How to Gain the Blessing of God. (Part 7)

Blessed Are the Peacemakers. 

This is the seventh characteristic in the list often referred to s the beatitudes, the blessings. The seventh on the list of 8

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

(Matthew 5: 9)

All right it seems that to enjoy the blessings of God one of the things you need to be is a peacemaker. However, it is often said that history is written by the winners, so it appears most of the people we remember and recognise like many of the heroes of history are leaders who waged war and won. Walk with me for a minute down through the halls of history and look at the great generals. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Wellington, Nelson, George Washington, Rommel, Montgomery, George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower and that only begins the list. What about the warmongers and the despots, we can all name them. Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Ts Tung, Pol Pott, Ide Amin, Saddam Husain.  But what about the peacemakers, who at the end of each of those wars where the peacemakers. Interesting, we know about the warmongers, we even glorify the warmaker, but not, it appears the peacemaker. I wonder if you can name any peacemakers, not many, if any, I would imagine. Once again Jesus turns our thinking upside down and says the ones who are blessed are the polar opposite of the ones the world lauds or even remembers

Jesus again turns things on its head and says it will be the peacemakers that God will bless and not the war makers. But, that begs the question who are the peacemakers, today and was does it even mean to be a peacemaker? Let me define what I believe the bible says about being a peacemaker. 

It is first and foremost someone who has experienced living at peace with God. Someone who has experienced peace at a profound level and shares that peace with others. Firstly, you’re not going to make peace unless you’ve experienced peace yourself. How do you experience real peace? Well, Romans chapter five tells us.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Romans 5: 1)

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. So, the first thing you need to do to be a peacemaker is to trust Jesus Christ, and when you trust Jesus Christ, the blessing that come from that decision is peace with God. It’s almost like saying God made a peace treaty with the world in sending His son Jesus and we all partake of that peace when we trust in him. So, the first thing we have to do is experience peace, that’s where you start.

But then the second thing you need to do is practice piece. You’re not going to be a peacemaker unless you’ve experienced it and then practiced it. Colossians Chapter 3 clearly states this.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.

(Colossians 3: 15a)

I think this helps us get a handle on this aspect of peace. So let’s talk about this for just a second. We all need to let the peace of God rule in our heart. The Greek word translated rule actually means something more like to umpire. In other words, when there is a decision to be made or a conflict you need to settle, you have to choose the path that will reduce the conflict. We let the umpire make the decisions and the umpire is called peace. The picture I have in my mind is that once we have experienced peace with God peace with God there after by having the peace of God rule in our hearts gives us the spiritual gift to be able to allow the Holy Spirit to discern the future path of peace in all our decision making, meaning that Lord, will not allow anyone or anything that happens in our lives from that point forward steal that peace. As long as we let the peace of God rule in our hearts. Instead of getting all upset or angry or even reacting in a way that causes more conflict, we can just relax, and settle in the peace of God. Don’t ever allow a problem or a person to take the peace of God from you. 

To be a peacemaker, you got to know what true peace actually means. But this is something we have to diligently practice, we’re limited sinful people and other people don’t practice peace around us.  But there is always the ability to ask the Lord for help. There is in fact a rather famous prayer of peace, widely associated with the Italian Francis of Assisi, but entirely absent from his writings, this famous pray calls upon the Lord to, 

 Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
 Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
 Where there is injury, pardon;
 Where there is error, the truth;
 Where there is doubt, the faith;
 Where there is despair, hope;
 Where there is darkness, light;
 And where there is sadness, joy.
 
 Grant that I may not so much seek
 To be consoled, as to console;
 To be understood, as to understand;
 To be loved as to love.
 For it is in giving that we receive;
 It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
 And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

 Considered by some as a Catholic prayer, but I don’t have any issues with the sentiment of the theology of this prayer for any Christian believer seeking so be a peacemaker.

 May I make this suggestion, if you’re going to be a peacemaker you have to firstly, experience peace, secondly practice peace but also.

 Thirdly, proclaim peace. 

