The Goal of Our Public Interaction

As those committed to the mission of Christ, the goal of all of our public interaction is to be salt and light to others, that they might hear or read our words and come to glorify our Father in heaven.

Well, the winner of my oddest social media moment in this past year, without a doubt, goes to the young lady who asked me to be in her Be Real. I know that 90% of you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, and frankly, you’re better off for it. But I’ll tell you what it is that I understand about it, Be Real is a newer social media app that’s supposed to solve the problem. The problem of people being too selective about what they post. People generally will carefully discern what they curate and put online, making their lives look pleasant. And for some reason this is a problem for some people because they’re only putting up their success stories and their happy photos and their vacation pics. And so the problem is people don’t know who you really are. So the Be Real app works by making you take a photo of yourself at a time that the app determines. So this thing buzzes in your pocket and you have only a few seconds to take a selfie of yourself (that was redundant) to take a selfie no matter what you’re doing in that moment. And if you’ve already started to think that you hear some problems in that, I think it’s because this idea was crafted out of pure problems. But it gets worse. It gets worse. Because of the dual direction of your phone’s camera, it doesn’t just snap a photo of you, it also snaps a photo in the other direction that you happen to be facing. And then it puts both of those pictures side by side online for the world to see. Now, you may think that this sounds like fun. I think it sounds like the end of Western civilization, but, you know, whatever. To each his own. I was asked to be in this young lady’s Be Real photo in the lobby of a theater where I was performing in a show downtown. I was in character at the time. And in this particular show, I was playing an actor who was playing another character in a play within the play. I know that’s confusing, but what you need to know is that I could not have been faker in this Be Real. But here’s the thing. Neither could she. She could not have been. This young lady, very quickly when notified by her phone, very quickly fixed her hair, made sure the lighting was right, and then struck a pose for our picture together. It wasn’t a candid, real moment. She just got ready for it really quick. Here’s what’s real. Here’s what’s real. Social media requires everyone to curate an exhibit of themselves. It requires it. It’s absolutely necessary. Even if you’re being real, it’s the version of real that you want everyone to see. The most real you’ll ever be online is a carefully selected version of yourself. You are selecting those things that you feel should be put out into the gallery about you. And the thing that determines what goes into your personal exhibit is your goal for being online in the first place. So is it your goal to show everyone how well you’re doing then? Well, if so, then you’re probably going to mention your successes. Is your goal to advocate for something? Well, if it is, then you’ll probably spend most of your time in arguing positions and posting articles. Is your goal to show your happiness with other people? Then you’ll probably post a lot of smiling selfies, and you and your friends doing fun things. And by the way, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those things that I just mentioned. I use it mostly to make sports related comments and dumb jokes. That’s pretty much the extent of my use of it. I think that’s about all it’s good for, but that’s just my opinion. Others of you are very engaged. You just love being on there, you’re on Twitter and Instagram and six other one-word apps I’m too old to understand. I understand that. It’s okay to do that.

