Good Works: A Window to the World — Jeff Jackson

Father, thank you. Thank you for brothers and sisters that love you and love Helen and I. Thank you for brothers and sisters that rejoice over the opportunity to come together corporately and worship you and brothers and sisters that want to know what you have to say and want to do your will.

Father, I pray that you would guide us now and lead us for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. You should be in Matthew chapter 5. And as you're you're kind of camped out there, I want to lay the foundation for this.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Kingdom and Its People

This is the first sermon that Jesus gave. It's his first sermon and it's one of my favorites. So that's why I was blessed when Mark asked me to see what the Lord would want to speak to you from this text in Matthew chapter 5 and one of the things that's important to understand as we begin to look at it and the specific portion that I want to focus on is what were the people that he's speaking to dealing with at the time he's speaking to them?

Understand that he's speaking to a crowd of Jews. There are disciples already, those that have chosen to begin following him, but then there's a large multitude of people that are there listening already.

And as Jesus begins this ministry, his ministry, and this first sermon, it's important to understand what was on the minds of these people. Well, we can't really relate to it because of the way we've been raised in our country, but understand that these are people, the Jews, that had a pretty cool history of being an independent, sovereign nation, of being God's people and seeing the truths of God fleshed out in the way they lived their lives, in the way they interacted with God, in the way they worshiped God, and the way God had blessed them with houses they didn't build and vineyards that they didn't plant.

He gave them that promised land, the land of Israel, and they were to be his people. They were to be a kingdom of priests, and the concept of kingdom was on the forefront of every Jew's mind, and at the time Jesus came, they were frustrated because they were not a kingdom like they expected to be.

The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, wasn't working out the way they had expectations that it should, based on what they were hearing taught from the Word. And so what was going on? Well, they were under the Roman Empire's thumb.

They were not a sovereign nation. They couldn't do what they wanted. They couldn't raise their own army. They were under the Roman Empire. They were occupied. They had a ruler over there, a king, that they didn't choose.

There was not a Jew that didn't worship their God. Life was not good for them. And so what most of them did was they kind of looked at the kingdom of God as something that was not yet present. It wasn't present at all in the form that they expected.

And so when Jesus comes, they kind of have this attitude of, well, the kingdom of God's not really here like we thought it was going to be, like we've been taught it was going to be, but we know it's here, and it's limited.

We know a few people are in it. You know, the Pharisees, they're pretty religious. They're pretty strict, and the Sadducees, and there's a certain group of people that are very meticulous about following the law, and they're probably the only ones that are getting a taste of the kingdom.

We're all excluded because, A, our country's not free, and B, we're not as serious about our religion as they are. And so what Jesus does as he comes and as he begins his ministry, he begins to preach the gospel, and you see time and time again that the gospel is the good news of the kingdom of God.

Jesus is not coming instituting the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, when you really study the word, was already there because it spoke of God's rule and God's reign in the heart and lives of people.

And so when Jesus came, what he has to do is kind of correct their view of what the kingdom of God is, and they are downpressed from not only the Roman government, but from their own religious leaders as if they can't enter the kingdom of God.

They're not good enough. They're not religious enough. And so Jesus, as he begins his ministry with this first sermon, he goes right to the thing which was on the forefront of their mind, thinking about the kingdom of God.

And he begins with those beatitudes, which are descriptions, in a sense, of the character of the subject that actually lives in the kingdom of God. His character, his nature, a description of that. And so let's read real quickly through these beatitudes.

Blessed, verse 3, are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of God. See, in the mindset of the religious people, if you're poor in spirit, you can't get into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says, Oh, no, happy are those that are poor in spirit.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Not the strong. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Oh, they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When you're pursuing righteousness, and you're walking with God, and you're persecuted for it, not recognized for it, but persecuted for it, blessed are you.

You're a possessor of the kingdom of heaven. And then he says in verse 11, blessed are you, when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you, and excuse me, all evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So he's given us a description right off the bat of the character of the subject of the kingdom of God.

