This is the fifth Sunday of the epiphany season
and Remember the epiphany season is how God is
illuminating or revealing who Jesus is And so
here today. Let us consider once again our gospel
reading, but let us pray first Gracious God and
Heavenly Father We thank you for the privilege
that we have in gathering in your name as your
children to look at your word to us We pray that
your grace would be with us this morning as it
has been in the past. We thank you for so great
a salvation in Christ Jesus and your goodness
to us each day. We thank you that you have given
us meaning, purpose, and hope. And so now, let
the words of my mouth and the meditations of
all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O
Lord, our strength and nearest kinsman and redeemer,
Jesus Christ. Amen. So let us hear God's word.
Matthew chapter five once again. You are the
salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its
flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then
good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled
underfoot by men. You are the light of the world.
A city set upon a hill cannot be hidden. Nor
do they light a lamp or put it under a basket,
but on a lamp stand. And it gives light. to all
who are in the house let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your father in heaven do not think
that i came to destroy the law or the prophets
i did not come to destroy but to fulfill for
assuredly i say to you till heaven and earth
pass away not one jot or tittle by no means will
pass away from the law till all is fulfilled
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of
these commandments and teaches men so shall be
called the least of the kingdom of heaven. But
whoever does and teaches them shall be called
great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to
you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no
means enter the kingdom of heaven. These are
the words of Almighty God. Receive them in your
hearts. There's three things as we go through
this passage that I want you to think of here
this morning right now some of you who are a
Little bit older generation might misinterpret
this first word, but bear with me a Salty Christian
is a reminder by their actions that God's covenant
is a perpetual covenant When I grew up salty
meant, you know can be crossways right? But a
salty Christian is a reminder by their actions
That God's covenant is a perpetual an ongoing
covenant Secondly like Jesus the church is the
light of the world Like Jesus the church is the
light of the world and Finally external righteousness
alone is the path that leads to destruction.
External righteousness alone is the path that
leads to destruction. As you know, all the problems
in this world are caused by the sins of men,
the sins of all men. Don't think it's the sins
of just the rich and influential. No, your sins
are a contributing factor to the difficulty and
problems in this world. Consequently, we cannot
look to sinful men or the rich or the poor, powerful,
frail, to fix the world. All those people, they're
all sinful and unable, through their own work,
to change the world. Too often we have divided
the world into two categories. the right and
the left, the liberal and the conservative. We
see these categories as moral or ethical ideas
and actions. As if our morals and our ethics
can be decided upon by men and not defined by
the living God. Many have rightly complained
that conservatives are not conserving anything
at all. But rather they're just headed to the
same valley of perpetual fear and darkness fire
and darkness rather Just at 55 miles an hour
instead of a hundred miles an hour For the church
the Christian is not called to conserve anything
But rather by the light and salt of Christ to
be used to transform themselves and so the world
for the glory of God. Many read this passage
hearing, you are the salt of the earth. But if
the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
Otherwise, it'll be cast out and thrown away,
right? You see, we think, for us, when we hear
this, we're thinking, well, it's kind of a preservative.
That's what salt is. And it is that. And it is
a disinfectant. If you have a wound and you don't
have anything else, put some salt in it. Now,
it'll hurt. But what will happen? It will help
deal with the wound. But to the Jew, in Jesus'
day, hearing about the salt used for seasoning,
they would have remembered God's instructions
to His covenant people concerning salt being
added to the sacrificial offerings. We see this
in Leviticus 2 verse 13. It says and every offering
of your grain offering you shall season with
salt You shall not allow the salt of the covenant
of your God to be lacking from your Grain offering
and then he goes on and says with all your offerings
you shall add salt There is a savoriness that
salt brings to the sacrifices that we bring before
God the salt of his covenant What this salt is
preserving is It's reminding us of the eternal
nature of God's covenant promises to his people
It's not preserving whatever thing and memories
we have of the past Where we think it was a better
day and in some ways that's true But that's not
what that's why it's slipping away It's slipping
away because you can't conserve man's best efforts
But rather, we need to think of ourselves as
the salt to the world that's reminding us and
the world of God's covenant promises to His people.
