Blessed are the peacemakers :: Matthew 5:9

Blessedness in the Upside-Down Kingdom

Well, it is an honor to be with all of you this morning on Reformation Day. Over 500 years ago, we learned about the Protestant Reformation and we never want to elevate any human beings. But when you study church history, you just see how Christ has been building his church for the past 2 ,000 years.

So it is an honor to be in the pulpit on the Lord's Day with you all. And I'm excited to remind us all that we are going through a sermon series called Upside Down. If you would, open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 5.

We are studying through the Sermon on the Mount and we are just right past the halfway point in the Beatitudes. We are to the seventh Beatitude this morning. And we have some guests this morning. So I just want to catch up to speed while we're calling this Upside Down.

The way that Jesus is teaching how we are to have true blessedness, true happiness, is totally upside down with how the rest of the world thinks. The way that they are pursuing after happiness always leaves them empty, incomplete.

And Jesus says all that begins with having a right relationship, a right standing with God Almighty. And so I want us to look through the Beatitudes each and every Lord's Day as a particular unit. I want us to see how the Beatitudes build on one another.

So let's examine verses 3 through 12 this morning. Jesus said, 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.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who are before you. Let's pray again this morning. Heavenly Father, we praise you for your awesomeness, your holiness, your transcendence.

And yet you are so loving towards us. Father, I pray that you would bless our time this morning, that you would give us ears to hear, God, that you would send your spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds to be able to receive your word and that it would go out and edify your people this morning.

Peace with God Through Justification by Faith

I pray these things in your name. Amen. So if you would look back with me at verse nine, this is the seventh of the eight beatitudes where Jesus once again says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

And so you've probably caught on the typical structure each and every week as we really are reminded of what it means to be blessed, to have true spiritual happiness with our creator. And then we look at these the first and second half of each beatitude.

So I really want to emphasize two points with the peacemakers here. Number one, peacemakers possess peace with God. And that leads into number two. Peacemakers share the gospel of peace with others. And I think the thing that fundamentally separates man from God is sin.

We understand this by even going back to Genesis chapter three. But mankind naturally loves his sin to live however he wants to, as long as he doesn't have to acknowledge God in the process. But peacemakers are absolutely different.

They're not like anybody else in the rest of the world. The peacemakers are blessed because they and they alone have their sins forgiven and they stand justified before God, just as if we have never sinned.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans five verse one, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I love so much about Reformation Day.

We think back through the five solas. We are saved by faith alone. This is a faith apart from any works that we could do. This is a loving faith. This is a repentant faith. And this is the key for us to have peace with God almighty.

And earlier I said the unbelieving world doesn't acknowledge God as they live their life, but it's so much more deeper than that. They live in their natural state and they have a deep hatred for God. It's not just failing to acknowledge him, but there is a deep hatred for the true God.

The world is not at peace with God, but is at war with him. I think it's good to kind of think about peace and war as kind of being polar opposites to one another. James four four says, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend with the world makes himself an enemy of God. The prophet Isaiah says there is no peace for the wicked. And so that's the strong distinction that I want us to carry this morning.

The peacemakers, the Christians, the true citizens of the kingdom of heaven are radically different than the world. They are at war with God. But as Christians, we have that peace, that peace with God that surpasses all understanding.

And so I talk about that word peace for just a moment. It means to have harmony with one another. We are free from the raging havoc of war with our creator. And so that term peace actually comes from the Old Testament.

It comes from the word shalom. And shalom actually implies more with just having a lack of conflict, but means wholeness, completeness, to be in covenant relationship. And so we realize that God is the God of peace.

The Old Testament calls him Yahweh shalom. And he is able to make us complete, not lacking anything when we are in relationship with him. The Apostle Paul says in First Thessalonians, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He calls you. He is faithful. He will surely accomplish this. And so this I want to tie this back to our beatitude this morning, which says blessed are the peacemakers that is referring to us.

And so we talked about that word peace to be at harmony with God, to have that covenant relationship. But this is a slightly different word that Jesus uses. He's talking about the peacemakers. And so in my study, I thought I want to see how many times this word is used in the New Testament.

And this is the only time that it is used. But there's one other time where it's a very, very close. And I want to draw your attention to Colossians chapter one, verse 20. This is the only other time that the word peacemaker in the Greek is used in just a slightly different form.

