Part 6 - Beatitudes – peacemakers
Sermon on the Mount
The Christian Character
Matthew 5:3 - 7:27
(Cf. Luke 6:20-49)
This is Part 6 in a 14-part series of studies I call “The Christian Character” as described by Jesus to a crowd of people on a Galilean hillside as he delivered what is more familiarly known as the “Sermon on the Mount.”
The 14 parts are as follows:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Beatitudes – the poor in spirit
Part 3 - Beatitudes – those who mourn
Part 4 - Beatitudes – the meek, and those who hunger and thirst
Part 5 - Beatitudes – the merciful and the pure in heart
Part 6 - Beatitudes – peacemakers
Part 7 - Beatitudes – the persecuted and insulted
Part 8 - Salt of the earth and light of the world
Part 9 - Righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees; divorce, oaths
Part 10 - Eye for eye, loving neighbor and hating enemy, being perfect
Part 11 - Three things to do, not to be seen by men and a model prayer
Part 12 - Laying up treasures, eye is the lamp of the body, serving two masters
Part 13 - Do not judge, do not give what is holy to dogs and pigs
Part 14 - Ask, seek, and knock; the narrow gate; false prophets; building on the rock
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Review
Last Sunday we discussed the 5th beatitude:
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY WILL BE SHOWN MERCY. (5:7)
Mercy is the fountain from which forgiveness flows. To be merciful is to forgive a debt or offense. So mercy is a conscious choice – often difficult.
We seem to have a built-in sense of rectitude that a sinner should pay the penalty for sinning. Mercy runs directly counter to the inborn human sense that our actions have consequences – and that principle should be an inviolable rule of life – no exceptions.
I don’t like for us to draw smug satisfaction from talking about the errors and defects of others. When we do, it is all but impossible to avoid the sin of pride. But we might be instructed by considering whether our own beliefs are colored by those of others.
Such a doctrine is the Catholic sacrament of penance. In this doctrine, penance is thought to be a key part of the process of reconciliation. Contrition (or repentance), confession, penance, and absolution.
The idea is drawn from the statement of Jesus to Peter in Caesarea Philippi:
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven.
Peter, or one of his successors, was thought to have authority to specify and bind an action on sinners – the sinner’s penance. Once specified, that action was treated as a binding duty, prerequisite for absolution from the sin.
The practice of penance evolved from the 3rd to the 7th century, but for much of that time, it involved denying the sinner the right to the sacrament of the Eucharist – what we call the Lord’s supper – along with some action that the priest directed the sinner to do. In John Bunyan’s classic allegory, “Pilgrim’s Progress,” Christian was carrying a heavy burden on his back until he came to the cross. In the imagery of the story, the burden represented sin, which Christian carried everywhere he went.
There is a burden for us to bear, and it is this:
To obtain mercy from God – and absolution from our sins – we must show mercy to others. It’s easy to understand, not easy to do.
But there is a sin God will not forgive – the sin of unforgiveness. What a horrifying thought! But that’s the way it is. I need to look back over my life and ask myself whether I have left behind me a trail littered with unforgiven people.
• A parent
• A child
• A teacher
• A bully
• My spouse
• A neighbor
• A co-worker
• Even someone who cuts me off in traffic
We continued to a consideration of the 6th beatitude:
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, FOR THEY WILL SEE GOD. (Matt 6:8)
Pure means either not diluted, or not contaminated. We discussed what it means for the pure in heart to see God in light of the impossibility of surviving seeing God in a tangible way.
Moses requested to see God’s glory.
Exo 33:19-20 And the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
Why is this? I offered my opinion.
1 Timothy 6:15-16 …he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Betelgeuse is one of the largest known stars.
In the constellation Orion, Betelgeuse is Orion’s right shoulder.
7500 to 14,000 times brighter than our sun!
It is about the size of the orbit of Jupiter around the sun, so its size would contain the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the much larger orbit of Jupiter.
The light you see left the star 640 years ago, about 1379 AD, traveling 186,000 miles/second.
The light you see tonight had been on its way to earth 113 years when Columbus came to America. Betelgeuse is only one of the stars in our sky, not even as large as Sirius, the “dog star.”
Stars are the primary source of light in the universe. God created our sun and Betelgeuse, Sirius, and every other star. We’re still talking about temporal light - not the light of God’s very presence.
The apostle John tells us:
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)
God is the true source of all light. Jesus is a bearer of that light:
John 8:12 ESV Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Jesus spoke in a spiritual sense.
John describes the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God:
Revelation 21:23 ESV And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
God dwells in unapproachable light, of which he himself is the source. A human cannot survive seeing it.
But we are left wondering:
What was meant when Jesus said, “they [the pure in heart] shall see God?”
That leaves us asking what then Jesus meant when he said, “the pure in heart shall see God?”
To see Jesus is to see the Father.
John 14:8-9 ESV Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
They had seen the Father in Jesus; but they just didn’t realize it. They had not yet seen the completed work of Jesus in the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, AND THE SENDING OF THE COMFORTER. When that happened, they were to see the completed work of Jesus – until he returns.
(Still in the review) Turn to 2 Cor 3 and read vs12-18 with me.
Christ takes the veil away, so that we may not only see the glory of the Lord but be transformed into the same image ourselves! How do we “see the glory of the Lord” and not die?
Like Moses and Isaiah, we do not see the full force and brightness of God’s glory. But in Christ the veil is lifted so we see God in a more luminous way than we would if not for Christ lifting the veil.
That, I believe, is what Jesus referred to on the mountain in Galilee - that when his mission on earth was completed, those whose hearts are pure now see God with greater clarity and illumination than Moses and Isaiah could possibly have envisioned. Jesus didn’t just tell the truth, Jesus is the truth, revealed in its dazzling brilliance.
