Title: Peacemaker
Text: Matthew 5:9
Truth: Peacemakers do something to improve the situation.
Aim: To motivate them to be responsible to improve the situation.
INTRODUCTION
Write this down: “Do something to make the situation better.”
You now have the definition and description of a peacemaker. Some here this morning have a relationship in your family or friends that is broken or harmed. Do something to improve the situation. Others have a habit or addiction that causes them guilt. Do something to improve the situation. Some are stuck in a life situation that leaves them sad and hopeless. This is not what you envisioned for your life. Do something about it. You name the trouble and the difference between those who are blessed and those who are cursed is that the blessed is a peacemaker. He does something to improve the situation.
Wanda was 50 years old. She flew to the home of her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren and gave herself a birthday party. Then because a neighbor was ill and she was concerned about her, she hurried home.
On a long airplane flight, most people will speak politely to their seatmates. Wanda was no exception. As she talked about her birthday party, she said, “This was a very special trip for me because the doctors say I have less than 90 days to live.”
Then she explained that she had had cancer for ten years and had been operated on nine times. The doctors wanted to perform a tenth surgery, but she said, “Nine is quite enough.”
Wanda had been employed throughout her ten-year battle with cancer. She began by volunteering at a nursing home. After a while, the administration at the home began to pay her. Just two months before her birthday party, state inspectors said no one could do that job unless they had four years of college. Wanda had dropped out of high school after the first year.
It did not matter that she had been performing the job above standard for almost ten years. She did not meet the standard job qualifications, so she was fired.
“That’s all right,” she said, “they were ten great years. I made many friends. It was a happy time. And, besides, if you know the rules, you must follow them. So they were correct to let me go.”
“Your son must have married young for you to have grandchildren already, “ her traveling companion remarked.
“Actually, he’s 34,” Wanda said. “I got married when I was 15. Both of my foster parents died within 24 hours of each other and it was the only way to avoid going to another home.”
Just before the flight ended, Wanda said, “My husband left before our son was two. I’ve had a hard life, but it has been a very, very good life.”
“How do you feel about dying?” her friend asked.
“I love living,” Wanda said. “Life has been beautiful. But I am not afraid, because as a very small child, I found peace.” (David Sisler, Lifeway)
It is rare to find someone who can say honestly, “I have had a beautiful life. It is because I have inner peace.” But this is the promise, this is the blessing, Jesus offers peacemakers.
To be a peacemaker requires the pre-existing condition of conflict. In 3500 years of recorded human history, there has been peace less than 10 percent of that time. No American generation has known peace. One historian said America had peace from 1865, the year the Civil War ended, until 1898. But he conveniently forgot the federal governments war with the Plains Indians.
Wyatt Earp named his Colt 45 revolver “Peacemaker.” That’s what the world considers a peacemaker. It is using brute force to coerce people to stop hostilities. Jesus did not come to externally coerce us to live at peace but to go to the root, to effect an internal transformation that would cause us to do something to live at peace with God and others. One day Jesus will bring such a peace to this world that the lion will lay down with the lamb, but until that day He has let loose in this world a group of people who are to be peacemakers.
Let’s ask three questions of this text.
I. WHAT IS PEACE?
English, Greek, and Hebrew have a slightly different slant on the idea of peace. In English the word peace means an absence of conflict or strife. It has about it the idea of serenity. If Israel and Hezbollah would stop bombing one another you would hear reporters say that peace has returned to the region. They’d only mean that there was an absence of conflict and strife.
The Greek language, of which the N.T. is written in, includes the idea of rest and to agree upon certain terms. On the other hand, the Hebrew language, and Jesus was a Hebrew, has the idea of everything that makes for a person’s highest good. English would say we don’t have trouble with another person, but the Hebrew emphasis would mean that the relationship is loving.
When you say to a Greek that he could have peace with God, he understood you to mean that if he would meet the terms of repentance and faith he would be reconciled to God. The Hebrew would understand that God’s very best would come to you. When a Jew greeted you with shalom he wanted the best for you. If you were apart from God at that time, he wanted you to be drawn close to God. If you lacked health, he wanted you to be healed. If there was division and conflict in your home, he wanted you and your family to be restored.
The people that God blesses are those who seek to remove conflict and strife between people and between people and God. God blesses those who are making known the terms of agreement of repentance and faith so others can know God. God blesses those who seek to bring wholeness and reconciliation between people and between people and God. Of course, Paul reminded us that some people will not let you live at peace with them. But we are to live at peace with people as much as it is possible on our part.
Jesus said to his disciples, just before the he went to the cross, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” Then He went out and was beaten, lied about and crucified and died. Not one single time did he loose His temper and say mean things to the religious leaders. Not one single time did sulk because the disciples neglected him. Not one single time did he create conflict among the disciples by speaking ill of one member to another. Why? He had peace. It refers to an inner tranquility that is the result of complete trust in the love and sovereignty of God.
