You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.“You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden.Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
15 sermons cite this verse
… except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people put a lamp under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine to others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. We'll stop there. Notice that Jesus says, first we are to be salt, then we are to be light. First you're salt, then you're light. Why is it given in this order? Well, first the salt, I have a preserving effect. I create in others a thirst for God and then having acted as salt, I can function as light. And effectively, I earn the right to be heard. See, well, you know what? I admire your life, a nonbeliever says. Look at your family. How do you raise kids like that? In this world today, they ask, is their baby's looking at an iPad in their stroller? …
… except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people put a lamp under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine to others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. We'll stop there. Salt and light. Why did Jesus use these two word pictures? Answer, because the world is a dark and corrupt place. And it needs salt and it needs light. You know, despite all of our advances in every field, from science and medicine and education and technology, we just go from bad to worse. Modern man has just found more ways to corrupt and destroy himself. We go from war to greater war, from crime to greater crime, from immorality to greater immorality, from perversion to greater perversion. We're just playing out the truth of the scripture that says the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things who can know it. …
… You've understood it. You've been transformed by it. Now lift your lamp, shine your light. that's exactly the same thing jesus said in the sermon on the mount he said this you are the light of the world a city set upon a hill cannot be hid nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house so let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. So that's what he is saying is that fruit bearing is noticeable. You are to make it plain. You are to make the announcement clear. You are to reveal. Now you might say, well, then what's the point of verse 22? There's nothing hidden which shall not be revealed or anything kept secret, but that it should come to light. well in the first parable remember he talked about seed that was sown on rocky soil and seed that was sown on weed infested soil so that at first both of those soils look good they're growing stuff but the real nature of them is hidden at first eventually however it's going to be revealed and it will be revealed to these fake believers on judgment day when Jesus will say, depart from me, I never knew you. And their house will come crashing down. As Jesus said, great will be the fall of that house. So back to this main point, if the life of God is in you, then the light of God …
… you think, well, I can't deny that that's a great neighbor to have. This is all over Scripture, Matthew 5, you are the light of the world. City set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people put a lamp under a basket, but on a stand it gives light to all. Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Titus 2, slaves to be obedient to their masters and everything, they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn, that's what we're trying to do, adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. 1 Peter 2, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of His visitation. We don't want to spend so much time trying not to stick out when sticking out might be the very thing that is the instrument of leading someone to Christ. Now, we don't want to stick out in the easy ways and we all just wear a certain kind of uniform or we all talk in a certain bizarre sort of speech, but people ought to notice something is different about the things that you watch, about the words that you say, about the way you spend your time, your attitude, the way you spend your money, the way you address your kids, the way you think about marriage and family, …
… five through seven, the most concentrated portion of Jesus' ethical teachings. So today we're going to focus, we're going to start Matthew chapter five, verses 13 through 16. And this is where Jesus gives two metaphors for what we are to be and do as individual Christians, but he uses the plural you. So he's really talking about us together. And it's really emphatic. He says, you yourselves are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. So we're going to unpack those, and then we're going to go into six of the hard sayings or teachings of Jesus as found in the Sermon on the Mount. So let's start with you are the salt of the earth. Now, you've no doubt heard people describe this way. You know, somebody's the salt of, they're just salt of the earth. Usually that means they're just really good, solid people, right? But this phrase comes directly from the Sermon on the Mount. And so we have to ask, what did Jesus have in mind by salt of the earth? …
… And next week, we're going to talk about Matthew chapter five, verses 13 through 17. This is where Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. I don't want you to miss it. It's gonna be a powerful weekend of worship. And these messages will speak directly to your heart and to your friends' hearts. So I wanna encourage you to do that. I wanna invite you to go to core.org slash next and you can download there the Beatitudes as your wallpaper. So I have it now on my phone. And every day when I pick up my phone, I can say those again. I can pray those. Lord, help me to be poor in spirit. When I'm poor in spirit or mourning, be with me, help me. Help me to be meek and hunger and thirst after righteousness and all the rest. They're right there. They could be on your phone. I'd like to encourage you to do that. You'll also find more information about something I mentioned in the sermon, and that is the chance to sponsor a classroom of children in Honduras, in Malawi, in South Africa, in Uganda. …
… except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. I wanna preach a message in installment number one called Taste and See. See, I think that as believers, as followers of Jesus, our life should taste a little different, and I think we should shine a little bit brighter. That we've been not called to live for ourself, but we've been called to live for something bigger than ourself. We now live for God. We now live to help people find grace. This is the exciting thing about following God. Someone said to me one time, Pastor Chad, I think Christianity is boring. Like, shut up. Christianity is not boring. Living for yourself is boring. But when you live for God, you get swept up into the adventure of a lifetime because you're living not to bring glory to your name. You're living to help other people find faith. As we, we march through this for the next three, three weeks, I just want to encourage you. Our, our goal is that LA would get better and brighter. …
