The Peacemakers

It has been almost 28 years since Rodney King uttered a phrase that has been collectively misremembered as, “Can’t we all just get along?”

It was an exasperated statement by a man whose violent arrest led to riots in the streets of Los Angeles.

I would suggest that in the minds of most, things haven’t gotten much better in 28 years.

Although LA isn’t on fire right now, Facebook makes it seem like the rest of the world is.

Everywhere you turn, you are confronted with one politician slamming another, Facebook fights, and broken homes.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone, or a group of people, who would take on the responsibility and task of helping bring peace to this broken world?

What if I told you that part of living as a citizen of the kingdom of God is that you and I are responsible to fight to bring peace?

We are looking at the seventh beatitude this morning, found in . Read it with me this morning...

Of all the Beatitudes, this one is probably the most likely for both believers and those who don’t follow Christ to agree would be a good thing.

Some of you may remember the Los Angeles riots after the arrest of Rodney King in 1992.

In the

After all, don’t we all want people to be at peace?

As with the other beatitudes, though, we will see that the biblical picture of a peacemaker doesn’t line up with the ideas our culture would hold about what that looks like.

The peace Jesus is referring to here isn’t a passive peace that keeps to itself; rather, it is an active peace that seeks to spread out around it to others.

So, then, if you are a citizen of God’s kingdom, you are supposed to help make peace around you.

For you to do that, you have to first...

1) Receive peace with God.

It is impossible to make peace if you don’t have it to start with.

There are many in our culture who talk about making peace with yourself. They advocate meditation and other contemplative practices to get your heart and mind to where they are as still as water.

You have achieved inner tranquility, and that is your basis for showing peace to others.

Can we be honest, though? That doesn’t work.

The peace your heart seeks cannot be found by looking inward; it is something you must be given.

Author Matt Perman addresses this in his book What’s Best Next. He mentions a productivity system that claims to be able to give you that “mind like water” if you put everything down on lists and clear your inbox and everything else.

There are always dark parts of our heart that we know aren’t right, no matter what we try to use to soothe them.

The problem he found with his work is the same problem we find with everything we do: we can’t ever get it all together.

Once you think you have everything figured out, something else falls apart, whether that is staying on top of your to do list, trying to be a good person, or anything else we try to get together.

So, how do we find peace?

Here’s what Perman says:

“According to the Scriptures, our ultimate peace of mind comes in the same way our justification does: through faith. That is, our ongoing peace of mind comes apart from works, just as our justification does.” (Matt Perman, What’s Best Next)

Perman is speaking primarily of our peace of mind here, but in showin

You don’t make peace with God; you receive it as a gift.

That’s what Paul is getting at in:

Philippians 4:6–7 CSB

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

You see, God is the ultimate source of the peace that we need.

The peace he offers, though is much greater than simply peace of mind, although that is part of it.

We need God to give us a lasting, actual peace in our relationship with him.

Here’s the challenge: peace and sin cannot coexist.

Sin, remember, is anything we do that goes against the character and nature of God.

Our sin breaks our relationship with God. Apart from Christ, here’s what is true of us:

Isaiah 59:2 CSB

But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.

We have talked about God’s righteousness several times recently, and it comes up here again.

Because God always does the right thing and is the standard of what is right and wrong, our sin puts a barrier between us and him.

We cannot have peace with God until our sin is removed.

God can’t just ignore it, because then he would no longer be just and righteous.

The only way for us to have peace with God was for Jesus to take our sin upon himself and take it out of the way.

Romans 5:8–10 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

If an offense is too serious to overlook or has damaged our relationship, we need

Look at what God did to extend peace to us: he died in our place to take our sin, paying for it on the cross and making the way available for us to come back to a right relationship with him.

to resolve personal or relational issues through confession, loving correction, and forgiveness.

Let’s think about this in terms of a king and a kingdom, since that is the context of the Sermon on the Mount.

In our sin, we were at war with God because we chose to rebel against his leadership of our lives.

How do opposing sides usually settle a war? There is a peace treaty of some kind that stipulates what each side is going to do to make this go away.

Here’s what is so amazing about being reconciled to God: we don’t make peace with God by negotiating a treaty; we receive peace with God as a gift he extends to us.

