Salt and Light of the World

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sean.

I'm one of the pastors of Trinity Cambridge Church.

It's my great joy and privilege to preach God's word to you this morning.

We are in the Gospel of Matthew, which is the first book in the New Testament.

We're in chapter 5 today.

We just finished the Beatitudes.

We're in Matthew 5, verses 13 to 16.

Matthew 5:13–16

Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.

Heavenly Father,

Father, you have redeemed us at a steep price,

the blood of your only Son, Jesus Christ.

And we belong to you.

And you have adopted us as your children.

And as your children, it is only fitting that we resemble you and represent you.

And so we want to be, as Jesus says here, salt and light of the world.

Refresh us.

Renew us.

Help us to remember

Jesus and what he has done for us.

So that we might leave this place this morning

a little more salty,

shining a little more bright

than perhaps we have been this past week.

Glorify your name, God,

in the reading and preaching of your word.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

If you are able, please stand

to honor God as we read from his word.

Matthew 5, verses 13 to 16.

Matthew 5:13–16

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.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

Please be seated.

John Lennon was a member

of the 20th century English rock band, The Beatles.

And in one of his most famous songs, Imagine,

he tells his listeners to imagine a world

where there is no religion.

And he says that in such a world,

there's no heaven, no hell below us.

He claims that there will be nothing to kill or die for

and that there would be worldwide peace.

Sung over a beautiful piano motif,

the sentiment seems more plausible than it actually is

because it's a hollow statement

that betrays a shallow understanding

of the human condition.

The self-centeredness that is at the root

of all social ills in the world

resides in the human heart.

The problem is man, not religion.

It's man's sin-sick heart that twists everything,

including religion, for its selfish purposes.

The solution then is not no religion,

but true religion.

Truth that sets us free.

Truth that heals our sin-sick hearts.

And that truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The people who believe the gospel, Jesus says,

are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Salt preserves food and it flavors food.

Imagine food that is bland and rotting without salt.

That's Jesus' provocative claim

that that's what this world would be like

without Christians.

Light, like salt, is an essential ingredient of life.

It drives out darkness.

It enables us to see.

Imagine a world without the sun

or without any of the artificial lights that we have.

Dark, dreary, cold.

That's what the world would be like

without the light of God that shines through his people.

My main point this morning is this,

that we must let our distinctive identity as Christians

shine in order to bring glory to our Father in heaven.

So first, we'll talk about the salt of the earth,

and then second, we'll talk about the light of the world.

Jesus says in verse 13,

you are the salt of the earth.

This marks an important transition from the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes were all phrased

in the third person plural forms.

If you look back at the few verses before this,

it said, blessed are those

who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

But then in the second half of that last Beatitude,

verses 11 and 12,

it switched to the second person plural.

Blessed are you when others revile you

and persecute you.

This transition prepares the way for today's passage,

which says you are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world.

The Beatitudes described who Christians are.

Their identity.

But the rest of the Sermon on the Mount

now describes what Christians do.

How they live.

It's from our identity,

who we are in Jesus Christ,

that our obedience to his commands flow.

This follows a pattern of the Ten Commitments.

You may recall when we first started our series

in the Beatitudes seven weeks ago,

I mentioned that Jesus going up on the mountain

to speak God's new law parallels Moses going up on the mountain

to bring God's law,

to receive the Ten Commandments

and the subsequent explanations of it.

The Ten Commandments doesn't begin with the First Commandment.

It actually begins with the preamble,

which establishes who God is and who God's people are.

I am the Lord, your God,

who brought you out of Egypt from the land of slavery.

It begins with the identity of God's people

as the redeemed people of God.

And Beatitudes likewise serve as the preamble to the Sermon on the Mount.

It begins,

it tells us by showing us who we are.

We are people who are poor,

mourning,

meek,

and hungry.

We are people who have received God's mercy and purity

and peace and righteousness in Jesus Christ.

That's who we are as Christians.

It's only after telling us who we are,

Jesus goes on to tell us what we must do.

So Matthew 5, 13 to 16 is a transitional passage

to the ethical sections of the Sermon on the Mount.

You are the salt of the earth.

And that it's an emphatic you,

personal pronoun.

You, not they.

You, yourselves,

are the salt of the earth,

the light of the world.

So what does it mean to be the salt of the earth?

