Matthew 5:1-12 Part 2

[0:00] The word beatitude means supreme blessing.! And, yeah, just to remind us what we went through so far.

[0:39] So far in Matthew's Gospel, that is, we've realised that Jesus is genealogically qualified to be the Messiah. He came from the right genealogy and we saw a combination of Matthew's genealogy and Luke's that tells us that Jesus is of the right genealogy.

[0:58] We also realised that he was prophetically qualified. We looked at a variety of prophecies, among which was the prophecy of the virgin birth, the prophecy of the forerunner, John the Baptist, the, quoting from Micah 5, 2, the prophecy that Matthew speaks about, about the Bethlehem birth.

[1:22] He had to be born in Bethlehem. And there are myriad prophecies, over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled throughout his life. But he was prophetically qualified to be called Messiah.

[1:34] Very important to the Jews because Matthew is preaching to Jews who want to see God's word fulfilled. Or at least claim that that's what they want. We also realised that he was morally qualified in that he was humble enough to submit to baptism.

[1:52] And after his baptism, he then went out into the wilderness and was tempted. And we looked at just how real those temptations were. Something that's not immediately obvious in the text.

[2:02] But those temptations were extreme. The first one alone, after you've been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, to have this opportunity to eat bread is a big temptation.

[2:15] But he would not succumb. And he would only do the will of the Father. And after that event, he got provided for by a visitation of angels to sustain him.

[2:28] And people who are experts on the subject will tell you that to fast for 40 days and 40 nights puts you on the brink of death. It's starvation level deprivation of food.

[2:45] And we also begin to realise, and when we get to chapter 8 we'll see more of this, but he was miraculously qualified in that he immediately began to minister.

[2:56] And he started to do the miracles that were expected of him from the Old Testament prophecies. So his miracles qualified him.

[3:07] And that's always a slightly difficult one because Jesus was not the only one and not the only source of miracles in the Bible. So we always say, don't just chase miracles.

[3:19] Because quite often Satan produces miracles to distract people from the Gospel. However, there were prophetically given signs that Messiah himself would do.

[3:31] And as we go further into Matthew's Gospel we'll be more specific about those. Where the rabbis of the time were teaching, if somebody shows up and does these particular miracles, you're looking at Messiah.

[3:44] It means Messiah has come. So he was qualified because of the miracles he was doing. We also considered that the Beatitudes themselves seem to be a bit of a contradiction in terms.

[4:02] Blessed are you when you pour in spirit. How is that a blessing? Blessed are you when you mourn. How is that a blessing? And we looked at why those things are a blessing. And I won't re-preach that. There's a recording if you want to get it with that covered.

[4:16] As to why when you realise the destitute spiritual state you are in, it wakes you up to your own need for salvation. And you're more likely to cry out to God to be saved.

[4:28] And then you become eternally blessed because you eternally have a home with God. And we're going to look a little bit in a minute at the eternal aspects of our salvation.

[4:43] Now, this is not a correction, but it's an addition from last week. See, Travis, bless him, he said to me at the end, what does it mean to inherit the earth?

[4:59] And I didn't cover that. I covered meekness and how that means humility and how you're more likely to submit to the lordship of Jesus if you are meek in heart.

[5:11] And Jesus himself was described as meek and humble in heart. And so we emulate Jesus if we're meek and humble in heart. But it says they will inherit the earth.

[5:25] So Travis said, what's that about? What does it mean to inherit the earth? So we're going to start with that now, which is, it's during the Beatitudes.

[5:39] Hang on, let's find it. Sorry? Yeah, it's verse 5. Some versions say gentle, blessed are the gentle. And some versions will say blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

[5:53] Now, when you think about it, if you turn quickly to 2 Peter 3, verse 7, and remember your reward for being humble is that you'll inherit the earth.

[6:04] If you go to 2 Peter 3, and verse 7, we read about the future of the earth.

[6:28] Verse 7, but by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment, and the destruction of ungodly men.

