How Do Christians Engage the Culture?

If you have a Bible… And I hope you or somebody around you does. Let me invite you to open with me to Matthew 5. Feel free to use table of contents if you need to, to find Matthew 5. It’s the first book in the New Testament in the Bible. And as you’re turning, I want to welcome those of you in other locations of our church family, in MoCo, in Loudon, in Arlington and PW, as well as others online who are physically unable to be with us today.

And especially for those of you who are visiting with us, whether you’re a follower of Jesus or maybe finding out more about Jesus or maybe a family member or friend or coworker invited you, whoever you are, wherever you find yourself in your own life and faith journey, please know you are always welcome here.

We’re in a series on the Sermon on the Mount, where we’re focusing on our passion and prayer to experience God’s kingdom and our lives here as it is in heaven. And as of today, we actually have some merch available to remind ourselves of that passion and prayer wherever we go, T-shirts, sweatshirts that are a little more Mike Kelsey style than David Platt style, which my kids have made it clear to me that Mike Kelsey style is much cooler than David Platt style. So, thank you, kids. Fashion has admittedly never been your dad’s deal.

So, anyway, I say there’s shirts. I got word that a lot of those shirts actually are selling out pretty quickly, so sorry if you haven’t got one, we’ll work on getting more. But mugs, stickers, it’s all designed by our own creative team and they don’t even have our church name on them. Hopefully they just help us remember that we are representatives of Jesus and his kingdom wherever we go, so they’re available and at least some lobbies of our locations right now and will be more in the days to come.

We’re giving all the profits from this to meeting urgent needs outside our church, such as needs we’re meeting when it comes to the foster care crisis in our city and other needs as well. So, just want to make you aware of that.

10 years ago, 2014, I wrote a book called Counter Culture because I believe that following Jesus with biblical conviction and compassion was going to be increasingly hard and costly amidst a rapidly shifting moral landscape in the culture around us. Just as one example, at that time, when I wrote that book, our country defined marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman.

Amen.

And transgender sexuality was rarely even discussed. That was just 10 years ago. And our cultural landscape is very different today when it comes to our understanding of sexuality, marriage, family, ourselves, and a variety of other things. And my whole purpose in writing that book back then was to answer the question, how do Christians engage the culture around us?

How do Christians engage the culture?

Do we resign ourselves to pessimism convinced that some moral foundations have simply collapsed and are irrecomparable? Do we reassure ourselves with optimism, confident that we can win a culture war if we just unite politically to do so? Do we accommodate the culture around us and change or at least loosen our convictions in order to be more relevant? Or do we withdraw from the culture? Do we keep our convictions while also keeping quiet on issues that bring us into contention in our culture?

And my purpose this morning is not to explain how I answer these questions in that book, although I do hope that what I wrote aligns with what we’re going to look at today, but I want us to hear Jesus’ answer to this question, how do Christians engage the culture around us?

Because I believe Jesus is basically answering this question in this next section on the Sermon on the Mount and his words are timely for us in a season where the answer to this question that we most often hear is to engage in the political process. We need to vote. We need to win an election in order to stem the tide and save our country from whatever the opposing presidential candidate or party will lead our country toward.

And please hear me, I do not want to ignore the importance of our involvement in the political process, particularly here in the capital of our country. I believe there are implications of what we’re about to look at that inform how we vote or how we participate in a political process. So, I don’t want to ignore that, but I do want us to listen closely to what Jesus says because it’s not what people were expecting then and it’s nothing less than breathtaking and life-transforming for us to hear today.

So, just think about the context and what we’re reading here in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In the first century, many Jewish people were expecting awaiting a messiah who would be a political leader, even with military power who would overthrow an unjust Roman government and establish a kingdom on earth where God’s people would rule. I genuinely do not mean what I’m about to say as a commentary either negative or positive on political campaign slogans today, but I’m going to put it this way because I think you’ll get it.

Jewish people were expecting a messiah who would make Israel great again. So, Jesus steps up for his first speech and his first words are, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Amen.

