Matthew 4:12-5:16 – Session 1 – Weekend Away 2022

Welcome to City Church Dublin Sermon Archives.

Join us in session one from our Church Family Weekend Awake 2022 as our guest speaker Colin Creighton speaks to us from Matthew 4 and 5.

The story goes, I've no idea if it's true or not, but I love the story.

The story goes of um an island in the South Pacific that at a certain time of year's tourists would just flock to it.

And at a at low tide, as the tide was going out, there was this beach called Starfish Beach.

Because what would happen is when the when that particular time of year came, the the sea was absolutely saturated with starfish that were breeding.

And and as the as the tide came in, all these starfish would drop out, and then the tide would retreat and they'd be left on the beach in the middle of the Pacific sun, would beat down on them.

And what would happen is in the morning they'd all be toasted and like sun-dried tomatoes.

And uh the locals would come out, pick them up, take them to the market, turn them into jewelry, all that sort of thing, sell them to the tourists that was going.

So it was known as Starfish Beach.

Now the story goes of this young lad who goes on there on holiday for the first time, and he sees what's happening, and so he says, Right, I'm going to get up at dusk, and as the as the low tide is retreating, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna save those starfish.

And so he starts picking them up and throwing them.

But the like the beach is is a mile that way and and a mile that way, and it is absolutely just saturated with these starfish, and so he starts throwing them.

But as he like as he's working away, he's building up the sweat, the tide is retreating further and further back, so he's having to throw them even further each time.

And as he's doing it, there's a local lad, an old man who's lived his entire life on that island.

He's seen this happen every season, and he's looking at this young kid who's just come and doesn't have a clue what's he's doing.

And the and the old man comes to him and he says to the kid, What are you doing?

And and the young kid he's he's he's picking up the starfish and he's saying, I'm trying to, I'm trying to save the starfish.

And and the old man he he says to the kid, just just look as far as you can see that way.

And look as far as you can see that way.

You can't make a difference here.

You could you could work your whole morning, you won't make a dent in this.

Kid, just go home.

You can't you can't change this, you can't make a difference.

And and and the young kid he's he's standing there with a starfish in his hand, he's looking at uh and he's looking that way, and he's looking at the the tide that's retreating.

And he takes a starfish and he launches it into the sea, and he says to the old man, I made a difference to that one.

And he keeps going.

And he's throwing them in, and he's throwing them in.

And I don't know if you've ever had those two little voices battling away that that that that that one voice that's enthusiastic and wants to make a difference and thinks I'm gonna I'm gonna do it.

And then that other voice that's saying, What's the point?

I mean, look at the obstacles, look at your resource, look, what is the point in even just go home and stick the TV on.

I don't know if you've ever had those two voices talking at the same time.

I can remember the first time I heard that conversation as a Christian.

And so I came uh to Christ just as I had left secondary school and just as I was going to university, and and I and I left Ireland to go to university to train to be a teacher, and I went to Nottingham, and it was a massive university.

Um there was there was 15,000 there, and and and as all the the first years came in, they they housed us in this massive arena.

And and I was I was a baby Christian, I was I was full of enthusiasm, and I was thinking, I just heard the best news in the world.

I want to like tell everyone.

And I was sitting in this room with thousands of first years, and the old man's voice just kicked in.

I heard it.

It's like so many of these people haven't got a clue spiritually about Christ.

Like, how would you make it you couldn't make a difference here?

And I could hear that old man saying, There's no point even trying.

But there's still that little kid's voice that said, I want to.

I want to try and make a difference.

And I wish I could say that that old man's voice has uh I've I've been walking with Christ now for 20 years.

I wish I could say that old man's voice has has retired.

It hasn't.

But see, that's a kid's voice.

I want to hold on to that excitement that we can make a difference.

And it's why I love this passage.

I mean, the the other passage you read, Lisa, was great as well.

I I mean God's word all inspired.

I love it.

Um but this passage, I just it's it's it's it's a wonderful one to warm our heart.

And if you've if you've got it there, Matthew 4, um, and pick it up at verse 12, where Jesus has he's he's finished his his his temptations and now he's starting off uh on ministry, and you have this um this amazing passage from Isaiah where it's saying, in the land of Zebulun, in the land of Naphtali, a light has dawned.

