Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany – Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12); Psalm 112:1-9, (10); 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16); Matthew 5:13-20

Through faith in Christ our Saviour, we receive peace and joy.

‘To the far and to the near’, God speaks His Word of ‘peace’ (Isaiah 57:19). Christ is God’s Word of ‘peace’ (Ephesians 2:13-14). Christ is for ‘the Jews’. Christ is for ‘the Gentiles’.

There is one way of salvation. Jesus Christ is our Saviour. We must put our ‘faith’ in Him. Through Him, we have ‘peace with God’ (Romans 3:29-30; 5:1).

God’s Word invites us to ‘call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved’ (Isaiah 58:9; Acts 2:21). In Christ, there is true ‘joy’- ‘I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation...’ (Isaiah 58:14; 61:10).

We rejoice in Jesus Christ. He is ‘the High and Exalted One’. He has come from His ‘high and holy place’. He has become ‘Emmanuel’, ‘God with us’. He is our peace and joy, our Saviour and our God’ (Isaiah 57:15; Matthew 1:21, 23; John 20:28).

Through faith in Christ our Saviour, we offer to God our triumphant praise.

‘Praise the Lord... To Him belongs eternal praise... Blessed is the man who fears the Lord... His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes...’ (Psalms 111:1, 10; 112:1, 8).

Those who ‘fear the Lord’ have no need to live in fear of man. Those who know that ‘eternal praise belongs to the Lord’ can face their enemies with confidence. Our confidence is not in ourselves. Our confidence is in the Lord.

We know how good the Lord has been to us - ‘He provided redemption for His people’. We have heard and believed the Good News of Christ. We need not ‘fear’ any ‘bad news’ which the devil sends our way. We ‘trust in the Lord’, confident that the ‘light ‘will triumph over the ‘darkness’. The Good News of Christ will triumph over the devil’s bad news (Psalms 111:9; 112:4, 7).

Through faith in Christ our Saviour, we serve God and we pray for His blessing.

We come to know God when ‘the Spirit’leads us to ‘Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:10-13; 3:11; John 16:14).

We must not attach too much importance to the preachers - ‘What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants...’. When we make too much of the servant, we draw attention away from the Saviour. There is a very important lesson here - ‘Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth’ (1 Corinthians 3:5-7).

We are not members of a ‘mutual appreciation society’- ‘You pat my back, and I’ll pat yours’! We must learn to point to Jesus, saying, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30).

Let ‘Jesus take the highest honour’. Let His Name be ‘the Name high over all’. ‘’Tis all my business... to cry Behold the Lamb!’(Mission Praise, 378,385) - Let’s say it and mean it!

Through faith in Christ our Saviour, we walk in the way of holiness and happiness.

Holiness is to be seen. Happiness is to be shared. We are not to be secret disciples.

It will not be easy to live the life of Christ’s disciples.

In a world of much corruption, we are to be ‘the salt of the earth’ (Matthew 5:13). In a world of much darkness we are to be ‘the light of the world’ (Matthew 5:14).

If we are to bring the refreshing light of Christ into our world, we ourselves must receive spiritual refreshment as we let the light of God’s Word shine on our lives.

Reading God’s Word can never be a purely personal thing. Being ‘the salt of the earth’and ‘the light of the world’- this is what Jesus says we are- , we read Scripture with a view to learning how we are to live in the world. Don’t lose your saltiness. Be salty enough to create a thirst for God in other people. Don’t let your light grow dim. Let it shine brightly. Remember - all the glory belongs to God (Matthew 5:16; Psalm 115:1).

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus refers to ‘the scribes and Pharisees’. He warns us against the shallow superficiality of these men who were more concerned with outward appearances than inner reality.

This conflict with the Jewish religious leaders lies close to the surface in the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus says, ‘This is their way. This is My way’, He is not calling in question the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures: ‘Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them’ (Matthew 5:17). He is in conflict with ‘the hypocrites’ (Matthew 6:2 5,16). He is warning us against the ‘false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves’ (Matthew 7:15).

What a difference there was between Jesus’ teaching and those who ‘preach, but do not practise’ (Matthew 23:3) - He spoke with ‘authority’, they did not (Matthew 7:29).

May we be like Jesus!