You Are The Light of The World

Good morning.

Today is part two from the series Shine, and it's about light.

But first, we start with sardines.

By chance, did anyone venture to have sardines at their Thanksgiving Day meal?

One hand is up. That is one more than the first service. One hand.

I didn't expect there to be a lot of answers to that.

But the sardines that I have in mind, It's not the sardines that you eat It

is actually the sardines that is the game And I don't know if you're familiar

with this game or not But sardines is a version of hide and go seek Certainly

you know about hide and go seek, right?

Where everyone goes and hides Then there's one person who's not supposed to

be peaking And they're counting 50, 55, 60 Here, ready or not,

here I come Know that game Sardines is very much like that Except instead of

everyone else going to hide,

One person hides and everyone else stays together,

counts to their 100, and then says, ready or not, here we come,

and then that group is supposed to split apart, and they are supposed to go

and find that one person that is hiding.

And then when they find that person hiding, they join them in hiding with them.

And so what happens is the group grows, thus it gets the name, sardines.

So you can imagine getting four or five people, not six, seven people,

but four or five people all together.

And then the search goes on and on and on until finally the last person comes

across the big group, which is now large, probably extending out of their hiding place, right?

And they find them. And then that last person that finds them,

they have to be the one then that has to hide for the next round.

And you just keep repeating it until you're tired of playing it.

In our family, it has become somewhat of a tradition to play sardines when we go on vacation.

Often it requires, we usually stay in an Airbnb house. when our married kids

come and their kids come with them, it requires a larger than normal house to accommodate all of us.

Some of you probably know about those type of gatherings. So here we are, we've got that.

And what the deal is, big houses make for fabulous games of sardines.

You make the house dark, as dark as possible.

And then with no one over familiar with like the layout of the house,

there comes on this hint of I'm scared I'm scared.

And I mean, when I say it comes with a hint of it, like we have boys that are

playing this game, boys who are shaving and driving, and they still have this

sense of like, I don't know about this creepy house.

I don't know what's out there that's going to get me. And so what normally happens

in our game in the first round for sure is the person goes and hides.

That's usually me because I have to be the brave guy. I'll go first.

And then everyone else, they just follow around in the group.

They don't split up. They just all stay together because they're afraid. Right.

So eventually they figure it out. Okay.

They start breaking up and then the game goes on. But it gets a little challenging sometimes.

Sometimes our dog comes with us and wherever I go, there's Piper. I'm like, Piper.

But we work through that. But really what happens inevitably is someone turns on a light.

Someone uses a flashlight and it just brings a debacle to the entire game because

darkness is good in sardines, but light is good in life. Light takes away the darkness.

There is something positive and right that Jesus says, and we're going to know

that ourselves, that there is good when light shines in the darkness.

And that's where we're headed today.

In the most humble way I can say it, let me say, you are about to hear the greatest sermon ever.

And you say, well, pastor, that's like, you need a little humility check.

Aren't you like the associate pastor even? Are you even capable of doing that?

And I would say to you, I am not talking about my preaching.

I am talking to you about the preaching done by Jesus, known as the Sermon on

the Mount. Maybe you've heard of it before?

Yes, Sermon on the Mount. Several of you have. If you haven't,

you're going to hear about it today.

It was a sermon given by Jesus, the greatest preacher, greatest ever.

And one of the things that he talks about in his Sermon on the Mount is light.

And so we are going to go there for that. So imagine him, Jesus told this sermon

up against like the mountainside.

So you can imagine being there, sitting there, there'd be grass,

maybe some flowers, probably some fire ants, some wolf spiders,

whatever's all around there, and all that's going on, and they're right up next

to the Sea of Galilee, right? So that's the setting of where it is.

We can find this sermon in Matthew chapter 5, and we're going to start there at verse 1.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

It makes this statement as the sermon gets ready to start.

Jesus saw the crowds, and then he went up to the mountain, he went up the mountain

a little further, and he sat down, and he began to teach.

