Session 3: Sermon on the Mount
(Mattew 5:13-20)

Moving on now to what the influence of a citizen of the Kingdom should look like.

He begins by giving us two every day examples of life of what the influence of the believer should be.  He then will move in to talk about why He has come to earth.

Verse 13. Salt. We think of salt differently than Jesus did or the times did.  Salt loses its taste? That doesn't make sense to us.  The salt in Jesus' time was not pure.  It was usually collected from the dead sea, so it had a lot of bits of grit and dirt along with the salt.  If you kept your salt in a container and it happened to be exposed to the elements and got wet, what would happen?  It dissolves.  The salt would dissolve out and what would be left would be road dust, dirt, fit for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled upon.

For us, we think of salt as primarily a seasoning for food.  Salt then was a preservative.  This salt influence will tell us how we are to be as citizens of Heaven.  Salt was not inexpensive in Jesus' time.  Salt was given to Roman soldiers as their pay, because salt was valuable.

Salt was:

• Valuable
• Practical - preservative and prevented infection
• Useful

Salt was included in offerings in the old covenant.  A "covenant of salt". When salt was included in those covenant offerings, and when they were burned on the altar, everything would burn away except for the salt.  Why? Because it's a mineral.  It's all that is left symbolizing the Lord preserves His covenant.

Jesus' listeners would be familiar with this.  Lots wife - pillar of salt.  Why? She "looks back" - preserves a love for sin.  Maybe this: "if you preserve and savor sin in the past, I will turn you into a preservative". 

Salt serves as a preservative.  It prevents infection and decay.  As believers, we are called to have that moral effect upon the world.

Salt in blood, sweat and tears.  Cleans wounds.  (Ezekiel 16:4) - rub newborn in salt.

Does the decay in the world around us arouse in us a sense of discouragement or a call to action? We are called to be agents who deflect infection and decay in our world.  What does a bad influence do? They influence by what they model, casual suggestions, making light of things etc.  We are to be a positive influence that people will see it.

Salt makes things palatable.  What do Christians make palatable? Colossians 4:5-6 "seasoned with salt".  Add flavor to our words; graciousness.  Our actions which help people lower their defenses.

What happens when we have too much salt in our diet? We get thirsty.  This is another way to ask "how can my influence be in the world around us?" Does our life make others thirsty for the things of God?

Verse 14-15. Light of the world. We think of light in modern terms.  We flip a switch and the light comes on.  In Jesus' time, when the sun went down, no light until the sun comes up the next day.  This is why so many references to God as light and why many ancients worshiped the heavenly bodies.

Revelation reference that "He Himself will be our light" means these other lights will no longer be worshiped only God, our true light. Jesus is identifying with something that is true about the Godhead. We reflect the Godhead by being light.  We need to be seen and not hide or conceal the light.  We conceal it because we don't want the blessing of persecution. 

What is lights role in the natural world? It reveals what is hidden in darkness.

When we walk in righteousness, our lives become a light that shines in the darkness on others sins.  How do they feel when their sin is exposed? They don't like it.  When we are the light of the world, persecution will come our way.

• Light causes things to grow.  Our influence on the world means that we reveal things that are hidden by the way that we live. Also, we cause the growth of righteousness just by being righteous.
• Light shows true colors.  Many people out in the world want to offer a secondary light to the lost.
• Secondary lights validate us in our sin and cause us to believe we see the world more clearly than others.

When we come to saving faith what happens? Blind eyes are given sight.  The light of the gospel reveals the world the way it truly is, and we live differently because of it.

Notice what Jesus has done here because it's masterful.  He has taken two examples salt and light; salt is low and common.  Light is high and exalted.  Think about Adam who is common, made from dust and the breath of God breathed into him so he is created in the image of God.  In God's economy these paradoxes make sense: rich become poor in humility.  The first shall be last etc.

Our influence is to be everyday and common and also something that is exalted and noticed.

Verse 16. Let your light shine. How can you know your influence is being felt? Because the glory will go to the Father.

Verse 17. Why would they think He has come to abolish the law and prophets? He is answering the unspoken conclusion of His listeners.  They have heard Him talk about what it means to be blessed and have influence in the Kingdom of Heaven, and what they have heard has been shocking to them. Their silent conclusion is "whatever He has come here to do, He has come to completely overturn life as we have known it". 

He has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. Jesus loved the law and obeyed it perfectly.  He's going to make a deeper interpretation of the law. 

Verse 18. "I say". This is significant.  He's going to set on edge his listeners, those who have over time become His greatest adversaries.  Why? Because He's taking a well-known formula in the OT and appropriating it for His own use.  "Thus says the Lord". Now it's "I say to you".  When He says this, He's communicating to His listeners "I speak with the full authority of God. I am God".

The difference of being a non-believer under the law and condemned by it and a believer who has grace is that now the law becomes something for us that is under us pointing us towards righteousness.  The unbeliever obeys the law to earn.  A believer knows that they are poor in spirit and lacks the spiritual resources.

Why then do we obey the law? Because our obedience to the law isn't a way to earn favor but a joyful response to the grace we have received.

The reason Jesus did not come to abolish the law is because the law represents the character of the God who put the law into place.  God's character does not change. 

Verse 19. "Does them and teaches them". Practice what you preach.

Verse 20. The scribes and pharisee were the holiest of men, well respected.  Pharisees best at obeying the rules. The problem with their obedience is that it was not a deeper obedience but outward only.  The motive was not joyful gratitude.  It was to make much of themselves.  They taught to obey the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law.  They were the least.

You must pursue a deeper obedience.  Right motives and right actions.

Righteousness that exceeds the pharisees is both internal and external.  The righteousness that exceeds is the very righteousness of Christ.  It was given to us because we could not obey a jot or a tittle of the law.

Next: Session 4