And that does not hinge on the political atmosphere. That does not hinge on religiosity, and he's going to explain that as he goes through this sermon. But it's interesting now, he makes a transition from what the character and the nature or the description of the subject of God's kingdom is like to the purpose of that subject in this world.

The Christian’s Purpose in a World Outside God’s Rule

See, to be a servant of the king, a subject of the king who is an eternal king, who is a spiritual king, and yet to live in this world, you've got to interact with things that are not from his kingdom.

And so what he does next is he then gives us an understanding of the purpose of this person in this world, where his rule and reign are not the ultimate, are not being followed. And so he uses a couple of interesting analogies.

He says, verse 13, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Now, it's interesting because he makes that transition from a character description of a Christian, a person who's in the kingdom, to the purpose of that person in this world.

As you work your way through the rest of the sermon, which we're not going to do this morning, you see he goes on and talks about how this person relates to the world, how this person relates to the law that the Jews have been taught, how this person relates to money, how this person relates to God, how this person relates to somebody who's offended them, how this person relates to a judging other peoples and comparing other people.

He works this all the way through. It's an incredible sermon. You could spend literally weeks, months studying it, and it's worth the study. But the first thing he does in regards to the Christian in this world and interacting with the world is he says, You are the salt of the earth.

Salt as Preservation, Flavor, and Spiritual Thirst

Now, what did that mean to the people? When you say, if you told somebody, You're the salt of the earth, what would that mean to somebody today? Nothing. Because salt doesn't play that significant of a role in the world we live in.

In those days, salt was life and death. Salt was a life-and-death issue, and the salt was different because it was different in the sense that it wasn't refined like we have it today and purified and all those other things, but it was dug out and it was intermingled with other things, but it served the purpose.

It served some really crucial purposes. So, it's interesting that he would grab this analogy of, You are the salt of the earth. Okay, what was salt used for in those days? First and foremost, salt was used as a preservative.

Salt was a preservative. In other words, salt, when it was taken and was forced into contact with another substance, it would preserve the decay or the corruption that was inherent in that substance. Every substance is pure at a certain moment, but left alone, it will move towards decay and corruption, and so what salt does is salt slows down or inhibits the rate of decay or corruption.

I remember this real practically from the Philippines, and if you've been to these places that live by the people that live by the sea and so forth, you know, they eat dried fish, and so a lot of times what they would do is they would take fish, they would, of course, gut the fish, split it open, then they would take salt, and they would rub it into the meat of the fish, and then they'd lay it out in the sun.

Flies flying all around and landing on it and stuff, but it would sit out in the sun for a couple of days, non-refrigerated. But the salt rubbed into the fish flesh kept it from decaying and corrupting and preserved it, and you could then eat that for up to a week, never refrigerating it.

Many people live on that. It's interesting, and it's fragrant, too, if you can imagine. But it was very obvious that salt served the purpose, and see, the thing about salt is that in order to inhibit decay or corruption, to be that preservative, it has to come in contact with a substance other than itself.

Salt in a salt shaker is worthless salt. It does absolutely no good. Salt taken out of the salt shaker and woven into something else will then produce the effect that you desire, a preservation. So he says, you are the salt of the earth, this kind of person with this kind of character that loves this kind of God.

Secondly, not only does it preserve and inhibit decay or corruption, but it accents the flavor of what is good that it is interspersed with. Salt brings out the existing flavor that's there. It accents it.

It doesn't change it, but it enhances it. It makes it, there's actually the word tang, you know, don't think of the orange drink, but the concept in the old days, the word tang meant that accent that made something really palatable and tasty, you see.

And so salt not only preserves, but it brings out. How many of us use salt on our meals? Does it change the specific flavor? No, it enhances it. It makes it better. Too much salt can change it, obviously.

And then third, salt had another interesting dynamic, and that was that it creates a desire for something essential. Salt also, when it comes in contact with something else, it stimulates a desire for something essential.

