Matthew 5:13-16

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Colossians 3:16-17
• Hymn — O Come, My Soul, Bless Thou the Lord (#6)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Catechism — Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 100–101 (The Lord's Prayer: Preface and First Petition)
• Hymn — May the Mind of Christ My Savior (#644)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — All to Jesus I Surrender (#562)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Church as Salt and Light in a Dark World

Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16

I. The Church as the Salt of the Earth

A. Salt was among the most valuable commodities in the ancient world — used primarily to preserve food from decay

1. A Roman official wrote: "There is nothing more useful than salt and sunshine"
2. Christ calls the church the salt and sunshine of the Earth, a radical yet fitting claim

B. The image of a rotting earth is rooted in Old Testament history

1. Genesis 6:5 — mankind's wickedness causes the earth to rot; Noah is the salt
2. Genesis 11 — the earth rots again at Babel; Abraham and his seed become the salt
3. 2 Chronicles 13:5 — the Davidic Covenant is called a covenant of salt
4. The pattern: earth rots → God preserves through a chosen people → fulfilled ultimately in Christ and his church

C. Jesus warns that salt which loses its taste is worthless (Matthew 5:13)

1. Technically, sodium chloride cannot lose its saltiness — scholars suggest Jesus may be citing a known Jewish proverb: "Can salt lose its flavor?" answered by "Can a sterile mule bear young?"
2. True salt cannot lose its flavor; only counterfeit salt does — those who lose their taste show they were never true salt
3. Good fruit reveals good root; bad works reveal false profession — ye shall know them by their fruit

D. Application: the church is not merely a philanthropic option — it is the preservative of the Earth

1. Tom Holland's Dominion argues that nearly every philanthropic institution (hospitals, justice, homeless shelters) ultimately traces its origins to Christianity
2. Salt also gives taste — the church in Christ makes the world a delight, drawing eyes upward to God

II. The Church as the Light of the World

A. Background: Isaiah 49:1-6 presents an individual servant who is to be a light to the nations

1. Matthew 4:12-17 shows Jesus personally fulfilling this as he goes to Zebulun and Naphtali, the Galilee of the Gentiles, fulfilling Isaiah 9
2. In Matthew 5:14, the light of Christ the individual head trickles down to his body — the church organically united to him by the Spirit carries the light to the ends of the earth
3. This mystery is confirmed throughout the New Testament — Acts 9 (Christ identifying with the persecuted church: "Paul, why are you persecuting me?")

B. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden — the contrast with Rome

1. Rome, the city of seven hills, was considered the eternal city from which light went to the world
2. Jesus declares it is not the powerful empire but the people of God who are the true light of the world
3. Augustine's two kingdoms: the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of heaven — it is the otherworldly kingdom that brings light to the world

C. The church serves the world by being unlike the world

1. There is to be a holy strangeness to Christian worship, charity, and evangelism
2. The church does not use worldly methods and mechanisms — it proclaims the unadulterated gospel, resting on the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit
3. It is not merely individual Christians but the church's corporate holiness that spreads into communities and neighborhoods

D. The aim of good works — Matthew 5:16

1. "So that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven"
2. The goal is not better marriages or financial stability — it is to make worshipers of God, moving hearts from earthly gods to the one true God of heaven and earth

III. The Character of the Salt and the Light

A. The salt and light passage cannot be read apart from the Beatitudes that precede it (Matthew 5:3-12)

1. Jesus does not say "blessed are the highly intelligent" or "blessed are the movers and shakers"
2. He says "blessed are the poor in spirit" — those who know their spiritual bankruptcy before a holy God
3. The traits that advance the Kingdom of Heaven are not the traits that advance the kingdom of the world

B. Christ himself is the model: he shines his light by entering the deepest darkness and dying for sinners

1. His silence before his accusers was not weakness but a holy strangeness — the centurion declared, "Surely this was the Son of God"
2. Paul's instruction not to take a brother to human courts (1 Corinthians 6) — the kingdom of heaven rights wrongs in a distinctly different way

C. Salt and light involve both the message and the method — content and the way content is presented

1. The church loses its saltiness when it battles the world using the world's own tactics
2. What disarms the kingdom of the world is when citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven remain gentle, meek, and mild in the heat of battle
3. Self-effacing, self-denying, humble love — like Christ who "counted equality with God not a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing, even a servant unto death on the cross" (Philippians 2:6-8)