Peacemakers

Intro

James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

Matthew 5:9 NASB95

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

 In my reading I read a very interesting story. There were two men who had been taken captive by the Americans in World War II. They were captured in Germany with other German prisoners. They were brought back to the United States and they were put in a prisoner of war camp. But these two young men were different than all of the other German soldiers. They seemed to keep to themselves. They seemed to be frightened. They seemed to be bewildered. Nobody seemed to be able to communicate with them. The other Germans said they really didn’t know anything about them. And every attempt to talk to them was led to frustration, as they would shrink further and further back away from the interrogators. Nobody knew who they were. They couldn’t figure them out. They were just different. They didn’t even look like the other Germans. After a while, they brought in an expert. And he began to talk to them. He said, “No wonder you couldn’t talk with them. They are from Tibet. You don’t even understand their language.” This man understood their language, and then he got their story.

Let me tell you what happened to these two fellows. It’s really not funny, but it is funny in a way. They lived in Tibet, and they were tired of living there in their little village. They had never been anywhere or seen anything, shut off from the outside world, so they decided they would go from Tibet across the northern border. They found themselves in Russia during World War II. Immediately they were picked up by the Russian authorities. They didn’t know who these boys were. Before long, they were on a train headed towards the West. When they got there to outside a big city, they were given an army uniform. They were sent to boot camp. They shoved a rifle in their hand, and they were there on the Russian front fighting the Germans. They had never seen anything like that: people in hand-to-hand combat. They were shooting each other with guns. These young men, frightened, retreated; and when they retreated, they were captured by the Germans. And the Germans now took them, put them on another train, and they were traveling now, and they ended up in a German prisoner-of-war camp.

About that time the Allies had come with the invasion of Normandy. The Germans are retreating. They need every man that they can get. So they take these boys, shove a gun in their hand, and tell them to go fight the Americans. And so they’re out there now again, scared to death. They begin to retreat. And the Americans capture them. And this time they’re put in an American prisoner-of-war camp, and they end up in the United States. And finally, the whole secret is unlocked. These boys from Tibet came. They didn’t know anything. Finally, after they talked to them a while, they said, “Do you have any questions?” They said, “Yes, we have a question: Why are all these people trying to kill each other?” They couldn’t figure it out. “What on earth is happening?”1

1 Adrian Rogers, “The Priority of Peacemaking,” in Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust, 2017), Mt 5:9.

We are to be peacemakers, but what does that mean?

Why we wage war

we elevate self above everything

others, unity, God

we fight when we feel slighted or right

a treaty with the world

James 4 says, “So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.”

remember, “blessed are the humble”

elevate God above self

How do we combat this?

James 4:7-10 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Peacemakers

A peacemaker has two functions

living at peace with others

employing the other 6 beatitudes

one who seeks to restore peace between others

peace with others

Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

“making prompt apologies and acts of restitution, refusing to seek revenge, and humbly serving and loving one’s enemies.”

unity

you can disagree and still have unity, as long as what unifies you is stronger than the disagreement

unified in Christ, that bond should be tighter than any other

bring peace to others

“those who work for peace share in Christ’s ministry of bringing peace and reconciliation

Eph 2:13-17 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR;

righteousness is the fruit of peacemaking

James 3:18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Paul tells us to carry on the ministry of reconciliation

2 Cor 5:18-19 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Called Sons of God

One who is a disciple or follower of someone, with the implication of being like the one whom they are following

we are to follow the example of Christ, the example of God

when we do that

proof by action to being Son’s of God

to be followers of God

Entire book of James

Making our actions the fruit of our faith

being a peacemaker is doing just that

The example of Christ

bringing peace between mankind and God

by sacrificing himself so we could be reconciled with God.