SERMON ON THE MOUNT
SALT AND LIGHT
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 5:10-16
APRIL 1, 2001
Herod Phillip II was the son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra of Jerusalem. He was the half-brother of Herod Antipas, and he was the Tetrarch, the ruler, the king of a vast territory northeast of the Sea of Galilee. The range of mountains called the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, which included Mt. Hermon, were part of the domain of Herod Phillip II. The melting snow came down the slopes of Mt. Hermon, forming the headwaters of the Jordan River. It was there at the headwaters of the Jordan beneath the slopes of Mt. Hermon that there was a place called Pantheon, sometimes called Paneas. It was a place with beautiful pools. It was a place with beautiful trees. It was one of the most beautiful places in the Ancient Middle East. It was the regional center of the Cult of Pan, the Greek and Roman God of Nature. Thus, it was called Pantheon or Paneas. It was there at Pantheon that Herod Phillip II decided to build the magnificent city of Caesarea Philippi—Phillip’s Caesar. He built the city there to honor Caesar Augustus, and he built the city there to honor himself.
Just 15 years ago, I went there beneath the Anti-Lebanons, beneath Mt. Hermon, to the headwaters of the Jordan to the region of Pantheon. Today it is called by the Arabs Banias. It’s still beautiful. There are still beautiful palms and just beautiful bodies of water with beautiful trees in the midst of what is sometimes a barren place. It’s like an oasis. You can look up at the beauty and the majesty of Mt. Hermon, which is almost 10,000 feet high. The city of Caesarea Philippi is no more. Most of that city is beneath the earth. All you can see are a few ruins of that once-magnificent city, a few ruins scattered about as a testimony to the fading glory of man, a testimony to the glory of the Roman Caesars, Herod Phillip II, and of all the Herods. It is a testimony to the transitory nature of human things.
As I stood there 15 years ago and looked out at the beautiful pools and trees of Banias, I thought back to how Jesus had once been there. He had been there with his Twelve Disciples. It was there that He posed to them the great question, “Who do you say that I am?” The disciples said, “Some say you are John the Baptist resurrected.” “Some say you are Elijah Redivivus, Elijah revived and returned to earth.” “Some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Jesus said, “But who do you say? Who do you say that I am?” It was Simon Peter who answered. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you but My Father who is in heaven.”
Then Jesus said an amazing thing. He’d already asked them who they thought He was. Now, He proceeds to tell them who He thinks THEY are. He says to Peter as Peter is standing in the midst of the disciples, “You are Petras,” a little stone, a pebble. “Upon this petra,” this larger stone, perhaps referring to all of the disciples, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” So here we are today, a small segment of the church of Jesus Christ, the church of Christ universal, two billion strong, one-third of the earth’s population. We acknowledge that this church is founded on the lifeblood of Peter and the apostles and on Jesus Christ who is the Cornerstone. With Simon Peter, we confess, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” But who are we? I mean, who are we? We’re not foundation stones upon which the church has been built. Who are we? Who are the people of Christ today?
Our passage of scripture for today tells us. The Sermon on the Mount tells us that as Christians, we are two things. Jesus tells us. First of all, we are the salt of the earth. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are the salt of the earth. But what does that mean?
In the ancient world, salt had two primary purposes, and this helps us to understand. First of all, salt was used for seasoning. All over the ancient world as today, salt is used in seasoning to give food a better flavor, to make things taste better. There’s a sense in which Christians are supposed to do that. We’re supposed to season life. There’s a sense in which we’re supposed to make life taste a little better as the gospel is brought into the world through our ministry and service. We are to season the world. There’s a sense in which everything we do and everything we say is meant to make life more bearable and more enjoyable for the people around us. I think Christians are rarely viewed this way.
There’s an old story about a grandfather whose granddaughter came to him. She was a teenager and a Christian. She began to complain. She began to complain about the way she looked. She told her grandfather she didn’t like her face; she didn’t like her figure and said she was overweight. She told her grandfather that she was having trouble with her friends, that they weren’t treating her well. She was having a hard time keeping her girlfriends. She couldn’t get a boyfriend. She told her grandfather how hard it was to be a Christian in the world and how hard this world was to live in with all the temptation, with all the pressures, and with all the stresses of life. She just kind of went on and on.
The grandfather looked at her and said, “I want you to see something.” He took three pots and put them on the stove, put them on three burners. He put water in the pots, and he brought the water to a boil. In one pot he put a carrot. In another pot he put an egg. In the third pot he put a bunch of coffee beans. He waited a period of time. He took the carrot out of the first pot. It had been hard, but now it was just soft. He said to his granddaughter, “Some people are just like this carrot. When they get into hot water, they just turn soft and mushy. That’s what hot water does to them.”
