The Only Way to Happiness: Be a Peacemaker
Matthew 5:9
Well, let's open the Word of God tonight, and we're going to have just a kind of a Bible study together in Matthew chapter 5 as we look at verse 9. We are going through the Beatitudes. This is beatitude number seven, a wonderful teaching of our Lord that summarizes the matter of salvation. He did this teaching as He began the great Sermon on the Mount, which extends all the way to the end of chapter 7. This beatitude in verse 9 is "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God."
This is a great subject to talk about and we're just going to kind of talk around that subject. I'm not going to give you some kind of an exotic outline to follow, although we will try to hang our thoughts on some questions as we've done all the way through the study of the Beatitudes. This is foundational teaching. This is bottom line. This is a kind of a primer on New Testament gospel. Very, very important teaching from the mouth of our Lord. It sums up everything. You could say that from verse 3 down through verse 12 you have a summation of what it means to be in the kingdom, what it means to be saved, what it means to be a believer, what it means to know God. It's all wrapped up in these incredible statements that begin "Blessed are."
And we come in verse 9 to this subject of peace. And, of course, that's a main subject throughout the Bible. The idea of peace, in fact, permeates the Bible. It opens and closes with peace. When God originally created man and woman and put them in the garden, it was a garden of peace. Then came the Fall and peace was interrupted, Peace with God was interrupted. Peace between men was interrupted. Then at the cross Jesus came and brought peace to the heart. Some day Jesus will return and establish a kingdom of peace. And in the ultimate new heaven and new earth we will enjoy eternal peace.
So really the story of redemption is the story of peace, peace forfeited, peace regained in the heart, peace regained on the earth, and finally peace regained in the eternal state. There are, in fact, nearly four hundred references to peace in the Scripture. The only reason there is presently no peace is because there is a major conflict going on in the world that can be summarized simply in this sense, man is at war with God. That's the problem. And that has been the problem since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. Since the Fall when peace was totally disrupted and taken from the earth, there is an ongoing war with God. Not only is man at war with God, but so is Satan and his host of fallen angels. Consequently there is conflict both at the angelic level and at the human level in this universe.
So learning about peace, what that peace means and how to be peacemakers, is critical as we can understand. As we come to the seventh beatitude we come to the seventh step, as it were, which ascends the ladder of blessedness. We come to this very important issue of being peacemakers. That would be to say that we are agents to restore peace. We have the responsibility to bring peace to otherwise troubled hearts, to bring peace where otherwise there would be only conflict.
God has put a high priority on peace making. And I want to hasten to add that He didn't give this responsibility to politicians. He didn't give it even to statesmen. He didn't give it to diplomats. He didn't give it to arbitrators. He didn't give it to lawyers. He didn't give it to judges. He didn't give it to kings. He didn't give it to presidents. He didn't give it to Nobel Peace Prize winners. He didn't give it to the League of Nations. He didn't give it to the United Nations. He didn't give it to the World Council of Churches. There isn't any ecclesiastical order or any council of men in any way, shape or form that can effect real peace.
These peacemakers are very different, vastly different from everything the world would identify as a peacemaker. And we're glad for that because we had enough of the world's peacemakers and their continual failure. In fact, if you study Scripture there is coming in the future perhaps the most apparently superficially and temporarily successful peacemaker the world has ever seen and he is known to us by the name Antichrist. And he like all other peacemakers is really nothing but a harbinger of further conflict. God's peacemakers are very, very different.
We don't have peace politically. We don't have peace socially. We don't have peace economically. We don't have peace maritally. We don't have peace in nations. We don't have peace in countries. We don't have peace in cities or states. We don't have peace in communities. We don't have peace in homes. We don't have peace in hearts.
Somebody said, "Washington has a lot of peace monuments. They build one after each war." Nobody has succeeded in bringing peace, nobody.
You will remember, I think, if you're old enough, that the United Nations came into existence in 1945. And it came into existence after the aftermath of World War II which is, of course, a frightening holocaust and caused the death of hundreds of thousands. At the end of World War II the United Nations was formed as an agency for world peace. Since that time there has not been one single day of peace in the world, not one day. The world is filled with never-ending upheavals though the motto of the United Nations is this, "To have succeeding generations be free from the scourge of war," end quote. That is a pipedream.
The New York Times reported in 1968 that there had been fourteen thousand five hundred and fifty-three wars that they could count since 36 B.C. Since 1945 the count has continued. From 1945 to the mid sixties there were between fifty and seventy wars, 164 internationally significant outbreaks of violence involving some 82 nations. That's thirty years ago and they continue.
Richard Nixon came into the presidency in 1970. He said this in his election speech, he said, "Peace, a generation of peace. We shall have a generation of peace, something we have never had in this nation." Well it was a nice thought, didn't happen. Webster said a generation is 33 years. What are the chances of 33 years of peace when we can't manage to have one day?
Somebody said, "Well no, we had peace. We had some peace a few years of peace between say 1815 and 1846, between 1865 and 1898." But that's because they didn't count the Indian wars, periods bathed in blood in this country. And interestingly enough as many as we have killed in the wars since America's inception and certainly since 1945, we have killed more people with private guns than in all the wars combined. At every level we don't have any peace. And more people are being killed with guns in our day than ever before. There's no personal peace, mental, emotional problems and anguish strikes at the hearts of most people. There's no family peace, no school peace as we well know.
And the reason for all of this is because there's no peace...where? In the heart. Consequently the world reflects the heart of man. There is no peace to the wicked and the world is wicked and all men are wicked, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, Jeremiah said. And because the heart is wicked and knows no peace it simply projects itself into all of its relationships. The world that man creates is a world without peace. It's a world of chaos. It's a world of conflict. It's a world of trouble. It's a world of shattered dreams and hopes and broken relationships. Peacemakers are desperately needed...desperately needed. And they can't come from the world because the world is full of hearts that have no peace, cannot therefore produce it.
Now God offers the world peacemakers right here in verse 9, "Blessed are the peacemakers." That indicates that there are such things as peacemakers and they are the ones that shall be called sons of God. The sons of God then are the true peacemakers. If you are a believer you are a peacemaker. If you're a child of God you're a peacemaker.
Now as we think about what this beatitude means, as I've done all the way along, I want to just point out a few areas that we can sort of lock on to maybe in the form of questions. Question number one, what is the meaning of peace? When we talk about peace what are we talking about?
I suppose for many people peace could be defined as the absence of a war. Peace could be defined as the absence of conflict. But that really isn't God's definition of peace. God's definition of peace is not the absence of something. Most people would say, "Well, peace means there's no strife, there's no conflict, there's no animosity." But frankly there's no strife and there's no conflict and there's no animosity in a cemetery but we wouldn't want to use a cemetery as a model of peace. We wouldn't want to hold up a cemetery as the place where everyone gets along so well.
In Scripture peace is not the absence of anything. Peace is the presence of something. It is the presence of all that is blessed, all that is good, all that is fulfilling. When two Jews meet they say "Shalom." They don't mean to say, "May you have no more wars." But rather, "May you enjoy the full satisfaction, the calm, the tranquility that God brings." Peace is a creative force producing goodness and well being. It is not just the absence of something, it is the presence of something. It is -- it is not the absence of conflict, it is the presence of aggressive goodness. Peacemaking doesn't create a vacuum. It isn't just the absence of conflict and the presence of nothing. It isn't just a cold war. It isn't just truce.
Now there is a kind of worldly peace that is only the evasion of the issue. You know, you know what it's like, it exists in your home from time to time. It's an uneasy peace. It's a truce and it's produced by the fact that you just won't talk because if you open your mouth you know war will break out. So you just keep your mouth shut and you silently go around while smoldering inside. That's only an evasion of the issue. That's a kind of compromise. Or, you know there is sin in the family. You know there's iniquity that should be confronted but you don't want to confront it because it will blow sky high, so you compromise. You don't stand for the truth. You don't confront the issue. That's a very uneasy truth, that's an evasion of the issue. That's a very dangerous situation, very dangerous because you're only letting the real issue hide itself, a smoldering truce that is very likely to break out in greater conflict.
God never tells us to do that. He never tells us to just keep our mouth shut so we can somehow live in a superficial tranquility. He never allows us to be comfortable evading issues just to keep the peace, just to keep everybody tranquil. He never allows us to avoid confronting sin, to avoid confronting error for the sake of some superficial truce.
No, on the other hand, the Bible kind of peace conquers error, confronts sin and produces a true peace. The Bible kind of peace is the peace that exists after the struggle has been resolved. The greatest peace is not the cold war, the greatest peace comes after the hot war. That's the true peace.
James wrote about what is a true kind of peace in James 3:17. He said, "The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable." In other words, peace comes from pure truth, pure wisdom. Peace is never sought at the price of truth. Peace is never sought at the price of error. Peace is never sought at the price of sin or unrighteousness. Hebrews 12:14 puts it this way, "Follow peace with all men and holiness." In other words, it's not a true peace because you don't confront sin. It's not a true peace because you don't confront error, you just let it exist in a superficial kind of truce. Follow the peace that is associated with holiness. Follow the peace that is first pure and reflects the wisdom that is from above, the truth.
Well, we want to avoid all needless strife. We don't want to just go around wreaking havoc everywhere. There are times when it is a wise judgment to overlook a transgression. There are times when it is the noblest of things to do to cover a multitude of sins. We don't want to just create strife. Some people are good at that, they can just create strife everywhere and they can do it rather piously in the name of virtue. But we certainly don't want to sacrifice truth. We don't want some kind of peace that is the product of truth sacrificed or the product of compromised righteousness or indifference to spiritual duty. That kind of peace is dishonoring to the Lord, unproductive, superficial and deceptive.
In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword." Before the peace can come the sword has to fall. What was Jesus saying? Well Jesus was saying this...Look, if you're in the house of unbelievers and you're a believer, you realize that as soon as you say I have committed my life to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, you're going to have some instantaneous conflict in your Jewish home." Right? That's going to be a sword that falls in that family and it is liable to divide you in every way. That's why Jesus said, you know, you may have to hate your mother or your father, your sister, your brother to be My disciple. This is the sword. Before there can come the true peace there has to be the sword that falls. The confrontation is necessary. The unmasking of sin is necessary. The confrontation of retribution and judgment and the message of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ must be given no matter whether it brings division or not because the only peace that will satisfy God is that peace that comes after confrontation.
We do not abandon truth. We do not abandon doctrine. We do not abandon conviction. We do not abandon principle. We do not cry peace where there is no real peace. In fact, Paul said in 2 Timothy 3 that all who will live godly will suffer persecution. I mean, just living your godly life is disruptive. Living your godly life in your home or your school or your work environment or your neighborhood in the relationships that are around you is a disruptive reality because you're confronting their sin. But when real peace comes, it comes not because we avoid issues because issues are resolved, conflict is resolved. That's real peace. The real peace that comes when the battle is fought and the battle is over and he truth has prevailed, that's it. The true peace is the peace that occurs when truth prevails.
Remember I said this morning as we were finishing up our study of 2 Corinthians that the only way the church will experience true unity is when it thinks the same thing. Right? And if you're going to be at peace with all men it's because you all think the same way. The peace that God is after is the peace that comes to those who agree about the truth of God. The Christian who enters conflict for the truth, the Christian who willingly combats error, who confronts lies and falsehood, the Christian who will point out heresy, the Christian who will point out sin in the end is not a divider, he's not a disturber, he's not a disrupter, he's a peacemaker cause he's working toward the true peace, the only true peace that God recognizes.
In Luke 12:51 Jesus said, "Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you know, but rather division." Before you can have a true peace you're going to have a disruption. True peace can only come, I say it again, when truth reigns and everybody agrees to that truth.
You know, that isn't how it is today. Most people would say, "Well if you want to have peace, we just...we just have to not disagree. Let's all get together and only discuss what we agree on." That's kind of the thrust of ecumenism, let's strip away all the stuff that divides us. Let's get everybody together and let's not talk about what divides us. And all I want to do is talk about what divides us if it's doctrinal or if it has to do with biblical truth and righteousness.
Jesus never pronounced blessings on apostates who opposed Him. He didn't say, "You know, these Pharisees, they're really very religious guys and we just need to get together with them so that we can have a more united front here in Palestine." True peace is the child of truth. That's the only real peace that God recognizes. The other kind is a false peace, a phony peace because nothing is resolved. What is true and what is righteous is simply ignored...ignored. And so we may have to endure temporary trouble in order to bring real peace. That's what Jesus did.
Now would you agree that Jesus was the greatest peacemaker that ever walked? Sure because He came into the world and what kind of peace did He offer us? Peace with God. And was He a disturbing person in society? So disturbing that the whole of the population of Israel basically turned against Him and executed Him. The world would look at Him and say He was anything but a peacemaker, He was the one who troubled like the prophets of old. He was the one who troubled Israel.
So, biblical peacemakers...and I want you to get this...are not just quiet, easy-going people who don't want to make issues, who lack any understanding of doctrine, who lack justice or righteousness, who are nice but compromising, who are appeasers. No. In a sense, a true peacemaker will not tolerate the status quo if the status quo dishonors God. He seeks a peace that demands truth. He seeks to bring to light the conflict, to resolve it and gain the victory through the truth. That's...that's the meaning of peace here.
Now let's talk secondly, what is the menace to peace? And this is pretty simple stuff, this is just foundational. What is the menace to peace? What threatens this?
Well, in a word...sin--sin...whether it is sin in terms of rejection of truth, or sin in terms of conduct. Peace is that peace that is goodness and righteousness. The enemy of that peace is unrighteousness and sin. So in order for there to be a real peace, sin has to be dealt with. Sin in terms of how we think or what we believe, that is error, and sin in terms of how we behave.
Listen to James 3:18, "And the seed...he says...whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." Boy, that is so good. The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Peacemakers sow seeds of righteousness. They confront sin because the only true peace is the peace that is gained when sin has been confronted. There must be a dealing with sin.
And that would be true in your life. Go back to the first beatitude. And here you have the flow of someone coming to God, as it were. First of all, they are coming poor in spirit, that means they're bankrupt spiritually. They're overwhelmed with their sin. They realize their iniquity. They realize they are poverished when it comes to offering God anything commendable, that they have nothing by which to be credited as righteous. They have nothing by which to gain heaven to earn forgiveness. They come spiritually stripped and barren and bankrupt and destitute.
And secondly, they are mourning over that condition. This is the recognition of sin in an attitude of penitence.
Verse 5. the third beatitude, they are meek. Gentle being a word for meek. They are meek and broken and selfless and humbled.
Verse 6 says they hunger and thirst for righteousness, that is to say they know they don't have it. They are without it and it is what they crave.
They are then beneficiaries of God's mercy in verse 7, and they are purged and cleansed and become the pure in heart. And having become the pure in heart they then become the peacemakers. And now that they are the peacemakers, guess what? Verse 10, "Blessed are those who have been...what?...persecuted." It will always be the case that the true peacemakers will be persecuted because there is something that stands in the way of real peace and they know what that something is and in a word, it is sin. It's the sin of wrong believing and wrong behaving. Only when that sin is confronted and only when that sin is dealt with can someone genuinely bring about true peace. We are to bring then to the trouble hearts of men and women a true peace. Not an uneasy truce, not a false peace, the real thing.
