Being a Blessing
From Brokenness to Blessing

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Good morning, church. It’s great to see all of you here this morning! We’re concluding our series entitled, “From Brokenness to Blessing” today. We’ve been going through the eight Beatitudes, the eight blessings that Jesus gave at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s been a great journey. Today, we’re in the eighth Beatitude. As we listen to this one today, you’ll truly understand what I’ve been saying every week that Jesus gives wisdom that’s contrary to the world’s wisdom. His wisdom really turns worldly wisdom upside down.

The Beatitude this week is from Matthew 5:10 (ESV), “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Surely, this is the most upside down thinking that we’ve encountered. We need to “unpack” this today, but before I do, I want to mention a couple of things that I want to pray with you about. One is, congratulations to our Rocky Mount campus, that celebrates eight years today. Today is their eight year anniversary. Give Rocky Mount a hand; give the Lord a hand for His faithfulness. They are holding a little lunch; after church today, I hope to get up there and celebrate with them. We want to pray for our Rocky Mount campus.

I’m reminded to let you know that both of our campuses put aside a little money every month for a third campus. We’re still praying for launching a third campus in Eastern North Carolina. We’re not sure where it’ll be, but it’ll probably go towards where someone is driving to this campus or through our Rocky Mount campus. We tend to think it might be Goldsboro or some city like that, but we’re not sure. We’re praying about it. We have a saying in our church– “Never start a ministry without a minister,” so we’re praying for a church planner that feels called and a group of people that are feeling called to plant a church . We are convinced that planning churches in East North Carolina is one of the best ways we can share the gospel to “our Judea;” to our area.

Also, I want us to be in prayer for this coming Thursday’s relaunch of Celebrate Recovery. We’ve been having services for several years now, but we’re relaunching this Thursday. We want to pray for this relaunch this coming Thursday and for the attendants as well as those that are serving. Let’s pray and then we’ll dig into this passage.

“Dear Lord, we give you thanks. We thank You for Your faithfulness for our Rocky Mount campus. We pray that they will have a great day of celebration today, remembering what You have done for them and how You’ve brought them this far. Lord, we give You thanks for that. Lord, we lift up our Celebrate Recovery ministry. We pray for pastor Stephen, for all the leaders of Celebrate Recovery and for all of those that are serving. Lord, we pray that You would grow this ministry; give this ministry a foundation so that we can offer it to the whole city. Lord, we do pray for that third campus that we’re still praying about, that You’ll help us plant where You’d have us go. You’d give us the people that You want to send there. Now, Lord, as we open Your word, we ask You to speak and give us ears to hear. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Today we are going to study the scripture, “Blessed are those who are persecuted.” Last week, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Now, He moves from peacemakers to persecution; we shouldn’t be surprised by this. Often, whenever you’re trying to make peace with people, not everyone wants to be at peace with you. As you’re trying to make peace with people by sharing the peace of Jesus, sometimes they are attracted to it and sometimes they reject it. Sometimes they reject it so much that they’re willing to persecute us.

Now, as we are reminded , looking back over the seven previous Beatitudes, they move in a sequential way. How did we get here? How did we get to the place where Jesus is saying, “Blessed are those who are persecuted?” Well, we start way back there, to “Blessed are the poor in spirit –” Those who admit that they’re helpless and broken and they need God. They need someone to rescue them. “Blessed are those who mourn,” that are willing to grieve their past and ask the Lord to heal them. “Blessed are the meek–” they surrender control to God. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness–” they’re confessing their sins and asking God to clean them up and give them victory. “Blessed are the merciful –” they recognize they’ve been given mercy from God. They’re beginning to recognize that they need to be a conduit of His mercy and forgiveness. “Blessed are the pure in heart–” those that are focused on pleasing God from their hearts. “Blessed are the peacemakers” was last week. They are the people that surrender their lives every day to self examination, asking God to help them and to be at peace with God and others.

Today, we have come to the Beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This word, “blessed,” means “to be happy, completely content, blessed to the max.” Now, as we think about persecution today, we have to think about this in such a way in comparison to the rest of the world, because compared to the rest of the world, I would say that in America, persecution is somewhat lighter, much easier than it is in the rest of the world.