Now, I don't know if those names mean anything to you.

If you imagine the the promised land and where all the tribes settled, this is the northern part, this is the part on the on the border of the of the Gentiles, of the pagan nation.

This is the dark part spiritually.

When God's people have gone through times of sin and all sorts of bad stuff, you know, it comes from those nations down.

And so the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali are particularly dark parts spiritually of God's people.

And where does Jesus rock up?

This great prophecy in Isaiah.

The land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, the way to the sea along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people living in darkness, have seen a great light.

On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

Now, folks, get the get the picture of what he's saying there.

That in this land, spiritually under the shadow of death, something big has happened.

Jesus has arrived.

The light of the world has dawned in the darkest part of the promised land.

And he and he comes along, he's repent, for the kingdom of heaven is is near.

And as as you read through verses 18 to 25, he's he's he's talking about the uh the good news of the kingdom, and he's he's he's come into this dark place and he's healing people and he's he's teaching people, and the kingdom of God is the kingdom of heaven is breaking in.

And then you you get to to chapter 5 where he starts to talk.

This is what it looks like to be part of the kingdom.

This is what it looks like to be one of the people of God's kingdom, those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger for righteousness, who are merciful, who are pure in heart, the peacemakers.

But then clock verse 10, right?

Because I mean, I don't know if you've read the Beatitudes before, like they're lovely.

Be gentle and meek and poor in spirit.

It's like, who would have a problem with that?

You know, if if if you met someone like that, you'd think, oh, aren't they just lovely?

So where's verse 10 coming from?

And verse 11 and verse 12 where he said, actually, if you live as part of God's kingdom, people aren't going to like it.

In fact, you're gonna get persecuted.

But don't worry about it, because that that's exactly what happened to the prophets of old when they came as God's people into the darkness.

Yes, it is in one sense, it is magnetic to live a God, like it's uh imagine meeting someone who is meek and pure in heart and hungers and thirsts for righteousness, and yet when they come into the darkness, they get hammered.

And Jesus is saying, if if you live like one of the people in the kingdom of heaven, don't be surprised if you get it in the neck.

It happened the prophets of old, and it will happen God's people today as well.

But given that, given that part persecution is part and parcel of what it is to be God's people, it's what makes the passages we want to home in now so special.

Because it's verses 13 to 16 I really want us to look at.

Because Jesus has just said, if you're gonna live this kingdom life, you're gonna you're gonna get in trouble for it, you're gonna get persecuted for it.

But then verse 13, he says, You are the salt of the earth.

But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

Do you know what makes salt amazing?

Like it's salty.

You know, when it stops being that, it stops being amazing.

The thing that makes salt really good is that it's salty.

Do you know the thing that makes Christians really good?

When they're Christ-like.

And and Jesus has just said if you're Christ-like, if you live out the Beatitudes, if you live out the kingdom life, you're gonna get it in the neck.

But that doesn't mean stop doing it.

That we're we're supposed to be different.

We're supposed to be the salt of the earth.

And just because we get in trouble for it doesn't mean that we stop.

We're supposed to be different.

Salt is supposed to be salty, Christians are supposed to be Christ-like.

And actually, when salt stops being salty, it is useless.

When Christians stop being Christ-like, it's useless.

That Jesus is saying, You are different, and because we're different, we're gonna get persecuted.

But don't stop being different, you're supposed to be different.

Salt is supposed to be salty, and actually, when you stop being salty, that doesn't solve the problem.

It just means we stop being what we are supposed to be, folks.

You're supposed to be different, but not just are we supposed to be different.

And look at look at look at verse 14.

You're the light of the world, a city.

In fact, stop there.

I mean, did you did you clock what he just said?

We'll get onto this the city on a hell thing in a minute, but but you're the light.

If I said to you, who's the light of the world?

It's Jesus, isn't it?

I mean, like, like Isaiah said as much, didn't he?

Those living in the darkness have seen a great light.

Those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

Okay, who's the light of the world?

Oh, it's Jesus.

Who does Jesus say is the light of the world?

His people.

And he is the great light, he will always be the great light.

