Series: Salt & Light -- Salt & Light On

Text: Matthew 5:13-16 & Daniel 1

(Special thanks to John Stott & Vaughan Roberts)

1. today I begin a 10 week series that will take us up to Palm Sunday.

2. Salt & Light: Stepping up to make an Impact for Christ. 2 messages on salt & light from Matthew 5 followed by 8 messages on Acts 2. Acts 2 shows us those things we must give ourselves to in order to become salt & light that makes a difference in our culture.

Salt & Light
1. salt & light are common elements found in almost every home in Jesus’ day & ours. As Jesus grew up he would have watched Mary light oil lamps when the sun went down.

2. Jesus would have also observed Mary rub salt into fish or meat. Mainly to preserve it from spoiling. Salt (40% sodium & 60% chloride) retards the growth of microorganisms that cause food to rot.

3. Jesus chose these 2 common household elements to illustrate the impact he wanted his followers to have on the world. He turns them into metaphors to teach us 2 spiritual realities that I want to explore this week:
® Christ-followers must be radically different from the rest of the world
® Christ-followers must permeate non-Christian society

1st Christ-followers must be radically different from the rest of the world
1. you are the salt of the earth. Society is like rotting meat or decaying fish. We are to be salt that hinders spiritual & social decay.

2. you are the light of the world. The world with all its evil & tragedy is like a dark night. We are to be lights that light up the darkness.

3. salt is different from fish. Light is different from darkness. That’s what makes them so effective.

4. and in our culture we are to be as different as light from darkness & salt from fish.

5. it’s no accident that Christ started with the beatitudes (5:1-12):
® poor in spirit
® mourn
® meek
® hunger & thirst for righteousness
® merciful
® pure in heart
® peacemakers
® persecuted

6. these Christ-like characteristics are counter-cultural, counter-intuitive. Christ-followers who live out these behaviors will naturally become salt & light where they live, work, play & worship.

2nd Christ-followers must permeate non-Christian society
1. we are to be spiritually & morally distinct. But we are not to be socially segregated.

2. Jesus says Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works. Light is meant to penetrate darkness. It makes no sense to light a lamp & hide it under a bowl. Jesus said put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

3. salt is no different. Salt must penetrate meat in order to act as a preservative. Salt is useless if it stays in the church salt shaker. Salt must soak into the meat of the world’s decaying fabric, structures & people.

4. Jesus calls us to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian culture.

5. the Old Testament prophet Daniel is a perfect illustration of salt & light as taught by Jesus.

Daniel 1
1. Daniel is in exile in Babylon in the late 6th century BC. The Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into (Nebuchadnezzar’s) hand (2).

2. this is a shocking statement. God gave his beloved people into the hands of a brutal, secular king. How can this be?

3. this is a hard lesson to learn – God wanted his people to know that, when they were in the hands of a brutal king like Nebuchadnezzar, they were still in his hands. He’s in control.

4. Daniel teaches us how to live as exiles in a secular world.

1st don’t withdraw from secular culture
1. this is parallel to what I just said about salt & light – we must permeate non-Christian society.

2. the common Christian response is often to withdraw. We try to protect ourselves & our children from the big, evil world that’s out there.

3. there’s church group called the exclusive Brethren. Their church buildings have no windows except in the roof. They want to see the return of Christ BUT they don’t want to see the world or the world to see them. They choose to ignore Jesus’ teaching about being salt & light.

4. in chapter 1 Daniel says “yes’ to three things in Babylonian culture before he says “no” to one.

1st he said yes to a secular education (4)
1. Daniel was handpicked by Nebuchadnezzar. He was given a full-ride scholarship to the best university in Babylon. The curriculum? They were taught the language and literature of the Babylonians.

2. his studies would have included literature, math, science, astronomy & the magical practices of which the Babylonians were experts. Temper Longman in his commentary writes Daniel clearly would have been trained in the arts of divination through such means as interpreting terrestrial and celestial phenomena, astrology, the examination of sheep livers, and so forth.