For instance, this past year, 5600 Christians were murdered for their faith in the world. More Christians are dying today under persecution than at any other time in human history. Last year, 2100 churches were attacked or closed. Last year, more than 124,000 Christians were forcibly displaced from their homes. 15,000 of those became refugees . More than 360 million Christians today suffer from high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.

(A map is shown at this time) North Korea was the number one most dangerous place to be a Christian on planet Earth; pray for North Korean believers. That’s a place that will get you killed if you are a Christian. The number two most dangerous place is Somalia, the most dangerous place to live as a Christian in the world. Number three and four are in that same area. Nigeria is number six; more Christians were killed last year in Nigeria than any other country. Persecution is taking place in this area of North Africa and the Middle East because of Islam, this area because of Hinduism, there’s a great amount of persecution in India and then Islam with Pakistan. Then, when you have North Korea and China, the persecution there takes more of the form of agnosticism and atheism. As you see these places and as you are praying for Christians around the world, be mindful of those that are being persecuted.

So, compared to these places, it’s pretty easy to be a Christian in America. We do have certain rights. We have the freedom to worship; the freedom to believe what we want to believe, but yet, there is persecution even here, we might face scorn or mockery because of what we believe. We might miss a promotion at work because we’re a little too vocal about what we believe. We could be persecuted as a teacher in the public school system because of what we believe and more and more, as our culture in America becomes more and more pagan. There’s more and more resistance to Christianity. You might not get invited to that party or picnic because of what you believe. Even more than that, you might face some ridicule or some mocking.

I don’t know if you’ve ever done this when you go to the beach, but one of the things our family loves is to go out at night with flashlights and catch these little ghost crabs. I don’t know if you’ve ever done that, but they’re all over the beach at night; you can put them in a bucket. If you put one in a bucket, it can climb out. It will figure out how to climb out, but the second you start putting more ghost crabs in the bucket, they can’t get out because one crab is always pulling them back in the bucket.

If you’re a new believer here today or you’re trying to make some changes in your life and your old “running mates,” the people that you used to party with and have a big time with, start trying to pull you back into that old life style. But, you came to Jesus and Jesus started cleaning your life up a little bit. It’s kind of like beating that crab bucket. The persecution of your old “running mates” kind of takes the form of they’re always trying to pull you back in. Has he really changed? Is he really a Christian? I’m not sure. Part of the persecution sometimes looks like your family and former friends trying to test you, mock you or make fun of you.

Have you ever been persecuted? Have you ever been made fun of because of your faith? Some of us have never been persecuted yet. We claim to be Christians and the reason we’ve never been persecuted is because many of us are “007 Christians.” We keep it a secret. We keep it on the “DL.” We say, Well, didn’t Jesus say that we’re supposed to be peacemakers? I just don’t want to “rock the boat.” Do you know what that really is? It’s not being a peacemaker; it’s being afraid of man. You’re afraid that you’ll be rejected. That’s what it is.

Maybe, you don’t give God the credit. Somebody says to you, ‘You just seem happy all the time. Nothing seems to get you down.’ You reply to them with, ‘I’m one of those “cup half full” people. I’ve just always been an optimist.’ That was your opportunity to talk about what Jesus had done for you and you missed it. You could have said, ‘I have Jesus in my life,’ but you gave yourself the glory. For whatever reason, a lot of us never get persecuted because nobody knows that we’re Christ followers. The reality is that the scripture teaches us that it’s inevitable that wherever light and darkness intersect, darkness hates light. Being a Christian means you will be persecuted from time to time, but when you are, you’re to take it as a blessing.

What we’ve been doing the past few weeks is we’ll read the Beatitude , then we go somewhere else in the scripture to try to “unpack” it, to try to illustrate it, but guess what? We don’t have to go anywhere else today because Jesus gets to this hardest one, “Blessed are the persecuted.” We’re going to stay in Matthew and see how Jesus taught His disciples that they could be a blessing even when they were persecuted. I believe we can too.