But it's it's it's it's like he is saying, here is the light of the world, and come and light your little candles off me and take my light into the world.

That we become the light of the world.

Because we get our light from him.

And Jesus, you're the salt of the air, you're supposed to be different.

But you're also the light of the world.

And and he says this lovely line, and and honestly, to us, this might not make a whole lot of sense.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

I don't know if you've ever like a city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Whatever you're trying to say, geez, there's got to be an easier way to say that.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Now we may not know, geez, what that's a slightly obscure reference, what are you talking about?

But the folk in his day would have known exactly what he meant.

Um you folk live in Dublin.

I live I live in Caribbean Cross.

That means that means I live in the sticks, okay.

But even the sticks have a lot of light.

Okay.

My brother lives in uh Nigeria.

I've done some work out there, and and he uh the the when when I was out there I was in the rural parts, uh, and um the the electricity supply had character like it would just go off, and it was like Russian roulette, you know, you'd organize something for the night, and you've no idea is someone gonna pull the plug?

And when you're living out in the rural part and the whole area has just gone dark.

I remember going outside, and and you could hold your hand in front of your face and not see it.

The darkness was total.

Now I want you to imagine that in the distance is a hill, and on that hill is a city with all the light and the fire around it.

What would it be like?

It would be a beacon that would be unmissible for miles around.

You could be walking in the wilderness and you couldn't see a thing, but if there was a city on a hill, it would be like a lighthouse.

It would be like a beacon.

And Jesus is saying, you are the light of the world.

You're like a city on a hill.

You you can't hide a city on a hill.

If if we're salty, it's because we're supposed to be different.

But it's not just that we're supposed to be different.

Actually, we can't be hidden.

Our differences can't be hidden.

If you're gonna live a Christ-like life in a dark world, you can't hide that.

That's like being a city on a hill in total darkness.

Everyone will see it.

You're supposed to be different.

And you can't hide it.

If you're going to follow Jesus Christ, you can't hide it.

But here's the other thing that he says, verse 15 neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

You're not supposed to hide it.

It's not like, ah, I wish I could hide this so I didn't get the persecution.

Jesus said, one, you're supposed to be salty, you're supposed to be different.

Two, you're a city on a hill, you can't hide it.

Number three, you're not supposed to hide it.

You're not supposed to put it under a bowl.

Jesus didn't say to us, get your candle, light your candle off, Jesus, go into this world, but don't let anyone, don't let anyone see it.

He says, they don't put it under a bowl, instead, they put it on its stand.

And it gives light to everyone in the house.

Jesus saying, We're supposed to be different.

We're supposed to be the salt.

We can't hide it.

We're like a city on a hill.

We're not supposed to hide it.

We don't put it under a bowl.

We're supposed to be seen.

Jesus puts us on a stand.

He says, Come and light your candle off me and go into this world so that you give light to everyone in the house.

We're not supposed to be hidden.

We're supposed to be seen.

Not by showing off and saying, look at how good I am, and look at how much I give to charity, and look at all the prayers that I do.

I mean, Matthew will go to town on the hypocrites that do that.

Read Matthew 6, read Matthew 23.

Those who want to be seen for doing righteous deeds in front of men, Jesus will spit them out and say, That is not what it is to be God's people.

That's not what he's talking about here.

He's talking about a changed life, a life of gentleness, a life of meekness, a life of mercy, a life of pure and heart, a life of peacemaking.

He says, You lit your candle off the great light, so that you would go into the darkness and shine.

And look what he says, wrapping it up in verse 16.

In the same way, let your light shine before people that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.

See what he's saying?

Be the light of the world.

You're a city on a hill.

Don't put your light under a bull.

It's supposed to be on a stand that people may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.

Now here's the amazing thing.

It's not just that we are to be seen.

It's also that we are to be understood.

Because if I if I do something really amazing, you know, I don't know, let's say I learn to play the guitar like a like a professional, right?

And I start playing it and I go into Carrot Macross and people see how well I can play it.

Do you know what they say?

They say, that's really good.

Well done.

Collin.

But this says, right, that they may see your good deeds and praise you for you're a really good person.

Says that, doesn't it?

