The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew): You are Already Salt and Light

So uh we have we have some kiddos uh in here with us because it's holiday weekend.

We give our children's ministry volunteers the Sunday off, which means we're only operating off of our Sunday workers, which means we welcome elementary school kids in here.

So, parents, you can relax a little bit.

There's no noise they can make that's gonna surprise me.

I have children, they were younger, still have some young children, it's fine.

They move around.

I'm going.

So if something happens and you need to walk out or whatever, that's fine, no worries.

Also, kind of interesting.

This morning we have a sermon switcheroo because we're supposed to cover the last three chapters of the book of Judges.

Now, most of you have not read the last three chapters of the book of Judges, but especially chapter 19.

Chapter 19 is known as the most vulgar chapter in the Bible, which is not problematic most Sundays, except the Sunday where there's elementary school children in the service.

And so when Amy came on Wednesday, she's like, hey, remember there's elementary school kids in the service.

I was like, Oh, um, all right, well, can I tell you like a few of the things that I'm gonna have to like say?

Um, and she's like, Yeah, can't say that.

I was like, Well, let me say, can't say that one, can't say that.

I got to like 15 or 20, and it was like, it's not gonna work.

Um, so sermon switch.

So the sermon series are gonna start next week.

Well, the next week.

Next week is gonna be judges, the end of judges, and then this week is the beginning of Sermon on the Mount, and then we'll go back and cover the judges, which is so vulgar, it's just disgusting.

Like, just wait.

I mean, just pre-read it if you need to.

It's just the most awful, horrendous Netflix series you could imagine, all in a chapter in the Bible.

It's just awful.

You've never heard a sermon on it, I can guarantee.

Like, I haven't.

I haven't.

I'm like, I got to it.

I'm like, this is why people don't preach through books of the Bible, is because you end up in stuff like this.

You gotta figure it out.

Um, but there's actually a good lesson.

Anyways, all right, I'll stop there.

The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus' teaching.

Some think it was one long sermon, other people think it's a collection, a summary of his teachings.

Professor A.

B.

Bruce called it almost like a holiday summer school, like a condensed teaching of Jesus' teaching for us, kind of like the teachings on the hill, Jesus' prime teachings for us.

And so, either way, whether it's a summary that's been put together or it was one kind of elongated sermon, it's here for us and it's really good for us.

And so we're gonna jump in just after the Beatitudes.

And so Matt read the passage, I'll reread it as we chat our way through it this morning.

Matthew 5, 13 through 16, you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house in the same way.

Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

So everybody would have known these items, salt and light, right?

For these listeners of Jesus, salt was the preservation.

You've probably been in church, you know this, the preservation of meat for these people.

So it preserved, it preserved something for them.

So Jesus is saying, you are the preservation, you are the preservation of people's hearts.

And also you are light.

When I was a little boy in my neighborhood, especially on summer evenings, right when it would get dark, we would play hide and seek.

Perfect illustration for this morning.

Elementary school kids, you can listen to the next five minutes.

And we play hide and seek once it got dark out, and all of us would go hide, and then whoever was it had a wet sponge.

And I don't know how that developed into it, but at some point that that's how you tagged the other person through this nasty wet sponge and got dirt all over it, all onto the other person.

But we had to wait to play till it was dark out.

That was the key because that you know that upped everything, the anticipation, the excitement, everything was so exciting.

And that half acre lot of ours on Shannon Way, that thing at night, when I was a little boy, that was the size of a national park.

That place was huge.

There's so many hiding places.

My favorite hiding place was over in the side yard.

We lived on the corner of Shannon Way and Chris Circle, and it was on the Chris Circle side of the lot, and is where the English ivy came all the way up to the fence line, and then there were these trees with these long tree limbs that came down almost all the way down to the ivy.

And you could climb under those tree limbs and you could nestle.

I would nestle myself in that English ivy all the way up against the fence, and you just get so low down in there, and the limbs are all it was pitch black under there.

And kids, y'all know what happens as soon as you hide, right?

What you feel.

What all of a sudden you have to do.

You know.

Does anybody want to say that?