How is this possible? As we look at the text, I think we’ll see three ways that we can be a blessing to people, even when they persecute us. Let’s keep reading. We’ll start at verse 10 down to verse 16.

Matthew 5:10-16 (ESV) 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” This is God’s word, Amen.

We’re looking for three ways we can be a blessing, even when we are persecuted.

Here’s the first way:

1. Be glad, fully identifying with Jesus.

Be glad, even when we’re persecuted. We’re identifying with Jesus and that’s a reason to be glad. Look at verse 12, we have two imperative verbs there, “rejoice and “be glad.” This is Jesus saying that this is how you respond to persecution, “rejoice and be glad.”

Rejoice is an action; you choose to rejoice. The attitude is gladness; choosing to rejoice is the action. Then, have the attitude of being glad when you suffer persecution. When I suffer persecution for what?

Jesus tells us a couple of reasons that you might be persecuted, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” That’s about your lifestyle. Maybe, you are at work in the break area and the other ladies are all making fun of their husbands. They complain how hard it is being married and maybe they need to have a ladies’ night out. They say that their husbands are horrible and men are horrible. You’re standing there and you say to them, ‘Actually, I really love my husband.’ They all look at you like, Ok, “goody two shoes.” They make fun of you because you actually love your husband. That’s getting persecuted for righteousness sake. That seems mild, doesn’t it, but a lot of us are so tender about disagreement that we won’t even do that. We’re just kind of giggling, go along with the silliness and not take a stand for our own spouse. That’s just one example of “for righteousness sake.” No, it’s about living right, behaving right before men and before God. That’s not the only reason you can be persecuted, though.

Jesus says, in verse 11, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” This is jesus speaking; He says it’s because you’ve been talking about Me. It’s because they know you’re a Jesus follower. That’s another reason to get persecuted. One is because of right living. One is because you have a right message about Jesus that you’re talking about Jesus. These are the two reasons that He says you can be persecuted.

Now, you could be persecuted because you’re doing something wrong. In other words, you are in trouble with the police. The word, “persecute,” by the way, literally in the Greek means “to pursue after with an intent of doing harm.” It means “to chase after.” So, maybe you’ve been speeding and the police have pursued you in order to give you a ticket. Well, that’s not persecution. You broke the speed limit.

Peter actually talks about that – ‘If you suffer for doing wrong, you haven’t really accomplished anything. That’s not a blessing, but if you suffer for doing right , if you’re persecuted for the name of Jesus, rejoice, because you have identified your life with His. Rejoice and be glad about it.

He gives you three reasons right here to rejoice and be glad. The first one is in verse 10. He says, “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Kingdom of Heaven is yours. Whenever you’re persecuted for righteousness, it’s just showing that you’re already Kingdom living. Where is the kingdom? Jesus says that the kingdom is at hand. He said tht the kingdom is coming. He says to pray “Thy Kingdom come.”

Where is the kingdom? Wherever Christ is king. Is Christ king of your life? The kingdom has come to you. Is Christ king over your house? The kingdom has come to your house. The kingdom of Heaven is here, in this room right now, because this church is under His authority as king. The kingdom is breaking out. It’s coming and the kingdom is yours if you’re a believer. So that’s one of the reasons you can be feeling extremely blessed is because the Kingdom is yours.

Then, Jesus gives another reason in verse 12, “for your reward is great in heaven.” There’s a special reward for those who are persecuted. Heaven’s enough of a reward, but there’s a great reward, an exceedingly great reward, for those who suffer persecution.

Jesus gives us another reason, found in verse 12, “for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” You get to join the prophets who were in the “persecuted club.” When you get to heaven, you might get like a “high five” from these other guys. I know I’m making light of it in a way, but that’s a pretty big deal.

The Apostle Paul lists some things. He says, ‘You know, I was stoned and left for dead. I was shipwrecked. I was snake bit.’ He has this list of things, but God is God and he does it all for His glory.

