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You Are the Light of the World
You Are the Light of the World Matthew 5:1-16 Key Verse: 5:14a “You are the light of the world.” In last week’s passage Jesus began his public by traveling throughout Galilee teaching in synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing the sick. We were also told that Jesus called his first four disciples who immediately left what they were doing and committed themselves to following Jesus. In today’s passage we see that there were now large crowds that were following Jesus, but there were also a group of committed disciples who came to Jesus and listened carefully to his teaching. This passage begins what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is perhaps the best known discourse in the entire Bible. It is quoted by teachers and preachers time and again, but do people really understand what Jesus said in this discourse? I pray that God may open our hearts so that we can come to Jesus and honestly listen to what he is trying to teach us here. First, eight types of people who are blessed (1-12). These verses begin the world famous Sermon on the Mount. This section is known as the Beatitudes. They contain some of Jesus' most well-known and loved teachings. When we allow these words from Jesus to form our inner attitude before God and man, we are blessed and are a blessing. Look at verses 1& 2. “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:” There is a clear distinction made here between the crowds of people and Jesus disciples. The crowds had gathered because they had heard that there was a guy who was preaching and teaching throughout the region and he was healing every kind of sickness and disease. They were curious about Jesus and they wanted to see him for themselves. The disciples were different though. They were committed to Jesus. They wanted to learn from him so they followed Him wherever he went. When he sat down they really wanted to be near Him because when He sat down it meant that it was time for Him to beginning teaching. When the disciples saw Jesus withdraw to the mountain, they followed Him and when he sat down they gathered around to listen to Him teach. Look at verse 3. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Simply put, “blessed” means “happy”. However, “blessed” in these verses is more than the superficial happiness we might get from eating ice cream. It refers to the unique spiritual joy we have when we have a right relationship with God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit....” What does it mean to be poor in spirit? To be poor in spirit is to recognize and accept our complete helplessness before God. It is to be humble enough to come to God as we are. It is to seek God wholeheartedly and to put our full trust in him. That is the essence of poor in spirit. We are blessed when we are poor in spirit because Jesus promises the kingdom of heaven to us. Jesus comes and rules in our hearts and lives. We enjoy peace and fellowship with Jesus. He changes our dead hopes to the hope of the kingdom of heaven. Look at verse 4. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” People mourn for all kinds of reasons. We mourn when a loved one passes from this life. We might mourn because of a broken relationship or because of a lost job or because of a failure. These are some of the worldly reasons we mourn, but we must not allow this mourning to take root in our hearts. That will only make us bitter. Instead we must bring these things to Jesus. Jesus promises that we will be comforted. Even in these things we can be blessed because we know Jesus better and better through the comfort he gives. We grow in character and hope. Moreover, with the comfort we receive from God, we can comfort others in their troubles. There is another kind of mourning that deserves special attention. It is the mourning over our sins that leads us to Jesus. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” When we mourn over our sins and seek God's grace, Jesus will comfort us and restore us. Can you remember when you last mourned over your sins? Have you come to Jesus for his comfort? Acts 3:19 says, “‘Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord....’” Look at verse 5. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Meekness is not valued in the world. In the eyes of the world, to be meek is not blessed; it is dumb. Yet Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” According to dictionary.com meek means: 1. Humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others. 2. Overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame. 3. Gentle; kind. Meekness isn’t the kind of thing that we would normally think would help us to inherit the earth. It seems that the meek would simply be trampled by the strong. However, meekness is not weakness. Meekness is being humble and gentle and entrusting the results to God in any situation. Isaac was a meek man. The Bible tells us that Isaac became a very wealthy man; so wealthy, in fact that the Philistines envied him. Isaac never relied on his wealth or his power though, he relied on God for everything. When the Philistines envy boiled over, they stopped up all the wells that Abraham’s servants had dug. Isaac didn’t fight back, he simply moved on to the Valley of Gerar and settled there. Isaac reopened the wells of his father and even dug new wells, but the people of Gerar said that that water was theirs. Once again Isaac didn’t fight back, he just trusted God and moved on and dug another well. The Philistines quarreled over that well also, so he just moved on and dug another well. No one quarreled over this well so Isaac named that well Rehoboth saying, “Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land. Isaac didn’t fight humanly, but relied on God and God gave him land of his own. Let’s read verse 6. “‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’” Hunger and thirst are very necessary desires. We need food and water for our physical life. If we did not have hunger and thirst, we would die. Likewise, Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is spiritually a life and death matter. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is simply to hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God. It is to hunger and thirst for holiness. When we hunger and thirst for other things, our appetite will never be satisfied. However, when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus promises that we will be filled. Verse 7 says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” This blessing is about how disciples of Jesus treat other people, but we must not look at this beatitude as merely a human operating principle. This mercy is divine mercy. Divine mercy is related to compassion, kindness and love expressed in action toward those who are helpless and wretched. Jesus often revealed this mercy. Divine mercy is also strongly related to the forgiveness of sins. Once, we were all dying in our sins. We lived to gratify our sinful cravings. We did whatever our sinful nature directed and became objects of wrath. Ephesians 2:4-5 say, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved.” By God’s divine mercy, anyone who repents will receive the forgiveness of sins in Jesus. We must remember God’s mercy in forgiving our sins. Then we can be merciful with divine mercy. We can show compassion to the helpless. We can forgive others as Jesus has forgiven us. Look at verse 8. