Salt and Light Matthew 5:13-16

 

Salt and Light Matthew 5:13-16

We finished the beatitudes which were descriptions of Jesus’ people. Who are they and what the people of God look like. Now Jesus gives us one last description of His people. Jesus says His people are salt and light. What is Jesus saying about His People?

Jesus is saying that His People are people that make a difference, they influence the world around them. Salt that flavors and effects the world around it. Light that removes the darkness around it. People who are more about blessing others than being blessed themselves.

God has always had this in mind for His People. Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God’s intention was to bless all nations through Israel. God’s intention was to reach all the nations through His chosen people.

This is still the desire of God.

Acts 1:6-8 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Two attitudes in the church, I come to get vs I come to give.

A.      I come to get

a.       Forgiveness and grace

b.       Blessings

c.       Healing

d.       Answered prayers

e.       Importance and recognition

f.        entertainment

g.       The consumer church.

 

Bruce Wilkinson, “The Prayer of Jabez”, Secrets of the Vine, The life God Rewards

 

B.      I come to give

a.       Forgiveness and grace

b.       Blessing

c.       Healing

d.       Answer prayers

C.      Some people

a.       Rolle

b.       Peggy

c.       Sharon

d.       Linda

e.       17 people who came

Kirk Cousins. a groundbreaking, fully guaranteed, three-year, $84 million deal as the new quarterback of the Vikings. The Vikings are giving Him 1.75 million dollars per game even if he never plays. They expect this man to make a difference.

Jesus took the beating that belonged to you, humiliated and herded through the streets to the cross where He suffered and died in your place. He has given you forgiveness, adopted you as His child, made a place for you in heaven. Jesus did this because He loves you but also, He did this because He expects you to be salt and light. He expects you to make a life and death difference.

There is no debate or question that Jesus’ people will be people that make a difference. The debate and question is, if we will be those people. Will we make a difference? Will we choose to be Jesus People?

Matthew 5:9-12 "Persecuted"

Andrew Brunson

Matthew 5:9-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A.    Persecution for your faith is a reality

1.     Jesus said it would happen John 15:18-21,  John 16:33

2.     It should not surprise you 1 Peter 4:12-19

3.     Andrew Brunson

4.     Jim Elliot in Ecuador

5.     In a club or group

6.     At work

7.     At school

8.     In your family

9.     In country (in the army just not in the war)

B.     How suffering helps us
1. Romans 5:3-5 Makes us stronger
2. Suffering helps us know and understand Jesus

C.     For righteousness’ sake.
1. For your righteousness
2. Falsely
3. 1 peter 4:15

D.    If living our faith in Jesus does not produce suffering or persecution are we actually living our faith?

 

 

1 Peter 4:12-19
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And      “If the righteous is scarcely saved,      what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Phil 3:10-11
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

2 Tim 1:8
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages

Romans 5:3-5
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

1 Peter 3:17
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

John 15:18-21
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Blessed are the peacemakers Matthew 5:9 (John 16:31-33)

Blessed are the peacemakers Matthew 5:9 (John 16:31-33)

Peace, what is it? The people who listened to Jesus on the hillside needed peace. Like most people they would be happy if those fighting to gain power would just leave them alone. The Romans, Herod, religious leaders, and gangs all fighting for power, and who gets hurt? The average people who want to run their shops, farm their fields and raise their family.

The same thing is going on today. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Detroit, Chicago, even the Twin Cities, people like you and I desire peace. We want to work, raise our family, and pursue some happiness. But because of that sinful nature each person is born with peace in any form is hard work. Along with the sinful nature is the fact that we have no idea of what to do to bring about peace.

Luke 19:41-44 “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.   For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.””

While we are called to be peace makers we are also called to defend the helpless, things that will bring us into conflict, even war.

Zechariah 8:16&17 “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;  do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.””

Jeremiah 22: 3 “Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”

Yet Jesus told us in our passage that in Him we will have peace, and in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” 

How can we live in a world of conflict, tribulation, and yet Jesus says He gave us peace? As Jesus wept for Jerusalem “if only you knew the things that make for peace”. Jesus must be talking about a different kind of peace. The peace He gives is “not as the world gives” it is peace with your father in heaven. This is the peace Jesus gives and it is the peace we are to make in the world. We are to be peace makers. To bring people first and foremost peace with their creator.

How can we call people to change their hateful ways with each other if God does not change the sinful nature within them.

The sinful person.
The only way to transform the world is to transform the person.

Have I been a peace maker? Have I been bringing people to peace with God? How have you been bringing people to peace with God? How has our church been bringing people to peace with God?