Your parents, some of your parents did it in their pants.

They don't want to tell you, but it happened.

They haven't confessed that yet.

It's a safe space.

Maybe later today they'll tell you, right?

So you're in that dark place, you need to pee so bad you can't believe it because you're hiding, you're so excited, you're in the dark, maybe your hiding spot is under the bed, it's in the closet.

And what always happens, we all know it, because we've all been in that hiding spot, is that light eventually breaks through, doesn't it?

I mean, you can be in the darkest place in that closet, and that little bit of light comes from underneath that door and sneaks in.

You can be under the bed, that light eventually starts to find its way back.

I'd be nestled in that English ivy up against the fence, and the street light on Chris Circle would cut through all those branches.

Because light always invades darkness.

Now, these people listening to Jesus, they didn't have streetlights and they didn't have flashlights on their phone, which is incredible, right?

I mean, all they had was the sun and they had fire, they had candles.

But even then, always light illuminates and invades darkness.

And Jesus is saying, you are the illumination by which cuts through and invades dark places.

And then verse 16 is telling us, hey, do that.

Like, do that.

Do that with how you speak and how you live in this world.

Now that's quite a calling.

I mean, like, some of us can hear these verses and go, like, that season's up for me because you have no idea how I live for four years.

Right?

Or you don't know about the other day.

And you don't know what I didn't do or what I should have done, right?

That's quite a calling.

Quite a calling.

But there's also a promise here for us.

Here's point number one.

Our calling assault and light is a promise, then a mission.

For too long, I related to this passage just about what I should do.

And sort of like, I'm not quite that yet, but I need to be a little bit more, I'm not quite enough of a Christian to be like light enough.

I need to be a little bit lighter to be light enough for the world.

And sort of like sent me in this like performance checklist, be light enough for somebody else kind of spiral.

But this isn't about that.

This is Jesus primarily affirming us for who we are, right?

That's why he says, you are light.

You are soul.

So be that.

He never says you have to be perfect, he never says you have to pretend.

He says, You are this, I deem you this, even as you're not always this.

It's so interesting.

This passage is wedged between the beatitudes, which we can sum up the context there, the beatitudes, which is saying, um, blessed are all of you who just can't get your acts together because you'll know God.

Okay?

That's what just came.

That was the teaching that just showed up, and then he says, and you're salt and light.

So blessed are all of you who can't get your acts together all the time because you'll know God.

Like you'll finally be able to get that you need God.

And now, because of that, you can be salt and light.

The two friends that I look up to the most are being salt and light, and they they can be salty, mind you.

They can't, really.

In the modern sense, they can be salty.

But they're the most honest and vulnerable people I know.

I I just I can't surprise them.

Is how I think about it.

Like, I'll call them, it's like, hey, here's what I'm feeling, here's what happened, here, what should I do?

I can't surprise them.

It's so annoying.

I can't surprise them.

That just every time it's like, oh yeah, yeah, man, I know what that feels like.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, I'm with you.

I'm with you.

Okay, okay.

Let's let's let's talk about that.

Let's pray for that.

Yeah, and it's like, man, God, that's I mean, and that is that's preservation, that's elimination.

And what they know is they really know those beatitudes.

They really know what we're gonna look at in verses 17 through 20, that they are not their own savior.

And they really need Jesus, and they have Jesus, and Jesus has them.

They just keep siding on compassion and not judgment, which is also so annoying to me because I love to judge people, right?

And so do you most of the time.

We all do because it makes us feel so good about ourselves.

But man, when I need truth and grace, I think about those two friends of mine.

I think I need truth and grace.

Like, they're not even close to perfect, these two guys.

But man, are they salt and light for me?

Point number two, freedom in our mission comes after embracing our radical acceptance in Christ.

That's the context here going from Beatitudes into salt and light, and then even within the salt and light, he's saying, You are salt, you are light.

So it's always bringing us back to the gospel of our radical acceptance in Jesus by his work for us, that God wants your heart before he wants your service.

And if he has your heart, he'll have your service.

But all of it is about doing with him, not doing for him.

He already loves you, he already accepts you, and he already walks with you.