There is some speculations about the word crowds here

the people that were gathering some speculate that

crowds is given to make a distinction between two different groups of people

that were there like there were followers of Jesus there and it's good possibility

that there were some interested but non followers of people that were also there

so there's crowds plural I don't know that for sure it does make an interesting point there.

And we don't know how big the crowds were. It could have been hundreds of people.

It could have been less than that. We certainly know that there were 12.

His disciples, they were with him. But all of that, it was a great reminder for me this past week,

getting ready for today, is that here in this verse, this introduction we have,

it is a great reminder for all of us who call Good News Church our home church,

that there's a great reminder that when

we gather on sunday mornings there are crowds of

people there are people who love god and

it is very likely that we also have people who don't

love god yet and we're all here together and that

is a good thing we should

love the idea that we're coming to listen to god's

word coming to be together with one another and to

have those who don't love god yet come and be a part of

that yes two thumbs up for that like

as church people again the definition there i suppose the church that is a group

of people who love jesus they call him his savior want him to be their lord

they have a desire in following him church people we are not an exclusive closed door group of people.

So when we meet on Sunday, we want people to hear God's word.

We want them to see what we believe, all with the desire that while they're here,

maybe the Holy Spirit will move in their life in a way that they go from not

knowing God to loving and knowing God.

That is awesome when that happens.

Great reminder as we go into this sermon here on the mount.

But here Jesus specifically has

in mind the people that he's talking to are

those people who already know him

already love him already are in relationship with him and that's that's the

focus of this sermon right here to Christians and what's on his mind is teaching

his followers how to live in this world and in this sermon he gives he gives

character qualities that

Christians are to have, that followers are to have, and then he gives examples

to illustrate how that should look, how that should be lived out.

Light is one of those examples. We're going to look specifically here in a few

minutes on chapter 5, verses 13 to 16, where there are actually two examples

that he uses. We're going to look at both of them, salt and light.

And getting there, first Jesus gives in the sermon, he gives these eight characteristics

that we normally know them as, call them as Beatitudes.

He gives eight characteristics that Christians are supposed to live by.

Each Christian has these eight characteristics that should be identified and

present and very real in their life as they live.

I'm going to put them up on a screen for us to get through these eight so you

can see, kind of get the background of how Jesus gets to his examples next.

First one, first beatitude is, blessed are the poor in spirit.

This means a person recognizes that he or she is spiritually bankrupt before God.

Like broke, literally, broke in spiritually. And there's nothing that they can

do about their sin problem. Not on their own.

That is a blessed is a poor in spirit person. Christians display that.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Again, this would be a person, a follower of Jesus, who experiences deep grief

over their own personal sin.

Followers of Jesus grieve their own sin. You can check and evaluate in our own

life of like, oh yeah, I know that to be true.

Blessed are the meek. What is that? Gentle, humble people. People.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. This speaks of followers

being spiritually healthy.

There's an active spiritual lifestyle that seeks to have a right relationship with God.

And as this relationship is growing and building and building,

there's this inward joy that overtakes the person.

Blessed are the merciful. To show mercy is to show forgiveness and compassion to others,

especially followers of Jesus they do

this having in mind the great forgiveness

and great compassion that God has shown to them blessed are the pure in heart

it's the person who lives with a transparent life before God here I am God I

don't want any compromises in my life I don't want any hidden agendas.

I want to live a lifestyle that's desiring to please you mentality.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Just as Jesus laid down his life for others to

make peace between God and sinners, we, Christ followers, lay down our lives.

We don't always do what we want to do for the sake of the gospel.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

And number eight, last one, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness.

Today, for all practical purposes, we do not use the word blessed very often in our language.

Probably the closest thing we get to it is bless. Like when someone,

what someone says to someone else when they sneeze, bless you.

That's about the extent of what we get the word bless. However,

in Jesus's first century audience, they would know what the word really means.

