Matthew 5:10-16 • Witness
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your bibles now at Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5, as we'll be considering verses 10-16, in the last of this series on Mission at Work.
You may remember that the Bible tells us we're always to be ready to give reason for the hope that is in us.
But we recognize that at times in workplace, among peers, among coworkers, that can be difficult.
What does God actually expect of us in culmination of our understanding that every place we work is holy ground, that we have a vocation, a calling, to represent our Savior in every place?
What should we expect?
And what does He expect of us in witness?
The words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount as He's talking to people in His day of their life's expectations helps us know.
Matthew chapter 5 verses 10-16.
Let's stand as we honor God's Word and this morning, remember, this would be Jesus Himself talking to people on a mountainside as they gathered to hear words of power.
Jesus says, "'Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You are the salt of the earth, but if the 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.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do people put a light, 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.
In the same way, let your light shine before others also, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.'"
Let's pray together.
>>> Heavenly Father, You know it is our desire: We want to give glory to You.
But all these words ring true to us from Your Son.
We know that being true to You can be trouble to us.
And so we would ask that You would help us to hear the promises as well as the obligations that ignite our hearts in inspiration for the Savior, that wherever You call us, whatever work You call us to do, whatever the place is, we would be pointing to Jesus.
Help us to understand how, we pray, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
I won't embarrass her by saying her name, but there's a wonderful Christian woman in our congregation who talks about an experience some years ago.
She was working as a teller at a local bank, and it came to Christmastime and the gift that she gave to her coworkers was a small Christian devotional.
Now, as a consequence, absolutely nothing happened.
The heavens didn't open.
Nobody fell to their knees in repentance.
But about five or six years later, a young woman approached the one who was now no longer a teller at the bank and approached and said, "Do you remember me?"
And the woman in our congregation spoke honestly, "Well, no, I don't remember you."
Said the young woman who had approached her, "I was a substitute teller on the day that you gave out those devotionals to your fellow workers.
And as a consequence, I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior through the devotional that you gave me."
Now, two remarkable things on that note: It was five or six years later, and it's the reminder that simply because we cannot see the Lord's hand does not mean that He's not working.
Second: Because she's an honest Christian woman, the one who gave out the devotional said to me later, "What surprised me perhaps even more than this woman being moved by the devotional was God using me.
Because," she said, "I was not walking very closely with the Lord in those days in my life."
It's the reminder that we don't have to be a perfect witness to be powerfully used of God.
Those two truths, that even when we do not see God's hand He is working and even when we are not perfect witnesses we can still be powerfully used of God, is guiding us into the belief that God wants us to have through His Son as we consider our witness in our workplace.
What are the things that we are to be guided from by in this particular passage?
Number one, we're just to remember that promises outweigh problems.
If we are to witness, there will be problems.
I mean, that's just playing heads-up baseball with the Savior here, right?
""Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,'" says Jesus right at the beginning of this passage.
It's the recognition that even for righteousness' sake, which means just doing the right things, there can be hard consequences.
Why would that be?
Well, because if what we are doing as believers is running crosscurrent to what the world expects or is doing, there can be a lot of turbulence.
And that can be on the wide scope of what's happening in culture, its currents.
It can happen very narrowly, even what's happening in the culture of an individual workplace.
I mean, in the wide culture around us right now, some of you may have seen the same articles that I did that the American Library Association just announced, that the Bible is one of the 10 most challenged books going in public libraries today.
Right up there with "Fifty Shades of Gray" and "Two Boys Kissing" is the Bible being questioned for allowance in the nation's public libraries.
Now, of course, it may not just be happening on broad scale; it may be happening what's happening in an individual company, in a place of business.
What happens, after all, if all the coworkers are padding their expense reports for the extra income?
And that's even expected, perhaps, by management.
Then what happens is you stand against the current?
Well, there's some turbulence, because other people start to look bad because of what your stance may be.
If your peers happen to hide their money from the I.R.S. in Panama, that's not many of you.
[Laughter]
But if they hide their money from the I.R.S. by cash tips at Panera's, not reported, well that may be common practice.
What happens if everyone, after all, in the medical procedures that are happening at a particular clinic is approving that which is unnecessary or coded in such a way that it's inaccurate but gets more insurance reimbursement?
To stand against is to create turbulence.
If peers or bosses at Volkswagen or Mitsubishi or the quality control plant in Flint, Michigan, are all approving one story and it's not the story that you know to be true to stand against that culture can create turbulence.