… are. So in the gospel today, what does Jesus say? He doesn't say, hey, one day you're going to be the light of the world. He doesn't say, hey, one day you're going to be salt of the earth. He looks at his disciples and says, you are the salt of the earth. Right now, you are the light of the world. you do not have to wait for this this is this is the reality that this is your who you are not what you might be you know it's fascinating I've talked about this before but in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to the scene is this that Jesus has already lived he's died he's risen from the dead he spent 40 days with his apostles teaching them living with them and at the first chapter of Acts he walks up to the city of Bethany and in Bethany you can see all of Jerusalem. Like you can see the upper room where Jesus gave us the Eucharist. You can see Golgotha where he crucified. You can see where he rose from the dead. You see it all. And the apostles at this point, they ask Jesus one question. Because they know who he is. They know he's the Messiah. They know he's the king. So they say, Jesus, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? They said, when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus says two things. …
… You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. You are a city set on a hill. So you say, okay, the sermon that Jesus gives is sort of the key to happiness. It begins with the Beatitudes, right? Beatitudo means happiness. So if I want to be happy, I better follow this. Well, look what he tells his followers to be. Something for the sake of the other. So look at the first one. You are the salt of the earth. Well, in Jesus' time in the ancient world, long before refrigeration, If you wanted to preserve meat, well, you would salt it. You want it to enhance its flavor, and that's true today, of course, too. You put salt on it. What's one thing you never would do if you have guests over at your house? Well, I'm serving dinner, and here's a plate of salt for you. Salt is not salt for its own sake. Salt exists for the sake of the other. …
… we always remember, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. And then we take that Christ light and we pass it to someone else. I take it and I pass it to someone else. And I remind you that Jesus said, now you are the light of the world. So he turned to his disciples. He said, I'm the light of the world. Now you are the light of the world. You're to take the light I have, and you're going to take it out of the world to bring darkness, you know, to push back the darkness, to be the light for the world. This is what we're called to do. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. And this is God's great strategy in sending Jesus. You are his strategic plan to push back the darkness in the world. You're his strategic plan to bring light and love into the world. I'm reminded of what Jesus said. At the last supper, he said, I give you a new commandment. …
… assembly, it's God's assembly. It's God's people or God's community. So that's the first thing to recognize is we are God's community or God's people. Now in Matthew chapter 16, we find Jesus only uses the word ekklesia twice in the Gospels. So the first one is in Matthew chapter 16, and there Simon Peter, Jesus actually turns to all of his disciples. He says, who do you say that I am? Like, it's time to say, who do you think I am? Am I a good teacher? Am I the Messiah? Am I, what do you, I mean, you've been following me. Who do you say that I am? And they're all quiet because they're afraid it's a trick question. You know, they're gonna get the answer wrong. Simon Peter, though, always bold, he speaks up. And Simon says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Simon, but my father in heaven revealed it to you. …
… be hidden. Now the shining part wasn't what Jesus said, but that was added later on by the pilgrims, I think. But this idea of America being a city on a hill. Now, again, that's Jesus' vision. And by the way, I'll tell you, Jesus' vision, when he talked about you are the light of the world, a city set upon a hill that can't be hidden, he wasn't talking about a country. He was talking about the church. He was talking about his people. But in a country where a majority of the population are Christians, it should be a city on a hill. But it feels like we've forgotten that today. so I was thinking about when the French gave America the Statue of Liberty, and it was dedicated in 1886. Before that, in 18, I think it was 1883, they were trying to raise money for the pedestal. The French gave the statue, but the Americans were trying to raise money for the pedestal, and they asked Emma Lazarus to write a poem about this statue. …
… It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. I love Wingstop. Thank you. to know me is to know I love wing stock I get about that honey barbecue that Korean barbecue that lemon pepper I might skip the 1215 just go get wing stop I love me some wing stop but what is it about the what is Jesus talking about he's talking about the flavor and there is a unique flavor that God has given you there is a unique flavor that he's wired you with and he's given you this so that you can walk in the calling that he has for your life, the purpose that he has for your life, to do the things, to love your family, to love your coworkers, to love your neighborhood and your community in the way that God has wired you to do it. …
… And if you do well, you know it just ain't about us. Which is why we were reminded in Matthew, you were the light of the world. Right, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do individuals take a light and put it under a bushel. But they put it on his lampstand. Why? So that it gives light to everybody in the house in the same way. Let your light so shine before others that when they see your good work, they may glorify the God who made you, which is in heaven. So realize as you get prepared to deal with going back to school, realize as you prepare to navigate what the fall has that we are not aware of. realize that during this crazy election season, realize during this time of new justice being on earth, that God has planned for you to prosper. God has planned for you to experience new power. God has planned for you to experience new possibilities. Why? Because you were willing to reject the lie. Why? Because you believe that hope and transformation was on the way because new mercies continue to be born every day. But then lastly, you believe that God got my best intentions in mind. Even if people don't, God has your best intentions in mind. Shall we pray? God, we thank you and we bless you that you love us, that you call us by our name, that you have plans to prosper us. You have plans to give us a future. You have plans to give us hope and you have plans …
… Now take the Word of God, please, and turn to Matthew chapter 5 as we continue our journey through the Sermon on the Mount. We come today to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14. If you were to enter this beautiful building from the front portico, uh, they're emblazoned on the front portico. They're chiseled in the stone. You would read these words, send out thy light and thy truth. Because very frankly, ladies and gentlemen, that's what this church is all about. Sending out the light, the truth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that helps us to understand this verse of scripture where Jesus said to his disciples, ye are the light of the world, A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. And it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. …