Scripture Matthew 5:1, 2, 9
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: Happy are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
To be a peace maker is vastly
different from living in peace. Our nation’s peace from England was obtained by
the Continental army – many who gave their lives. We enjoy the peace the United
States has to offer. We did not earn or make that peace – we were born into it.
Jesus did not say happy are those who live in peace – he said happy are those
who make peace.
There
are 4 things Jesus could have meant by that:
1 Make peace with God
2 Make peace with yourself
3 Make peace with others
4 Make peace between others
Even though Jesus is talking about making peace, the only
way for us to understand what Jesus is saying is to first be at peace. Let us
pray for the Holy spirit to come so that we might hear God’s word from a place
of peace…
Pray for forgiveness, thenpray: Holy
Spirit, You are welcome here - Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere - Your
glory, God, is what our hearts long for - To be overcome by your presence, Lord
Your presence, Lord. Let us continue this prayer in song.
SONG: Holy Spirit
#1 Make peace
with God
How do you make peace with God? It is
by first recognizing that God is the one making peace with you. ILLUS: A man
had fallen from high scaffolding and was near death. A pastor walked into his
hospital room and when he realized the man could die any moment said, “you need to make your peace with God” to which the man replied, “Make peace with God? That was done 2000 years ago when
Jesus stretched out his arms on a cross and bore my sin in his body. I already
have peace with God through what Jesus has done for me!”
OT example of God working with us to
make peace. Joshua made a peace treaty with the town of Gibeon. Kings of 5
nations decided to attack Gibeon who in turn asked Joshua for help – with the
Lord’s promise of Victory, Joshua took all his fighting men and surprised the
enemy and they turned to run and were pursued and those the army didn’t kill,
God threw down hailstones from heaven killing more of them than the army. God
worked to make peace for His people and the people did their part to make peace
as well – where they lacked, God made up the difference.
Isaiah
60:17-19
I will make peace your governor and righteousness your ruler. No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
Once we have peace with
God, it gives us the peace of God. Can you imagine what peace God
has? You may think being God has an overwhelming job – like Bruce Almighty =
said yes to everyone and everything went wrong. God does not stress over our
issues – that was dealt with over 2000 years ago. Imagine being at peace like
God is at peace – you can actually have God’s peace. Jesus even said, John 14:27 Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Having the peace of God is the key ingredient to having peace with ourselves.
#2 Make peace with Yourself
This may be the hardest of the 4
things Jesus may have been getting at in this BeAttitude. Why? Because we are
good at beating ourselves up. Because we carry weights with us every where we
go. Pilgrims progress – Christian had to get rig of the weight of sin.
Thousands of people each year visit the Winchester
Mansion in San Jose, California. This massive structure was built by Sarah
Winchester, the widow of the gun company owner. For thirty-eight years, from
1884 until her death in 1922, the house was under constant construction. Teams
of carpenters, masons and other workers were employed around the clock. Various
stories have been told about the reason for this unusual practice. Most center
on Mrs. Winchester’s belief that she either was haunted or would be haunted by
the ghosts of those killed by her husband’s weapons unless she kept building
her house. Others claim that she thought she would not die as long as building
continued.
Whatever the reason, she continued ordering more renovations and construction as long as she lived. There are more than 10,000 windows in the Winchester Mansion, doorways and stairs that lead to blank walls, and some 160 rooms in total. It is estimated that she spent more than $70,000,000 in today’s money on largely pointless construction—all in a desperate search for peace that was ultimately doomed to fail.
Make peace with others
The bible says, as much as it is up to us – live at peace
with everyone. That does not mean you
will be at peace with everyone - but that you are to be a peacemaker no matter
what – the response is up to the other person, and it does not always end with
peaceful relationships, like…
Poet Elizabeth Barrett had a
childhood accident that left her as a semi-invalid growing up. In her youth,
Elizabeth had been watched over by her tyrannical father. When she and Robert Browning
were married in 1846, their wedding was held in secret because of her father's
disapproval. After the wedding the Browning’s sailed for Italy, where they
lived for the rest of their lives. But even though her parents had disowned
her, Elizabeth never gave up on the relationship. Almost weekly she wrote them
letters. Not once did they reply. After 10 years, she received a large box in
the mail. Inside, Elizabeth found all of her letters; not one had been opened!
Today those letters are among the most beautiful in classical English
literature. Had her parents only read a few of them, their relationship with
Elizabeth might have been restored. That loss was on the parents – she did
all she could.
Matt 5:23-24 Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Make peace between others
This is a difficult one to talk about because it is so
daunting and varied. But here is a story
that will give us a tool for helping to make peace with others and between
others.
"Do you think it
would be wrong for me to learn the noble art of self-defense?" a religiously inclined young man inquired of his
pastor. "Certainly not," answered the minister. "I learned it in youth myself, and I have found it of
great value during my life." "Indeed, sir! Did you learn the old English system or the
Sullivan system?" "I learned neither,"
said the minister. "I learned the
Solomon system." "The Solomon system?"
answered the young man. "Yes; you will
find it in the first verse of the fifteenth chapter of Proverbs: 'A soft answer
turneth away wrath.' It is the best system of self-defense of which I know!" It would be well if more would know this way of
self-defense.
PRAYER OF ST FRANCIS
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace / Where
there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon / Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope / Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy / O Divine Master, 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
And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned
/ And it's in dying that we are
born to Eternal Life
Amen
CONCLUSION
Notice our BeAttitude doesn’t say you will become a child of God – it presumes that you already are. It suggests to me that others will call you a child of God. Remember Simeon, looking at baby Jesus he said “My eyes have seen your salvation.” Nicodemus, “We know that you have come from God.” Centurion at the cross, “Surely this was the son of God”
1
John 3:1 How great is the love the
Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that
is what we are!
When we become peacemakers – the world sees that – and, like the Roman centurion, even the heathen may look at us and say, now that person is truly a child of God.
THROUGH
Billy Graham mentions a painting he saw in England which
showed a soldier who had gone to the front to repair the communication lines.
The message which was to flow through those lines meant life to hundreds and
perhaps thousands of men. He found a breach in the wires but had nothing with
which to repair the break. While the enemy shells were bursting around him, he
took one broken cable in his left hand and stretching his right hand grasped
the other cable and made the connection. The title of the painting was simply
one word: “Through”.
From the time of the fall of Adam and Eve, there had been
a communication breach between God and man, and at Jesus death, he stretched
out his hands in each direction to repair that break in the line.
Ephesians 2:11-18
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by
birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves
"the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)—
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from
citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without
hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and
has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his
flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create
in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body
to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death
their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace
to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by
one Spirit.
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