We see this also in Numbers 18, where it takes
on this more perpetual thought. In Numbers 18,
it says this, all the heave offerings of the
holy things which the children of Israel offered
to Yahweh, Have given to you and your sons and
daughters with you as an ordinance forever. It
is a covenant of salt Forever before Yahweh with
you and your descendants with you Again, this
is repeated in second Chronicles. So 1500 years
later Should you not know that Yahweh God of
Israel gave the dominion over Israel to David
forever? to him and his sons by a covenant of
salt. This seasoning of salt has to do with us
being reminded of how God and His promises are
preserved and kept because He has chosen us.
It reminds Yahweh. It reminds us. And it is a
message to the world. Romans 12 teaches us that
we are to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
to God. We're exhorted not to be conformed to
the actions, attitudes, and words of the sinful
and rebellious world. Jesus has sent the Spirit
to remove our heart of stone and given us a heart
of flesh. In Christ Jesus, we are delivered from
the bondage of sin. That is, sin reigns no more
in us. and we must be conformed to Christ Jesus
to deal with our remaining sin. We remember Christ
covenant deliverance and our lives should be
seasoned with the salt of Christ Jesus for the
salvation of the world. We need to remember that
salt is both a grace and a judgment. Conquerors
of the ancient world would often salt the land
of rebellious and difficult peoples. They'd conquer
a land, and they'd say, hey, all you got to do
is pay us tribute, do a few things for us, send
some stuff along to us. It'll be all right. And
then if that land, if those cities, if those
peoples continued in their rebellious ways, pushing
back, fighting back, eventually they're like,
OK, here's what we're going to do. You're going
to take your land, we're going to tear it up,
and we're going to fill it full of salt. What
will happen? You see they were destroying the
land those peoples could not support themselves
Anymore and thus they are driven into obscurity
by exile and eventually an absorption into other
people They'll die out some will die and some
will be absorbed into others and that people
will be no more Today for all those who rebel
against God and do not repent Their world will
also fall into the judgment of death and hell
driven from this world and to complete an eternal
darkness Now Jesus goes on to tell his disciples
and so us as well You are the light of the world
a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden
Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket
But on a lampstand and it gives light to all
who are in the house Let your light so shine
before men that they see your good works and
glorify your father in heaven Remember we've
already learned during this epiphany season that
Jesus is the light that has come To the darkened
lands of Zebulun and Aftali Right, we've heard
that we're reminded that at every point We've
been reading all these passages both in the Old
Testament and in the new About how Jesus came
and he was bringing light into the darkness Jesus
comes to bring light and in it life joy and glory
Jesus sends the spirit to us Through the spirit
the church becomes lampstands in the temple bringing
light to the world We are like him a light to
the world the city on a hill Lighting the world
to truth of the worship of the living God and
the way to life through the Word of God Unbelieving
Israel was supposed to be the light of the world
even their capital There's their city of Jerusalem
on a mountain was supposed to be that light consider
Isaiah chapter 2 Now it should come to pass in
the latter days that the mountain of Yahweh's
house Shall be established on the top of the
mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills
and all the nations shall flow to it many people
shall come and say come and let us go up to the
mountain of Yahweh to the house of the God of
Jacob he will teach us his ways and we will walk
in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the
law and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem he
shall judge between the nations and rebuke many
people and then watch what happens because the
light is shining because they are taught the
words of God they shall beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks
nations shall not Lift up sword against nation
neither shall they learn war anymore The call
of Jerusalem and of all of Israel was to be the
light of the world Israel was given the covenant
of God his instructions on how to worship his
law God's Judges and prophets and what did they
do? They squandered it all for a dead outward
religion That though all those who were in rebellion
did not bring peace. They didn't bring peace.
They brought they brought judgment. They brought
darkness We see that Israel's light was covered
up and they as a people fell into darkness We
see throughout the Old Testament that there is
a judgment in darkness falling upon the world
think about this the darkness and the plagues
at Egypt The sun moon and stars falling in judgment
as leaders were removed and their influence and
false truths were snuffed out and fell into darkness
And we can search and see it many places Even
what? When Christ died on the cross what happened
there was three hours of darkness In Christ Jesus
we bring the light into the world like a lampstand
And we must remember this. Remember, it says
you're a city on a hill. You don't hide the light,
right? But you put it on a lamp stand. If you
look in the book of Revelation, you see that
God is speaking to the church. And he describes
seven different churches. And in that, what happens?
