Sharing Faith - Act of Witness (Matthew 5.13-16)

Introduction

This is the last in our series on sharing faith. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and that it’s helped you, along with the weekly testimonies, to have a bit more confidence in talking to others about your story and about the Lord.

Essentially, sharing faith is not that hard. As someone once said, “Sometimes the best evangelism is simply telling someone you’re a Christian and then not being a complete jerk.” Anyone can do that, even me.

Today, to conclude this series, we’re thinking about sharing faith as an act of witness. Listen to what Jesus says in 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 underfoot. 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 others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Jesus makes it clear here that he wants a church that is distinctive from the communities around it. Jesus expects us, and commissions us, to stand out.

Salt of the Earth

But if you ask anybody what salt is for, you will tend to get two answers.

In fact, this week I asked five people what they thought salt is most useful for and I got two answers. We use it for seasoning and preserving.

Salt is used to make food taste more interesting, but the biggest complaint from teenagers about church is probably that “it’s boring.”

Listen, if somebody landed at Galilee airport in the first century, got into a taxi and said to the driver, “Drive me to where the action is,” every driver would have put their foot on the gas and headed straight for wherever Jesus was.

I rarely use the word “unforgivable” because God can forgive anything. But a movement founded by the most intoxicating, most wonderful, most electrifying figure who ever walked the earth letting itself go to the point that it has a reputation for being dull is almost unforgivable. It is unacceptable.

You are the salt of the earth. You have not been given a mission to make what is exciting boring.

  

Salt adds flavour to unappetising food, but it also stops it going off. Cured meat, like Parma ham, which has had coarse salt rubbed into it, can keep virtually forever.

When Jesus talks about salt, he means that the world is decaying. It is going rotten; it’s on its way to purifying and stinking. Jesus does not think that the world is basically OK, and that Christians can make it nicer. Jesus doesn’t think that the world needs improving. He thinks it needs saving.

It was a Christian, William Wilberforce, who fought tirelessly to abolish the slave trade in this country. It was a Christian, Martin Luther King, who achieved the outlawing of racist segregation in the USA 50 years ago. 60% of AIDS relief programmes in Africa are run by churches. As are the vast majority of foodbanks in the U.K. You are the salt of the earth.

But, even though Jesus would have watched his mother Mary using it in the kitchen so possibly had seasoning and preserving in mind when he talked about salt, he was probably thinking of two other uses.

In Luke’s 14.34, Jesus’ words about salt are expanded slightly, and the fuller version says this;

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out.”

Jesus is talking about two other properties of salt; ones you might not guess. He actually meant salt as a fertiliser (for the soil) and as an antiseptic (for the manure heap). That’s why Jesus used the expression “salt of the earth” and not salt of the kitchen.

What they called salt in New Testament times was not this, it was in fact, an unrefined, coarse mixture you still find today on the shores of the Dead Sea. It’s rich in sodium chloride, but it also contains potash and other minerals.

You have to dilute it a bit but, when you do, it is excellent for the soil and it favours the strong growth of healthy crops. But if you dilute it too much, it loses its properties, and it becomes useless. That’s what Jesus meant when he said “if salt loses its saltiness.”

Jesus calls you “the salt of the earth” because he calls you to be in the growth business, actively promoting the increase of his government and peace.

Many of the parables are about growth; the yeast, the mustard seed, the sower, the wheat and the tares... Colossians 1 says, “All over the world the gospel is bearing fruit and growing… and we pray… that you may bear fruit in every good work.”

So, are you growing? Are you fruitful? Are you a giver? Are you joyful? Are you helping faith grow around you? Are you an encourager? Are you a catalyst for love and good works?

Have you ever had to fill in one of those forms in hospital which asks what religion you are? What should you write? We don’t tend to talk about Church of England or Catholic as our religion, do we? In fact, we don’t feel comfortable with the word religion at all. We tend to identify as Christians basically, but there’s never a box to tick for that, is there?

My advice (which I got from a friend called Andy Griffiths) is this: check the hospital website for photos of the chaplaincy team and have a look at their faces. Then, either write down the religion of the one who looks most likely to cheer you up in the Lord, or better still, the one who most looks like he needs witnessing to! Be salt of the earth in hospital.

So salt is useful for seasoning, preserving, fertilizing… and sanitizing. It was an antiseptic. “If salt loses its saltiness… it is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap” said Jesus.

There were no drains in those days. So people threw salt on the dung hill, downwind from the village and it fumigated it, to keep away flies and rats.

The gospel and the power of Christian love can decontaminate even the most destructive and evil environment.

In February last year, Brenton Winn, a homeless 23-year-old drug addict, broke into and vandalised Central Baptist Church in Conway, Arkansas, causing $100,000 worth of damage. He destroyed everything in sight at the church, smashing laptops, cameras and various other pieces of expensive electrical equipment. He also painted a racial slur on the wall and set fire to the church's family centre.

The pastor Don Chandler said, “I really don't know what would possess a person to do this.” Following his arrest, Winn faced a long list of criminal charges. But Pastor Chandler spoke to prosecutors and requested the man be shown grace and forgiveness rather than be prosecuted.

He said, “You can't preach something for 50 years without practicing it. Had we not shown some grace to him, everything we've talked about would have gone by the wayside. It was simply the right thing to do. This was a young man who had made some mistakes. He was on drugs and alcohol when he did what he did. But he was redeemable.”

The judge considered the pastor's request and offered Winn a choice; to spend the next 20 years in prison, or to voluntarily attend a 12-month Christian rehab and recovery programme.

He chose the latter, and during that time, he accepted Jesus as his Saviour and Lord. Six months after he had broken into and vandalised this church, Brenton Winn returned there to be baptised and publicly dedicate his life to the Lord.

