Kingdom Agents (Matthew 5:11-16)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Have you ever paid attention to how you respond to situations after you get hurt? Whether physical, emotional, or relational hurt? For starters, consider athletes after a series injury, whether it is a torn ACL or shoulder, that athlete will often for at least a time favor where they have been injured. The athlete with the torn ACL even after cleared as healthy may not cut the way he or she used to in the arena of play. That shoulder injury might lead to a once star wide-out not extending fully for a catch like he used to.
Then there is the response to emotional and relational hurt which is vastly different. Likely, there is not one of us in this room who has not faced this. And if you haven’t, you aren’t old enough and it will come. Relational struggles are part of living in a fallen world, they are part of the curse of sin from Genesis 3 where the LORD tells Eve, “Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
And because of this, each time hurt comes relationally, we all are tempted to withdraw more and more from others. We are tempted to tighten up our security walls and only let others in so far out of fear of getting hurt. Myself included.
This tendency is known by the LORD Jesus. He knows this about us in our humanity. But that is why our text this morning is so powerful. Matthew 5:11-16 follows the beatitudes which we looked at last week which concluded with the eighth beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus makes clears to his disciples that to follow him and to live out the Christian life will bring persecution. But he does not want his disciples to be tempted to avoid hurt and pain by withdrawing from it. He doesn’t want them to put up barriers, he wants them to move forward and immerse themselves among the peoples, despite how strange they may think we are for living out these kingdom virtues of the beatitudes. No matter how they may respond to us in light of our being distinct from them.
It is this call that we want to consider this morning as we open up to Matthew 5:11-16 in our Bibles. If you have not already done so, I invite you to open your Bible to our passage this morning. If you are here this morning and you do not have a copy of the Bible, please feel free to grab a Bible in the seat in front of you, you can find our passage in that Bible beginning on page #962.
You will be helped by following along as I read the passage and then leaving it open throughout the message, as I am hopefully laboring to present this text to you and make it plain.
Main Idea: As the kingdom advances in us, the world will take notice and they will either respond in reviling us or they will see the glory of God and praise him.
And we are going to unfold this main idea in three points: (1) the reviled, (2) the salt, and (3) the light.
Point #1: The Reviled (Matthew 5:11-12)
Point #1: The Reviled (Matthew 5:11-12)
As Christians, we are expected to live out our Christian faith in a visible manner. We are to live out the virtues of the kingdom, the beatitudes that we looked at last week. But as we do, as we live out these very distinct virtues in the world, the world will take notice. They will at the very least think we are a bit odd and weird for living so differently.
For the world encourages us to be proud, self-sufficient, looking out for number one. We as Christians on the other hand are taught to be poor in spirit and to mourn our sin, to be meek. We are taught to be peacemakers, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be pure in heart. Again the world is taught to follow their own hearts. They are taught to boast in self, to be prideful. No wonder the world thinks we are strange.
And because of the world thinking we as Christians are strange, some will begin to resist us in our strangeness and become hostile. This is where we ended last week there in verse 10, which again says….
Now, you might have wondered why we stopped with verse 10 last week rather than finishing with verses 11-12. And that wondering is valid, especially since these two verses continue with the thought of being persecuted. For here is what they say….
Persecution is still the theme of these two verses. Yet, notice the shift in persons from verse 10 to that of verses 11-12. It moves from a third person plural, a generic, blessed are those to a blessed are you in the second person plural.
Of course our English language here doesn’t assist us at all to catch that. For some reason in our English language we do not have a “proper”, a “proper” second person plural form. Thankfully us southerners disregard formalities to be genuine and just say y’all. You’re welcome! We fixed a broken language by making an improper compound.
Therefore as we read verse 11 we should see it as reading: “Blessed are y’all when others revile y’all and persecute y’all and utter all kinds of evil against y’all falsely on my account.”
But why this shift from the beatitudes to this in verse 11? The shift comes because in Matthew 5:3-10, the beatitudes are generic virtues that are to be present in the new people of God as the rule of God is written on their hearts as they begin to walk with Jesus. Virtues that come because of their following and being united to Jesus by faith.