How’s that for firing up the base? That is not what people were expecting to hear from a potential messiah, poor in spirit. And notice he’s not even talking about a kingdom here. He’s talking about a kingdom in heaven.

Amen.

And then he goes on to say all the things we’ve looked at the last two weeks. Blessed are those who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst not for power and position but for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful and the pure in heart and the peacemakers.

And then we saw this last week, the one that takes the cake and clues followers of Jesus into the reality that this is a very different kind of kingdom. Blessed are you when people persecute you.

Amen.

Rejoice and be glad when others in the culture, whether religious leaders or government leaders revile and persecute you and slander you. Be happy because your reward is great. Where?

In heaven.

In heaven and another kingdom. So, at this point, if you’re looking for political messiah in the line of King David, the most esteemed political and military leader in the Old Testament to make Israel great again on earth, you are shocked and disappointed. You’re thinking this is never going to turn the cultural tide we’re in. We need political power. We need political position, not persecution. We need influence.

And that’s when Jesus says, “Yes, influence but not the way you think, not to build a kingdom on earth. I’m building a much bigger kingdom than what you see here.

Amen.

So, how do Christians engage the kingdoms and cultures of this world? And instead of going political, Jesus goes intensely personal. He looks his disciples in the eye when the crowds listening in and he says, Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth.”

Amen.

But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It’s no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

Amen.

That is a significant, clear, bold perspective changing, identity shaping word from Jesus that raises the conversation above the political frame and totally transforms the way you and I view the world around us and each of our lives and the very purpose of our lives in this world.

Yes.

Think about what Jesus just said about the world, first and foremost, Jesus just made two clear statements about this world.

This world is decaying.

One, he said, this world is decaying. So, we’ll talk more in a minute about this imagery of salt, but for the moment just realize one of salt’s primary purposes in a first century without refrigeration was to preserve meat to keep it from going bad, from decaying. And Jesus is clearly saying, “This world needs salt.” It needs a preservative to keep it from going bad, from worse to worse. This world is decaying.

So, don’t be surprised when you see cultures in this world deteriorating morally, whether you’re in first century Rome or 21st century America, it’s the way this world works. Now many people in the world will say, but we’re progressing. We just need to band together and believe in the power of people to move us forward. Look at all the scientific and technological and other advancements we’ve made, but surely we see, just look at the data.

Technological advancements clearly don’t mean increased mental health, emotional health, relational health, marital health, even physical health or just look at the headlines on your phone. This world is decaying and this world is dark.

This world is dark.

That’s what Jesus means when he says it needs light because it’s dark.

And you might think this sounds like too dismal of you of the world. There’s a lot of good things in the world and we’ll get to that in a moment. But just to open your eyes, look at 10 million children in Yemen right now who are suffering and food insecure after nine years of civil war. Take just a minute to stop scrolling through endless trivial videos and reels and actually see their faces and their malnourished bodies.

Learn about what’s happening in Sudan right now, where 25 million people urgently need humanitarian assistance with five million of them on the verge of starvation. Don’t just look at wars between Russia and Ukraine or in the Middle East right now through political lenses, but through the lives of suffering people.

Walk down the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal and see places where young girls have 15 to 20 customers a day who use and abuse them. It’s their life day after day after day with seemingly no way out and not just far from here. See the darkness of your own heart and your addiction to pornography and see the real-life people who are suffering for the sake of your supposed pleasure.

This world is a dark decaying place and realize it’s been this way ever since Genesis 3 in the beginning when sin entered the world. So, for those of you who are not Christians, maybe unfamiliar with the Bible, God’s word teaches that the reason why evil and injustice exists in this world is because we have turned aside from God and his ways to ourselves and our own ways. We actually think we know better than God what’s best for our lives and for the world, and we choose our own ways over God’s word.

The Bible calls this sin and as a result of sin in each of our lives, this world is decaying and dark. So, Jesus is clearly saying here, when you look at the world at your country, at the culture around you and you see decay or darkness, don’t be surprised and don’t think that government or power or wealth or technology or anything else this decaying dark world can produce can ultimately change that. Jesus is saying what this decaying world needs is salt and needs an outside agent to keep it from going bad.

