Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we're continuing our sermon
series, Summer on the Mount, where we are diving
into Jesus' sermon on the Mount, one of the most
important collection of teachings in the Gospels.
And this week we are joined by guest preacher,
Reverend Peter Blundell, who's going to talk
to us about salt and light. These are two images
that Jesus uses to show us what the life of his
followers should look like. And so tune in to
find out more about whether you are salty and
full of light and what that looks like in our
lives today. Good morning church. Today's reading
is taken from the book of Matthew chapter 5 verses
13 to 20. You are the salt of the earth. But
what if the salt loses its saltiness? How can
it be made salty again? It is no longer good
for anything except to be thrown out and trampled
on the foot. You are the light of the world.
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither
do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives
light to everyone in the house. In the same way,
Let your light shine before others, that they
may see your good deeds and glorify your Father
in heaven. Do not think that I have come to abolish
the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish
them, but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you,
until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest
letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by
any means disappear from the law until everything
is accomplished. Therefore, anyone who sets aside
one of the least of these commands and teaches
others accordingly will be called least in the
kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and
teaches these commands will be called great in
the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless
your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law, you will certainly
not enter the kingdom of heaven. This is the
word of the Lord. Well, good morning. Good to
be back here again. It's been a year. So if you
were here a year ago and you came back, well,
it's on you. It's on you. My name's Peter. Thank
you, Kerlin, for that reading. Really appreciate
it. He did it at the first service as well. That's
why he's leaving. He said, I don't need to hear
this one twice. It's it. This famous sermon that
we're studying as a church, the Sermon on the
Mount, Without question, greatest sermon ever
preached. I think we'll agree on that one. Which
also means, don't look at me, all right? There's
Jesus, that sermon, and then whatever you're
about to hear. Barra's very different. It begins,
as you remember, with those first eight foundation
stones. We call them the Beatitudes. They build
one on top of the other. That's the foundation
of a follower of Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus
started that. You might have read to the end,
and I'd encourage you to read to the end of the
Sermon on the Mount as soon as you can to get
the whole picture. By the way, I'd encourage
you to have your Bibles open right now to follow
what's going on. Matthew chapter five, it would
be really helpful. When you get to chapter seven,
Jesus finishes with a parable. And the parable,
as he effectively says, you need to have foundations.
And if you listen to what I say, If you hear
my teaching, not just about those beatitudes,
but all the way through the rest of my teaching,
and you don't apply these truths to your life,
Jesus is really blunt. He says you're a fool.
Jesus said that, I wouldn't say that, but Jesus
said that. True wisdom according to Jesus is
to listen to his teaching and then to obey it.
So with that in mind, and before I say anything
else, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so
grateful that you have a better plan for our
lives than we do. Holy Spirit, we invite you
to speak to us through the scriptures. We give
you permission to challenge us and to equip us
so that we live godly lives that obey your son
Jesus and make us shine as witnesses to him in
this dark, lost, sin -soaked world. and we ask
this confidently in the mighty name of Jesus
our Lord. And everyone said, amen. Thank you
for saying that. So that reading we had, it is
actually quite a short reading as far as number
of verses go, but it's jammed packed with stuff.
And I'm not clever enough. I really am from the
shallow end of the pool. I'm not clever enough
to cover all of those verses in one talk or do
justice to it. I'm just going to confess that.
So I'm going to focus most of this talk on the
first verses, verses 13 through 16. But I don't
want to miss out on the other verses. So I think
the phrase in this country is I'm going to use
the Cole notes. Cole's notes, is that right?
You're gonna get the Coles notes of verses 17
through 20, but please don't dismiss them just
because I'm gonna talk about them relatively
briefly. Here's the context of all that's going
on. Jesus is about to make some extravagant claims.
Claims about himself, claims about his disciples,
and claims about the kingdom of God. And Jesus
was, he was acutely aware that his teaching,
and particularly his interpretation of the Jewish
scriptures, that's what we call the Old Testament,
his teaching was gonna challenge and it was gonna
upset the religious leaders, the established
ones. And we know that. If you look on through
the biographies of Jesus, that's what happens.
