Sermon on Mount
Blessed are the peacemakers
In the beatitudes, Jesus’ aim was to create a lifestyle in his followers that would make people think about the value of God, or to glorify God. The beatitudes start out showing us our great need for God and then the rest show us what it means to live like Jesus or walk in righteousness. A life of helping others make peace with God and making peace between others is a life that shows the value of God.
There is not a lot of peace around here in the summer months, is there? Have you ever thought, I just need a little peace around my house. I have thought a lot about that in the last couple of months. We have been here almost 7 months, am building a house (thank God Steve Tutt is back)! And we have been in over our heads. I do not know the first thing about building a house. But here I am making blind decisions. Reading out of one hand and working out of the other. Then there is fishing, getting up in the middle of the night to catch the tide just right without a crowd. Well the last month we have been on edge in our house; Karen and I in particular have been maxed out. Both of us have several weekly melt downs, have little patience for the kids, too tired to think, the kids are not getting the attention they should and so they are acting out, Yada, Yada, Yada. On top of that I have a yeast infection, Candida, and am on a special diet that eliminates almost everything from my diet. I basically eat the same thing every day. What can I do to bring peace in my life?
In 1873, Samuel Colt introduced a pistol that was named “The Peacekeeper.” Because of its simple design, and the use of shell cartridges rather than older style loaders, anyone could learn to use this weapon. It was easy to load and the graduated sight made it simple to aim and fire. It was said that God made every man different but Sam Colt made them equal. The concept being that a larger, stronger man could no longer overpower a smaller, weaker man with impunity. What formerly depended on strength now depended on speed and accuracy.
In November of 1982, President Ronald Reagan dubbed the new mobile M-X missile “The Peacekeeper.” This missile, because of mobility and more modern guidance systems, would be a great deterrent to foreign aggression.
If a person is going to set about keeping the peace, it is evident that he or she is going to need weapons. Sometimes the more, the better. History has shown that most peacekeeping efforts have had only mixed results and by and large have failed. In the over 3100 years of recorded world history, the world has only been at peace 8% of the time or a total of 286 years and 8000 treaties have been made and broken.
It appears that “peacekeeping” does not work very well. Not only does “peacekeeping” not offer any solutions to the conflict, quite often the “peacekeeper” themselves get shot.
1. Peacemakers seek to reconcile others to God
The point of Jesus words is that when we become sons of God we have the character of the heavenly father. If we have the characteristic of being a peacemaker then we have the character of the Father and are sons of God; if we don’t have the characteristic of being a peacemaker then we don’t have the character of the Father and we are not sons of God. God is described as God of peace (Rom 16:20; 1 Thes 5:23; Heb 13:20). Heaven is a world of peace (Luke 19:38). One of the fruits of the spirit is peace. The history of redemption (God dealing with his people) is a history of God reconciling rebel man to himself and reconciling humanity to itself.
There will always be strife, war, conflict because God does not rule in the hearts of humanity. The first thing that happens after Adam and Eve sin is conflict. No matter how many laws we establish or how many treaties we sign there is and will always be strife and conflict and war. People don’t get along because their hearts are sinful and need to be changed. If there is a mountain stream that is fed by a contaminated spring that has polluted the stream it does not matter how much time and energy and money you put into cleaning up the stream because the source is bad. If you want to clean the stream you go to the source – the spring. The same is true with humanity.
But God is radically committed to reconciling humanity to himself because he is radically committed to what – his glory. God promises to fill the earth with his glory and he does that by turning hard, calloused, hearts that do not value or worship him into hearts that value him more than anything in life, and therefore live lives of worship.
As children of God we are peacemakers. Do you get up and ask God to guide your steps to be sensitive to his leading to share with people who are facing a Christless eternity? Do you ever drive through town and weep over the fact that the majority of Homerites are going to hell. Do we have a concern for our neighbors, friends who do not know Christ and face a Christless eternity. OR is our concern for what they think more important than than their christless eternity. Is there rejection of me more important than their Christless eternity. Are we too busy to stop to talk to them. Ie hitchhiker. Let’s look quickly at Heb 10:32-37 and I want to show you ehre to get the resources to live lives of radical obedience.
Let me challenge you to fill out this prayer card. Challenge you to have a neighbor over for dinner or strike up a conversation. Fill out this card now and begin to pray.
2. Peacemakers seeks peace in relationships
There are three types of people:
• Peace Breakers
There are those people who are always in conflict with others. No matter what you do they are always creating conflict. They are trouble makers and cause division, abrasive, argumentative and disagree for the sake of disagreeing. Ie Laurent. In the church they put it under the guise of being spiritual but scripture has some very strong words for them. Romans 16:17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. If you are saying stuff that is critical, divisive and such you are self serving and tearing down the body of Christ. Just like children. Children have conflict for one reason – they are looking out for themselves. If you know this kind of person, you need to talk to them and say something to them. Peace breakers are destructive and against the work of the spirit. The spirit’s purpose is to bring unity. Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called. You are working against the work of the spirit in the life of the church.
God gave us two ears and one mouth for a purpose – to be quick to listen ands slow to speak. If this characterizes you must first learn to listen. Think twice before you speak – count to ten before you respond. Our word have power to bring life to destroy it.
• Peace Fakers
Peace fakers want peace at all costs. This type of person prefers ‘peace’ at all costs. Peace over truth, over what is right, over healthy relationships. Peace-fakers see ‘peace’ as simply the absence of any kind of argument or discord. They will go to any lengths to avoid any kind of conflict/confrontation/unrest. In doing so they settle for a counterfeit peace that is based on avoiding the real. There is a shallowness in relationship for the sake of peace. Alcoholic families are famous for this. Everybody knows there is a problem but nobody says anything because they do not want to disturb the peace.
• Peace Makers
Peace makers are people who pursue peace with all people not matt what the circumstance is. Matthew 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, ’Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
Two things you can do towards resolving conflict that we learn from these two verses. The first is love your enemies. That is to pursue acts of love toward those who are hostile with you. There is no reward for loving those who love you; that is easy. What is much more difficult is loving those who are hostile. The issue is to what extent will we be loving towards those we have issues with or do we just say, that is there issue. Specifically, you love them by not holding a grudge (v. 47) and being civil and kind to them when you see them. The second thing we can do is to pray for them (44). Pray that God will change the situation.
Close:
Telemachus was a monk who lived in the 4th century. He felt God saying to him, "Go to Rome." He was in a cloistered monastery. He put his possessions in a sack and set out for Rome. When he arrived in the city, people were thronging in the streets. He asked why all the excitement and was told that this was the day that the gladiators would be fighting and killing each other in the coliseum, the day of the games, the circus. He thought to himself, "Four centuries after Christ and they are still killing each other, for enjoyment?"
He ran to the coliseum and heard the gladiators saying, "Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar" and he thought, "this isn’t right." He jumped over the railing and went out into the middle of the field, got between two gladiators, held up his hands and said "In the name of Christ, forbear." The crowd protested and began to shout, "Run him through, Run him through."
A gladiator came over and hit him in the stomach with the back of his sword. It sent him sprawling in the sand. He got up and ran back and again said, "In the name of Christ, forbear." The crowd continued to chant, "Run him through." One gladiator came over and plunged his sword through the little monk’s stomach and he fell into the sand, which began to turn crimson with his blood. One last time he gasped out, "In the name of Christ forbear."
A hush came over the 80,000 people in the coliseum. Soon a man stood and left, then another and more, and within minutes all 80,000 had emptied out of the arena. It was the last known gladiatorial contest in the history of Rome.
