Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
We have come to a portion of the Sermon on the Mount that is very fitting for our service today. As we come into this sanctuary for the first time to worship together, I can almost hear the words of Jesus’ message being directed to us here personally today as a church. I believe as we study these verses this week and next that God is using these words to Confirm, Commission, and Challenge us for what is ahead.
We are a Remnant Church - a Philadelphia if you will - holding fast to the teachings of our Lord, but living in a time where the perversion of evil is becoming more bold and more aggressive to the believer. We are also living in a day when the imminence of Christ’s return is more evident than ever. As Jesus told the Church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:11 “I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Part of what we are to hold fast on this glorious day of celebration is found right here within these verses we are studying from the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men. 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.”
Right out of the gate, I the word that comes to mind when I hear Jesus’ words is ‘INFLUENCE.’ Jesus is telling his disciples and us that to be his followers, the Church that is alive and living by the Spirit of God is not something that is of secret or even a passive activity, but alive with influence to the people and the community around them.
Webster’s dictionary defines Influence as “the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways; the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command; an emanation of spiritual or moral force.” (Merriam-webster.com)
WM Tayor, who founded the Brooklyn Tabernacle, said, ‘influence is the exhalation of character (David Insell, Sermon Central).
Historian Philip Schaff described the overwhelming influence which Jesus had on subsequent history and culture of the world: “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science…he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.” (Credit: Sermon Central)
And as believers and the Church of Jesus Christ, we have the greatest power of influence to be bestowed on a man. Because Jesus said that we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit with the Authority of Satan and his demonic forces to go into the world of decay and darkness and rescue the souls of man from the day destruction that is nearly upon us. Yet all throughout the world, there are churches that are anemic, asleep, and so self-absorbed the world would neither know nor care if they were open or closed.
Crossway Christian Fellowship was put together for influence. You are made for influence. So that begs the question, what influence do you leave in the world? Each one of us was put here by God to do something to influence the world around us. You might be sitting here this morning thinking you don’t have much to offer, but I beg to differ. You have the greatest influence one could have and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
During a great spiritual movement in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, you lady by the name of Helen Ewing was saved. She was just a young unknown girl, but at the very threshold of her new life in Christ, she crowned Jesus as the Lord of her life and was filled with the Spirit and the Rivers of Living Water flowed from her life to the point that when she died at the age of 22, all of Scotland wept and hundreds of missionaries around the world mourned her death.
She had mastered the Russian language and was expecting to labor for God in Europe. She had no outstanding personality, never wrote a book, and never composed a hymn. She never preached a sermon and never traveled more than 200 miles from her home. Although she died so early in her life, she had led a great multitude to Jesus Christ. She arose every morning of her life at 5 am to Study the Word and to pray. She prayed for at least 300 hundred missionaries. In her prayer journal, she listed each request, when she started praying for the request, and when God answered it. (John MacArthur)
That’s influence and Jesus said that every believer carries with them the influence to change the world when they live a beatitude-quality life. Not as individuals but as the Church alive and laboring. Not by being weighted down by the world and certainly not by being changed by the world, but by being the salt and light of the world. Both of these substances are effective change agents that affect another substance through a radical transformation. Salt, in order to be effective, must come in contact with another. Light transforms a dark room and illuminates what is hidden.
Our influence comes from living as Kingdom Citizens that are transformed by Jesus Christ and hence we transform the world around us. As we climb the beatitude ladder we find our lives becoming more and more different from the world yet living within the world to influence it.
First, we come to a place of Spiritual Poverty and the realization of our spiritual poverty causes us to put our faith in Jesus as Savior to our citizenship (Matthew 5:3). Our spiritual poverty brings us to a place of mourning over our sin and discovers the comfort of God (Matthew 5:4). God comfort softens us and brings about meekness - strength under control - dependence on Him (Matthew 5:5), which causes an increased hunger and thirst for His righteousness (Matthew 5:6). As we grow in our faith and manifesting his righteousness we exude His character, being merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers (Matthew 5:7-9). Instead of the world, which follows after Satan, celebrating our godliness, it reviles against us and we are persecuted for our faith. (Matthew 5:10-12).
So when Jesus said we are the salt and the light of the earth, his statement isn’t abstract or intended to be apart from the beatitudes, but rather it is a result of the Christian life. As we live out our lives we will have an effect on the world and the world will react negatively at times. Nevertheless, we are to influence the world around us povitively for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now, when Jesus said you are the Salt of the Earth and You are the Light of the Word he is using it as an emphatic statement. We could literally translate this to you and you alone are the Salt of the Earth. You and you alone are the light of the world. There is no other salt and there is no different light (Hughes). He is also using the ‘you’ plural. You don’t say, “Pass the Salt” and then pick out one grain and drop it on there, nor do you light a room with a single ray of light. It takes a collective influence. (MacArthur)
This comes with the presupposition that we understand that the world is a dark place that needs light and is in a state of decay that needs the preservation of salt. Not only that, it is getting worse, not better. Anyone who says that we’re evolving up is blind as a bat. We have more knowledge now, more information through technology than ever before, better medicine, and all the things a modern society can offer we are more corrupt, more immoral, more divided, and more depraved than ever before. Meanwhile, the modern lukewarm church does nothing but entertain the goats. There’s no humility, no hunger for the things of God.