We don’t make peace with God by negotiation some treaty; we receive peace with God as a gift he extends to us.

We come to the table and offer our unconditional surrender, and he gifts us the right to be citizens of his kingdom.

Not just citizens, but what does Jesus say in this verse? “Sons of God.” We are citizens and sons by the grace of God.

In case you are wondering why the Bible just highlights “sons” here, it is helpful to remember that in those days, daughters didn’t enjoy the same legal rights and receive the same inheritance as their brothers.

So, when Jesus says that true peacemakers will be called sons of God, that means men and women both will have the full rights and privileges of sonship.

We were at war, we were enemies, and now we have a costly peace that is given to us.

Just like the other things we have seen in the Sermon on the Mount so far, we have the “already/not yet” tension here.

We have peace with God, but we don’t always rest in that peace. We still sin, which disrupts our closeness with God and pushes away our peace.

However, when God establishes his kingdom on earth fully forever, here’s what we will experience:

Isaiah 32:17 CSB

The result of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.

is 32:17

We experience some of that peace now, but we still get off track.

One day, however, we will know that peace completely.

This just sets the stage, though, for what Jesus is saying here.

The peace we have with God forms the foundation for our ability to be peacemakers in the world, but that isn’t the end of it.

He isn’t just calling you to peaceful tranquility, some inner peace, that allows you to become a monk, living in isolation, at peace with God and ignoring the world around you.

Instead, God calls you to turn that peace that you have been shown outward and begin to...

2) Make peace with others.

Once we are at peace with God, we can begin living out this command and start making peace with others.

That is the main point behind this beatitude: because we have experienced God’s peace, we are ready to extend that to others.

There is an incredibly helpful book by Ken Sande called, appropriately enough, The Peacemaker.

In it, he gives an incredibly detailed explanation of the various ways we go about trying to make peace in broken relationships.

We don’t have time to look at it in depth, but I would encourage you to pick up a copy of the book and work through it.

For this morning, I just want to introduce you to his diagram of various responses we have to conflict.

Here it is…<<show graphic on screen>>

This is the Slippery Slope of Conflict Resolution.

What I mainly want you to notice is that there are three different areas of responses we can have when we have conflict with someone else.

On the far right-hand side of the diagram, you have Peace-Breaking responses like assault, litigation, or even murder. This end of the spectrum is characterized by attack.

Almost everyone would say that these are not good ways to handle conflict, and they definitely aren’t what you would expect from a peacemaker.

In the middle, you find good, biblical responses to conflict that would reflect the peacemaking heart that Jesus is commending in this verse.

I want to look at the far left side of the spectrum, though, because this is where it gets a little interesting.

Here’s also where we run into a conflict with what our world often thinks of as peace.

In fact, this is where my temperament naturally goes.

We are told that peace is found in, as The Beatles famously sang, letting things be.

As Rodney King indicated, we all just need to get along, right?

Peacemaking, then, would mean we do whatever it took to avoid conflict.

Look at the three responses in this category: Suicide, flight, and denial.

The most extreme is to completely remove ourselves from the conflict by taking our own life.

We can try to run away from the problems, and we can even deny that they exist.

Those responses aren’t actually making peace, they are faking it.

They may seem to make things better for a while, but it doesn’t do anything but cover up the issue.

Nothing gets resolved, and it usually makes it worse.

It’s like when your car starts making a weird noise, so you just turn the radio up louder until the engine finally blows up.

You aren’t making peace, you are faking it.

Jesus says that those who are a part of his kingdom are those who actively strive to make peace. They don’t break it through hurting others, and they don’t fake it through avoidance.

Instead, they lean into the discomfort and work on the problem.

Just like the noisy engine, you either have to spend the time and energy to get it working again yourself, or if necessary, bring in someone else to help.

Initially, that means you may have uncomfortable conversations as you work through what has disrupted the relationship.

Remember what we have said: you can’t have peace without righteousness.

The source of the conflict is sin, whether it is yours, the other person’s, or some combination of both.

Until that sin is dealt with, you cannot have peace.

That’s the middle section of this diagram: the right ways we make peace. Although Peacemaker ministries highlights six different responses, I just want to focus on two:

However, you are operating out of the mercy you have been shown and the peace you have with God, so you have a strong base to stand on that guides your reactions to bring about reconciliation.