He took the egg out of the second pot and said, “Some people are like this. This egg, within its hard shell, was once soft but, having been put into the hot water, has become hard on the inside. Some people are like that when they’re in hot water and when life is tough they just become hard on the inside.” Then he took the third pot into which he had put the coffee beans. He took it off the stove and held it up near her face so that she could smell the aroma of the coffee. The hot water had changed its color, and there was an aroma about it, and it was a good aroma. He said, “Some people are like these coffee beans. They change their environment. They transform what surrounds them. They make the world better.” He said, “You can be a carrot, you can be an egg, or you can be a coffee bean. The choice is yours.”
Well, of course, we who belong to Jesus Christ are in a sense called to be coffee beans. We’re called to transform all that surrounds us and to make it better. We’re called to bring the joy of Christ to our lives and to the people that we are in fellowship with… the love of Christ, the compassion of Christ, the mercy and grace of Christ. We’re called to go into the inner city and make life more bearable for the poor, to help the oppressed. We’re called to minister and counsel and pray for anyone who is hurting. We’re called to laugh. We’re called to bring the joy of Christ in all that we do, to season life. Everybody should WANT to be around a Christian. Everybody should want to be around a Christian because they see the joy of Christ in us, they see the love of Christ in us, they see the compassion of Christ in us, and life just seems better when they’re around us. That’s how the world should feel about Christians if we were the salt of the earth in the sense of bringing seasoning and flavor to life.
The Bible says in the book of Acts that the early church gathered daily in each other’s homes, breaking bread, celebrating with great joy. And day-by-day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. If we have joy, the world would just be drawn in like a magnet. They’ll want to taste this. They’ll want to smell this.
Gene mentioned Krispy Kreme. I’ve never had one of those. I guess I’m deprived. Barb told me that she drove by the Krispy Kreme shop this week, and the line was unbelievable—2-1/2 hours long they said on the news. Of course, people have been talking about it all week. People waiting to get a donut. I guess they serve them up in a special way. If you get them fresh, it is said that the dough is hot, just freshly fried, the glaze has just been poured over it, and they say it’s like a taste of heaven. People go there not for their physical health but for their emotional health. That’s why they’re there. They want a little fun in life. They want a little joy out of life, a little pleasure in their day, no matter how transitory it is, and it IS transitory. But, you see, Christ offers joy that never ends, and that joy should be seen in us if we are indeed the salt of the earth and if we season and if we flavor life.
Salt had a second use in the ancient world, as it does today, and this was its most important use and probably the primary meaning that Jesus had in mind. And that is this: Salt was used as a preservative. Salt was absolutely critical in the ancient world because it served to preserve perishables. Meat and other perishables were subject to corruption, subject to decay, subject to putrification. It was salt that stopped the corruption. Critical.
Of course, in the ancient world, corruption, putrification, and decay became metaphors for the demonic realm and the devil. Salt became a symbol of purity, and it was thought of as a disinfectant and a preservative. It became a symbol of the divine. When people worshiped in the ancient world, they put salt on their offerings because salt was a symbol of the divine. When babies were born, they sprinkled salt on the newborn babies, and sometimes they rolled the baby in salt, wanting the blessings of God for their child, wanting that child’s soul to be incorruptible, for God to keep their child pure (salt being a metaphor for all that).
When two people wanted to express their mutual commitment to friendship, they were “salted together.” They poured salt on bread. They both ate the salted bread. They were said to be “salted together,” the metaphor being that their friendship would not experience corruption. It would not experience decay, it would last.
In the ancient world, in the ministries of exorcism and deliverance ministries from the demonic, salt was often used—again, as a metaphor for purity and preservative for holiness. So, the Bible tells us the world is subject to decay. The Bible tells us the world is fallen. The Bible tells us the human race is fallen. The Bible tells us that sin has invaded the creation and affects the very cells of our bodies. Nothing is as it was meant to be. The Bible tells us that Satan is the archon, the prince, the ruler of this age of the world. The Bible tells us that morally and spiritually and socially this world is subject to decay, and yes, putrification. But Jesus said to His people, “You are the salt of the earth.” What a tough, tough call to ministry this is. Who wants to be salt in the midst of the rot? It is a thankless task but the clear call of Christ upon His people.