If the common practice wherever you are is puffery or secrecy or working slow or fraud or gossip or grousing at the lunch table to stand against, to stand apart, is to create turbulence.
So much turbulence that verse 11 may actually apply.
There Jesus says, "'Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.'"
You may not just be trouble: You may now be a threat.
And they may not, may need to get rid of you.
A man came to me after the first service, and he said, "If I don't do some of those things, I'm not playing on the team.
I mean, it's the expectation.
If I don't go along, others get in trouble and therefore I would be the one who be removed simply for doing what I believed is right."
I know that's not the circumstance of all of you, but my guess is for virtually everyone who is a believer, taking a stand for the Lord Jesus of righteousness is occasionally going to create turbulence and perhaps even the threat that people would say things falsely against you because you're standing for the Lord.
That's real.
But what Jesus is saying is the probis--, the problems are not greater than the promises.
Knowing the problems is playing heads-up baseball: Knowing the promises is being able to stand.
What is being promised in this same passage?
Three things: blessings and the kingdom and good company.
The blessings, of course, mentioned in verse 10 and 11, right at the beginning, "'Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.'"
Verse 11, "'Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you on my account,'" says the Lord Jesus.
What are those blessings?
Well, the choir was just singing it to us, right?
"May the Lord make His face to shine upon you."
That the blessing of God is the face of God turned toward you.
There is only one occasion in human history when God turned His face away from one of His children.
And that is when the Lord Jesus took your sin and my sin upon Himself on the cross.
And the sky went dark, and Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
And the reason was because my sin and your sin was being accepted by the Savior at the behest of His Father.
And the one who is wholly righteous turned Himself away from the sin, that His Son might suffer the just penalty that you and I desire for that.
It's the only time, so that now His face might shine upon us, that we would know, even despite our sin because Christ took the penalty on Himself, we now face God and He us with only a smile from heaven.
It is no longer the frowning face.
It is God's face shining upon us.
And the beauty of that is that Jesus is saying at the very same moment that we would expect blessing is we would expect the kingdom.
Verse 10 is just so special in its wording because of the present tense.
Do you see that right at the end of verse ?
"'Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'"
Now, that's a little bit different than verse 12 where it says right at the beginning of verse 12, "'Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.'"
If we only had verse 12, we would think, well, this is just some future promise.
We endure hardship here, because there's a promise of blessing, reward in the sky by and by.
But the first verse, verse 10, says, listen, righteousness lived even with persecution has this promise: Those who experience it, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven in short terms is the place where God rules.
And we are being told that that is occurring right now, that all things are being worked together for good for those on whom God smiles, as His face is turned toward us.
We don't always understand it how all the pieces fit, how it's all working together, but here is the promise of God: rule now as well as reward later.
Now, we have analogies to think about at times to make it make sense.
Kathy and I were just earlier this week in an attorney's office making out our wills.
We have no immediate plans to use them.
[Laughter]
And I'm sorry: Most of you aren't in them.
[Laughter]
But our children are.
And we recognize, we hope that there is blessing for them down the road.
But the reality is even as we are showing by the future intent our hearts toward our children, if they need it now, by the grace of God, I would hope our hearts would say, "All that we have is yours already.
I mean, if it's right and necessary now, then all we have is yours."
And the God who is saying, "The kingdom is for you now as well as reward in the future," is thinking about eternity as a heavenly Father.
And whatever is in our life, our Lord is orchestrating as He's working all things together for an eternal good in such a way that the kingdom's rule now is for our eternal good.
And as a consequence, we know that He is accomplishing what He intends, not just for His glory but for our good as well.
And lest we get discouraged at the hard times, He's not just promising us blessing, not just the kingdom, He's saying, "And when you go through the hard time, just remember you're in good company."
Verse 12 at the end, "'For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'"
Oh, but, Lord, if in a stand for You, when I stand for You, it's hard so much.
There's so much consequence if I stand for You.
And I can think of us almost before the Lord in heaven and saying, "God, when I stood for You, my life got tough."
And the Lord saying, "Oh, is that right?
Your life.
Well, then, you sit over there at the table with Jeremiah and Daniel and Stephen.
That's your table."
"But, Lord, it wasn't just tough.
When I stood for you, people got so mad at me they wanted to get rid of me.
They began to lie about me."
"Oh, oh, oh.
Well then you need to sit at the table with Joseph and Paul and Jesus."