But Matthew 5:11-16 brings a shift from these virtues to how these are to be lived out by the disciples in a visible manner before a watching world. And it starts with the fact that some will oppose us because of our distinct nature.
Look again at verse 11…
Persecution is expected, it is expected to come for every Christian! But we must not think that every persecution will result with a gun to the back of our head or a blade to our throats threatening us that if we do not deny Jesus, we will be slaughtered. Why? Because Jesus doesn’t teach us that this is the only persecution.
He says here that blessed are you, Christian, when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Jesus here teaches that persecution comes through words. Words that aim to destroy our character and witness and credibility. Words that seek to cut us down however possible.
The old saying is sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. And yet, words are a form of persecution here, for my Bible and the LORD Jesus tells me so.
Christian, the world as it sees you live out the virtues of the kingdom of heaven here on earth, as you begin to look and identify more and more with Jesus, you will face persecution. You will be reviled. And often, it will come from those nearest and closest to you. Family, friends, close acquaintances.
In fact, I experienced this myself as I took my own Christian discipleship more seriously. I grew up in a nominal Christian family. By that I mean they would confess to believe in Jesus, but it was a status, not a seeing Jesus as Lord, not seeing his call to follow him. And one of those family members told me that I sounded like I was a member of a cult, that I was crazy, as I began to explain what Jesus teaches it means to follow him compared to simply praying a prayer.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, each and everyone of us, if we are living out the Christian faith will be persecuted in some shape and form, we will be reviled as we identify with Jesus. Make note, it is on account of Jesus this persecution, this reviling comes! Because we align with him, we will face persecution.
But as we do, we are not to fear and tremble and withdraw. We are to embrace the persecution as it comes. Verse 12…
We are given the imperatives, the commands here to rejoice and be glad as persecution comes. This rejoicing and gladness though is not because persecution is enjoyable though. The call to rejoicing and gladness are because of what awaits us, a great reward in heaven.
Our eyes are being shifted from this world to the world to come. We must patiently wait on it and place our hope there. Christian, we are not living for this city, but the city to come, the new Jerusalem where we will be with our Redeemer in gloryland!
But there is another grounding clause here for this call to rejoice and be glad. And that other grounding is the fact that we join the ranks of those who have gone before us in laboring for the kingdom. For the prophets before us too faced persecution. They too were reviled.
For consider the weeping prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah was beaten, put in a cistern and left for dead, he was put in stocks and locked in there. Jeremiah wasn’t the only prophet to suffer though. Others with him suffered before.
And others since have suffered. The apostles suffered, Peter and James and Paul suffered. John was imprisoned. The saints that line the way in having gone before us have been reviled and persecuted. Persecution was not new for Jesus’ disciples, and it is not new for us. We should not see persecution as something new or strange. This happens because we live distinctly from the world around us. But as it comes, we are to rejoice and be glad as we turn our eyes upward to the hope we have!
But again, here we must battle the temptation for self-preservation in the midst of this. We will be tempted to want to withdraw from the world, we will be tempted to not live out the virtues of the kingdom publicly to avoid reviling and persecution.
While we may not be tempted to withdraw into a monastery like monks, we are often tempted as Christians to withdraw and isolate ourselves in our Christian bubbles, sitting in our churches and our pews from the world. We fear being reviled in preaching and living out the gospel, hoping the world will not see us and think us strange.
Beloved, it is here why Matthew 5:11-12 are put separate, because we need to hear this call to rejoice and be glad as persecution comes and to embrace it and keep pressing on. For while persecution comes to those who live following the virtues of God’s kingdom being lived out in them, these same disciples are given a beautiful mission, starting with being the salt of the earth.
Point #2: The Salt (Matthew 5:13)
Point #2: The Salt (Matthew 5:13)
Verse 13…
Consider the purpose of salt, not just now, but historically. Salt has been used to preserve food for longer periods of time. Salt has been used to add flavoring to food.