[6:43] It doesn't sound like a wonderful inheritance. When you first look at it, you think, I'm not sure I want to inherit this kind of earth. If you then go to Revelation 16, so if you're not familiar with your Bibles, it's to the right, the last book of the Bible, chapter 16.

[7:06] And you're going to read here quite a lot about the wrath of God that's going to be poured out on the earth and what the earth's going to be like at some future point.

[7:17] Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and it became loathsome.

[7:31] It became a loathsome and malignant saw on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image. The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became blood like that of a dead man and every living thing in the sea died.

[7:46] And then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, righteous are you who are and who were, O holy one, because you judged these things.

[8:03] For they poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets and you have given them blood to drink and they deserve it. Then I heard the altar saying, Yes, O Lord, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgment.

[8:17] The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Now there's global warming for you. Men were scorched with fierce heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues and they did not repent so as to give him glory.

[8:34] Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkness and they gnawed their tongues because of pain and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and they did not repent of their deeds.

[8:50] The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up. And by the way, right now, that is what's happening to the river Euphrates. It's getting smaller and smaller and smaller and it won't be long before it's dried up, which gives me cause to believe that the rapture can't be that far away.

[9:08] Whether I'll live to see it, I don't know. So that the way would be prepared for the kings of the east. I'm not going to read any further there, just to say that during this time of God's judgment that is coming, the earth wouldn't be a place I'd want to inherit.

[9:26] I mean, it's awful. The sea becomes blood and in other places in Revelation you read that all the plants die and the grass dies and it's going to be barren.

[9:38] It's going to be a wasteland. So what does it mean? So to find that out, I think this is an example of where Jesus gives us hope in the eternal.

[9:51] He's not talking about inheriting this earth in this mess. He's talking about the eternal inheritance inheritance of the new heaven and the new earth. And if you turn to Revelation 21, and we're going to read a fair chunk of this from the first verse right through to the seventh verse of the next chapter.

[10:22] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there is no longer any sea.

[10:35] And I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them and they shall be his people and God himself will be among them.

[10:57] Now this sounds more like it, doesn't it? It's the people of God having fellowship with God himself on a person-to-person basis. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

[11:15] The first things have passed away. He who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new and he said, Write, for these words are faithful and true.

[11:27] Then he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the springs of the water of life without cost.

[11:37] He who overcomes will inherit these things. So this is the inheritance. Those who stay faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ are those who overcome.

[11:50] So those who overcome will inherit these things and I will be his God and he will be my son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

[12:15] Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last place came and spoke with me saying, come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.

[12:40] Having the glory of God, her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal clear jasper. It had a great high wall with twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels and the names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

[13:02] There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the lamb.

[13:14] The one who spoke with me, and incidentally what you've got there is the coming together of the fullness of Israel with the prophets and the church with the twelve apostles.

[13:29] Verse 15, The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square and its length is as great as its width and he measured the city with the rod length and width and height are equal.

[13:48] It is said that if that city existed on the earth today it would be so biased the rotation of the earth it would throw the earth off its axis. So this new heaven and new earth is made of different stuff and is a completely different magnitude from the one we've got now and it has this amazing city to which we have access.

[14:12] so he measures its wall 72 yards according to a human measure including sorry according to human measurements which are also angelic measurements.

[14:27] The material of the wall was jasper and the city was pure gold like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz and the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth and the twelfth amethyst.

[14:55] Amethyst. Put my teeth back in. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each one of the gates was a single pearl. Can you imagine that? A big city gate that consisted of one pearl.

[15:07] That must have been some oyster mustn't it? And the streets of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.

[15:17] You may or may not be aware that if you refine gold sufficiently and roll it thinly enough, you can see through it like transparent glass. it's only fairly recently been discovered. I saw no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple and the city has no need of sun or of the moon to shine on it for the glory of God has illuminated it and its lamp is the Lamb.

