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Scripture
Matthew 5:13-20 NIV “You are the salt of the earth. But 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 underfoot. “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.
Text:
Matthew 5:13 NIV “You are the salt of the earth. But 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 underfoot.
Introduction
Without question the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5–7 has been more widely discussed than any other writing of equal length. Many Bible scholars believe that the best-known fact about Jesus is that he gave the Sermon on the Mount. As we go through this series of sermons “Listening To Heaven’s Infallible Teacher”, I encourage you to read the entire Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5-7.
We started off the last year 2020 with a series on the Beatitudes which is one of the main parts of the Sermon we are going to talk about for the next several weeks. In that series we said that the beatitudes which mean extreme blessing was the way to happiness.
Matthew 5:3-12 says
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Blessed are those who mourn
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the pure in heart
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Little did we know that we were really going to need those extreme blessings in 2020 with COVID and the racial and civil unrest plus all the other tragedies and difficulties of last year, and it looks like this year, while maybe not as bad, is not going to be that great either. Well I digress.
If you want to review those sermons, from last year, the manuscripts and the audio recordings are on my blog at faiththeevidence.com.
After the Beatitudes Jesus offers a series of teachings that, if incorporated in our lives, would revolutionize our very existence. In Matthew 5:13, our text for today, Jesus made this very pointed statement, “You are the salt of the earth” (NIV).
In this statement Jesus has given to us an expression that has become one of the finest compliments that can be paid to any individual. When we want to underscore the worth of a person, we might say, “He or she is the salt of the earth!”
The statement about believers, that “You are the salt of the earth”, shows the influence that Christians should have.
Salt was the purest of all things because it came from the purest of all elements, the sun and the sea. So, if Christians are to be the salt of the earth, we must be an example of purity. Christians who want to be spiritually influential must hold high standards
The presence of salt cannot be ignored. It is a positive influence. If it is present, we cannot fail to recognize its presence. If it is absent, we miss it.
Where the salt of the earth is in the form of Christian influence, people will be aware of it. It will not always be welcome, but it will be recognized. But unless Christians are pure, they cannot demonstrate the power of Christian influence. If you show that you are the salt that Jesus says you are you don’t have to announce it people will see it.
II. The sphere of influence.
Christ said, “You are the salt of the earth.” Since we are the salt of the earth, where are we to unleash our preserving and purifying powers? In the earth of course
“You are the salt of the earth….Matthew 5:13 NIV
So we are to apply our influence in the here and now, in the communities where we live, we are to apply our influence in the face of the needs that confront us everyday. We are to be the salt of the earth in the city in which we live. In our neighborhoods. It is our business to see that our community is a wholesome environment in which young people will have the best possible chance to grow and develop. We are to be the salt of the earth in Los Angeles, in California, in the United States, in the world. Jesus said we are the “Salt of the earth”.
Salt does its most effective work when it is in direct contact with the substance on which it is to work. For example salt is most effective when it is placed on food. Now many of us, because of health reasons, have to be careful about how much salt is on our food but nevertheless is most effective when put on food. The point is that we are not to withdraw ourselves from the world, we are to have a positive impact on it, but while having a positive impact we are, as the apostle James said, to stay “unpolluted by the world”.
James 1:27 NIV Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
When Jesus prayed for His disciples as recorded in John 17 He prayed;
John 17:13-16 NIV “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Salt has been a preservative throughout the ages. In ancient times salt was used whenever something needed to be preserved.
Without the presence of those reflecting the character of Jesus Christ, and being the salt of the earth civilization will self-destruct.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 NIV For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
Paul is here talking about the spirit of antichrist which if not kept in check would destroy everything but the one holding it back is the Holy Spirit which resides in all Christians and is revealed through the fruit of the spirit, which reflect the character of Christ.
Mankind does not become increasingly pure but tends to become increasingly impure. That's why the presence of Christians in society is an absolute necessity if that society is to be saved from disintegration.
Here is what we should be showing as “salt of the earth”
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
As Christians we are called on to be the preservative in our society. We must be those who by our presence defeat corruption and make it easier for others to do good.
Salt has a flavoring influence. Without salt, food has little if any flavor. So Christ is saying that the Christian is to life what salt is to food. We are to lend flavor to life. The tragedy is that so many people have assumed that to be Christian is to have no flavor in life. They have unfortunately and wrongly concluded that
Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted as saying that he might have entered the ministry if certain preachers he had known had not acted so much like undertakers. There is an entry into Robert Louis Stevenson’s diary that says, “I have been to church today and I’m not depressed!”
People need to discover the joy in being a Christian.
Nehemiah 8:10 NIV Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Happiness depends on circumstances, joy depends on God. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior you have joy because of your faith in Him and His sacrifice for us.
There was a Jesuit biologist and philosopher who once wrote, “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”
In a world that is so depressed and seems to have lost the joy of life, we as Christians are charged with the joyous responsibility of being the salt of the earth, adding flavor to life.
III. The sacrifice of influence.
When Jesus referred to his disciples as salt, that was a great compliment. They had not realized before this how important they were. However, Christ did not call them salt in order to send them on an ego trip. So He also gave them the solemn warning—they could lose their saltiness.
Matthew 5:13 NIV “You are the salt of the earth. But 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 underfoot.
That is, they could sacrifice their influence.
Salt, pure sodium chloride as we know it, does not lose its saltiness. But the Palestinians got their salt from the Dead Sea, and that salt was not pure. It was mixed with other minerals that often affected its flavor. In time it could become tasteless. When this happened, it was good for nothing but “to be thrown out and trampled.”
So the disciples were given a solemn warning. They were to preserve their society or be pulverized by it. None of us are immune to losing our own savor. If we are not fulfilling their purpose as the salt of the earth, we are on our way to becoming useless.
The final word of caution that Jesus gave concerning the end of salt that has lost its saltiness—that it would be thrown out and trampled—indicates that neither God nor people have any use for it.
We may ask, why is the church not growing today? Why are young people leaving the church?
The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, I didn't fine any more recent information, it may be worse than these results. The survey found that 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion but that’s down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.
Both Protestantism and Catholicism are experiencing losses of population share. Currently, 43% of U.S. adults identify with Protestantism, down from 51% in 2009. And one-in-five adults (20%) are Catholic, down from 23% in 2009. Meanwhile, all subsets of the religiously unaffiliated population – a group also known as religious “nones” – have seen their numbers swell. Self-described atheists now account for 4% of U.S. adults, up modestly but significantly from 2% in 2009; agnostics make up 5% of U.S. adults, up from 3% a decade ago; and 17% of Americans now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” up from 12% in 2009. Members of non-Christian religions also have grown modestly as a share of the adult population.
Why is this happening? Maybe the salt lost its savor.
Conclusion
Is it possible to restore lost savor, to regain lost influence? Yes, it is! Christians who have lost their savor can win it back by going again to the source from which they received it. God placed no obstacles in the way of someone returning to the fountain of all power and purity. When the influence has been sacrificed, there is only one thing to do. We must repent and return to our first love.
Let me read what Jesus dictated to the apostle John, to write to the church in Ephesus.
Revelation 2:1-7 NIV “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
When we return to our first love we will once more be “the salt of the earth.”
Lord, you have warned us to prepare for your return, but you have also given us responsibilities in the present. Teach us what it means to live according to your purposes here and now so that we are the salt of the earth that you said that we are to be.
In Jesus name Amen
Sermon Audio
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