In fact one commentator talks about the use of salt in soup. Talking about a mixed vegetable soup with no salt would taste bland, but with the right amount of soup, it would taste just perfectly. (1)
We could say the same about french fries. Don’t judge, but to me the best fries are McDonalds with that great amount of salt. The salt makes McDonalds fries. Otherwise it would just be a dried out potato stick without much flavoring.
It is to this compound of salt that we as disciples of Jesus are being compared. The LORD Jesus tells us, “Y’all are the salt of the earth.” Y’all as my disciples are the ones to preserve and flavor the earth.
To be the salt of the earth is a call for us to preserve the earth from corrupting faster, to preserve the earth from evil spreading the best we can. To preserve injustice from spreading, corruption from happening.
Now, the LORD Jesus is not hear telling us to pursue these at all costs. His call for us to preserve and flavor the earth is given a clear call, clearer than we might first think.
For consider here the warning, if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? What is the salt we must not lose? The salt of kingdom living. The salt of the beatitudes. The salt of following and imitating our teacher, Jesus the Christ.
Christians are not called to preserve the world through any other means besides kingdom living. The world will not be preserved through politics and change of laws. The world will not be preserved by our withdrawing from the world in isolation. We, Christian, are the salt of the earth as we live in the world, but distinctly so in it.
We are the salt of the earth as we advocate for following the rules in the work place, as we advocate for looking out and considering others instead of trying to get ahead at the cost of them. We are the salt of the earth as we live meekly, not insisting on our own way.
This is how we preserve the earth, how we flavor it. Sure this will mean we engage the public square politically too. This will mean we vote our consciouses, but our hope is more in our acts of how we go about it rather than anything else.
For consider here again in this warning, but if salt has lost its taste. How does salt lose its taste? Does salt destroy itself? No, salt loses its taste as other things over power it.
The same commentator I referenced earlier in comparing salt in soup goes on to talk about how salt in soup can get crowded out from other ingredients. And how once a perfectly proportioned soup with good flavor can begin to have the salt with adding of more vegetables or broth. And therefore the salt begins to lose its taste.
He goes on then to add that the same is true of us as Christians, that yes we are the salt of the earth, but our salt begins to lose its taste as a bit of worldliness is added into our hearts and our lives.
When greed, envy, jealousy, lust, anger, and other sin is added into our lives, we begin to lose our salt, our preservative of the world. And if not careful, we will lose it all together and not be able to have it restored.
Christian, this is the warning for us in living out the virtues of the Christian life before the world. We must stand and remain distinct as those of God’s kingdom, we must be on guard to not lose our saltiness and become useless and be thrown out. We must guard ourselves from worldliness quenching out our saltiness. For it is our distinctness that preserves the world, and without it, we are not living for the kingdom of heaven, but the kingdom of this world and our own bellies. Beloved, let us live out the virtues of the kingdom!
But friends, there is also a warning for you who might consider yourself Christian. You who have never experienced being reviled and persecuted because of your faith in Jesus. It is possible because you have no salt in you. That you are not good for anything except to be thrown out.
And the reason, because while you profess to be a Christian in name, there is nothing distinct in you showing this. You look like the world, act like the world, and the only thing different in you is that you spend an hour going to church on Sunday. Other than that, does the world notice? This warning is needed so that none would take the call to follow Jesus lightly! Friends, we must check ourselves and test the saltiness of our lives by the way we live in the world and if we are living out the values of the kingdom.
And beloved who are being the salt, we must keep being the salt of the earth, but we must not stop there.
John Stott states,
The church, on the other hand, is set in the world with a double role, as salt to arrest—or at least to hinder—the process of social decay, and as light to dispel the darkness.
John Stott
Point #3: The Light (Matthew 5:14-16)
Point #3: The Light (Matthew 5:14-16)
As disciples of Jesus we are first called the salt of the earth, but we are not only intended to be those who preserve the world from further corruption and decay. We as Christians are called to be the light of the world. Verse 14…
As with the salt, being the light of the world is something that we are because of who we are in our union with Jesus as his bride, as his disciples.