They're really shoved off with Jesus. Because
in their eyes, Jesus was unschooled. Jesus didn't
have any pedigree. He hadn't gone to one of their
seminaries. He was a nobody from backwards Galilee.
And that led to the inevitable questions. What
authority, Jesus, do you have? What authority,
Jesus, do you have to speak about the scriptures?
What authority, Jesus, do you have to make these
extraordinary claims about yourself? What authority,
Jesus, do you have to make, as we will discover
in this passage by the way, these mind -blowing
claims about your disciples. What authority,
Jesus, do you have to make such challenging commands?
So that's what's going to happen as Jesus teaches
this sermon. There are people even in the crowd
who are judging him, who are dismissing him,
who are taking offense to what he is saying.
And as we go through those earlier verses, you're
gonna see again why they were offended. So what
Jesus is doing in verses 17 through 20 is he
is preempting these questions. He's giving them
the answers, as it were, ahead of time. So first
of all, in verse 17, he made it clear, abundantly
clear, that he was not going to abolish the law
and the prophets. I'm not gonna do that, he said.
We know, we believe that the Jewish scriptures
were inspired by God the Holy Spirit. In fact,
we believe that the Christian scriptures, the
New Testament, likewise, 2 Peter chapter three,
tells us that. Which means that there can never
be. any discord or disconnect or disunity or
division between the second person of the Trinity,
God, Jesus, fully God, fully human, and the third
person of the Trinity, God, the Holy Spirit.
You can't have any discord between them. So all
the Holy Spirit inspired to be written out, Jesus
will never undermine or contradict. That's why
he makes it very clear. I've not come to do that.
Second, Jesus was going to fulfill the law and
the prophets. And he achieved this in two ways.
First, Jesus kept every single command of the
law. And in doing so, he led a perfect life,
100 % perfect. To quote a well -known phrase,
Jesus lived the life that we should have lived.
And then, although he's innocent, because he's
100 % perfect, he chose to take our punishment.
The punishment is for failing to keep the law.
It's death. You don't get repetitive mistakes
that way, by the way. You know, done. Jesus took
our place. So he lived the life that we should
have lived, and then he died the death that we
should have died. And that leads to verse 20.
If you will Bible open, please look at verse
20. and you'll see as it were, and if then, if
this, then that. If someone chooses to ignore
Jesus and all that he's done for them, his death
on the cross, what we will celebrate at the communion,
the communion is just the gospel in a beautiful
way portrayed every week of what Jesus has done
for us. But if you say no to Jesus, no to his
death, and that's your choice, someone forces
you to come into the kingdom, then There's the
then. If you do that, then if you want to come
into the kingdom of God, if you want to have
an eternity in what is an infinitely better place
than the alternative, which is hell, which is
awful, where there is no love and no life and
no joy and no beauty and no goodness and no honor
and nothing good. Who wants to spend eternity
there? Don't put your hand up, please. You're
going to say, no, I don't want to go there and
I don't want anybody I know to go there. So we
all agree, I don't want to be there, well in
which case I want to be here, but if you want
to be here, but you don't want Jesus, what happens?
Well, Jesus says in verse 20, there's only one
way you're going to get there without Jesus,
and that is you need to be perfect. You need
to get every single command. That's what he's
saying. Okay, put your hand up if you're perfect.
Yeah, absolutely, big surprise. Okay, let's not
kid ourselves. We have a 100 % failure rate in
perfection. And don't feel bad about it. You're
in good company, all of us. None of us is good
enough to go to heaven. And please don't be one
of those people who need to have a head shake
when they say, well, I'm not that bad. I'm in
the top 90%. No, you're not. Join me in the bottom
five. And I'm being nice to myself. Okay? But
there is another if then implicit in that. If
a person is humble, we do lack humility most
of the time, don't we? If a person is humble
and chooses to confess that Jesus is Lord, that
means he is God, then his death will be a substitute
for them and his position of righteousness will
be freely given to them. That is one meaning
of what he meant by I've come to fulfill. But
there was a second meaning of what he meant to
fulfill the law and the prophets He said what
he meant was that he was revealing that his words
his actions and his claims all of them are Backing
up what the scriptures say in other words. He's
saying all of the scriptures point to me He's
the fulfillment of every previous revelation,
prophecy, promise, or expectation. In a nutshell,
the whole of the Bible is centered on one person,
Jesus. That's it, it's all about Jesus. The Old
Testament scriptures point to and are fulfilled
in Jesus. The New Testament, Christian scriptures
all throw from Jesus' teachings, his commissions,
his actions, his crucifixion, resurrection, and
ascension. That's my Coles Notes of those verses.
