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The Independence Podcast helps everyday people discover that true freedom isn’t found in self-reliance but in total dependence on Jesus Christ. Each episode blends honest conversation, biblical truth, and practical application to help listeners move beyond emotional devotion toward consistent, daily surrender. Whether you’re new in your faith or longing to grow deeper, you’ll find encouragement to trust God fully, live from His grace, and follow Christ with courage in a world that celebrates independence but neglects dependence on the One who truly sets us free.
Bryan Dunham (00:01)
Welcome my friends to episode 21 of the Independence Podcast where we believe that true freedom in our lives comes in dependence on God and we discuss how to live in daily dependence. I am your host, Brian Dunham, and this week we continue in the series titled Bound for Freedom in which we are walking through Matthew chapters five, six and seven, AKA the Sermon on the Mount. As Christians, this is a critical section of scripture.
for us to know, and I would even encourage you to memorize because when we sign up to be a Christian, we are signing up to take up the daily practice of learning how to live as Jesus taught. And there is not a larger, more continuous example of what Jesus taught than what we have right here in this text. Last week,
We discussed Matthew chapter 5 verse 13, which is, are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how will it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under feet. And Jesus says, we are the salt of the earth. If you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, and He is talking to you here as well as He was to His disciples back in the day. And what Jesus meant here is,
that we can have all the appearance, all the external appearance of being a follower of Jesus, but when someone actually experiences us, they don't experience any different from anything that they would experience with anyone else in the world that doesn't name the name of Jesus. So they take what you and I would say about Jesus and about Christianity and throw it out. They just discount it. If there's no substance behind the words we have to say,
our witness for Jesus is not credible, it is not believed, and our witness for Jesus is deemed useless by those who hear it and just thrown out and trampled under their feet. And so that is what salt losing its saltiness is about. So this week we're covering Matthew chapter five, verse 14, 15, and 16. For those of you that have been listening,
For a while I may just have blown a circuit in your brain We've been going basically one verse a week and now we're gonna do three That's shifting gears without using the clutch but It won't take three times as long at least I don't think that's the interesting thing about this medium when I'm preaching I'm on a clock Here, I just talk into this microphone until I'm done. So we'll see where it wraps up. So let's jump in I'm just gonna read
Matthew chapter 5 verses 14, 15, and 16 and we'll get rolling. You are the light of the world. Again, this is Jesus talking to the disciples. 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.
Okay, so first step that we always take here on this podcast is just look at the surface reading and see how you and I might understand that today or what we've always been taught about these verses in the past. And when I read this verse, I am 52. If you're roughly between probably 10 years above me, 10 years below me, you'll probably remember the old Sunday school song. My mother used to sing it with us. It's one of my first memories.
of my mom. You know, sometimes when you're young, have memories that are like snapshots, but there's no action or kind of movie to it. But some of the first memories I can recall that are of that movie style, if you want to think about it that way, where I see a scene playing out in front of me, it is of my mother holding up my little pinky finger and singing along with me, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine.
I'm gonna let it shine, if you're familiar with that tune. That's what I think about when I first read these verses. And Jesus says here that we are the light of the world. Jesus never told Christians to try harder to be the light of the world. Listen carefully to what Jesus says. He doesn't say, go become the light of the world. He says, you are the light of the world.
This is an identity statement. Christians don't shine because they are impressive. They shine because the life of Christ is in them. So the great goal of the Christian life isn't trying harder to look spiritual. It's simply living openly the life God has already placed in you. And that distinction is powerful. Jesus says not to work harder to create a bigger flame as the light of the world.
In other words, this is not something Christians achieve. It's something they reveal. Inner transformation precedes outward influence. And then Jesus says here, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. In the ancient world, cities were built on hills for visibility and protection. And you can still see it around here today. My daughter and I were driving out to Bandera this weekend to do a hike.
at the Hill Country State Natural Area, which is a beautiful state park here. And on the way out, there weren't cities, but they definitely were homes built on all of the tops of the hills. We're out here in the Hill Country in the further kind of west and northwest you go, it gets hillier and hillier. houses built up on top of those hills. And so back in Jesus's day, that's where they built cities. Visibility, protection came right along with that.
