April 29, 2012
Matthew 5:13-16
Before we get going, I want to congratulate the Challenge Kids and their parents for putting on a excellent 5K race yesterday over at the West Branch Cross Country Track.
It was well organized and fun. I was one of the runners and finished in less than an hour. I won’t tell you how much less. Two of my boys ran with me and that was a lot of fun.
I have been wondering about these fundraisers that our Serbia Team and our Challenge Kids have been putting on. How come they don’t sell me chocolate chip cookies? Instead, they keep inviting me to play volleyball for half a day or to run 3 miles (and pay for it!). I think there is a conspiracy going on here! A conspiracy to get us into shape.
Well, as one of my friends says, “Pear is a shape, so I’m already in shape.”
Have you found Matthew 5?
Verses 13 through 16 are a short paragraph in what we normally call “The Sermon on the Mount.” If you have a red-letter Bible you’ll see that all of these words are in red. They are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He preached the sermon on the mount primarily to His disciples. When He says, “you” He means us, those who believe in Him and follow Him.
Verses 13 through 16 are just a little bit into the sermon. They follow what we call the Beatitudes, the counter-cultural, counter-intuitive statements of blessing that Jesus teaches His disciples.
After that list of wonderfully strange blessings that rest upon Jesus’ counter-cultural followers, Jesus says these words. Matthew 5:13-16.
“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 by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
This message is all about what we learned at the last week’s Allegheny District Conference of the EFCA.
I was encouraged by this conference for several reasons.
First, just to see everyone. Our church is one of 27 churches in the Allegheny District. You are a part of the Allegheny District because you are a part of our church. And our church is a part of the Allegheny District. It’s like a big family of churches and getting together for conference is like a family reunion.
We found out that 23 of our 27 churches were represented by pastors and church leaders from around the district: Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Western New York, West Virginia, and the panhandle of Maryland.
23 out of 27 is pretty good, and it was good to find out what has been going on in our sister churches over the last year.
For example, our sister church in Sarver Pennsylvania (anyone know where Sarver is), they have called a new pastor, Kerry Doyal. He just started two weeks ago and he was already at the district conference.
That’s the church that Rob and Kathy Barkman are now attending. So it’s great that they have a new pastor.
The worship in singing times were very good. They sang some songs that we sing here and some songs I’ve never heard before.
One of the evenings, the worship music was led by the band from CORE Community Church which is the sister church that I got to preach at on Sunday morning. That’s the church that recently had their pastor resign back in February, and they are certainly grieving–but they are a great bunch of people and it was terrific to be with them, as well.
I told them that we are praying for them as a church, so we better be praying for them back here. They are our family.
We also saw Pastor Mark Petras who had been at our church plant in Altoona, but has now moved to a church plant just south of Cleveland. He sends his greetings to you.
And, at the same time, there was a representative from our Altoona church plant, Matt Paonessa was there. And he is key leader in that church plant which even though it doesn’t have a vocational pastor right now is still going and still going strong. We need to continue to pray for them and support them in their efforts to reach the Altoona area for Christ.
Those were just some of the people we were with and that is always a joy.
I have volunteered our church to host the district conference some year–maybe next year. I told Pastor Jeff, our district superintendent, that our church would enjoy hosting the conference. I would love for our extended church family to join us here along route 80, sing with our worship band, eat our distinctive Western PA foods, and enjoy our Lanse Free Church hospitality.
And I’d like for you to get to know that extended family better than you do now.
It’s a great thing to be a part of the Allegheny District.
But it was particularly the theme and the teaching at the conference that inspired me to write this message for today.
The theme of this conference, the 30th conference of the Allegheny District, was “The Externally Focused Church.”
Two speakers, Eric Swanson author of “The Externally Focused Church” and Alvin Sanders of the EFCA’s Samaritan Way ministry were the speakers.
And they both spoke on the same topic, leading your church to become more externally focused.
Eric spoke to our heads and Alvin spoke to our hearts.
And both were encouraging us to use our hands and feet.
To make sure that our church is externally focused.
Now what does that mean?
It means that the church, as it is supposed to be, does not just look inward and serve its members.
It means that the church looks outward and serves the community that it is planted within.
A church that has an external focus.
Not just an internal one. Now, they weren’t saying that churches never look inward and that they never focus on fellowship or teaching or spiritual growth of the members.
Obviously, they do and should.
But the speakers reminded us that it is relatively easy to do that and to miss the community around you.
