This week we will be looking at the seventh beatitude, which is blessed are the peacemakers Jesus didn’t say blessed are the peacekeepers because there is a big difference. We started this series at the beginning of the year because we were looking for more than just the hollowness of a Happy New Year, we were looking for a blessed new year. Blessed in the sense of God’s favor would be upon us because the reality is happiness is an illusion in the sense of what we think happiness is. Even if we could have happiness and control all the things we are not in control of that could make us happy our problem is that our happiness would bump into each other. What would make me happy would not make you happy therefore making you unhappy and therefore nobody would be happy.
What is real is being blessed, having God’s favor upon you, when you are blessed by God and you have his favor upon you, you have a year that not only brings you joy but it brings joy and peace to the people around you.
Review of Series
Matthew 5
Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It means intellectually they get it, they come to the point that they have sinned against God. They recognize that they are missing something, they are far off from God. They have come to an understanding that they have made a mess of their lives.
A Recognition Of Spiritual Poverty That Produces Humility And Dependency.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
The intellectual recognition drives the emotional expression, they mourn. The Second Beatitude, blessed are those who weep and grieve and are broken hearted over the fact that they have sinned against a holy God and have sinned and hurt people around them.
Mourning Is The Regret Of A Heart Looking For A New Morning
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Those who have got it intellectually, experience it emotionally and now volitionally they walk in a new humility. When you go from the first Beatitude to the last Beatitude what you will see is the making of the Christian man, woman or child.
Meekness Immeasurable Power Under Intentional Control
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Their direction now becomes changed, they no longer want the things of this world but want the things of God. They understand that just going after the same old stuff even
though you grieve your sin would just bring more sin and more grief and out of gratitude they want for themselves what God wants for them.
Greater Satisfaction Experienced When Passions Are Directed By Convictions
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Mercy Is The First Act Where We Become Like Him
after reviewing the first four Beatitudes there is a transition that now is taking place. Because we now act like God. Once you get it that you are poor in spirit, that you grieve it, that you mourn it, that you regret it, once you walk in humility and you began to hunger and thirst for righteousness then you start acting like God and you start showing mercy to others like God has show mercy to you.
8 Blessed are the pure in Heart, for they will see God.
What is the real truth in this?
The Heart That Seeks God Will See God
It’s the promise of God, that if your heart is where it should be, then you will see God where ever it is that you are.
Notice that a pure heart is linked to good conscience and a sincere faith. A pure heart is a heart that is consumed for God. It is a heart with loyalties that is not divided. A heart that is devoted to God. A heart that wants to be about everything that God is about. A heart that is not distracted.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Why are children peacemakers children of God and what is the difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper?
Christianity Is A Call To Live As A Peacemaker And No Longer As A Troublemaker
John 1:4-5
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Entered Conflict
What is he talking about? He is talking about what a peacemaker is and what a peacemaker does, a peacemaker quite simply is a person who enters conflict, and unlike peacekeepers are the people who drive around it and try to ignore the issues and the problems and peacemakers enter right into it.
The light entered the darkness. This is called conflict, when you have two opposing forces meeting up with each other, light and darkness, when truth and confusion come together and God takes friction and makes motion out of it for those who are obedient.
Established Order
The light enters and even though the darkness could not overcome it then Beauty is released.
Released Beauty
That is what peacemakers do, they enter conflict, the light comes into the darkness and beauty is released.
What does it mean to be a peacemaker? technically it means when one person engages with others to bring about reconciliation to those who are estranged from one another. Isn’t that what God did to us in Christ? yes, while we were estranged from him because of our sin, because we had a difference with God that we could not overcome he overcame it for us. He entered the darkness, he brought the light and he established life and he took what was dark and ugly and made it beautiful. He released beauty. He took through his son two parties that couldn’t be reconciled not because God didn’t want it, it was because we weren’t capable of it, and through his son he made it possible.
Peacemakers enter darkness, they establish order and they release beauty. What does it mean to be Christian?
Christianity Is A Call To Live As A Peacemaker And No Longer As A Troublemaker
When we don’t enter conflict, when we don’t enter chaos and seek to establish order and release beauty then we are as much as the problem as the people who are waring with one another.
To be a peacemaker means you have to live in honesty. Peacemakers are people who are willing to look and honestly describe what is going on in their own lives and the lives of the people around them. We don’t like doing that because of the conflict it brings, but the truth is, there is no truth unless you are willing to live honestly, and to live honestly means that you have to be even willing to speak to conflict no matter how uncomfortable and peacekeepers/troublemakers don’t do that. God called us from a life of being troublemakers/peacekeepers to a life of being peacemakers.
General McArthur
“A truce just says you don’t shoot for awhile. Peace comes when the truth is known, the issue is settled, and the parties embrace each other.”
We have this idea if you want to keep the peace, you just keep your mouth shut, if you want to keep the peace you just tolerate evil, if you want to keep the peace you just act nice to everyone.
definition of nice: to be wantonly ignorant.
That is what troublemakers do. Wantonly ignorant of the fact just doing what comes to their minds, what feels good, peacemakers aren’t looking to be nice just honest and looking for the facts.
People who are not only living honestly but sacrificially, there are willing to put themselves at stake, If I am going to be honest you might not be happy with what I have to say.
Being a peacemaker with your kids means being willing to lovingly speak what they might not want to hear, what you might not want to say or admit. Means being willing to sacrifice friendships, relationships, positions, influence. People who are willing to live sacrificially because they are willing to live honestly and people understand that it means lovingly.
It’s interesting when you try to just live keeping the peace, just tolerating, trying to ignore and let everybody do their own thing and you pretend you are okay with it and it’s exhausting. God doesn’t call us to be peacekeepers he wants us to peacemakers, to be honest, to be sacrificial to be loving in it. To know that when we speak honestly we also speak truthfully which means that we speak sensitively to each other.
How do you do when it comes to peacemaking? are you a peacemaker? or just a peacekeeper? or just blatantly a trouble maker?
Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers because they will become the sons/ daughters of God. Jesus came into a world of conflict, conflict that you had with God/ yourself/neighbors and he brought peace to you. He declared that he was not at war with you but that he loved you. If your going to be like him then you have to be willing to go and speak words of peace, which are words of love which are found in acts of sacrifice and emotions of love for each other which is seeking not to tear people down and tear them apart but to build them up. Blessed are those who speak the truth but don’t complain, peacemakers don’t act that way, they don’t run around complaining about everything they don’t gossip, lie, act injustice, isolate from others.
Christianity is a call to be a peacemaker, it is not an option, to avoid being a peacemaker means to end up being a troublemaker. Even if you think you are not making trouble because people who are looking to make the peace are making trouble in God’s eyes. Jesus came and declared God’s love and those who have received it are called to go out and share it with others.
Notes taken by: Lorelllawrence@comcast.net The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.
God Bless,
Sermon by: Pastor Frederick Williams