Christians Are Crucial In Our World Series

Christians Are Crucial in Our World

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - September 30, 2018

(Revised January 3, 2021)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 5:13. Tonight, we will continue our study of the most perfect sermon that has ever been written down. It's the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and it fills three chapters in Matthew's Gospel. We don't know exactly where Jesus preached it, but John Phillips said it "seems to have been delivered on the slopes above Capernaum."

*Then Phillips explained that "the enormous crowds attracted to Jesus by His miracles followed Him up the mountainside. They were in for a shock, for the kind of kingdom He was about to describe had never entered their wildest dreams. Following the custom of Jewish teachers, Jesus sat down and began to speak. The sermon was directed to His disciples, but it was heard by all.

*His words rang out with heavenly authority totally absent in the petty ramblings of the rabbis. He spoke truths that soared far above anything those people had ever heard." (1)

*This sermon is a Kingdom sermon given by the King of Kings. William MacDonald explained that here King Jesus "summarized the character and conduct expected of His subjects . . . It was meant for all, past, present, or future, who acknowledge Christ as King." (2)

*In this part of Christ's Sermon, we will see the first two of the Lord's parables. And if you are wondering what a parable is, it is simply an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus told over 40 of these parables in the four Gospels.

*These first two are very short, but they help us see how crucial every Christian is in the world today, and what this means for our lives. As we read Matthew 5:13-16, please think about how important you are for the cause of Jesus Christ.

MESSAGE:

*An old Peanuts cartoon showed Peppermint Patty talking to Charlie Brown. Patty said, "Guess what, Chuck? The first day of school, -- and I got sent to the principal's office. It was your fault, Chuck."

*Poor, confused Charlie Brown said, "MY FAULT? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?"

*Patty replied, "You're my friend, aren't you, Chuck? You should have been a better influence on me." (3)

*Christians: God wants us to be a better influence on our world. These parables show us the kind of influence Jesus wants us to be. And Christians, you may not feel like it, but we are ALL crucial in God's plan for His world!

1. SO FIRST: WE MUST LEARN THE VALUE OF OUR LIVES.

*In vs. 13, the Lord taught His followers about the value of our lives, and here Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth. . ."

*This symbolism doesn't make nearly as much sense to us as it did to the Lord's followers 2,000 years ago. "You are the salt of the earth." That sounds kind of ho-hum to us, because salt is cheap and plentiful today.

*You'll never hear about people sticking-up a Sonic for a few packets of salt. But in the ancient world salt was a tremendously valuable commodity. Workers in some cultures were paid with salt. That's why our word "salary" comes from the very old Latin word for "salt-money."

*People wanting to buy something would pay for it with salt the same way we use money today. And people treasured salt as we might value gold or silver. Scott Hoezee helped us understand when he said, "The earliest roads were built to transport salt. The earliest taxes were charged on salt. And whole military campaigns were launched to obtain it. (4)

*We take salt for granted, but Billy Strayhorn reminds us how much it can do:

-First, of course, salt makes things taste better. That's why we put it on everything from eggs to grits to popcorn. Some of us even put it on watermelon.

-Salt enhances the flavor of food, but on top of that, salt is a preservative. Before refrigeration or canning, much meat was preserved by packing it in salt. And that salt-cured meat was safe to eat for months or even years.

-Salt was also used as medicine. Before the time of modern medicine, salt was used to kill germs. It burned like crazy, but salt was often poured into an open wound to cleanse it from impurities. Today we still gargle salt water sometimes to kill germs. (5)

*Salt was and is extremely useful. And Christians, we are the salt of the earth. So just like physical salt, God wants us to be a positive influence on our society, both by our words and the way we act.