And we need to know what the word really means. We need to understand it means

that there's this unshakable, unshakable joy that is deeply rooted in the insurance

of Jesus, of God's blessing on our lives.

No matter the circumstances, whatever's going on, whoo, might be hard.

God will bless. God will take care.

Deeply rooted belief this. So when Jesus would say things like,

blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the persecuted, it's not the attitude

of, woo-hoo, I'm really excited about this persecution.

It's an inward joy. It's not the same way that when we're at a party and everyone's

happy and having a good time, or you just got news, I got a raise,

woo, I'm happy about that.

Ah, my team scored a touchdown. I am happy.

There's a difference type of happy and blessed that Jesus is referring to.

And it's with these eight characteristics in mind that Jesus has now got his disciples together.

Other followers are there on this mountainside. And we come now to verses 13

through 16 of Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

If you haven't opened your Bible yet to that spot, do it now.

Matthew 5, beginning here in verse 13.

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty?

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

You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand,

and it gives light for all who are in the house.

In the same way let your light shine before men so they may see your good works

and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Look closely. You are salt. You are light.

Jesus doesn't say be salt or be light. He says you are followers of Jesus. You are salt and light.

Very straight shooting words from Jesus. This whole sermon is very straight shooting.

Followers of Jesus, including those here in this room today,

we either fulfill the responsibility or don't.

Either followers are good salt or bad salt.

Followers of Jesus, they're either good light or they're bad light.

If you think about it, we would recognize that salt and light impact things around them.

Properly used, they make a big difference. Improperly used, not so much.

In Jesus' day, using salt as an example would have really struck close to home.

They would see this, that salt was a very valuable commodity in their day.

It was like money, literally.

That they would get paid in salt sometimes. Can you imagine today getting your

paycheck and here's a pouch of salt?

Like we don't live that way per se, right?

So it might be not understanding as well, but here that is how life was with

salt, seen as very valuable commodity.

There's an old phrase, maybe some of you still know it, maybe occasionally you

hear it, you'll say that a person is worth their salt, right?

They have meat, their salt there,

talks about the person's value that they have. Jesus is making a point.

And it's a very encouraging point that his followers are valuable.

They are valuable around the world.

They serve great purpose.

Well, what purpose do they serve? Well, one thing they serve is followers of

Jesus, they serve as preserving agents. They preserve.

Back then, no refrigeration, no deep freezers, no vacuum packing system.

To seal things, salt was the primary way used to preserve things and make it last longer.

If the world is on its way to hell in a handbasket, as the phrase goes,

then followers of Jesus and the way they live help prevent the spreading of evil's rottenness.

Salt preserves. Salt slows down rottenness.

And Christians, as salt, preserve, and they slow down spiritual rottenness.

Another thing that salt does and perhaps you could relate to this salt tastes

good it enhances it adds flavor it has a distinct taste to it,

popcorn with just the right amount of salt you know what i mean yes no quiet

bunch thanksgiving just came salted mashed potatoes oh unsalted mashed potatoes,

nasty.

Salted caramel anything nuts coffee ice cream candy you name it salt makes things better.

But in verse 13, Jesus also talks about salt being no good, salt with no influence,

salt that's lost its pizzazz.

And when that's the case, here's what he says. But if the salt should lose its

taste, how could it be made salty?

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

Oh, it's good for nothing. Just throw it away.

How does that happen? How does a follower of Jesus lose his flavor?

There's probably a lot of reasons for it. I've got four quick ones that just

come to mind. Number one, blatant, willful sin.

Living in a way that is straight up, that contradicts God's word,

Jesus' teaching, that is going to make salt flavorless.

No good. When a follower of Jesus lives like the world, he's not slowing down rottenness.

She's not slowing it down.

She's adding to it. He's adding to it in that way.

Compromise. That's a surefire way to lose the salt gusto.

Whether it's compromising at home, work, school, out in public, wherever.

Compromise pollutes salt. He said, doesn't taste quite right.

Something's not in that salt right.