Instead of the Church influencing the world, we’re allowing the world to influence us. And that’s why it is so important we must live in the world, but be distinct from it. We cannot be corrupted by it. We cannot turn a blind eye to its immorality. We cannot swallow its materialism, take part in its self-centered ideals, listen to its philosophies, or take part in its doctrine of demons.
So the Salt of the earth and the light of the world isn’t what we aspire to be, it is who we are collectively and uniquely. The only salt of the earth is you and as we sit here today on Maugans Avenue in Hagerstown. We are sitting in the middle of a decaying and dark day. Jesus has us here for a purpose and it's up to us to make sure we live out that purpose until the trumpet sounds.
So with that, I will speak to you today about being the Salt of the Earth and then next week about being the light of the world. Now, why did Jesus use ‘salt’ to describe us? Why not gold or diamonds for something valuable? Why not water or air for something essential? It is because we are change agents and influencers, period.
There are four primary characteristics of salt that I can in my study that are relevant to Jesus’ teaching in the First Century and continue to speak to us today. First, Salt was valuable.
Salt is Valuable
In Rome, salt was thought to be divine. In fact, they called it theon. The Romans said that nothing was more valuable than salt and sun because in a day without refrigeration, the only way to preserve food, especially meat, was to rub it with salt.
In fact, Roman soldiers were paid with salt. And if you were not a good soldier, it was said that you weren’t ‘worth your salt.’ (Boice)
God made a covenant with salt with David (2 Chronicles 13:5) and required it to be included as a part of the seasoning of meat for sacrifice (Leviticus 2:13).
In Ezekiel 16:4 we learn that the people used salt to rub on a baby after it was born. This is because Salt has healing qualities and antiseptic qualities. When you have a toothache or an abscess, you are supposed to gargle with salt.
Salt is Pure
Another quality of salt is that it is pure white. So some commentators said that because of its whiteness, Jesus was saying that we are the salt of the earth because of our purity and we are to be examples of purity.
Salt Enhances Flavor
A third possibility of why Jesus chose to compare us to salt is that salt is a flavor enhancer. Let’s face it, you can tell quickly when a dish is too bland and by adding salt the flavor is greatly enhanced. I’ve been to restaurants where they do not put salt on the table because they consider it an insult to the chef for us to place salt on the food they’ve already prepared. So Jesus is saying you are the flavor of the world.
There are some problems with this because we’re too in the world but not of the world. Obviously, we are not to enhance the flavor of a world corrupted with sin. I guess there are some benefits to this, but in the literal sense, when the world is engaging in the sinful acts of man, how do we enhance that? That leads me to another option meaning that we are the salt of the earth and that is salt’s antiseptic qualities.
Salt Hurts But Heals
Salt has an antiseptic quality that makes it good to pour on wounds to fight infection and help them heal. The problem with that is that salt stings when placed in open wounds. Jesus didn’t say we’re to be sweet as honey to sooth the world’s guilt. Instead, we are to be the salt that there is such a distinction in our lives that we have a stinging effect toward sin.
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I think that today, more than ever we need to be stinging Christians when it comes to sin. 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?” In other world’s wounds sting a little to the world. We should identify sin and stand up for godliness. That’s not popular today. Instead, we are to turn a blind eye to sin and do whatever we can not to offend.
Salt Creates Thirst
Another option for the purpose of being the salt of the earth is that salt creates thirst. I think we should make a man thirsty for the things of God. Others should look at us and want what we’ve got. We have salt in our bodies to help make us thirsty and make us drink. If you don’t drink enough water, you will bloat and die. So salt helps us keep our body balanced with just the right amount of water to balance our health.
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37–38 LSB)
Salt is a Preservative
The last and most powerful function of salt, and what I think is the most applicable to the Church is that salt is a preservative. We are the antiseptic of the world preventing corruption. Our presence holds back the evil of the world, hinders the efforts of the enemy, stomps on the plans of demons, and holds back the darkness.
Our presence should bring conviction to those harboring sin and instill strength in the struggling saint. The very presence of Crossway Christian Fellowship in this community should change the entire spiritual atmosphere. Our salt should ward off the corruption and decay of the world upon the men and women of this area.
In Jesus’s day, if you wanted to prevent the meat from rotting, you rubbed a piece of meat in a layer of salt. You can still do the same today. Beloved people of Crossway, on this Palm Sunday in 2023 as we sang blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, we are sitting in a place where our presence should be felt as the salt of the world.
Colossians 1:10 “10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God;”
Are you ready for that? Then I want you to understand it is not a road that is easy and with applause from the earth. If we’re not salty, Jesus says we’re not good for anything other than being trampled under the feed of men and I fear there are too many lukewarm churches that are quite comfortable being the spiritual doormats of the world. Let’s get salty.