If you are a person that is angry and hateful and upset with the slightest things, something is wrong with your heart. If you are a person that sulks because no one pays attention to your needs, something is wrong with your heart. If you are a person that has a history of broken and damaged relationships, something is wrong with your heart. This is not what Jesus wants for you. He wants to so transform you into a person of peace that it is like making a lion into a vegetarian.
One of the more interesting fields of study in the Christian faith is apologetics. That doesn’t mean asking for forgiveness but defending the Christian faith against false teachings and practices. Christians want to know how do we answer the cults like the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses so that we can persuade them to become Christians. How do we answer people’s questions about the lies of things like the Da Vinci Code? That’s apologetics.
You can find a library of books and tapes teaching you how to give an answer to almost any attack on the Christian faith. This is good. I Peter 3:15 said we are to be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have within us. But there is one component to defending our faith that is often overlooked. It’s more difficult to master than the arguments opposing the cults, though it is something that is accessible to every Christian. In fact, it is the thing that Jesus said would prove to this world that His message was true.
In his last prayer before Gethsemane and the cross, Jesus prayed for his disciples…John 17:20-21.
Maybe you have very little interest in learning the arguments to combat the cults or the secularist. Be encouraged. Your effort to be a peacemaker is a powerful argument for the truthfulness of Jesus’ message. You may like to learn all the arguments to deal with the enemies of the faith. Don’t forget that if you speak with the eloquence of an angel but lack love, you are just a clanging gong.
I know you desire for the world to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. Then ask the Lord to search your heart and reveal anything that is standing in the way of you being a peacemaker. Maybe you need to ask someone for forgiveness. Maybe you need to forgive someone. It’s obvious that peace is not a natural condition in our world. We need the Holy Spirit to do a miracle in our heart and make us peacemakers.
Second question is…
II. HOW CAN I BE A PEACEMAKER?
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
The first characteristic of a peacemaker is peace with God. Christians are sinners who have a new relationship with God through Christ. We are no longer His enemies but his children.
The second characteristic of a peacemaker is peace with others. The Living Bible paraphrase puts Ephesians 3:14 this way: “For Christ himself is our way of peace. He has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one family, breaking down the wall of contempt that used to separate us.”
During WWII, three American airmen, who had escaped from a POW camp, made their way to a French village. The French hid them and helped them. While there, one of the escaped prisoners died from sickness and exhaustion. The other two Americans asked the local priest if they could bury their friend in the church cemetery. The priest shook his head and told them, “Only Catholics can be laid to rest in there, but you can bury him in that lot just outside the fence.” They buried him there, but during the night the priest and some of the people took down the fence and moved it to include the new grave. The priest explained, “A Protestant may not be buried in the cemetery, but there is no rule that says that we cannot move the fence to include a Protestant.”
God’s people are given the assignment of removing that which separates people from God and from one another. We are to be active peacemakers.
The third characteristic of a peacemaker is peace between others. Paul told the church at Philippi to help Euodia and Syntyche to reconcile (Phil. 4:2).
Smith and Jones were “on the outs” over a very trivial matter. This deeply concerned Deacon Brown. So he prayed that he might be a peacemaker. He called on Smith and asked, “What do you think of Jones?” “He’s the meanest crank in the neighborhood!” said Smith. “But,” said Deacon Brown, “you have to admit that he’s very kind to his family.”
The next day Deacon Brown went to Jones and inquired, “Do you know what Smith said about you?” “No,” said Jones, “but I can imagine how that scamp would lie about me!” “This may surprise you,” said Deacon Brown, “but he said you’re very kind to your family.” “What! Did Smith say that?” “Yes, he did.” “Well, if you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“What do you think of Smith?” asked Brown. “Truthfully, I believe he’s a lowdown scalawag,” said Jones. “But you have to admit that he’s very honest in business,” said Deacon Brown. “Yes, there’s no getting around that; in business he’s a man you can trust,” agreed Jones.
The next day Deacon Brown called on Smith again. “You know what Jones said about you? He claims you’re a fellow that really can be trusted in business, and that you’re scrupulously honest.” “You mean it?” asked Smith. “Yes, I do,” said Deacon Brown. “Well of all things,” replied Smith with a happy smile.
The next Sunday the former “enemies” nodded to each other. Deacon Brown continued his “meddling” until the next annual business meeting of the church when Smith and Jones shook hands and finally voted on the same side!
God loves a “holy meddler.”
Do you see why I define a peacemaker as someone who does something to improve the situation? They tell lost people about the way of salvation. They take responsibility to make the relationships they have as good as they possibly can. They do something that breaks down walls between people. Peacemakers do something to make the situation better.
