Salt and Light for the World

Pastor Bill Zacharda
July 27, 2008
Matthew 5:13-16

Introduction: What is the impact of Christianity on the world? We live in a tasteless world of pornography, child abuse, lust, greed, racism, and corrupt values and beliefs. So Jesus encourages us to be salt and light, champions of truth and purity. The present realty is that this world needs the church. It needs new creations. It needs salt and light Christians. It needs ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us. It needs us and yet it resists us!

Now, salt and light are not something you become. Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Or as Paul put it in our Call To Worship, “If anyone is in Christ, he IS a new creation.... We ARE ambassadors of Christ.” How seriously have you taken these commands to be salt and light for the world and new creations and ambassadors to the world? What influence has the church had on our world. The largest religion in the world is Christianity with 2.1 billion believers. Islam has 1.5 billion adherents. There are 1.1 billion non-believers. In America 44% of the population is Protestant and 24% Catholic. What influence has 68% of the Christian population had on our nation? Obviously Christianity is not a losing enterprise unless you listen to the lies of someone like Murray Madeline O’Hair who said “Nothing good has ever come out of Christianity.” The church has a tremendous influence on our society. It always has.

A survey of 35,000 Americans by the Pew Foundation confirms a close link between America’s religious affiliation, beliefs and practices and their social and political attitude. Religion and politics do mix. In fact, on social issues such as abortion and homosexuality, the more religiously committed adherents across several religious traditions express a more conservative political view. On other issues included in the survey, such as environmental protection, foreign affairs, and the proper size and role of government, differences based on religion tend to be smaller. The survey leads me to conclude that the church is salt and light. It does exert a good influence on our world, even as the world tries to resist.

Well, what good has Christianity done? I’m going to make 3 VERY BOLD statements and back them up with some facts, but I want you to know that the facts I give you are only the tip of the iceberg. In other words all the facts would be overwhelming and we would not have enough time even in a month of sermons to name them all.

1. Here is my first bold statement. No one has fought more for the sanctity of life than the church. Jesus took a little child into his arms and said, “Of such belongs the kingdom of Heaven.” When he said this, a Roman father had the legal right to do whatever he wanted with his child. He could mutilate him, marry her, sell them as slaves, or kill them. A Roman writer, Quintilian, in the same decade when Jesus took a child into his arms, wrote that to kill a Roman citizen was a crime but to kill a Roman child could be considered beautiful. Another Roman writer, Tacitus, wrote how many newborn children on the day of their birth were taken to a mountain side and left to die. Who today, other than radical Christians are standing up against abortion and for the rights of the unborn? For 2000 years the church has championed the child, stopping unfair child labor and other abuses to children because Jesus said, “Of such belongs the Kingdom of God.”

What about the value of women in society? In heathen cultures women were treated worse than children. The Brahmenical writings for Hindus state that women are not fit for independence and are forbidden to read their scriptures. Muslims hold women in terrible bondage. Girls are sold as slaves at the age of 12. Our scriptures state it clearly: “There is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, for we are all one in Christ.”

What about slavery? In Philemon, Paul converts a runaway slave and sends him back to his owner and says: “Receive him not as a servant, but above a servant as a brother [in Christ].” In the Roman world when Christianity became dominant, slavery ended. One year before the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, slavery was again revived by Spain and Portugal with the African trade. Later in England, John Wesley converted a man named William Wilberforce who later became the Prime Minister of england and successfully passed a law abolishing the African slave trade throughout the British Empire. Following Wilberforce the pulpits of America thundered against slavery giving rise to the Abolitionist Party and slavery was abolished in America. We are all one in Christ. The church of Jesus Christ has been a prime force in the world for the sanctity, the reverence, of life.

2. My second sweeping statement: Goodness and mercy in our world has come about largely because of the followers of Jesus Christ. Who other than Christians by and large have gone to leper colonies, prisons and the slums of the inner city? They have built hospitals, orphanages, and educational institutions. They have upheld the family to the pinnacle of selfless love, intimacy and wholesomeness? Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Film Industry hasn’t done it.

Dr. Kennedy in one of his books tells the story of the Papuans, an aboriginal tribe in Australia, considered by evolutionist at that time to be so primitive that they had the brain of a crow. Christian Missionaries from the New Holland Mission in 1860 went to live with them. For years not one person accepted Christ. Then one man accepted Christ and the floodgate of salvation opened up and thousands were converted. Years later the Papuan school won first prize in academic competition among the 1200 australian schools. That’s quite a feat, wouldn’t you say, for a people who have the equivalent brains of a crow? Christians have always cared for the least of these my brethren. They have always championed human dignity.

3. My third grand statement: Liberty and freedom around the world has been championed by Christianity. The Bible states: “Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” The Bible also states: “For freedom Christ has set you free.” Switzerland, England, Scotland and America owe much to Christianity for their form of government and the promotion of freedom. The very first document of the new world, America, was the Mayflower Compact. It begins with these words: “Having undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith....” The charter of the colony of Rhode Island in 1638 begins: “We whose names are underwritten do hereby, solemnly in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a body politic; and as He shall help, will submit our persons, our lives, our estates unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given us in His Holy Word of truth to be guided and judged thereby.” A free society is one of the great gifts Christianity has bestowed on nations. We, among all the nations of the world, should be aware of that! Did you know that the idea in America of three separate branches of government comes from Isaiah 33:22 (judicial, legislative and executive in one verse)? ...that tax exemptions for churches in America came from Ezra 7:24? ...that from the 15,000 writings of our founding fathers, there are 3,154 writings that deal specifically with the establishment of government and in these writings 94% of all quotes and references come from the Bible? In the past 15 years, liberation theology and the Protestant Church has had a tremendous influence on the countries of South America where the personal liberty of land ownership has been severely restricted. Liberty has always been championed by the church because of basic principles in scripture.

4. Well like I said from the beginning this is only the tip of the iceberg of facts that could be quoted. Let me finish, however, with a warning. All through the writing of this sermon I have been nagged by the realization that not all people who call themselves Christians have been salt and light. Christians have owned slaves, been opposed to women getting the vote, favored abortion, and approved of homosexuality. The church has never been perfect and Christians have never been perfect in their devotion to Christ. The Laodicean Church was discredited in the Book of Revelation for being lukewarm. There are lukewarm Christians in every generation who put their light under a bowl and lose their saltiness. There have always been Christians whose selfish desires mean more to them than their Christian principles. In addition, history is dotted with stories of church authorities who tried to stop William Booth from starting the Salvation Army and John Wycliffe from publishing an English Bible, and the reformers from reforming the church. Still, with all the resistance from the world outside and inside, the church emerges as salt and light, new creations and ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through them.

I believe in an influential church. I believe in an influential Christianity. It’s not enough to believe in Jesus or know the Bible. Christ never meant us to be academic only. He doesn’t want us to wear a camouflage devotion. He wants us to go into all the world. He commands us to be salt and light, new creations and ambassadors for Him.

Is the faith of our fathers living still in you? Are you part of something bigger than yourself? Are you a member of a world-wide enterprise called the church of Jesus Christ promoting the sanctity and equality of human life, extending goodness and mercy to the downtrodden, and championing liberty for all people? Are you salt in a tasteless and corrupt world? Are you light in a darkened world? Are you new creations in a dying world? Are you ambassadors for Christ as if God were making his appeal through you?
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Scripture Passage:
Matthew 5:
13 [Jesus said} ¶ “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 by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 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.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.