Jesus is saying what this dark world needs is light, which then leads to these breathtaking words from Jesus through his disciples. You are the salt. You are the light of the world. Jesus is making a staggering statement here, a statement of fact. He’s not saying you need to try to be like salt or you need to work to become light. He looks at them in the eye and says, “You are.” He’s talking personally to his followers. He says, “This is who you are in the world. This is who I have made you to be.” This is incredible.

It’s not about followers of Jesus defining who we are as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. So, if you’re taking notes, I want to give you a sentence that hopefully faithfully summarizes what Jesus is saying here, not only to his followers of Jesus then but to us as followers of Jesus today. Like right now in this gathering in multiple places around metro Washington, DC, Jesus is saying this to us right now, so I’m going to give you the sentence here and we’ll unpack it.

You are a distinct, otherworldly community.

Jesus is saying, “You are a distinct otherworldly community that positively and proactively engages this world with gracious truth and good works in order to lead people all over this world to glorify God.” Now that’s a loaded sentence. Let me unpack it. And as I do, I just want you to hear what Jesus is saying to you and me about who we are as followers of his and how he’s designed us to live in a decaying dark world. Jesus is saying, “You are a distinct otherworldly community. You are a community.”

When Jesus says you are the salt and you are the light in Matthew 5, he’s using a plural pronoun there. He’s talking to the community of his followers, otherwise known as the church. This whole passage is about the church. And this is significant because we live in a context where Jesus’ words here about being a city on a hill have been misapplied to our country.

So, back in 1630, a Puritan lawyer named John Winthrop called his fellow Puritan followers of Jesus to show distinct purity in this world as they settled in New England. And he called them to be as a city set upon a hill. Hill, referencing Jesus’s words here. Fast forward more than 300 years later, and John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and numerous other politicians today have used that quote saying, “This is what the United States of America is, a shining city upon a hill for all other nations to see.”

But if I could point out what I trust is obvious, Jesus was not talking about the United States in Matthew 5 or any other country for that matter. Americans are not a city on a hill. The church is, the community of Christ followers from every nation is the city on a hill, is the salt and the light. The church is a distinct community, meaning it’s different from any other community or country in the whole world.

Just like salt is different from anything you’d put it on, light is different from darkness, the church is distinct, which means the church doesn’t think like this world or live like this world. This is something we need to admit and just own it. We are an odd bunch in this world. Think about how out of step our beliefs are with this world, with the culture around us, and not just out of step, but to many offensive.

We actually believe God created people, male and female, and that God’s good design is for each of us to live as he created us, male or female. Genesis 1:26 to 28. We actually believe marriage really is only between a man and a woman. We actually believe that any kind of sexual activity outside of that picture of marriage between opposite or same sexes is wrong.

Ephesians 5:22 to 33, 1 Corinthians 6:18 through 20. We believe what very few politicians would publicly say at this point in our country that apart from rare exceptions were the physical life of another human being, namely a mom is at stake, that abortions at any week of pregnancy are wrongfully ending a human life that God is personally and wonderfully forming in a womb, Psalm 1 39. We believe that materialism is not just deceptively sinful. We believe it’s deadly.

1 Timothy 6:6 through 10. We believe that character matters in our leaders, regardless of how much economic, military, political, or any other kind of prosperity they might bring to the people they lead. Psalm 78, 72, we believe that racism is real and racism is wrong. Acts 17:24 through 29. We believe we’re supposed to be family to orphans, widows and refugees. Exodus 22:21 through 22 and James 1:27.

Everything I’ve just said, the Bible is crystal clear on and I could keep going down the list, but I haven’t even gotten to what is most out of step and offensive in what we believe. We actually believe that there is one God who creates, sustains, owns, defines rules, and will one day judge every single person on earth including every single one of us.

Yes.