He says, if you don't live in a repentant way,
if you don't live serving me, if you do what
you want to do, guess what I'm going to do? I'm
going to take your lamp stand out. That's the
word to the church. You see, covering up our
light is living in unrepentance. Now, here's
a very interesting thing as we consider this.
What makes the light shine? You see, there is
a stark contrast between Christians and the world.
And we kind of know that. But you see, our loyalty
is to Christ and his body, the Church. For all
those in the Roman Empire, one of the most astounding
and amazing things of the Church was that they
were made up of a diverse group of people. For
much of the world then, and perhaps even now,
there's an idea that you only have to care for
and have loyalty to your own clan or tribe. Not
so for the Christian Church. The Church cares.
The Church then cared for, and so should we,
Jews and Gentiles. They had both the highly esteemed
Greeks and the lowly barbarians. And we're seeing
this right there in Colossians 3. He's describing
all these people groups, the Church, right? There
is no more any of this because we are a new people
in Christ. So much so that there was There was
no distinction between the Jew and the Gentile,
or the Greeks, or the lowly barbarians. And he
even goes on to mention the Scythians, who were
considered, of all the barbarian peoples, the
utterly most disgusting, most unbelievably uncivilized
people. So bad. And Paul sticks them in. Says,
them too. For the church, loyalty, love, and
care takes no preference. to the slave or the
free, to anyone. Following Christ is simply this.
He is all and in all those who are calling on
His name and are baptized and are striving to
obey all of God's word. So yes, there is something
that you must do. You need to be called by God
and then you in return need to receive that baptism
and for His people and then you just need to
do it. And in that, There is no difference of
who we are. Our loyalty is to Christ and his
body. In this world, there is a cry, peace, peace,
but there is no peace. As you recall from our
study last week on the Beatitudes, the ideas
of the mighty Greek philosopher and the self
-righteousness of the Jews are not able to bring
truth, beauty, or goodness to the world. Their
ideas and efforts cannot restore anything But
only for a short time and then failure is sure
Without the triune God unity is impossible outside
of Christ there can be no consensus on truth
morality and relational ethics It can't be achieved
Today the world around us Desires that we hate
them Wait a minute. No, they want me to love
them? No. No. They desire that we do not bring
the light of Jesus to bear upon them. You see,
for the unbelieving, their heart's desire is
for us to affirm them and acknowledge that their
lifestyles and desires are good and productive
for them and so the world. That they believe
that this will lead to peace and blessing Not
so We are loving them when we bring the light
of Jesus to them when we live our lives Assaulted
living sacrifices before our Lord and our words
and actions and attitudes and obedience to God
Hey, look, let me just say this for a second.
Don't be like Jonah, right? You bring the word
And then you sit up on the hill. I want God to
just get those guys. I'm going to sit up here.
No. His heart was wrong. And what did God do?
He was standing under the sun, waiting for God
to rain down judgment. And what happened? God
gave him a temporary piece, caused a little vine
to grow up, gave him a little shade. And then
the next day, God sent a worm to eat the vine.
And God did restore. Those Gentile peoples, the
Assyrians, the King of Nineveh and all those
people, they repented and turned to God and he
was all flustered. We're the special people of
God. Those are the wicked people. No, he went
and he preached the gospel. He preached turn
to God, repent of your sins. And they did. And
they rejoiced. They rejoiced in the forgiveness
of God. God actually used them to carry out his
purposes of correction to the people of Israel
We are loving them when we bring the light of
Jesus to them And we need to know that when we
are living as salted living sacrifices It's a
pleasing aroma to God, but also a startling disinfectant
to the death wounds of sin both in the church
and out Ephesians 1 tells us this, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk
worthy in the calling with which you were called
with all lowliness and gentleness, with long
suffering, bearing with one another, and love,
and endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
of the bond of peace. You can't have unity without
loyalty to Christ and his people, the church.