And so I actually want to start in Colossians 119 to give us a little context where we read for in him, Jesus Christ, 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.

Now, here in English, we see the two words making peace. But this is almost identical to the word in our beatitude peacemaker. Paul reminds Christians of this very important truth in the next verse. He says, and you who were once or once were alienated and hostile, right?

That word hostile, that that's the word for enemy or to be at enmity with God. Back in James four, four, we were once alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. And so this kind of goes back to this mentality that there is a a vast chasm between the world and Christians.

It's not just failing to acknowledge who God is, but there is a deep rank hatred, a sinfulness burning in unbelievers hearts and minds and their inner being against God. And that is reflected in their evil deeds and how they live their life.

But we need to remind ourselves that was once us. We have been saved by grace alone. Amen. And we must remind ourselves with this truth as we as peacemakers. We know that we have peace with God, but we also want to share this good news of peace with other people.

And so this is God's amazing grace working out in our lives that was even marked out before the ages began, before the foundations of the world. This is an amazing grace, Paul says in Second Timothy. God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

This is an amazing, sovereign grace of God. And this kind of, in my mind, summarizes the first major point. We are peacemakers because we have peace with God, primarily because Jesus was the peacemaker for us.

Sharing the Gospel of Peace

And so this this moves on to our second point. Peacemakers share the gospel of peace with others. I think that this makes sense, right? We have experienced this great peace and love with God. So we are compelled to share that peace with other people so they can have peace with God.

And as Christians, we are commanded to put on the whole body armor of God. A lot of us are familiar with what the Apostle Paul says. I love what he says. Believers are commanded to put on as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

And so the imagery is that we should be ready to go no matter where we are going. We share this good news with other people. One of Paul's major points in Romans chapter 10 is how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

And we share the gospel of peace because we love others, but we also have a deep desire to be obedient with what the Lord has commissioned us to do. I'm wanting to paint a picture of what a biblical peacemaker is.

It's so different than how the world sees what a peacemaker is. The world says peacemakers are people that are generally kind, but they're very passive about things. They don't really want to get involved.

These are people that never talk about anything controversial. These are the people that will tolerate one another at all costs. This is kind of the worldly idea of what a peacemaker is, and it's nowhere close to what the Bible teaches us about what a peacemaker is.

Some of those things may be good on the surface level, but we love other people so much that we want to talk with them about the hard truths about our standing before God. The scripture tells us that we are at enmity with God if we're not in Christ.

We are at war. Who's going to tell them? The Bible says that beautiful are the feet of those that preach the good news, the gospel of peace. This is a lost and dying world that needs to hear the good news.

And a part of that good news, the scripture teaches us, is that there is salvation in no one else. For there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, friend, I want to tell you, the world does not see that as good news.

They say, you're trying to tell me that there's only one way of being saved. We're saying, yes, the truth is very exclusive. That is the nature of truth. They're not going to see us as peacemakers. They're going to see us as being intolerant, not being kind and loving towards people.

But we have to show them by our character that we do love them, that we're not wanting to cause strife, that we have this sense of us that actually wants to live peaceably with all men. Our actions need to match the message that we are preaching.

And I think if we think very gospel centered, the gospel of peace unites us first together with God. And then we can have peace, unity with other people. I think about our church family and other believers.

Peace unites, but peace also divides. OK, later in Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter 10, verse 34. I think Jesus says something that caught his audience pretty off guard. He said, do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth.

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Wait a minute. Isn't Jesus the prince of peace? Didn't the angel declare at his birth glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased?

Absolutely. Jesus is the peacemaker that we have restored with God Almighty. But what is equally true is that Jesus is earthly ministry and the gospel message has called us to be divided from the rest of the world.

In this scripture, Jesus mentions a sword, and this is not a literal sword, so you can rest easy there. He's talking about a sword that represents separation that comes between those who believe in Christ and those who do not, even in the midst of someone's own family.

Now, I was looking at Luke's parallel account to this passage, and Jesus says it like this. Do not think that I've come to give peace on earth. No, I tell you, but rather division for from in one house, there will be five divided, three against two, two against three.

They will be divided father against son, son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother. Now, why is Jesus bringing up the family dynamic? I think for most of us, that is what we cherish the most.