And we believe that we are all without exception, guilty sinners before this Holy God. And we believe that the only way to be reconciled to God is by dying to yourself, turning from your sin and entrusting your life to a Jewish carpenter who is nailed to a cross to thousand years ago on a nondescript hill and a nondescript part of the world. We believe this Jewish carpenter then came back to life, then physically levitated up into the sky and one day, a trumpet is going to sound that the whole world is going to hear and this carpenter is going to come back riding on a white horse.

We actually believe that. And we believe that for anyone in this world who doesn’t entrust your life to him, that when you die, you will experience everlasting suffering in hell. Yes. Could it be any clearer that we don’t fit in this world? It’s not just our views on the hot button, political issues that are out of step or even offensive. It’s our view on everything for eternity. It’s not just we don’t fit into a political party. It’s we don’t fit anywhere in this world. Why? Because we belong to another world.

Amen, amen.

So, stop trying to be like this world. Stop trying to fit in with this world. Teenager, don’t do it. Senior adult, don’t do it. Anywhere in between and for all of us, stop looking to and living like these world systems have the answers for what this world needs. No, you do.

Yes, yes, yes.

You’re the church you. You’re the salt. You are the light. This is who you are.

You are a community that positively and proactively engages this world.

You’re a distinct otherworldly community that positively and proactively engages this world. So, here’s why I’m using these two words, positively and proactively, because we got these two images, salt and light. It’s at this point we could dive into all kinds of characteristics of salt and light and then say that’s what the church is supposed to be. Take salt.

We’ve mentioned it acts as a preservative that prevents corruption or decay, but in other cases salt adds flavor. So, a McDonald’s French fry without salt does not taste the same. So, we might say we’re supposed to add flavor to the world around us. Or in some cases salt can be an antiseptic for healing wounds. So, we might say the church is a source of healing in the world. Then you think about light light’s, obviously a source of illumination. So, we might say the church opens people’s eyes to what’s right and good.

Amen.

Or light can be a warning like a lighthouse. So, we might say the church warns people of coming judgment or light can be a guide like a flashlight. So, we might say that church is a moral guide in the world. I could go on and on and we could get lost trying to figure out all that Jesus means here, but I don’t believe Jesus’s purpose and using these images is for us to think through every use of salt and light and then apply that to the church. It seems like Jesus’ point is much clearer and more simple than that.

And we see this when we look at what Jesus says right after he introduces these pictures. And this is why I use these two words positively, proactively. So, first positively, Jesus says, “You’re the salt, but if salt loses its taste, it’s not salty anymore. It is no longer good for anything. “Saul is intended to have a good, a positive effect on something else. That’s the point Jesus is saying, “You as the church are designed to positively and proactively,” this is where light comes in. As city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

You can tell where a city is, it lights up. The whole point of light is to make something visible. That’s why you don’t light a lamp and put it under a basket. That would make no sense. You put it on a stand so that it gives light to everybody in the house. Light has a purpose to shine in darkness.

This is Jesus clearly saying, as my followers as the church, you don’t become like the world. You’re distinct, but you also don’t withdraw from the world. I’ve made you. I’ve designed you as the church to positively and proactively engage this world, this dark decaying world. How? With gracious truth.

You are a community that engages this world with gracious truth.

Now what’s driving this phrase here is how Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 connect with rich imagery we see all over the Bible of truth as light. Throughout the Old Testament, God’s word, his truth is described as light for our path and enlightening our eyes. Then listen to John’s introduction of Jesus in his gospel account.

John 1:1 says in the beginning was the word. This is talking about Jesus and the word was with God and the word was God is the revelation of God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the what? Light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Amen.

John continues on in verse nine, talking about Jesus as the true light, true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. And then verse 14 says, the word became flesh revelation of God in the flesh dwells among us. This is Jesus. We’ve seen his glory. Glory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth.

Amen.

Then you fast forward, Jesus himself says in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, will have the light of life.” That’s a bold statement you just said, you’re all in darkness in the world and I am the light you need.

Amen.