So out of that affirmation of being salt and light, and out of that call to be salt and light, we get Matthew 5, 17 through 20.

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 say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least of the kingdom in heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Man, this passage is like back and forth.

I mean, it's like, all right, so law, who we should be, what we should do, all of it upholds to the fullest extent, and you should do it.

And by the way, unless you're like the Pharisees who are like the most religious of the religious and the most righteous of the righteous, unless you're like them, and even more so, you don't have a shot.

So he's like, upholds the law, and then he crushes us.

Like all in the same passage.

We also have law that's this, all that ceremonial religious stuff in the Old Testament, and we read it, and it's like ritual rules and sacrifices, and Jesus fulfilled all of that as the final priest and the final sacrifice.

But law is also that standard of who we should be.

Like be kind, be faithful, love other people, be moral, don't covet, be giving, be someone who honors God and loves people.

It's like the shoulds of the Christian life.

So law is good and we need law.

We need it.

Not an iota, not a God is relaxed.

It tells us how life is best lived.

So law can show us godliness, but it cannot deliver us to godliness.

That's what Jesus is teaching us.

Jesus actually uses a Sermon on the Mount to heighten the law, right?

That's what we're gonna see in the coming weeks.

He says stuff like, and you know it, like he says, like, oh, don't commit adultery.

It's not just don't commit adultery, don't even lust.

I mean, he heightens it.

Jesus equates motives in our hearts with our behavior.

Just devastating, isn't it?

Isn't that just devastating if you've ever wanted to use your behavior to feel righteous?

To come into touch with that.

I mean, then we have no shot of like really living self-righteously.

So the law guides and then the law drives us to our need of God's grace and Jesus.

So when he says he fulfills the law, he fulfilled all that ceremonial stuff.

That's all over.

Final priest, final sacrifice.

But he also lived the godly life that we just don't quite pull off.

And we need a righteousness outside of ourselves.

This week, Christy and I drove down to Vinings for date night, and we drove by some like super nice homes.

So we'll always go out to eat and then to like buy a little bit more time so our children are bathed at least by the time we get home.

Y'all know that trick.

Uh like we drove through some neighborhoods and we drove through some like really incredible homes and like some really nice cars, and like and there's a just as little bit of me, like there's is, it's just as bit of me, it's just like things like man, like then, right?

Like then I will be.

Like, if only then I would be.

Like if I could have that, then it would be, which is so silly.

Like it's so silly.

We actually used to live down there and um like we had to like save all of our money, like it works, uh just get like the smallest house in that area, and somebody said to us, Well, we all have to start somewhere.

So that was our status there.

I have a nicer car now than I had when I was 16.

I had a 1985, like beat-up four-wheel drive truck.

You know what?

I'm no happier now.

I'm not.

I think about that truck all the time.

If I could find that truck, it's probably like in Honduras somewhere, if I could find it, I would buy it and ship it home and drive it every day.

And Christy has a nicer car than me.

When I drive it, I'm no happier in her car than I am in mine.

I'm not.

Isn't it silly?

The law of the world, even the law of the world is endless and exhausting.

Instagram has me figured out because all I follow is national parks and five fishermen and bears.

Like that's it.

And so they have me figured out.

And so all the ads are just the most beautiful adventure travel and gear from Orvis and like refurbished airstreams.

And I just it's so it's just devastating because I love it all.

I just absolutely love it all.

Like, I'll just pause and look at it.

Like, it's like, man, that really would do it.

Like everything else hadn't done it, but I'm pretty sure that airstream would do it.

It's just awful, isn't it?

It's just all awful how much we love it, right?

It's like we've been talking about these idols of our hearts.

How we trick ourselves to think if we only had a little bit more money, more house, more influence, more beauty, more experience.

How ourselves together a little bit more.

We're all looking for perfection.

To be a perfect person, have a perfect life, to be a perfect Christian.

To be a perfect parent, perfect student, a perfect body, perfect employee, perfect preacher.

That's not to say we shouldn't try to be good.

But we'll never have the perfection.

That's exhausting.

Perfection is for God.

It is the law that always puts us to work.