[15:42] The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime, for there will be no night there, its gates will never be closed and they will bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

[16:07] Then he showed me a river of water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations.

[16:24] And there will no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his bond servants will serve him. And they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and there will no longer be any night and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever.

[16:49] And he said to me, these words are faithful and true and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bond servant the things which must soon take place and behold, I am coming quickly.

[17:03] Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. I can't wait. Now that is what it means by the meek will inherit the earth.

[17:16] that's the earth that we will inherit and it's also the city on that earth that we will inherit. And note that one of the important things to tuck in the memory for this morning is that sin has not only been overlooked as Jesus does certainly with me right now, he has designated me and you as righteous because he's imputed righteousness to us though we don't deserve it because we don't behave in a righteous way a lot of the time.

[17:52] So our sin, I should speak for me because I can't really speak for you, my sin carries on but I am forgiven and it's as if I haven't sinned.

[18:05] So when Jesus looks at me and when Jesus presents me to the Father, he presents me as righteous despite the fact that it's not something I can readily live up to. But in this new heaven and this new earth, sin is gone.

[18:21] Nothing unclean, no sin, no sickness, no pain, no tears, no crying, no doctors, no dentists, no need for them. All of those things are banished and so somehow there's a transition and we've sort of mentioned this in previous weeks, there's a transition from being reckoned as sinless to being actually sinless.

[18:46] This corruption puts on incorruption, this mortality puts on immortality, 1 Corinthians 15, about verse 54 I think. So the inheritance of the saints when they inherit the earth is what we've just read.

[19:04] It's free from unrighteousness, free from sickness, free from pain, free from sadness, free from tears and is a place of indescribable riches and beauty.

[19:18] Gold that is actually transparent, streets lined with gold. I guess there must be no articulated lorries either then because that would now churn up the gold, would it? But you know it's beyond what we can imagine and deliberately so.

[19:34] I wonder what John thought when he saw it, when he was being given this revelation. it must have been an amazing time for him. So to move on then, to move back to the Beatitudes, now I think we briefly dealt with blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

[19:56] And the only thing I want to repeat on that, in Matthew 6 verse 33 Jesus said seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

[20:10] There is not a requirement in the sense of it's not what we do to get saved, but if we want to make the best of our salvation there is a requirement for us to pursue righteousness and that's a dynamic thing.

[20:31] And when someone is hungering and thirsting after something, in order to satisfy them you have to give them what it is they're hungering for. So if they're hungering and thirsting for righteousness, at some point, and I think we've just covered it, God will give them righteousness.

[20:49] Not just as a badge to wear, for the moment, I wear the badge of righteous though I still sin, but somehow delivered beyond the badge wearing stage to actually being righteous.

[21:04] God will change us from glory into glory. And then we talked about blessed are the merciful and I think this is where we stopped last week.

[21:26] Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. God forgives us, therefore we are expected to forgive others.

[21:38] James 2 verse 13 is a very good teaching verse on this. So if you turn with me to the book of James. I'm very fumbly today, James.

[22:05] James chapter 2 and verse 13 simply says this for judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy mercy triumphs over judgment and once one perceives that God has been incredibly merciful to us in Romans we read that he died for us when we were yet sinners when we were at our most abhorrent to him he died for us that was the level of his showing of mercy and we should therefore show equal levels of mercy to one another and I won't pretend I can fully reconcile this but what the scripture seems to imply is if you don't show mercy to people you won't receive mercy from him now I wouldn't want to be in those shoes and

[23:14] I witness sometimes people who a while back there was a vicar whose daughter got raped!

