Sermon on the Mount: The Nation On A Hill

Pastor Christopher Coats

July 5, 2026

Happy 4th of July! This year marks 250 years since a room full of men in Philadelphia staked their lives on an idea. But the earliest American answer to "what are we supposed to be" wasn't found in a founding document at all. It was found in a sermon preached on a ship crossing the Atlantic in 1630 by a lawyer named John Winthrop, who drew his words directly from Jesus. "We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." Those words have outlived every president who's ever quoted them, because they never actually belonged to America in the first place. They belong to Matthew 5, to the wisdom of Jesus Himself.

 

This Sunday, coming off a weekend our whole country pauses to remember where it came from, we're going back to the source. Jesus tells His disciples they're salt and light. Not "try to become it." Not "earn it." You are. And two hundred and fifty years of American history has been drawing from a well of truth that was never primarily about a nation. It was about a people.

 

If the eyes of the world have been on this country for four centuries, are we actually the salt and light Jesus said we'd be, or have we just been living off a good founding vibe? This is a great week to bring someone, they'll get to hear where the "city on a hill" idea actually came from, and what it means for their life starting Monday morning.

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