But the question that we all have to ask, okay, we all have to be asking this question, as those committed to the mission of Christ. What is the goal of our public interaction? What’s the goal of it? I’m referring to the ultimate goal here. You’re going to have your own personal philosophy that dictates what you choose to display online in this exhibit of who you are. But for Christians, Christ is king, right? For those of us who follow, Jesus, Christ is the one calling the shots. Christ is our king. How does our commitment to Christ factor into our personal goals? How does it influence or control those decisions? Let me put it in a different way. Last week we talked about reputations. We asked whether reputations matter, and clearly our reputations as followers of Jesus matter in the world and certainly online. This week we’re going to look at content. Since our reputation matters because of the reputation of Christ and the reputation of Christ matters, how does Christ’s mission then affect the selection of the content that we put online? We’re going to look at a piece of Jesus’ most famous teaching. We’re going to look at a piece of the Sermon on the Mount. So if you want, if you have your Bibles, you can go to Matthew chapter 5. That’s where we’ll be this morning. Our task is very simple. I’m going to read through Matthew 5:13-16, and then we’re going to read through this with a specific focus of our online interaction. So as I read through this, I want you to look at this passage through the filter in your mind of specifically what does online engagement look like because of what Jesus is teaching here? What is Jesus telling us to do when we sit down behind our keyboards? Okay, begin in Matthew 5:13.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if 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 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, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Let’s start with the goal that Jesus had in mind here. It’s right at the end of the passage. Everything he just has said has this one aim. That God the Father would be glorified. Do you see that? If you remember our passage last week in Colossians 3:17 that we looked at, the goal was the same there. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Same goal. The aim of Jesus’ instruction is the same as Paul’s. When we conduct our lives as we should, it will increase thankfulness to God. It will increase praise to God, which is how we glorify God. But there’s an interesting and a difference here. There’s an interesting and important difference between these two passages. Paul is talking about how we glorify God. He’s talking about us, how we would do this. And when we glorify God, Jesus is focusing on how others will glorify God, in response to what we do. Do you see that? It’s subtle but very important difference. Jesus isn’t looking at the disciples specifically. Jesus is looking out to the community. He’s defining our good works as those things that would cause other people to respond in glorifying God. You see that there at verse 16, ‘so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’. So that they may see it, and that they may glorify. So whatever these good works are, the aim of them, Jesus says, is that people would see them, and in seeing them that they would respond with glory, that they would take it in through their eyes, and that in their heart there would be a glorifying of God. The glory that they give isn’t going to go to us. The community will see a Christian do a work, whether it’s an action or it’s words, like we’ve been focusing on, and then that word or that work would move them to glorify God, the Father. So if you bring Jesus and Paul together, their teachings on these things, what makes a good work good is that it is done in the name of Jesus Christ, and that there is at least a potential to cause others to glorify God when they see them at work in you.

Did you know that you are a worship leader? You’re a worship leader. I know Jamie is a worship leader. That’s how we use the phrase. That’s how we use that term. Did you know that you are also a worship leader? Our worship leaders here at Calvary. What do they do? They come up, they stand on a stage, they present music and they conduct the congregation in song. You stand on the stage of your online platform, you present words and then you conduct your online community in some kind of worship. Now I know it’s not the same. I know that the analogy here is not quite the same. But when Jesus tells us that others will see what we present them and that it has the potential to turn their hearts to glorify God, what else can we say but that each of us helps to conduct the worship of others? We are all influencing the worship of other people. And that means everything that we present to others can be seen and will either move them closer to worshiping the Lord, or they will drive them away from worshiping the Lord because we will either show them the Lord or we will show them an idol.

Okay, so what does Jesus then say to us about our role as worship conductors? Worship leaders? Well, he uses two metaphors and both come with warnings. The first thing he says is that we as his people are the salt of the earth. Now, I know that that phrase, the salt of the earth, has come to mean in our culture, something along the lines of just being a good, honest, trustworthy person. But that’s not what Jesus means by this. Salt, in that day, had a lot of benefits in the ancient world, including things like flavoring, like we do today. That’s sort of what we use it for. But it also had the properties of preserving. Salt would be used because they didn’t have refrigeration. So if you had some meat and you wanted to keep it from rotting, you would coat it in salt. To hold back evil in the world and to keep the world from falling apart, God sprinkles his people, like salt, into the world, formed in churches all over the world. And we’re also told by Paul in Colossians 4 that our words are to be seasoned with salt. We’re going to look more at that passage next week. That’s going to be the focus of our passage Colossians 4. We’ll talk about it more then. But the idea there is that we have a true gospel of salvation, right? We have we have words that can save because we have this message of the gospel. And so we need to share it in a way that can be savored and craved then by those who need it.

