures, the

New Testament, likewise, 2 Peter chapter three,

tells us that. Which means that there can never

be. any discord or disconnect or disunity or

division between the second person of the Trinity,

God, Jesus, fully God, fully human, and the third

person of the Trinity, God, the Holy Spirit.

You can't have any discord between them. So all

the Holy Spirit inspired to be written out, Jesus

will never undermine or contradict. That's why

he makes it very clear. I've not come to do that.

Second, Jesus was going to fulfill the law and

the prophets. And he achieved this in two ways.

First, Jesus kept every single command of the

law. And in doing so, he led a perfect life,

100 % perfect. To quote a well -known phrase,

Jesus lived the life that we should have lived.

And then, although he's innocent, because he's

100 % perfect, he chose to take our punishment.

The punishment is for failing to keep the law.

It's death. You don't get repetitive mistakes

that way, by the way. You know, done. Jesus took

our place. So he lived the life that we should

have lived, and then he died the death that we

should have died. And that leads to verse 20.

If you will Bible open, please look at verse

20. and you'll see as it were, and if then, if

this, then that. If someone chooses to ignore

Jesus and all that he's done for them, his death

on the cross, what we will celebrate at the communion,

the communion is just the gospel in a beautiful

way portrayed every week of what Jesus has done

for us. But if you say no to Jesus, no to his

death, and that's your choice, someone forces

you to come into the kingdom, then There's the

then. If you do that, then if you want to come

into the kingdom of God, if you want to have

an eternity in what is an infinitely better place

than the alternative, which is hell, which is

awful, where there is no love and no life and

no joy and no beauty and no goodness and no honor

and nothing good. Who wants to spend eternity

there? Don't put your hand up, please. You're

going to say, no, I don't want to go there and

I don't want anybody I know to go there. So we

all agree, I don't want to be there, well in

which case I want to be here, but if you want

to be here, but you don't want Jesus, what happens?

Well, Jesus says in verse 20, there's only one

way you're going to get there without Jesus,

and that is you need to be perfect. You need

to get every single command. That's what he's

saying. Okay, put your hand up if you're perfect.

Yeah, absolutely, big surprise. Okay, let's not

kid ourselves. We have a 100 % failure rate in

perfection. And don't feel bad about it. You're

in good company, all of us. None of us is good

enough to go to heaven. And please don't be one

of those people who need to have a head shake

when they say, well, I'm not that bad. I'm in

the top 90%. No, you're not. Join me in the bottom

five. And I'm being nice to myself. Okay? But

there is another if then implicit in that. If

a person is humble, we do lack humility most

of the time, don't we? If a person is humble

and chooses to confess that Jesus is Lord, that

means he is God, then his death will be a substitute

for them and his position of righteousness will

be freely given to them. That is one meaning

of what he meant by I've come to fulfill. But

there was a second meaning of what he meant to

fulfill the law and the prophets He said what

he meant was that he was revealing that his words

his actions and his claims all of them are Backing

up what the scriptures say in other words. He's

saying all of the scriptures point to me He's

the fulfillment of every previous revelation,

prophecy, promise, or expectation. In a nutshell,

the whole of the Bible is centered on one person,

Jesus. That's it, it's all about Jesus. The Old

Testament scriptures point to and are fulfilled

in Jesus. The New Testament, Christian scriptures

all throw from Jesus' teachings, his commissions,

his actions, his crucifixion, resurrection, and

ascension. That's my Coles Notes of those verses.

You can see where there's so much there, and

I also apologize for you for going through that

so quickly. But I want you to keep that in mind

because there's some outrageous stuff we're gonna

look at in verses 13 to 16, and we've got now

that in mind as we look at them. In verses 13

to 16, that's where we're gonna focus, what Jesus

was doing was summarizing the function of believers,

those are the people who've confessed that Jesus

Christ is Lord, believed in the resurrection,

Romans chapter 10 verse nine, and are now following

Romans 10 · chapter mention

him obediently. If you love me, you'll obey my

commands. That's what I mean when I say a Christian,

a disciple, a follower of Jesus, all right? Those

who do that in the world, their function is in

one word, Influence. Whoever lives according

to those beatitudes will influence the world

as salt and light for God and for good. So let's

look at those two things, salt and light. We'll

start with salt. Salt has always been valuable

in human society. Roman soldiers were often paid

in salt. That's the root of the word salary.

You've probably heard the phrase, not worth his

salt. That's where it came from, not worth his

salary, didn't do anything. A function of salt,

not the, but a function of salt is to prevent

food from being bland, insipid. It gives taste

and flavor. You see, without Jesus, life is bland.

And the world around us proves that. But Christians,

we have savor in life. We have Jesus. Jesus promised

to give us life and life in all its fullness.