A week ago, Thursday, my brother Greg and I went to a Boy Scout’s breakfast down at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Terry Bradshaw was the featured speaker. He brought the same energy to the Boy Scouts that he brings to the National Football League. The breakfast began with a prayer by a little African American boy. He concluded his prayer, “in Jesus’s name,” but the Boy Scouts is not an explicitly Christian ministry. There are Christians involved in the ministry of the Boy Scouts, inner-city pastors that we support, and we join hands with and are involved in the Boy Scouts. It was Christian people, by and large, who built the Boy Scouts, but still, the Boy Scouts is not an officially Christian organization. They simply seek to help young men, aged 6 to 20, learn what it means to serve God, to serve their country, and to serve people.
Of course, the Boy Scouts are under attack today. I think you know that if you’ve read the newspaper, if you watch television. The Boy Scouts are under attack by the ACLU and other civil liberties organizations because they do not allow atheists to become Boy Scout leaders. The Boy Scouts are under attack by the gay lobby in America because they will not allow self-avowed practicing homosexuals to be Boy Scout leaders. The gay lobby is actually beginning, in some cities across America, to picket corporations, seeking to stop those corporations from giving any money to the Boy Scouts.
We live in a strange world. We live in a strange world where no matter how loving you seek to be, no matter how compassionate, no matter how merciful… If you draw theological boundaries, if you draw moral boundaries, you may feel the tide of humanity coming against you. You may feel the pressure from the politically correct powers that be if you draw moral and theological boundaries. And yet, as believers in Jesus Christ, called by His name, indwelled by His Spirit, you are called to submit to the boundaries, moral and theological, found in the scriptures. That’s part of what it means to be salt on the earth. You’re called to live by the guidelines of the scriptures and to be open about that in society. You’re called to be loving, but you’re called to speak truth. It’s not easy.
There was a time, the Bible tells us, when the city of Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, was in the midst of moral corruption, social decay. They were living promiscuous lifestyles, and they were ignoring the poor. They were experiencing corruption and decay, and God sent His prophet Jonah, a Jewish prophet. Nineveh was not Jewish. It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. It was gentile. But God sent a Jewish prophet to them because they were morally corrupt.
We read in the Bible about the cities of Tyre and Sidon, not Jewish cities. They were Phoenician cities. They were Gentile. But God sent Jewish prophets again and again to warn the people of Tyre and Sidon that they were in the midst of moral degeneracy. You read in the Bible about Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, they were not Jewish cities, but God sent warning by men and angels because of their moral and spiritual corruption. They, too, were involved in moral depravity and the abuse of the poor, and God warned them. It was not an easy call to be a prophet. And yet there should be a little bit of the prophet in every Christian. We all want to be a priest. I mean, we just want to represent the needs of people before God. We don’t want to represent God to people, but God calls us to be a prophet as well.
Barb and I, a week ago Wednesday, had lunch with Jim and Shirley Dobson. Of course, Jim Dobson is the Founder and the President of Focus on the Family. He has a great love for kids and a great burden for family. He’s not only in America but all over the world. He taught at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles as a psychologist, specializing in developmental psychology and children’s psychology. He served at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles for many years. Ninety-five percent of the work of Focus on the Family still focuses on children.
James Dobson also has a great love for this country and a great burden for America. He’s concerned with the erosion of Judeo-Christian values. He’s tried to be something of a prophet in our culture in our time. Boy, has he ever been criticized. Has he felt the pressure. Has he felt the tide of public opinion come against. Has he ever been misquoted in the newspapers and by the media. He is a man who is a very loving man seeking to be salt on the earth. And it is not easy. It’s not easy, but this call is upon all of us.
It’s hard for us to imagine today how valuable salt was in the ancient world. In parts of the ancient world, an ounce of salt was equal in value to an ounce of gold. All of you, or at least many of you, have jobs and receive salaries. The word salary comes from the Roman or the Latin word “salarium,” which comes from the Latin word “sal,” which is the Latin word for “salt.” The word “salarium,” the word “salary,” literally means “salt money.”
The reality is that throughout the Roman Empire, throughout the Roman Legions, people were given salaries so they could buy salt because salt was absolutely critical. Throughout the Roman Empire, taxes were levied and people could pay their taxes in money or they could pay their taxes with salt. In fact, it is true that in the second century before Christ, Antiochus IV, called Antiochus Epiphanes, the Seleucid king who controlled Israel, taxed Israel. He required that the Jews pay their taxes in salt, and so the Jews mined the salt mines that surrounded the Dead Sea, which was called the Salt Sea. Then Antiochus Epiphanes took that salt and gave it to Rome to keep the powers of Rome at bay, to pay his taxes to Rome, because nothing was more valuable than salt. This was not simply because it flavored things and not because it was sometimes used as a fertilizer (which it sometimes was). But it was because primarily it kept things from putrification, decay, and corruption. There would have been rampant disease all over the ancient world without salt. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.”