The religious leaders he was talking to did not like that. Verse 13, the Pharisees said to him, “You’re bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true.” It’s not true, which then leads Jesus to talk about truth and eventually to say a few verses later to those who believed in Jesus. John 8 31, Jesus said to the Jews who believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Amen.

So, put all this together. If you’re a follower, a disciple of Jesus, then that means Jesus who is the light of the world is living inside of you. You have the light of the world in you, which means you don’t hide that under a bush. You positively proactively engage this world with what? With truth that flows from Jesus and his word, that’s able to set people free.

Amen.

Which means you don’t keep his word his truth to yourself.

Amen.

That’d be like hiding light under a basket. No. So, practically, when you have an opportunity to talk about marriage, even though it may not be popular in our culture, you don’t stay silent. You speak about how marriage is a beautiful relationship designed by God for a man and a woman as a display of God’s love for us in Jesus. You tell people what God says about marriage. It’s what it means to be salt and light, to speak gracious truth in this world and not just marriage. Think about all the issues we’ve mentioned to positively and proactively speak in this world.

Jesus’ words about sexuality, abortion, materialism, racism, refugees and more. Wherever Jesus, wherever God’s word speaks clearly and directly about an issue, you don’t stay silent. You don’t keep that life, that truth. That’s able to set people free. You don’t keep it under a basket and you’re not selective based on what the people around you might think or which issues will get the most affirmation from your particular echo chamber. No, you speak and you do so with grace. You speak truth with grace.

So, now make the connection Colossians 4:6. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with what? With salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. So, don’t speak the truth until it set people free from God, from Jesus harshly or proudly or bidingly. You speak humbly and compassionately and graciously and boldly and most important of all, this is what Colossians 4 is primarily referring to, you speak about the ultimate gracious truth, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Positively, proactively engage this world with the greatest news in all the world, that though we have all sinned against God and we do deserve eternal judgment when we die. God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to live the life we could not live, of no sin, to die the death we deserve to die on a cross and to conquer the enemy.

We could not conquer sin and death itself so that anyone, anywhere, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, if you’ll turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, you’ll be reconciled to God. You’ll become a part of his family and his kingdom now and forever. That’s the greatest news in the world. Speak it.

Amen.

Jesus says, “This is who you are. You are ultimately representatives not of a political candidate, party or platform or country in this world. You are ultimately representatives of the light of this world, the king of heaven who alone can bring salvation to this world, has sent you to be his representative. Your carriers of the gracious truth that this dark decaying world desperately needs that can set people free from sin to have eternal life with God.

You are distinct, otherworldly community that positively, proactively engages this world with gospel truth and with good works.

Amen.

You are a community that engages this world with good works.

So, this is where Jesus goes from defining who we are to describing how we live. He says so in the same way, let your light shine. So, this is who you are. So, this is what you do. You let your light shine before others so they may see your good works. There it is. This is so interesting because well, there’s a lot of people who do good works in the world. This is certainly not Jesus saying Christians are the only ones who can do anything good in this world.

Praise God for his common grace and so many different people, so many different gifts that lead to all kinds of good works. But that’s kind of the point, because there are two things that make these good works that Jesus is talking about here distinct. So, one, they’re done out of the overflow of relationship with God as your father.

It’s really interesting that you know that God is called “Father” only 15 times in the Old Testament, the whole Testament, 39 books. That’s two-third of the Bible, 15 times. But then when you turn the pages into Matthew, Martin, Luke and John, just these four gospels, these stories of Jesus and those four books alone, God is referred to as Father 165 times. It just shouts in the page of scripture that through Jesus, we know God as our father.

Amen, amen.

And that’s part of what makes these good works good is they flow from relationship with the good God, the good Father we have in heaven.

Amen.

So, then second, these good works are done with a purpose so that people will see them and not just say, “Wow, that’s good or that’s great, thank you.” But ultimately, so that people will see these good works and give glory to God, your father who’s in heaven. So, you put these two pictures together now. These are good works that flow from relationship with God is father and lead to glory for God as our father. That’s the kind of good work Jesus is talking about.

