Happy Are the Peacemakers

Matthew 5:9

Look with me, will you, at Matthew Chapter 5, Matthew Chapter 5.  I want to read again for you the verses that are the setting for our thoughts, verses 1 through verse 12, Matthew Chapter 5.  "And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain and when He was seated His disciples came unto Him.  And He opened His mouth and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.  Blessed are the merciful for the shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.  Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven.  For so persecuted they the prophets who were before you."

Let's share together in a word of prayer.  Father, again, as we come to tonight to the treasured words of our Lord Jesus Christ, we feel inadequate stumbling words and thoughts a human mind could never express the depth of truth in the heart of our dear Lord as He spoke these great utterances.  But Father, somehow by the energizing of the Spirit of God equip us to gain an understanding at least in part of what the Lord meant.  Bypass the inability of the one who speaks and the inabilities of the ones who hear.  That we may be able to go beyond ourselves and outside of ourselves to perceive things beyond our understanding as the Spirit teaches us.  We pray Lord that we might understand what it is to be a peacemaker in a world that is so desperately in need of peace.  And we'll thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.

The idea of peace dominates the Bible.  The Bible opens with peace in the garden.  The Bible closes with peace in eternity.  In fact, you could chart the course of history based on the theme of peace.  There was peace on earth in the garden.  Man sinned, peace was interrupted.  At the cross, peace became a reality again as he who died on the cross became our peace.  And since the Lord Jesus Christ has provided peace, there can be peace in the heart of a man or a woman who comes to know him. 

Some day in the future He will come again.  His title will be the Prince of Peace.  He will establish a kingdom of peace which will finally go into an eternal age of peace.  So peace is a great way to see the theme of the Bible.  Peace in the garden, peace interrupted, peace returns in the hearts of men because of the cross.  The Prince of Peace comes again to bring a kingdom of peace that finally becomes an eternal peace.  There are 400 references in the Bible to peace.  God is tremendously concerned with peace.  It is one of His great themes.

In fact, He Himself calls Himself the God of Peace.  You say, but there's no peace.  No, not in the world, not now, but there's a reason.  The reason there's no peace is because of two things, the opposition of Satan and the disobedience of men.  The fall of angels and the fall of man has caused a world without any peace.  It isn't that God doesn't want peace, it's that man and Satan are at war with God.  You know, you can only have peace with someone as long as they want it, because it's a two way item.  And as long as they will have no peace, there will be none.

But tonight we come to the seventh step in the ladder which ascends to divine blessedness.  The seventh of the Beatitudes, peacemakers.  It almost seems as if God has called us in the world to a very special calling to restore and to experience something that has been lost since the fall.  We are, as it were, to restore this world to the peace that was forfeited in sinning.  And so God has designated a group of special people that He calls peacemakers.  They are His agents in the world and they're here to make peace.  They go far beyond anyone who wins the Nobel Peace Prize, because the peace they offer is eternal peace.  The peace they set about to bring is a divine peace, a real peace. 

And so our Lord Jesus says that God has promised to bless people who are His agents for peace and even to call them sons of God.  Now God here through the words of our Lord Jesus Christ is referring to a peacemaker that's unlike any we know in this world.  He's not referring to politicians.  He's not referring to statesmen, no matter how good they are at working out a "peace."  He's not referring to diplomats.  He's not referring to arbitrators.  He's not referring to kings or presidents or Nobel winners.  He's not referring to organizations like the League of Nations or the United Nations.  He's not referring to some ecclesiastical order.  He's not referring to a council of churches.  It isn't the Carters and the Kissingers of the world and it isn't the Sadats and the Begins of the world and it isn't anybody like that who are God's peacemakers.

God's peacemakers are vastly different, which is good because the world's peacemakers have a terrible failure record.  It's amazing how a few months ago we hailed the great peace that had been accomplished.  And President Carter met with the Middle East leaders that peace already beginning to collapse.  We don't have peace politically and we don't have peace economically and we don't have peace socially.  We don't have peace in nations.  We don't have peace in countries.  We don't have peace in political groups.  We don't have peace in organizations.  We don't have peace in homes.  We don't have peace any place because we don't have peace in hearts.  That's the real issue.