He says this there is one body and one spirit
just as you were called in one hope of your calling
one Lord one faith one baptism one God and father
of all who was above all and Through all and
in you all and by the way Here we are again with
the southern part all those use are all y 'all
It's all y 'all in the church Returning to our
passage Christ declares in verse 17 do not think
that I came to destroy the law of the prophets
I did not come to destroy but to fulfill for
assuredly I say to you till heaven and earth
pass away one jot Or one tittle by no means will
pass away until the law is fulfilled You know
we need to know that Jesus said I didn't come
to get away from the law He didn't come, as you
know, in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is not
giving a new law. No, Jesus is straightening
out the corruptions made by the law, by the scribes
and Pharisees and priests. And you know what
we have to do? There's a whole lot of stuff in
all of our lives where we have said, I know God
said this, but I'm going to interpret it this
way because it works for me. Lord, have mercy.
Let us turn from that. No, turn to God's word
and do what it says. Jesus is the faithful son,
and in so doing, he fulfills the law, and it's
every jot and tittle. What the jot and tittle
is, for those of you that don't know, it's just
the smallest marks in the Greek language. The
New Testament was written in the Greek. Every
small mark. None of that can fall away until
Jesus has fulfilled it all. Jesus does not break
the laws of God but rather he does them and teaches
the law of God rightly Showing us that he is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Do you
remember in Daniel chapter 2? There's this vision
that Nebuchadnezzar has it's this great big statue
and it's it represents all the empires of of
history of the ancient world and All of that
and their greatness. It's passing along passing
along to others empires fall And then we read
of a stone that was cut out not by human hands.
And it comes and it hits a giant statue representing
all the empires of the earth. And they're all
destroyed. And this rock, it grows. And it grows.
And it grows. And it becomes a mountain that
fills the whole earth. That is the kingdom of
heaven. That is Jesus kingdom. The kingdom of
Jesus grows destroying the rebellious nations
and becomes a great mountain that fills the whole
earth The church the new temple made of living
stones sits on the foundation laid on the rock
of Christ Jesus Jesus became a light in the literal
darkness on the Mount of Olives on the cross
We've been delivered out of the darkness and
we are the light unless We cover it up repentance.
We are the salt of the eternal covenant of God
by living in conformity to Christ Jesus. In Jesus
we are reconciled to God the Father. All enmity
and hate that we once had and so face judgment
for has come to peace by the work of Jesus. Our
passage ends with Jesus saying that our righteousness
must exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, or we cannot enter the kingdom
of heaven. Their righteousness was full of hypocrisy,
a religiously clean exterior, for a covering
of an unclean interior full of death and darkness.
We are to be salted Christians, showing the eternal
promises of life in the covenant of Jesus Christ.
You are called to be a light. Drive out darkness
in your own life and then through that transform
the world by conformity to Christ Jesus Be salt
be light Don't cover the light and unrepentance
And so you ask yourself. What is this greater
righteousness? What is greater than the hypocrisy
of the scribes and Pharisees? Let us end with
this you want to know the answer to that question
Consider Romans chapter 12. And so I want you
to think about this where you are in trusting
in your Lord and conforming to Him and being
salt and light. Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be
kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly
love. In honor, giving preference to one another.
not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient
in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer,
distributing to the needs of the saints, given
to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who
rejoice and weep. with those who weep. Be of
the same mind towards one another. Do not set
your mind on high things, but associate with
the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good
things in the sight of all men. If it is possible,
as much as depends on you, live peaceably with
all men. This shines brightly in the darkness
Let us pray Almighty God and our Heavenly Father
we thank you that you have broken us you have
made us a new creation in Jesus Christ and Given
us in your word the way to walk and have commanded
us to walk therein We thank you that by your
grace. We can be salt and light Make us a Lord
a beacon of light of grace and all the world
and all those around us to our loved ones make
us a means of seize and sacrifices to bring glory
to your name that this world may see our good
works and glorify you by turning to you in repentance
and find peace in you make us strong oh lord
in your word and in your spirit in jesus name
amen