James Boyd: As some of you know, patty and I worked together in the prison ministry, and when I shared with her that I was feeling a little nervous about tonight, she suggested a good way to deal with that would be just to picture you all as being prisoners, so I hope you don't mind being a captive audience tonight.
James Boyd: Seriously, though, it's a real honor to be a part of bringing this series to you and getting to work alongside so many amazing teachers, and I hope my contribution will be a blessing to you.
James Boyd: The title of it is Making Peace in a Warring World.
James Boyd: Before we get started, let's do a review.
James Boyd: Let's go to Matthew, chapter 5.
James Boyd: When you're there, say I'm there.
James Boyd: I'll begin with verse 1.
James Boyd: Seeing the crowds, he went up to the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
James Boyd: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
James Boyd: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
James Boyd: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
James Boyd: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
James Boyd: Blessed are the pure at heart, for they will see God and finally our passage for this evening Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
James Boyd: The grass fades, the flower withers, but the word of our God will stand forever.
James Boyd: Friends, this world is hurting.
James Boyd: How many of you grew up watching Mr Rogers?
James Boyd: If you did, you probably remember his famous quote when scary things are happening, look for the helpers.
James Boyd: You'll always find people who are helping.
James Boyd: Well, if you watch the news for five minutes, you know there are a lot of scary things going on in our world right now.
James Boyd: And to adapt Mr Rogers' quote to our context, we could say look for the healers, look for the conciliators and, yes, look for the peacemakers.
James Boyd: The Amplified Bible puts it blessed, spiritually, calm with life, joy and God's favor, are the makers and maintainers of peace, for they will express his character and be called the sons of God.
James Boyd: Friends Jesus' seventh beatitude here is more relevant than ever.
James Boyd: The Greek word here is erinopoios, and it's the only time in the entire Bible this word is used.
James Boyd: It means a peacemaker, someone who bravely declares God's terms and makes someone whole.
James Boyd: Peacemaker, someone who bravely declares God's terms and makes someone whole.
James Boyd: Now, I'm sure you guys know this, but it's important to point out that the act of being a peacemaker itself doesn't make you a child of God.
James Boyd: Being born again makes you a child of God, but when you're born again, your life will bear out the fruit of that.
James Boyd: The fruit of the Spirit, is love, joy, exactly so.
James Boyd: When you're part of God's family, you'll bear that family resemblance.
James Boyd: It's also important to remember that being a peacemaker may not always look like you think it will.
James Boyd: It's not all about tie-dye t-shirts, patchouli and granola.
James Boyd: Let's look at Matthew, chapter 10.
James Boyd: Chapter 10.
James Boyd: Chapter 10, verses 34 through 36.
James Boyd: Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
James Boyd: I have come not to bring peace but a sword, for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of their own household.
James Boyd: Strong words from the same Jesus that previously said blessed are the peacemakers.
James Boyd: Is that a contradiction?
James Boyd: Not at all.
James Boyd: It's just simply pointing out a fact that sometimes conflict is necessary to get us to that place of peace.
James Boyd: Now, if you know me, you know I'm a pretty easygoing guy, so that's a lesson I've had to learn the hard way from time to time.
James Boyd: But being a peacemaker means that sometimes you deal with hard truths.
James Boyd: It does sometimes involve confrontation.
James Boyd: Jesus was the ultimate peacemaker, but he had to be very confrontational at times, just as the money changers that felt the sting of his whip.
James Boyd: As believers, we walk the narrow path.
James Boyd: The gospel message is always going to be countercultural and we're going to be going against the grain a good part of the time, but we have to do that with the end goal of being a peacemaker as much as possible.
James Boyd: Romans 12 18 tells us that yes, if possible, as far as depends on you, live.
James Boyd: Live peaceably with all, the presupposition being that it won't always be possible to live at peace with everyone.
James Boyd: So adjust your expectations accordingly.
James Boyd: So we're going to look at three different aspects of being a peacemaker Peace with ourselves, making peace between others and, ultimately, peace between God and humanity.
James Boyd: And in each case, we're going to be looking for examples from the life of Jesus.
James Boyd: After all, wwjd, what would Jesus do?
James Boyd: First of all, we'll talk about peace with ourselves.
James Boyd: We can't give to others what we don't already have.
James Boyd: The making peace begins with having God's peace in our own lives.
James Boyd: And when I think about how did Jesus cultivate that in his life.