I find it to be very helpful to combine the ideas of preserving and flavoring together when I think about online interaction. So if I choose to engage in cultural discussions and make comments to my Christian friends, I know that my presence in that discussion is both to present gospel truths in a way that are flavorfully interesting, but also to preserve the culture from rotting as fast as it’s going to rot, right? So my presence there will be to try to draw people to an understanding of the truth of the gospel. And by the way, the preserving and the saltiness of what you say, both of those tasks are important. As my friends’ values and passions slide further into moral decay, my job. if I interact online, if I choose to do that, is to do what I can to help them see the error of that way of thinking. I can’t encourage it. I can’t add to it. Right? I can’t be part of it, but I have to preserve in a way, if I’m going to do this preservation type work, I’ve got to preserve in a way that will cause them to get a taste of the gospel, and to want more of it. Now, that doesn’t mean they’re going to want more of it. Okay? They may not. They may reject the gospel because it’s offensive to them. But I shouldn’t be offensive to them. Right? There’s a difference. The gospel may be an offense, but I may not be an offense. A condescending or judgmental attitude shouldn’t be the offense. The gospel should come well-seasoned, well intentioned from a very humble person who understands that salvation is entirely by grace. Were it not for God’s grace in my life, I would be right there with my friends in their worldly values. And were it not for God’s work in our hearts, we would be decaying in our sins. Just like everything we see around us. Here’s Jesus warning. If you lose this saltiness, if you lose this preserving and flavorful ability to share, you will not be affected for the kingdom of God. Now, salt itself can’t lose its salty properties, but it can become impure if it gets mixed with dirt and debris, which is what I think Jesus has in mind here. And then all you can really do with it once it becomes that impure is throw it out. Because in that state it can’t do any of the things that it’s useful to do. We’re going to come back to this warning here in just a few minutes.

But first, I want to look at the other metaphor. The second metaphor here is that we as Jesus followers, are the light of the world. The light of Jesus’ Church shines out from his people in a dark world. So Jesus says that we can think of a city that’s been built on top of a hill, or we can think of a lamp that’s been lit to be in a dark house. In the case of a city, it can’t be hidden. So if you build a city on top of a hill, it’s going to be seen by all of the region around it. I like to think of when you get into an airplane and you take off at night and you look down and there’s this huge lit-up city, all this darkness, but this huge lit-up city, you couldn’t possibly hide a city. You can’t hide a city. And in the case of the lamp, you could hide it, but it would be ridiculous to hide it, because the point of the lamp is to illuminate. Why would you light it for any other reason than to let the light shine in the dark house? Salvation in Christ is the opening of our eyes to see the light of the truth of Christ. See, those who don’t know Jesus, if you don’t know Jesus, you’re trapped in the darkness of your sin. That’s the world we have around us. They don’t know the truth. They don’t see the sin. They don’t know that they’re shackled to it. They can’t see the truth that will set them free. God’s grace to us is that he opens our blind eyes so that we can see the truth of Christ and the forgiveness and the new life that we have in Jesus Christ. And this causes us then to repent of our sins because we can see them for what they are now. We can see how much we’ve rebelled against God and how much we need God’s forgiveness through us, through to us in Christ. We can finally see this.

In the fourth verse of Charles Wesley’s classic song, And Can It Be?, he describes his own moment of salvation in this way. Listen to this: ‘Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night, darkness. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light. Light burst into this darkness.’ That’s how he describes his salvation. Light came through. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed thee. The Apostle John in his gospel describes Jesus as the true light that gives light to everyone. So Jesus is the true light. And then he enlightens, and he gives this light to everyone. Jesus says that we are now carriers of this light because we have Him. The same gospel that opened our blind eyes now sets us free, and now operates in us and through us to enlighten other people as we are sent to them, to share the gospel and the opportunities that God gives us.

