Week 11 - Stand Up For Jesus
“You are the salt of the earth…” (Matthew 5:13)
In his article, “Five Essentials for Small Group Health,” the writer RH Neighbor mentioned the need for small groups to focus on “living out the gospel.”
Jesus also underlined the importance of living out the gospel. In His first lecture on Discipleship 101 (commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount) recorded for us in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew’s gospel, He mapped out the blueprint for the kingdom of God. He first listed the eight Beatitudes followed by several practical applications.
The first application Jesus gave was about the need for His disciples to live a life that would impact the unbelievers. He used two illustrations. The first is salt and the second is light. Let us take a closer look at the idea of the disciples being the salt of the earth.
First, in Jesus’ day, salt was the most common of all preservatives. There were no refrigerators and no NTUC FairPrice supermarkets. In tropical Palestine, salt was used to keep things from becoming rotten, particularly meat. When Jesus said that His disciples were the salt of the earth, He was teaching that the world apart from God is rotten because of sin, but through His power, His disciples would be able to have a preserving and purifying effect upon it.
Secondly, salt is good for providing flavour. The pleasures of the world are unsatisfying without Jesus. Those who pursue the world will soon come to realise that it cannot satisfy the true hunger and desire of their souls. Christians are to be different so that their satisfaction in Christ can be seen and known by their unbelieving contemporaries.
The third thing that salt does is to make one thirsty. French fries come with salt to make you buy Coke. Do you make anyone thirsty for Jesus Christ? When non-Christians see our joy, satisfaction and peace, it will make them look up and say, “That’s what I want; that is what I want to be like!”
As disciples of Jesus Christ, our lives must be distinctive and it can only come about when we embrace the Beatitudes. As a result, people will “see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (
Last week, I heard a preacher asking the congregation, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be sufficient evidence to convict you in court?” Would you and I be convicted or acquitted?
In 1858, a young American clergyman by the name of Dudley Tyng died as the result of an accident on his parents’ farm. In his last words to his father, he asked him to tell all his fellow ministers to “stand up for Jesus.”
A few days after his death, one of his closest friends, fellow minister George Duffield, wrote a poem based on Tyng’s last words. Duffield’s poem eventually became a well-known Christian hymn.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus! The strife will not be long; This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song. To those who vanquish evil a crown of life shall be; They with the King of Glory shall reign eternally.
Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s stand up for Jesus. Let’s be the salt of the earth, impacting our society and pointing others to Christ!