I’ve not been shipwrecked, snake bit or stoned. I’ve been made fun of. I’ve been belittled, especially during the sensitive times of your life. As you get older, hopefully, as you mature in Christ, you become stronger and you actually learn to rejoice and be glad. When you’re a teenager in high school or college and you’re trying to be “cool at school,” it is tough. That’s a season where I still remember a lot of persecution. It didn’t feel the same in those days. It felt different because I just wanted acceptance. I wanted people to like me.

Isn’t that something you want? Don’t you want people to like you? You don’t want to tell them the truth about Jesus, but if you really loved people, you’d tell them about the most important thing in your life. If you just want them to like you on the surface level, then you’ll deny who you really are. That’s the temptation, isn’t it, for all of us?

It says 2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV), Paul speaking, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” He didn’t say they “may be;” He says they “will be.” There’s a certainty. If you decide today, I’m going to “live out loud” for Jesus. I’m going to stop being a “007 Christian,” you will be persecuted. Rejoice and be glad because you’re doing it on account of Jesus, not on account of you.

Jesus says this in John 15:19-21 (ESV), 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

That’s the ultimate “club” to be in. Go on with Jesus. They’ll persecute you. If you say, ‘I’m a servant of Jesus Christ,’ you will be persecuted in this world, where light intersects darkness. You will be persecuted, but rejoice and be glad; you’re identifying with Jesus.

How do we rejoice and be glad? That’s counterintuitive. That doesn’t make sense. I gave you the three reasons you could, from what Jesus was saying.

Let me give you a passage from the book of James. James says it like this, James 1:2-4 (NIV) 2 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Whenever you face trials of many kinds, “consider” it – that’s an accounting term. Take it out of the liability column – ‘I’m being persecuted’ and put it in the asset column, which is an accounting term. Make a decision –I’m going to rejoice and be glad because I’ve been persecuted. I’ve suffered for Jesus. I’ve decided to count it as joy, to consider it pure joy.

You learn to say, ‘I’m going to put it in the “plus” column. I know that my friends and my family have rejected me for now, but one of the things I’ve learned is, they may reject me for a season. Then, when they get in trouble, they know who to come to. They’ll come to you and say, ‘You know that “God thing” you used to talk about? Could you pray for me?’ You just have to persevere. Those days are ahead. Some of you may be skeptical that those days are ahead. Watch and see.

I went to a secular university. It was ranked in the top 10 of party schools in America. I was there, not because it was a party school, but because it was nearby. I was a music major and they had a good music program. I was a classical guitar major. I was there in order to play guitar, be in a band and those kinds of things. Those were my dreams in those days. I am a born again Christian, so I got involved with a group called Campus Crusade for Christ. They call it CRU today. One of the things that we did is we had a campus-wide strategy to knock on every dorm door and give people an opportunity to hear the gospel. I had been doing that for a couple of years.

This particular year I was living on the 12th floor of Muse Dorm. It was a 15-story dormitory on our campus. Many people referred to it as the highest dorms on campus, but not for the right reasons. I would go up and down the halls of dorms and knock on the doors. We used this thing called a religious survey where we would ask them questions like, “What’s your religious background?” and I would write down their answers. It was a real survey; I would report it to the campus newspaper and they would report it every year. The final question I would always ask is, “If you could know God personally, would you be interested in having a conversation about that?” You’d be surprised how many people would say, ‘Yeah, I would.’ Then, I would ask them if they would like to have the conversation right now. A lot of people would say, ‘Yes,’ and they would invite me into their dorm room. I would take about 15 minutes and share the gospel with them.

Here’s what started happening. I started hearing people referring to me as, “Billy.” I would tell them that my name is Gary and ask them why they were calling me “Billy.” Then they would say to me, “You know, Billy Graham.” I was the “Billy Graham” of Muse dorm; they were saying it, making fun of me. There goes, Billy; watch out. He’s gonna knock on your door next.