So, example, think about how we are working to address the foster care crisis in our city. Again, mcleanbible.org/foster. Find out more information, get involved if you haven’t already. But what makes this a good work? Well, it springs from the fact that we know God, the creator of this world as our father.

Amen.

He’s adopted us into his family where his children. So, when we see children in need around us, we care for them. Why? Well, because we’ve been cared for like this by God as our father, and we want them to know that God loves them too.

Amen.

We want them to see our care for them and in that picture, give glory to God who loves them more than we ever could. We don’t foster and adopt and support these children and their families just because we’re altruistic people. We foster and adopt because we want these kids and their families to see and give glory to God. We want our city to see and give glory to God as the father to the fatherless. You want to know what salty? You want to know what shines? When a couple facing retirement and a future of relaxation chooses to sacrifice those dreams in order to foster and eventually adopt two young children in need who totally turn their lives upside down? That’s salty.

Amen.

That shines and that’s who we are.

Amen.

This is what we do. We don’t just say marriage is for a man and a woman. Like brothers and sisters are doing all across this church family, we make sacrifices to help build and heal and restore broken marriages so that people will see and experience God’s love in the way he has designed marriage. We don’t just say, “This is what the Bible says about male and female.” We listen to and love well those who are struggling with a variety of thoughts or desires that may be different from us so that they will know and trust in the God who created them and loves them.

We don’t just say abortion is wrong like brothers and sisters are doing across this church family. We walk alongside moms and dads with unwanted pregnancies providing whatever support they need so that those moms and dads and those children in the womb will know that God is with them and for them.

Amen.

We don’t just say racism is wrong. We worked. We worked to rid our hearts of it and the world around us of it so that all people, regardless us of skin color or status will see the God who gives equal and extraordinary dignity to all of us.

Amen.

We don’t just talk about people who’ve been forced to flee from their homes or their countries. We care for them and their families because we want them to know and see God our Father. That’s the whole point of all our good works. We’re sons and daughters of God himself, and we want everyone to see the goodness of our Father in such a way that he receives glory, do his name. That’s what good works are all about.

You are a community that engages this world so others can glorify God.

And we don’t just do this here. We positively, proactively engage this world with gracious truth and good works in order to lead people all over this world to glorify God. Because as we’ve already talked about, Jesus is not depicting one country that’s going to be an example for all the nations. He is describing a kingdom that will encompass all the nations one day. And Jesus says, “You, you’re the light of the whole world.” So, let your light shine everywhere. That’s what you do in this world. You live to make light known all over this world.

Amen.

I think about Ian Keith-Falconer. He was a 19th century Scotsman who won the World Cycling Championship in 1878 at the age of 22. He had a bright future ahead of him in cycling, but he left it all behind to study Arabic and moved to Egypt and eventually to Yemen to spread the gospel among Arab Muslims. He died of malaria at the age of 31. What would compel him to spend his life this way? He wrote, “I have but one candle of life to burn and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.”

And here’s the beauty, church. We, today, in light of travel and technology and the globalization of the marketplace and urbanization of the world, we have opportunities from this city, where we live right here to shine light all over this world.

Amen.

Unique opportunities. One God’s bringing the nations from here to us to the city where we live. Our neighbors are from the nations, many of us in this church family from the nations. So, we have opportunities like God’s bringing people from places where there is no gospel to our doorstep. And then we have opportunities to give to, to support work that our brothers and sisters are doing in really dark places in the world, which we do through offerings we give and we have opportunities to go.

I look at the culture around us and I look at this map, and I think we live in a decaying, dark world, but what a time to be alive as salt and light with more opportunities we have today than ever before in history to speak gracious truth and do good works. So, how do we engage our culture in our schools, students, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, in our city, how to engage our country, how to engage the world around us?

Jesus is saying to us today, you are a distinct otherworldly community that positively and proactively engages this world with gracious truth and good works in order to lead people all over this world to glorify God. Let’s be who Jesus has made us to be.

Amen.

Let’s do what he’s designed us to do.

Amen.