You're in good company.
You're not strange.
You're not odd.
The blessings of the smile of God, the promises of the kingdom, and the goodness of good company is the promise.
Why?
So that even when we go through hard things, the attitude that we are displaying to the world, which is part of our witness, is still joy and peace, that we would rejoice even in the midst of that.
Because we recognize our witness is actually being maintained by what people witness about us.
Can we stand?
Can we go through the difficulty and still experience peace and joy?
And attitude is part of the magnet of our witness.
Now, that's not all of it, of course.
Verse 13 is reminding us, "'You are the salt of the earth.'"
Verse 14, "'You are the light of the world.'"
It's a reminder not just of problems being overwhelmed by promises: It's a reminder that influence overwhelms dominance.
After all, the common denominator of salt and light is a little bit can go a long way.
A little bit can accomplish a lot.
And if we are salt, it's Jesus who's coming into the world on the mission of God of salvation saying, "You are salt; you are light."
He's saying, "You're on My mission.
I'm with you in this; you're with Me in this.
We're in this togeth--, you are, you're not going to be, you are salt; you are light.
My intention is that you be on mission with Me.
And though it may seem that others are dominating, that there's so much more of that in them and the evil of the difficulty, just a few grains of salt can season an awful lot."
To me, the even more compelling image, because I've been there even with some of you where Jesus delivered this Sermon on the Mount, above the Sea of Galilee on a gently sloping hill, is if you were standing there and you heard Jesus say, "You are the light of the world; a city set on a hill cannot be hidden," that you can just kind of stand there and envision what Jesus was pointing to.
Around the Sea of Galilee are various hills, but there's also one tall mountain known as the Arbel.
And on the top of the Arbel was a village, that you could just image at night any boat that was on the Sea of Galilee could still navigate, orient itself, by looking up and seeing the city on the hill, the light that shone there.
And on the Sea of Galilee was Capernaum, the place where Jesus spent most of His adult life.
And right at Capernaum are the major intersections of the ancient Middle East for the Roman world.
So that people could navigate not just by sea but also on land by the light on the hill.
And you get the sense that God is saying, "You have the ability, no, you have the mission, no, you have the reality by how you live before people to be a light by land or by sea, by difficulty through the storms, whatever it is, that you're showing people what they need to know."
And you don't have to be a lot.
You don't have to be a little.
You don't have to be a lot to accomplish a lot.
I'll get the words right.
Even a little can accomplish a lot.
For me, the most compelling experience that I've ever been a part of was when a delegation of evangelicals went to China in the early 1990s to seek to speak to the then President of China, Jiang Zemin, about letting up on the some of the pressure that was on Christians.
And as that evangelical delegation that included some from Covenant Seminary was meeting with Jiang Demen--, Jiang Zemin, the question came, "Could we give you this gospel of John from the Bible?"
He was willing to receive it.
"Would you be willing to read it?"
He said, "Yes, I'll read it, because when I was a little child, the nurse who was kind to me and took care of me was a Christian.
I will read it for her sake."
Now, I think, all those years ago perhaps totally alone as a Christian in whatever household Jiang Zemin was being raised in, having no idea what would happen, but if some of you know a little of China history you know that first Jiang Zemin was one of the great persecutor of Christians.
And then late in his presidency as he became general secretary of the Communist Party he began to let up the pressure.
And so much if we look at as this burgeoning Christianity in China right now happened since that time.
I can't tell you that I know the reasons.
But I think, what if in the mind of God a single nurse in a household decades ago God was saying, "You're My salt; this little grain, you're My salt; you're My light, and the world will change because of you"?
Is that the truth?
I don't know what actually God did.
What I know is we are salt and light.
And the fact that we know that is what's giving us willingness to be influential even when we're not dominant, even when at the workplace it seems like everything else is dominating.
You say, "God is not calling me to upend the world; God is calling me to be faithful here, to be salt and light in what He has called me to do.
And there may be consequences, but the reality is blessings and the kingdom and good company are still mine."
And as I think about what it means to be salt and light, what many of us kind of in our Christians circles begin to think of: What does it mean to be light in the workplace?
We look at verse 15, "'Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house.'"
And you and I are thinking.
7 This little light of mine 7
7 I'm gonna let it shine 7 7
Hide it under a basket, no!
I'm gonna let it shine.
Right?
That's what you're thinking.
[Laughter]
At least it's what I was thinking.