I wanted to be a Christian, but I was trying to figure this thing out. How can you be a Christian and still be “cool” in school? I love Billy Graham; he is awesome. I just didn’t want his hair cut. I was still single. I wanted girls to like me, too. How do you be a Christian and get girls to like you and not have people making fun of you? I finally decided, You know what? I’m just going to be Billy Graham. Go ahead and call me Billy Graham. That’s ok with me. I made this decision and it took away its power. It didn’t sting anymore that they were making fun of me.

I remember when I was in this world history class. Dr. Crabtree was the professor’s name. I actually loved her class and her tests were easy. When we were talking about the first century, we talked about the Roman Empire. We also talked about world religions and how Christianity came into being during that time. My hand stayed up all the time in conversations. Then , this test comes up. She tells us that 50% of your grade is to write an essay question from the content and answer it. Ask yourself anything that you know something about and then answer it.

I asked myself, ‘Who’s the only religious leader who claimed to be God and then proved it?’ That’s the question I asked myself and I wrote an essay about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I got the paper back and she had “bled” all over my essay. She gave me a B minus, so I made an appointment to talk to her about it. I go to Dr. Crabtree’s office. She shared an office with another professor. They had their desks on opposite sides of the office. The other professor was sitting at her desk, too.

Dr. Crabtree pulls up a chair. ‘Mr. Combs,’ and I pulled up a chair . She says, “I know why you’re here. I’ve heard all your religious comments in the class. Jesus never claimed to be God. That’s why I marked you down. I know that’s why you’re here.” I said to her, “Yes, He did.” She says, “Where did He claim to be God?” I said, “In John, chapter 10, He said, I and the Father are one.” In John 14, He told Philip, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” Over in John, chapter eight, He told them, “Before Abraham was, I am.” “I am,” in the Greek is the idea of saying, “Yahweh, I am God.” I kept going and she says, “Time out, time out.” I said, “What?” She says to me, “That’s not Jesus; that’s what John said.” I’ve never encountered that before. I mean, I’m still in college. I’m still learning.

She said that and the thing that popped in my head was, “Well, do you believe that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Fort Theater?” She says, “Well, yes.” I said to her, “Were you there?” She said, “Well, no. What’s your point?” and I said, “Well, you believe it based on the report of eyewitnesses, right?” She replies, “Yes. It’s called history.” I said, “John was an eyewitness and that’s history.”

The other professor that had been at the desk, very quietly, pretending like she was writing, gets up and walks out of the room. Dr. Crabtree’s face kind of turned red. I kept my B minus. I guess the moral of that story is, ‘If you want an A, don’t be like I was. Try to be a little bit more graceful.’ I was just a little bit too much “in her face,” I guess. I was still at that young age, where I was really grappling with what it looked like to take a stand for Jesus. and Maybe , I went a little too harsh and made her look bad in front of the other professor. So instead of getting an A, I got a B and I counted it as a blessing. You just never know how it’s going to work out.

Here’s what I say to you – It’s a blessing. Be glad if you’re persecuted because of righteous living. You’re doing it on account of Jesus.

HOW TO BE A BLESSING EVEN WHEN PERSECUTED

2. Be like salt, exhibiting the character of Jesus.

You may be thinking, Gary, how do these hang together? How do you know that Jesus is still explaining what it means that you’re blessed when you are persecuted? Here’s what I want you to take note of; all eight of the Beatitudes, He addresses to people in the third person plural. Even the last Beatitude, in verse 10, “Blessed are those…” that’s in the third person plural.

Jesushas this multitude in front of Him. Then He looks down at the twelve disciples and He says, in verse 11, “Blessed are you…” for the first time, he switches to the second person plural.

In verse 13, all the way through 16, He switches from third person plural to second person plural. He’s applying it right there to those disciples. He’s explaining it to them because that was a tough one for all of them. That was the toughest one – 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

In verse 13, He says, “You are the salt of the earth,” He’s not saying that literally. He’s using “salt” as a metaphor. What does He mean here? There There’s a lot to be talked about with salt, but Jesus is referring to something that was well known to His disciples. Salt is throughout the Old Testament. It was often used in sacrifices. It was used as an ingredient in some of the recipes for incense and so forth. It was used as a cleanser. It was used medicinally, but primarily during the first century, it was used as a preservative of foods; it had preserving nature. Here, Jesus brings out that it has a taste; it accentuates or adds a spice or a flavor to the food.