We love our families and we ought to. But Jesus's point is that you must be willing to deny yourself and to take up your cross daily, no matter what the cost of discipleship, no matter what your family thinks about your faith in Jesus Christ.

For some people, the cost is very, very heavy. And for some of us, that may cause incredible division in our families and your families may hate you for it. But true godly repentance is counting the cost of following Jesus Christ and willing to forsake all.

And so even though we are willing to divide over the truth of the gospel, we do so lovingly with a peaceful disposition towards other people. And this direction allows us, I think this actually connects back to the previous beatitude, the sixth and seventh beatitude build on one another.

We talked about this last time. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. That pure in heart is a deep desire for holiness. After we have been made right with God, justified, we now live this life of sanctification.

We desire holiness to be more and more like Christ. And you know what that looks like? Being at peace with other people, loving on them. Last week, a key verse that I read to really tie these beatitudes together came from Hebrews 12, verse 14.

The writer of Hebrews said, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. So whatever we do, God calls us to peace. Even though the gospel divides, we are not seeking to cause strife with others.

I'd like for you to make a note, you don't have to turn there, but I love this proverb, especially in light of this beatitude this morning. Proverbs 12, verse 20 speaks to this principle. Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.

Now, that phrase plan peace is so wonderful because when we're interacting with other people and things that are wrong, Christians, we ought to be strategizing, thinking of ways to bring peace in this situation.

It's things that we think about in advance. That's what we try to do. We don't want division in terms of relationship. Now, we stand on truth, but we love one another. These are things that we plan and strategize to bring about.

But this verse that says, once again, deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy. I think this highlights the big distinction between the righteous Christians in the world.

Those who are in the world once again are at war with God. They plan by deceit. Right. So this does not allow them to have joy because what they are planning and doing is risky. There's no rest for the wicked.

There's no peace. There's no joy there. But the righteous, we have peace. We see peace as a gift from God. So we cherish this as a gift. We protect peace and we don't have any fear because God is sovereign and he holds us in his hand and we possess a joy that is everlasting.

And so back to our beatitude this morning, so much more can be said with blessed are the peacemakers. This is the first half. And so this kind of moves us to the second half because having peace with God results with that eternal joy and blessing as God's children.

Sons and Daughters of God by Adoption

One day in anticipation for God's kingdom, the peacemakers shall be called sons of God. Now, I just have to briefly mention there is a cliche that I hear from time to time and it really bothers me. Aren't we just all God's children?

No, we're not right, especially if we understand the vast distinction between the world and God's children, Christians. And I think the confusion comes from what the Bible does teach that we are all of God's creation.

And as human beings, we are all made in God's image. But that doesn't declare us children of God. I think, to be honest, this is probably one of the most unbiblical teachings that a lot of professing Christians actually believe.

And so I just want to share with you. First, John 310 makes this abundantly clear by this is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Right. The scripture is absolutely clear. There's two types of children in the world, those of Satan and those who are born again, those who are declared sons and daughters of God. And this is a very important teaching when it comes to Paul's articulation of how we have been adopted into a new family.

Paul says in Ephesians 2, we were once dead and our sins and our trespasses following the prince of the power of the air, Satan. That is now at work in the sons of disobedience who were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind.

By our fallen nature, remember, we've talked about how this we gravitate towards evil. We gravitate to the things that are against God and man's natural nature aligns with the will of Satan. He is the one at work in the sons of disobedience.

And so listen to how Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in John 8, 44. He says, you are of your father, the devil. Your will is to do your father's desires. So I try to emphasize the will. The will is corrupted.

It's bondage to sin. It does not gravitate to the things of God and seek after him. We need a new nature. We need a new transformed will and we need to be adopted into a new family. And so that's exactly what we're going to see of what God has done for us.

So our beatitude once again says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Look at that phrase shall be called. This is just one Greek word and it means to declare ownership of shall be called is in the continuous future passive tense.

Now, that's fancy talk for that meaning throughout eternity. Peacemakers will always bear this title as sons and daughters of God. So turn with me for a moment to John chapter one. I think this really shows us in a fuller picture of how we become children of God.

And we learn so many other things along the way. John chapter one, I want us to look primarily at verses 12 and 13 as returning there. I just want to kind of set up that God not only declares us and gives us the right to become his children, but in the process he transforms our nature.