So salt was good to stimulate thirst. Things which, which, and of course water, it stimulates you to have thirst, wherein you would take water and keep yourself from dehydrating. So salt is a stimulant, in a sense, for you to be stirred up to crave that which is ultimately good for you, that which is essential.

And so think of that as an analogy for a Christian or for the church. We are here in the midst of a fallen society, culture, and we are to be what, people? Salt. We are to preserve. The corruption and the decay that's going on around us, where Satan rules and reigns and people's lives are in rebellion to God, we are in the midst of those people, and we should be a preserving entity as we come in contact with them.

But if we don't come in contact with them, we can't preserve them. Salt in a salt shaker is useless salt. If we stay together all the time with other believers, and we're not interacting with what's going on out there, we're not serving the purpose that salt is to serve.

Also, we should be accenting the flavor of what is good. Not everything is bad and corrupt and decaying. Oh, we should inhibit that, but also there are some good things that are taking place in the world.

And so we, as salt of the earth, should accent that. We should bring flavor to it. We should bring an aspect to it that's not being seen. That detached angle that God isn't here. It's just striving for yourself.

You know? And so that's kind of been an interesting thing as I've worked with the ALS associations and so forth. How many people, the goal of their whole lives is to stay alive. As awesome as it is what Lance Armstrong has done, the problem with his whole live strong thing is it's as if this life is all there is.

Like the greatest goal in life is to stay alive as long as possible. That's got it backwards. That is not the reason you exist, to stay alive. You exist for a greater purpose. The glory of God. You see?

We should be living in such a way that we are stirring up a desire in other people to have a drink from the fountain we've drunk from. They should see us flowing out rivers of life. Not ease and comfort, but flowing out what real life is all about.

And in doing so, perhaps they'll want to have a drink from the fountain that we're drinking from. So it's interesting. He says you are the salt of the earth, and then he immediately gives a challenge.

He says you're the salt of the earth, and then he immediately says what? But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? You can't re-flavor salt, especially in those days. If it's been so intermixed that it's no longer doing what it's supposed to do, it's useless.

You might as well just throw it on the ground and walk on it. So he's telling us, you and me, individually in the church, that we are to be salt. That we should be a preservative, that we should accent that which is good, that we should create a desire for something that is essential, and if we don't do that, if we're not fulfilling that role, it's pretty much, you know, you might as well just be walked on, and the world will walk on you.

The devil will walk all over you. So verse 14, and this is the verse I really want to, the few verses I really want to focus on. He says in verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Light Reflects Christ and Reveals God’s Truth

Now it's interesting to me that first salt, and then light, but the first thing he does after using the concept of salt, and the concept of light, is he immediately gives a warning. You are salt, but flavorless salt is useless.

You are light, but you don't take the light that's in a city on a hill and cover it. You don't light a lamp and cover it with a basket. So it's interesting that he immediately uses the analogy, and then he immediately gives a warning of that analogy, or that understanding being misunderstood, because he knows how we are.

We'll find all kinds of reasons not to be salt, not to be light, and so he's warning us. No, that's what you are. Understand, you're going to be held responsible to be that which you were created to be.

That's heavy. Now, he then says this in verse 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Now before we look at that verse, which is our key verse for this morning, verse 16, the title of this message is, by the way, good works, a window for the world.

Good works, a window for the world. Now, light. What is light? Light is that which illuminates, that which unveils, that which exposes, that which brings something to your senses so that you can perceive it, understand it.

Light at its core is that which illuminates and makes known what was previously unknown or hidden. So he says you are the light of the world. Now, what's interesting about that is we know from when he first started his ministry that he is the ultimate light, right?

John 1, 9 talks about the reality that Jesus was the true light that gives light to all men and that light came into the world, but people what? Loved the darkness. The true light loved the darkness. This is the light that when you read in Genesis in the creation account where it says God said let there be light and there was light.

That was four days before he created the sun. There was light shining before the sun was created. Why? Because he is the light. That was the sun shining. The sun, S-O-N, not the sun, S-U-N. That came at a later point in creation.