[23:25] the vicar is got broken into and the burglars raped his daughter and as I stand here before you right now I don't know how I would cope with that level of forgiveness everything in me would want to punish the man severely so I pray that God will give us grace to be as forgiving as he was because he was being murdered at the time he said Father forgive them for they don't know what they do and it's a when it's a picture that does us well to remember when we are really struggling because someone has hurt us to say Father forgive them they don't know what they're doing but it's essential that we find that and if we can't find it that we pursue God to ask him to give us the grace to be that forgiving it was Romans 5 verse 8 that reminds us that while we were yet sinners

[24:29] Christ died for us sin is an abhorrence to God it's an abomination to God so while we were at our most objectionable to God he saved us I think that speaks for itself so I will move on to blessed are the peacemakers for they should be called the sons of God this is this is quite a I think a misunderstood scripture because we in the western world we think of peacemakers as people who do everything to make it nice you know do everything to to get rid of conflict and unfortunately a lot of churches are based on this where they want to be seeker friendly and they want everybody and anybody to come in without ever being challenged for anything that they do say or think because you don't want to upset them now we shouldn't we shouldn't want to upset anyone but we also are harbingers of God's truth and God's

[25:30] God's truth contains some messages sometimes that are not easy to swallow so we should not be those that look for conflict Romans 12 verse 18 tells us that we shouldn't it's a let's let's read it for ourselves rather than let me just give you the verse Romans 12 and verse 18 we'll start at verse 17 never pay back evil for evil to anyone respect what is right in the sight of all men if possible so far as it depends on you be at peace with all men so if possible so far as it depends on you we shouldn't be looking for conflict so what is being referred to here well we're not warmongers we don't go out there and seek

[26:34] I meet some preachers of the gospel who deliberately go out on the streets and try to wind people up Jesus didn't seem to do that he did it when he was confronted with the religious people who were leading people astray but he didn't go out looking for fights fights generally came to him he was challenged by people but the greatest peace of all is salvation if we I mean this is Greek and they use the word Irene if it was written in Hebrew they would use the word Shalom and the Shalom peace is not just an absence of conflict but it is the deep meaningful peace in the heart despite being in conflict Jesus said in John chapter 16 I think my peace I give to you not as the world gives and then he told them that they were going to be persecuted and killed for his sake but that they would have peace so it's a little bit it's a challenge some children were asked to draw peace produce a picture with the concept of peace and many of them drew flowers and trees and little streams and rolling meadows and things like that one child drew a nest with a bird in it fast asleep floating on a really turbulent sea and that is this kind of peace it's not an absence of conflict it's peace despite conflict most of the disciples went to their deaths as martyrs with peace in fact

[28:26] Peter if church history is correct on the matter Peter said don't crucify me the way my lord has crucified me crucify me upside down and by doing that prolonged his own death do you see what I mean he was he brought peace because he brought the gospel of peace and I think our role I think this scripture should be viewed in two ways one is we shouldn't be warmongers and the second is we should be harbingers of the gospel of peace we should be taking the gospel of peace to others then the next beatitude and I've gone out of Matthew's gospel so I need to turn back to it but then we're going to turn back to revelation did I I'm always skipping things I'll have Travis on my back after this blessed are the pure in heart yeah verse 8 blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see

[29:43] God what does the pure in heart mean here it doesn't mean sinless because until we were with God in eternity we will never be sinless and 1 John 1 9 says if you if you claim that you have no sin you deceive yourself so it means a heart that is outgoing towards God the scripture says that those who seek God with a pure heart and what it what it actually means is with a whole heart those who seek God with a whole heart I think this is I think this is 1st Chronicles 7 verse 14 or it might be 2nd Chronicles but it's if you seek me with a whole heart I will let you find me and so I think this is an encouragement to the disciples that if their heart cries to find God he will let them find him but it does say you'll see

[30:47] God and I think we see God in two ways don't we we see God through his word on a daily basis in our current state but there is an eternal promise that we will see him face to face and we've already looked a little bit of that in when we read Revelation 21 and then we get to blessed are the peacemakers and I think we've virtually covered that and then blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven turn to Revelation chapter 6 Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 to 11 when the lamb broke the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained and they cried out with a loud voice saying how long oh