So look with me at verse 12. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Now, I love this verse for so many reasons. I believe, number one, it's telling us how to receive Jesus, how to have forgiveness of our sins.

It's by believing in him. Now, we know that believing is not just intellectualism, knowing facts, but it's a heart that puts your faith, your faith alone in the Savior, a repentant faith that is willing to count the cost.

Number two, he gave the right to become children of God. Now, this is similar language back in our beatitude. Jesus gives us the right. He declares our new status as children, sons and daughters of God.

But I want to make a quick passing comment here. I don't know if this has been your experience, but as I listen to pastors preach through John chapter one, they could start in verse one. They could start breaks in the passages that come up later in verse six and verse nine.

And they'll read, read, read, read. And they get to verse 12. And that's usually the stopping point. And I thought that was very odd growing up because that's the kind of preaching I sat under. And that's only half the thought.

And one time I told this to a buddy of mine. And sure enough, a couple weeks later, he goes, Jeremiah, our preacher began in John one one. And he's like, oh, I'm going to listen to see how far he reads.

Stops at verse 12. Now, I'll let you make your conclusions why. But we are going to keep going to verse 13, where we read who were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now, let me read verse 12 with 13 there. So you get the whole thought. 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.

Or the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. I believe verse 13 tells us the reason why there are some people who receive Jesus in saving faith. They are born not of the will of man or fleshly desires, but it comes from God.

They are born again. They are born from above. And the reason why we must emphasize this is because Jesus is saying that you coming to the right knowledge and understanding and trust in my name did not come about from anything in you.

Your will is in bondage. Jesus says in John eight, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. And I think John's gospel highlights man's inability to come to God on his own terms. John three, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.

John six, Jesus says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. John six goes on to say the flesh profits nothing. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father.

This is such an important concept to understand because you need to understand how you became saved in the first place. You were not a God seeker. In fact, you were running from God and God interrupted your life.

He regenerated your heart and he gave you the conviction of your sin and your understanding that you need a savior. This is important to understand how to pray for other people. Right. We actually pray that salvation belongs to the Lord.

Pastor Nathan preached in Jonah. So we pray as we come in contact with people that are lost. We pray that God would save them, that he would interrupt their life and transform their heart. And so since we're in John one, turn with me just a page over to John chapter three, where we see that God must come from on high, come down and transform us from the inside out.

God must change our hearts, change our will so that we can see the kingdom with me at John three, verse three. Jesus explains to Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

So Jesus says born again, what is he talking about there? Well, this literally means to be born from above. God from on high must come down and radically transform us. Nicodemus is a ruler of the Pharisees.

He should be very familiar with the Old Testament scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures and the promises that God gave to his covenant people. He should have been familiar with Ezekiel 36 that says, thus says the Lord God, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all of your uncleanness and from all your idols.

I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will put these things in you. I will remove that heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

So when we talk about being born again, being born from above, this is a work of God coming into our life, giving us his spirit. And granting us repentance in faith, being born again is not based on you hearing spiritual things about your own will and coming to the right conclusion.

You received Christ because the spirit was working together with the living, powerful word of God. Amen. Those are things that did not come about by our own will. And so this phrase born again, sometimes we toss that around and we don't really know what it's talking about.

But Jesus is using this term and the Apostle Paul uses an identical term and meaning he talks about the regeneration of the Holy Spirit to be regenerated is to be born again. And this must take place before we understand the moment that we place our faith in Christ.

Think about it this way. Unless the spirit recreates our nature, we will stay spiritually dead, unreceptive to divine truth. And I think this is absolutely clear when you look to John chapter one and you continue the thought all the way to verse 13.

I think Jesus is absolutely clear here in chapter three with Nicodemus. But if someone's still not convinced, I do want to draw your attention to first John chapter five verse one. This completely seals the deal for me.

Where John says in his epistle, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. So I got to take a drink from my what's wrong with you people mug. So I'm reading from the ESV translation, and I think the ESV did a good job of putting this in the past tense.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Not all translations say it like that. Other ones will say, let's see here. Other translations will say basically they'll take out the past tense.

And to me, that makes things a little bit harder to understand. And I'm totally OK with that. Here it is in my notes. Everyone or whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That's what some translations say.

But I think we can still know that that is in the past tense. And so I want to give you three principles of how we can make the correct determination of which comes first, the believing or the being born of God.