But we must hear what it means to be the light, starting with how Matthew has already described the phrase light. Turn back with me to Matthew 4, verses 12-17…
Matthew paints the importance of the light piercing through the darkness. In particular Jesus and the message of the kingdom being this light. For let it be clear, Jesus is the light of the world, the Bible tells me so.
He is the light that shines in the darkness (John 1:5). Jesus is the true light, giving light to everyone, and it is he who has come into the world (John 1:9). Jesus is the light as he makes God known, the God who no one has ever seen. That and Jesus declares this about himself.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Jesus is the true light. But in our union with him through our faith in him, we too are declared to have the light and now be the light too. Again, look here at John 8:12, for while Jesus says he is the light of the world, Jesus declares that we who follow him do not walk in darkness, but have the light of life in us. We are a light too because of him.
And therefore as his followers, Jesus is teaching us that we have the same mission as him as the new people of God, those who will pierce through darkness by the light of Christ and his gospel message.
Therefore as we are the light, we are called to be visible, not hidden. For Jesus here declares to us the purpose of light. First there in the second half of verse 14 that a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Now, I know it is dark in many places here in our area. But as we have found ourselves driving at night, even in our small wee little town in rural Northern Wisconsin, it is possible to see the lights of town shining. In fact, we have often seen it coming from my in-laws house at night heading back to the parsonage. The light from town shines brightly that can be seen.
Light is visible and meant to shine. Jesus takes this further in verse 15…
Just as lamps are not lite to be put under a basket and hidden, so Christians are not made the light of the world to stay hidden. They are not to withdraw from the world, they are not to stay isolated. Christians are to not live of the world, but they are to live in it and burn brightly so that others may be see the light and lead out of darkness.
Our Christian faith is to be visible. It is to be shining brightly, cutting through the darkness of the world. For make no mistake about it, the world is full of darkness, not just now, but has been since the fall, and will be until the King returns.
For this is why Christians must be the light of the world. For in Jesus calling us the light of the world, he implies that those who do not follow him walk in darkness. One commentator would add, “whether they think themselves enlightened or not.” (2)
Therefore our job as Christians in being the light of the world is to pierce through the darkness. Not just anyway, but a particular way. Verse 16…
Christians are to let their light shine before others so that they may see their good works.
But we must pay attention to something that R.T. France puts so eloquently,
Matthew 5:16 (NICNT Mt): The goal of disciples’ witness is not that others emulate their way of life, or applaud their probity, but that they recognize the source of their distinctive lifestyle in “your Father in heaven.”
Christians are to be the light of the world by living out the virtues of the kingdom and the works that flow from them, the good works.
And these good works point not to ourselves and the praise of us, but to the one who has brought about those good works in us, our Father who is in heaven.
Christian, we pierce through the darkness by living out a visible faith. By the world seeing us live out our Christian distinctives. But what are these good works? Is it merely doing good in the world that the world deems good? Is it merely feeding the hungry? No, the world deems these as good works.
Calls to love one another in the ways that God has called his people. The good works of being meek and working to bring peace that were part of the beatitudes. The good works of compassion for the vulnerable and those in need.
Therefore the world needs the light of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. It needs to see those who have been transformed by the message of the kingdom of heaven and its drawing near.
And so, Jesus tells his disciples, they are the light of the world, they will be instruments in piercing through this darkness as he teaches them and then sends them out to preach the gospel.
This is why then they must not be tempted to shrink back when the reviling and persecution begins. This is why they cannot be tempted to withdraw into their comfortable churches and pews and live a hidden Christian life. Jesus teaches them on that mountain, and us right here, right now, that we as his disciples are to live out our faith visibly in the world. That our faith is not to be hidden…
O’Donnell, Douglas Sean. Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth. (Crossway, Wheaton, IL. 2013.) 118.
OO’Donnell, Douglas Sean. Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth. (Crossway, Wheaton, IL. 2013.) 119.