Maybe that was in Daniel 4.

I can't remember.

No, it says in the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Hey.

That actually, when people see the meekness and the purity of heart and the peacemaking and the hunger for righteousness in you, they're not supposed to look and say, wow, aren't they great?

But actually they're supposed to look and say, My goodness, if God's grace can do that wonderful thing in them, maybe he can do something in me.

That our light is not just to be seen, it's supposed to be understood.

Because our light is to bounce back to him and to say, He is the one that is transforming people.

He is the one whose grace is being breathed into people through his spirit.

In the same way, let your deeds shine before men, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Do you know what I find amazing about that?

Is that Jesus is saying to all his people go make a difference?

He's not just saying to the ones who can explain exactly what Romans 9, 11 say.

He's not just saying to those who've been in the faith for 30 years and have already converted 4,000 people, he's saying to all of us, just go and make a difference.

Go and be God's people in the darkness of which you find yourself and make a difference.

Mark was asking me about when I got converted.

It was it was just as I was leaving secondary school and just as I arrived at university.

And and I had just really been told about this thing.

I had to find one of these.

And I clocked it.

There were two testaments.

I think I I ended up landing in Philippians.

I don't know why I remember that, but but I remember reading this little book.

I think I picked it because it was the shortest one I could find.

And it was like, this is really good.

But that's about as far as I'd got.

I'd read Philippians.

And I remember being in that massive sports arena with the thousands of undergraduates.

And I remember that old man's voice in my head saying, You cannot make a difference.

I agreed.

Because I was sitting there thinking, do you know what?

Like, what if what if the guy next to me, what if he was so interested and he said, Colin, I hear you're a Christian.

What's that all about?

Do you know what I'd say?

Well, I'm I'm not really sure.

I I know it's really good.

I know I'm a sinner and I know I'm forgiven, but that's as far as I've gotten.

Jesus is pretty amazing.

And I was sitting there both wanting to make a difference and absolutely terrified.

What if someone actually asks me?

And I remember this tension of that little boy inside who just wanted to throw starfish in the ocean.

And this old man who's saying, number one, Cullen, you don't know your left hand from your right hand spiritually.

You know how to carry a Bible, but that's as far as your skills go.

And these people are so far removed from Jesus that how would you even begin?

And and I remember going along, there were all these little um um halls of residence, and I think there was 14 of them on campus, and I was in one of them, and there were four the uh the first years who'd come in.

And and and there was a little Bible study running in each of them, which is amazing.

And and on a Friday night, 300 students every Friday night would meet to worship Christ.

And I remember walking in, and I'm like, I've never been in this room with this many Christians in my life.

And and I go to the little Bible studies um during the week, and there could be like 25 of us.

And and and we'd sit, and and not everyone in those Bible studies were were Christians, they'd been invited along.

I said, like, this is amazing.

And and and we'd just sit and and we'd we'd read this and we'd try and figure it out.

And uh and and there was there was this one lad who um uh he he he came along, he he had been from a similar background to me.

He had spent his high school years uh in nightclubs, arrived at college, everyone expected him to continue going off the rails, but somehow he ended up in this little Bible study.

The funny thing was he knew his Bible better than I did.

I think he'd been to Sunday school, which to me was cheating.

Um but we were reading stuff and he was saying stuff, and I was like, what and and and he and I was trying to follow the story, and it was great, and and we'd sit there and we'd battle it, and we'd we'd try and figure out what it's what it's saying.

And and you know, he we we we we just clicked, we got on, we we went to the boxing club together, we went to the gym together, and we went to the Bible study together.

It worked, it worked well.

And somewhere along the way, on on one Saturday night, he said, Colin, you disappear on Sundays where you go in it.

It is church, isn't it?

Yes, it's church.

And he said, Can I come?

I thought, all right, I don't see why not.

And and so he he went, and now we both sat in church, again, entirely confused, but trying to figure out what the whole thing was about.

And we go home and we discussed what we figured out from church, and and and somewhere along the way, he said, Can't I become a Christian?

I was like, that's amazing.

And then we did more Bible studies together, and like this was before Amazon was a thing, and and so we were trying to figure out, you know, is there like would there be any books that would help you figure out how to read?