To miss evangelism and to miss service. Serving the community that you are planted in.
Eric Swanson asked the question, “If your church disappeared overnight, would anyone notice and would anyone care?”
If Lanse Free Church disappeared overnight, would anyone in the community notice and, of those who noticed, would anyone care?
And he said it this way:
Is your church just IN your community or is it FOR your community?
And to the degree that your church is actually FOR the community can give you an idea of how externally focused your church is.
I thought those were great questions. And there was several hours of teaching of how to lead your church towards a greater external focus.
If you want to listen to the recordings, they are online and you can download them for free and listen to them.
How do you think we are doing at being not just IN our community (and world) but FOR our community (and world)?
Well, I think our church is doing great, but I’m sure that we are missing opportunities, as well.
Today, is our quarterly church family meeting. And we’ll be giving a report and look ahead at our outreach ministries.
The Wild Game Dinner and the Moody Men’s Choir Concert were the most recent ones.
We have the Ladies’ Spring Banquet and Family Bible Week coming up.
And we have a new outreach planned for August, our first ever Good News Cruise.
And our longest stretching outreach is our Serbia Team, not just ministering to our community but around the world!
So we are externally focused.
But we can certainly get better at it.
A lot of the things that we do, for example, are invitational ministries. Come and see, come and hear.
But what if we did more, Go and Show?
Instead of Come and See, we did Go and Show?
That was one of the emphases at the conference. Go and Show.
Or, in the words of our Lord here in Matthew 5, “Be salt and light.”
Salt and Light.
First, salt. V.13
“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 by men.”
You know, that’s a strange thing to say.
We’re used to it because we’ve heard this over and over again.
But it’s a strange thing to say, “You are the salt of the earth.”
What does that mean?
Well, it doesn’t mean what we sometimes mean when we call someone the “salt of the earth” and we mean that they are a kind of honest and humble and homey kind of a person. “He’s the salt of the earth, he is.”
Jesus is saying more than that.
And notice that he says, “You are the salt of the earth.” And remember whom he is talking to.
His disciples. His followers. His people. Us. The church.
“You are the salt of the earth.”
What does that mean?
Well, what does salt do?
It melts ice on the roads?
It’s a fertilizer?
It’s something you put in food to flavor it.
Yes, I think there is something to that last one.
But what salt was mainly used for in that culture, pre-industrial culture, was to preserve meat.
Salt was a preservative more than a seasoning.
It was a flavoring, too. So, we give flavoring to the world.
But, I think that what Jesus is emphasizing is that Christ-followers deployed into the world are a preservative influence on the world.
At least, we are supposed to be.
You are the salt of the earth, Christian.
You are to live out the attitudes of verses 3-12 (poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaking) and when you live out those Kingdom Values, you will (as one scholar said) “have the effect of delaying moral and spiritual putrefaction. If [our] lives conform to the norms of verses 3-12, they cannot help but be an influence for the good in society.” (Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, pg. 30).
Now, that implies two things.
#1. That society is rotting. Do you need any proof of that?
And #2. That Christians are IN the world.
You and I can only be salt for the earth if we (as one author said) “Get out of the saltshaker and into the world.”
You are the salt of the earth.
Now if you were in Godspell this Spring, then you have a song running through your head right now and you can’t help it.
Maybe if you just saw it you have that song in you head.
What does the song say after, “You are the salt of the earth?”
But if that salt has lost it's flavor
It ain't got much in its favor
You can't have that fault and be the salt of the earth!
Right?
What does that mean? It’s the rest of verse 13.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness [KJV: “Savour” taste], how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
Salt can’t stop being salt, not scientifically.
But if something is called salt and yet it has a lot of impurities and other minerals and other additives added to it, then the salt can lose its purity and saltiness and taste and be no good for anything.
But if that salt has lost it's flavor
It ain't got much in its favor
You can't have that fault and be the salt of the earth!
This is talking about the purity of the church.
We can’t let ourselves become like the world or we won’t be of any use to the world.
This is talking about holiness.
It’s talking about living a life that is different from the world.
Are you different from the world?
Here is the application question for verse 13.
#1. AM I SALTY?
Am I a preservative in my community?
In what way?
Or am I just a part of the rotting problem?
That means that we have to have a quality to our life that his holy (not perfect but holy) and that we are entering into the world to preserve it.
For example, on the job.
Are you a Christian worker in society?
I mean, if you are a teacher, are you a Christian teacher?
Are you a Christian nurse?