James Boyd: What do you guys think Any thoughts Exactly prayer?
James Boyd: What do you guys think Any thoughts Exactly Prayer?
James Boyd: Wouldn't you love to be able to watch Jesus pray?
James Boyd: The Bible gives us a few references to it, but just to be there and watch one of those all-night prayer sessions and hear his intimate discussions with the Father.
James Boyd: Now, while the Bible only gives us a few glimpses, it gives us the results of that.
James Boyd: Plenty of time.
James Boyd: Let's look at Luke, chapter 8.
James Boyd: Luke, chapter 8.
James Boyd: Luke, chapter 8, I'll begin reading in verse 22.
James Boyd: One day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them let's go across to the other side of the lake.
James Boyd: So they set out and as they sailed he fell asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling it with water and were in danger.
James Boyd: And they went and woke him saying master, master, we are perishing.
James Boyd: And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they ceased and there was a calm.
James Boyd: He said to them where's your faith?
James Boyd: And they were afraid and they marveled at saying to him who, then, is this that he commands, even the winds and the water?
James Boyd: And they obey him, even this catastrophic storm, where the disciples, just like most of us would, were freaking out.
James Boyd: Jesus took a nap, and then he rebuked them for not having that kind of faith too.
James Boyd: But living in the Father's peace carried Jesus all throughout his earthly life.
James Boyd: Even when his soul was overwhelmed to the point of death, he still maintained trust and resolve.
James Boyd: That's an important lesson for us.
James Boyd: Peace doesn't necessarily mean the absence of pain.
James Boyd: It means that kind of trust and resolve in God in spite of it.
James Boyd: Next we're going to talk about peace between others.
James Boyd: Let's look at Ephesians 2, verse 14.
James Boyd: Ephesians 2, verse 14.
James Boyd: He himself is our peace, who has made the two group, jew and Gentile, one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.
James Boyd: Of course, the immediate context of this passage is again taking away the barriers between Jewish and Gentile believers, but the broader message is that the gospel is for everyone, and no one embodied that more than Jesus.
James Boyd: To see an example, let's go to John, chapter 4.
James Boyd: This story will probably be familiar to most of you.
James Boyd: John, chapter 4.
James Boyd: John, chapter 4, I'll begin reading with verse 5.
James Boyd: So Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given his son Joseph.
James Boyd: Jacob's well was there.
James Boyd: So Jesus, weary from his journey.
James Boyd: A little side note it gives me comfort to see Jesus got tired.
James Boyd: It's okay to be tired and it's okay to take a rest, but he sat down beside the well.
James Boyd: It was the sixth hour and a woman from from Samaria came to draw water.
James Boyd: Jesus said to her give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away to the city to buy food.
James Boyd: The Samaritan woman said to him how is it that you, a Jew, asked drink for me, a woman of Samaria?
James Boyd: For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
James Boyd: We'll be coming back to that.
James Boyd: Jesus answered her.
James Boyd: If you knew the gift of God and who it is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
James Boyd: The woman said to him sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep.
James Boyd: Where do you get this living water?
James Boyd: Are you greater than our father Jacob?
James Boyd: He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.
James Boyd: Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
James Boyd: Amen.
James Boyd: The water that I give him will become a spring of water welling up into eternal life.
James Boyd: The woman said to me sir, give me this water that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.
James Boyd: Jesus said Go call your husband and come here.
James Boyd: The woman answered him I have no husband.
James Boyd: Jesus said You're right saying I have no husband, for you've had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband.
James Boyd: What you said is true.
James Boyd: The woman says to him Sir, I believe you're a prophet.
James Boyd: You think Our fathers worshipped in the mountain, but you say Jerusalem is the place we should worship.
James Boyd: Jesus said to her Woman believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
James Boyd: You worship what you do not know.
James Boyd: We worship what we know, for salvation is with the Jews.
James Boyd: But the hour is coming and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
James Boyd: God is spirit and those who worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
James Boyd: God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.
James Boyd: The woman said I know the Messiah is coming.
James Boyd: He was called Christ.
James Boyd: When he comes he will tell us all things Jesus said to her.
James Boyd: I who speak to you, am he.
James Boyd: Jesus had left Jerusalem, was going back to Galilee and he passed through Samaria.
James Boyd: And on the way he stops and takes a rest by Jacob's well.
James Boyd: Little side note Jacob's well is still standing.
James Boyd: It's in a monastery on the West Bank.