It guides us, but then it crushes us.

And this is, of course, is true in faith because we felt it.

I mean, if all we did was stay in the salt and light passage and didn't remember the Beatitudes and didn't read on to verses 17 through 20 and just thought all you were supposed to do, your whole faith, was just about being salt and light, it'd be absolutely exhausting.

I don't even think you'd be all that like good for the world.

What message would you actually have?

The message we have is blessed are those who don't have their whole acts together because you'll understand you need God and Christ is enough for us so we can be salt and light.

Here's how Paul makes sense of this when he writes to the Galatians.

Galatians were people who came to know the gospel and then went back into performance faith by ritual and rules and all that kind of stuff.

Here's what he says to them Galatians 3, 23 through 26.

Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned under the coming faith would be revealed.

Imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

This morning, while you're deemed and called to be saw and light, what I'm wondering is, is what is the what does the Savior's voice sound like to you?

Is God's voice demanding and disappointing?

Is his voice law and more law?

Or is God's voice accepting and affirming and empowering and calling?

Is his voice law?

And then grace.

One of my favorite preachers, Paul Walker in Charlottesville, he said this about this passage.

Those who belong to his sheep and hear his voice find a kind of sweet relief in being recognized for who and what we are.

It's like going to the doctor and getting an accurate diagnosis of your illness.

At least you know what you're dealing with.

And this good shepherd also happens to be the great physician.

For if the voice of the law is the wound, then the voice of grace is the healing salve.

This week I heard Ann Lamont on the Tim Ferris podcast.

She's a Christian faith writer.

She's an ex-addic.

She cusses like a sailor, and she's a Sunday school teacher.

So you can't put her in a box, and you may not even like her.

But I listened to her for two hours, and then I listened to it again for another two hours.

Because she begins with the belief that we're all beautiful in God's image.

And we're all imperfect, and like underneath, we're pretty much just all a mess.

And I and you, Billy Graham, and the cousin that you don't you can't even talk about because of your cousin, right?

Like that cousin, you can't believe what they're still doing, right?

Like all of us, all of us are in need of God's help.

And she said, Grace is amazing like this, it meets us exactly where we are, and then it tricks us because it doesn't leave us there.

And here's what she says Grace meets you exactly where you are.

And we could say Jesus.

We can go ahead and just say that.

We'll take that step.

Jesus meets you exactly where you are.

At your most pathetic and hopeless, and it loads you into its wheelbarrow and then tips you out somewhere else in ever so slightly better shape.

See, the Holy Spirit in you will use the wealth, the wealth of your security in Christ, and his sufficiency for you to welcome you and affirm you with such lavish, ridiculous, radical assurance that you can risk loving somebody.

That you could risk speaking truth.

That you could risk being vulnerable to somebody.

I mean, that's what the world needs.

That that sort of gospel that's that assuring and empowering.

Three contemplative questions for us for growth and grace as I close.

What should in faith?

What should, like the thing you should do?

You always think you should do it.

What should in faith or should in the world does your heart use to feel like you are finally enough?

So that would be a movement out of law.

To recognize what law do you use to be your salvation.

Number two, what message do you hear more loudly in your heart than the Holy Spirit reminding you of your acceptance with God through the gospel?

That would be a movement toward peace, wouldn't it?

To be able to recognize what is the message in your heart you keep hearing more loudly than your radical acceptance with God.

And number three, what might a freer and lighter you, so free of laws of enslavement and the light of grace, what might that look like to those around you?

Because that would be a movement for us of being salt and light.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and mercy to us that not only do you call us, but you affirm us.

That we're not just called, but we're already yours.

That you call us salt and light before you call us to be an act of salt and light.

Thank you that you radically accept us, radically affirm us, and assure us in the great sufficiency that you are the fulfiller of the law.

And in all the ways that we fail to be who we should be in front of you, and we should be in all those ways that in your grace you fully are that for us, and so we are forgiven and fully righteous in the gospel.

May that be such rescuing truth for us that our hearts are revolutionized to be more in awe of you and to respond in greater love for you and greater love and compassion for our neighbor.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.