Woes, Salt, Light and the Law
Luke 6:24-26, Matthew 5:13-20
OUTLINE: “Woes, Salt, Light and Law”
Luke 6:24-26, Matthew 5:13
Introduction: The Woes of the Worldly (Luke 6:24-26) record the traits, mindsets, and attitudes of people who are immersed in the things of this world, and demonstrate the opposite characteristics of the Beatitudes.
I. “You are the Salt of the Earth.”
A. Salt brings out the flavor in dead foods.
B. Salt preserves and purifies.
C. Salt was used in sacrifices.
D. Salt in the OT points to Christ.
E. Salt in the NT speaks of the Gospel.
II. “You are the Light of the World.”
A. Cities built on hills are to be visible.
B. Lamps are lit to extinguish darkness.
C. A True Disciple of Jesus does not consciously, intentionally, or constantly
hide the light of the Gospel which has been given to him!
D. Salt may influence quietly and secretively, but LIGHT is visible and conspicuous.
III. The Fulfillment of the Law
A. The Old Testament prophesies a Savior who will be greater than the law and prophets.
B. Jesus “fulfills” but does not terminate the law.
C. Jesus expands upon the law by establishing His law in our hearts.
We studied The Beatitudes for a few weeks which reflect the blessings that God gives to the Children whom he has adopted. A Contrast to the Beatitudes are the Woes of the Worldly found in Luke’s account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Luke 6:24-26:
“But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. 25 Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”
The Woes of the Worldly record the traits, mindsets, and attitudes of people who are immersed in the things of this world, the things of the here and now, and demonstrate the opposite characteristics of the Beatitudes: The woes do not only describe people who are “rich” in possessions verses those who are “poor” in possessions, but rather people’s attitude and priorities toward others and toward God during this lifetime.
Luke is speaking to those who are rich in THEMSELVES instead in God’s GRACE; they trust in their own self-security and self-reliance rather than totally reliance upon God. This would include the proud of this world. Those who take God for granted and so neglect Him, His grace, and His Kingdom, and neglect to respond wholeheartedly to His grace in this life: They have received their reward NOW in terms of earthly things but will not receive God’s Kingdom rewards in the future. In the future, they will be left hungry and starving for God’s grace and presence.
People who are poor in spirit place their HOPE in God IN THIS LIFETIME. They have not been deceived by materialism. They do not allow the blessings FROM God to become more important than God, Himself. They use their resources for the Glory of God, not for themselves. They are not concerned with how they “look” in the eyes of the World because they realize that it doesn’t matter. To the poor in spirit, pride, self-image, success, possessions and popularity are not valid or accurate tests of the truth. Jesus is the TRUTH to them.
In the Old Testament, FALSE prophets were POPULAR among the people, but the True Prophets of God were put to death. Jesus warned that many false prophets would rise in the church and we see false teachers abound in the World today: name it and claim it preachers, health and wealth gospels, teachers who bend the truth of God’s Word to “tickle” people’s ears are usually well-liked, miracle seekers instead of seekers of God, pastors who prefer style over Biblical Substance. Today, pastors who teach Holiness, reverence, repentance and obedience to God are usually shunned in our country and killed in others.
“You are the Salt of the Earth”
With those things in mind, we return to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus says: "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
Jesus didn’t say we were the potatoes, the sugar, or the honey of the Earth, and there are some very good reasons for that. We use salt today, as a matter of fact, our understanding of the benefits of salt are far more extensive than in Jesus’ day. I read that over 14,000 uses for salt have been discovered.
Salt brings out the flavor in otherwise dead-tasting foods; as advanced as technology is today, nobody has found any other substance on the face of this Earth that does what salt is able to do in bringing out the inherent taste of otherwise bland and in many cases, downright DISTASTEFUL and DEAD foods. It brings the taste of dead foods to life. Job 6:6-7 says:” Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg? I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.” This refers to more than finicky taste-buds. There is a spiritual reality to these verses.
Salt preserves and purifies. In the days before refrigeration, salt was essential in preserving foods which would otherwise spoil quickly. Today, many preservatives which are manufactured include salt. If you ate food that was decayed, you could become lethally sick. Today the results are no different.
Salt has valuable medicinal purposes in cleaning and purifying wounds. Salt water, in varying amounts, still provides the best cleaning and sterilization solutions. Salt water helps to heal and has the ability to kill the impurities and infections as well as drawing out the poison of a wound.
Salt was used in sacrifices. Leviticus 2:13: “Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.” Numbers 18:19: “Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for both you and your offspring.” Here Salt is a symbol of the righteousness and purity of Jesus and HIS sacrifice.
In I Kings 2: 19-22, Elisha is in Jericho: “The men of the city said to Elisha, "Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive." 20 "Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put salt in it." So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.” 22 And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.” Salt will actually melt ice and make hard water soft.
In the Old Testament, salt speaks of the promise of the Gospel. It anticipates the righteous sacrifice which will be made for us. It speaks of God’s covenant promise of providing salvation. Salt points to Christ.
In the New Testament, Jesus comes into lives and makes those who are bitter toward Him, sweet. He turns the dead into life. He preserves you by seasoning you with His own righteousness and His own life.