Salt in many ways is a humble condiment, right?

Any restaurant you go to,

any Western household you go to,

you'll find a little table salt,

shaker up full of table salt.

But it's only in the last 150 years, actually,

that salt became cheap and commonplace.

Because of the advancement in the mining technologies

and evaporating salt and all that.

But before that,

there's actually an entire book dedicated to salt

by Mark Kralansky.

It's called Salt, A World History.

I know, it sounds like I haven't read the whole thing,

but it's an interesting idea.

He writes that human civilization has been shaped by this simple mineral.

Wars were fought over salt reserves as early as 6,000 BC in China.

Salt was the first international trade good.

And ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians and Romans used salt as currency.

In fact, that's where we get the English word salary,

which is derived from the Latin word salarius,

which means of salt,

because the Romans paid their soldiers in salt.

Why was salt so valuable and cherished throughout human history?

Two main reasons.

One, salt is essential for human survival, for life.

Salt is crucial for hydration,

maintaining blood pressure,

nerve impulse transmission,

muscle contraction,

heart function,

and hormonal regulation,

digestion,

bone health,

immune function,

and so on.

Severely low sodium levels in our bodies

lead to muscle cramps and nausea

and vomiting and dizziness

and eventually to shock,

coma,

and death.

This is why many endurance athletes carry

not only water,

but salt tablets.

Salt is something that our bodies need.

And yet, interestingly enough,

it's something that our bodies are incapable of producing on its own.

It must come from an external source

in the same way we receive God's grace and mercy from elsewhere,

not from within ourselves.

So that's one reason salt is precious.

Second reason is that salt is essential for flavoring and preserving food.

Nobody likes bland food,

and salt makes food tasty.

Even more importantly,

ancient Egyptians,

I think,

were one of the earliest people to discover

that salt kills bacteria in certain foods,

and they learned that because it extracts moisture

and it kills bacteria,

it preserves food to make it last significantly longer

than it otherwise would.

That process we call curing,

which is commonly used for meats and fish and cheeses.

I'm sure you've had some cured ham recently,

or bacon.

In the days before refrigeration,

salt could mean the difference

between edible food and spoiled food,

which then would mean the difference

between life or death.

This antibacterial property of salt

was also an effective antiseptic,

made it an effective antiseptic,

and many ancient civilizations used it to clean wounds

and prevent infections,

which is where we get the expression,

rubbing wound on your salt,

which kind of has a bad connotation now.

But when you don't have other things to use,

it helps.

Even now,

I think some of you rinsed your throats,

mouths,

with salt water

when you have canker sores in your mouth.

In light of this historical background,

what does it mean that followers of Christ

are to be salt of the earth?

You know to understand that,

we must first address

what this is implying about the world.

By saying that we are the salt of the earth,

Jesus is saying that the earth,

the rest of the earth,

is not salt,

and that it needs salt.

It means first that the world is bland,

and then needs flavoring,

and it also means that the world is putrefying.

It is rotting,

and it must be preserved.

Ever since sin first entered the world,

our world has been decaying and dying,

and therefore,

it needs salt,

people who are salt,

as a preservative and an antiseptic.

The world,

left on its own,

has a tendency to fester,

unless God's people arrest

the continual decay.

In Genesis 6, 5,

it says,

the Lord saw that the wickedness of man

was great in the earth,

and that every intention of the thoughts

of his heart was only evil continually.

It's this reality that leads God

to bring down the flood judgment

during Noah's day.

And why was the world in such a state?

In Genesis 6,

it tells us in verse 8 to 9,

it says that only Noah

was a righteous man who walked with God,

while the rest of mankind was corrupt,

for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Why did it come to such a dire point?

Because there's not enough salt on the earth.

If you do a concordance search

for the word salt in the Bible

and find references to salt in the Bible,

you'll find an interesting phrase

that occurs several times.

It's a covenant of salt.

God refers to his covenant

with his chosen people

as a covenant of salt.

The reason why is because

of salt's preserving property.

It became a symbol of endurance,

symbol of permanence.

And so when people in the Arab world,

in the ancient Near East,

would make a covenant with other people,

they would often eat salt together

to symbolize this is a covenant

that's meant to last.

Like salt.

So he says in Leviticus 2.13,

you shall season all your grain offerings

with salt.