Again, this is a really helpful way when you’re online and you’re thinking about what you should say, what you should share there. It’s helpful to think of this metaphor, especially if you think in terms of the city and the lamp. Just think I’m a city and I’m a lamp. You can’t be hidden. And it would be ridiculous if you were hidden. Okay. You’re a follower of Jesus. That identity could never be entirely a secret thing, at least not in our free society. I suppose you could make the argument that it looks different to be a Christian in a place where that identity was it to shine everywhere would cost you your life. But even in that situation, even in their role of light is not without application. It just looks differently. But in our society, a hidden secret of Christian is probably not a Christian. It’s probably not somebody who follows Jesus. And beyond that, Christ didn’t light this lamp of salvation in you for no reason. He didn’t light it, so you throw a basket over the top. Your salvation is meant to be put on display and to light the darkness. So when you participate online in posts and in discussions or in the dreaded comments section of any website, you’re there to be liked. Whatever you choose to put out there in this world should have the effect of shedding light on the values of the Kingdom of God in a world with the opposite values.

Now, let’s talk about the warnings here and how they apply. What does it mean to be unsalty? Or to hide your light online. Think about your online exhibit here again. Okay. Think about that online museum of you that you’ve curated out there. You can mix your online presence with so much unsavory material that you’re neither attractive as a gospel witness or a preservative of a dying world. You can get a lot of dirt and debris in there. You can become so overwhelmingly known for other things, other values, other stuff you think is important through your comments and posts, that you’ve put the light of the gospel under a basket. You’re known more as a basket person than a light person. For example, if you see the posts of a non-Christian friend as an opportunity to cast moral judgment. Right. See something you don’t like? Ah, this is an invitation. I’m going to post something judgmental. What you’ll do is you will present an incomplete gospel. God is certainly the judge of our sins, but judgment without grace is an incomplete gospel. And if you display that enough, people will think that it’s the entirety of your Christian faith. That you are judgmental because God is judgmental, and half a gospel is no gospel at all. But if your personal online exhibit is mostly judgment, if that’s what you’ve presented over and over and over and over again, you’ve lost your saltiness. Remember, our job is to lead our friends to worship. The glory of God is in the display of His grace to us through Christ, in the presence of His judgment. Yes, but the grace shines in the presence of God’s judgment. Take away the grace, there is no ability to worship.