[32:16] Lord holy and true will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth and there was given to each of them a white robe and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been would be completed also so those who endure persecution because of their faith or because they preach the gospel will inherit the kingdom of God what you see is under the altar here these saints being given white robes which is a symbol of purity and a symbol of inclusion and they're basically told wait for the rest guys because the time will come but there is this promise and once again it's an eternal promise it doesn't it's where I sometimes fall out with the word of faith movement they want to bring these promises into the here and now this is an eternal promise it's one that is for those who have been martyred and those who have been persecuted and generally had a hard time in this life because they've stuck fast to the gospel and preached the gospel regardless of the opposition that in glory they will receive the kingdom of heaven and by receive the kingdom of heaven it kind of means they will be included in it where others will be excluded they will if you like own the kingdom of heaven it will be their place of abode

[33:55] I don't feel like I've done that justice because I think words you reach a certain point with these things and words fail you and you think I'm grasping for words that do it justice because it's such a big concept and then the last of them is blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you there's a comforting thing in this that whatever persecution you suffer on earth it will be rewarded in heaven and that God is already doing that for the prophets of old who also were lots of them were put to death and lots of them suffered extremes of persecution I think it was Isaiah it might have been Jeremiah but I think it was Isaiah that hid in a hollow tree and so they they it sounds like it was Jeremiah but he hid in a hollow tree and they cut the tree down with him inside it and they just sawed the tree down and he was sawing too because he was inside the tree there was a vast amount of persecution of the prophets of old and many of them were killed and if it finished there that would be awful that would be so unjust but we serve the

[35:28] God of justice and justice is still to be meted out to those who persecuted or martyred the prophets how much time have I got okay well we'll go on to this next part then so Matthew back in Matthew 5 I really must get more expert at using my book marks back in Matthew 5 what God has done is he has told these disciples that counter intuitively they're blessed if they suffer these things and that there will be blessings lined up for them in eternity for suffering all these things but he's basically saying despite the way you're going to be treated and despite everything despite feeling so bad about your spiritual status and everything else you are blessed and then he goes on to do something that is as we begin to understand it more is quite breathtaking he says in verse 13 you are the salt of the earth but if the salt has become tasteless how can it be made salty again it is no longer good for anything except be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven

[37:23] I was a Christian a long time before I ever heard anybody speak on this passage and looking back I think they missed the point he told the disciples that they were the salt of the earth now you are the salt of the earth uses the definite article you are the salt of the earth now in English we skip over that because it doesn't have any impactful meaning but he didn't say you are salt in the earth he said you are the salt of the earth and where the definite article is used it usually means you are the one and only source of salt you are the salt the one and only salt and he does the same with light you are the light of the earth and I did check and it is there in the Greek you are the one and only light in the earth so that that kind of places on them on the one hand if they read it wrong it would make them feel that they carry a big responsibility because you know

[38:40] I'm the salt and light but I'm sure they must realise that they can only be the salt and light if they feel with the Holy Spirit unable to do God's work through God's power not their own but salt is an interesting analogy because salt in Jesus' day salt was very valuable in fact in Latin the Romans would have used Latin and the word for salt was salarium and from salarium we get our word salary it was valuable and was often used to pay people and soldiers would as a part of their ways would have a salt allowance so it was something that was traded something that wasn't wasted and something that was also very valuable because of the job it did because it not only made things taste a whole lot better and it had a massive impact on taste and this is the point you are the salt of the earth means you are going to have a massive impact on the taste that is in the earth but also it was a preservative and so in the absence of refrigeration and things like that if you wanted your meat not to be full of maggots very quickly you would salt the meat and the salt would preserve it and so what

[39:59] God was saying to these disciples is you are the preservative and if you think of Old Testament examples God would not bring judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah while believers were still there there is a sense in which the presence of believers holds back the wrath of God which is one of the things why one of the reasons why the rapture of the church is going to be such a massive event because once the church is gone then the Holy Spirit will also be gone and what's left will be the judgment of God will no longer be held back there's no more preservative in the earth so to tell them that they are the salt of the earth is it doesn't have a huge you know we use it as a sort of flippant saying salt of the earth that man and what we mean is that he's a nice guy!