3. as parents we struggle to know what is best for our children – public, private, or a home school education. We’re concerned that our kids are not engulfed by the secular ideologies of our time:
® materialism (the material universe is all there is)
® relativism (there are no absolutes)
® humanism (man is the measure of all things)
® postmodernism (new way of understanding the nature of truth, reality, history & spirituality)

4. the fact is we can’t protect our kids from any of these influences. Maybe for a few years BUT not forever. What we can do is to teach them to recognize them & respond with a Christian mind. But that’s a whole different sermon.

2nd Daniel said yes to a Babylonian political career (5)
1. Daniel agreed to enter the civil service of a pagan king & help a secular nation prosper. Eventually he was appointed to be something like the Prime Minister of Babylon.

2. Daniel learned to serve the Lord God in Babylon by seeking peace & prosperity for that pagan, secular country.

3. he must have known the words of the prophet Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon – build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage…seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile (29:4-7).

4. we discover an important Biblical lesson here – God is glorified when his people use their abilities & training as a Prime Minister or public servant for the good of our communities; when engineers, architects, bricklayers & carpenters build roads, bridges, & homes; when journalists, filmmakers, musicians & artists enhance our cultural life.

5. Daniel leads the way deep into the pagan, secular culture of his time & ours as well.

3rd Daniel said yes to a change of name (7)
1. Daniel’s name meant God is my judge; his new name, Belteshazzar, meant may a god protect his life or a goddess protect the king. His Hebrew name was dropped & he was given a new name associated with a Babylonian god or goddess.

2. Daniel fully participated in this secular Babylonian acculturation program. He said ‘yes’ to education, to public service & to a new name.

3. and Daniel is one of the most revered people in all of the Bible. He is one of the 30% of Biblical leaders who actually finished well. He’s a hero!

4. but if he were alive today many of us in the church would criticize him, judge him, question his motives & commitment to God. But he was smack dab in the middle of God’s will. He reminds us that there are multiple ways to love & serve God in an unbelieving world. No one size fits all.

2nd don’t compromise your faith
1. this, too, is parallel to what we learn from salt & light – we must be radically different from the rest of the world.

2. Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine (8). Doesn’t this seem crazy? Yes to a secular, polytheistic, magical education AND entering the king’s service AND accepting a new name linked to a Babylonian deity BUT No to the king’s food & wine.

3. what’s going on here? Most Biblical scholars believe this is not a theological move but a political one. In that day to eat food from the king’s table was to accept his authority & lordship over your life.

4. by refusing the king’s food & wine Daniel was keeping Israel’s God – Yahweh – Lord of his life.

5. finally Daniel draws a line.


Conclusion
1. how we are going to be distinctive from our secular culture WHILE at the same time permeating it? We have 3 choices.

2. separation – we can draw too many lines, keep retreating & close ourselves off from the world God has placed us in to be salt & light.

3. assimilation – we can draw less & less lines, to the point where there’s very little if any difference between those who follow Christ & those who don’t.

4. Daniel avoids both. He says No to separation & No to assimilation. But what he says Yes to is engagement.

5. he freely & deeply walks into a culture far more pagan or secular than ours today. As you read the rest of his book you will discover how he let his light shine for Yahewh and how he learned to rub the salt of his faith in God into Babylonian culture.

6. we can’t impact our culture for Christ by separation or assimilation, only by engagement. Is your light shining? Do you taste like salt?

7. the more Jesus’ life & Spirit lives in us, the more engaged we will be with the world he came to love & die for.




Music I listened to while sermonizing – Handle; Delirious?; Patty Griffin;

Books I read & studied while sermonizing – The Intimate Merton by Thomas Merton; The Rhythm of Life: Celtic Daily Prayer by David Adam; The Living Church by John Stott; Crazy for God by Frank Schaeffer; The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by John Stott; The Lord is King by Ronald Wallace; Daniel by Tremper Longman III