Making Jesus better known to others will complicate your life, but the rewards are out of this world! Getting married, or having children complicates things; but they’re worth it. Spending time with people who don’t know Jesus will complicate your life, but it’s so worth it. Ask a mother a few weeks after giving birth: Is it worth the time, the exhaustion, the pain, the sweat and tears and the money? She’ll probably say, “I’m tired, it’s hard work, it’s not easy – but I love this baby! Yes, it’s worth it!” Impacting your world, and the people in it, will cost time and money as you buy lunch, pay for a coffee, make a long phone call, or change your arrangements to sit with someone who is hurting; but what an investment it is when we invest in the lives of people and their eternal future. No wonder Jesus said, “Store up for yourself treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:20-21).
(Read Matthew 5: 13-15)
Are you salt? Are you light? Are you both? What does Jesus mean when he says, “You are the salt of the earth”? If we’re the salt of the Earth does that mean Christians are meant to bring about high blood pressure amongst each other and amongst those who are not-yet-Christians? No, that’s not what Jesus meant, but there are three possibilities:
1: Salt makes us thirsty. So as we get sprinkled into the lives of other people, our Christian saltiness will cause others to be thirsty for God.
2: Salt adds a zing and a spice to bland food. I know, too much is bad for you but forget that for a moment. The point is that salt, when poured out, adds taste.
3: Salt preserves. It holds back decay. But in all 3 cases the salt has to be used and poured out. Salt only preserves when it is up close.
Which of the three does Jesus mean? I don’t know. Quite possibly all three and we can’t be sure. However, we can be sure that salt left in a grinder does nothing. Becky Pippert once wrote that ‘unless salt gets poured out of the shaker it remains a mere table ornament’. Salt in the bin at the side of the road is pointless if it is meant to be melting the ice!
You are the salt of the earth. It’s about a life that’s attractive and perhaps even gritty; a life that prompts others to be thirsty for God as they see him at work in us and through us; a way of life and an attitude to people that seeks to hold back moral decay in families, in society, the church and in our own homes.
Being the salt of the earth spoken of by Jesus involves considerable potency and close proximity. We will be considerably potent as salt only by developing our personal relationship with God and with his Church, in prayer, worship and the scriptures.
Steven Furtick leads a Church of 9000 people in America. In a recent article he said this: ‘One of the greatest [criticisms of today’s Church] is that it’s malnourished. From people who leave these churches, you hear, “I wasn’t getting fed.” Or, “I just want some deeper teaching.” From people outside these churches, you hear, “Too much milk, not enough meat.”’ Steven’s conclusion is simple: ‘Most …Christians aren’t malnourished because of what they’re fed on Sunday. They’re malnourished because they don’t feed themselves Monday [to] Saturday’. Steven goes on to say that if Sunday is your only meal of the week you will be malnourished, regardless of whether Sunday’s meal is milky or meaty. Church Pastors must serve up hot, fresh food every time we preach. However, believers must feed ourselves day by day from God’s word. I get hungry every few hours. I physically could not wait seven days between meals. Neither can my spirit thrive if I wait seven days between meals for the soul.
There’s no short-cut to being high quality salt, highly potent; but it is worth it, provided we put that considerable salty potency into use, in close proximity to people. Salt that’s up close, rubbed in, packed around meat or fish will work wonders. Christians like us need to be salty and involved in the lives of people who don’t yet know Christ. If all of our friends are Christians we’ve got a problem – and I know too many Christians who only have Christian friends. I was speaking to a Christian lady from another Church last year and she said, “I’ve got too many friends already and they are all Christians.” Now I don’t know if she meant Facebook but that’s a problem. I spoke to a lady from another Church this week. She said, “I’ve not got lots of friends but they are all Christians. What can I do?” And we discussed inviting a few neighbours around for a cup of tea to get to know them better, creating an opportunity to be salt that is up close, poured out, and sprinkled into the lives of people who don’t yet know Jesus.
Christians make great hospital visitors, school governors, town councillors, and volunteers. Christians make great friends to the lonely, the housebound, widows, single parents and more.
Jesus used many different metaphors and illustrations as to what it means to be his people, to impact our world for Him. So, I long to see us take seriously the call of Jesus to be fishers of men, going into the world making disciples, but I realise we need to know how to do that. Sometimes we hear plenty of theory and not enough practical examples; Yes, I hear the Bible saying, “Go and make disciples”, teach people to follow Jesus; but please tell me how I can do that?
I’ve recently been challenged by the fact that the Bible challenges us to arrange our lives in order to impact people for Christ. Following Jesus every day and in every way is not a personal self-help manual. It is the way to love God and to love our neighbours.
If I live a life of high potency by knowing Jesus will that make Jesus known? If I’m full of salt by knowing Jesus and I immerse myself into the lives of people who don’t yet know him will that make Jesus known? To a degree, yes it will; but Jesus asks us to be both salt and light. Light makes clear that which is hidden. Literally, we are light in this dark world when we shed some light on issues, and especially when we shed light on things that really matter.
In 2 Corinthians 4: 5-6 we’re told that when the message of Christ was first clarified to us God ‘made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ’. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God!
We are light when we communicate clearly the message about Jesus. It is a message that mustn’t be hidden or obscured. Jesus wants us to spiritually illuminate other people.
A few weeks ago I quoted St. Theresa who said that we are now the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. I wanted to add that we are also his mouthpiece to a world that needs to hear about him (Romans 10:14ff).
I sometimes quote St. Francis of Assisi who said to his disciples, “Go and preach the gospel. Use words only if necessary.” Who am I to disagree with such a saint? But he was a man of his time. We must be men and women of our time. Yes, we are called to preach the gospel by who we are and what we do, what we don’t do, and how we treat one another and the world we live in; but we must also be light in a spiritually dark world. We need to be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have. St. Peter writes, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be eloquent; and the reason is always, “Jesus”!
Why have you just sat with me for hours listening to my problems? I’ve done it because of Jesus. Why do you go to Church? It’s because I love Jesus. Why do you believe marriage is between a man and a woman, not two men and not two women? That’s because I take the teaching of Jesus seriously. Why do you want me to come to Church with you? I want you to come because I’d love you to know Jesus better.
It’s all about Jesus, and we are light when we communicate clearly the message about Jesus. We do that not only by living out his teachings, but also by clearly presenting his message of forgiveness and grace with the clarity that comes when light shines into darkness. So, just how do we do that? I’d thoroughly recommend this book by Bill Hybels: ‘Becoming a contagious Christian’. We’re using excerpts from it over the next few weeks during this preaching series, as we seek to make Jesus better known; and as we seek to impact our world for Him.
Some people are potentially very salty but they shy away from people. Some people get thoroughly involved in charity work or volunteering but they live life almost unaware of, or uninfluenced by the love of Christ. They lack saltiness. Some people say it is all about preaching the message of heaven and hell. They shed light, but lack the gritty, thirst producing, close proximity of salt in action, up close with people.
This series continues two weeks today with a talk entitled ‘To be authentic is to be attractive’. Other titles in the series include ‘the call to compassion’, ‘the strength of sacrifice’, ‘new relationships and new opportunities’, ‘Be yourself’, and will end with a talk called ‘making the message clear’.
As for today, are you salt? Are you light? God calls us to rise to the challenge of being both – but it remains his responsibility to produce results as he draws people to himself. Let’s pray.