You can see where there's so much there, and
I also apologize for you for going through that
so quickly. But I want you to keep that in mind
because there's some outrageous stuff we're gonna
look at in verses 13 to 16, and we've got now
that in mind as we look at them. In verses 13
to 16, that's where we're gonna focus, what Jesus
was doing was summarizing the function of believers,
those are the people who've confessed that Jesus
Christ is Lord, believed in the resurrection,
Romans chapter 10 verse nine, and are now following
him obediently. If you love me, you'll obey my
commands. That's what I mean when I say a Christian,
a disciple, a follower of Jesus, all right? Those
who do that in the world, their function is in
one word, Influence. Whoever lives according
to those beatitudes will influence the world
as salt and light for God and for good. So let's
look at those two things, salt and light. We'll
start with salt. Salt has always been valuable
in human society. Roman soldiers were often paid
in salt. That's the root of the word salary.
You've probably heard the phrase, not worth his
salt. That's where it came from, not worth his
salary, didn't do anything. A function of salt,
not the, but a function of salt is to prevent
food from being bland, insipid. It gives taste
and flavor. You see, without Jesus, life is bland.
And the world around us proves that. But Christians,
we have savor in life. We have Jesus. Jesus promised
to give us life and life in all its fullness.
I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase, rubbing
salt in the wound. You're familiar with that
one? Have you ever had a wound and salt got in
there? Ow! Okay, why? Because salt stings when
it's in a wound. But in the process, it acts
like an antiseptic and it helps in the healing.
What does that mean, Christian? It means we are
called to sting the world. We're called to prick
the world's conscience. We're to make the world
uncomfortable in the presence of God's holy gospel.
And too much of the church, when they hear that,
go, oh, no, I don't want to do that. I want to
be nice to the world. I want to stroke the world,
say, there, there. I want to be liked by the
world. That's not what Jesus is saying So too
often we haven't been salty because we've been
afraid of offending We fail to confront people
in their lostness and their desperate need to
be saved from their sin It is the same as somebody
who is sick going to their doctor and the doctor
looking at them and going like you're really
sick I mean you need some help you need this
medication, but not wanting to to say something
They wouldn't like to hear so instead the doctor
says you're fine You're great, continue as you
are. Have a great week. We think that doctor
should lose their license. That's awful. Well,
we Christians do the same thing when we don't
teach them the truth. A gospel that does not
confront sin is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is a false gospel. Gospel means good news.
If we were salty, if we are salty, we will love
people. and we will love them enough to create
a thirst in them for the truth. It is unloving
not to tell them the truth. For Christians, though,
to positively influence the world, as salt, we've
gotta leave the salt shaker. Salt is no use.
You can go to a restaurant, there's a salt shaker.
If you don't shake it out, so what? What's the
salt shaker? Well, it's the church in that sense,
the body of Christ. If we don't leave and go
out into the marketplace, we're not going to
be salty in the world. It also means, though,
that we can't go en masse as a holy huddle, because
few things are more horrible than eating a piece
of over -salted food. Okay, so we can't be passive,
we can't be disobedient, we've got to get out
there. Because the cleansing and curative properties
of salt are only effective once the salt has
been spread out and then rubbed in. That's what
we're called to do. But you know, having said
all that about salt, the primary characteristic
that Jesus was emphasizing here is that of preservation.