You shall not let the salt of the covenant

with your God be missing

from your grain offering.

With all your offerings,

you shall offer salt.

Salt had to accompany

every grain offering.

In this way,

in Scripture,

salt becomes a powerful symbol

of our covenant relationship with God.

So in light of that,

then what does it mean for us

to be salt of the earth?

It means to be a people

who are loyal to God.

People who are obedient to God.

To be representatives of God.

To be people who preserve the earth

as it should be,

reflecting on the earth

the righteousness of God

and resisting

the decay and death

of sin.

But we can only do that

if we remain salty.

Jesus says in verse 13,

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.

The chemists in the room

can tell you guys

that salt doesn't lose its saltiness

because as soon as,

Bailey's nodding over there,

as soon as salt loses its saltiness,

it would cease to be salt

because its chemical composition

would be changed.

But that defeats the point

of the metaphor,

so don't go there.

In this part of the ancient world,

salt was likely derived

from the Dead Sea

or from the ocean nearby

and there would often be

other residue and minerals

that are mixed in with salt.

So there would be

some salt-like things,

minerals that are extracted

that people would use as salt

but they would actually have no taste

because it wasn't salt.

So if salt has been diluted

or it has been mixed

with these other minerals,

it would be useless

for preserving or flavoring food.

And once salt loses its taste,

its saltiness cannot be restored.

It's really good for nothing.

The phrase lost its taste,

interestingly in Greek,

which is the language

that the New Testament

is written in,

the phrase lost its taste

literally means

to become foolish.

Isn't that fascinating?

The reason why

this unusual Greek word

is used

to mean lose its taste

is because

in the original Aramaic

that Jesus would have spoken

and in the related language

of Hebrew,

the word for tasteless

also means foolish

or wrong.

For example,

in Jeremiah 23, 13,

the Lord says,

in the prophets of Samaria,

I saw an unsavory thing,

a tasteless thing.

They prophesied by Baal

and led my people Israel astray.

That tasteless thing

is translated

by other translations

as folly

or that offensive thing

or the repulsive thing.

In Lamentations 2, 14,

that same word

is translated

as deceptive visions

or worthless things

or foolish things

that prophets,

the false prophets prophesy.

In Job 1, 22,

and 24, 12,

that tasteless thing

is used to refer to

an offense

or a wrong

that someone

can be charged with.

And perhaps

most suggestively,

throughout the prophetic literature,

especially in Ezekiel 13,

that same word,

that tasteless thing

refers to the whitewash

that people use

to hide blemishes

and dirt

and grime

and mold

on walls

because that's an unseemly

and an offensive practice

to whitewash

something like that

instead of actually

cleaning it

and getting rid of

the mold

and the grime.

So that's what it means

for the salt

to lose its taste,

for it to be tasteless.

To lose our taste

as salt,

as believers,

is to become foolish.

To lose sight

of the wisdom of God.

To become complicit

with the repulsiveness

and the offensiveness

of idolatry

in our world.

to lose our distinctive

identity as Christians.

To blend in

to this sinful world

instead of

standing out.

It means to whitewash

the evils

of our world

and to call them good.

G.K. Chesterton

once wrote about

this folly

in his book,

Orthodoxy.

He says,

what is the evil

of the man

commonly called

an optimist?

Obviously,

it is felt

that the optimist

wishing to defend

the honor of this world

will defend

the indefensible.

He will not

wash the world

but whitewash

the world.

That's what it looks like

for salt

to lose its taste.

Christians who have

lost their saltiness

are no longer

distinguishable

from the rest

of the world.

They justify

the sins of the world.

Their values

and priorities

are not aligned

with God's

unchanging word.

Rather,

it is aligned

with the ever-changing

culture.

But the church

that represents

God and Jesus

must be set apart,

must be holy.

In order for us

to be a city

on a hill

and light in the darkness,

the salt of the earth,

we must be

an alternate community,

a contrast community.

Let me give a few

examples

as practical application

points.

Does the way

you talk

distinguish you

from the way

the world speaks?

Maybe the conversations

in your workplace

are usually vulgar

and obscene

and profane.

Maybe it's full

of gossip

and slander

about your coworkers,

but when you come

into the office space,

people start

talking differently.

They start

watching what

they say.

