Apostolics of Southwest Missouri
Does the world around you know that you belong to God? Can they tell — by the quality of your character, by the weight of your influence, by the fragrance of your life — that you are different? We live in a generation desperately searching for something real. The headlines are dark, the culture is confused, families are fractured, hearts are empty. And into the midst of that darkness, Jesus Christ steps forward and says to His people: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”
These are not suggestions. They are declarations. Jesus does not say, “Try to be salt.” He does not say, “Consider becoming light.” He says, “You ARE the salt. You ARE the light.” That means before we ever speak a word, before we ever join a ministry team, before we ever knock on a door or open our Bible on a lunch break, we carry within us a divine quality that the world around us desperately needs.
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 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. Matthew 5:13–16, KJV
Jesus delivered these words as part of the Sermon on the Mount, immediately after the Beatitudes — blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the pure in heart. Then, without pause, He turns to those humble, hungry, holy people and says: because of what you ARE, here is what you DO. This morning we look at three great truths: a God-given influence, a God-given visibility, and a God-given purpose.
Point One
You Have a God-Given Influence
Salt Does Not Just Season — It Transforms
As a born-again, Spirit-filled, name-of-Jesus-baptized child of God, you carry a God-given influence that is not natural — it is supernatural. In the ancient world, salt was worth its weight in gold; Roman soldiers were sometimes paid their wages in salt, which is where we get the English word “salary.” Salt seasoned food, but more importantly, it preserved. In a world without refrigerators, salt was the only thing standing between a piece of meat and corruption — it pushed back decay, resisted rot, preserved what was good.
That is what the church does in a decaying culture. We push back moral corruption. We resist the rot of relativism. We stand between a society sliding into darkness and the grace of God that still reaches out to save. Notice Jesus does not say, “Ye should try to be salt someday.” He says, “Ye ARE the salt.” This is present tense — identity, not aspiration. The moment the Holy Ghost fell upon you, something changed in the very nature of who you are. You became a carrier of divine preservation.
But Jesus also drops the weight of conviction into the passage: “if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?” In the first century, salt from the Dead Sea was often mixed with impurities, and when it got wet and the sodium chloride dissolved out, what was left was tasteless residue — it looked like salt but had no power. There is a kind of Christian who looks like a Christian but has no savor — who comes to church, knows the songs, can recite the scriptures, but has let the world leach out the Holy Ghost influence until there is no contrast left between them and the culture around them. Salt that has lost its savor is, as Jesus says, good for nothing — because the entire value of a Christian witness is in its distinctiveness.
Apostolic Holiness Is the Savor of the Earth
We believe — not as a preference, but as a conviction rooted in Scripture — that God has called His church to a life of visible, practical holiness. We are not holy because holiness earns us salvation; we are holy because the One who saved us is holy. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16). Every time you choose holiness over compromise, every time you refuse to participate in the corruption around you, you are being salt — and your savor is making a difference, even when you cannot measure it. A pinch of salt in the right place changes the entire meal. Do not lose your savor. Stay salty.
Point Two
You Have a God-Given Visibility
Light That Cannot Be Hidden
God has not placed you in this world to be invisible. He has placed you here to be seen. If salt speaks of what you do beneath the surface, light speaks of what shines above it — your testimony, your conduct, your character. A city on a hill cannot be hidden; in the ancient Near East, cities were often built on hilltops for military advantage, and a lit city at night is visible for miles. It announces its own presence simply by shining. That is what the church — what you — are supposed to be. Not hidden, not tucked away, not ashamed. Visible. Radiating.
Bushels That Hide the Light
Jesus asks, “who would light a lamp and then cover it with a basket?” The smoke would suffocate the flame; the light would be worthless. And yet many believers do exactly that in daily life — on fire in the church but invisible in the community. Some of the bushels look like this:
- Fear of Rejection — staying silent about a hurting coworker's need for God for fear of seeming strange.
- Carnal Compromise — laughing at the inappropriate joke just to fit in with the group.
- Social Media Silence — posting vacations and food, but never a word of testimony.
- Sunday-Only Living — faith visible at church, undetectable Monday through Saturday.
The world does not need another Christian who is ashamed of the Gospel — the power of God unto salvation that we so often hide under bushels.
Pentecost — A Light That Could Not Be Hidden
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:2–4, KJV
One hundred twenty believers in the Upper Room could not be hidden anymore. The sound filled the whole house, the fire was visible, the tongues were audible, and the entire city of Jerusalem came running to see what had happened — three thousand souls were saved in a single day. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is not just a private spiritual experience for personal blessing. It is God's empowerment for public witness, and He does not stay quiet once He fills you.
The Church as a City on a Hill
The church — this body of believers — is itself a city on a hill. The way we love one another, care for the hurting, and welcome the stranger is a light that shines into the surrounding darkness. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34–35). The world will not be won to Christ by argument alone. It will be won by authentic, sacrificial, Spirit-breathed love shining from a city on a hill.
Point Three
You Have a God-Given Purpose
Good Deeds That Glorify the Father
This verse is the key that unlocks everything: salt preserves, light shines, but the ultimate purpose of all of it is so that people will see the good works of God's people and give glory, not to us, but to our Father in heaven. Making a difference is never about building our own reputation. It means living so that when people observe your life, they are pointed toward God — your life becomes a signpost, your story a sermon, your testimony a doorway through which someone else walks into the Kingdom.
Paul is careful to remind us that we are not saved by good works — “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9) — but the very next verse says “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). They are not the root of our salvation — they are the fruit of it: fervent prayer, personal evangelism, practical compassion, discipling another believer, and a consistent, visible life of holiness are all good works that make a difference.
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isaiah 60:1–3, KJV
Isaiah saw it centuries before Pentecost — in the midst of gross darkness, the glory of God would rise upon His people, and the nations would come to that light. We are not just maintaining a religious institution or a Sunday morning tradition. We are carrying the glory of God into a dark world.
For Such a Time as This
You were not placed in your neighborhood by accident, assigned to your workplace by coincidence, or born into your family by random chance. Perhaps you are the only Christian in your workplace, the only Apostolic in your neighborhood, the only Spirit-filled believer in your extended family. That is not a burden — that is a calling. “...and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). The question is not whether you have the ability — you have the Holy Ghost, and that settles the question of ability. The question is whether you will have the willingness.