Peacemakers and Persecuted

Last Week

Poor in Spirit

Mourning

Meek

Righteous

Mercifull

Pure of Heart

Today

Matthew 5:9–10 NKJV

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:9 NKJV

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.

War: Peace vs Peacemaker

World we live in of competition and conflict.

Peace is Rare. Peace maker is rarer.

3 kinds of people

Saw it, heard about it, made it.

The difference between Having Peace and being a Peacemaker.

Peace is personal. It is for you. Peace maker is personal AND public.

Peace is passive. Peacemaking is active.

Peace is not just not just the absence of conflict achieve

In your house

Avoid conflict, without dealing with the difficult issues.

I can leave first thing in the morning and come back late to avoid my lady becuase I don’t want to deal with the elephant in the room.

You will have peace, But you have not made peace.

In my community and workplace,

There’s a lady I have an issue with because she keeps sending me orders last minute. I avoid it for the sake of peace.

Peace requires you to confront it and fix the problem. That is how you MAKE it.

Sons of God

Children of God.

Matthew 5:10 NKJV

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs *is* the kingdom of heaven.

The first and the eight same reward and same time.

Matthew 5:3 NKJV

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The poor in spirit and persecuted are blessed right now, hence, the Kingdom of Heaven IS theirs.

This is not just a heavenly kingdom, it is an earthly one as well because those that are God’s children are citizens of his Kingdom, although we exist in this foreign land called earth.

Our soul is a Citizen of Heaven and we are here on earth as visitors.

Hebrews 11:13 NKJV

13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

We are strangers on this earth, Heaven is our home.

Philippians 3:20 NKJV

20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

I am south African, when I go to the USA, Am I American. Thailand? Mars? My passport still says I am South African. The Passport of my soul must say Heaven, I’m here on earth with a Temporary Visa.

But, we can apply for citizenship of that place and let our citizenship of our Home Country go. You can choose to be part of the Kingdom of the Evil One.

What determines your passport, your faith and works. The Poor in spirit and persecuted for Righteousness certainly have God’s Passport. The Peacemakers are his children and are natural citizens.

We can be living on the same planet, but some of us are good seeds bearing good fruit, and some of us are selfish weeks.

Matthew 13:38 ESV

38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

Matthew 5:10 NKJV

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This is far too common today. When you are persecuted for doing the right thing.

Mandela was sent to jail for figthing for his people.

Ghandi was killed for preaching peace between Muslims and Hindus.

Charlie Kirk was shot and killed for speaking what he thought was the Truth.

Israel, in the early days of the war, was being persecuted for defending themselves.

You are persecuted for preaching the Truth of God that people do not want to listen to.

They want the gospel that is nice and easy. Nothing too hard. .

A Heaven that accepts everyone. They want open borders where anyone can be part of the great kingdom of heaven, even people who will not obey our laws.

They want a gospel that is good for the sinner, but bad for the obedient.

A Kingdom with no laws, is good for the criminals but bad for the law abiding.

A Kingdom without border control good for illegal aliens but bad for citizens. .