Are you a Christ-following business man?
Are you a Christ-following janitor or maintenance man or cook or aide or secretary or whatever you do 40 plus hours of the week?
Do you bring Christ with you into the construction zone?
Into the cab of the truck?
Into the breakroom at work?
Into the office?
Are you a Christian worker on the job?
Are you salty?
Or are just like the rotting meat around you?
I was talking with a friend on Friday afternoon and she said that she had a co-worker many years ago who was just different from the other workers.
She was happy and joyful and did her work well and she didn’t complain and didn’t swear and didn’t curse like the other workers. She was different.
She was salty.
And it showed.
And she’s in the room. I won’t embarrass her.
But she was salty and it showed. And that had an effect on her workplace.
She didn’t go around preaching on the assembly line floor! But she was salt.
And it stood out.
Am I salty?
If you were in Godspell, you the refrain keeps running through your head, as well.
“Let your light so shine before men.
Let your light so shine.”
That’s the second metaphor that our Lord uses. In verse 14.
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Light.
“You are the light of the world.”
Now, wait a second. Didn’t Jesus say that He is the light of the world?
Yes, He did. John chapter 8.
So, our light is His light, right? We are the shine His light in the world.
But He says that we are the light of the world.
We have a responsibility to shine that light.
And it will be noticed. “A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”
If we are doing our job, the world will notice.
Notice, that this implies that the world is full of darkness. Anyone dispute that?
And it is a call to let our light shine.
“[P]eople [don't] 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.”
Hide it under a bushel? No! I’m going to let it shine.
It would be foolish to light a candle and then hide it.
What would be the point?
Well, Jesus has lit our candles, and now we are to the light the world.
How do we do it?
Well, preaching is one way, but that’s not what is emphasized here.
What is emphasized here is (v.16), “good deeds.” King James “good works.”
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Jesus is saying that we are light when we do good deeds in the world.
Especially when we do them in Jesus’ name.
That’s important. Who gets the praise when we do these good deeds?
“Your Father in heaven.”
So, when we do them, it is somehow clear that we get our power from Him and not from ourselves. We get our goodness from Him and not from ourselves.
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
The word translated “good” in verse 16 means “beautifully and attractively good,” not just morally good.
It’s not what we don’t do.
“We don’t drink or chew or go with girls who do.”
We need to take care not to do everything the world does or we won’t be salty.
But this is talking about more than what we keep from doing.
It’s what we actually do.
Good works.
Good deeds.
That’s a lot of what the speakers at the conference were talking about.
They mentioned things like after-school tutoring.
And filling backpacks for school kids.
And creating jobs in your community.
Volunteering.
Making the world a better place through acts of mercy, tangible service to others.
Fixing cars for single moms.
Serving the community.
Good deeds.
We are not saved by good deeds but we are saved for good deeds.
Remember the first Sunday of the year, I told my story of being a goodie-two-shoes who thought that he was earning his way into God’s favor?
But that isn’t how it works. We are not saved by works but by grace. Ephesians 2:8&9.
But Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
So, here is the application question for verses 14-16.
#2. AM I SHINING?
Ask yourself that.
Am I shining?
Or am I hiding my light under the bowl?
The Godspell song says:
But if that light is under a bushel,
It's lost something kind of crucial
You've got to stay bright to be the light of the world
So let your light so shine before men
Let your light so shine
Am I shining?
Let me add to that.
I give you permission to shine in our community.
Sometimes people think that the only way to serve as a Christian is to serve in the local church.
But there are a lot of ways to serve the Kingdom of God that are not just serving within the church body.
I hope you do have a ministry here in this church body.
But we need to have a ministry in that community.
We need to be externally focused.
And if you need permission to be salt and light in our community, you have it, from me, okay?
Someone mentioned that there are opportunities that we are missing to be involved at the West Branch School.
If you need permission to miss prayer meeting or to miss Link Group or to miss a night of Family Bible week or even to miss the occasional Sunday morning to be salty and to be shining, you have it from me. Okay?
Let it shine.
Let it shine.
Let it shine.
Now, you can really only do that if you are regularly dipping your wick into the Light with a capital L and it’s much easier to shine together when we put our flames together.
Don’t try to go Lone Ranger on us.
Ever notice that the Lone Ranger wasn’t really alone?
He had Tonto!
And often the Sheriff and Posse, too.
Don’t try to do this alone.
But do it.
Get out of the saltshaker and into the world.
Get out from under the bowl and shine.
So that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
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