The Sermon on the Mount – Session 2

Visible Righteousness

Reading: Matthew 5: 13-20

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

Sermon on the Mount Handout – Session 2

Lesson Notes

Salt & Light (Matthew 5: 13-16)

• Verse 13 – Disciples are salt – flavoring and preservative
  • Salt was very precious, essential for life, prevented decay
  • If it isn’t what it truly is – if it doesn’t have these characteristics, it’s trash
  • It isn’t a choice, it’s a fact – we ARE the salt of the earth
  • The question is whether we’re flavorful or worthless
  • We must stay true to our Christian character – living the Beatitudes
  • Or we aren’t useful as salt, we aren’t flavoring and preserving, we’re just part of the decay of our culture
  • This is absolutely critical to embrace in our cultural moment – we are in visible moral and social decay – we Christians must live the Beatitudes to flavor and preserve
  • We must find our proper voice – not the voice of rage and condemnation, but weeping and self-confession
  • More important, we must find our willingness to work – long, hard, unappreciated, seemingly without fruit
• Verses 14-16 – Light of the world
  • We should be unmistakably visible – imagine the striking impact of a brightly lit city on a hill in the pitch black pre-electricity blackness of night
  • Again, Jesus doesn’t say “be the light” – we ARE the light
  • It’s just a question of whether we’re visible or not
  • Do we fulfill our purpose?
  • We must be unmistakably fulfilling our purpose – to glorify God
  • Shine publicly, in front of “others” – outsiders – so they may see our good works
  • So they will ultimately give glory (i.e. worship) God
• These metaphors speak to the same truth – we’re called to unmistakable, visible, public living as Christ followers to impact the world and bring positive attention to God
  • Through humble awareness of our sin and failing…
  • Mourning for sin and evil in our hearts and the world…
  • Meekly putting God and others before ourselves EVERY time…
  • Desperately desiring the righteousness of Christ within ourselves…
  • Showing extravagant mercy…
  • Purifying our hearts for real…
  • Making peace wherever we go…
  • And enduring suffering and persecution for Christ
• If we aren’t and we’re just blending in with the crowd, we’re failing as disciples!
  • We’re to be a visible community unlike any other!
  • Different from any non-profit, NGO, or civic organization, good as those are
  • But our good deeds must NEVER be about us – people really shouldn’t see us, they should see our works and look to God in praise and wonder
  • Bonhoeffer, “It is by seeing the cross and the community beneath it that men come to believe in God. But that is the light of the Resurrection.”
  • How visible are your good works? How visible is God in your good works? How visible are you?

Fulfilling the Law (Matthew 17: 20)

• Verse 17 – Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Old Testament (Law & Prophets are the major divisions of the Old Testament)
  • But to fulfill = complete, perfect – the holiness, sacrifices, wisdom, and prophecies
  • Jesus is what all of the Old Testament points to, in that way He is the fulfillment of the law
• Verse 18 – Nothing will pass until all is accomplished -> at the cross!
• Verse 19 – So don’t relax the standards of God for they speak of His holy nature
• Verse 20 – KEY VERSE FOR THE WHOLE LESSON
  • Unless your righteousness > the most righteous people they could imagine
  • Who were righteous on the outside, but not inside
  • This should make us aware of our spiritual poverty!
  • This will be explored in the following verses, to make clear it’s about righteousness of heart, thought, and feeling, not simply of action
  • This righteousness is only possible through the cross of Christ, the new birth in Him, the crediting of His righteousness to our account, and the indwelling of His Spirit in our lives!
• Bonhoeffer, “That is to say, Jesus  Christ and he alone fulfills the law, because He alone lives in perfect communion with God. It is Jesus himself who comes between the disciples and the law, not the law which comes between Jesus and the disciples. They find their way to the law through the cross of Christ.”