And what Jesus is saying here is that as a disciple, like in the same way that a city that sitting on top of a hill can't actually hide, you as a Christian are meant to be a public witness, not a private believer. The kingdom of God was never meant to be hidden in a religious subculture. So, okay, so what about light? What does light do? Just not trying to be too basic here, but this is how I encourage you to read scripture as you think about a verse like this.
Light chases away darkness. Light always overcomes darkness. If you turn on a lamp, like suddenly the area around it is no longer dark. It doesn't mean there's not some shadows where the light's not reaching. And that has certainly application metaphor for our lives and for our world. But when you flip the light on, darkness runs away. It's a way to think about it metaphorically. And so Jesus here also says a phrase, nor do people light a lamp and put it under.
a bowl in some translations or under a basket in some others, but they put it on its stand and it gives light to everything in the house. Well, of course, if you and I just read this idea of putting a lamp under a bowl or a lamp under a basket, obviously that would be dumb. That would make the lamp purposeless. In the same way Jesus is saying, let your light shine before others. Like don't put your lamp or your light underneath a bowl or a basket. Don't try to hide it.
And the reason you don't do that is let it shine. And then Jesus says, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. So here on the surface, as we read this, my light is seen by others and that light is illuminating something. Your good works, not your good words. Or as a wise sage once said,
Preach the gospel always and sometimes use words.
So what is the result of the people seeing your good works? According to this verse, that they would then turn and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. So it's saying here that something about the quality of these good works or this work that is being done, something about that causes them to give glory to God. And notice it's not give glory to you or to the one who is doing the work.
Sometimes when I do something for someone, even when it's out of love or the kindness of my heart, I really crave hearing, wow, thank you so much. I appreciate you doing that for me. Or when I am executing in a ministry area, I confess, I love to hear, you did a great job, man. That was really awesome. But sometimes I think I and we are a little too interested in receiving the praise.
for any of the works that we may do. And yes, sometimes we get upset when we don't hear a word of thanks or appreciation from especially those closest to us, our spouse, our kids, our family, our community. So that's probably a whole lot to preach on just right in that verse. Like, where are we really seeking glory? Is it for ourselves or for the Lord?
But that's the surface reading of this scripture. So what about Greek? Anything stand out here in the Greek reading of these verses that we need to pay attention to? With these three verses, great news is, mostly what we're reading here in English gets right at exactly what the Greek is trying to communicate. Just want to point out a couple of nuances here in the Greek when it says you, you are the light of the world. This is in plural in Greek. It's not you individually, but you all together.
Jesus is not describing a lone spiritual influencer here. He's describing a community whose shared life shines in the world around them. know, one light can light a room, a thousand lights will light a city. And in verse 16 here in the Greek, Jesus doesn't just say good works. He says something much deeper.
So where it says, let your light shine before others that they may see your good works. But the Greek word for good here is kalos. And it means beautiful. In context, this means attractively good. A good that inspires, not just morally correct, not just technically good, but beautiful. Lives that are so compelling, so loving, so generous.
that when people see them, they don't just say, wow, you are impressive. They say, God must be real. These are deeds that are done from a heart that has been set free and deeply desires to see healing and wholeness arrive on the front doorstep of other people's lives that are in and around them. So these good works Jesus is talking about, they're done from an inner motivation.
of love for neighbor and love for God that is so, I'm gonna use the word winsome, that's a word you don't hear much anymore, but so winsome, so beautiful, so irresistibly attractive for their goodness in and of themselves, the only response someone can give is praise to God.
The gospel becomes believable to the world around us when people see it lived, before they hear it preached. And that's what this verse is getting at when it talks about, see your good works and they'll glorify your father in heaven. So those are just a couple of Greek nuances. So we talked about the surface reading, we talked about the Greek now.
