Rev. Christopher Hall

Practicing the Way of Jesus: Sermon on the Mount

buckcreekchurch.org

Salt & Light — Matthew 5:13-16

This is the Amazon River in Ecuador. One of the most dangerous places on earth. Hard for humans to survive, let alone flourish. But there's a Bible institute there. We'll come back to that.

Open your Bible to Matthew 5. We're in the Sermon on the Mount. Last week, the Beatitudes. Today, Jesus tells us what life in His Kingdom looks like in a broken world.

"You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world."

Before you think this was written to you personally — one guy, 48 years old, resident of Wyoming MI — gonna burst your bubble. It's written to y'all. His disciples. A people.

Salt. We think flavor. A little sprinkle on your food. Nice.

First century people thought preservation. Everything decays because of the Fall. Salt keeps food from rotting. Salt has preserving properties.

Light. Light reveals what is true. Why do we have lights by stairs? So you can see what's actually there. Light shows what's hidden.

Jesus says we ARE salt and light.

Admiral Stockdale famously asked: Who am I and why am I here?

I spent most of my 20s asking that same question. Sold car parts. Is this it? Worked in Lansing getting people elected. Is this it? Left politics for housing policy. Wore a suit. Drove to DC. Kept coming home wondering — is this it?

Our Scripture today answers that question directly.

You have a purpose. We were made to be salt and light. To preserve what's good. To push back against darkness. To reveal what is true.

But here's my problem. I know my heart. I confess sin constantly. How can I be any use given how messed up I am?

Remember Eden. Before the Fall, Adam was cultivating the earth. Working. Living with God. Reflecting God's beauty throughout creation. We were created for God's glory and good works.

So why is Jesus having to tell us this? At the start of His ministry?

Because we're not doing it. That's why.

Salt sitting on a shelf does nothing. It has to be in the food. Salt as preservative has to be poured all over. Salt does no good sitting on a shelf.

God's people — the original audience — had retreated. Instead of mixing it up with the broken world, pointing people back to their Creator, they turned inward. Infighting. Division. Hatred.

We don't do that. Right?

Here's an exercise. Name someone in your life who, apart from Jesus, makes zero sense as a friendship.

Ross and I have nothing in common. Jaxson is young enough to be my son. But because of Jesus, I call them brothers.

Now think outside the church. Salt needs names outside the building. Salt has to be in the food to do any good.

Matthew — tax collector. Traitor. Got rich off his own people by working for Rome. Most hated man in the room.

Simon the Zealot — violent revolutionary. Would've killed a tax collector for sport.

Before Jesus? Enemies. In Jesus? Brothers. Apostles.

In Christ's Kingdom, His people mix it up. Even with enemies. Especially with enemies.

We bark at the world. We retreat from the world. Then we complain when the world does what the world was always going to do.

We have tons of books and workshops on evangelism. It's like we don't know how. But if I needed to train you to talk about your kids, that would be weird. Because you love your kids. We talk about the things we love.

So if we don't know how to talk about Jesus… is it really that we don't know how? Or is it something worse?

Could it be we don't love Jesus all that much?

Could it be we don't love other people all that much?

Back to Ecuador. 1950s. A guy named Jim Elliot heard from Shell Oil there was a tribe of 2,200 people who were the most violent people they'd ever encountered. They called themselves Aucas. Savages. And they were proud of it.

Jim's response? "I'm going to move my family there and tell them about Jesus."

He recruited a team. They moved to the Amazon. They found the tribe.

Within 24 hours, the entire team was killed. With spears.

And instead of scaring Christians away from missions, Jim's martyrdom launched an entire generation into foreign missions unlike anything the church had ever seen before.

But Jim isn't the hero.

Jim's hero was willing to leave a place of peace and love and harmony. Where there was no death. No decay. Willing to live among people who didn't want Him. Willing to be thrown out and trampled. Willing to move toward instruments of death. Willing to trade His life to save the people who would kill Him.

Jim, great guy. Inspiring story. But Jim isn't the hero. Jesus is.

Why would Jesus choose a life of suffering with a Roman cross at the end?

One word.

ARE.

Y'all ARE the salt of the earth. Y'all ARE the light of the world.

Not someday after enough sanctification. Not maybe with the right coaching. You ARE. It's not something you graduate to.

It was your creation identity. It's also your new creation identity.

Jesus came knowing we were enslaved to sin. Decaying every second. One heartbeat closer to the grave. He came anyway.

Why? Because He saw on our faces the image of God. The fingerprints of the Creator. We are His masterpiece. His prize.

Jim saw that in the faces of the Waorani. And that beauty overpowered the decay. Their value wasn't in their deeds. It was in their Maker.

He didn't choose us because we chose Him. We didn't. Not once. So He chose us.

The question isn't "Are we salt and light?" That's who we are. The question is — are we living as salt and light?

To repent and believe is to be called back to your true self.

That darkness around you? It's not a reason to run. Darkness is simply the absence of light. You don't turn off darkness. You bring light.

Jim was aware of the spears. I'm aware of the bullet hole in my neighbor's truck. Jesus was aware of sin. And they went anyway.

The point of this passage is not BE A GOOD PERSON.

The point is Jesus is GOOD. He is the only truly good person. He pursues bad people. He rescues dead people. He raises them to new life. And in response, we get to finally live into our purpose.

For those of you who professed faith this morning — you are a new creation. The old you is gone. Buried in the grave. This new you, because Christ lives in you, is capable of living into this purpose.

If you've been a believer for decades and realize you haven't lived into it — repent. Turn from sin. Turn back to God. The Holy Spirit is in you. You have the power to choose to live as salt and light.

Some of you need to profess that truth for the first time. If you believe Jesus is Lord. If you believe you are a sinner in need of rescue. Say I believe. If you can't say it out loud, come say it to me.

And don't let the salvation stop with you. What He has done to you He desires to do through you.

Years after Jim was killed, his widow and his sister went back to the Waorani. They translated the Gospel of Mark into the language of the people. Some believed. Missionaries came. But the numbers were small.

Then in the early 90s someone realized the problem. People flying in from another world weren't the best ones to reach people of the Amazon. You know who's best to reach someone in the Amazon? Someone who already lives there.

So they started raising up leaders from within the tribe.

The result? A growing church. Transformation. Reconciliation. Peace where violence once reigned. Life where decay ruled. Light where darkness was.

That fruit was fertilized by the blood of Jim Elliot.

That fruit was possible only because of the blood of Jesus.

How is God calling you to live as salt and light today?

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." — Jim Elliot