It's a real honor to be able to share with you this evening and to be part of bringing you this series alongside so many amazing teachers. I hope my contribution will be a blessing to you. It's called “Making Peace In a Warring World.” First let's do a little review:
Matthew 5:1-9 ESV
[1] Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. [2] And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: [3] “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [4] “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. [5] “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. [6] “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. [7] “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. [8] “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [9] “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Friends, this world is hurting. How many of you grew up watching Mr Rogers? Then you probably know his famous quote:
"When scary things happen, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Well, lots of scary things are happening in our world today. Adapting the saying to our time, you might say “Look for the healers, for the concilators and yes for the peacemakers”
This is what makes Jesus’ seventh beatitude more relevant than ever. As the Amplified Bible words it:
“Blessed [spiritually calm with life-joy in God’s favor] are the makers and maintainers of peace, for they will [express His character and] be called the sons of God.
The Greek word here is eirenopoiós and it's the only time in the entire Bible this word is used. It means “a peacemaker, someone who bravely declares God's terms which makes someone whole.”
I'm sure you know this but it's still important to point out that the act of being a peacemaker in itself doesn't make you a child of God. Being born again makes you a child of God. But being a peacemaker is one of the fruits that come from that. The fruit of the Spirit is love joy _ So when you are a child of God, you bear the family resemblance!
It's also important to remember that being a peacemaker may not always look the way we think it will. It's not all the dye shirts patchouli and granola.
Matthew 10:34-36
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
Hear me well on this: Sometimes conflict is necessary to get us to the place of peace. If you know me you know I'm a pretty easygoing guy so this is a lesson I've had to learn the hard way at times.
Being a peacemaker means that sometimes you deal with hard truths. It does sometimes involve confrontation. Jesus was the ultimate peacemaker but as you know He often had to be very confrontational. Just ask the moneychangers in the Temple!
Romans 12:18 further tells us
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” It won't always be possible to live in peace with some people so set your expectations accordingly.
As believers we walk the narrow path. The Gospel message is always going to be countercultural. Following Jesus means we are going to be going against the current much of the time, yet we are to always do it with the end goal of be a peacemaker as much as possible.
So this evening we are going to look at three aspects of being a peacemaker: Peace with ourselves, peace between others and ultimately peace between God and humanity. In each case, we will be looking at how Jesus did it. After all, WWJD?
Peace with Ourselves:
We can't offer people something we don't have ourselves. Making peace begins with having God's peace in our own lives. How did Jesus cultivate that peace in His own life? First of all, through prayer and that's a theme we will be coming back to.
Wouldn't you love to have been able to watch Jesus pray? Sure the Bible gives us some glimpses but to be able to watch those all night prayer sessions and here His intimate conversations with the Father? While we only have a limited glimpse of that, we see the results of it plenty of times! Let's look at
Luke 8:22-25 ESV
[22] One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, [23] and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. [24] And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. [25] He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
So even during this catastrophic storm when the disciples were freaking out, Jesus took a nap! And then He rebuked them for not having that kind of peace!
Living in His Father's peace carried Jesus all through His earthly life. Even when His soul was "overwhelmed to the point of death," yet He maintained trust and resolve. That is not a contradiction but a model: true peace doesn't mean lack of pain— it means confidence in God amid it.
Peace between others:
“He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14).
Friends, the Gospel is for everyone! Nobody ever embodied this more than Jesus. To see an example of this, turn to
John 4:5-16, 18-25 ESV
[5] So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. [6] Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. [7] A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” [8] (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) [9] The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) [10] Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” [11] The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? [12] Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” [13] Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, [14] but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” [15] The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” [16] Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” [17] The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
[18] for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” [19] The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. [20] Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” [21] Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. [22] You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. [23] But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. [24] God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” [25] The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” [26] Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Jesus left Jerusalem and returned to Galilee, passing through Samaria. In the town of Sychar, He rested by Jacob’s well—still a real site today at a monestary in the West Bank and it's still visited by tourists.
While there, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her for a drink. This act alone was revolutionary. He spoke not only to a woman but to a Samaritan. The animosity between Jews and Samaritans ran deep, going back to Israels captivity in Assyria which you can read about in 2 Kings 17. During that time many Jews intermarried with the Assyrians and the Samaritans came from that so it reminded the Jews of a very painful time in their history.
Despite this, Jesus came to seek the lost. He used the everyday act of drawing water to introduce the concept of “living water”—a symbol of the Holy Spirit that quenches spiritual thirst once and for all!
The woman, tradition tells us her name was Photini, asked for this water. Jesus has a word of knowledge of her past—five husbands and a current relationship outside marriage.
Amazed, she spoke of the coming Messiah, to which Jesus declared, “I Am the Messiah.” In response, she goes back and tells her friends “Come see a man who told me all I ever did!” Because of this, Photini is regarded as one of the first Christian missionaries. Tradition further tells us that she was baptized and served God faithfully for the rest of her life before being martyred by Emperor Nero for refusing to deny her faith. This was all because Jesus reached out to someone that religion had rejected. He dared to be a peacemaker.
This radical, cross cultural approach was part of the church's mission from the very beginning.