Jesus said in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. But now he says you are the light of the world. What does that mean? Does that mean we generate our own illumination? No. We reflect his light as the moon reflects the light of the sun.

And somebody reminded me after the first service. The moon, although it's just a reflection of the sun, the moon has incredible influence, doesn't it? It affects the tides. So we are to be the salt of the earth.

We are to be the light of the world. We are to be the moon affecting the tides of people's lives, drawing them towards the God who created them. It's so interesting how God uses these kind of expressions.

Paul says in Philippians, he says you live in the midst of a crooked, Philippians 2, 15, you live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Are we shining as lights?

We're going to talk about that. How do we shine as lights? Now, what kind of got me on this when Mark called me and asked me to speak about something from Matthew 5 is the Lord has permitted us in Mesquite to be part of a church plant for the third time.

By the grace of God, we were able to pioneer a church from the ground up in the Philippines and beginning in the beginning of 1988, end of 1987. When we got back in 1994, we pioneered a church among the Filipino community in San Diego originally.

And now for the third time, maybe I'll get it this time, we get to be part of a church plant from the ground up. And when you're a part of the leadership team of a church plant, you wrestle with questions that are healthy to be wrestled with.

Lord, what do you want this church to look like? What are we supposed to be? Are we doing church? Do we want to just do church the way everybody else does church? Or Lord, do you want to do something new?

Something different, perhaps something that's a throwback to a more biblical example. These are questions that you wrestle with. And what do we want our church to be known for? We have the ability to chart the course of this body of believers.

What do we want it to be known for? And so you're throwing around the term church. And I think what I've learned over the years is when you throw that term around, it's good to actually think about what you mean.

The Church as an Ecclesia for the Community

What is the word church? What is a church? Well, Jesus grabbed this word church. The Greek word was Ecclesia. And it's interesting that he would grab this word because the word church, and the first time you find it, is in Matthew chapter 16.

The word is only used three times in the Gospels. All three times by Jesus. And so there's significance in when he used that word and how he used that word to understand what it means. And what's interesting is he chose this word Ecclesia, or Ecclesia, or depending on, I'm not a Greek guy, so if you're Greek, forgive me that I'm mispronouncing the word.

But the the word, interestingly enough, was from the political realm. Did you know that? It was from the political realm. Now, what do I mean? It was from the political realm. Well, you know, if they had a newspaper in those days and the city council met, the word that was for city council was the word Ecclesia.

It was a political word. And the common day equivalent of it would be the city council of a community or of a city. Now, what did that mean? Well, what was the city council? It was an assembly of called-out ones.

It was a certain portion of the citizens of a community that assembled together. They were called out to come together. And what's so interesting about him grabbing this word and using this word and calling us corporately with this word is that what was the main purpose or what is the main purpose of a city council?

Is it to further the purposes and the ends of the members that are on it? No, a city council does not exist for the welfare primarily of its own members. You don't join the city council because you want to be famous, because you want to be more comfortable.

You join a city council. Why? Because you want to further good things in your community. You serve for the good of the community. You serve for something larger than yourself. The city council does not exist for the interests of its own members.

And if they act that way, what do we do the next election? You're out of there. Now, that's the word that Jesus grabs from the existing political realm. And he says, that's what I'm going to call this group of people to follow me.

Ecclesia, the church. Yeah, when you talk about the church today, first of all, many people misunderstand the word church. You say church today, what do people think? And we even use this terminology all the time.

Oh, we got a church building. Where's the meeting at? It's at the church. No, the church is not a building. It's not a location. The church is an assembly of people. The church is people. It's the body of Christ.

He is the head. We are the body. It's the building. God's building here on planet Earth. It's the bride of Christ. The church is not the building. This is just a building. This is not the church. And when we leave here, God's not here in the same sense that he's here when we're here.