They stop

taking the Lord's

name in vain.

They stop

talking about

lewd subjects.

They stop

swearing nonstop.

They stop

gossiping

about their coworkers

because they know

that you don't join

in on that kind

of talk.

you are being

salt of the earth,

restraining sin

and preserving

the earth.

How do you

interact with people

that you disagree

strongly with?

Do you

caricature

your opponent's

position

to make it

sound as

unreasonable

as possible?

Do you

cancel

and dox them?

when you

listen well

to your opponents

and you represent

their positions

fairly and when

you reason with

them instead of

canceling them,

you are functioning

as salt and

slowing the rapid

deterioration of

dialogue in our

culture.

Is your media

consumption different

from that of the

rest of the world?

According to the

Pew Research Center,

62% of U.S.

adults identify

as Christians.

Christians.

That number is

very, very

inflated because

there are many

cultural and

nominal Christians

who on surveys

like that say

they are Christian

but don't actually

do anything in

their life that

resembles what a

Christian should

look like because

they don't actually

believe what the

Bible teaches and

don't actually live

according to what

the Bible says.

But imagine

with me,

if 62% of

U.S.

adults were

really Christians,

if 62% of

U.S.

Christians

refused to,

U.S.

adults refused to

watch gratuitously

violent and

sexually explicit

and or occultic

horror films and

shows,

do you think that

Hollywood keep

churning out those

kinds of movies

when 62% of the

population refuses to

watch them?

Of course not.

It affects their

bottom line way too

much.

they produce those

kinds of shows and

movies because

Christians gobble

them up like the

rest of the world

because their salt

has lost its taste.

Does the way you

spend your money

distinguish you from

the way the world

spends money?

Of course some

basic things and

basic needs are

going to look the

same.

We all need food and

clothing and shelter.

But beyond those

basic needs, if we

really store up our

treasures in heaven

and not on earth, if

we are invested in

not just temporal

priorities but in

eternal priorities,

then it should show

in our budget.

It should show in our

generosity toward the

needy around us.

It should be apparent

to the people of this

world that, oh,

these Christians don't

treasure the same

thing that I

treasure.

If we are

indistinguishable from

unbelievers at this

point, then the salt

has lost its taste.

How sad it is when

those who are called

by the name

Christian are the

indistinguishable from

the non-Christians.

A tasteless salt cannot

flavor.

It no longer absorbs

water and kills

bacteria.

It cannot preserve

food.

And a Christian who

exhibits no Christian

character, a Christian

who does not uphold

Christian convictions,

is no longer good for

anything except to be

thrown out and trampled

under people's feet.

This is a fearful

warning.

That's not a good

thing.

Being trampled under

people's feet is a

mark of destruction.

In Luke 8, the

parable of the sower,

the seed that falls

along the path and

is subsequently

trampled by men and

then consumed by

birds, Jesus says, is

an illustration of

people who hear the

gospel, but then that

gospel seed is snatched

away by the devil and

it does not, they do

not believe from their

hearts.

Salt that has lost its

taste is useless salt.

In fact, it's no true

salt at all.

Jesus switches metaphors

in verse 14.

He says, you are the

light of the world.

Once again, what we do

flows from who we are.

Our identity is you are

the light of the world

and that's a remarkable

claim because Jesus is

speaking here to his

ragtag group of

disciples, the ordinary

fishermen, the tax

collector.

Jesus didn't say, oh,

Socrates, Plato,

Aristotle, Homer,

Caesar, Augustus,

they're the light of the

world.

The world speaks often

of enlightenment.

It speaks often of

luminaries or geniuses of

history who are the light

of the world.

The world speaks often of

stars, but it's not the

Grammy winners and the

Oscar winners and the

election winners and the

gold medal winners and

championship winners and

the billionaires in the

world that they, the

people who have their

names on the Hollywood

Walk of Fame, who have a

star on the walk of

them.

They are not the stars of

this world.

They are not the light of

this world.

You are the people of

God.

You are the light of the

world.

You are the people who can

shine the light of Jesus

Christ in this dark world.

You are the people whose

good deeds, whose

righteousness will check the

progress of death and

decay in our world.

You are the hope of the

earth.

Do you believe this,

brothers and sisters?

I believe that with all

my heart, and that's why

I've given my life to

serve the church of

Christ.