Jesus is a Hebrew here in this original, when he originally gave this message, he is talking to Hebrews. So how would they have understood this message? Is there any Old Testament verses that would refer to people being lights? Yes, as we've seen so many times here, Jesus is not inventing new ideas. This idea of being a light to the world originates in Israel's calling from the beginning.
Isaiah 49, six says, I will make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. This is one of the clearest statements of Israel's mission. When God chooses Israel, He chooses them to be a light to the rest of the nations in the world so God's salvation could reach them. And.
Then in Isaiah 42, six, it says, I will keep you and make you a light for the Gentiles. And so if you're talking to a Hebrew, if you're speaking about the Gentiles, that's everybody that's not a Hebrew. Everybody that's not an Israelite is a Gentile. And so here God is saying, I am gonna make you as a nation, a light for the rest of the world. Israel is meant to reveal God to the world. Isaiah 61 through three, arise.
Shine for your light has come. Nations shall come to your light. This is actually about the city of Jerusalem, that nations will come to its light, the nations will stream to Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is envisioned as this beacon of just drawing the world to God. Well, guess what? Jerusalem is quite literally a city on a hill. So when Jesus is talking about a city on a hill can't be hidden, he's making a reference to Jerusalem.
And then in Romans, a New Testament reference here, 2.19, this is Paul and he's talking to the Jews when he says this verse in 2.19, and he's referencing how they understand themselves. And he says, are confident that you yourselves are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness. That's how they viewed themselves, was a light to the world. So Jesus is describing how Israel saw its covenant role in the world. So,
they would have heard this like the disciples and anybody within earshot hearing Jesus saying, are the light of the world. They would say, yeah, we are. That is what God has told us. We're the light of the world. So are there other New Testament references by Jesus that we could reference? Of course, there's a lot of references where Jesus is using this word light. Just a couple of major ones. John 8, 12 is, Jesus says, I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 9, 5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And then Matthew 6, 22 through 23, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. That is just in the next chapter here of the Sermon on the Mount. So we are gonna be talking about that.
Quick note here, in that verse, there is a lamp and then there is the light and those two things aren't the same in the same way that in this verse, there is a lamp and then there is the light. So let's return to this verse, especially to the part here where it says, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket or under a bowl. I think you and I see how ridiculous it would be to put a lamp underneath a basket.
Like I see some of the lamps just over on the table on, I see some of the lamps in my house just over on this table. You'd have to have probably a trash can to cover that lamp. Like you would need a large, something large to cover it, but there would be absolutely no point in doing that. Only a moron, and if you listened to last week, Moron Thay, would do such a thing. Most people misunderstand what Jesus meant about hiding your light.
So when Jesus said, no one lights a lamp and puts a bowl over it, we usually think the point is just that, it's pointless. But remember, Jesus didn't have electricity. He was talking about a small oil lamp, And a flame needs three things, a spark, fuel, and oxygen. So if you put a bowl,
over a burning lamp something happens. It doesn't just stop lighting the room up. It runs out of oxygen and goes out. And I think that's exactly what Jesus is warning about. When Christians hide their faith from the world, the light just doesn't dim.
it suffocates. Attempting to cover the light suffocates the light.
There's an interesting progression here. Last week, salt. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, if you remember in Jesus' day, salt could lose its saltiness. Where they gathered salt from a place like the Dead Sea, it had a lot of impurities and other things that were located within it besides just sodium chloride. And when they would store it over time, the sodium chloride would leach out. So they would look at the substance and it would still have all the appearance of salt. Looked just like it, but...
when they would try to taste it, they would notice that the saltiness, that sodium chloride piece was actually gone. And so Jesus is making the corollary here that as salt in the earth, that it is possible to lose your saltiness. You may have all the appearance of being a Christian, but none of the effectiveness. And now that is the internal reality, right? That you can look away on the outside, but the inside is not what it should be.
