I want to say just a bit about the preaching series in the evening for the next few months. We will finish the year looking at five passages from the Sermon on the Mount that define for us "Life in the Kingdom of God." And then, beginning in January, we will begin a series in James. I've entitled that, "Portrait of a Struggle: Christianity at Ground Level." If you want an honest view of the struggle of the Christian experience, read James; read it again; read it again. And so you can actually do that in preparation; you can be reading through James, and we will begin in James in January.
You Are Salt
Well, we look at our first passage there In Matthew 5, beginning with verse 13. I don't know how you think about yourself, but, and I don't know whether you've thought about this or not, but you are a dreamer. No, I don't mean those nocturnal drama that you dream that wake you up sometimes in the night, and you try to figure out what in the world that dream meant. Or I don't mean those little daydreams that you have while you're driving that almost cause you to hit things that you didn't mean to hit.
I mean that there's something that you hook your life to. There's some grand vision that motivates you, that shapes your life, that directs your decisions, that makes your heart rise with joy or plummet with sadness. You're a dreamer. And the reason you dream is because you're human and made in the image of God. You were made for transcendence; you were made to have your life hooked to something bigger than your life. And that thing Christ names in the Sermon on the Mount--it's called the Kingdom of God.
You were meant, you were created to have your life connected to the values, and the purposes, and the goals, and the plans, and the hopes, and the dreams of a greater Kingdom than you could ever construct for yourself. In all of your wildest dreams and all of your grandest visions for you, your personal visions would never expand to the size and the glory of the visions and the purposes of the Kingdom of God. And that Kingdom, and living in that Kingdom, is really detailed in this portion of Scripture between Matthew 5 and Matthew 7 where Christ pulls His followers aside and talks to them about Kingdom living.
Let me read for you again, beginning with 5:13: 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 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.
(Matthew 5:13-16, ESV) Now I'm a speaker this evening who is in a bit of trouble because I've chosen a passage that is very, very familiar to you, and my fear is that you would sit this evening and sort of fall into a mental, spiritual monotone as you are numbed by the familiarity of this passage. But I want you to think with me about how radical this passage actually is as we think about the Kingdom of God and our place in that Kingdom work. This is really quite a radical passage. And I want to look at these metaphors, particularly attending to the light metaphor in three ways.
First, I want to propose that these are diagnostic metaphors; they really do tell us what is wrong with the world that surrounds us and what is fundamentally wrong with the city in which we live and have been called to labor and to work. Second, these metaphors define our identity as children, as citizens in the Kingdom of God. Who in the world are we? And then thirdly, these metaphors define our calling as participants in the work of the Kingdom. You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world.
You have heard it said many times, and I won't spend much time talking about this, but in pre-refrigeration days, salt had more than a flavor importance. Salt was a primary preservative. If you've been much in the Third World, you've experienced much salt-preserved meat. And that salt was there to retard the encroaching decay and corruption of that food product. What is light for? Light is needed because of darkness; light drives away darkness. And in Scripture, light is a metaphor for truth, and if light is a metaphor for truth, then darkness is clearly a metaphor for falsehood.
What Is Wrong With Philadelphia?
Now think about what's being said here. What's wrong with the city of Philadelphia? How would you diagnose the things that all of us face every day? See, the struggles of the city are at a deeper level than politics, and a deeper level than education, a deeper level than sociological needs or cultural needs; they're deeper than economic needs. Literally, the problem with the city locates itself at the level of the hearts of the people who inhabit the city. Think about this. When the writer of Hebrews wants to discuss the power of the Word of God to expose and evaluate the heart, it says that the Word of God judges, examines the thoughts and intentions of a person's heart.
Now why does the author of Hebrews point to those two things? That's clearly not everything the heart does. Well, the author of Hebrews points to those two things because, clearly, those are the two most profoundly important functions of the heart. The heart is always thinking. As human beings, we don't live by instinct. We think; we interpret; we toss our lives back and forth in our brains, trying to make sense of what is. We're oriented to develop some system of wisdom, some system of truth that defines life for us.
We think. But as human beings, we also desire; we purpose; our lives are directed by motivations that move us. Now here's what's wrong with the city. That capacity to desire has gone bad. It's gone corrupt. It's decayed. As sinners, we desire things that we should not desire; we want things that we should not want; we are moved by things that should not move us; we purpose things that we should not purpose. As sinners, we think in ways that are not true, that are distorted, that do not look at life the way it was meant to be looked at.
And so, in these two metaphors, you really do find what's wrong with the communities that we live in. It's not just a matter of violence; it's not just a matter of poor politics; it's not just a matter of education gone badly; it's not just a matter of economic problems that are everywhere around us. It's a matter of the heart. The problem is a heart problem. And listen, if my desires are ruled by things that are morally corrupt, and if I think in ways that are fundamentally false, I will not live the way I was meant to live.