I had the privilege of being the sub -Sahara
chaplain. for Alpha, if you've ever heard the
Alpha course, that was what I was, for a number
of years. And I was also pastoring a church in
South Africa, in Pretoria. And I came across
this extraordinary, delicious food called Biltong.
Anyone had Biltong? A few hands go up, you're
lucky sometimes. Every one of you, the rest of
you, I weep for you. If you've had jerky, Biltong
is infinitely better, all right? It is a cured
meat, don't get me wrong, it's rubbed with coarse
salt, and when you've done it properly, it keeps
indefinitely. When Jesus said, you are the salt
of the earth, what he was stating is that the
earth is rotten. It's rotten to the core, it's
broken, it's fallen, it's sinful, it's evil.
It's like uncured meat. which if untreated will
putrefy and become polluted. Interestingly, in
the world today, it's changed in the last few
years. I think you'll find that most people agree
with that statement. They agree with the Bible.
A few years back, a decade or two, they say,
no, no, we're doing well, we're getting better
and better. And now they read the newspaper like
the rest of us, we go like, no, we're not. But
where we disagree is with the reason why we're
in such a mess. and why individually we continue
to mess up. We Christians, we know why. We know
the cause is our sinful rebellion against God's
holy rule. We said no. And we know that the gospel
is the only solution to that rebellion. But you've
probably discovered, as I have, that the world
doesn't like the gospel because the gospel is
exclusive. It doesn't give an alternative. It
says this is the only way. It unequivocally states
that Jesus and only Jesus is Lord. That only
Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.
That it's only through Jesus it's possible to
come into a right relationship with the Father,
be adopted as his child, become his much loved
son or daughter. The world doesn't like that.
If you reject the gospel, you desperately try
and find Any other answer? John 3, 19. This is
the verdict. Light, that is Jesus, has come into
the world, but men love darkness instead of light.
And so we turned away because our deeds were
evil. Friends, the gospel is the only thing that
works. The only hope for our world is Jesus.
It's not government, it's not business, it's
not politics, it's not whatever it is. It's Jesus.
Only Jesus. There is no alternative to Jesus.
Now when Jesus said you and you alone are the
salt of the earth, he's actually there stating
a fact. So the very fact that if you belong to
Jesus Christ, if you're his follower, you are
fact salt and you are fact. lights in this world.
So salt and light represent what Christians already
are. The question is, will we become what we
already are? So here are the two questions that
really we should be asking on the basis of this
passage. Will we be tasteful salt? Will we be
effective life? And in a very real sense, Jesus
has given it to us to live this out. We can be
disobedient. or we can be those two things. As
individuals, we do this with our holy lives and
our godly character. That's where it starts.
Unashamed of you, living for Jesus in every situation
in which we find ourselves. I'll make a guarantee
to you, a salty, spirit -filled Christian working
in their factory will have a wonderfully positive
effect on everyone around them. You live this
way, you will impact people in a positive way.
Now, I find it curious that holiness and godliness
in recent years has been given a bad press, not
just in the world, but actually sometimes in
the church. I've actually had people come up
and say to me, and I'm gonna quote them, well,
you know, nobody likes a holier -than -thou judgmental
git, do they? And I hear what they're saying,
but I look at them and go, that is such a parody.
of the truth. And so I ask them this very simple
Sunday school question, okay, well who was the
holiest person who ever walked on planet Earth?
And they know the answer, you know the answer,
the answer's Jesus. Was he holier than thou?
Was he a judgmental git? Or did the crowds flock
to be with him? There were a crowd of people
there at the Sermon on the Mount. And you know
what happened when they flocked around him? Their
unholiness, their rottenness didn't taint Jesus.
They didn't make him unholy, no. The opposite
happened. Jesus' holiness raised everybody up,
because that's what holiness does. The purity
of Jesus did not condemn the sinner. Jesus said,
John 3 .17, I did not come to condemn the world,
but to save it. The pure of Jesus made him attractive
to them. Oh yes, genuine holiness always exposes
impurities, but it also raises sights and it
stimulates us to something better. That's what
he's about. This, friends, is the difference
between true righteousness that comes from God
and attracts the unrighteous and self -righteousness.