That's that idea of salt. But now we're talking about light. You are the light of the world. And light from a lamp is a visible reality. This is a metaphor for visible kingdom life lived out. If you are salt, then you also are light. But the light needs oxygen. It actually needs to be visible to the world to stay burning. Otherwise,
The light, the flame will go out. There is something about the vibrancy of our life with God that requires being out and operating in the world. It requires that type of oxygen to keep going. One of the pillars of the church I serve at is outward facing life. That we don't focus only inward in the living out of our faith. It's not just Jesus and me.
The primary role of Christians is to bring health, healing and wholeness to our little corner of the world, wherever that is. We have the Loft Coffee House is a ministry of our church. In fact, our church was kind of born out of the Loft Coffee House many, many years ago. And that expanded into the Hope Center, food pantry and thrift store. Now, all of these things are nonprofits that really help to support hundreds, if not thousands of families a year that are in need.
in our little corner of the world. And if you've ever given time to an organization like that, just donated your time or been part of a short term or long term mission trip, like when we concentrate our energies on making the world around us a better place for someone else, who is one of the biggest beneficiaries of that action? You are, you are the one that's actually doing the action. I've heard some people even say they feel guilty.
because of how good it makes them feel to be in service to other people. They're questioning that if they're in it for the right reason, like, I just in it for that feeling or do I really want to serve? When you talk about a lie straight from the enemy, an accusation from our accuser, in God's economy, this is how he has set it up to work. It is the oxygen to your soul. Your spiritual life needs you.
giving of yourself, giving of your light on behalf of another. And when faith becomes private, it begins to suffocate. You are putting a bowl on your light. I don't think most Christians need more Bible information. What we need is implementation. Sometimes Christians feel spiritually stuck. So we assume the answer is just more information.
another podcast, another Bible study, another sermon. But Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount isn't primarily about information. It's about transformation lived out in the world. And sometimes the reason our spiritual lives feel dry is because we're sitting on knowledge we already have. What we actually need isn't more teaching. We need to live what we already know. Or as that great prophet Elvis Presley once said, a little less conversation, a little more action, please.
Sometimes the oxygen your spiritual life needs isn't more study. It's serving someone else. Jesus says here you are the light of the world. That Greek word is high mace. Technically it means you yourself. You yourself are, it's like a doubling down on the language. This is what you are. And the way in which you live your life in the world.
how the world sees you living and interacting with your world, that is the lamp on the stand. And those activities, the way you live your life, should cause them to give glory to God, not with what you say, but with what you do, with how you live. Lived out transformation is what others will sit up and take notice of.
And without us actually living our lives in service to others, doing whatever we can, again, just to bring healing and wholeness to the world around us, to our little area of the world, if we aren't actually taking these actions, we are, even if unintentionally, extinguishing our flame by depriving it of oxygen. Jesus says, you are the light of the world. Not someday, not when you become spiritually impressive, not when you get enough education or learn how to pray better right now.
Right now, the question is not whether the light exists. The question is whether the bowl is covering it. Maybe for some of us, the bowl is comfort. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's the idea that faith is just something private between us and God. But Jesus says a lamp is not lit to be hidden. It's lit so that the whole house can see. And when the world sees a life of radical love,
When it sees generosity, when it sees forgiveness, when it sees someone who actually lives like Jesus taught, Jesus says something remarkable happens. People don't just admire you, they glorify your Father in heaven. That's the goal. Not attention for yourself, not applause, but when people encounter our lives,
Are they also having an encounter with God? Where they begin to wonder if God might actually be real and that my friends is what it looks like to live bound for freedom. Every day ask yourself, how can I keep from depriving my flame?
of the oxygen that it needs to burn. And what can I do today to expose it to more oxygen as I live to bring healing and wholeness to the world around me? The simple fact of the matter is that the world doesn't need louder Christians. It needs brighter ones.
If you found this episode helpful, please follow, share with a friend who might need to hear it. And until next week, grace and peace, my friends.