INTRODUCTION
READ THE VERSE!
Salt, why did Jesus call these disciples the salt of the world. (Talk about salt in the shaker)
First of all, Jesus tells His disciples the way that they should be when he started them out with the beatitudes, then, He tells them of the relationship of the citizens of the kingdom to the world from God’s point of view. YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE WORLD.
Remember the beatitudes have to do with two things:
a. faith—beginning, growing, maturity and testing.
b. character of people who would be disciples of Jesus.
It is important to remember the Beatitudes because they set up a foundation upon which the rest of the Sermon on the Mount is built.
Transitional sentence: Why did Jesus use the metaphor of salt when He told His disciples what they were to be. Let us look at some interesting things that salt does.
SERMON
I. SALT IS USED AS A PRESERVATIVE.
A. Why would Jesus tell his disciples that they were the salt of the earth?
B. If we understand that salt was used as a preservative, then we can see one thing that Jesus was telling us about the word that we live in.
1. The reason that food needs a preservative is the fact that it decays with time, meat will rot and will have a foul odor if it has no preservative.
2. Jesus is telling us that the world around us is in a state of decay, and that it needs something to keep it from rotting and stinking.
3. Can you imagine what the world would be like without Christian influence.
4. PSALMS14:1-3 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
5. READ ROMANS 1:18-32
C. Before World War 1 people felt that the world was going to get better and better, but WW1 made people rethink that.
1. Salt cannot make something good, it can only keep it from going bad.
D. If something is full of decay, then there are diseases that accompany the decay.
1. The world has a bent toward sin.
2. The Christian is to help to be a preservative by trying to show people that they need to follow Jesus, and to stop as much decay as possible.
E. When God decided to flood the world in the time of Noah, the world was in full decay, and God decided to cleanse it. Jesus is telling the disciples that they are to slow the decay.
F. In the Beatitudes the disciples were taught to be different. The reason that the salt will preserve is because it is different than that which it is applied to. In order to act as a preservative, we must be different that the world. We cannot preserve it if we are the same as the world. We are called to be in the world, not of the world.
II. SALT IS USED TO SEASON FOOD.
A. In this metaphor Jesus is also saying that his disciples are to make the world palatable to God and to others as well.
1. The righteous few can make the world better for the rest of the world.
a. Abraham and God over Sodom. Gen. 18:20-32.
B. Salt can give flavor to that which is bland.
1. We do want to present the gospel as a bland boring message. The message of salvation is one that is exciting. If we can not get excited about God, then we are missing the boat!
C. Salt by itself is not very good, but when used in the correct proportions it can make things taste very good. We need to make sure when we tell people that they are lost that we balance that with God’s love for them and the fact that He desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
D. We must season our message with love and the realities of judgment.
III. SALT IS USED AS AN ANTISEPTIC.
A. We do not gargle salt-water to stay healthy! We do it for relief and to kill germs.
B. We are to keep sin out of our lives as much as possible by living faithfully to God.
C. The world will see what a positive effect that living a faithful life to God will do for them and they will want to be a part of that also.
1. READ EPHESIANS 5:1-4
2. 1 JOHN 2:15-17 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
D. When people see your life it can help stop the trend of living in sin in there lives also when they decide to follow Christ!
E. We are to take the message of the gospel to people to help heal the sickness of sin in their lives. Jesus said that he came for sinners, not the righteous. Matthew 9:12.
IV. SALT IS USLESS WHEN IT LOOSES ITS SALTINESS.
A. Salt cannot loose its saltiness, sodium chloride is a stable compound.
1. Talk about how salt was taken from salt marshes, not from evaporated salt water.
B. What would happen to the salt is that it would become so contaminated with impurities that it no longer tasted salty.
1. Talk about water in a glass and diluting it until there is no trace of salt left.
C. The word that is translated “tasteless” is also translated “Fools” and “Foolish”
1. ROM 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
2. 1CO 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
3. Disciples who loss their “saltiness” are making fools of themselves according to this passage could also read.
D. Jesus says when a disciple loses their saltiness, they are good for nothing. When a thing loses its essential quality and fails to perform its essential duty, it is fit for nothing but to be thrown away!
E. In the Eastern countries the salt that had become so impure that it could not do what it was suppose to do was used on the roads for people to trample on.
F. As Christian’s we lose our saltiness when we become to much like the world.
1. JAMES 1:27 This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
CONCLUSION
Look at the salt shaker. Talk about salt. Why did Jesus say that you are the salt of the earth?
If we understand the uses of salt, we can understand that Jesus expects Christians, those who lay claim to being in the family of God to:
1. Help keep the world from going into total decay by being an influence in the world.
2. We are to season the world, make it more palatable to man and God by being involved in all areas of life.
3. We are to take the cleansing message of the gospel to the world.
4. We are to always be salty. This can only happen when we do not allow ourselves to be the same as the world, we must be unstained by the world.
If you look at this salt shaker, you will notice that it does not do what it is suppose to do unless you pour it out. Jesus said that you are the salt of the world, He also said, you are the light of the world. Next week we will look at what it means to get out of the salt shaker and be a light!
