Jesus and the Upside Down Kingdom, Part 7
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 39:06
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· 5 viewsThe adopted children of God are peacemakers. Our peacemaking flows from a heart that has been adopted into God's family and seeks to reconcile with others.
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“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
The adopted children of God are peacemakers. Our peacemaking flows from a heart that has been adopted into God family and seeks to reconcile with others.
When WWII ended in Japan on September 2nd, 1945.
After Japan surrendered in World War II, some Japanese soldiers in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands kept fighting against local police, government soldiers, and Allied troops there to help set up new governments.
Over the years that followed, they found many of these soldiers hiding in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The last one we know of, Private Teruo Nakamura, gave up in 1974.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are the ones who strive for peace because they will be designated sons of God.
Notice that Jesus does not say here, "bless those who are at peace” in some subjective sense.
Jesus is not declaring here a kind of inner peace and calm.
Rather, it is those who make peace with others.
This text also lands squarely against our natural tendency.
To a people who could have easily thought,
“Blessed are those who have the biggest weapon, because they should have peace.”
What is required for peace?
Before we talk about peace, we must understand the hostility that exists in our world.
Secular humanism thinks of peace only as horizontal.
You must recognize the enmity that destroys peace.
You must recognize the enmity that destroys peace.
We need to define the problem appropriately.
A longing for peace comes from the lack thereof.
We don’t have to spend long to understand this.
The problem is the enmity that exists in three distinct spheres.
Enmity within the World. (Genesis 3:15)
Enmity within the World. (Genesis 3:15)
Genesis 3:15 (ESV)
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
Every war exists because of this war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
Though is enmity between the world.
Jesus does not primarily have in mind the ceasing of wars.
This is an implications but the immediate application is for those who will inherit the kingdom that He is describing.
He is not describing the ceasing of wars, but ultimately what undergirds all wars.
The ongoing war between humans.
Enmity between Man and Woman. (Genesis 3:16)
Enmity between Man and Woman. (Genesis 3:16)
Genesis 3:16 (ESV)
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
The real source of all enmity between us as humans finds it origin in this final layer of conflict.
Peace Faking
Peace Faking
These people strive more for appeasement than true peace.
This is not true peace.
Peace faking is looking at the problems and refusing to address them to avoid “rocking the boat.”
Peace fakers aim at appeasement which are not the same.
Peace Breaking
Peace Breaking
These people are justice hungry and demand justice at any cost.
They run down every argument to make sure justice has been enacted.
Enmity between God and Man. (Genesis 3:24)
Enmity between God and Man. (Genesis 3:24)
The animosity that exists in humanity is between God and man.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
The reason that man dies is he is now under a curse.
Began with our first father, Adam, the curse spread to all humanity.
The curse was that since they rebelled in the garden.
They shall experience life apart from God.
He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
All enmity in the world finds its origins with this enmity between God and man.
Unless this enmity is first reconciled, there will never be true peace in any other sphere of life.
These enmities undergird all that Jesus is speaking of here.
Jesus doesn’t tell us how to become son’s of God.
Jesus doesn’t tell us how to even be peacemakers here.
Rather, He tells us that the son’s of God will be peacemakers.
How do we begin to restore peace?
You must restore peace according to God’s design.
You must restore peace according to God’s design.
God has a particular design in making peace with humanity.
He doesn't approach the project of peace in a haphazard fashion.
Rather He plans and ordains how peace will be brought about.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
God’s design reconciles Himself to sinners.
God’s design reconciles Himself to sinners.
In the book of Romans, Paul describes the faith that Abraham had.
His faith is said to make him righteous…
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
But it’s not just that Abraham believed and God just now accepts him because he’s not an atheist.
It’s not saying that God just accepts Abraham because he tried harder than others.
But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
It was written for all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
“Both the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are necessary for forgiveness of sins and justification. When God raised Christ from the dead, it showed that he accepted Christ’s suffering and death as full payment for sin.
At the cross, God had directed his wrath against Christ, but now, in the resurrection, God showed his favor to Christ and to all who would believe in him. This can be true because all who believe in Christ are united with him.” (ESV Footnote)
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The fruit of our declared righteous is a life that has peace with God.
We have peace with God where we once had hostility.
We have peace where we once had enmity.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
If you’re a book keeper, you understand this kind of peace.
A book keeper every month has to go and reconcile the books.
This kind of accounting reconciliation is the sense that word “reconcile” has.
The kind of “reconciliation” here is that of an accountant reconciling the books.
It does NOT teach that all people will be brought to a peaceful relationship with Jesus.
We are all reconciled to God whether in peace by his forgiving reconciliation.
Or through judgment in his judging reconciliation.
Our sin is like a debt that continues to increase.
Without Jesus, we could never have paid the debt that we owed ourselves.
But since Jesus has paid this debt in His death, we can be presented as “holy and blameless.”
The reconciliation that Jesus brought was purchased for us in His death on the cross.
He made peace with the world by the “blood of his cross.”
The cross becomes the instrument by which true peace is apprehended for a world filled with animosity.
Colossians 1:21–22 (ESV)
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death…
Christians are those who know their former animosity with God.
Christians are those who know the alienation and hostility they once had with God.
But Jesus Christ reconciled us by His death on the cross.
You and I are ONLY made right before God through Jesus’ reconciling work on the cross.
Jesus is now the bridge connects the gap that sin created between God and man.
Do you want to be a peacemaker?