Peacemakers understand that they are not responsible for how a lost person reacts to them presenting the gospel. They don’t get hung up on “what if’s.” What if they get angry with me? What if they reject me? The peacemaker knows that that is not his responsibility. His responsibility is to seek to bring the lost to Christ.
“What if they won’t forgive me? What if they blame me for the problem? What if…” Peacemakers know they will not answer to God for other peoples responses, only their own. This is your life. Do something about it. Do something to improve the situation. People who act this way will live much better lives.
Suppose on the way home I am hit by a drunk driver and break both my legs. Everyone understands it is not my fault. It is the fault of the drunk driver. The courts say it is his fault. But who is responsible to go to rehab and get my broken legs back in shape? That disability is not my fault; I didn’t cause it. But it is my responsibility to deal with my life and to work at improving it. No one can do that for me, although they can help.
Maybe you are not the one at fault. You didn’t cause the problem. But is there something you can do to improve the situation? A peacemaker would do something about it because that’s being just like his Savior who left heaven to do something about the lost condition of man.
The third question…
III. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING A PEACEMAKER?
The first benefit is you are blessed. We’ve talked about this word in each message. The word reflects an inward condition more than an outward condition. It reflects a person’s character. God favors and approves of people with this kind of inward character.
Regardless of a person’s condition, a religious leader or a disgusting leper, Jesus loved them. That was his heart. Jesus forgave the soldiers that gleefully drove the nails into his hands and feet. That was his heart. It was not the circumstances around him that determined his actions and attitudes. It was his inward character. Wouldn’t you like to live like that? It would be a blessing to be able to live from the inside out. This is what Jesus is describing in the beatitudes as a blessed life.
The second benefit is to be called the sons of God. The NIV is a better translation than the KJV in this part of the verse. The word is not “children” but “sons.” Both words point to a family relationship but “sons” speaks of a person’s character rather than position. In that day if someone called another person the “son of a dog” they were not insulting the person’s family. They were saying you have the character of mangy, flea-bitten, mutt. It was a Hebraism to refer to character. To be called the “sons of God” means you reflect the wonderful peacemaking character of the Lord God.
It is a future passive verb that suggests that throughout eternity this will be the title of those who were peacemakers in time.
Suppose in a business meeting things get heated over some issue. But one of the members remains calm; he listens respectfully to each viewpoint with fairness and courtesy, and spreads oil on troubled waters. He will be viewed by the others as spiritually mature. He reflects the character of Christ.
You’ve heard the story of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel who invented dynamite in 1866. This earned him fame and much of his wealth. At one point in his life he held more than 350 patents, operated labs in more than 20 countries, and had more than 90 factories manufacturing explosives and ammunition. Yet today he is most often remembered as the name behind the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1888 his brother Ludvig died while staying in Cannes, France. The French newspapers mistakenly confused the two brothers and reported that it was the inventor of explosives that died. What shocked Alfred was not simply the reporting of his death but the opinion people held of him. One French paper’s headline read: “The Merchant of Death is Dead.” He set about changing his reputation, and change it he did.
What would be the headline that summed up your reputation? The Bible writers seemed less concerned with the reputation that we leave behind and more concerned with the reputation we were going to. Jesus said we were not to do our works before men because it forfeits our reward in heaven (Matt. 6:1). He said to not store up treasures on earth but store up treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:19-21). The Bible seems to be more concerned with the reputation we are going to than the reputation we leave behind.
When you get to heaven, where the headline never fades and the obituary is never forgotten, what do you want your reputation to be? What a blessing to one day be in heaven and walk by a group of angels, and one of the angels point you out and says to the others, “Look there! There’s a son of God. He acted just like the Savior when he was on earth. He was a peacemaker.” Yes, that will be a blessing indeed.
PRAYER
INVITATION
Can you tell me the person who said, “I’d rather die than live without you”? Honestly, I don’t know who was the first to say it. I do know who said it and genuinely meant it. Jesus.
He loves you. Sin separates you from God. Christ died a substitutionary death on the cross for you and rose from the dead. He loves you. If you’ll turn away from going your way and go His way and place your trust in Him, He will save you.
The greatest peacekeeping force on the planet is the church. Lebanon has had a third of their population flee to the north. Who do you think is feeding, housing and caring for the refugees? It is the churches of Lebanon.
You make your greatest contribution to the welfare of your community by belonging to and working through a local Christian church. The government simply could not care for the needs of this community without the church. The police could not maintain civility without the church. The schools could not come close to educating their students without Christian people. The greatest force for good in this world is the church. Love it. Support it. Join it. Serve it. God will bless you and countless others. Come and join our ranks this morning.
