Matthew 5:9

If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning, you can turn to Matthew chapter 5 as we round the horn to the conclusion of the study of the Beatitudes we’re calling “Blessed,” and we’re at the second from the last, chapter 5 and verse 9.

But didn’t you love those baptisms? I love baptismal services at our church. They’re always very moving. In the first service, this gal who came to Christ got baptized, and she said that she didn’t remember what sermon it was that Pastor Nemmers preached, but it was that sermon that she was converted. And about five minutes later, because she named the date, somebody on our staff said, “Actually, it was Colton Willie preaching that day.” Well, thank you for that clarification. He didn’t save her either! God saved, her!  Amen?

And speaking of baptisms, I remember very vividly a baptism I did many years ago. This guy had a dramatic testimony! I couldn’t wait, I was chomping at the bit for him to share his story with the congregation! And as he told about how he was converted, he paused in the baptismal and he said, “And when I trusted Christ, I felt a great emptiness in my soul.” And I went, “Ugh!” (audience laughing) And I thought, ‘Did I miss something here?’ But then his next words changed everything!

Speaking of words, the next one in this series of Beatitudes is the following;

[Matthew 5:9] “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.”

Now by the way, you’ll remember that this is the Beatitudes, and what follows throughout from chapters 5 through 7 in Matthew’s Gospel, we’re just looking at the Beatitudes in this series. This is Jesus’s sermon that describes the lifestyle of all those who become or belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the big picture. This is the theme of Matthew. John the Baptist came out of the shoot saying,

[Mathew 3:2] “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.“

And Jesus in the very next chapter said the same thing. This is about those whose lifestyles fit the kingdom of heaven. And now, “Blessed are the peacemakers” for they are, they’ll be called the sons of God.’

Now Martin Lloyd Jones, the great lawyer, doctor, once said,

“No section in the New Testament has been so misunderstood and abused as the Sermon on the Mount.” Martin Lloyd Jones

I would agree. I would also add that no Beatitude has been so radically altered from its original intent and meaning than this one right here. Now whether you grew up during the hippie movement of the 60s and John Lennon and Yoko Ono and “Make peace not war” or whether you’re just one always looking for that happy place, you know, like this advertisement in Arizona. ‘This is your happy place. This is your place of peace.’ Everybody’s looking for peace! How’s that working for you? — Because it doesn’t look like it’s working very well in this world, does it?

Christians, if you are a Christian, are commanded to seek, to pursue, to strive, to live, and to make peace. Here’s some scripture to validate that.

Psalm 34:14b, “…Seek peace and pursue it.“

Hebrews 12:14a, “Strive for peace with everyone…“

And my personal favorite from Romans chapter 12 because it’s so practical, so realistic,

Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

Now, this particular Beatitude is a call to make peace… make peace… and James buttresses Jesus’s words when he says in

James 3:18, “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who (say it) make peace.”

The bottom line is, whether you’re seeking, pursuing, living, or making peace, God’s Word, and your experience in this world tells you, tells everyone, peace has got to be one of the most elusive things around. Right? I mean, we war! We love to war! It’s in your DNA to war! And so we war. We war with our spouses. We war with our kids. We war with our friends. We war with government. We war with nations. We war with ethnicities. And here’s just a map of all the wars that are in the world… the intensity of the color being in keeping with the intensity of the war and our conflict. The truth is, our sinful nature loves conflict! — Some of you more than others, and we love to exploit it whenever we can. There’s a war over here between two people maybe.

Just last week when the Jewish comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, spoke at Duke University, (some of you probably saw, you couldn’t miss from seeing that) he gave his commencement and the news media went nuts because of all the people who walked out on this Jew as he gave the commencement! There were 7,000 people in attendance. Thirty of them walked out. That wouldn’t make news anywhere except that we love to make news when there’s conflict! We love conflict.

So Jesus, against all that backdrop says, [Matthew 5:9] “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” Peacemaker. By the way, the Greek word… Do you know what it literally means? It means “peacemaker.” Means exactly that. I want you to note, Jesus doesn’t say, ‘Blessed are the peace lovers.’ Peace lovers are often known and commended for having nothing to do with conflict. They sit back. They say nothing. They… (I keep saying “they”) some of you are this way. You’re a peace lover. ‘I’m a peace loving guy!’ Whatever. You do nothing when it comes to conflict. You say nothing when it comes to conflict, and, ironically, you get admired, ‘Oh, he has such a sweet demeanor.’ And, she’s doing nothing in the kingdom of God!