Another way, laziness, apathy, not caring, indifferent to the things of Jesus and his kingdom.

That makes for a salt with no zip, no pizzazz, no vibrancy, no thirst, no hunger.

You put it all together, that equals a salt with no taste.

Imagine grabbing the salt shaker and putting it on those mashed potatoes and

it changing no different, tasting no different.

And the fourth area I think is fear Jesus may have really had this one in mind

as he went through those eight beatitudes the last one to blessed are those

who are persecuted with this idea of,

can't be fearful fear, fear is a salt killer.

So instead of engaging the world preserving the world with salt being salt,

we hide we're afraid of it,

we retreat it isolates us jesus

is teaching his followers that they

are salt and salt is valuable and

salt preserves salt enhances salt is good and then verses 14 to 16 we come to

light which is the main focus of our little two-week series here you are the

light of the world a city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand,

and it gives light for all who are in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good

works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

What a great compliment, and what a great responsibility Jesus unloads in these verses.

Last week, we looked at, from the book of John, where Jesus said,

I am the light of the world.

And now today, this week, we are seeing here in Matthew, Jesus says,

you are the light of the world.

What an incredible compliment. That as Jesus says, I'm the light,

and I'm shining in the world, you also are the light and you are shining in

the world. Incredible compliment.

And yet, what an incredible responsibility that in God and his design,

and as Jesus, how he's got it laid out,

that the work of his kingdom, the work of God, gets done through people,

through his followers, shining like light.

What a great responsibility.

Which gets us back to, it's a responsibility that we either fulfill or we don't.

There's a good light and a bad light. But you are the light of the world.

A good light functions properly.

It's dependable. It's helpful. And it needs to be placed in the right spot.

If you've ever come across a light that's not working properly,

sometimes you tap on it, sometimes you shake it up a little bit, let me try it again.

We realize here that the summary that Jesus is giving, he's giving it to followers of Jesus.

Followers of Jesus, function properly.

Here are the standards. Here's my word. Live this way. Be dependable. Shine consistently.

Help others around you. That's what light does. Make it easy.

Be easy to find and don't be tucked away, hidden away somewhere.

Now, the example that Jesus uses here, he has oil lamps in mind,

and he has this idea of putting a basket over the top of it so it can't be seen.

That would be very relevant in their day, and we go, oh, okay.

But I think what we would do, maybe if Jesus was teaching today,

he'd break out one of these.

Everybody know what this is, front row? This is a dimmer switch light.

And if you hardwire it in, good, good, all set, good. Lights on, lights off.

Lights on, lights off.

Lights on. I recommend you get an electrician that is certified. Lights on.

We practice this for like all week. But it makes a very practical point about

light that Jesus taught his followers.

You are the light, but don't be the kind of light that comes and goes.

Don't be the kind of light that reads the room and says, oh, I'll shine here.

And then at another time, I'm not going to do that.

You know where we're really good at doing this?

Right here. We walk up to those front doors and dimmer up.

And then we get out in another section of life where it's not maybe quite as

friendly, surrounding by Christians,

and we go, oh, let me just kind of shade that down a little bit.

I think Jesus' teaching here is don't be that kind of light.

Be the light that is consistent, that is helpful, that's able to be seen,

it's located in the right spot, and it works.

Honestly, Motel 6 and their slogan, they get it right when it comes to being

a follower of Jesus as well. Ever heard their slogan?

We'll leave the light on for you.

This is the kind of light that followers of Jesus are to be.

A light that is welcoming. A light that is accessible.

It can be seen and it helps. It gives out direction for us.

The light the world needs from followers of Jesus.

Isn't necessarily the kind that needs to be the spectacular drone light show.

You ever seen those? They are fantastic.

But they are there for 20 minutes, and then they are gone.

It's not the strobe-like effect that we need, which I could have done that from

the stage, but woo, heart attacks and things. We're going to do that?

It's not the light that Jesus is really referring to here. It is the consistent light.

