Teaching about Salt and Light
Mt 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
Mt 5:14 You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Mt 5:15 Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. Mt 5:16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
What is Jesus is talking about
Why is He using the descriptions of Salt and Light
What do we know about salt and light
And how can we apply what we know to what Jesus wants u8s to do
1 Lets start with Salt
Did you know that there are 13 types of salt?
• Table salt
a fine-grained refined salt with additives that make it free-flowing, is mainly used in cooking and as a table condiment
• Pickling (or Canning) Salt
fine-grained salt used to make brines for pickles, sauerkraut, etc.
it contains no additives, which would cloud the brine
• Rock Salt
comes in large chunky crystals and is intended primarily for use in home ice cream churns
must use a grinder if intended to be used in cooking
• Seasoned Salt
regular salt combined with other flavoring ingredients
examples: onion salt, garlic salt and celery salt
• Sel gris
solar-evaporated salt from the northern Atlantic coast of France
Qualities: Hard, moist gray crystals of solar-evaporated; briny; sweet; delicate; dissolves slowly
The first thing we learn about salt is it adds flavor
Another thing that salt does is preserve
• Before the invention of the refrigerator, people salted meat to preserve it.
Salt makes people thirsty
• One of the most distinctive qualities of salt is that it makes people thirsty. There is an old saying: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”
• Well, this saying is not altogether true. You may not be able to force a horse to drink by pushing its head down toward the water, but you can make it thirsty enough to want to drink. A small salt tablet placed in the horse’s mouth will quickly change its mind!
• That’s why bars put out free peanuts and pretzels,
But if the salt looses it’s saltiness what good is it?
Well that covers Salt so lets spend some time talking about Light
• When we don’t have it we feel trapped / confined / vonerable
• (Power failure)
Light makes things visable
• Walking around at night or just in the dark in general
When it does appear we are drawn to it
• Bug lights
• Spotlights in parking lots
So Now that we have learned alittle about what Salt and Light are and what they do
• We are back to asking the question of why Jesus would be using these examples
First we have to underline the word You
• Not just the disciples / early believers / people of His day / but us YOU
Jesus is telling us that we are called to be examples of The Good News
• So with this as his foundation we see that
• Light attracts / But who does it attract? / The Lost
• Wandering around / stumbling / running into obstacles (Examples of a lost world)
Then they see a Light in the Darkness
• And they are drawn to that light
• They / the world comes looking for the comfort that the light provides
• Remember when the power comes back on (What a sense of relief)
• This is the relief that they are looking for
This leads us to the salt aspect of what Jesus is teaching
• Once the world comes
• Once they are attracted to us because there is something about us
• A Glow
• A sense that we have something that they have been searching for
• And they feel they need
Salt adds flavor to bland food / and it also brings flavor to a bland life
Col 4:6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone
• A little salt in food is good / But a lot will make you sick
When we talk to unbelievers about Christ we should allow it to spice up their lives
• And leave them thirsty for more.
We as Christians have to understand that blessings go responsibilities.
Those in the kingdom have a responsibility to function as salt and light to the world.
The purpose of discipleship is to bring stability, wholeness, and the knowledge of God to all the earth through the performance of good works.
And the end result is vs 16
Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
