Jesus On Influence Series

INTRODUCTION

• Today we begin a four-week series examining four sayings of Jesus from his Sermon on the Mount.

• We will unpack Jesus on ________ influence, sin, sharing, and wealth.

• How did you come to faith in Jesus?

• What brought you to the place where you decided that you needed Jesus and then be baptized into Him?

• Did the process begin with a revelation on your own, or was there someone who helped you see the need?

• Was there someone in your life that showed you what it looked like to follow Jesus?

• Did someone in your life INFLUENCE you to follow Jesus?

• Popular thought in our society is that faith is a personal thing and that one’s faith must be kept to oneself.

• Do you feel that pressure?

• We must ask ourselves how we will live out our faith in a dying world.

• Are we to go to the hills and hide?

• Are we to lock the church doors and hope we do not get stained by the world?

• Are we supposed to blend in with the world during the week and then put on a “church face” for Sunday?

• Imagine if the early Church had taken that stance concerning faith that you should keep it to yourself.

• Where would we be today?

• LOST!

• In the final beatitude, Jesus described the attitude the world would often display towards the citizens of the kingdom in verses 10-12.

• Now Jesus describes the opposite, the influence of the kingdom upon the world.

• One word sums up how we live our lives as citizens in a foreign land.

• That word is INFLUENCE.

• We see INFLUENCERS, as they are called on social media, who, for whatever reason, sometimes have millions of followers.

• These folks make a lot of money, and companies and organizations run to them, hoping they will promote their products because if an Influencer uses the product, I better use it also!

• Let’s turn to Matthew 5:13-16 so we can see that Jesus calls us to be influencers in this world.

• Let’s begin with verse 13.

Matthew 5:13 (NET 2nd ed.)

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people!

SERMON

I. Influence by flavoring.

• Jesus begins verse 13 by telling the crowd that they are to be the salt of the earth!

• Who wants to be salt, and why would anyone want to be salt?

• I do not think Lot’s wife in the Old Testament found that appealing!

• Why did Jesus use this as one of His metaphors to highlight the importance of influence?

• In the ancient world and modern times, salt had four basic functions: preservation, seasoning, fertilizer, and as an antiseptic.

• When you break down these uses, it becomes clear what Jesus meant when He used the metaphor!

• First, when you look at salt as a preservative.

• In ancient times, salt was used to keep food from going rancid.

• Even today, it is still used in that manner in parts of the world where there is not much refrigeration available.

• When things are dead or dying, they are in a state of decay.

• Salt was used to slow down or stop the decay.

• The salt could not take something already in a state of decay and reverse it; the salt could keep it from worsening.

• We are living in a world that is in a state of decay because it is dying.

• Christians are to be the agent that keeps the world from decaying.

• We are to be the preservative for the dying world.

• Christians are responsible for preserving morality, justice, and social conscience.

• God has also instituted the state and the home for these purposes, but without the Church, even these lack salt and light.

• Historically, the Church can be credited for many of the advances in science, medicine, prison reform, orphanages, abolition of slavery and child labor, education, and literacy.

• The kingdom of God has flavored this world in significant ways.

• Can you imagine a world with NO morality, no boundaries, and no standards of decency?

• Some better be careful about what they wish for.

• Christians are called to influence society so that it does not smell bad.

• For salt to work, it must be mixed in with what it tries to preserve.

• As Christians, we are called to be in the world but not of the world.

• We are to be involved in all aspects of life, and we are to be the preserving agent of the world.