Be-Attitudes
February 19, 2006
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Note: We live in a world characterized by fighting and rivalry. From sibling rivalry to civil war, we see is the affects of animosity at every level of society. It is everywhere.
Funny: Lady Astor once said to Winston Churchill, “If you were my husband, I’d put poison in your coffee.” Churchill responded, “And if you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
Note: We laugh at this sarcasm, but it reveals how all of us are predisposed to conflict. Some of us have clashed w/ so many people that we don’t know how to live peaceably w/ others. I’ve known some people that can’t seem happy unless they’re fighting w/ others. Let’s face it – we enjoy being the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s.
Note: History bears this out. History reveals that most peacekeeping efforts by and large have failed. In fact, in nearly 4000 years of recorded history, the world has been at peace a total of only 286 years including over 8000 treaties made and broken.
Quote: Peace is merely that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stops to reload. (from John MacArthur book on the Beatitudes)
Trans: We’re in a series focusing on the (8) attitudes Jesus said we’re to have as His disciples. Each of these attitudes determines our altitude. They testify to our disposition and determination in life. Jesus offered these be-attitudes to remind us that God isn’t focused on man’s outward performance but rather w/ what is in the heart. This AM we’re going to look at blessed are the peacemakers... (Read Text)
Funny: A young daughter was working so diligently on her homework that her father became curious and asked her what she was doing. She said, “I’m writing a report on how to bring peace to the world.” Humored, the father smiled and asked, “Isn’t that a pretty big order for a little girl?” She relied, “Oh, no. Don’t worry. There are (3) of us in the class working on it.”
Note: It’s easy to be naïve about peace, yet peace can be very elusive. One moment you can have peace at home, at work, or in your relationships, and the next it’s gone. I recently heard of a group of people walking across America on a mission of peace. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get along so they divided into (2) groups in Arkansas!
Insert: Sometimes even at church peace is hard to find. Some how many believers have managed to take the words of Jesus – “Where two or three are gathered in my name I will be in their midst,” and turn that verse into, “Where two or three gather together in Jesus’ name, eventually there will be conflict.” It’s pitiful!
Trans: The fact that the lack of peace is so pervasive is nothing new. We can trace it back to the book of Genesis. Humans have been at war w/ God ever since Adam and Eve sinned. And, beginning w/ the conflict b/w Cain and Abel, which eventually led to one brother killing the other, we’ve been in battle w/ one another.
Note: Thus, when Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” he totally shocked those around Him. How could the Jews hope to overthrow Rome and restore their nation to a place of prominence if they were going to have to be “peacemakers?” The Romans weren’t going to just lie down and let Israel have their way.
Trans: It‘s w/in this context that Jesus promised to bless the people who’d become His agents for peace saying that the peacemaker would be called the “son of God.” This means that every Christian, according to this Beatitude, is responsible to being a peacemaker in their home, church, community, nation, and ultimately, the world.
I The CONDITION
Note: Before we proceed, let’s describe what biblical peace isn’t: It’s not the absence of activity, the absence of hostility, or the escape from reality. The biblical concept is much deeper than an absence of conflict or a vacation to get away from it all.
Insert: In the O.T., the word for peace is shalom referring to a state of wholeness and harmony intended to resonate in all relationships. When used as a greeting, it was a wish for outward freedom from disturbance and an inward sense of well-being.
Verse: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. Nm. 6:24f
Trans: It’s vital to understand that Jesus isn’t referring to being a peacekeeper but rather a peacemaker. The difference is that a peacemaker actively overcomes evil w/ good. He finds satisfaction in removing hostilities and effecting resolution b/w enemies. But not everyone is a peacemaker – some are peace-breakers or peace-fakers.
A Peace-BREAKERS
Verse: 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. 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. Rm. 16:17-18
Note: Pease-breakers enjoy inciting division and enjoy by throwing obstacles in the way of others to prevent them from following and accomplishing God’s will. They do this b/c they are far more concerned w/ their plans and appetites being satisfied.
Trans: Yet notice how they do it – predominantly w/ their words. You know it’s easier to create conflict than it is to promote peace. It only takes a word. The quickest ways to settle if you’re a peace-breaker is to consider your words. Do you use your words to unite or separate – to encourage or discourage.
Verse: Don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen. Do not grieve the H.S. w/ whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, and slander, and every form of malice. Ep. 4:29
B Peace-FAKERS
Note: Peace-fakers are people predisposed to having peace at any cost in an effort to avoid conflict. They prefer peace over truth, over healthy relationships, and over what’s right. Peace-fakers see ‘peace’ as the absence of any kind of argument or discord. They’ll go to great lengths to avoid conflict, confrontation, and unrest. In doing so, they’ll settle for a counterfeit peace based on avoiding reality. Peace-fakers know there’s a problem but will not say anything b/c they don’t want to disturb the peace.
Note: Peace-fakers don’t understand that sometimes to have peace someone might just have to take a definitive stand for the truth by confronting a peace-breaker.
Verse: Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Eph. 4:25
Insert: We couldn’t have peace w/ God had not Jesus confronted sin on the cross. It was a very costly confrontation – but Jesus made peace through his blood.
C Peace-MAKERS
Trans: It’s much easier to either break the peace or fake the peace than it is to make peace.
Quote: Hatred looks for a victim, while love seeks a victory. The man of war throws stones, and the peacemaker builds a bridge out of those stones. Wiersbe
Insert: When Jesus used a very strong word for “maker,” meaning “to do” or “to create.” In other words, peace must be actively made b/c it never happens by chance.
Note: Left to ourselves, we drift toward divisiveness. Why? B/c peacemaking is a messy, often resented work. But it must be pursued and when possessed guarded at all cost.