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” This verse always strikes me to the core. How can I have a pure heart? The prophet Jeremiah describes my dilemma perfectly when he says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9) Many mornings I read psalm 51 and meditate on these words: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” I know that only Jesus can purify my heart and I know what I must do to enable Him to do this. To have a pure heart, I must repent, surrender my life to Jesus and allow him to purify my heart. This sounds easy, but what it means is that in order to have a pure heart one must have a singular devotion to God alone. Anything that comes between God and us is an idol. Idols make our hearts impure. The Bible tells us how we can pursue a pure heart. Psalm 119:9-11 say, “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” We need deep Bible study and a lot of prayer to keep our hearts pure. Jesus promises that we will see God. Let’s read verse 9. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Jesus, the Son of God, is the ultimate peacemaker. Isaiah calls Jesus the Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:7) Jesus gives us peace with God through the forgiveness of our sins. When we find peace with God we can live in peace with others, because we can forgive them. When we follow Jesus' footsteps as a peacemaker, we are doing what Jesus did. Jesus promises peacemakers that they will be called sons of God. Look at verses 10-12. “‘Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’” Some people might think that when they accept Jesus everything is going to be great and our life will just be full of blessings. However, they might be surprise to find that when they really accept Jesus and all of His teaching, persecution comes. It is inevitable for those who live by the Beatitudes. Why? It is because the way Jesus teaches us to live a blessed life is not the way of the world. Look at what Jesus says, be poor in spirit – admit that you can’t do it on your own, mourn for your sins don’t enjoy them, be meek and submit to God and others, hunger and thirst for righteousness not power and money, be merciful and pure in heart – you don’t see that in many movies do you, and be peacemakers in a world full of war. If you live like this, as Jesus did, you can expect to be persecuted just as he was. Persecution is painful but it is blessed. Jesus says that those who are persecuted for righteousness receive the kingdom of heaven and they will have a great reward in heaven. Second, be the salt of the earth and light of the world (13-16) Look at verses 13-14. “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” What is Jesus saying here? We take salt and light for granted today, but in Jesus’ time these were two very valuable things. First of all let’s think about salt. Why would Jesus talk about being the salt of the earth? Salt was not only used to season food it was used to preserve food and it was absolutely necessary for a people who were living in the heat of Israel. In Israel they got there salt largely from the Dead Sea region. Most of it was good and could be used for preserving and making food tasty, but some of it got mixed with gypsum and other minerals that caused it to not taste good and often destroyed its preserving effects – this salt, lost its saltiness. The only thing this salt was good for was to be thrown on the streets and footpaths to keep weeds from growing there – in this way it was out to be trampled underfoot. The people of Jesus’ time would have understood this analogy well. A pure person who lived according to the teachings that Jesus just gave them would help preserve the community and make it a very ‘tasty’ place to live. However, if one was contaminated by sin they would lose their saltiness in the community and would only be of use to the community by being thrown out on the roads in order to stop the growth of weeds. Next is light. There are many important and interesting aspects of life but I want to just focus on one particular aspect of light. Light enables us to see. Without light we don’t know where we are going or what may be standing in our way. This seems to be the aspect of light that Jesus is talking about here. Let’s read verses 15 & 16 together. “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” If we really are following Jesus our life will reflect this; e.g. our actions will show that we are Christians. Others will see how we live and this should lead them to praise their Father in Heaven. Ask yourself this, do you think others praise God when they look at your life? Of course you might be saying, “Well, I’ve only been a Christian a short while so it will take some time before I can let my light shine.” That is not a very good excuse if you at this verse in context. Jesus’ disciples had been following him only for a short time. They were committed to Jesus but they did not actually know that much about him. They were not Bible scholars. They did not pray particularly well. They had never taken a mission trip or ever shared their life testimony but Jesus did not say to them, “I hope you can be salt and light someday.” Jesus declared to his young disciples and anyone in the crowds, “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” Whether we have been following Jesus for twenty days or twenty years, Jesus says we are salt and light. Though people tend talk about their life in terms of what they do -- bus driver, student, butcher, baker, candlestick maker -- we are not primarily those things. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” That's what we are, and the effect of our life should be to be a preserving and tasty salt in our communities and to the shine light of the gospel through what we do. Jesus gave us the Beatitudes for our spiritual growth. He also gave them so that we can be salt and light. When the Beatitudes form our inner character, we are salt and light. We are blessed and we are a blessing. We are a godly influence. When Christianity stops giving godly influence in the world, it stops being Christianity. It is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. We must take our identity from Jesus - salt and light. This is true in every area of our life. We are salt and light in campus ministry. Many UBF shepherds and missionaries have been salt and light for the last 50 years. Beautiful lives of sacrifice, prayer, Bible study and most of all, commitment to Jesus and to Jesus’ people, have influenced many people, to also follow Jesus and live the same way. The world has changed in last 50 years but Jesus’ words have not changed at all. We are still salt and light for college campuses and the communities we live and work in. We do this by teaching the Bible, praying for students, and opening our lives to serve them. In this passage, Jesus has taught us how to be blessed and how to be a blessing. Moreover, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth,” and “You are the light of the world.” Let's pray to be truly blessed people. Let us be those who are poor in spirit, mourn, are meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, are merciful, are pure in heart, peacemakers and persecuted for righteousness. When we are these things, we are also salt and light. We are a blessing. May God bless you and make you a blessing. |
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