Self -righteousness that always condemns the
unrighteous, rejects them, and makes them feel
unwelcome. So it is as salt of the earth that
our holy God portrays his purity through us,
his holy children. I want you to think about
this for a moment and recognize that most of
everything that is good, right, true, and beautiful
in this world is as a result of the gospel expressed
by godly, holy, salty Jesus followers. In other
words, if we want the world to be a better place,
then we better share the gospel. We better be
salt. I don't want you to be naive. The Bible
is clear. There will be two opposite responses.
Some will say, this is a sweet aroma, hallelujah,
this is what I need, thank you. And others will
say, that's a horrible stench, I hate your judgmental
attitude. And they will reject and even persecute
us. But never let the idea of being unpopular
deter you. Come what may, choose to be salty,
choose to positively influence this world with
the gospel. So in summary about salt, salt gives
flavor to life. Salt stings in order to heal.
Salt preserves in a debased society and salt
creates a thirst for the gospel truth. But what
about light? Well, light exposes what has been
hidden. Light reveals what has been forgotten.
Light is a prerequisite of life. signifies holiness
and purity, like enlivens, like dazzles. Think
about shekinah glory. And light illuminates the
way forward out of darkness into hope. If you
have your Bible, look at verse 14. It is one
of the most astounding, extraordinary statements
that has ever been pronounced about any disciple
of Jesus. I want you to see it for yourself,
because otherwise you'd think I'm making it up.
And if I said this statement, you would reject
it. Thankfully, this statement was made by Jesus.
This is what Jesus said, you, you, said Jesus,
looking at these ordinary people who from the
standpoint of the world were uneducated and unimportant,
you and you alone are the light of the world.
And the unavoidable implication of what Jesus
is saying here is that the world is in a state
of darkness. and Christians are the only light.
And that is another reason why the gospel is
unpopular with so many people. I'm sure you're
aware that we live today in what is called the
information age. If you wanna know something,
anything, Google it. We have information overload,
we're a mile wide, we're an inch deep. Information
though is not the same as knowledge. Knowledgeable
people can cut through the information. They
can help us to understand. Now the world calls
people like that experts. And especially recently,
experts have been afforded great status and great
power. Therein is the essence of the problem.
We have put knowledge, we put experts on a pedestal.
We've forgotten something far more important.
Wisdom. Knowledge, for example, was the ability
to invent the atomic bomb. Wisdom was knowing
whether to use it. Or as the Irish say, knowledge
is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, and wisdom
is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad. So
what we need, what we desperately need is godly
wisdom. The world lacks godly wisdom. As a result,
the world is in a state of terrible darkness.
And here's what Jesus is saying. Only the Christian
has been given godly wisdom by the Holy Spirit.
Which means that only the Christian can give
any helpful, profitable, eternal life enhancing
advice. I told you that statement was outrageous.
Unsurprisingly, it offends countless people.
But if you are a follower of Jesus, then this
outrageous statement is now true of you. That
said, before we get carried away, we need to
remember that the one who told us that we are
the light of the world also said, I am the light
of the world. He claimed that for himself. And
these two statements therefore must be taken
together. The Christian is only the light of
the world because of their relationship to Jesus,
the light of the world. And Jesus claimed that
he'd come to bring light, his promise. was that
whoever chose to follow him as their only Lord
would not walk in darkness, but would have the
light of life. So not only have we received light
from Jesus, he also makes us light. We become
transmitters of light. And you might be thinking,
how on earth does that work? Well, it's not by
imitation, it's by derivation. Let me explain.
If it was by imitation, That means the source
of light must come from within me. The buck stops
with me. I've got to imitate Jesus. He's light.
I've got to bring light from somewhere. But if
this light is by derivation, then the source
by definition is outside of me. Because to derive
means to draw from an objective source. Now we
bear clear responsibility to the extent to which
light is visible in our lives. If you're following
Jesus, you are light, but how much is shining?
but it only comes from Jesus the source. And
maybe you're still confused by that. Let me use
another illustration. Let's pretend this is a
light bulb. Okay, I put that light bulb into
the socket and it shines. We don't congratulate
the light bulb. Well done. Okay? It's shining
because it's got a connection to an electrical
source. It's deriving its power from the source.
