“Agents of Change”
Matthew 5:13-16
Toward the end of 2013, we began a series of messages on the Sermon on the Mount.
Our goal is to take this great message of Christ, verse by verse, and seek to understand the profound truths within.
Before Christmas, we stopped having completed the portion normally referred to as the “Beatitudes”.
Beatitude means “Supreme Blessedness”
Jesus pronounces upon a certain group a supreme blessing.
He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who extend mercy, those who seek to make peace, and those who are persecuted.
Throughout the weeks of study, I made the point that this was not various groups of people, but rather it is a picture of what a saved life looks like.
A saved person is The Supremely Blessed person which Christ is describing.
His life has been changed by the Gospel, and the fruit of that change is found within the beatitudes.
Now, the last beatitude describes how the world will often respond to believers.
Hatred is the natural response of people who have no affection for Christ when they are confronted by His truth.
And since believers are called to be ambassadors for Christ, we are often the objects of this hatred.
This is seen often in the media.
Christians speak out on the truths of the word, and they are immediately vilified by those who have no affection for God or His Word.
It seems those who speak against God can say anything they desire without little consequence; however, those who speak for God and His Word are called bigoted, narrow minded, hateful and ignorant.
This is the world we are living in; a world greatly opposed to our God.
So, what are we to do?
Do we retreat to the monasteries or the wooded communes to avoid this world?
Sometimes that may seem to be a nice thought... to totally divorce ourselves from this world.
To leave the world and simply live as believers with other believers.
But is this the call that believers have from Christ? To run from the world?
NO, IT IS NOT!!!
In fact, the very next words of Christ are a call to be influential in this world.
We are not to hide; in fact, quite the opposite.
We are supposed to influence this world!
We are going to see today that Christ moves from His beatitudes to a very specific message of urgency for His apostles (and by extension all of His followers).
That we are to be Agents of Change in this world.
READ: Matthew 5:13-16
Most people are very familiar with the phrase “the salt of the earth”.
It has become a common colloquialism which we use to describe someone who is humble and unpretentious.
Someone will say, “You should meet Joe. He is a great guy, nice as they come, salt of the earth!”
And it would probably not surprise people to find out that this phrase comes from the Bible.
What might be surprising, though, is that this phrase is much more than just a term of endearment or praise.
This phrase, which was uttered by Christ in His Sermon on the Mount, has a powerful inherent meaning.
Its more than just humility or lack of pretentiousness... in fact, it is MUCH MORE!
What we are going to see as we study today is that the term “Salt of the Earth” and its parallel “Light of the World” are very specific characteristics which belong solely to those who diligently follow the teachings of Christ.
OUTLINE:
How was salt used in the Bible?
How does salt lose its taste?
How is light a parallel for salt?
I. HOW WAS SALT USED IN THE BIBLE?
1) SALT WAS AN INTEGRAL PART OF COVENANT MAKING
Leviticus 2:13 “You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
Exodus 30:34-35 “The Lord said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part), 35 and make an incense blended as by the perfumer,seasoned with salt, pure and holy.”
Numbers 18:19 “All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.”
2 Chronicles 13:5 “Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?”
What is the significance?
We will see that salt does many things because of its natural properties, but it also has spiritual significance because of its use in the holy offerings and worship activities of Israel.
Salt is one of the tools of covenant making, and this would have been known by the Jews to which Jesus was speaking.
2) SALT WAS USED AS A FLAVORING
This coincides with the way we are more familiar with using salt today; but its nothing new.
In fact, using salt as a flavoring goes back to the book of Job (the book many scholars believe to have predated the books of Moses)
Job 6:6-7 “Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow? (note: some translations say the ‘white of the egg’) 7 My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me.”
Job is making a point that salt makes food more palatable.
Paul also references salt as a seasoning in Collisions....
Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
In Matthew 5, Jesus uses “taste” as a focal use of salt, saying that if it “loses its taste” it is no good anymore.
So, we know salt was used season food, thus making it more pleasant to the palate.
Interesting Thought:
I don’t want to get into the application portion too quickly, but I want to make sure we do not miss this point...
God would have no reason to stomach the world if it were not for believers.
It would be entirely loathsome to Him were it not for the precious few which He calls His own.
Believers are the only ones keeping God from spewing this world out of His mouth!
So, we understand salt is used as a flavoring.
3) SALT WAS USED FOR PURIFICATION AND CLEANSING
Prior to refrigeration, meat would spoil very easily if it were not properly preserved.
The agent of preservation was salt.
Its natural ability to kill the microbes and fungi that cause food to spoil quickly has made it the natural tool for preservation since ancient times.
The prophet Ezekiel even mentions its use in the birth process of children in ancient Israel.
Ezekiel 16:4 “And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.”
Notice he said these things “didn’t happen” and that was abnormal.
There is also a somewhat obscure passage in Mark wherein Jesus connects salt with purification...
Mark 9:49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.”
This is talking about the coming judgment.
Fire purifies, and so does salt.
Unbelievers will be delivered to the fires of hell thus purifying the world.
Believers will be purified by God’s testing at judgment to see if their works have been made with gold, silver and precious stones or wood, hay and stubble (1 Cor 3).
“Salted” with fire means “purified” by fire.
QUOTE: Andrew Bonar, in his commentary on Leviticus, makes the point that the reason for the consistent use of salt in the covenantal offerings was its properties as a preservative. He says, “This salt indicates corruption removed and prevented; and in the case of the meat offering, it is as if to say, Thy body and thy substance are become healthy now; they shall not rot.”
NOTE: Covenants were generally confirmed by sacrificial meals and salt was always present. Since, too, salt is a preservative, it would easily become symbolic of an enduring covenant.