End of review
Part 6 - Beatitudes – peacemakers
Today we begin with the 7th beatitude
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, FOR THEY WILL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD. (Matt 5:9)
If you’re a parent, and you have more than one child, you are a peacemaker.
Why is a peacemaker needed? Why is there a problem for a peacemaker to solve? James asks and answers that exact question:
James 4:1-3 NASB What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
What is James saying?
Is it not this, that your pleasures are at war within you? (v1)
Our warring pleasures are the problem, says James. The rest of the passage is simply an explanation of how pleasures drive us to quarrel and bicker.
This is not mystifying. We see it going on all the time. Conflict is as common as waking up in the morning. It is borne of:
• Too high an elevation of self
• Everybody has a self – it’s a question of how we reckon our own importance
• Self #1 has something that Self #2 wants
• Self #2 inflicts pain on the Self #1 by taking what he wants - or trying to.
• Self #1 retaliates
• Self #2 escalates
• Or offenses are given and offenses taken
• Grudges are held
It is the things of this world--its treasures, positions of prestige, and all the self-gratification it offers, that invite us to strive, contend, and compete against one another. And sometimes differences in opinion and priorities strike at our pride. The world is a fertile field for peacemakers.
But isn’t a war going on? Aren’t we supposed to be at war? Shouldn’t we be wearing the full armor of God, going into battle against people who don’t love and revere God – or whose way of “honoring God” is full of error?
No.
Our war is not against people. We are offering the gift of salvation through Christ –
• To this neighborhood
• To this town
• To this country
• To the world
Look at the introduction to Paul’s admonition that we take up the armor of God:
Ephesians 6:11-12 NASB Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
If we – who have the message of the gospel - make war against the people Jesus came to save, because they are in error or have committed sin, we drive them further away from the salvation Jesus wants us to offer! We can’t offer the gift of God’s love and be at war with the same people at the same time. That would be the ultimate conflict of interest.
Jesus will tell us later in this sermon,
…do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. (Matt 5:40)
Does that sound like we are at war with the evil people Jesus came to save? Paul says we are not and Jesus shows we are not at war with people but against the forces in the spiritual realm that beget the evil.
Our war is against the one who lies behind their sin, just as he lay behind our errors and sins. When we come into Christ, to have the things we now count as precious--we do not have to take them from another. In fact, to receive them, we must give them to another. (Give to him who asks of you...if someone asks you to go one mile with him, go with him two.
The trouble is in the heart of man. The origin of every breach of peace is the invasion of spiritual forces of wickedness into a heart, destroying its purity. Since the problem is in the heart of man, the solution lies in the heart of man.
How can we be peacemakers?
Be the person who is not emotionally invested in a conflict (be the cool head). Look for the common ground, not the things that divide. Identify some things each person can give up without compromising of bedrock truth or principle. The ones on both sides of a conflict must participate on that basis. Only then may we whittle down the conflict and bring peace.
They (peacemakers) shall be called “sons of God.”
“OF” implies belonging.
The peacemakers belong to God.
John seemed to have been amazed at the reality of being a child of God:
1 John 3:1-3 ESV See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Purity of heart is key to being a child of God.
We who make peace are his children and exhibit his characteristics. If we are peacemakers, we look like our Father, who is the ultimate peacemaker because he made peace between himself and man.
Col 1:19-20 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Sometimes a peacemaker cannot unilaterally accomplish peace!
Rom 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
But to muddy the water, let’s consider another thing Jesus said:
Matt 10:34-36 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'
When he says he did not come to bring peace, but a sword, he did not mean Christians are licensed to “take up arms” and engage the battle at every sign of disagreement and conflict.
(Jesus was speaking about what sometimes happens within families when someone follows Him.)
The paramount question that is answered by the four gospels is this: “Was Jesus of Nazareth the promised Messiah, the Son of God?”
Not everyone answers “yes.” When, in an otherwise close relationship, one answers “yes” to Jesus and the other answers “no,” there is--and can never be--peace between them with regard to Jesus. And the closer and more intense the relationship (members of his own household), the greater will be the difficulty that is created.
Jesus said this as a heads-up: Do not be deflected from being a Christian by this conflict! Being at peace with Jesus and the Father is more important than “peace in the family,” if it comes down to that.
If time permits:
James 3:18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
(Unpack this by reading vs 13-17)
Righteousness, for which beatitude #4 blesses those who hunger and thirst, is sown, grown, and harvested in peace, by peacemakers.
In 1873 Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company introduced the Peacemaker – a 6-shot 45 caliber revolver that for many years was popular with both lawmen and outlaws. I don’t know how it came to wear the name “Peacemaker,” but it brings a question to mind.
Google dictionary defines “peace officer” as a civil officer appointed to preserve law and order, such as a sheriff or police officer.
Mike, a member of our congregation retired from being a policeman in urban Virginai just before moving to Montrose recently.
Mike, would it be correct to say that part of your job was keeping the peace, and that involved answering disturbance calls? (Mike answers that the job involves a lot of that.)
I would venture a guess that firing your weapon was not ordinarily if ever the means by which the peace was sought, in fact to be avoided if at all possible. (Mike answers that is definitely true.)
When passions are high and tempers are inflamed, and threats are being tossed around, how do you go about bringing peace to the situation. (Mike answers that first of all you have to keep a cool head yourself and don’t get emotionally involved in the shouting. You separate the quarreling parties and let each of them talk it out to a policemen. Usually things begin to quiet down as they talk without being interrupted and shouted at, and usually you can eventually bring the parties together again and leave them in peace.)