Or how about this one? There is a whole cottage industry right now around websites and personalities making their points by making fun of people. Have you noticed this? There’s a whole…they’ve figured it out. They’ve tapped in. They just make if you can say something satirical, if you can make fun of some people, you can grab all kinds of clicks, all kinds of likes, sarcastic humor, blasting people with quick wit. Even name calling has made a comeback. I thought we left that behind in elementary school, but here we are. Name calling. If your content is biting, if it is mean in your posts, can it also be loving and gracious when you desire to share the gospel? When you decide to throw that hat on, can you do, can you do both? Can you live in both worlds? Can you have a foot in both worlds? As James put it, does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water? Salt, by the way, in that metaphor, is bad. Okay, I got to flip it around. Can it? Can you have both? You can’t have both. It’s not possible. If you decide that you’d like to be the biting, sarcastic guy who can own his enemies, don’t be surprised when you try to present Grace, and no one hears you and no one cares. Because you’ve taught people over and over again that whatever God you’re worshipping isn’t worth their worship. You’re a different kind of worship leader. We can’t be the preservative of our dying culture if we engage with people in the same way as the dying culture, using the same content and the same attitude. We can’t do it. You can’t have both. Or how about this one? This will be very popular. This one is more subtle. This one takes a little bit more discernment on our parts. If the value of the Kingdom of God is that our treasure is Christ and eternity with him, and all of the things in our life, everything else in our life is in this world is secondary, temporary and fleeting. Yes, they are gifts to be used to worship the Lord, but they’re temporary. Okay. That’s how we see life, right? If that’s true, what does that say about the way we present Blessings online? What does that say about when God gives us something good? What does that say about how we talk about that online? Are you sharing those vacation pics because you want to praise the Lord for that gift, that time away with your family and that beautiful place? Or because you’d like people to know how well you’re doing financially. Now, I’m not saying don’t do it. There’s value in sharing. There’s value in helping people see that your joy in the Lord for this thing that you have, Church, it’s worth asking the question. It’s worth the question. There can be a lot of good that comes from giving glory to God for the things in your life. But our online presence could also be, it could also be a tiny museum of the things that we hope other people will covet. Or how about the opposite of that? Let’s flip that around. How about the opposite of that? How about struggles and complaints? Okay when things aren’t going so well. I’m actually shocked at the amount of times that I have seen people make comments about how terrible their workplace is, and how awful their boss is online. I am shocked that people – you know, they can see that too, right? And you’re aware of that, right? I couldn’t get away with that. When we choose to include complaints and struggles in our personal online exhibits, without sharing the hope of the Lord alongside of it, it is as if we have presented half a gospel again. You see that? Your struggle would be gospel light or could be at least potentially gospel light if you shared it in a way that pointed to where your real hope is found. If that’s what you were doing, then it could be helpful to someone. God would have us be real in those moments; He would. But if we were just strugglers publicly declaring our pain, looking for others to say comforting words to us, we’re actually hiding the gospel under a basket there. Church, the ways we could apply this, we could spend all morning just applying this in different ways. The teachings of Christ, it’s just myriad the way you could apply them. There’s no end to these. The way that the rolls of salt and light that we have could impact the way we engage online. Everywhere. Christ has given us a stage in the world. We are called to lead people to worship him. But if the salt is no longer salty and the light is under a basket, it’s rendered ineffective. It can’t do its job. And if it can’t do its job, then others can’t see it doing its job. And if others can’t see it doing the good works of God’s people, then they won’t have an opportunity to glorify God in response to those things. And thus we’re no longer able to be involved in the mission of Jesus because our light is hidden and our salt is ineffectual.

Your social media presence, whether you like it or not, is the stuff that’s supposed to be seen by others that will lead them to worship. Think of the entire online world. Every person who could possibly see what you put out there, picture them waiting to see what you show them so they know how to think about God. You’re out there in the world as a Christian. What? What are you going to show me about the character of God? They’re looking to you for a little bit of light to break through into their world. They’re hoping for a little bit of salt to help preserve them from a life that’s rotting away because of sin. You have a media presence. You have a small window of opportunity into their lives. The goal is to show them through that window your Heavenly Father. What have you shown them? What have you shown them? If you go on a rant because you’re just so right and everybody needs to just know how right you are and glorify you because of your rightness. What have you shown them? If you just have to post that pic of you and your girlfriends out there on the beach in your new bikinis because you were all just so super cute that day. What have you shown them? What have you shown them? If it’s June and someone posts in support of Pride Month. And you go out and find an article that shows the sinfulness of homosexuality and you post it underneath the original post. What have you shown them? In all these cases, in all these cases and in so many more, we can show people a false god. Instead of showing them the true lord and savior that they were meant to see in us. And you haven’t just shown your intended audience, but you’ve shown thousands of people in your unintended audience, the guy you haven’t seen since high school, the girl from your old job, your new boss. All saw the thing that you said to your cousin without the context of the relationship that you have with your cousin. Because it’s all one big room where you’re supposed to shine. Jesus. But instead you decided to shine something else. And what then are we to make of the effectiveness of your salt and light? Friends, we have to think about the connection between our online interactions and the identity of our Father in heaven, because there absolutely is a connection there. If we’re going to be serious about Jesus’ claim on our lives, that we are his salt and his light, then it has to impact the words that we use when everybody can see those words. We want people to see the goodness of the gospel and the graciousness of our Father in heaven when they see how we interact with them, when we interact with others, when we interact with the community and the world, we want them to see and glorify our Father in heaven. Would you pray with me?