So, we see salt has an amazing amount of symbolic significance.
Its a covenantal tool.
Its a seasoning agent.
Its a natural preservative.
And Jesus looks at His apostles and says, “YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH”
NOTE: He doesn’t say, “You should be the salt of the earth”
No, He says “YOU ARE!!!”
He is speaking to His apostles... and by extension to all of us... and He is saying we are somethinng VERY important in this world.
We are the REPRESENTATIVES OF HIS NEW COVENANT.
We are the SEASONING WHICH MAKES THIS WORLD PALATABLE TO HIM.
We are the AGENT OF PRESERVATION which keeps this world’s system from spiraling into utter depravity.
NOTE: Before going further, I want to ask a question: What would the world be without believers?
Some people think it would be great; atheists blames Christians for everything under the sun!
But the reality is there is a reason why hospitals are called “Baptist”, “St. Vincents” and “Methodist” - because the church has been influential in seeing these institutions built.
Orphanages, assisted living communities, food pantries and all kinds of other philanthropic institutions have been inspired by people who were themselves inspired by a faith in Christ.
He told them they were salt, and they BELIEVED Him, and went and made changes!
Conversely, consider the “utopias” which men have tried to create outside of Christ.
QUOTE: Brian Schwertely wrote this in regard to the enlightenment period when many in the western world abandoned the precepts of Scripture as superstition and turned to man-centered logic: “All man-made schemes of utopia, or an earthly paradise, are doomed to failure. After the elites of the western powers abandoned the Christian worldview, there was a great sense of optimism among humanists. Without religious superstition (they thought) and with the amazing strides of science, technology, medicine, agriculture, industry and education it was only a matter of time until poverty, warfare, illiteracy, disease and conflict were conquered. This view was widespread among western intellectuals during the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. But, this secular humanistic fantasy came crashing down with two bloody world wars, the inhumanity of communism, the holocaust and the other horrors of the twentieth century. Virtually no secular intellectuals speak about such a utopia anymore. The reason for this is simple. The earth of fallen man is a putrefying pile of filth without Christ.”
Transitional Statement:
So, we have seen Christ’s statement that His followers are SALT, and what salt means. Now we move on to a very important question...
II. HOW DOES SALT LOSE ITS SALTINESS?
Jesus tells us that this statement of His followers being salt could be hindered, with the salt failing to perform its function. But how???
Salt is made up mostly of sodium chloride, and modern salt which most of us have in our homes is very pure and does not go bad.
However, during the time of the Bible it was not easy to find pure salt.
It was often harvested from the marshes and lagoons near the Dead Sea and much of it was corrupted by undesirable substances like gypsum.
As a result, salt could turn, and when it did it no longer bore any of its valuable qualities.
This is why Jesus makes the point in more than one place that salt could, in fact, “lose its saltiness”.
Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.”
Mark 9:50 “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Important Note: Some see this passage as an argument for a person’s ability to lose his/her salvation.
They will say, “If salt represents a believer, and salt can lose its saltiness, then a believer can lose his salvation.”
But this is an example of taking an analogy too far.
The salt represents the believer’s influence in the world as a member of God’s covenant.
If a person is claiming to be a Christian, but it not being an influence in the world, then his position within the covenant is worthless.
He is not being the covenantal representative he is supposed to be.
How does this happen?
Christians stop evangelizing.
Christians stop trying to influence social change.
Christians stop seeking change within themselves.
And beloved, sadly many modern churches have arrived at this point... and their saltiness has gone bland.
They have stopped preaching the Gospel, and replaced it with a man-centered, self-help message.
They have given in to the culture and approved or every type of social evil.
They have stopped the call to personal holiness, and replaced it with a worthless easy-believism.
Believers are the salt of the earth... but unfortunately in many modern churches, the salt has turned... and is no longer
making a change in the world.
Finally, I want to answer one last question about this passage...
III. HOW IS LIGHT A PARALLEL FOR SALT?
v.13 says, “You are the salt of the earth”
v.14 says, “You are the light of the world”
This is an example of synonymous parallelism.
Both salt and light are being paralleled because they change their environments.
Salt flavors, cleanses and purifies.
Light exposes and chases away darkness.
They are both AGENTS OF CHANGE which cannot and should not be withheld from the world.
R.C. Sproul, in his commentary on Matthew, talks about a book about this truth called, “Out of the Salt Shaker & Into the World” wherein the author makes the point that we are not being the AGENTS OF CHANGE that we ought to be.
And it is hard to argue with her.
When we examine Christian history, we see men and women who rocked the world with their convictions.
The early church fathers whose writings are powerful and still influential today.
The great ecumenical councils who came together to solidify a proper understanding of the faith.
The great teachers of history, including men like Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Edwards, Spurgeon and the list goes on and on.
These man were AGENTS OF CHANGE in their respective worlds.
And it wasn’t just pastors and theologians...
There have been Christian artists, musicians, scholars, and even political figures who have affected the world for the Gospel.
They all understood what Jesus said...
They were salt and light.
And they let their light shine, refusing that it be hidden.
So, too, should we all.
No matter what our calling...
from pastor to plumber...
from elder to electrician...
from deacon to deliveryman...
We ALL are supposed to be AGENTS OF CHANGE wherever God has put us.
CONCLUSION: I want to end with a simple thought. Jesus makes an interesting point in this passage; He calls His followers the “Light of the World”.
In reality, He is the light of the world (John 8:12).
So, how can He call His followers the light?
Simple: We are reflectors.
As the moon has no natural light of its own, but rather reflects the light of the sun, so too the believers reflects the light of God’s Son.
When you ask, “How am I an AGENT OF CHANGE?” the answer is, when you reflect the Son.