James Boyd: It's still visited by tourists.
James Boyd: While he's there, a Samaritan woman comes to draw water and Jesus asks for a drink.
James Boyd: That alone is revolutionary, that he would speak not only to a woman in a day when women were treated in very degrading ways, but also to a Samaritan.
James Boyd: The animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans ran deep.
James Boyd: It goes back to Israel's captivity in Assyria, which you can read about in 2 Kings 17.
James Boyd: During that time, jews and Assyrians intermarried and the Samaritan race came from that.
James Boyd: So it reminded the Jews of a very painful time in their history.
James Boyd: There were also theological differences.
James Boyd: Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Bible as scripture and they didn't worship at the temple at Jerusalem.
James Boyd: They had their own temple on Mount Gerizim.
James Boyd: But despite this, jesus came to seek and save the lost.
James Boyd: He used the mundane, everyday act of drawing water to introduce her to the concept of living water, a symbol of the Holy Spirit which you can drink and never thirst again.
James Boyd: This woman tradition tells us her name was Fotini.
James Boyd: She asked for the water and then something unexpected happens.
James Boyd: Jesus has a word of knowledge about her past.
James Boyd: She's been married five times and she's currently in a relationship with someone out of wedlock.
James Boyd: Obviously, that amazes her and she speaks of the Messiah and Jesus says I am the Messiah.
James Boyd: In response, she goes back and tells her friends come see a man who told me everything I ever did.
James Boyd: Because of this, fotini is regarded as one of the first Christian missionaries Christian missionaries, and tradition further tells us she was baptized and served God faithfully all of her life before being martyred by Emperor Nero for refusing to renounce her faith.
James Boyd: This was all because Jesus reached out to someone that religion had rejected.
James Boyd: He dared to be a peacemaker.
James Boyd: This radical cross-cultural approach was the way that was the pattern of the early church from the beginning.
James Boyd: Remember how the church was born at Pentecost, in an international assembly, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on a group of people from very diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, including Parthians, medes and Elamites people from modern-day Iran, residents of Macedonia, judea and Cappadocia.
James Boyd: Others came from Pontus and Asia, phrygia and Pamphylia, all of which are part of modern Turkey, egypt and parts of Libya near Cyrene and North Africa.
James Boyd: There were also visitors from Rome, along with Cretans and Arabs.
James Boyd: In addition, we see in Acts 13, leaders in the early church included names like Barnabas, who was a Hellenistic Jew from Cyprus.
James Boyd: Simeon, called Niger, was a black man from Africa.
James Boyd: Lucius of Cyrene was also from Africa, manan had an aristocratic Jewish background and Saul or Paul obviously was a Roman citizen and Jew from Tarsus.
James Boyd: This diverse group of leadership tells us how the church transcended racial, cultural and social barriers through unity in Christ.
James Boyd: Finally, in chapter 7, verses 9-10 of the magnificent book of Revelation, we see people from every tribe, tongue and nation worshiping God together through all eternity and just like cultivating peace in our own lives.
James Boyd: Peace between others starts with prayer.
James Boyd: Friends, we know the secret.
James Boyd: We have an audience with the creator of the universe anytime we want it.
James Boyd: Do we ever stop and think about what an awesome privilege that is?
James Boyd: People are frying their brains on drugs, trying to get what we can get in our prayer time.
James Boyd: So to see how prayer ties into peacemaking.
James Boyd: Let's look at 1 Timothy 2.
James Boyd: 1 Timothy 2.
James Boyd: 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2.
James Boyd: First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
James Boyd: Okay, first, notice how we are to pray for all people, but it specifically signals out government officials, and we're to pray for all those who are in authority, whether we agree with them or not, whether they're members of our party or not, whether they're Christians or not.
James Boyd: Keep in mind that the government that Paul was telling Timothy to pray for didn't have a single believer in it.
James Boyd: In fact, they were routinely using Christians as human street lamps.
James Boyd: But still, the end result that we may lead quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty.
James Boyd: So the focus of the prayer is peace and stability, maintained by godliness and honesty.
James Boyd: Finally, we can be peacemakers because Jesus is our peace, which brings us to the final point and the ultimate goal peace between God and humanity.
James Boyd: Let's look at one of my favorite scriptures Colossians, chapter 2.
James Boyd: Colossians 2, I'll begin reading with verse 13.
James Boyd: And you who were dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, god made alive together with him.