Two Questions to Reflect On and Pray About

So, I want to give you a moment to reflect on what Jesus is saying to you specifically about being salt and light. I want to give you just a moment to reflect on these two questions. So, one, if you’re a Christian, if you’re a follower of Jesus, Jesus has just told you who you are, what you’re a part of. So, here’s the question I want to encourage you to reflect on, pray about. What are two or three ways Jesus is calling you specifically to be salt and light in this world, to speak gracious truth and do good works positively, proactively engaging the world.

What is Jesus just calling you to do? Not to sit back passively, but to step forward in what ways. And then if you’re not a follower of Jesus, I just want to encourage you to reflect on this question, what’s keeping you from trusting God’s love for you in Jesus?

Observation: What does this passage say?

1) Read Matthew 5:13–16 aloud as a group. Let group members share observations. Try not to move into interpretation of the passage or application of what you read quite yet. Simply share what you observe.

• Who is the “You” Jesus is referring to in the passage? Matthew 5:13–14
• What declarations does Jesus make in Matthew 5:13–14? 
• What warning does Jesus give concerning salt? Matthew 5:13
• What does the passage say about light in Matthew 5:14–15? 
• What is the usefulness of lighting a lamp? Matthew 5:16
• In Matthew 5:16, what is the goal of good works? 

2) How would you summarize Matthew 5:13-16?

Interpretation: What does the passage mean?

1) What does the imagery of salt and light reveal about the world? Genesis 3:2–19; John 3:19–20, Romans 1:21–25, 2 Tim 3:1–5, 13; 1 John 2:17a

2) The symbols of salt and light are throughout the scriptures:

• What are some characteristics or uses of salt? – Leviticus 2:13; Job 6:6; Colossians 4:6
• What is the purpose and effect of light? Genesis 1:3, Psalm 27:1; 119:105; John 1:1–5, 9; John 8:12

3) How are Christians called to be salt and light? John 17:11, 14–17; Roman 12:2; Philippians 2:14–16a; Ephesians 5:8–14a; 1 Thess 5:5–11; 1 John 2:15–17

• How should we reflect God’s truth in the world? Colossians 4:6; 1 Peter 3:15, Matthew 28:19–20
• What makes good work good? Matthew 5:16; Proverbs 3:27–28, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Timothy 6:17–18. Hebrews 13:16

4) What makes the church a distinct, otherworldly community to the culture around us? Some examples highlighted in the sermon—marriage, sexuality, abortion, materialism, racism, and refugees. 

• How is the church today softening its convictions to adapt to the culture? 

Application: How can we apply this passage to our lives?

1) Live to positively and proactively engage the world around us

• What does the way you live say about what you believe? 
• When is it most difficult for you to live distinctively from the world? 
• How is the fragrance of Christ evident in your walk and interactions with the world?
• What compromises are you making with the world? Are you tempted to withdraw from the culture, keeping quiet on your convictions on issues that bring contention?
• What are 1-2 ways Jesus is calling you, or your Church Group, to positively and proactively engage the world? 

2) Share the Gracious Truth

• How are you prioritizing the word light in your life? 
• How are you sharing the light of the gospel with others? Who in your life can you share the gospel with this week?
• What marks your speech? Do not speak harshly, proudly, or bitingly, instead of humbly, compassionately, and graciously? If not, what do you need to confess? Read Colossians 4:6.
• How can your Church Group pray for you?

3) Good works for the glory of God

• What are 1-2 ways Jesus is calling you, or your church group, to participate in good works this week?
• How can you guard against the temptation of self-exaltation instead of glorifying God in all that you do?

Matthew 5:13-16 ESV

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 

Semon Recap

• This world is decaying and dark. It needs salt and light
• Christians are called to engage the kingdoms and cultures around us
  • “You are the salt of the earth” 
  • “You are the light of the world” 
  • He has designed us to live in a decaying and dark world:
    • You are a distinct, otherworldly community 
    • Whose purpose is to positively and proactively engages this world with gracious truth and good works 
    • In order to lead people all over this world to glorify God.