Somebody said Washington has a lot of peace monuments.  They build one after each war.  Nobody has ever succeeded in bringing peace.  I'll never forget reading a statistic.  The question was, how many peace treaties have been broken?  The answer, all of them.  You see, peace is that glorious brief moment in history when everybody stops to reload.  The United Nations was concerned in the aftermath of World War II with developing an agency for world peace.  And so in 1945, the United Nations brought itself into existence and since that time there has not been one single day of peace on the earth, not one.

The world is filled with never-ending upheavals.  The motto of the United Nations was set in 1945.  "To have succeeding generations free from the scourge of war."  So far they haven't done it for one day.  It's a pipe dream.  The New York Times reported in 1968, ten years ago, that there had been 14,553 wars they knew about since 36 years before Christ.  Since 1945, there have been between 50 and 70 wars, 164 internationally significant outbreaks of violence.  In fact, since 1958, 82 nations have been involved in conflict.

I remember when former President Nixon said, "Peace, a generation of peace."  His theme on his election tour of 1970.  And he said this, "We shall have a generation of peace something we have never had in this nation."  We haven't had one day of that.  Nixon said we'd have a generation of peace.  We haven't had 33 years of peace.  Some historians say we had two generations of peace, 1815 to 1846 and 1865 to 1898, but that's because they don't count the Indian wars.  Those two periods of time were literally bathed in the blood of Indians.  We've never known, in the history of America, a generation of peace.

And by the way, if you think we have trouble on the political scene and on the world scene, we have killed more people in America with private guns than have died in all the wars we've ever fought.  There is no peace.  We have no ability to get along with each other.  Everything in every relationship is fragile.  We have difficulty at the personal level. There's no peace.  People have mental and emotional illness to the degree that we have never been able to catalog as we are today.

Family breakups, we have it in schools, there are marches and sit-ins and stand-ins and rallies and protests and demonstrations, add infinitum, adnosium, it seems to be no end to any of it.  And the reason for all of this is that man has no peace in himself.  And so his world, which is merely a projection of himself is going to be literally riddled with chaos.  And if ever there was needed a peacemaker, it's now.  Desperately does this world need peacemakers and God says through Jesus Christ in this wonderful verse that He would specially bless those who are peacemakers.

Now in order to understand what our Lord is saying here, we have to deal with five truths about peace.  Five realities about peace.  First of all, the meaning of peace.  What do we mean by peace?  When we talk about peace, what are we really saying?  What is the definition of peace that we want to deal with?  How do we see it as God sees it?  What is a divine perspective on peace?  Some people think that peace is the absence of conflict.  That peace is the absence of strife.  Well, there's no strife and there's conflict in a cemetery, but we can hardly use a cemetery as a model of peace.

No, peace as God sees it is far more than the absence of something, it is the presence of something.  And I would hasten to add that in a biblical way, peace is not the absence of conflict as much as it is the presence of righteousness that causes right relationships.  Peace is not just stopping the war.  Peace is creating the righteousness that brings the two parties together in love.  When a Jew says to another Jew Shalom, which is the word for peace, he doesn't mean may you have no wars, may you have no conflict, he means I desire for you all the righteousness that God can give.  All the goodness that God can give. Shalom means, God's highest good for you.  It's a creative force for goodness.

So if we are to be peacemakers, we do not only stop the war, we replace it with the righteousness of God. We replace with all the goodness of God.  Peacemakers are those who not only call a truce, but a real peace where all is forgotten and they embrace one another.  It is an aggressive good.  What I'm trying to say is that peace is not creating a vacuum.  Peace is not creating the absence of something, but the presence of something.

Now let me show you the difference.  There's a difference between truce and peace.  Truce just says you lay down your guns and you don't shoot for a while.  That's the world's definition when everybody stops for that one glorious brief moment when we reload.  That's truce.  Peace is when the truth is known, the issue is settled, and the two parties embrace each other.  Now some people think that peace is just stopping the war.  And what we need in the world is just to stop the conflict.  All that does is make it boil.  All we have then is cold war.  And cold war is war.