And then someone handed me a BST, you know, like a little mini commentary.

I'm like, this is amazing.

It was on Wompeter, it's like the answers are in here, and so we started buying these books, and we and and so he bought one on Roman's idiot, and I stuck with one peter and we battled it through, and we ended up staying in this halls of residence together for three years, and he became one of the fellows who helped disciple me and and and and and helped uh helped me mature in my love for Jesus.

And when the three years were over, um, it was time for him to leave.

I had another year to do, I was a slow learner, and he he came and his his parents came with a with a big uh big van to take all his stuff.

Um and I'd met them a couple of times, but I didn't I didn't really know them.

And so I helped him unpack and we had his whole flat emptied.

And then his mum said to him, Um, will you just go and check one more time?

And so he went and checked, and she said, Colin, would you just lift that last thing in?

I said, Of course, yeah, I'll lift it in.

And and and as I lifted it in, and I I could hear my friend calling back, she handed me an envelope.

I thought, is there money in this?

I mean, I and she said, I'd like you to open that when I'm gone.

I said, All right, stuck it in, my friend came back, we shook hands, off he went.

And then I went back to my flat and I was like, what on earth is this?

And I and I opened it up, and this was a letter from his mother to me.

And she wrote in that letter that she had been praying for her son since before he was born.

And when he was a kid, she took him to Sunday school.

Oh, he learnt off all the stories.

He loved Sunday school, and as a as a as a young kid, he seemed to have a vibrant faith, and he would talk and he would pray at the mealtimes, and and he was just such an encouragement.

And she said, Something happened.

Something happened when he went off to high school where he got in with a particular crowd and he started to do stuff we disapproved of.

We tried to steer him in a direction I think it made it worse until eventually he didn't want to talk about spiritual stuff.

Eventually, by the time he hit 15, he refused to come to church.

So me and my my husband, we've been praying for him every day that he would come back to Jesus.

She said, the day that we dropped him off to university that was one of the hardest days of our life.

Because whatever influence we had while he lived in our house was now gone.

And we knew what university culture was like and the day we dropped him off, she went home and she cried her eyes out.

And it felt like he was lost, and it felt like he was walking into the shadows of darkness not to return.

And she said that day when we go back, me and my husband we we prayed a new prayer that as he went to university he would connect with someone that was like him.

Because he'd never had that.

Someone who understood him, someone who could talk to him about Jesus.

She said the first few weeks I rang him every day.

He was sick of me ringing.

But I'd always ask about his friends and the new friends that he was making.

And she clocked somewhere along the way.

There was a pattern.

She kept he kept talking about this Irish lad whose accent was so thick he couldn't understand what he said, but he tolerated him anyway.

And she said this Irish friend was taking him to the gym.

And then she heard he was taking him to the boxing club and her heart sank.

And then her son said that this same Irish lad was taking him to Bible study.

She wrote that her heart.

And then she heard about church.

And one day her son phoned to say he'd given his life to Christ.

Do you know I didn't know any of that?

And if God had asked, do you know what I would have said?

If God had asked, Colin, is it alright if I put this fella in your life?

Do you know what I would have said?

No, God, that is not okay.

Put him in someone's life who knows what they're doing.

Put him in someone's life who can walk him through what it is to know Jesus who can open up the Bible and say, put him in someone's life who can do this.

Do you know what the amazing thing?

God doesn't ask.

He doesn't ask permission.

And he's not limited by our limitations.

He just washes starfish up on our beach.

He says, go make a difference.

Be the salt.

Be the light.

Be the city on a hill.

Let your good deeds shine before men.

That they will praise your Father in heaven.

Can you imagine?

If we all got that.

If my church at home got it and all of our churches that love Jesus got it, you know what would happen?

There wouldn't just be one or two kids on that beach.

It'd be an army.

And we could make a difference.

One starfish at a time.

Most of you I don't know.

I don't know the beaches that you walk on.

I don't know the starfish that God has put in your life.

I don't know the little voices in your head that say it's pointless.

You're not good enough.

The people are too hard.

Whatever it is that they say.

I want us to have that excitement of that little kid that looks at the starfish in our hand, launches it into the sea.