And so three principles. Number one, looking at the Greek language. Now, let me just say that sounds kind of scary and that's OK. But just just just hang on with me for just a moment. Looking at the Greek syntax, the Greek language.

Number two, looking at the immediate context of any particular verse, especially here in verse John. And number three, we want to look at the greater context of all of Scripture. I think about it kind of like a bullseye.

You got these different rings, right? We want to get really close in the very center. We want to look at the Greek language. We want to see what definitions of words have and what they mean in their proper context.

And then we want to back out a little bit. We want to look at immediate context. And then we want to see the whole picture. I think it's even important to start with the big picture in mind as you make your way in.

So I think these three principles will help us understand that being born of God, being born from above must take place in the past before the the moment that we believe in Christ. And so, number one, the Greek word for believes.

Let me let me also say this real quick. Even though I'm talking about this principle of looking at the Greek, I think this is primarily the pastor's job of doing being diligent to study these things out and modeling these things to you.

We understand that the Bible was not written in English, so we're wanting to examine the English. We believe these are wonderful translations, but we also want to see what's behind the English. We want to handle the word of God with precision.

So I don't want you to be discouraged by me making a technical Greek argument, at least know that's what Pastor Nathan and I strive to do is to handle the word with precision and care. Had to throw that out there real quick.

So the Greek word for believes is written in the present tense. Now, that's really important because it's referring to the believing ones. That's what we do. This is a description of who we are. We believe as we walk in this world.

We believe in Christ and we walk with him. Now, the Greek word for is born or has been born is in the perfect tense. Now, that means it's a past tense action. It's like when Jesus cried out on the cross to tell us that it is finished.

That was written in the perfect tense. This was a past action that has future ramifications that reach into the future. And so that's exactly what we are reading here with the word is born or has been born of God.

Here's the conclusion from the Greek. All who are caused to be born by God in the past are in the present believing as a result. OK, so move, move with me to principle two as we look at immediate context.

First, John will help strengthen this interpretation, I believe. And first, John to twenty nine, we read, if you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

So the same set up as the verse we're looking at first, John five, one. Some translations say is born of him. But guess what? It is also in that perfect tense. This is a completed past action that reaches into the future.

But this verse, we understand it a little bit better. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. We know that we do not practice righteousness in order to be born of God.

It's absurd. That would be a works based system. OK, so it's easy to understand here that you are born of God and then that influences us to live righteously, to give him glory. OK, so lastly, and I just will briefly touch on this principle, number three, the rest of Scripture helps interpret Scripture.

That's what we've been doing all morning. We already know even before going to first, John five, one, that man is dead in his sins and needs God and his grace to bring him to newness of life. God gives us the right and declares us as children of God by title.

But God also transforms our nature to become children of God as well as well. And so if you're a note taker, write this regeneration precedes faith. That's the whole point of me going through all that's very, very important.

Why in the world would I spend so much time going through this technical doctrine? Well, if we are peacemakers, we have to understand that God and his mercy radically reached into our life and transformed us.

He is the one that sought out peace with us through Jesus Christ. And if we really understand the depth of what God did to us while we weren't even seeking after God, that will change how we live our life.

It'll cause us to be peacemakers, to share that gospel of peace with others, even when they reject us. We trust the sovereign God who made peace with us first. And so I want you to understand that it's don't look to your own will, your own doing, but understand that God is the one working all things together after the counsel of his will.

He will give us true peace. Remember Shalom? It's more than just not having conflict, but it's in deep covenant relationship. We will have this peace that surpasses all understanding. And we need to remind ourselves of these truths as we're going through the hurts and pains of life, when we're going through conflict with other people.

Let's plan in advance how to make peace with others when we see strife starting to brew. We need to meditate on this truth and this will make us whole. This will basically allow us to walk day by day with Jesus, meditating on his word in our hearts and in our minds and understanding that we have peace with God.

By faith, we are justified and have peace with him. I believe that all the first six Beatitudes were leading up to the seventh of the peacemakers, and that will prompt us to share this gospel of peace.

And next week, we'll see that the last Beatitude mainly shows us how the world responds to peacemakers. Yes, we are pure in heart and we love people. We share this message that will not be received. But it is the God of peace.

He is sovereign. He will sustain us through all circumstances. And it is the God of peace who will sanctify us completely. Surely he will do it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father.