I’m saying that because this reminds me, I have a Scottish pastor friend… a really bold guy (I don’t know anything about boldness…!) but he took a large church several years ago and he assessed all the directors and pastoral staff that were on the church payroll and one of those, the college pastor, who the the college students weren’t being converted. There’s not much evidence of any, and the guy was getting paid… Make no doubt. But the pastor looked at him, and with his Scottish accent said “I have to tell you, I’m not impressed!” Now how would you like to hear that from your boss?

And I would say to you that this is exactly what Jesus would say to a number of you here today. You peace lovers who pride yourself by staying out of the fray. You know what Jesus would say to you? ‘I’m not impressed,’ because “blessed are the peace (What?) makers…” That’s what the word means. It means “to make,” “to do.” You’re doing something. You’re actively involved and resolving conflict between men and God and men with men. That’s the idea here. He’s not even blessing the peacekeepers, and that’s a way more noble title, those who will keep peace, ’cause we’re called to do that. But here the word is peace maker, and I’m telling you right now, peace making is messy stuff! Peacemakers are not those who live for peace. Peace makers are those who actively attempt to bring about peace. They make it. And this is the reason why I referenced Romans 12:18, because it’s so realistic. Right? It’s so realistic when Paul says, “As much as depends on you, be it peace with all men.” In other words, your efforts, you’re putting it forth and there has to be some reciprocation. Right? And it doesn’t always work.

I mean, just the other day, I made an attempt to reconcile with an individual and it was a complete debacle! I’m just saying. Warren Wiersbe writes,

“Christian should bring peace between people, and God and between those who are at odds with each other. We share the Gospel of peace.” Warren Wiersbe

Unquote. So I wanna give you two ways that you can be a peacemaker if you’re a Christian, and I don’t assume everybody here is, so we have a word for you, too. First of two ways to be a peacemaker. By here, they’re real simple. The first is by sharing the Gospel, by sharing the Good News with someone. The Apostle Paul said,

Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.“

When you share the Good News with someone else, you are offering them peace between them and God, a peace which has already been accomplished at the cross where Jesus died and subsequently rose again. Amen? By the way, this noun here… this is in the noun form. It’s the only time it ever appears in the New Testament. It’s a crazy, crazy rare word in Greek! But the verb form is found in more than one page. And that’s only found once. But it’s really telltale. It’s huge! This is where Colossians tells us about Jesus. Here’s what it says in Colossians.

[Colossians 1:20] “… and through Him (through Jesus) to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

There’s the verb form the only time it’s ever found in the Bible. This is Jesus, the ultimate peacemaker! He made peace through the blood of His cross. Is it any wonder when He was foretold as the “Prince of Peace” and when He came as an infant, the angels showed up to the shepherds. They say it, you said it, we say it… every Christmas,

[Luke 2:14] “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace…”

Well there you go. And so when believers in Christ share actively, get involved in peace-making between man and God, this is a very high order! This is a beautiful thing! You’re becoming ambassadors for God making peace. And every time you share the Gospel, you become an ambassador, and every time you make an appeal to what Jesus has done for them, You are acting like a peace-maker, and when someone trusts Jesus as their Savior… WOW! —There’s been peace. Right? The war is over between them and God!

Back to the baptismal where I was baptizing this dude. (And you knew I was gonna finish that story, didn’t you?) He says, he says, “You know, when I trusted Jesus as my Savior, I was, you know, there was this emptiness in my soul,” and I’m going, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! Can you say something better than that?” And the next line was… he paused. He had like a “Paul Harvey” pause… and he says, “…and I realized that the emptiness was the lack of conflict that had been there the whole time!”

Some of you right now are at war with God. You know it. He certainly knows it, and my guess is, there are people around you who know it as well. You’re still at war with God. You’re at enmity with God. And you need that conflict settled. And there’s only one Person who could do it, and that’s Jesus Christ. I’m sort of playing that role as peacemaker right now, and I’ll come back to it. If you want to be a peacemaker, if you are a Christian, you need to share Jesus, you’re actively involved in being a peacemaker then.