What Jesus means is to be the salt of the earth. We have to think about what salt is and what salt does. It takes a little bit of salt to affect a whole dish. I’m going to give you a few things that I know about salt. One, is that Roman soldiers, during the first century, were often paid in salt, because salt was more valuable than gold in many places. They were often paid in salt. The word, “soldier,” comes from the Latin word, meaning to “give salt.” The word, “salary,” (‘salarium’) comes from salt. The word, “salvation,” comes from the word salt . This word, “salt,” has the idea of character. It has the idea of the character of a thing. The Latin word is where you get the word, “salary.”

Have you ever heard this expression, “He’s not worth his salt.” That means he’s not worth paying.

This word, “salt,” was a common word. I think it has the idea here, that Jesus is saying to believers, you’re to have a preserving influence, a countering influence on your culture, that wherever you are – at school, at play, in your neighborhood, at church or at work, you’re preserving the word of God and the will of God in that place. In a way, the blessing of God is falling on that place because you’re there.

Do you remember this story where three men came to talk to Abraham? This is before the birth of Isaac. One of them was the Lord;I believe it was the pre-incarnate Christ. ‘Should we keep this from our friend, Abraham? No, let’s tell him. We’re about to judge Sodom and Gomorrah because there is sin coming up from that place. The sin is grievous. We’re going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham’s nephew, Lot and his family lived there. Abraham says, ‘Lord, if you find fifty righteous down there, would you preserve it?’ He says, ‘For fiftie’s sake, I’ll save it.’ Abraham asks, ‘What about for forty ? … for thirty? …for twenty?’ Abraham says, ‘Lord, forgive me, but what if you can find ten righteous?’ He said, ‘For ten’s sake, if there are ten righteous, I won’t judge it.’ He didn’t find ten. I’m not sure He even found one. So, Sodom and Gomorrah was judged.

Why did I tell you this story of Sodom and Gomorrah? It was to show you the preserving reality of the righteous in a place and in a family. To be “salty.” It’s the character; it’s the flavor of Christ in that place. If you’re not “salty,” you won’t be persecuted.

What good is salt anyway? Verse 13 says, “…but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” The only thing that it’s still good for is to be thrown out on a path so that it kills the weeds and people can walk on it. In fact, Roman soldiers used to do this when they would overthrow a city. If they really wanted to make sure that city never was raised again, they would salt the land so it wouldn’t bear crops again. They would salt the path, so the path stayed clear of weeds.

Now, this is not about salvation. He’s not talking about if you’re not salty, you’re going to lose your salvation. That’s not what He’s talking about. He’s basically saying that you won’t get persecuted. If you’re not salty, you won’t be useful. You know the Lord, but you’re keeping it a secret. Be salty, which is putting on the character of Christ.

Someone, after the first service, gave me a couple of ideas. They said, “Have you ever heard salt as an acronym? I told you don’t tell me anything else about salt. I know too much about salt, but somebody told me this one right after the first service. Saints As Living Testimonies. That’s pretty good. I like that. That’s what salt is. It’s living out your testimony. That’s what gets you persecuted is living out your testimony.

In Colossians, Paul says this, Colossians 4:5-6 (ESV) 5 “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Here, we have the view that being gracious towards people is being “salty” so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. This is the character of Christ. Being “salty” means that you bless those who curse you. Paul says in Romans 12:14 (ESV) “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”

Salt is useless when it remains in the saltshaker. It has to be poured out. Have you ever read this book by Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Salt Shaker and into the World: Evangelism As a Way of Life? We have to pour our salt out of the shaker! Jesus says, “Be salt!”