Now some people may say well, I just want to make sure there's no conflict.  I just want to kind of cover it up and stop the fighting.  And you really by just approaching peace in that manner stopping any conflict, you may develop a situation far worse than you ever developed by letting it go on.  Because you may eliminate any resolution at all.  Drive it underground until it smolders and destroys both sides.  For example, if two people are at war with each other, the thing to do is not separate them so they don't see each other.  The thing to do is to bring them together so they can resolve what's the problem so they can come together in love and embrace each other and make it right.  That's peace not truce.

The peace of the Bible does not evade issues.  It never evades issues.  The peace of the Bible is not peace at any price.  It isn't a gloss.  The peace of the Bible conquers the problem.  You see the difference?  It conquers that problem in the middle ground so that the two can come together.  It builds a bridge to two sides.  Sometimes it means struggle.  Sometimes it means pain.  Sometimes it means anguish.  Sometimes it means a little more strife, but in the end, real peace can come.

I want you to notice in James 3:17 a verse that you need to keep in mind and we'll come back to verse 18 later, but just verse 17 for now.  "But the wisdom that is from above," now listen, "the wisdom that is from above is first," what, "pure then," what, "peaceable."  Now you can just stop right there and leave that one, we'll come back to it later.  The wisdom that is from God finds it way to peace through what?  Purity.  First pure, then peaceable.  Peace is never sought at the expense of righteousness.  You have not made peace between two people unless they have seen the sin and the error and the wrongness of the bitterness and the hatred.  And they have resolved to bring it before God and make it right, then through purity comes peace.

Peace that ignores purity is not the peace that God talks about.  In Hebrews 12:14 it says this and another word you must remember, "Follow peace with all men and holiness."  In other words, you cannot divorce peace from holiness.  You cannot divorce peace from purity.  You cannot divorce peace from righteousness.  Psalm 85:10 says, "Righteousness and peace have kissed each other."  Where there is real peace, there is righteousness.  Where there is real peace, there is holiness.  Where there is real peace, there is purity, because that resolves the issue. 

Now we all want to avoid needless strife whether it's in a family or in a business or whatever.  But if we do it to the point of sacrificing the truth, then we compromise our principles and it isn't peace at all.  It's just a truce and everybody is reloading.  In Matthew Chapter 10, verse 34, fascinating word from our Lord.  He said this, "Think not," Matthew 10:34, "that I am come to send peace on earth.  I came not to send peace, but a," what, "sword."  Now you say wow, that is diametrically opposed to the Beatitudes.  That is the very antithesis of what our Lord was saying in Matthew 5.  What does He mean?  "I am not come to send peace, but a sword."  Now what He means is this, Jesus did not come to bring peace at any price.  He knew there had to be strife before there could be peace.  He knew the conflict had to be resolved.  Listen for the Christian, there's going to be strife, even if we're peacemakers in the world, it isn't going to be able to be a peacemaker, because if we're going to be a peacemaker in God's terms, we're going to be a peacemaker who brings the truth to bear so the peace can be real.  And if we bring the truth to bear on a world that loves falsehood, there will be strife before there will be peace, right?

That's what I've said about preaching the gospel.  You've got to get them mad at you before you can get them happy with you.  You've got to upset them before you can make them better.  You've got to make them feel bad before they can ever feel good.  And so it is in bringing a true peace to the world, first a sword falls and then out of the sword can come the peace, because it is the sword of purity.  It is the sword of righteousness.  It is the sword of holiness.  And that's why in that wonderful epistle of Jude and verse 3 it says, "Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the once delivered to the saints faith."

In other words, we have to be contentious about some things.  Being a peacemaker is not saying well, I certainly don't want to offend that dear soul.  Even though they don't believe the way we do, I would certainly not...that's not making peace, that is a truce that is doing nothing to help, because the issue is righteousness, holiness, purity.  And so we bring the gospel to bear and it ruffles feathers and it convicts and it brings contention and strife and it brings conflict but when the conflict is resolved by faith in Jesus Christ there is a real peace; a real peace.