Listen, evangelism is not just about getting people to do things. Evangelism is not just bringing people to some kind of momentary decision. Evangelism, at its heart, is being used by God as an instrument in His hands to fundamental heart change. We can't settle for anything less than that. What is the bright promise of the New Covenant? The bright promise of the New Covenant is a new heart. You see, what's the heart of the problem of the communities that God has called us to minister to? Well, you can say it in this word: the 'heart' is the heart of the problem.
That's the target of our ministry - corruption that exists at the level of the heart, falsehood that exists at the level of the heart. Sin makes us look at what is evil and see good. Sin makes us look at what is false and see truth. Listen, that is only changed by an act of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're meant to go out into our community as instruments of that grace. But these metaphors not only are diagnostic metaphors telling us what's wrong with the world in which we live, but metaphors that identify us as God's children.
"You are the light of the world." Look at that sentence again, "You are the light of the world." Look at verse 14; notice verse 14 is not a 'should be' passage. It's not saying, "You should be the light of the world." It's a statement of fact "You are the light of the world." What an amazing thing! Jesus is actually in that statement placing His name on us. Who is the light of the world? It's Jesus, the Light that lights everyone coming into the world. John says in the first chapter of John as he introduces the Word, became flesh.
You Have Been Lit
You are the light of the world. What is it that Jesus is saying in this passage? He's pointing to something amazing that has happened to you and to me. Literally, Jesus is saying this, "You've been lit; you've been lit by My presence. You've been lit by My grace. You've been lit by My glory." There's a great example of what this means if you would look with me in John 17, verse 20. This is Christ's final prayer before he faced the cross. Listen to what he says here: I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20-23, ESV) Now think about what Christ is praying. Think about the fact that He's praying that His followers would have such a remarkable and comprehensive unity, that that unity that they experience with one another would only be comparable to the kind of relationship that the Trinity has, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Now as you're thinking about that, think about the disciples ... like that's going to happen. Think about on one side of the room is Simon the zealot. The zealots were sort of the right wing, radical terrorists of their day. The zealots thought that you would bring in the Kingdom of God by force. Across the room sat Matthew, the tax collector, a man who was a Hebrew turncoat working for the Roman government, collecting an exorbitant tax that had broken the economic back of Palestine. There was no one that a zealot would despise more than a tax collector.
Christ is actually saying, "Father, my plan is that Simon and Matthew would have such a remarkable unity with one another that that unity could only be comparable to the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost have with one another. Now you look at that, and you would be overwhelmed by the impossibility of that, unless you listen to the rest of Christ's prayer. He says this, "Father, the glory that you placed on me, I have placed on my followers so that they would be one." What is that glory?
Christ is actually pointing to a historical event. You know what happened when Christ came out of the waters of baptism, do you remember? And the Holy Spirit descended on Christ like a dove. That's what Christ is saying, "The same Spirit of God that energized My ministry on earth, I have now given to you so that you may be able to do the things that I've called you to do." Hear this, "You have been lit by the indwelling presence of the risen Lord Jesus Christ." Did you hear what I said? That's your Identity.
You have been lit by the shining light of the glory of the risen Christ, that Christ now lives inside of you! Do you believe that? You've been lit; you've been lit; you've been lit; you've been lit! Glory has been given. You've been lit. And you see that statement of redemptive reality is what precedes the call of this passage. If you're ever going to accept the call of Christ to live His life, you have to first receive the truth of what Christ is saying about you. What an amazing thing, that God Almighty actually lives inside of us!
Do you believe that, that the glory of the character of Christ now lives inside of you? You've been lit. It's interesting; Christ doesn't say now, "We need to get together and do a semester long study in the theology of luminescence, and I've got a few texts on luminescence that you should read. And when we get done with that, we will discuss how to be luminescent." What he starts with is an awesome statement of fact. Hear this: Kingdom activity is always attached to recognizing Kingdom identity.
Kingdom Identity and Kingdom Activity
Kingdom activity is always attached to recognizing Kingdom identity. If you're ever going to live the way you've been called to live, you must start by affirming who you are. Kingdom activity is always attached to recognizing Kingdom identity. This is a radical statement of identity. Well, that leaves us with how these wonderful metaphors define 'calling.' Let me read again for you, beginning with verse 14: 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. Now verse 15 starts with that irrational example. It doesn't make any sense to light a lamp and cover it up. You light a lamp because light is needed, and you put that lamp in a place where it shines. I mean, that just makes sense. And then Christ says, "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."
Let's unpack this a little bit. Notice that the shining of the light in this passage is not connected, firsthand, to things that you will say, but things that you will do. You see, if it is true that you have been lit by the character of Christ, then the call here is to live out of that character. Live a life of love! Live a life of mercy! Live a life of grace! Live a life of sacrifice! Live a life of service! Live that life of Christ in the place where God has put you. Listen, we all know there's no want of need.