The people of God are to be peace makers, and their reward will be that they will be called the Son’s of God

 

 

The Pure in Heart Titus 2:11-15

The Pure in Heart  Titus 2:11-15

2:7 & 8 “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”

What kind of people is God looking for? What kind of people are “God’s People”? In Matthew 5, as Jesus talks to the people on the hillside, we read in verse 8; “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

My scripture in Titus 2 started me off on the wrong track. That passage is more for blessed are the pure of life, not pure in heart. I had started off thinking about living a “Holy” life, but this is not what Jesus said. Jesus said “pure in heart”. This gets more to the intentions of our hearts not our ability to keep rules.

In Genesis 6:5&6 God says of people, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

What God is grieved by is the impureness of the unredeemed heart. More than the actual sin is the intent of humanity to hate God and rebel against Him.

Rev 2:23 searches the heart “And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.”

1 Cor 4:5 the purposes of the heart “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”

Deuteronomy 6:4&5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

For all their claims to be God’s people and all their elaborate rule keeping, Israel failed when it came to purity in heart. Much of what they did was done out of pride. Much of what they did was in an effort to not make God angry. While all along God was looking for people to love Him back.

Why do we attend church?

Why do we read and study God’s Word?

Why do we pray?

Why do we struggle to live a life of faith and obedience?

Could it be pride? Could it be to get things from God? Could it be we just are trying not to tick God off?

God is looking for people who will love Him, desire Him and His presence in their life? To walk with us like He did with Adam and Eve in the garden.

Are you that person? Am I? Are we as a church? What is our motive, what is our purpose?

Today let each one of us take up the challenge to be pure in heart, that we will see God.

Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy Mat 6:7

Psalm 51:1-4

Have mercy on me, ^£ O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

  For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

  Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.

 

Psalm 55:1

Give ear to my prayer, O God,

and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!

 

 

People cry out for mercy.

The Canaanite Woman

The father whose son has seizers

Blind Bartimaeus

The people sitting on the hillside listening to Jesus

 

The merciful will receive mercy

In a world without mercy Jesus tells the people that they will receive mercy from God. The religious leaders taught extreme accountability before God, not mercy.

Matthew 12:7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. (Jesus quoting Hose 6:6)

 

Matthew 6:12 “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”

 

Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

 

Matthew 18:1-34 the wicked servant
Matthew 18:35 “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

 

The person who forgives is the person who is forgiven

The person who shows mercy is the person who receives mercy.

Are you a merciful person, a forgiving person?

Maybe today you are thinking of someone you are not showing mercy to, someone you have not forgiven.

God has promised Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.

Matthew 5:6 they shall be satisfied

Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, what kind of righteousness do they hunger and thirst for?

Do they want to be righteous?  Do they want to be righteous before God?

They seek a personal Holiness, a righteous way of living.

Romans 3:1 there are none that are righteous on their own.

1 John 3:5-10 “whoever does not practice righteousness does not know God.

Phillippians 3:7-11 not my own righteousness but a righteousness that comes from God.

Romans 1:17 the Righteous shall live by faith

 

Do they want a righteous world?

Rev 7:13-17 A world lead by God

Rev 21:3&4 A world of healing

Rev 21:27 A world where no evil thing will exist

 

 

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.   17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Rev 7:13-17 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple;     and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

1 Peter 3:10-12 “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil      and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

1 John 3:5-10 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Phillippians 3:7-11   7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.   8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ   9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—  10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,   11that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Romans 3:1 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Rev 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Rev 21:27

But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

 

 

Blessed are those who Weep Mathew 5:4

Blessed are those who Weep Mathew 5:4

“Blessed (or happy) are those who mourn (or weep), for they shall be comforted.”

These words would have brought to the minds of the people on the hillside the promises of God found in:

Psalm 30:11-12 “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Psalm 126:5-6  Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Jer 31:10-14   Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,  and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord.”

Jesus came to give hope to those who weep because in Him death is not final, nor fatal.

“The valley of the shadow of death” Psalm 23.

Through Jesus death has become a shadow a door, even a door of promise and life not destruction. Paul wrote to the people in:

1 Thess 4:13-18. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

While those without Jesus mourn for their end judgement, we rejoice for heaven is our great reward.

1cor 15:50-57 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:      “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In John 14:1-4 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

Rev 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Jesus was telling the people on the hillside that instead of judgement they will receive comfort. They have no part in this second death for their name is written in the book of life. This is the same promise Jesus gives to you.

Rev 21:1-8 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Have you claimed this gift of God? Have you repented and ask Jesus for the forgiveness that turns your mourning into dancing? Are you sure your name is written in His Book of Life? A simple prayer “Jesus forgive me a sinner, give me a new life today, I promise to follow you with all my heart, all my mind and all my strength”.

“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”