Note: Peacemakers are disciples who strive to prevent contention and strife. They’re active makers of peace leveraging their influence to reconcile opposing parties by changing hostile attitudes to Christ-centered attitudes that seek the best interests of everyone. They are harmonizers, reconcilers, and bridge-builders who stand in the gap, no matter the cost, to usher in peace.
Story: Telemachus was a 4th century monk who sensed God’s call to leave his monastery for Rome. When he arrived in Rome people were thronging in the streets b/c the gladiators were fighting and killing each other in the coliseum. He thought, "Four centuries after Christ and they’re still killing each other for enjoyment." He ran to the coliseum to find the gladiators saying, "Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar" and he thought, "This isn’t right." He jumped the rail and went to the center of the field. He stood b/w the gladiators, holding up his hands, he said "In the name of Christ, forbear." The crowd protested shouting, "Run him through." A gladiator hit him sending the monk sprawling. He got up and said, "In the name of Christ, forbear." The crowd continued to chant, "Run him through." A gladiator plunged his sword through the monk’s stomach and he fell, turning the sand crimson w/ his blood. One last time he gasped out, "In the name of Christ forbear." A hush came over the crowd. Soon one man stood and left, then another and w/in minutes the crowd emptied the arena. It was the last known gladiatorial contest in the history of Rome.
Note: Peacemakers are willing to stand in the gap – violently if necessary – to usher peace.
II The RESPONSE
A Make Peace w/ GOD
Note: The great enemy of all of humanity is sin. Sin is the great separator that causes our fellowship w/ God to be broken. Moreover, this broken fellowship w/ God has led to inevitable conflicts b/w people and nations.
Quote: No peace will exist b/w nations until peace reigns in each country. And no country will have peace until peace dwells w/ the people. And no person will have peace until they surrender to the Prince of Peace. H. Robinson (Salt and Light)
1 Christ IS Our Peace
Verse: But now in Christ you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law w/ its commandments and regulations. Ep. 2:13-15
2 Christ PURCHASED Our Peace
Verse: For God was pleased to have all of 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. Col 1:20
Verse: Being justified by faith we have peace w/ God through Jesus Christ. Rm. 5:1
1 ADMIT your need
2 TURN from your sins
3 BELIEVE that Jesus is the one and only son of God
4 INVITE Jesus to come in and control your life
B Be at Peace w/ SELF
Trans: Once a person has found peace w/ God, it should translate to peace w/in. God not only provides for our eternal peace of mind, but also for our daily peace of heart.
Verse: Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, w/ thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Ph. 4:6-7
Verse: Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body; and be thankful. Col 3:16
Note: This is the kind of peace that will sustain us in the storms of life. Our sense of self-worth and well-being comes from understanding that we have value to God.
C Live in Peace w/ OTHERS
Funny: Peanuts – Lucy said, “I hate everything I hate everybody I hate the whole wide world.” Charlie Brown responded, “But I thought you had inner peace.” Lucy replies “I do but I also have outer obnoxiousness.”
Note: Those who have made peace w/ God don’t have to settle for outer obnoxiousness. The peace of God can give you peace w/in and peace w/ others.
Verse: If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably w/ all men. Rm. 12:18
Verse: As believers we must follow after the things which make for peace and things where w/ one may edify another. Rm. 14:19
Note: There’s something radically wrong w/ people who always seem to be looking for ways to create discord and confusion – people who enjoy destroying peace in others.
Verse: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle w/in you? You want something but you don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, b/c you do not ask God. Jm.4:1-2
Word: Desires (hedonon) from hedonism – the doctrine of self satisfaction and self-pursuit.
Trans: James is saying that the cause of all human conflict is man’s deep rooted determination to get his own way – pride, greed, anger, pleasure, power. Our lust for self always leads to conflict w/ others. Overcome the battle w/in and you can live at peace w/ others.
D Proclaim Peace to the WORLD
Note: We who have made peace w/ God and know God’s peace w/in must strive to live in peace w/ others by proclaiming and living the gospel of peace before the world.
1 The Work of the Peacemaker is EVANGELISM
Verse: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings; who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God reigns! Is. 52:7
2 The Work of the Peacemaker is RECONCILIATION.
Note: We who have been reconciled to God must help others to be reconciled to God.
Verse: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cr. 5:17-21
III The PROMISE
Trans: The benefit of being a peacemaker is that you will be called a child of God.
Word: Sons (huios) refers to the dignity, honor, and responsibility a child has due to bearing his parents name.
Note: In this instance, being a peacemaker is a quality of being a Christian. But if you’re continually disruptive, divisive, and quarrelsome, then you have good reason to question the validity of your salvation. A person who isn’t a peacemaker either is not a Christian or they’re a disobedient Christian.
Note: Not only does God determine how a person will be saved (by faith in the cross), He also determines the qualities which determine the genuineness of a person’s faith. In this particular case, Jesus says that being a peacemaker is a distinctive quality.
Word: Called ( ) means “to give a name to…to bear the title of…sons of God.”
Story: When Alexander the Great ruled the world, his policy to allow people charged w/ a crime to appeal to him, but once an appeal was made, his judgment was final. He was known to be fair but ruthless, so appeals weren’t often made. However, one soldier was brought before him. The young man wore the tunic of Alexander’s army. Upon discovering that the solider was charged w/ cowardice in battle, Alexander asked the soldier for his name. Upon discovering that the soldiers name was Alexander, Alexander the Great angrily replied, "You say your name is Alexander? You are found guilty of your crimes and must pay the penalty. I sentence you to either change your conduct or change your name. For no man can bear the name Alexander – my name – and do the things you have done."
Note: In declaring blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God, Jesus is expressing that those who bear His name, must also bear His character. It is Jesus character to be a peacemaker – and in ushering in peace we bear His name.