And secondly, you can become a peacemaker by reconciling conflict between others. Now this is the messy part. Okay? This is the messy part. I mentioned earlier this word, this particular word, this rare word “peacemaker” was rare in classic Greek. Nobody hardly ever used this word, because it almost never happened! And this probably tells that some of you would much rather stay out of the fray. Right? I mean, ‘I just do not get involved.’ But Jesus is saying, “Blessed is the Peace- (What?) Maker,” and this is a call to those who are part of the kingdom of God! This word was used of an ambassador who would plead for peace terms between countries. This is one who seeks to end strive and establish harmony between a couple of people. Here’s how John Calvin put it.

“By peacemakers he means those who not only seek peace and avoid quarrels” (which is what a lot of us would… ‘That’s where I’m at.’) “as far as lies in their power, but who also labor to settle differences among others who advise all men to live at peace and take away every occasion of hatred and strife.” John Calvin

Our counseling ministry here, it isn’t singularly dedicated to making peace between people, reconciling people, but there’s a big part of their plate that’s constantly doing that. So you pray for those who are involved in bringing people who are at odds at variants with one another back together again, especially those who are at odds with God.

You know, as Jesus faced the battle of the cross that would bring the ultimate peace to the souls of those who come to know God, He spoke of a very special kind of peace, unlike anything the world has ever known then or now, to His disciples just the night before He died. He looked at His disciples and said,

[John 14:27a] “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.” (And then he said) “Not as the world gives…”

Have you ever read that? Do you know what that means? Do you know what that means? That means the world gives peace. It gives a kind of peace. Now, it’s momentary. It’s temporary. It’s at best and at worst, it’s a flat out lie whatever it gives you. This is the reason why Jeremiah said

[Jeremiah 6:14, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace.”]

“Peace, peace” is what the false prophets say. There’s no peace at all. And some of you have been looking for this elusive peace and you’re doing it through all kinds of things. And at the end of the day, there’s no peace.

And for those of us who get involved in the messy business of being peacemakers, there’s a commendation for you. “They shall be called the sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9b) Now what does he mean by that? — “They shall be called the sons of God.” The idea is, they shall be called the sons of God, the key is son of, or sons of. Remember Jesus was called the “Son of God.” Right? The phrase “son of” means “nature of.” So when Jesus described Himself as the Son of God, that’s why the Jews always tried to kill Him because He made God his Father! I just thought of this,

John 5:18b, “…making Himself equal with God.”

Have you ever read that? So by saying He was the Son of God, He was saying He had the nature of God. And this is the idea here. ““Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” [Matthew 5:9] 

Some of you will remember, I told a story once about a guy that I had, a pastor, he was an Arminian. He was a guy who believed you could lose your salvation, and he was very aggressive. He’d write me letters and he would challenge me. I would write him back, and I would answer the challenges, and I would give him some challenges, and he would never answer mine! It was very frustrating! So one day he sent another bevy of questions. I’d had enough of it, so I sent him a note. I said, “Thank you for your letter. My answer to your question is found in Acts 13:10.” Signed my name. He never wrote me again — Because that says,  “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. How much longer will you pervert the right ways of God?”

Now when the Apostle Paul said that in Acts 13:10, he was talking about his enemies. He was talking about somebody who was perverting the truth of God. Was he calling them the Antichrist? No. He was saying they were acting in nature, in concert with the devil. And when Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” He says, ‘You know what? You’re acting in concert, you’re acting in the nature of God.” That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? Please say ‘yes!’ By making peace with others to God, we demonstrate our nature as sons of God.

Now, in another month, we’re all gonna enjoy the Olympics. How do you not like the Olympics? You gotta be a real… anyway. I mean, the Olympics are amazing…! — especially the wrestling (greatest sport in the world! But anyway, that’s a different story.) But this is the 100th anniversary this year of the Paris Olympics. So Paris has not hosted the Olympics since 1924. That was the year of the famous Eric Little. Remember that story? “Chariots of Fire?” He’s this Presbyterian minister. He loves Jesus and he was supposed to run. He was a speedster. He was supposed to run in a short race. He was favored to win the gold, but the heat was on Sunday, and he refused to run on the Lord’s Day. You can call him a legalist if you want. He still stood up for God, and when he did, you know, the whole nation was against him! And so, he gets put into this long distance run. They think he’ll burn himself out. He doesn’t! Not only does he not burn himself out, he wins the gold medal, sets a record and becomes a hero! Thus the movie, “Chariots of Fire.”