Well, finally, He said, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid, nor does one light a lamp to put it under a bushel basket but on a lampstand that it might give light to all who are in the house. So let your light shine amongst men so that they might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Obviously these two teachings are very close, light and salt, and that’s why they’re joined together. What did Jesus mean when He said, “You are the light of the world”?
There is, in South Dakota, a national park called “The Wind Cave National Park.” It’s near the Black Hills National Forest and Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. The Wind Cave National Park is worth seeing. The wind cave was discovered in the late 19th century. Barb and I went there years ago. It’s formed by subterranean waters. It was formed that way, and there are more than 50 miles of subterranean tunnels in the wind cave. You can go down in there. They take tours down in there. Barb and I went on such a tour.
Part of the wind cave is lit with electricity. We went down in there in this lighted area. We went on and on and on. A guide took us, and finally we reached a point where they warned you and then they tum off the electricity, tum off the lights. You are in absolute total darkness. I mean, it’s darkness beyond what most of us have ever experienced. You don’t know whether something’s kind of creeping and crawling around or whether there are any bugs there. You don’t know whether the person next to you is wearing jeans or a dress. You don’t know whether there are stalactites or stalagmites. You don’t know what’s there. Just darkness. You can’t see the truth of your surroundings.
The Bible tells us that that is the human condition. We really can’t see the truth that surrounds us, morally and spiritually, light being a metaphor for truth. We don’t see moral and spiritual truth. The world is in darkness. “Many have eyes to see and cannot see, ears to hear and cannot hear,” Jesus said. You are the light of the world.
I know some of you have heard of Lawrence H. Somers. You may have read about him in Time Magazine, in Newsweek Magazine, or in the local newspaper. Lawrence H. Somers is the new president of Harvard University. He got his undergraduate degree from MIT. He got his Ph.D. from Harvard. He went on to become the Chief Economist for the World Bank. He was Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration. He brings a very prestigious, impressive portfolio to his new job as he re-enters the world of academia.
Harvard University itself is an amazing institution. Nineteen thousand students. Sixteen thousand full-time employees worldwide. They have ninety-four libraries—94! Six museums. They have research institutes as far away as Buenos Aires and Hong Kong. They have an annual operating budget of $1,700,000,000. Incredible. I’ll tell you what’s more incredible is their endowment.
The endowment at Harvard University has now reached approximately $20 billion. If they drew a 5% return on that principal, they would receive a billion dollars a year. The truth is, in years past, they’ve received an annual return, sometimes, of over 20%, which would be $4 billion a year today. Incomprehensible. And yet they’re still seeking more money. They want to raise hundreds of millions and billions more, and they will do it. They will do it because there’s a segment of America, a large group of people in this culture, who believe that institutions like Harvard University are the key to the world’s enlightenment. Institutions like Harvard and the other Ivy League schools—Yale and Princeton—also have multibillion-dollar endowments and they believe that academia in general is the key to enlightenment.
I am not anti-academia. I believe in education. I believe in public education and private education. I even believe that secular higher education is a net good, and I spent ten years in higher education. Certainly, we all need to learn. Knowledge is a good thing, but we are deceived if we think academia is the key to this world’s enlightenment. Institutions like Harvard will never deal with matters of ultimate truth. If we’re honest, there are professors throughout the world of secular higher education that are literally enabling darkness in the teachings they espouse.
Harvard University has three official mottoes: “Christo et ecclesia,” “Christ in the church;” “Christo en glorium,” “Christ in glory;” and “Veritas,” “truth.” Only the third motto is used today. If you look at the literature of Harvard, it’s veritas, veritas. It’s truth, truth. There’s no mention of Christo et ecclesia or Christo en glorium, even though those are still official mottoes of Harvard reflecting their Christian foundations. If you separate truth from Christ, you can’t, in the complete sense, be light. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. Jesus is the Light of the World, and before He left this world, He said to those who love Him and believe in Him, “You are the light of the world.” He has come into us with His Holy Spirit, and He has sent us forth with the gospel of light. He sends us forth with the gospel. Are you willing to be light? Have you put your light under a bushel basket? Are you willing to be light?
I want to conclude with a story that I’ve told before. In fact, in the 19-year history of our church, I’ve told the story twice. You might say, “Well, Jim, why would you want to tell the same story a third time?” There are two reasons. One, I’m desperate. The second reason is this story really is important. It’s really important. It really fits. Jesus told the same parables to the same disciples on multiple occasions because those parables were worth it, and this story is worth it.