James Boyd: Having forgiven our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands that he set aside, nailing it to the cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to an open shame by triumphing over them in him.
James Boyd: Okay, we discussed earlier how sometimes conflict is necessary to bring us to peace.
James Boyd: This is the key example of that.
James Boyd: To bring us to peace.
James Boyd: This is the key example of that.
James Boyd: Jesus won our peace by going directly into battle against the powers of darkness.
James Boyd: This reached its climax on the cross.
James Boyd: What seemed like a humiliating defeat turned into the supreme victory when he rose from the dead.
James Boyd: How many of you have seen the Passion?
James Boyd: I'm very grateful for how that movie jarred us out of our Sunday school image of what crucifixion was and gave us a look at just how brutal it really was.
James Boyd: Medical doctor Gerald H Bradley describes it this way this was the most agonizing death man could face.
James Boyd: He had to support himself in order to breathe.
James Boyd: The flaming pain caused by the spikes hitting the median nerve in his wrists explodes up his arms, into his brain and down his spine, the spike burning through his nerves between the metatarsal bones of his feet jerks, his body erect, then the leg muscles convulse and drive his body downward, beating him against the cross.
James Boyd: Air is sucked in but cannot be exhaled until the built-up carbon dioxide in his lungs and bloodstream stimulates breathing to relieve the cramps.
James Boyd: Exhaustion, shock, dehydration and paralysis destroy the victim.
James Boyd: The heart is barely able to pump the thick blood as each of his billions of cells die, one at a time.
James Boyd: Prior to his death and all his agony, Jesus is in full control of his mind.
James Boyd: He asked the Heavenly Father to forgive them, for they don't know what they do, and the dear Lamb of God was sacrificed for you.
James Boyd: At least 30 Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus' death.
James Boyd: The guard thrust his spear into Jesus' side and blood and water came out.
James Boyd: That shows that the ultimate cause of death was heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by the fluid sack around the heart.
James Boyd: Think of that for a moment.
James Boyd: Because of our sin, he literally died of a broken heart.
James Boyd: Next is the Colossians passage tells us Jesus spoiled principalities and powers.
James Boyd: He made a show of them openly triumphing over them.
James Boyd: In it.
James Boyd: This is military terminology.
James Boyd: The image being drawn is an army overthrowing a rival kingdom, stripping its ruler naked and leading him down the street in humiliation.
James Boyd: This is exactly what Jesus did to Satan.
James Boyd: When he came out of that tomb, he had the victory once and for all, and he invites us all to share in it.
James Boyd: Jesus died as the sacrificial lamb and he was raised as the conquering warrior, and he reminds us in Revelation 118, I am he that liveth and was dead.
James Boyd: And behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of hell and death.
James Boyd: Rc Sproul put it well when God signs a peace treaty, it signs for perpetuity.
James Boyd: The war is over.
James Boyd: Of course we still sin, we still rebel, but God has done our co-belligerent.
James Boyd: He will not be drawn into warfare with us ever again.
James Boyd: We have an advocate with our father, we.
James Boyd: So where do we go from there?
James Boyd: Let's look at Romans, chapter 10.
James Boyd: Romans, chapter 10, verses 14 and 15.
James Boyd: How thus shall they call on them who they have not believed, and how they will believe in him who they have not heard?
James Boyd: And here, how will they hear without a preacher?
James Boyd: And how will they preach except they be sent as is written?
James Boyd: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring back glad tidings of good things.
James Boyd: Friends, jesus has entrusted us to be messengers of that peace, each and every one of us.
James Boyd: We're the ones who are to be the source of peace and stability in these scary times.
James Boyd: You may be like me and have feet so ugly only your mother or a podiatrist could love them.
James Boyd: But as long as they're devoted to spreading this message of peace, god says your feet are beautiful.
James Boyd: And don't be discouraged because it doesn't happen as quickly as we'd like.
James Boyd: Remember, jesus compared the spread of his kingdom to leaven, just like yeast in a loaf of bread it starts off small and brings change from the inside out.
James Boyd: Similarly, god's kingdom brings change gradually from the inside out.
James Boyd: It starts small, but eventually it'll be manifest on a worldwide scale.
James Boyd: In closing, we'll look at one more scripture.
James Boyd: Let's look at James, my book, chapter 3, verses 16 through 18.
James Boyd: For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice.
James Boyd: But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
James Boyd: Amen.