What many people don’t know is he really did love God. He would become a missionary to China for 20 years, and if you think about the time frame, that puts it into the era of World War II. And he would be, by the ruthless, merciless Japanese army of that time, put into a Japanese internment camp. And that’s where he would spend the last two years of his life. He got a brain tumor and died an ignominious death in the internment camp. But you know what he was known for? Eric Little was known to be a peacemaker, constantly bringing people to God and reconciling differences within the camp between one another. He was deeply, people were deeply impressed by his ministry, so much so, when he didn’t show up for roll call and they knew he was sick, the Japanese guard asked about him. They said, “He just died.” And the first words out of the Japanese guard was, “He was a Christian, wasn’t he?” What was that guard saying? What was he saying? The guard, without even… unwittingly was saying that man, as a son of God, demonstrated the very nature of God. And when we get involved in the messy work of peace making, that’s the designation given to us how cool is that!

Many of you right now are at war with God, and I’m telling you right now, it’s not a war you can win, and it’s not one you can negotiate a settlement on. The only thing that’ll settle this war that you have with God is unconditional surrender. Right? The Japanese in World War II, they weren’t going to give up for anything, and you can argue the morality of the bomb and all that stuff. When they gave up, they gave up unconditionally to the Allied forces, and when they did, after all they had done to the Allies, all the suffering that they had inflicted upon us, when they unconditionally surrendered, what did they get in return? Peace. They got peace. How much more, you that are warring with God as we speak, who have ignored the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, how much more do you need peace with God? — and to unconditionally surrender, all that conflict will go away. The emptiness will be the lack of conflict, and you’ll have peace in your soul.

The other day I was reading about this missionary, Jim Walton. Jim Walton, missionary in the jungles of the Amazon in Columbia, and this is in the 60s and 70s, and he was translating with this tribe, trying to get their language, their dialect and everything and codify it, and he got to the word “peace” and could not for the life of himself come up with the word in their vocabulary that would fit the New Testament word and meaning for the word “peace.” But he tells this crazy story! He said the chief, one day, was promised a plane trip, a 20-minute plane trip that would take him three days walking to get from one place to another. So the chief shows up and the plane isn’t there. The plane’s been delayed so the chief takes off walking. Then the plane shows up and a runner is sent out to get the chief who’s a couple hours away so the chief is finally brought back and the plane has already taken off, and the chief goes into a meltdown and just goes into a tirade, in anger he’s just yelling and screaming and saying words and Jim Walton taped the whole thing. How would you like to have your tirades taped? And as he listened back, he kept hearing this chief saying, “I don’t have one heart! I don’t have one heart.” So Walton asked another tribesman who had a closer understanding of English, what that meant, and this is what he said. “It means there is nothing between you and the other person.” There is nothing between you and the other person. I think we have it here somewhere. But that would become, that would become the word for “peace.”

Jesus came to take away that which is between you and God, namely your sin. So I didn’t make this up, but it seems apropos for the moment, because some of you just need to hear this.

“No Jesus. No peace. Know Jesus. Know peace.” Anonymous

You gotta know Jesus Christ, and when you know Him, that conflict in your soul will be taken care of just like that! And for those of you who are followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, here’s a word for you. “Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called the sons of God.“

Our Father, we love you and bless Your name. For this admonition, this exhortation from Your Son, Himself, to do what He did. We can’t die for anybody, but we can become ambassadors and peacemakers. Help us to do so. Challenge us to that end, not simply to be peace lovers, but makers, and thus earn the designation, “sons of God.” I pray for those who have never met you, Lord, have never met you through salvation, not for real. They’ve never believed in the sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf in subsequent resurrection. If that’s you, dear friend, this is how you get peace with God. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” And if God has spoken to your heart today, today, settle it. Trust in Jesus. We’ll pray all these things, and we do pray all these things, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Let’s stand. [MUSIC]