Welcome to Episode #154 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our second of eight episodes in our Twentieth mini-series entitled, Sermon on the Mount. On today’s episode we’ll be looking at Jesus’ teaching on Salt and Light found in Matthew 5:13-16.
This short passage follows directly after Jesus’ teaching on the Beatitudes. The manner of living expected of Disciples in the Kingdom of Heaven. With the Beatitudes, Jesus launched into a teaching he could have been teaching all around Galilee.
Matthew 4:17, 23-25 – From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” …23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
I emphasized on our last episode, Jesus proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom in the Galilean synagogues. And, how Jesus validated that His good news of the kingdom was coming from God by performing miraculous healings beyond anything ever seen. John 3:2 – This man [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” John 14:10-11 – Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Believe on account of the works themselves was not just meant for them then, but also for us now. What kind to works is God doing today through Jesus that believers should be wakened into a new reality? If you are a believer this sign has already been given you. God has already transferred you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his Son, the kingdom of light, the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom has come where God’s will can be done on earth as it is in heaven. You are already living in that kingdom!!
Don’t believe that? Read the opening Chapter of Ephesians and then read the rest of the book and discover who you are. Read the books of Philippians and Colossians and discover what the life you now possess is supposed to look like.
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