I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase, rubbing

salt in the wound. You're familiar with that

one? Have you ever had a wound and salt got in

there? Ow! Okay, why? Because salt stings when

it's in a wound. But in the process, it acts

like an antiseptic and it helps in the healing.

What does that mean, Christian? It means we are

called to sting the world. We're called to prick

the world's conscience. We're to make the world

uncomfortable in the presence of God's holy gospel.

And too much of the church, when they hear that,

go, oh, no, I don't want to do that. I want to

be nice to the world. I want to stroke the world,

say, there, there. I want to be liked by the

world. That's not what Jesus is saying So too

often we haven't been salty because we've been

afraid of offending We fail to confront people

in their lostness and their desperate need to

be saved from their sin It is the same as somebody

who is sick going to their doctor and the doctor

looking at them and going like you're really

sick I mean you need some help you need this

medication, but not wanting to to say something

They wouldn't like to hear so instead the doctor

says you're fine You're great, continue as you

are. Have a great week. We think that doctor

should lose their license. That's awful. Well,

we Christians do the same thing when we don't

teach them the truth. A gospel that does not

confront sin is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is a false gospel. Gospel means good news.

If we were salty, if we are salty, we will love

people. and we will love them enough to create

a thirst in them for the truth. It is unloving

not to tell them the truth. For Christians, though,

to positively influence the world, as salt, we've

gotta leave the salt shaker. Salt is no use.

You can go to a restaurant, there's a salt shaker.

If you don't shake it out, so what? What's the

salt shaker? Well, it's the church in that sense,

the body of Christ. If we don't leave and go

out into the marketplace, we're not going to

be salty in the world. It also means, though,

that we can't go en masse as a holy huddle, because

few things are more horrible than eating a piece

of over -salted food. Okay, so we can't be passive,

we can't be disobedient, we've got to get out

there. Because the cleansing and curative properties

of salt are only effective once the salt has

been spread out and then rubbed in. That's what

we're called to do. But you know, having said

all that about salt, the primary characteristic

that Jesus was emphasizing here is that of preservation.

I had the privilege of being the sub -Sahara

chaplain. for Alpha, if you've ever heard the

Alpha course, that was what I was, for a number

of years. And I was also pastoring a church in

South Africa, in Pretoria. And I came across

this extraordinary, delicious food called Biltong.

Anyone had Biltong? A few hands go up, you're

lucky sometimes. Every one of you, the rest of

you, I weep for you. If you've had jerky, Biltong

is infinitely better, all right? It is a cured

meat, don't get me wrong, it's rubbed with coarse

salt, and when you've done it properly, it keeps

indefinitely. When Jesus said, you are the salt

of the earth, what he was stating is that the

earth is rotten. It's rotten to the core, it's

broken, it's fallen, it's sinful, it's evil.

It's like uncured meat. which if untreated will

putrefy and become polluted. Interestingly, in

the world today, it's changed in the last few

years. I think you'll find that most people agree

with that statement. They agree with the Bible.

A few years back, a decade or two, they say,

no, no, we're doing well, we're getting better

and better. And now they read the newspaper like

the rest of us, we go like, no, we're not. But

where we disagree is with the reason why we're

in such a mess. and why individually we continue

to mess up. We Christians, we know why. We know

the cause is our sinful rebellion against God's

holy rule. We said no. And we know that the gospel

is the only solution to that rebellion. But you've

probably discovered, as I have, that the world

doesn't like the gospel because the gospel is

exclusive. It doesn't give an alternative. It

says this is the only way. It unequivocally states

that Jesus and only Jesus is Lord. That only

Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.

That it's only through Jesus it's possible to

come into a right relationship with the Father,

be adopted as his child, become his much loved

son or daughter. The world doesn't like that.

If you reject the gospel, you desperately try

and find Any other answer? John 3, 19. This is

the verdict. Light, that is Jesus, has come into

the world, but men love darkness instead of light.

And so we turned away because our deeds were

evil. Friends, the gospel is the only thing that

works. The only hope for our world is Jesus.

It's not government, it's not business, it's

not politics, it's not whatever it is. It's Jesus.

Only Jesus. There is no alternative to Jesus.

Now when Jesus said you and you alone are the

salt of the earth, he's actually there stating

a fact. So the very fact that if you belong to

Jesus Christ, if you're his follower, you are

fact salt and you are fact. lights in this world.

So salt and light represent what Christians already

are. The question is, will we become what we

already are? So here are the two questions that

really we should be asking on the basis of this

passage. Will we be tasteful salt? Will we be

effective life? And in a very real sense, Jesus

has given it to us to live this out. We can be

disobedient. or we can be those two things. As

individuals, we do this with our holy lives and

our godly character. That's where it starts.