But, brothers and

sisters, I did not choose

a humble profession.

I chose to serve the

king of kings.

I chose to be associated

with and to work among

the stars, the light of

the world.

In fact, the only light.

The fact that the

follower of Christ are the

light of the world implies

something obvious, again,

that this sinful world is

now lost.

It's plunged in darkness.

It is full of sin and

evil.

The world is full of

knowledge of various

kinds.

Every time a PhD

dissertation is written,

it seems like we make

some marginal progress

toward more knowledge.

Yet, for all of its

knowledge, the world

profoundly lacks the

wisdom of God.

It understands much

about things that are

immediate, but it

understands very little

about the things that

are ultimate.

Think about this.

People are more

connected to each other

than they ever were

before, by fast travel,

by social media, by

distance communication.

Yet, people are

lonelier than they ever

were.

No matter how

intelligent or rich or

talented the people of

this world might be,

Ephesians 4.18

describes those who

live apart from Christ as

darkened in their

understanding, alienated

from the life of God

because of the

ignorance that is in

them due to their

hardness of heart.

For this reason, only

those who humbly

acknowledge their

ignorance and darkness

and come to Christ can

receive his light and

become the light of the

world.

That's why in the

Beatitudes, Jesus

describes Christians as

those who are poor and

mourning and meek and

hungering and thirsting

for righteousness because

they recognize their

deficiency.

They recognize their

neediness.

They recognize their

lack.

And those who have

become the light of the

world, they shine.

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.

When a city is nestled in

a valley, it can be

hidden by the hills that

surround it, but if a

city is on top of a

hill, all eyes gravitate

toward it.

There's nothing you can do

to hide it.

Likewise, people do not

light a lamp and then

put it under a basket.

They put it on a stand

so that it gives light to

everyone in the house.

That is the very purpose

of light, to shine.

If you're going to put

your light under a basket

and hide it, why have it

turned on in the first

place?

Jesus is saying that this

is the very nature and

purpose of Christians.

As salt that has lost its

taste is useless, so a

light that is hidden and

fails to give light is

useless.

What good is an

extinguished candle or a

burnt-out light bulb?

So a Christian who is

indistinguishable from the

world, whose life bears no

witness to Jesus Christ, is

useless.

The best way to understand

what it means to be the

light of the world is to

make the connection that

Matthew himself makes in

his gospel because earlier

in chapter 4, verse 16, he

wrote that Jesus, about the

coming of Jesus, that Jesus

himself is the one who

fulfills the prophecy of

Isaiah 9, verse 2, which

Isaiah 9:2

says that people dwelling in

darkness have seen a great

light.

And that's why Jesus claimed,

an audacious claim really,

if it's, he said in John 8,

12, I am the light of the

world.

Whoever follows me will not

walk in darkness, but will

have the light of life.

In order to have the light

of life, you must follow

Jesus, the light of the

world.

Second Corinthians 4, 4-6,

Paul speaks of the light of

the gospel of the glory of

Christ, who is the image of

God.

So Christians are those who

have believed in the gospel or

the good news of Jesus

Christ.

Do you acknowledge that the

world is dark?

Do you acknowledge that your

ways are darkness?

God the Father sent his only

son, Jesus Christ, into this

world in order to deliver us,

deliver us, as it says in

Colossians, from the dominion

of darkness into the kingdom

of his beloved son.

God, we were, no matter how

much we claim to say, well, I

have eyes, I am not blind.

No matter how good your

eyesight is, without light, you

can not see a thing.

So it is in the spiritual world.

Unless the light of Jesus

Christ shines upon us, you

cannot see.

We were groping about in the

darkness, lost in sin and

destined for death and hell and

unable to save ourselves,

unable to pull ourselves up by

our own bootstraps.

And it's in that place that

Jesus came.

God the Father sent his son,

Jesus Christ, as the light of

the world to illumine our

darkness so that we might

believe in him who died on the

cross for our sins, who bore

our darkness and carried our

darkness and buried it and

rose from the dead so that we

can sing and say, I once was

blind, but now I see.

And it's when our spiritual eyes

are open to the light of the

gospel of Jesus Christ that we

too begin to shine.

It's like we are all a thousand

candles being brought to Jesus,

the light of the world, and being

lit aflame.