It takes place in the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, largely in the 19th century. It takes place at a church called Free St. Georges Church, which still ministers today in Edinburgh. Barb and I have been there. The pastor of Free St. Georges Church in Edinburgh, from 1873 to 1909, for that 36-year period, was a man named Alexander Whyte. He was a wonderful man. He served faithfully and honored Christ for those 36 years.
During those 36 years, he had some famous people in his congregation like J.M. Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan. He ministered to him, but he also ministered to poor people, all people, people that no one will ever hear of, not this side of heaven. He just had a servant’s heart. He brought famous evangelists to speak at Free St. Georges in Edinburgh, people like D.L. Moody. But the truth is that Alexander Whyte was an evangelist in his own right. He had gifts of evangelism that I just simply do not have. Oftentimes when he was through preaching, he would give an invitation, asking people to embrace the gospel and to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. He would not use an altar call. There’s nothing wrong with altar calls, but he would just invite people where they sat to accept Christ. He wanted it to be personal between the individual and Christ. He didn’t want there to be social pressures. The problem with that is that it’s hard to know who’s responding. It’s hard to know who’s coming to Christ. You just have to trust that to the Lord.
Well, there was a man in Edinburgh, Scotland, named Rigby. He really didn’t live in Edinburgh. He lived in another part of Scotland, but he was a businessman who came to Edinburgh on the weekends. Every weekend he would go to Free St. Georges Church, and he would hear Alexander Whyte. Rigby would always stay in the same hotel in Edinburgh. Sunday morning, he had the same routine. He would go down into the lobby, get a cup of coffee, find a nice chair, get a newspaper. He would kind of read the newspaper, sip some coffee, and look around. He’d look for somebody to invite to church, kind of like in our drama this morning that Jim and Bob did.
He would look for somebody to invite to church. He’d always find somebody. If they said no, he would go to somebody else. Most Sundays he brought a guest with him to Free St. Georges Church. One Sunday, Rigby brought somebody from the lobby of his hotel. He said, “Do you want to go to church with me this morning?” The man said, “Sure,” so they went to St. Georges. Alexander Whyte gave a sermon. At the end of his sermon, he gave an invitation for people to accept Christ. Rigby found out later, after the service, that the man he brought had responded. He said, “I want to tell you that, while we were praying there, as I sat next to you, I asked Jesus into my heart and I became a Christian.” Rigby was so excited. He had invited a lot of people to church, but he’d never seen any of them do that. He was so excited!
He took a walk that afternoon around Edinburgh. As he was walking around Edinburgh, it was a beautiful day. To his amazement, as he’s walking through a neighborhood, he came upon the house of Alexander Whyte. He saw the name on the mailbox. He thought, “I’m going to go up to the door and tell Pastor Whyte what happened.” And so, he did that. He knocked on the door and introduced himself. He said, “I just wanted you to know that I brought a guest to church this morning. When you gave the invitation for people to receive Christ, this man that I brought asked Jesus into his heart, and I thought you’d love to know that.”
Alexander Whyte said, “Oh, I’m so grateful.” He said, “What’s your name again?” He said, “My name is Rigby.” Alexander Whyte began to cry. I mean, it is true. Tears just came down his face. He said, “Rigby, I’ve been wanting to meet you for years.” He said, “Come into my house.” Rigby came in. Alexander Whyte went back to his study. He came back with a stack of letters more than a foot tall. Each letter had been written by somebody sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Edinburgh when a man named Rigby had come up to them and invited them to St. Georges Church. Each letter. Most of them had accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. Ten of them had entered the full-time gospel ministry.
I mean, isn’t that amazing? Is the power of God amazing? Is the power of the Holy Spirit of God amazing? Isn’t it incredible what He can do through you and in your life if you are willing to be a Rigby. If you’re willing to be a bringer. If you are willing to be light in the darkness.
How much greater if you would be willing to share your faith with people—not just bring them to church but tell them about Jesus and why you love Him. We’re willing to train you in how to do that because we want you to be salt on the earth and light in the world. We want you to season life. We want you to bring the joy of Christ to everyone you meet. We want you to be a preservative in our culture, fighting the moral and social decay. I mean Jesus said, “If salt has lost its taste, it’s no longer good for anything, but to be thrown down and trodden underfoot by men.” He’s called us to be useful. That’s why we’re constantly inviting you to join in various ministries, here in Denver, in the inner city, here at the church, in Sunday school classrooms, many opportunities that you might be salt and that you might also be light. We want to train you. We want to help you. This is the call of Christ upon His people.
Who are you? You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world by the power of Christ in you. Let’s close with a word of prayer.