His testimony: “My life was nothing but chaos, suicide attempts and brokenness. But as I'm starting to understand how God works, I've realized I didn't pick the church that night. God picked me.”

Salt is a disinfectant. Jesus wants to cleanse all that is putrid – he wants to use us. “You are the salt of the earth.”

Salt seasons, preserves, promotes growth and disinfects. Salt also melts snow, but I’m sure Jesus wasn’t thinking of that.

But finally, salt irritates. If you apply salt to your skin it chafes, it stings. Real, living Christianity sometimes rubs this world up the wrong way. Seriously.

Jesus annoyed stuffy, religious people like the Pharisees. He wound up snidey intellectuals like the Sadducees. He rubbed opinionated windbags like Herod up the wrong way. Jesus was loved by the common people and he was a friend of sinners but he didn’t half tick off the establishment!

I’m not advocating gratuitous offence but sometimes following Jesus means ruffling feathers sometimes, being a bit of an irritant.

John Ortberg, in his book Soul Keeper, describes a conversation a friend of his had in a restaurant one time. He was reading his Bible to prepare a sermon when a young woman looked over and said, “Why are you reading that?”

He looks back at her and says, (this is an exact quote), “Because I don’t feel like going to hell when I die.” That’s salt as an irritant, right there!

She is a confident, articulate atheist and she says, “There is no such thing as heaven or hell.”

“Why do you say that?” he says.

She says, “Everybody knows that when you die, your candle goes out. That’s it!”

He says, “You mean to tell me there is no afterlife?”

“No.”

“So that means you must be able to just live as you please?”

“That’s right.”

“Like, there is no judgement day or anything?”

“Right.”

He says, “Well, that’s fascinating to me. Where did you hear that?”

She says, “I read it somewhere.”

“Can you give me the name of the book?”

“I don’t recall.”

“Can you give me the name of the author of the book?”

“I forgot his name.”

“Well, did the author write any other books?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it possible that your author changed his or her mind two years after they wrote this particular book and then wrote another one that said there is a heaven and hell? Is that possible?”

“It’s possible but not likely.”

He says, “Alright, let me get this straight. You are rolling the dice on your eternity predicated on what someone you don’t even know wrote in a book you can’t even recall the title of. Have I got that straight?”

She looks back. “That’s right.”

He says, “You know what I think? I think you have merely created a belief that protects your chosen lifestyle. I think you made it up, because it is very discomforting to think of a heaven. It is very disturbing to think of a hell. It is very unnerving to face a holy God on the day of reckoning. I think you made it all up.”

That’s salt as an irritant.

Light of the World

Jesus also says “You are the light of the world.” I want you to be visible; don’t hide away. A lamp on a stand, a city on a hill. God expects his church to be a beacon in its community. An invisible church is as useful to God as a pocket torch with a flat battery.

John Stott says, “If a house is dark at night, there is no sense in blaming the house for its darkness. That is what happens when the sun goes down. The question is, where is the light? Similarly, if society becomes corrupt (like a dark night) there is no sense in blaming society for its corruption. That is what happens when human evil is unchecked and unrestrained. The question to ask is: where is the church?”

Being light in a dark world does not mean self-righteous Christians tutting and wagging their fingers. It’s not our light, our innate goodness shining out of every orifice; it’s the light of Christ’s love radiating through us.

Here’s a question; how much of what we read about Jesus in the gospels situates him outside a religious building? If you were to put a percentage on it, what would you say? What proportion of the gospels show Jesus outside a synagogue or temple or holy shrine? 50%? 75%? 90%? The answer is over 95%.

Jesus said in v16 “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

When you do random acts of kindness, in Jesus’ name, you find so often that God opened up doors to engage with people spiritually.

Here’s an example: a few years ago now, a man came into the centre at church. If memory serves, he was the grandfather of one of the toddlers who use the building on Thursdays and Fridays. Anyway, he was grumbling about his back pain. The easiest thing in the world would have been a bit of tea and sympathy and to say, “Ah, well I hope you’ll feel better soon.”

I think it was Sandra who said to him “Well, would you like us to pray now that God will heal you?” She laid hands on him, (Do you know, I’m not even sure if she waited for his answer!) She asked God to take away the pain. “Ooh,” said the man, “You know what, I can feel heat on my back as you pray.” By the time she said “Amen” the pain had all but gone. He phoned up later to say, “It’s still better, it’s amazing.”

God doesn’t do amazing things every time I step out in faith and pray. He doesn’t even do amazing things every time Sandra steps out in faith and prays. I so, so wish he did. But that’s his business. I just know that I am called to be salt and light.

I was talking to a Christian in his mid-twenties once and I asked him how he met his girlfriend. It wasn’t in a church context; it was at work. But he knew she was a Christian. She wasn’t wearing a cross necklace, she didn’t have a sticker on her car. She didn’t hum Amazing Grace as she photocopied her papers, or draw attention to her Bible at coffee break.

He just saw something in her that so reminded him of Jesus that he guessed she must be a Christian, and he guessed right. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” 

Ending

Sharing faith as a witness. Can you hear God’s voice calling you to be like salt; bringing a taste of heaven to your neighbourhood and sanitizing all that is foul? Can you hear Jesus saying, “You, yes you, are the salt of the earth”?

Is he speaking to you about being visible as a Christian? “Nobody sticks a lamp under a bowl” he says. Is your light hidden away?

Is it time to shine more brightly, to speak out, to take a risk, to go for it, to be a beacon? When are you going to shine like you know you want to? Can you hear Jesus saying to you today, “You are the light of the world”?

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached via video link at All Saints’ Preston on Tees, 31 May 2020