[Laughter]
We recognize the impact of our words, our necessity of saying to a coworker in a time of grief, "Can I pray for you?"
To say to someone whose kids are struggling, "You know there's a youth group at our church; maybe there's some kids there that your child can relate to."
To say to someone who is complimenting you for your great work, "You know, I'm just thankful the Lord brought my family here, that we could participate in what this company, this team, this group is doing."
The words spoken in season that have the great seasoning affect that God intends for salt and the effect of light in the workplace.
But even as we are thinking about our words, recognize it's not quite the emphasis of what Jesus is saying.
Look at verse 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.'"
In our witness, we need, of course, to remember that God's promises are greater than our problems.
In our witness, we at the same time need to remember that influence is more important than dominance.
But we also need to remember that our works are just as important as our words.
I mean, that's what's being said here, that in the good works that we do people would see them and say, "Wow, who's the God of that person?
What are they honoring?
What are the priorities of their life?"
And it's making this kind of seamless understanding of what God is calling us to in our Christian walk and witness in the workplace.
Yes, our attitudes are important.
And, yes, our words are important.
But there's not something more important than our work.
I mean, can you imagine what testimony we have if we have all kinds of fine Bible words and our work is shoddy?
We're actually destroying our witness.
What happens if the reason that we're constantly late for work is we're excusing ourselves because we went to a Bible study?
If we're distracting other coworkers by testimonies to them when it's actually time to work.
God is calling us to say our work is a testimony of Him.
This is holy ground.
I'm doing a holy calling.
This work is meant to honor Him.
By my work I show His character.
When I operate with integrity, I'm reflecting His integrity and His righteousness.
When I operate in such a way that I'm caring for my work and the company and the people around me, I'm securing their livelihood as well as my livelihood, the reputation of my company, so that it can survive so that we can survive, so that families and customers can flourish in such a way that my company is accomplishing what God actually intends for it to accomplish.
And as I work hard at the unique gifts God has given me, I'm celebrating His creativity.
He has made each of us in His own image with unique gifts and talents, desires, qualities, that when I work hard at them I'm actually celebrating the God of creativity in my life.
And all of these aspects of demonstrating the character of God, the care of God, the creativity of God, are actually part of my witness in the workplace.
The novelist Dorothy Sayers writes it this way: "The church's too common approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to telling him not to be drunk on his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays.
What the church should be telling carpenters is this: The very first demand on your faith is to make good tables.
You are insulting God with bad carpentry.
No crooked legs or ill-fitting drawers, I dare to say, came out of the carpenter's shop in Nazareth."
I love it.
He would have honored His work and in honoring His work would have honored His God.
And as a consequence would have brought glory to His Father.
That's really the opportunity God is giving us.
To have people say, "Why do you work as you do?
Why the integrity?
Why the stand that you take?
Why do you do what you do?"
It's the opportunity by our work to point to God.
And the first obligation is to do the work well, because that's where our witness is of what God has given us to do in the world.
And then, of course, as people are looking to us and saying, "Why and why do you do this sort of thing?" we take the opportunities to say, "You know, the Lord brought my family to this place.
The Lord let me work here.
The Lord gave me these talents."
And we are actually taking the opportunity to point to the grace of God that's greater than our own talents and abilities.
We're using God's character to point to His grace.
But it means that words and work and attitude are all part of a seamless cloth.
It's not rocket science.
It's doing the work well and looking at the opportunities for the words backed by an attitude of love for your Savior.
I think of an example in 1989, United Airlines Flight 811 took off from Honolulu.
And at 22,000 feet blew the cargo door.
Those of you who are engineers are going to understand it better than I.
Now all the aerodynamics are off; the hydraulics are not working.
They've got too much gas to turn around and land safely.
But they've got to get back because they're dropping out of the air.
They've got a hundred miles to go.
David Cronin was the pilot.
He brought 38 years of experience to get the people down safely.
And later was asked by a reporter, "What did you do when the cargo door blew?"
His response, "Well, first I said a prayer for my passengers.
And then I got to business."
[Laughter]
He gave a witness: "I'm going to pray to God; I'm going to care for my passengers, and I'm going to do a good job."
And it all came together, didn't it?
This was the testimony.
So God calls us in our witness to give glory to the Father by the words and the work that we do.
It's all part of the same call.
It's not rocket science.
And it's not a terrible cross to bear every day.
It's doing a good job so that others will say, "My, what a God you have; tell me about Him."