Are you with me on that? Now, we all use the term interchangeably and so forth, but it's good for us to stop and think about it. So, what's interesting to me is when Jesus grabs this term ecclesia for the church in the very concept of the church is the idea that the church doesn't exist for the interest of its own members.

This church does not exist to make you feel good, to meet your needs. Does it make you feel good? Hopefully. Are your needs being met? Yes. But is that the primary reason Calvary Chapel of Escondido exists?

Absolutely not. And when we do think that and live as if that's true, we actually undermine the very reason for our existence. And this is what Jesus is talking about here. He's talking about his kingdom now being available, what the character of the people in his kingdom are, and then how they interact.

And they are to be salt, and they are to be light. Both of those things imply that they are only doing that which they were created to do when they're interacting with not just one another, but those on the outside.

Salt is useless if it's in the salt shaker. Light is useless if it's under a basket. It must shine. So, the church. What's happened is, and it's interesting that when when Jesus talks about the church in Matthew 16, the first time it's mentioned, he says, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

The church is on a mission from God. The gates of Hades, how can the gates, have you ever been attacked by a gate? No, gates are stationary. So, if the church is going to have problems with gates, which Jesus said they're going to have problems with gates, the gates of Hades can't prevail against you.

The only way we're having conflict with a gate is if we're moving, seeking to save that which is lost behind those gates, and they cannot prevail. Gates don't chase people. And yet, what has the church become in many ways?

It's become a gated fortress. The walls are up, the gates are up, and the church comes together and worships God behind the walls while the world is dying. All the salts gathered together in the salt shaker, just so enthused to see all those other grains of salt, missing the very reason they exist.

The fortress should be a force. The church is not to be a fortress from the world, it's to be a force in the world, and yet we've twisted that around. So, we ask ourselves the question as we pioneer the church up there, and God's really blessed in the church plan, what does the world see when they look at our church?

When we would ask somebody, if we would ask somebody, what do you think about the church on the corner? Calvary Chapel of Escondido. What would they say? How would they describe it? Well, you know, they have a lot of people that show up on Sunday mornings.

Parking lot's always full. They're really a pain. It's hard to get around that corner on Sunday mornings. And they all come together, and I hear really good singing kind of wafting through the thing, and I know they study the Bible.

They say it's God's Word. They study it in there, and I know that they're doing some really cool ministry to their kids. Okay, is there anything known about the church larger than what takes place here, within the fortress?

Is the church a force, or is it a fortress? It's interesting to chew on this stuff. Now, what should be the minimum of a church? Well, certainly, hearing the Word, teaching the Word, fellowship, you know, breaking of bread, prayer.

All of those things are crucial minimum components of a local church. But is that enough? What does the world see? Well, what would the world see if they looked at most churches? Well, they would say there is God being talked about in there.

God is on display, at least through His Word. This God that they believe in, they read this thing called the Bible, and it says they think it's His Word, and so they're learning about their God. Okay, what else would they see?

Well, hopefully, they would see that lives are changed. Right? They would say, oh, yeah, the people that go to that church over there, I know people that went there, and their lives have changed. They've turned away from destructive habits.

You should have seen that person before you started going to that church. It's been really good for them to go. They don't have those destructive habits anymore. They don't have ungodly behavior. They were violent before and socially dangerous in their actions, and now they're not anymore.

Actually, what's really cool about that church over there is that people are changed, and they actually get jobs. And so they're not on the public payroll anymore through taxes and all those other things, so it's good.

So maybe the world would say God is there because He's taught about from the Bible, and there are changed lives there. Lots of people being changed from lots of things. But that's the problem, you see.

Is that what the church is about? Teaching God's Word only? Worshipping God only? Getting people to turn from their sins? Now, all of those things are necessary, but is that all there is? Are people not only being changed from things, but are they being changed to things?

And you'll see this as we go. In other words, if somebody was to say this is the ethic of that church, this is the moral or the standard that I've learned and observed from that church over there. Yeah, they're really big on changing lives, helping people turn away from destructive things.