The only way to truly be a peacemaker is to lay down your weapons.
Lay down your weapons and come to the Father by faith in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Come out of your cave of self-pity, self-deception, and self-reliance.
Come out of your dark abyss of trying to make peace on your own.
Come to the reconciling Father who loves peacemaking.
Come to the Lord Jesus who has made peace by His blood.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Who are the sons of God?
The sons of God are then those who have been taken from the world and brought to the Father by faith in Jesus Christ.
The sons of God are those who have been declared righteous by faith in the Son of God.
Reconciliation is amazing. But this is more wondrous and more amazing. Reconciliation is not the end. Beyond reconciliation, we have access to the Father.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God’s Way of Reconciliation, 316
God’s design adopts children into His family.
God’s design adopts children into His family.
Adoption is a beautiful picture of the Gospel.
Adoption assumes that the children were at one time NOT a part of a family but have been received into that family.
Adoption assumes that the providing parent must pay everything in order to obtain the child.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
It is assumed that there are those who are currently not the children of God.
There are those who are aliens and foreigners before God.
But its all those who come to Jesus in faith that have the authority to be called children of God.
Jesus’ point is not that all men are God’s children by nature, but that his committed disciples have been adopted into God’s family by grace.
J. I. Packer
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
We are made children of God by the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God then testifies to us that we are indeed His children.
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
[A]s God’s adopted children we are loved no less than is the one whom God called his “beloved Son”
J. I. Packer
You will do peacemaking as adopted children.
You will do peacemaking as adopted children.
True children resemble their heavenly Father.
Just like Jesus refers to the Pharisee’s as looking like their daddy.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
But the children of God are not like the children of this world any longer.
They are children that have recognized their bankruptcy of spirit.
They are children that mourn their sin and folly.
They are children that are gentle before God because they trust their heavenly Father.
They are children that hunger and thirst after God’s righteousness.
They are merciful and pure before God because they reflect the character of their heavenly Father.
We don't work to get to heaven but we do come out of the sloughs of self-reliance.
Like the prodigal son in the pigpen of self-dependance, we come to the Father that has reconciled us to Himself.
Galatians 5:22 (ESV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…
We don't earn God’s favor by making peace with those around us.
It’s actually flipped on it’s head.
Those who have first received peace will seek to make peace with all hostility around them.
We don’t do peacemaking to earn God’s favor.
We do peacemaking because we have been made peace with.
Our identity as peacemakers drives our actions of peacemaking.
We peace make with those around us because we are God’s children.
Since our Father in Heaven is a peacemaker, His adopted children will also be peacemakers.
Here are three particular kinds of peacemaking we need to come to grips with.
Peacemaking that protects unity.
Peacemaking that protects unity.
Our peacemaking with others spring from a heart that has first received peace with God.
A Christians peacemaking is a fruit of a heart that has first been made to dwell at peace with others.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Church Family
The church is made up of people from various walks of life.
Various political opinions.
Various personalities.
And yet the kind of unity that Jesus prayed for needs peacemaking within our midst.
Without peacemaking in our midst we will never have unity.
Example - Paul and John Mark
Acts 15:37–39 (ESV)
Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other.
Don’t miss this.
There was a sharp disagreement that forced them to separate for a season.
Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
The same John Mark that they had a sharp disagreement over, they are now reconciled.
Peacemaking does not always work.
Keep in mind that Jesus promised His message would bring division when He said…
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
The message of the gospel is divisive.
It’s divisive to say that Jesus is Lord.
To find your life is to lose it, but to lose your life for Jesus’ sake is to find it.
This beautiful paradox is the Christian life.
As we die to sin and live to Christ, we find life.
But this demands us to live for Christ in such a way that will be divisive to others.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Paul doesn’t say to be peacemakers because it is strategic.
He doesn’t say to be peacemakers because it will win the world.
It WON’T win the world.
He doesn’t say to be peacemakers because its convenient.
Because it isn’t.
We are to be peacemakers because we reflect the care and
Unbeliever
I am curious what you think of this kind of peacemaking.
What do you make of true peacemaking?
Peacemaking in the face of hostility.
Peacemaking in the face of hostility.
Non-confrontation and peacemaking
We live in a day when it is cool to “cancel” someone.
If you don’t like someone in your life, just “cut them out”
Or maybe you don’t use this language.
But we have all experienced the kind of avoiding and ignoring those we are opponents of.
But is this the kind of peacemaking that Jesus desires for us?
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Do you see it again?
The connection between peacemaking and the declaration of sons of your Father.
Peacemaking seeks to build bridges to those who have burned them in our lives.
In this text there is a bear minimum of praying for the person.
Peacemaking seeks to mend what has been strained.
When we make peace in this manner, we reflect our Father.
When we press into the tense relationships.
We reflect the adopted status within the family of God.
Peacemaking when differences arise.
Peacemaking when differences arise.
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
Paul likely has in mind her the former requirements of the law in regard to food laws and ceremonial laws.
He would even agree with the “strong” person but says that the strong needs to bear with the weak person.
The goal here is for the “weak” and the “strong” to prefer the other person over their own preferences.
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Are you at odds with anyone today? If so, how is God asking you today to reconcile with them?
Are you so stung with pain from a quarrel or injury done to you that you cannot bear to think of speaking to that person?
Are friends or family members likewise alienated from each other?
How could you look to the judgment of God the Father to effect peace in your relationships?