It doesn't matter where you live, mercy is needed; it doesn't matter where you live, love is needed. It doesn't matter where you live, willing self-sacrifice is needed; giving is needed; service is needed; help is needed; forgiveness is needed; patience is needed; perseverance is needed; accepting gracious love is needed. This is not a call to proclaim a message first; this is a call to a Gospel evangelistic way of living. There's something wrong when we make evangelism dropping out of the sky for a moment, handing a person a tract, trying to call them to make a decision, and we drop out of existence again.
That's not New Testament evangelism! The word you speak is ordained by Christ to be rooted in the life that you're living. Christ came not just with the message; Christ came, and what did He do? He gave Himself - that's the call. And so, I find joy in mercy. I find joy in love. I find joy in sacrifice. I find joy in those moments when my schedule is interrupted by a need. Why? Because, I'm living for a bigger Kingdom than the little one that I would construct for myself. I feel honored that my schedule has been interrupted.
I feel honored that I have less money than I would otherwise have. I feel honored that God has actually put this grave need in front of me. It's not an interruption; it's not an irritation; it's not an obstacle; it's my life! That's this passage. How convicting this is to me! I read this passage, and I'm confronted with the fact, 'I'm a man with an agenda.' I have an agenda for every day. I have an agenda for every moment. Luella is now smiling. She understands. She lives with me. And I can be so driven by my plan and my schedule, that I can actually look at sovereignly-given opportunities to shine as an interruption in an otherwise well-planned day.
Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Oh, may it never be that our view of evangelism is screaming a message very quickly to disembodied souls as we pass by. May it be lives of joyful, self-sacrificing, good works because we delight in the Kingdom of God. Now, maybe you're asking, "Well, Paul, how is this evangelism? Isn't that just a call to be nice?" Well, look at the words here; it says, "Let your light shine before others so that ... [that's a purpose clause] ... they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
When the Watching World Gives God Glory
Hear this! If the watching world, somebody in the watching world, is brought to the place where he actually recognizes God's existence and gives God glory, there has been a fundamental transformation take place in that person's heart, because the average person isn't out there giving glory to God. Think about this. What is the epicenter of that heart problem that we talked about that is so well diagnosed by this passage? Here it is: the epicenter of the moral corruption and the falsehood that grips human culture (listen carefully) is a functional denial of the existence of God.
"The fool has said in his heart ... [you can finish it, can't you?] ... there is no God," and what it says next is, "They are corrupt; they do abominable deeds; there is none good, not even one." Here's the call: that by the nature of Christ-like living - we could call that incarnational living - that I actually confront that functional denial of God, and that people are confronted with actions that are not intuitive to them. They wonder at the mercy that they've received. Why would this person care for me?
They wonder at the love. Why would this guy love me this way? They wonder at the patience; they wonder at the forgiveness; they wonder at the willing sacrifices that I would make, and that wonderment is the Spirit of God, beginning to work in their hearts, beginning to dismantle that functional atheism because they met an anomaly; they've met something they can't explain. And that testimony of a life, that's different because this life has been lit by grace, confronts the theology of this person and gives wonderful opportunities for pointing to the glory of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, this passage is not a call to be nice. This is an evangelistic passage. This is a passage that calls us to do Gospel work--but the Gospel work of deeds, deeds that ultimately the Spirit of God uses to gloriously dismantle the falsehood that defines this person's life, that falsehood namely being a denial of the existence of the God that you are incarnating by your love, and your mercy, and your grace. Listen, God would transform lives not just by what you say, but by what you do as well.
That men would see your good works and not just say, "This is a nice guy; this is a nice woman," but say, "Oh, perhaps there is a God, and if this is the result of His work, I want to know this God." Are you excited? You see, the only way this won't excite you is if you are in the pursuit of another dream. You see, God's Kingdom vision is unbelievably exciting. It's gloriously beautiful, but it is smack dab in the way of your kingdom. You are the light of the world; you've been lit; now go shine.
Shine before that neighbor; shine before that boss and fellow workers; shine on the public places in your city; shine in the arts; shine in politics; shine in education. There's corruption; there's darkness, but you've been lit. And perhaps by those works of mercy and love and sacrifice, you would be used of God to dismantle the falsehood of that person. Perhaps, because of your life, they could no longer hold on to the belief that God doesn't exist. Perhaps through you, one person, one person would be caused to give glory to the Father who is in heaven.
Hear this, if that only happens once, your life has been worth it because you've lived for the Kingdom; you've lived for the Kingdom. Let's Pray: Lord, thank you for this exciting portion of Your Word--what an identity that You have placed on us that we are the light of the world. You have lit us by the glory of Your presence and Your grace. And You've called us to live incarnationally, to argue by the manner of our living against the falsehood that fundamentally denies Your existence, and in denying Your existence, denying Your grace. Lord, help us to be moved by the call of Your Kingdom and to shine for the sake of Your glory. In Jesus's name, Amen.