It's by our union with Jesus

Christ, by faith, that we become

light of the world.

And the amazing thing about light

and the amazing thing about fire

is when you spread it, it doesn't

get extinguished in its original

source, no, it multiplies.

And once we have this light, we can't

help but shine.

That's why following Christ is not

merely about personal, private

holiness.

There's always a public witness

component.

In fact, if there is true, genuine

personal holiness, inevitably there

will be interpersonal witness.

Because people will notice.

It says in verse 16, 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.

What does it mean that we are to

shine before others so that they

praise their Father?

It tells us, it tells us that they

will see our good works and give

glory to our Father who is in

heaven.

So the emphasis on this passage is

on the good works that we do in

response to the good news that we

believe in.

Light's primary function is to

enable us to see, as we mentioned,

right?

And how do we point people to the

saving light of the gospel of the

glory of Christ?

Titus 2.10 says that one of the

ways we do that is by adorning the

doctrine of God our Savior with the

good works that we do.

So yes, as Christians, we must speak

the good news, but we are also to

adorn that good news that we speak by

the good works that we do.

And what do these good works look

like?

It looks like what Jesus talks about

in the rest of the Sermon on the

Mount.

It's not always spectacular things.

It looks like being patient and

gentle when you can lash out at

somebody in sinful anger.

It looks like being self-controlled

rather than lustful.

It looks like being faithful to your

spouse for a lifetime rather than

divorcing him or her or committing

adultery.

It looks like not retaliating, but

loving and praying for your enemies.

It looks like giving to the needy in

secret.

It looks like trusting God rather than

being anxious.

It looks like serving God rather than

serving money.

It looks like praying for God's will to

be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It looks like, in short, loving God with

our whole hearts and loving our neighbors

as we love ourselves.

That's what it looks like for us to do

good works that shine, that shine our

light.

I can also point to many examples from

history that are maybe perhaps a little

more spectacular, although they didn't

happen necessarily in spectacular ways.

Looking back, they look spectacular.

Historian Alvin Schmidt points this out in

his book, How Christianity Changed the

World, and he says that Christian

influence on government and not all of

these happen through the legislations.

It just happened by multiplying

Christians in these places so that more

and more people thought these ways and

started acting these ways.

But he says that Christian influence in

the world is primarily responsible for, he

says, outlawing infanticide, child

abandonment and abortion and gladiatorial

games in the Roman Empire, instituting

prison reforms, something as basic as

segregating male and female prisoners,

stopping the practice of human sacrifice

among the Irish, the Prusians, and the

Lithuanians as well as among other

nations, outlawing pedophilia, granting

of property rights and other protections to

women, banning polygamy, prohibiting the

burning alive of widows in India after their

husbands are deceased, outlawing the painful

and crippling practice of binding young

women's feet in China, persuading government

officials to begin a system of public schools in

Germany.

Two-thirds of the abolitionists in America in

the mid-1830s were Christian clergymen, not

just Christians, but clergymen.

In fact, English historian Tom Holland writes in

his book, Dominion, How the Christian Revolution

Remade the World, that every abolitionist movement

throughout all of human history, or at least the last

2,000 years since Christ, from Gregory of Nyssa in the

fourth century to Martin Luther King Jr. in the

20th century, every single one of them has been

Christian movements.

But I do want to add one qualifier here.

This doesn't mean that it is the mission of the church

as a whole or the church as an institution to specialize in

these public good works.

It's the church's mission to proclaim the gospel and make

disciples of Jesus Christ who will then obey everything

Christ has commanded them, including doing all these good

works.

It's not our mission as a church to build orphanages, but it

is our mission to produce disciples like George Mueller,

who built many orphanages and cared for 10,024 orphans during

his lifetime.

That's what Christian disciples do when they are rightly

discipled and they shine as light in the world.

It is not the mission of the church to collectively stage

protests and lobby lawmakers.

But it is our mission to produce disciples like William

Wilberforce, who led the charge in the UK of abolishing slavery.

I pray and hope and I trust that some of you will be

professors and scientists and lawyers and judges and

diplomats and legislators and teachers and financial

advisors and nurses and doctors who will make all kinds of

difference in the world.

But if the church as an institution, the collective church's

mission becomes merely the betterment of society, then we

will eventually lose sight of the gospel, which is the driving

engine of all our good works.