If I unscrew that light bulb, it's incapable
of shining. I can put it alongside other light
bulbs that are shining and say, go on, imitate,
go on, you can do it. It can't. Okay? It can't.
It only brings light if it's got a connection.
We only bring light if we're connected to Jesus.
Now why did Jesus... call us the salt of the
earth before he called us the light of the world.
The order, friends, is important. First, we Christians,
we negatively impact the world. There is a positive
thing, we prevent putification, we stop it rotting
so fast, but we're called to sting people out
of their apathy and their moral depravity. We've
got their attention, but we don't stop there.
We just stop there, they just be condemned. No
hope. Then we shine the light of the gospel.
Then we talk about our faith in Jesus. Would
it be like a city on a hill, which you can see
during the daytime, but when it's dark, you can
really see it because the light shines brighter
the darker it is. And the world is dark at the
moment. No sane person, says Jesus, lights a
lamp, hides it under a bowl. What a ridiculous
idea. They put it so people can see. Which means
Jesus is saying, Christian, you cannot be hidden.
A secret Christian is incongruous. You can't
be a hidden light. He was warning his disciples
then and his disciples now. There's a real danger
that you might behave in this ridiculous, futile
manner. Don't do it. You'll be ineffective, useless,
and disobedient. That's something we want to
avoid, isn't it? But at all costs. Now I'm not
gonna stop there, I'm gonna finish though with
some practical stuff because at the end of the
day we wanna know, well how do I do this? How
do I show the world that I'm salt and light?
Well first, most important, we need to spend
time with Jesus. Quantity time and quality time.
Not as a squeezed in afterthought, but as a first
priority. Make it your daily habit to listen
to Jesus as you read your Bible as you pray.
Remember we're deriving our light from Jesus,
the wisdom of God. If you want to be salty, if
you want godly wisdom, we receive it only from
Jesus, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit. Second,
we must choose to live a holy life. That's a
choice. Hear this statement. Godly lives are
the single most effective way of making the gospel
attractive and believable. You can share the
gospel with somebody, but if your life is not
godly, it's not believable. Godly lives are the
single most effective way of making the gospel
attractive and believable. Every single day,
invite the Holy Spirit to fill you. to renew
your mind so you can take every thought captive
to Christ. Invite the Holy Spirit to strengthen
you and equip you to live out those beatitudes,
to soften and purify your heart, to make you
hunger and thirst for righteousness, to reveal
that you are poor in spirit, to keep you meek
and merciful and give you the desire to be a
peacemaker. Third, Jesus recommended in verse
16, Let your light shine before others so that
they may see your good deeds and praise your
Father in heaven. That's a very practical statement.
Let's not spiritualize that. It means you and
I, we need to be intentional about carrying out
good deeds in our communities. This is a well
-known phrase, but let's look at it again. People
don't care how much you know until they know
how much you care. That's what we're showing
them. They're only interested when they are.
then we can share with them the gospel of grace,
because it leads to the fourth point. When they
wanna hear, they respond to those good news,
the good deeds, are you able then to clearly
explain the gospel and do so in simple English?
Every Christian should be able to do that. If
you don't know how to do that, please ask one
of your leaders. I know they'll be happy to help
you. Friends, we're living in the midst of men
and women who are in the state of gross darkness.
Their only hope is that we will be salt and light
to them. You know they're watching us, don't
you? They're watching to see. Do they see anything
positive and different about us? Because if they
do, we can tell them the wonderful, amazing news
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners. that he came to give men and women a
new nature, a new life, and make them children
of God the Father. So for the sake of the millions
of lost people in this world who are destined
to an eternity without God, let's each of us
choose to make an eternal difference. Let's choose
to be salty and shine on. Thank you for tuning
in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville
on July 13th, 2025.