Have you ever read the book by Rebecca Manley Pippert, entitled “Out of the Salt Shaker and into the World: Evangelism As a Way of Life?” It’s a classic; it’s been around a long time. It’s about getting your salt out of the shaker, so that people know about the Lord. Exhibit the loving and gracious character of Christ. If you’re new to the faith, don’t be discouraged by the fact that people keep trying to pull you back in. Just be aware that you might be the person who is living out the righteousness of Christ that actually pulls them towards Him. Be “salty;” put on the character of Christ. Here’s the third point:

3. Be like light, revealing the message of Jesus.

We’re now at verses 14 through 16. Jesus is still using the second person plural. He is still talking right to His disciples here. He’s moved from the theoretical, the blessings, the eight Beatitudes and the way of living a blessed life and now, here’s how you apply it. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

You are the light of the world, You are the salt of the earth. Be salty. You’re the light of the world. What is light? It’s a reveal. Be like light, revealing the message of Jesus. If salt is more about your testimony and and your behavior that you put off the flavor of Jesus, then light is about the message that comes out of your mouth. It enlightens people. You’re the light of the world. It’s a spiritual metaphor for illumination, for revelation, shining with gospel light.

He goes on to talk about a city on a hill. He says that a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, probably referring to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the city of light, built with that white beautiful stone up on the Temple Mount. You could see it, as you climbed up Mount Zion, from a great distance as they would light the temple lights and keep the temple oil going up there. The light was perpetually lit up there. You could see the city called Jerusalem, probably referring to that being the city of light.

Now look, it’s silly if you light a lamp in your house and then put a basket over it. What good is that? If Christ has given you and made you a light, it’s silly to keep it a secret. The light won’t enlighten anything in your house. He says to put it on a stand; put it up on a hill. Be public; be out loud about your faith. Be verbal. How are we going to reach the nations if you can’t even reach your neighbor? Be out loud about it. You’ll be accused of the worst sin; there’s only one or two sins left in the culture today. We’re afraid of getting called judgmental. That’s what we get accused of because we tell people that we’re all sinners; I’m a sinner too. We’re terrified that we’ll fall into the only cultural sin that’s left; tolerance used to be when you let people believe what they wanted to believe and show them grace. But that’s the old tolerance. The new tolerance is “everything goes” except for Christianity. That’s the new tolerance.

Jesus says, “…it gives light to all in the house.” Then in verse 16, he says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others,” It makes you want to sing a children’s song. I know you feel it. I know you have it in your head right now. “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” The kids love singing that song.

What does it mean to let your light shine? It means to give glory to God. It says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to the father . ” He is the one that gets the credit.

Jesus says in John 8:12 (ESV) Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” He said, “I am the light” and then He said, ‘you are the light.’ Now, how does that work?

I was thinking about it kind of like this: The sun is the light and it gives us the day and we walk in the daylight because the sun is the origin of our light. But, at night in the darkness on earth, you’re the light of the world. Remember, the moon is the light, a light source. It only reflects the light of the sun. That’s how we are the light of the world. We reflect the light of the Son. We reflect the light of Jesus into a dark world. That’s what we’re called to do, to be that kind of light, so that God gets the glory.

It says in 1 Peter 3:14-17 (ESV) 14 “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” Let your light shine.

As I’ve said before, the person that made fun of you might be the person who comes to you later, asking for advice or for prayer. If you live long enough, you’ll see that. It will happen. Don’t be afraid to shine for Jesus. Don’t be afraid to give Him the glory.

Being a “secret agent” Christian is one way we avoid persecution. Another way we avoid persecution is we don’t give glory to God. We are asked, ‘Why are you so optimistic?’ You take the credit, ‘I’ve always been “cup half full,” rather than “cup half empty” kind of person. I’m an optimist.’ What if you said, ‘It’s because of Christ in me.’ Oh I, if I bring up the Jesus word, you know, everybody in the culture says Jesus except they use it as a curse word. If I use the Savior word, like He’s my Savior and my Lord, everybody starts leaving the room. Oh he said, “Jesus.” You can say God andget by with it a little bit. But if you say “Jesus…”

I’ve heard of pastors being requested to go and pray at the end of the city council meetings here in Wilson. I’ve been on rotation many times. They have a monthly city council meeting. It’s televised. You get to be the pastor who walks up to the microphone and opens the meeting in prayer. I’m glad, in our city, they’ve never said to me, ‘Yeah, ok, can we see the prayer written down before you get up to pray because you can’t say the name Jesus.’ But, I’ve heard of other cities where that’s the case. They ask you to come pray, but you can’t say, ‘in the name of Jesus’ at the end. You have to just say, ‘Amen’ because saying Jesus is disunifying. I’m thankful that still in our city, I’ve never been asked to do that. We can still give glory to Jesus .