 In Pauls second to the church in Corinth he says.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

(II Corinthians 5: 20)

This suggests to me that peacemakers we must primarily preach the gospel. We do that so that others can experience the peace of God that we ourselves have experienced and practiced. Trust me very few people in the world really know the peace of God. They don’t even know God has offered this peace treaty in Christ; they don’t even recognise that they are out of step with God or that they need, or it is even possible for them to have peace with God. Matter of fact, I understand that on some of the islands in the Pacific after World War Two. They were Japanese soldiers that didn’t know the peace treaty had been signed. They were cut off from communication and they didn’t know when years later American soldiers landed and tried to tell them the war is over, they got shot at.  Which I think is an interesting metaphor because this reminds me that still today if you try and tell some people about that they can have peace with God you may be shot at, but peacemakers must, proclaim peace. 

 Let me suggest the fourth thing. You’re not a peacemaker, unless you experience peace and practice peace and proclaim peace, but you also have to make peace with others. 

 In Philippians chapter 4, there’s a conflict between two women and Paul wrote to his friend and co-worker in the gospel a guy called Clement and says he has to try help these woman find peace between themselves. So, a peacemaker aims at establishing harmonious relationships between all people. That’s the essence of who a peacemaker is. If you are going to try and do that you may not feel initially qualified to do that. If you’re going to do this it is going to take some special qualifications. May I suggest the qualifications for doing this are the blessing you will have already received by developing the characteristics we have already looked at in the previous beatitudes.

Peacemakers are dependent on the Lord, they grieve over the conflict that other experience, they are gentle in their attempt at reconciliation, they’re meek. They want what is right more than anything else meaning they have a hunger and thirst after righteousness, and yet they are merciful. You got to put those all together when all you want is what’s right for other people. Unless you are meek and merciful, and seek righteousness in every situation then you can’t be a peacemaker. So, if you’ve got all of the attitudes correct up to this point, then you’re in a position to be a peacemaker.

Let me pause here for a minute and make a suggestion. What I’m about to tell you, somebody else told me many years ago and it’s been one of the great insights, practical, spiritual insights into life for the certainly very well. Years ago, I met an older pastor, a very old wise and godly man, and he and I got into a discussion in the midst of that discussion, about a conflict I was experiencing in the church I was involved in, and he said to me, “an appeaser is a troublemaker, not a peacemaker”. I think when we hear peacemaker, we automatically assume that you’re just not have disagreements with everybody you’re a peacemaker. To explain this a little, if you are an appeaser, you don’t address situations and you sweep them under the rug. Then they fester and return causing even bigger conflicts in the future. I think that is an incredibly valuable spiritual insight. One commentator I read, put it like this. There’s many a person who thinks he is loving peace when in fact he’s piling up trouble for the future because he refuses to face the situation and take action . This is not the type of peace which the Bible calls for here. Blessing does not come from the evasion of issues it comes from facing them, dealing with them, and conquering them. 

What the attitude of a true peacemaker demands is not the passive acceptance of things because we’re afraid of the trouble of doing anything about them. But the activly facing things that cause or potentially cause conflict and try to make peace, even when the way of peace is through struggle. 

Peacemakers actively deal with areas of conflict with love and truth. A peacemaker deals with the situation even when it causes some personal hardship and if you do that, what will you get, what are the blessings promised here to the peacemakers. Notice carefully read the text carefully you get to be called a child of God or a son of God. 

This verse is not talking about being an offspring of God as one who has been born again into the family of God. It’s talking about being like God. You will become God like in character. In fact, that’s what God did when he sent his son to pay for our sins so that we can be reconciled to God, and we could have the peace of God. Right. If you go around establishing peace between people and God, and between people and other people then you are being like God, and that’s what this verse means. 

There are further blessing awaiting someone who is called a child of God. First John chapter three says,

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

(1 John 3: 2)

So, in the fullest sense of term this is what it means to be a child of God but also when you stand before the Lord, you will also then be called a child of God. There are some people who are always at the center of the storms of life, causing trouble wherever they go. Such people are often angry, bitter and resentful individuals who are repeatedly get involved in quarrels and stir up strife. They are troublemakers peace takers, not peacemakers. Then they’re peacemakers. They are gentle and want what’s right more than anything else. That’s verse six. They are merciful. That’s verse seven. They have pure motives. That’s verse eight. They unite people and they are God like because they live that way. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.

One more blessing to come and it’s different than all the other seven. But we will find out about that one next time.