Overlook - not run and hide, but making a conscious choice to forgive and move on

Reconciliation - “If an offense is too serious to overlook or has damaged our relationship, we need to resolve personal or relational issues through confession, loving correction, and forgiveness.”

Most conflicts we encounter can be handled with one of these two responses, although we sometimes need to take it further than that.

to resolve personal or relational issues through confession, loving correction, and forgiveness.

Here’s what makes this even more difficult: we have to seek peace with everyone we can, even those who we would consider our enemies.

We will see that even more clearly when we get into after Easter, but for now, think back to where we stood when God made peace with us!

Romans 5:8–10 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

rom 5:

So, if God was willing to go so far as to die in our place while we were his enemies, then we should seek to extend that same kind of grace and reconcile with those who are our enemies.

Our attempts to make peace don’t always work out, though, which is why God would teach us through Paul:

Romans 12:18 CSB

If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

There is a lot of comfort in realizing that I won’t be able to maintain peace with everyone.

However, I am afraid that we are prone to turn too quickly to this verse as a defense.

Before you resign yourself to a contentious relationship with someone, ask yourself this question: Have I done everything I can to make this relationship right?

Dig into it and make sure you can answer that question, “Yes,” with a good conscience before God.

Let’s do a quick check of our hearts here: Where would you put most of your responses to conflict? Are you peace-breaking, peace-faking, or peace-making?

Is there one particular relationship or area of your life that is out of bounds? Maybe you do fine at work or at school, but with your spouse or your kids, you don’t react in a God-honoring way.

I want you to get specific here: what is the first area you need to seek to make peace in this week? Is it a long-standing conflict with a family member? A tense relationship across the office? Problems with someone in your dorm?

Start thinking now about how you can make peace this week.

Peacemakers strive to help bring peace to relationships around them.

However, if we are pursuing true, biblical peace with others, then we will also strive to...

3) Help them find peace with God.

The heart of a peacemaker goes beyond just peace with other people and into helping others find the peace that Christ offers.

Remember, we cannot make someone right with God. We cannot save them, we cannot forgive their sins, we cannot convert or condemn someone. Those are things only God can do.

However, in his incredible plan, God offers us the privilege and entrusts us with the responsibility of being his messengers.

Our hearts as peacemakers should echo Paul’s heart, when he declares:

2 Corinthians 5:20 CSB

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”

If we are jerks, or if we never confront things that are wrong and sinful, then we have no ability or standing to challenge someone to be right with God.

If we haven’t demonstrated how the peace God has given us has transformed our relationships, why on earth would someone listen to us when we try to tell them that God can give them peace?

The flip side is true as well. Remember when we talked about the Philippian jailer? When he saw the mercy that Paul and Silas showed him, he wanted to follow the God they served.

Paul gave similar instructions to Timothy when teaching him how to deal with opponents in the church:

2 Timothy 2:24–25 CSB

The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth.

2 tim 2:24-

Instead of reacting with a peace-breaking or faking response, we are to respond with gentleness so their hearts will be receptive to what God can do.

What does Jesus promise for those who spend their lives as peacemakers?

That we will be called sons of God.

The older I get, the more I hear of my dad in me. Some of my mannerisms, the phrases I use—it is surreal to hear them come out of my mouth and sound like my dad.

That’s some of what Jesus is getting at here.

We serve a God who makes peace with humanity when we least deserve it. He has adopted us into his family.

When we reflect that to those around us by making peace wherever we can, we are acting just like our Father.

1 John 3:1 CSB

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.

We are his children, and when we make peace like he has made with us, we are acting just like our dad.

Let’s drive it home, then.

I encouraged you earlier to think of one area in one relationship where you need to be a peacemaker this week.

As we take some time to reflect before we wrap up our service this morning, what is the first concrete step you need to make to set that right? Pray about that now.

Is there a call to make, a meeting to arrange? Do you need to slip out of your seat this morning and grab someone here in this room and go find a quiet place to sit and talk before you leave?

Perhaps you can’t do that yet because you haven’t first received peace with God.

You cannot earn peace with him; all you can do is surrender, stop fighting, and receive the gifts of life in his kingdom that he offers.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.