Remember how the church was born in an international assembly on the Day of Pentecost. This was no accident. The Holy Spirit was poured out on a group of people with very diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, These included:
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites—peoples from the regions of modern-day Iran
Residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia. Others came from
Pontus and Asia (western Asia Minor),
Phrygia and Pamphylia (central and southern Turkey),
Egypt, and parts of Libya near Cyrene in North Africa.
There were also visitors from Rome, , along with Cretans and Arabs .
In addition,we see in Acts 13 leaders in the early church included
Barnabas, who was a Hellenistic Jew from Cyprus,
Simeon called Niger was likely a black African,
Lucius of Cyrene was from North Africa,
Manaen had an aristocratic Jewish background, and
Saul (Paul) was a Roman citizen and Jew from Tarsus.
This diverse group reflects how the early church transcended racial, cultural, and social boundaries through unity in Christ.
Finally, in chapter 7, verses 9-10 of the magnificent Book of Revelation, we see people from every tribe, tongue and nation worshipping God together for all eternity!
And just like cultivating peace in our own lives, bringing Peace between others starts with prayer.
Friends, we know the secret. We have an audience with the creator of the universe any time we want it! Do you ever think about what an awesome privilege that is? People are frying their brains on drugs to get what we can get in our prayer time. So to see how prayer ties into peacemaking, let's look at
1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV
[1] First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, [2] for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
First, notice how we are to pray for government officials. We are called on to pray for ALL who are in authority, whether they are members of our party or not, whether we agree with them or not, whether they are Christians or not. Keep in mind that there was not a single believer in the government that Paul was telling Timothy to pray for. In fact, the government at the time was routinely using Christians as humans streetlamps!
Still, note the end result: “That we may lead quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty.”
So the focus of this prayer is peace and stability maintained by godliness and honesty.
How many of you know this is the direct opposite of how the world does it?
Outrage is very easy to cultivate, especially in this social media era. It might be a politician or a media figure or even a preacher you are upset with. No matter how strongly you might disagree with someone, no matter how outraged you may be (and your outrage may be completely justified), bearing false witness is still a sin. Friends, peacemaking and integrity go hand in hand.
Finally, we can be peacemakers because Jesus is our peace, which brings us to our next point and the ultimate goal.
Peace between God and humanity
One of my favorite Scriptures
Colossians 2:13-15 ESV
[13] And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Friends, we discussed earlier how conflict is sometimes necessary to bring peace. Here is your ultimate example of that. Jesus won our peace by directly going into battle with the powers of darkness. That battle reached its climax at the cross, where what seemed like a humiliating defeat became the ultimate victory when He rose again.
How many of you have seen “The Passion?” I am very grateful for how that movie broke through our sanitized idea of how brutal crucifixion really was. Medical Doctor Gerald H. Bradley gives us a look:
This was the most agonizing death man could face…He had to support Himself in order to breathe…the flaming pain caused by the spikes hitting the median nerve in the wrists explodes up His arms, into His brain and down His spine. The spike burning through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet jerks His body erect, then the leg muscles convulse and drive His body downward…beating Him against the cross. Air is sucked in, but cannot be exhaled until the buildup carbon dioxide in the lungs and blood stream stimulates breathing to relieve the cramps. Exhaustion, shock, dehydration and paralysis destroy the victim. The heart is barely able to pump the thick blood as each of His billions of cells die one at a time. Prior to His death in all His agony, Jesus is in full control of His mind. He asks the heavenly Father to “Forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And the dear Lamb of God was sacrificed for you…
At least thirty Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus’ death. The guard thrust his spear into Jesus’ side, and blood and water came out (John 19:34). Medically, this showed that the ultimate cause of death was heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the sac around the heart. Think about that for a moment: Because of our sins, He literally died of a broken heart.
Next, as the Collosians passage tells us Jesus “spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” This is military terminology. The image being drawn is that of an army overthrowing a rival kingdom, stripping its ruler naked and parading him down the streets in humiliation. This is exactly what Jesus did to Satan. When Jesus came out of that tomb He had the victory once and for all! And He invites all of us to share in it!
Jesus died as the sacrificial lamb, and was raised as the conquering warrior. As He declares in Revelation 1:18: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
RC Sproul writes:
When God signs a peace treaty, it is signed for perpetuity. The war is over. Of course, we still sin, we still rebel, but God is not a co-beligerant. He will not be drawn into warfare with us ever again. We have an advocate with our Father. We have a mediator who keeps the peace. He rules over the peace because He is both the Prince of Peace and He is OUR Peace.
So where do we go from here? Romans 10: 14, 15
“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” —.
Jesus has entrusted us to be messengers of His peace! Every one of us! We are the ones who are to be sources of peace and stability during these scary times.
Don't be discouraged because it doesn't happen as quickly as we would like. Remember, Jesus compared the influence of His Kingdom to leaven. Just like yeast in a loaf of bread, God’s Kingdom brings change gradually from the inside out. It starts small but eventually will be manifested on a worldwide scale!
In closing let's look at one more Scripture, James 3:16-18:
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace
