The Rewards of the Kingdom #4

Today we look at the last 2 beatitudes that go completely against the worlds philosophy.

People are going to revile you, persecute you, and talk evil of you. Now that doesn’t sound like a blessing. It gets even more serious because God asks us to be peacemakers while this is going on.

Now, there is a reason these are placed last. These separate youth from maturity.

And let’s begin to read—verse 1:

Matthew 5:1–2 (KJV 1900)

1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Matthew 5:3 KJV 1900

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That is, “Blessed are those who see their spiritual need, that see that they are bankrupt in the sight of a righteous and a holy God.”

Matthew 5:4 KJV 1900

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Yes, blessed are those who are broken over their sins, who truly repent and turn from their sins.

Matthew 5:5 KJV 1900

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed indeed are those who are yielded to God and ready to accept His will for their lives.

Matthew 5:6 KJV 1900

6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

And our righteousness is Jesus Christ Himself, who is God’s answer to man’s sin.

Matthew 5:7 KJV 1900

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Those of us who have been shown mercy, show mercy. And thank God for the mercy we have received in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 5:8 KJV 1900

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

When we have come this route, then God purifies our heart and gives us a fresh vision of Himself, and God becomes a bright, living reality. And then we come to the Beatitudes for today—

Matthew 5:9–12 KJV 1900

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Peacemakers are the children of God.

The entire Bible is wrapped up in Peace.

Adam and Eve were placed in a beautiful garden where they lived in harmony and unity as one. But sin entered and we find they recognized their nakedness, differences, and their children even murdered each other.

Peace with God had been destroyed.

Peace with man had been destroyed.

However, at the cross of Calvary, Jesus, God in the flesh returned peace to our heart by becoming sin for us giving forgiveness and mercy by His grace.

When you finish the Bible and get to the book of Revelation, you will discover that Christ will establish His earthly kingdom and therefore bring peace back to earth for a 1,000 years.

Then, He will destroy this heaven and this earth and establish his eternal peace, forever and ever.

Peace all through the Bible is tied to God’s story of redemption.

Therefore, it is very important that we understand and and become peacemakers.

Our responsibility in this world is to bring peace to chaos, and troubled hearts in conflict.

So, what is Peace?

Peace could be defined as the absence of war, the absence of conflict. However, this really isn’t a definition but rather more of a description.

PEACE is not AVOIDANCE

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 AVOIDANCE 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 AVOIDANCE 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.

PEACE is not APPEASEMENT

and peace is not truce making. Now you can have a truce, and a truce is better than hot war perhaps. But that only means that is the ceasing of hostilities. And there can still be a cold war. It goes underground to fester and to grow, and then perhaps to break out again.

PEACE is not the ABSENCE OF WAR

Peace is not even the absence of war of any kind—hot or cold. There is no strife in a cemetery. But incidentally, that’s not peace. Every now and then you’ll go in a cemetery and you’ll see where it says on the headstone, “Rest in Peace.” Well, friend, it takes more than a grave marker to bring peace to a troubled soul. Peace is not just simply the absence of war.

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.

When the Bible uses the word peace, it is a positive word.

Peace isn’t so much the absence of things as it is the Presence of Something.

Peace 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.”

What is peace?

Peace is a right relationship. Listen carefully, because this is a technical point, but a very important point.

Peace is a right relationship with God that leads to right relationship with self and guides us in a right relationship with other people.

That’s what peace is. It is a sense of wellbeing.

And literally,

Peace is the result and fruit of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Remember, Righteousness is Jesus Christ. When we hunger and thirst after Jesus, really need Jesus, the result and fruit of that attachment to Him produces Peace.

Therefore,

Peace is a creative force PRODUCING goodness and well being.

Peace is an aggressive goodness.

James 3:17 (KJV 1900)

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

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,

Hebrews 12:14 KJV 1900

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

“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.

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.

Without purity of heart, their can be no peace.

Remember Psalm 85:10 from last week.

Psalm 85:10 KJV 1900

10 Mercy and truth are met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

There is a love affair between righteousness and peace; there is a marriage between righteousness and peace. And what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

You cannot have peace without Righteousness.

Notice, Jesus says, “Blessed are the Peacemakers” not the peaceful.

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.

So, why is there not an overwhelming peace?

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 active 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.

James 3:18 KJV 1900

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that 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.

Peacemakers are the children of God.

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 repentance.

Verse 5. the third beatitude, they are meek. Yielded to the will of God. They are meek and broken and selfless and humbled.

Verse 6 says they hunger and thirst for righteousness, that is to say we crave Jesus. The more we experience Jesus, the more we desire of Jesus.

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?

Matthew 5:10 KJV 1900

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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.

Peace comes not from OURSELVES, but from GOD.

2 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV 1900)

11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV 1900)

33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

Romans 15:33 (KJV 1900)

33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Peace belongs to God, it doesn’t belong to man. Only God is the source of peace and peace resides in God as an essential part of His nature.

Remember Eph 6:15

Ephesians 6:15 (KJV 1900)

15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

The gospel is that you can have peace with God because of the sacrifice of God

Colossians 1:20 KJV 1900

20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

You cannot be a peacemaker until you have made peace and become a child of God.

John 1:12–13 KJV 1900

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

2 Corinthians 5:18–20 KJV 1900

18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Be a Peacemaker.

Make peace with God, take the message of peace to the lost, and help other believers to make peace.

You can’t make peace always when you’re proclaiming the gospel, that’s a sword.

But in the issues of life that come and go, the little irritations of life, relational conflicts around you, particularly among believers, be a peacemaker.

Swallow your pride. Take the high ground and admit the wrong.

Forget the injury. Let love cover a multitude of sins. Don’t turn everything that’s ever done against you into some massive issue.

Jesus said have peace with one another, Mark 9:50.

Mark 9:50 KJV 1900

50 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.

Sometimes peacemakers don’t say anything. They just let love cover. Peacemakers are never defensive, never self-protective, never vengeful. Peacemakers don’t give excuses for what they did that might have caused conflict. Peacemakers are always willing to accept responsibility for what they’ve done. Peacemakers are always looking to how they can strengthen relationships. Be a peacemaker. Be a peacemaker.

When you are a peacemaker you bear a resemblance to God your Father.

You can say, “Now there’s a peacemaker because he’s like his Father, the God of peace.” He’s a peacemaker because he preaches the gospel of peace, because he seeks to bring peace to the relationships around him.That’s just another mark of a true Christian. True Christians are peacemakers and they are therefore called the sons of God because they alone reflect the nature of their Father. What a tremendous honor, isn’t it? I mean, to say, “You know, you resemble God … you’re a lot like Jesus Christ … you came to bring peace.”

The God of peace then has sent the Prince of peace to give us the Spirit of peace to make us peacemakers. And thus we become sons of God.

This is a great privilege. It does launch us into the next beatitudes. The reality is that though we are peacemakers we produce initial conflict because to bring the true peace we have to confront the enemy to peace which is sin.

Do you have peace with God? Do you? Remember you’ll never have peace until something is done about this problem of sin.