Unashamed of you, living for Jesus in every situation

in which we find ourselves. I'll make a guarantee

to you, a salty, spirit -filled Christian working

in their factory will have a wonderfully positive

effect on everyone around them. You live this

way, you will impact people in a positive way.

Now, I find it curious that holiness and godliness

in recent years has been given a bad press, not

just in the world, but actually sometimes in

the church. I've actually had people come up

and say to me, and I'm gonna quote them, well,

you know, nobody likes a holier -than -thou judgmental

git, do they? And I hear what they're saying,

but I look at them and go, that is such a parody.

of the truth. And so I ask them this very simple

Sunday school question, okay, well who was the

holiest person who ever walked on planet Earth?

And they know the answer, you know the answer,

the answer's Jesus. Was he holier than thou?

Was he a judgmental git? Or did the crowds flock

to be with him? There were a crowd of people

there at the Sermon on the Mount. And you know

what happened when they flocked around him? Their

unholiness, their rottenness didn't taint Jesus.

They didn't make him unholy, no. The opposite

happened. Jesus' holiness raised everybody up,

because that's what holiness does. The purity

of Jesus did not condemn the sinner. Jesus said,

John 3 .17, I did not come to condemn the world,

but to save it. The pure of Jesus made him attractive

to them. Oh yes, genuine holiness always exposes

impurities, but it also raises sights and it

stimulates us to something better. That's what

he's about. This, friends, is the difference

between true righteousness that comes from God

and attracts the unrighteous and self -righteousness.

Self -righteousness that always condemns the

unrighteous, rejects them, and makes them feel

unwelcome. So it is as salt of the earth that

our holy God portrays his purity through us,

his holy children. I want you to think about

this for a moment and recognize that most of

everything that is good, right, true, and beautiful

in this world is as a result of the gospel expressed

by godly, holy, salty Jesus followers. In other

words, if we want the world to be a better place,

then we better share the gospel. We better be

salt. I don't want you to be naive. The Bible

is clear. There will be two opposite responses.

Some will say, this is a sweet aroma, hallelujah,

this is what I need, thank you. And others will

say, that's a horrible stench, I hate your judgmental

attitude. And they will reject and even persecute

us. But never let the idea of being unpopular

deter you. Come what may, choose to be salty,

choose to positively influence this world with

the gospel. So in summary about salt, salt gives

flavor to life. Salt stings in order to heal.

Salt preserves in a debased society and salt

creates a thirst for the gospel truth. But what

about light? Well, light exposes what has been

hidden. Light reveals what has been forgotten.

Light is a prerequisite of life. signifies holiness

and purity, like enlivens, like dazzles. Think

about shekinah glory. And light illuminates the

way forward out of darkness into hope. If you

have your Bible, look at verse 14. It is one

of the most astounding, extraordinary statements

that has ever been pronounced about any disciple

of Jesus. I want you to see it for yourself,

because otherwise you'd think I'm making it up.

And if I said this statement, you would reject

it. Thankfully, this statement was made by Jesus.

This is what Jesus said, you, you, said Jesus,

looking at these ordinary people who from the

standpoint of the world were uneducated and unimportant,

you and you alone are the light of the world.

And the unavoidable implication of what Jesus

is saying here is that the world is in a state

of darkness. and Christians are the only light.

And that is another reason why the gospel is

unpopular with so many people. I'm sure you're

aware that we live today in what is called the

information age. If you wanna know something,

anything, Google it. We have information overload,

we're a mile wide, we're an inch deep. Information

though is not the same as knowledge. Knowledgeable

people can cut through the information. They

can help us to understand. Now the world calls

people like that experts. And especially recently,

experts have been afforded great status and great

power. Therein is the essence of the problem.

We have put knowledge, we put experts on a pedestal.

We've forgotten something far more important.

Wisdom. Knowledge, for example, was the ability

to invent the atomic bomb. Wisdom was knowing

whether to use it. Or as the Irish say, knowledge

is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, and wisdom

is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad. So

what we need, what we desperately need is godly

wisdom. The world lacks godly wisdom. As a result,

the world is in a state of terrible darkness.

And here's what Jesus is saying. Only the Christian

has been given godly wisdom by the Holy Spirit.

Which means that only the Christian can give

any helpful, profitable, eternal life enhancing

advice. I told you that statement was outrageous.

Unsurprisingly, it offends countless people.

But if you are a follower of Jesus, then this

outrageous statement is now true of you. That

said, before we get carried away, we need to

remember that the one who told us that we are

the light of the world also said, I am the light

of the world. He claimed that for himself. And

these two statements therefore must be taken

together. The Christian is only the light of

the world because of their relationship to Jesus,

the light of the world. And Jesus claimed that

he'd come to bring light, his promise. was that

whoever chose to follow him as their only Lord

would not walk in darkness, but would have the

light of life. So not only have we received light

from Jesus, he also makes us light. We become

transmitters of light. And you might be thinking,

how on earth does that work? Well, it's not by

imitation, it's by derivation. Let me explain.