[41:01] they are going to preserve God's kingdom in the earth until he comes again similarly with light you can't normally go into a room and turn the darkness on as soon as you have a pinpoint of light that light is visible and what he's saying is you're going to be light you are light and Jesus describes himself as light and that when he comes back he will come back as the light of the world as in the world will be in darkness when he returns he will return and bring brightness to the earth we also read earlier in chapter 21 that the new heaven and the new earth is going to be lit by God God himself will be the light and what he's saying to these guys is for the moment you are the light of the world and not just bringing light to the world but you are the only light the world has and what he says is don't hide your light under a basket you don't take a light and put it under something you want to use it to see

[42:18] I used to pull Sharon's leg because whenever she went out to buy light it was they gave out so little light that I used to pull her leg that when she turned the light on the room got darker but the idea of light is so that everyone can see the way you know Psalm 105 verse I can't remember the verse your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path 109 108 109 something like that the Psalm 119 verse no I'm trying with Psalm 105 anyway Psalm 119 verse 105 so in that Psalm it says your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path it's there so people can see where to go and the idea of

[43:31] God's people being light was found in the Old Testament and I've not got time to go through these scriptures except to tell you they're there and they will be in the notes when you get them Isaiah 42 verse 6 Isaiah 49 verse 6 Isaiah 60 verse 3 the nations will be drawn to his light and Daniel 12 verse 3 all of these!

[43:54] there were more out there to find but the idea of God's people being a light you'll be a light to the Gentiles the Jews were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles and what did they do they hated the Gentiles instead of being a light to them but their calling was to be a light and what Jesus is saying to these disciples they are light so be a good light is what was implied in John 8 verse 12 Jesus claimed to be light and that his followers should possess the same light and then there's a I've put them in the notes and I'll let you catch up with them in your own time but 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 5 Philippians 2 verse 15 Ephesians 5 we will turn to to finish up with Ephesians 5 and verse 8 but there are several New Testament scriptures where this teaching of

[44:55] Jesus that they were to be light was carried on by the apostles Ephesians 5 Ephesians 5 and verses 8 to 14 I think we'll read the verse before verse 7 do not be partakers with them and this is now I'm going to start with verse 6 let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience therefore do not be partakers with them for you were formerly darkness but now you are light in the

[46:05] Lord walk as children of the light for the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but instead even expose them for it is disgraceful even to speak of these things which are done by them in secret but all things become visible when they are exposed by the!

[46:30] for everything that becomes visible is light for this reason it says awake sleeper and arise from the dead and most versions say and Christ will shine on you but if you have a dig around in the Greek what it says is and Christ will give light by you so the salt and light thing was an exhortation to the disciples then and to us now I believe because I don't think it stopped with that generation it was an ongoing exhortation that God's servants should be both salt and light and that means to me it means Ray you don't have the option to stay quiet you don't have the option not to speak up you are supposed to impact the taste and you are supposed to bring light so that people can see where to go now they might choose not to go there and that's not my brief I can take Jesus to people only Jesus can draw people to him so

[47:33] I think what we're learning of in the Sermon on the Mount and in Matthew's Gospel quite a bit really is there's a dynamic aspect to our walk with God where we are supposed to put on Christ and pursue righteousness in an active way not to earn salvation but to make the best of the salvation we've been given and to have the biggest impact for him on those around us so Father thank you for this wonderful scripture and thank you that in all my preparation sometimes I feel like I'm almost feeble in what I managed to produce from such wonderful scriptures but Lord I do pray that as a church you will keep us on the right track and as individuals you will keep us focused on you and keep us driven to please you not because we're worried about losing our salvation but because we want to please our

[48:38] Father Father we thank you that you're so merciful with us and so loving towards us in Jesus name Amen