They're really good on that. That's what they do. That is not enough, people. Biblically, it's not enough to turn away from. It's what are you turning to? And what is produced? Well, Jesus says, verse 16, let your light shine.

Christian, your light should shine. And what is the vehicle for that shining, according to Jesus in his first sermon? Let your light shine before men that they might, what? See your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Do you hear what Jesus is doing here? He is saying that the world will peer into the nature of God, the reality of God. They will see God through your good works. And if they see those good works, they will glorify your God.

Isn't that why you live? Isn't that why you exist? Good works are the window through which the world sees our God. And when we are doing good works, and our God is seen, they will praise him. They will glorify him because they've seen him through our good works.

And yet good works are hardly ever talked about or taught. Matter of fact, I mean, I've listened to hundreds, thousands of sermons and I've heard hardly any teaching on the subject of good works. Why?

When it's so prevalent, which you're going to see in a minute, in the scripture. Why? Well, here's why. Because we don't walk a balancing act very good. We're all prone to extremes, all of us. We tend to run in extremes.

So for a while, it was thought that good works, in the theological realm, good works were made you acceptable to God. That going to heaven, and this is still that way in some religions, that going to heaven, we have a lot of Mormons up there, this is totally Mormonism, going to heaven is based on the combination of what Jesus did on the cross and what you do good work-wise.

So if you have Jesus and you do enough good works, let's say you have 75 bad things, but you've done 80 good things, you're plus five. So that plus five, plus Jesus, you're in heaven. And many people believe that.

Well, I'm a good person. So I'm, therefore, I'm going to heaven. Oh, okay. Well, how do you measure good? Well, I'm pretty good most of the time. Okay, well, have you ever told a lie? Well, yeah. Have you ever stolen anything?

Well, yeah. Have you ever thought about, you know, looking at a woman with lust in your heart or a man? Well, yeah. So, okay, let me see. You're a thieving, lying, adulterer. But you're pretty good, right?

No, you're not good. Not by God's standard. You don't meet the standards. So what's happened is what we people have done and what the church has done, in order to emphasize that it's all by grace, and you are saved only by grace, unmerited favor.

Your good works mean absolutely nothing in regards to your position with God and eternity. They mean nothing. You are saved by grace alone through faith alone. But because that's been twisted, people shy away from good works.

And they say, well, that's what it's all about. Being a Christian is saying the sinner's prayer, going forward at a Billy Graham crusade, raising your hand, bowing your head, and closing every eye, and repeating a prayer, as if that was that which saves you.

And once you've said the right things, believe the right concoction of words, you're saved. Wrong. Biblical saving faith will produce good works. And so James makes this very clear. If you don't have good works, your faith is dead.

Your good works don't save you. Nobody is saved by doing good works. But if you have no good works, you have no saving faith. Good works are not the cause of salvation. They are the effect of salvation.

And so Jesus, in his first sermon, says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. And the New Testament has a bunch to say about the place of good works.

But so I want to answer two questions as I kind of start to bring this to a point. Number one, what are good works? When Jesus says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and magnify or glorify your Father in heaven, what does he mean?

Jesus’ Example of Active, Selfless Good Works

Well, I think the first thing we need to do as we're going to try to define good works is look at the life of Jesus. And some of you have heard me say this before. It's kind of one of my hobby horses.

But I have a real problem with the church today. And here's why. When I talk to people in the world and I ask them to describe Jesus for me, they give me a list of what they know about Jesus. And their list is all about the things that Jesus did.

He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He went with the poor. He defended the woman caught in adultery. He did that. Jesus is known around the world by even people that don't believe in him for what he did.

But the church is known and Christians are known for what? What they don't do. Oh, yeah, he's a Christian. He doesn't go to R-rated movies. You know what? He's really serious. He doesn't even rent R-rated videos.

They don't go to bars. They don't go here. They don't go there. Why are Christians known for what they don't do? And their Lord is known for what he did do. Turning away from sin is not the end. Our ethic of Christianity is about what you've been saved from is wrong if it doesn't include what you're saved to.