To be a peacemaker you must then have gone through this beatitude flow. You must have had a view of yourself that is very different than most people. If you ask the average person what they think about themselves today, what do you think they'll say? "I feel pretty good about myself. I'm pretty proud of myself and what I've achieved." Because they've been taught that in order to be a whole and healthy person they have to have high self-esteem, right? They've always been proud. People have always been proud. Sinners have always been proud. Today it's just justified. It's just hailed as a great virtue. Where once it was sort of scorned, today it's the virtue above all virtues.
But quite the contrary to the way most people view themselves, if you're going to be a peacemaker you have to realize you have nothing to be proud about. You are the lowliest of the low. You are bankrupt, destitute, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting for a righteousness you don't have and desperately in need of God's mercy. You're really hating your own life. You realize you are a wretched soul, you are miserable. You deserve nothing. You have no rights, no privileges. You've achieved nothing. You hate your natural self. And you are not at all concerned with your rights, you're concerned with your needs. And you have a view of God. You come to God and you say, "I need mercy, I need mercy, I need mercy. If I get justice I'll be damned forever. Please give me mercy." And then having received that mercy you are cleansed, you become the pure in heart and now you can be a peacemaker.
A peacemaker then is one whose sins have been dealt with in Christ. He has been given a new nature, a pure heart. He has a whole new perspective. He views himself as humbled, as lowly and he comes begging for righteousness which he doesn't have and mercifully is granted that by God's grace. He is therefore because self is not the priority, because self is not important, because self is unimportant to him, he is willing to suffer wrong, he is willing to suffer injustice as Jesus did. And that's what verses 10, 11 and 12 tell us. Persecution, insults, all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me...that's okay, I'm nothing. Paul the apostle demonstrated that in Acts 20 when he said it really doesn't matter what happens to me, I know that when I get to Jerusalem I've been told that bonds and afflictions await me, none of those things move me. He said to the Philippians, "I know how to be abased, I know how to abound. I don't really care whether I have everything or nothing. I'm not an issue to me."
So it's a whole different approach to life. The peacemaker is one who has become a peacemaker because he has made peace with God. You know, these would be the least likely people that the world would select to be its peacemakers.
You know, I watch all these people sent all over the world to make peace. You watch this. They go to Northern Ireland and they get a bunch of people to sign a document and for a few weeks nobody kills somebody else. And then a bomb blows off and somebody dies and right back to where we started. Or you watch them go to the Middle East and sign these hopeless peace documents or wherever it might be, Bosnia or anyone else. And basically they're sending all the wrong people. They're not sending the peacemakers. What they need to do is just gather a group of Christians who can go over there and proclaim the gospel of peace. But that would never enter their minds because we're sort of the scum, the off scouring. Worldly kingdoms have always given their highest honors to the warriors, to the soldiers, to the proud and the forthright and the mighty and the dominant, the virile, the take-nothing-from-no-one people, the hard nose, the tough, self-sufficient. And they don't consider those who are Christians as having capacities to make peace. But only true peace comes through the gospel. We are really the peacemakers of the world.
Now we don't have to wait for the government to assign us. We can go anywhere anyway. The responsibility is to take every opportunity we have in life to be a peacemaker and use it for the glory of God, right?
So the issue, you see, is that men are at war with God. Women are at war with God in their hearts. And they'll never be able to have peace with each other unless they have peace with God. And so we are the peacemakers who tell them how to have peace with God because we have had peace with God in our own lives. Any time a person is at war with God, believe me, they'll be at war with everybody else. It can only be resolved when it starts in the heart. That's why Psalm 85:10, I love that statement, says, "Righteousness and peace have kissed each other." You're not going to have peace without righteousness. As long as a person is unrighteous, as long as a person is unforgiven, as long as a person is untransformed, as long as a person is in sin there will never be any peace because righteousness and peace kiss each other. Ultimately Jesus came to bring peace, but first of all there would always be a sword.
Well let me ask a third question, and this is a very obvious one as we think about this. Who is the source of peace? Who is the source of peace? We talk about what is the meaning of peace, what is the menace to peace, which is sin. Who is the source of peace?
Well we learned it this morning, didn't we? Second Corinthians 13:11, "The God of peace..." Listen t