And so in peacemaking, the meaning is not that we are to abandon principle.  The meaning is not that we are to abandon doctrine, that we are to abandon conviction.  When Jesus says be a peacemaker in the world, that doesn't mean you don't ever bring up anything that is true if it offends somebody.  On the contrary, you better bring it up if it's true and it better offend them so they can get past that to the real peace.  Biblical peace is real peace.  We are not peacemakers in the world in the sense that we never make strife.  We make strife all the time. But we are peacemakers in the world in this sense that when the strife is over the real peace is there.

Biblical peace is that kind of peace.  Now we're not agreeing to just settle things without dealing with truth.  We will deal with truth.  And if you're going to deal with truth beloved, you're going to be a divider.  You're going to be a disturber, you're going to be a disrupter, there's no way to get around it.  And you know, you see that don't you?  You go to work and you start to live for Christ and you start to give your testimony and all of a sudden, here you are trying to be a peacemaker and help people to make peace with God and help them make peace with each other and help them make peace in their own hearts, but you're doing your best to get them to make peace and all they can do is get mad at you, because the whole premise of your message is that they have to deal with sin and people don't like to hear that so they get very upset.

Our Lord said in Luke 12:51, "Do you suppose that I am come to give peace on earth?  I tell you nay, but rather division.  From henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three.  The father shall be divided against the son, the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law."  In other words, Jesus said it's very obvious at the beginning that when people come to Jesus Christ there will be conflict.

And He knows that true peace can only come when truth reigns and it's more than a truce.  It's a real peace.  And so when somebody comes along and says well, you know, you have such a narrow view and you need to be more ecumenical.  You need to sort of just set aside what you don't agree with and just find the point of agreement and dive in.  We just all need to get together and discuss what we agree on. Well, let me tell you something, Christ never pronounced blessing on apostates.  And if there was ever anybody that He met who had a point of error, invariably He nailed that point of error.  Because the only real peace comes when we respond to the truth.

If I disagree with somebody about something in the word of God some great truth that's important in the word of God, I cannot evade that it.  I cannot avoid that and be called a peacemaker.  For while I may call a truce, I haven't helped that individual to make peace with God and the end is going to be the same.  So biblical peacemakers are not quiet, easygoing people who just want to make no waves and no issues who lack justice, who lack a sense of righteousness, who are compromisers, who are appeasers.  No, people say oh he's such a peacemaker.  And they mean by that he has no convictions.  That isn't the issue.

A true biblical peacemaker will not let sleeping dogs lie.  He will not save the status quo if truth must be brought to bear on the issue.  He doesn't say well, you know, I know the person's doing wrong, but oh I just would rather have a peaceful situation.  Don't want to say anything about what my son is doing or what my husband is doing or what our friends are doing.  Just want to keep peace, that's a cop out.  True peace only comes after the truth.  So the meaning of peace it is real peace.  It is not just peace at any price.  It is not keeping the status quo.  It is not calling a halt to the shooting while we reload.  It is not simply a truce.  It is not reducing it to a cold war.  It is resolving it by the truth.  Bringing to bear the righteousness of God.

Second point, the meaning of peace, real peace as God sees it, we talked about.  Secondly, the menace to peace.  What is it that hinders peace?  Well, it's obvious, the menace to peace is sin.  If the meaning of peace is righteousness and truth, then the menace to peace is sin and untruth or error or lies.  And if you want to know why there's no peace in the world, it's because the menace to peace rules.  Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked."  Now get that, Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked." 

You start out with a wicked heart.  How does a wicked heart manifest itself?  Isaiah says in Chapter 48 and verse 22, "There is no peace saith the Lord unto the wicked."  So Jeremiah says that man is wicked.  Isaiah says there's no peace to the wicked.  In Isaiah 57 and verse 21, again God says, "There is no peace to the wicked