Not For Spiritual Wimps Series

Matthew 5:1-16

“Not For Spiritual Wimps”

Do you ever have those moments when you think – this world has gone mad!

Attention spans are being reduced to sound bites … 2 minute reels … and doom scrolling.

Everyone is now an expert because they have researched it on the internet.

The super-rich do whatever they like.

Common sense is on the decline.

Everything is a conspiracy.

AI has made it almost impossible to believe what we see.

The poor just want to feel secure and safe.

The truth is just an inconvenience.

Yet everyone just wants everyone else to play nice … and get along … and be accepting.

In the words of the 1963 Movie Title … “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World.”

But the reality is … it has always been a mad world.

In Matthew 4:16-17 Jesus says:-

16 (T)he people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

This is Jesus’ assessment of the world as it was 2000 years ago. The assessment equally applies today.

It’s a world where people live in darkness and death.

It’s gloomy. It has shady characters. It brings fear.

It’s deliberately seeking to misdirect and misguide.

Frantically people are saying, “Look over here” to stop people from seeing the reality.

Death … decay … life always ends – but that inconvenient truth is conveniently ignored.

It’s also a world that needs to repent.

Repentance is simply a matter of saying, “Jesus I believe and confess that You are Lord.”

From that moment everything changes. Those in darkness ... see a great light.

Those living in the shadow of death ... light dawns into their world.

But people don’t want to repent.

People would rather complicate their lives and make it on their own in this mad world.

So instead of repentance, there is repentance-avoidance. The techniques that get used to try and make everything in our lives look good and cover the inconvenient reality of darkness and death.

Get a good education.

Have a high paying job.

Be an influencer.

Go on expensive holidays.

Get plastic surgery.

Run away so you can find yourself.

Accumulate. Accumulate. Accumulate.

Living a life which throws massive amounts of energy into repentance-avoidance.

What does Jesus think about all this repentance-avoidance?

17 God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

John 3:17

4 (God our Saviour) wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:4

9 The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

The heart of Jesus is that He wants … He patiently and earnestly wants … repentance-avoiders to repent.

In order to give action to this want …

In order to turn His heart’s desire into reality …

Jesus turns to His disciples. Disciples are those who follow Jesus – they are committed to His calling in their lives.

Now listen closely to the way Jesus describes His disciples.

13 “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.

14 You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 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. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:13-16

In these verses Jesus is describing the identity of a follower of Jesus

… the identity of a disciple. Disciples are … Salt and Light.

It is not a spiritual gift …

… where only some disciples are given the gift to be salt and light.

It is not an aspirational goal …

… disciples should be salt and light, but they might not be.

It is not a behavioural description which you switch on and off.

… when disciples act in a certain way that is when they are salt and light.

… but disciples can also choose not to be salt and light because they want to go and have some fun with their worldly friends.

When you have repented and are a disciple of Jesus …

… YOU ARE Salt.

… YOU ARE Light.

That is our identity.

Spiritually, as Salt, disciples are a basic necessity for the culture in which we live.