That's why he says in Philippians 2, 14 to 16, Paul tells us the

secret to shining as lights in the world.

And this is what he says.

You shine as lights in the world.

How?

Holding fast to the word of life.

What is the word of life?

It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The good news of Jesus Christ.

When we gather together, that's what we're doing.

We're holding fast to the word of life.

Being renewed and transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Receiving God's mercy so that we become more merciful people.

Receiving God's forgiveness so that we become more forgiving

people.

Receiving God's generosity so that we become more generous

people.

We hold fast to the word of life when we gather together so that

when we are scattered, we shine as bright lights in the world.

There's one more question that this passage raises and I'll

close with this.

Jesus says in verse 16,

let your light shine before others so that they may see your

good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

Does this mean then we should do our good works in order to be

seen by people?

So they can see our good works and then glorify God?

Because that seems to contradict what Jesus says repeatedly in the

gospel of Matthew, including in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6,

Matthew 6:1–4

verse 1 to 4 when Jesus says,

beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen

by them.

For then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven.

When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know.

Sorry, this is your left.

So left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you're giving may be in

secret.

And your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus says this multiple times.

He says, don't pray and fast in a manner to be seen by others.

Don't announce it to the world when you do it.

In Matthew 23, 5, Jesus denounces the scribes and the Pharisees for precisely this

thing because they do all their deeds in order to be seen by others.

So are we supposed to do our good deeds to be seen by others or not?

I think virtue signaling is never for the Christian.

We should never announce our good deeds on social media in order to be seen by others

and praised by men.

You might have other purpose, other reasons for doing that, but it should not be for the

purpose of being seen by men and would be praised by them.

That is consistently denounced in scripture.

There are some good works, however, that simply cannot be hidden, at least not from the people

that you are doing good to.

He says in 1 Timothy 5, 25, good works are conspicuous.

And even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Don't worry about broadcasting your good works.

If you do your good works in secret before the Father who alone sees in heaven above,

eventually things come to light.

Sometimes it comes to light after you die.

All the better.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think what matters is your heart's disposition.

Why do we do the glory?

Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works.

Is that the ultimate purpose?

Is that the reason why we let our shine light before others?

No, that's not.

Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your

Father who is in heaven.

Again, that's the reason.

That's the purpose.

If we are doing good deeds before others to be seen by men so that they give glory to us,

then that's, our heart's not in the right place.

Our goal is to give glory to God the Father in heaven.

And this is important because sometimes the good works that we do are not going to be praised by people.

Right?

We just talked about it in the last beatitude and that context is important because it immediately precedes this.

Jesus said,

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

Jesus said,

If you do righteous deeds,

if you do good deeds and obedience to God,

that the world will hate us and that it will persecute us.

And if we are out to get the world's praise,

if we are out to be seen by people so that they would praise us and glorify us,

then we will not do the works that will gain us infamy

and revulsion and slander from the world.

Because there are many good works that are like that.

So then what does it mean that people will see our good works and give glory to the Father in heaven?

Of course, there is some common grace.

And there are good works that we do that the world will agree are good works.

They'll see that, oh, that is good.

And that will bring some glory to God the Father.

But even when they don't recognize them,

they revile us as evildoers,

eventually the good works that we do will elicit praise and glory from all the world

when Christ returns.

And that's what we see in 1 Peter 2, 12.

He says,

We should keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable,

even when they speak against us as evildoers,

so that they will see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

It's speaking of the return of Christ,

the final day of visitation.

Even if we are maligned here on earth because of the good works that we do,

even if we are persecuted on account of righteousness,

there will be a day when every knee will bow before Christ

and every tongue will confess that he is God.

There will be a day when all the good deeds that you have done,

they will not have been in vain and they will be seen

and they will result in redounding glory to God, our heavenly Father.

That's why.

That's why we persevere.

So let's hold fast to the good news

and shine our light and do good works.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

we are so lost apart from you.

in utter blindness,

groping about in the darkness,

unable to help ourselves from our sin.

Lord, that's who you were.

God, thank you

that in Jesus the light of the gospel has dawned.

And thank you that you now call us

the salt of the earth,

the light of the world.

What a privilege

and honor.

Father, thank you.

Help us to wear it well.

Help us to represent you well.

all for your glory.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.