He becomes THE HOPE and preservative that is within you and sends us into the world as the salt of the earth. Col. 4:6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” If you have the Spirit of God in you, YOU WILL BE THE SALT of the EARTH. Your life and conversation will be salted and seasoned with Him.
Mark 9:50: "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? (God’s supernatural work in a human heart can even make the unsalty, salty again.) Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other." How can we have SALT in OURSELVEs?
If we have the Spirit in us, we will have the salt we need. Salt in the NT speaks of the Jesus and His Gospel of LIfe: It speaks of the Kingdom of God in us and its influence in the world. Sometimes your witness will sting others, like rubbing salt into a wound. Sometimes it will soothe and save; sometimes (MOST times) the salt will be rejected.
In Jesus' time people, salt was so important that people sometimes bartered with salt, in fact, part of the Roman soldier's pay was given to him in salt. It was called "Salarium." From this Latin word comes our word SALARY. We are given God’s grace as a gift, not because we worked for it, but we are to share that grace in this world. We are to be influential with the grace of God in Christ which has been given by God as the GIFT and the GIVER. (He is both!)
Salt is in and of itself always pure. Impure and tasteless salt is not valuable because it has been mixed with something else. There are many false teachings in the world that have taken the Purity of the Gospel and added to it causing impurity. Salt will remain to be salt, but those that have been distorted by adding impurities, will be thrown away.
“You are the light of the world.”
Matt. 5: 14: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Jesus first makes a statement, “You are the light of the world,” and then follows it with some very clear and obvious explanations. How am I the light of the World? A city that is built on top of a hill obviously cannot be hidden. If you wanted a city to be “HIDDEN”, you wouldn’t place it on a hill; you might place it in forest, in a valley, or BEHIND a hill, but you wouldn’t place it ON a HILL. God’s Kingdom is to be visible, like Cities built on hills: not only influential like salt.
Cities built on hills are visible day and night. The limestone buildings of Jesus’ time glimmered in the bright sun by day, but a city on a hill were like great lamps in the darkness at night when the evening lamps were lit. Oil lamps were lit at night to bring light into the darkness. Only a fool would light a lamp and then put a bucket over it. It would waste valuable fuel and valuable light with a basket over it and totally defeat the purpose of the lamp and light. Lamps are lit to extinguish darkness.
The example is quite obvious by Jesus: Jesus is the Light of the World and He has shared his LIGHT with those who follow Him with the express purpose of SHINING. A True Disciple of Jesus does not consciously, intentionally, or constantly hide the light of the Gospel which has been given to him. It is impossible for disciples to hide the truth of Jesus.
Without Jesus’ disciples shining His light, the world around you may never see it. It is a command by Jesus FOR US to be light in the dark places of this world, like a city on a Hill: Salt may work quietly and at times secretively, but light is “OUT THERE”; LIGHT is Visible and conspicuous. You can’t miss it in the darkness of this world. The LIGHT is totally different than the darkness and it will always point to the glorious light of Jesus and His Saving grace. The light of our lives, which are the good works which God planned beforehand (Eph. 2:10) will inevitably and CLEARLY point to our Father who is in Heaven.
The Fulfillment of the Law
Last week I heard a TV evangelist say this: “The law has to be removed from the life of a Christian in the same way that the stone was rolled away from the tomb at Jesus’ resurrection. The law was written on stone and it has to be rolled away for you to have life.” In a way it’s correct. You need grace to save not law but what did Jesus say?
Matt. 5:17: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.19 "Whoever * then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
“Fulfill” is not the same as terminate or abolish. Think of the Old Testament law and the prophets as being a big EMPTY water jar of rules, regulations, and commands BUT ALSO of all the very concrete promises that are repeated over and over in different ways throughout OT history pointing to a GREATER GLORY. The Old Testament points to a Savior who will be far greater than the law and prophets.
(In the OT, whenever you hear words like “Chosen One”, my servant, salvation, wisdom, think of Jesus. When you hear prophet, priest, or king, “word”, truth, way, life, water, bread, or see miracles, think of Jesus. The OT is sometimes difficult to understand, HOWEVER, if you know the Jesus from the NT, you will see the shadows of Him EVERYWHERE in the Old because the entire OT points to (predicts) the coming of Jesus the Savior sent from God.
In Matthew, Jesus comes into our world and begins to reveal that HE IS THE ONE that the OT has been referring to, and so the jar begins to fill up. In His lifetime, He fills the jar up…and then it goes over the top with His Death, Resurrection and Ascension, but the jar isn’t smashed or done away with; It’s under no pressure or obligation to do so, as a matter of fact, Jesus commanded that YOU DON’T ABOLISH the Law because He KEEPS ADDING to it now, so that it continues to OVERFLOW with His life giving grace as His Kingdom is being built.
Jesus expands upon the law by putting it on its correct footing and foundation: He establishes His law in our hearts so that we will actually live OUT OF the law instead of being judged BY the law. Instead of the law being restrictive and punitive, Jesus teaches that the meaning of the law becomes restorative. It is not merely externalized like the Pharisees, but it is internalized. The law written on the hearts of believers becomes a platform or launch pad for the Church, those who are saved by grace, to accomplish righteous Kingdom living in an evil world. Those “good works” will point to the extreme love of our Savior and Heavenly Father and be expressions of loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength.
When people read the book of your life, when they “read your email”, do they glorify your Father who is in Heaven?