Look at verse 16 real closely. There's a phrase, before men,

which means before all people, men, women, boys, girls,

let your light shine before men.

Be a fixed steady light that offers help,

there are two other passages that i want to look at both of them have this idea

of followers being light one is at philippians 2 15 and 16.

Paul is the letter writer here to the believers, the followers of Jesus at the

city of Philippi. And here's what he says.

Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and

pure children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation

among whom you shine like the stars in the world.

The light of his followers is described as shining stars.

The world being crooked, broken, perverted.

How amazing that when followers of Jesus Christ will do a very,

I don't know, I'm going to say simple, do a very simple thing of don't complain.

Don't grumble. Don't argue that when there is a consistent lifestyle of living

that way as a follower of Jesus,

shining a light, it comes out to the world as, look at the night stars in the sky.

I don't know when the last time is you've gone outside to look at the stars. you really should do it.

And when you do, think that's what a follower of Jesus is to look like in the

world that we live today.

Look at Ephesians 5, verses 8 through 15.

Ephesians 5:8–15

For once you are full of darkness. Well, when was that?

Well, that's before you're a follower of Jesus. So here Paul now is writing

to another group of believers in the city of Ephesus.

And he says, for once you are full of darkness, but now you have the light from the Lord.

So live as people of light. For this light within you produces only what is good, right, and true.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit.

Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.

Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. Instead, expose them.

Verse 13, their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them.

For the light makes everything visible. So be careful how you live.

Don't live as fools, but live like those who are wise.

Lots of teaching here from Paul on the value of what it looks like for a follower

of Jesus to be light and how it exposes and how to stay away from evil and how

to stay out of the darkness.

Ephesians 5, Philippians 2, and Jesus' sermon here in Matthew 5,

they all have that same central theme.

You are the light of the world.

Do good things. Do right things.

Do true things. Do righteous things. Do honest things.

All these things are done, and when they're all done, evil gets exposed because

that's what light does. It exposes things. It makes things visible.

And so you wrap it all up. I have just two very short to the point conclusions.

Followers of Jesus, number one, followers of Jesus as the salt of the earth

and as the light of the world make the world a better place. Jesus said so.

And number two, followers of Jesus as the salt of the earth and the light of

the world results in God being glorified.

Like that's the motivation for being salt and light.

Not that they say, oh, look at the Christian, they're so great.

No, it's that they see the salt in the light of a Christian,

and they go, wow, look at his father, look at her father, and the father gets glorified.

And what does it mean to glorify God? Glorify, another word,

glorify God, honor God, trust his name, obey his word,

recognize God as holy, faithful, merciful, gracious, loving,

majestic, sovereign, powerful, wonderful, wise, and marvelous.

And that's just getting started.

That's what it means to honor God. So again, if we could look at Matthew 5, 16,

in the same way, let our light shine before men so that they may see our good

works and give glory to our Father in heaven. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for Jesus preaching the truth and that it's preached in

such a simple, straightforward way.

This is not hard to understand.

Father, I don't know. I guess I'm just thinking now of,

if there's anyone here who is not a follower of Jesus, that they would not hear

from this sermon of yours that, oh,

if I just try to be a good person and I do some kind things and I really try

to help others, that then I'm good with you. Like that is not your message.

You do talk about that. Talk about coming to a relationship with Jesus is repentance,

turn away from the way that you're living, turn away from trusting yourself.

Turn to Jesus, trust him.

I would pray, Father, that your spirit would guide and direct people that way.

And for the followers of Jesus.

I imagine there are people here who have gone to church most of their life and

they've heard this text a lot that it would be like salt.

And it would have some enhancement, it would have some distinction,

that we would be encouraged.

That you, our Father,

see us as valuable and that you love us this way and that we would see our purpose.

That we would shine.

Father, do your work as you intend it to be done.

We thank you for Jesus, especially the work that he did of dying on the cross.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

So back to Ephesians chapter five and verse eight.

Some good words. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have the light of the Lord.

So live as people of the light. That's good news.