If it was by imitation, That means the source

of light must come from within me. The buck stops

with me. I've got to imitate Jesus. He's light.

I've got to bring light from somewhere. But if

this light is by derivation, then the source

by definition is outside of me. Because to derive

means to draw from an objective source. Now we

bear clear responsibility to the extent to which

light is visible in our lives. If you're following

Jesus, you are light, but how much is shining?

but it only comes from Jesus the source. And

maybe you're still confused by that. Let me use

another illustration. Let's pretend this is a

light bulb. Okay, I put that light bulb into

the socket and it shines. We don't congratulate

the light bulb. Well done. Okay? It's shining

because it's got a connection to an electrical

source. It's deriving its power from the source.

If I unscrew that light bulb, it's incapable

of shining. I can put it alongside other light

bulbs that are shining and say, go on, imitate,

go on, you can do it. It can't. Okay? It can't.

It only brings light if it's got a connection.

We only bring light if we're connected to Jesus.

Now why did Jesus... call us the salt of the

earth before he called us the light of the world.

The order, friends, is important. First, we Christians,

we negatively impact the world. There is a positive

thing, we prevent putification, we stop it rotting

so fast, but we're called to sting people out

of their apathy and their moral depravity. We've

got their attention, but we don't stop there.

We just stop there, they just be condemned. No

hope. Then we shine the light of the gospel.

Then we talk about our faith in Jesus. Would

it be like a city on a hill, which you can see

during the daytime, but when it's dark, you can

really see it because the light shines brighter

the darker it is. And the world is dark at the

moment. No sane person, says Jesus, lights a

lamp, hides it under a bowl. What a ridiculous

idea. They put it so people can see. Which means

Jesus is saying, Christian, you cannot be hidden.

A secret Christian is incongruous. You can't

be a hidden light. He was warning his disciples

then and his disciples now. There's a real danger

that you might behave in this ridiculous, futile

manner. Don't do it. You'll be ineffective, useless,

and disobedient. That's something we want to

avoid, isn't it? But at all costs. Now I'm not

gonna stop there, I'm gonna finish though with

some practical stuff because at the end of the

day we wanna know, well how do I do this? How

do I show the world that I'm salt and light?

Well first, most important, we need to spend

time with Jesus. Quantity time and quality time.

Not as a squeezed in afterthought, but as a first

priority. Make it your daily habit to listen

to Jesus as you read your Bible as you pray.

Remember we're deriving our light from Jesus,

the wisdom of God. If you want to be salty, if

you want godly wisdom, we receive it only from

Jesus, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit. Second,

we must choose to live a holy life. That's a

choice. Hear this statement. Godly lives are

the single most effective way of making the gospel

attractive and believable. You can share the

gospel with somebody, but if your life is not

godly, it's not believable. Godly lives are the

single most effective way of making the gospel

attractive and believable. Every single day,

invite the Holy Spirit to fill you. to renew

your mind so you can take every thought captive

to Christ. Invite the Holy Spirit to strengthen

you and equip you to live out those beatitudes,

to soften and purify your heart, to make you

hunger and thirst for righteousness, to reveal

that you are poor in spirit, to keep you meek

and merciful and give you the desire to be a

peacemaker. Third, Jesus recommended in verse

16, Let your light shine before others so that

they may see your good deeds and praise your

Father in heaven. That's a very practical statement.

Let's not spiritualize that. It means you and

I, we need to be intentional about carrying out

good deeds in our communities. This is a well

-known phrase, but let's look at it again. People

don't care how much you know until they know

how much you care. That's what we're showing

them. They're only interested when they are.

then we can share with them the gospel of grace,

because it leads to the fourth point. When they

wanna hear, they respond to those good news,

the good deeds, are you able then to clearly

explain the gospel and do so in simple English?

Every Christian should be able to do that. If

you don't know how to do that, please ask one

of your leaders. I know they'll be happy to help

you. Friends, we're living in the midst of men

and women who are in the state of gross darkness.

Their only hope is that we will be salt and light

to them. You know they're watching us, don't

you? They're watching to see. Do they see anything

positive and different about us? Because if they

do, we can tell them the wonderful, amazing news

that Christ Jesus came into the world to save

sinners. that he came to give men and women a

new nature, a new life, and make them children

of God the Father. So for the sake of the millions

of lost people in this world who are destined

to an eternity without God, let's each of us

choose to make an eternal difference. Let's choose

to be salty and shine on. Thank you for tuning

in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville

on July 13th, 2025.