Reflect His light into this dark world. How can we keep on being a blessing to people when we are persecuted? Be glad. Be salty. Be light. That’ll move you from brokenness to blessing. Now you’ve moved from brokenness to being a blessing to others.

This brings us to what I’ve been talking about these eight weeks– our Celebrate Recovery ministry. It’s a place that moves us from brokenness to blessing. This coming Thursday, as we were praying earlier, is our relaunch of our Celebrate Recovery ministry. We want to invite all of you to come and check it out. You might be thinking, Well, that might be for somebody else. I think you’d be surprised. It’s probably for you. It’s probably for you. This ministry is for you if you’re struggling with a divorce or you’re struggling with the grief of a lost one. It could be an addiction. It could be any hurt or habit or just some hang up that you have. Maybe you’ve got an anger problem; maybe you’re “stuck” and need recovery. This ministry is really designed for you to get serious about healing and about moving from brokenness to blessing. We’ve based this ministry on the Beatitudes. We have preached from them these past eight weeks.

We have this acronym that we’ve been spelling out week to week. We’re on the Y. We’ve gone through the whole word, R.E.C.O.V.E.R.Y. Now, we come to the Y, which says to yield myself to be used by God to help others. I yield myself to God to be used to bring the good news to others by my example and my words, by my salt and by my light. When I’m persecuted, I’m going to give the glory to God, knowing that it proves that I belong to the kingdom and that great is my reward. I’m in the company of Jesus and the prophets. I’m gonna be able to say that I’m glad.

Get involved with Celebrate Recovery and pray for the relaunch this Thursday. Even more than that, maybe you feel called to help this ministry really take it up a notch. We need your help. We have a table out in the lobby where you can stop and talk to Pastor Stephen and some of the people that lead Celebrate Recovery. Go and ask questions about it. Sign up to serve in one of the roles: greeter team, tech team, set up team, coffee team or child care team. We need a lot of help in order to provide this ministry. Would you recognize the opportunity to be under God’s blessing, even when you’re persecuted? You can be under His blessing by being glad, by being salty and by being light.

Let’s pray. Lord, first of all, I pray for that person that’s never given their life to you. Maybe, it’s you, my friend, right in your seat. I just want to give you an opportunity. Maybe, you’re watching online or watching in the next room. You’ve never given your life to Jesus . This is a conversation that you need to have between you and God. You can do that, right now, through prayer. Allow me to lead you in a prayer of salvation. Pray along with me, “Dear Lord Jesus. I’m a sinner. I need Your help. I need Your salvation. I believe that You died on the cross for me, Jesus, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. Come and live in me. I want You as my Lord and my Savior. I want to follow You. Forgive me of my sin and adopt me into Your family. I want to be a child of God.” If you’re praying that prayer of faith, believing, you have given control of your life to Jesus as Lord and Savior and have asked Him to forgive you. He will save you today. He will make you a child of God. Others are here today and you’ve done that. You’ve received Jesus. You’re a Christ follower, but maybe you haven’t been telling anybody about it. You’ve been quiet about it. Right now, just go to the Lord with that and say, “Lord, forgive me, help me to talk to my family member. You know who they are. Lord, put the picture of that person’s face in our minds right now. Who is that family member that I have never told about Jesus? Is it my brother in law? Is it my cousin? Is it a neighbor? Is it a coworker? Is it a fellow student at the school? Maybe, it’s a teacher or a professor. I have never told them about Jesus. Lord, forgive me that I’ve been hiding my “light under a basket.” Lord, forgive me. I’ve not been “salty.” Lord, help me to live out loud for You and then help me to count it all joy and be glad. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.