Matthew 5.9 – November 8, 2009

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Blessed are the peacemakers, those who work to sustain and create harmony in their personal relationships. Peacemaking is not only avoiding the attitudes and behaviors that cause disharmony, but it is also taking the positive steps towards restoring harmony when it is lost. Turning to the Scriptures, I offer to you today a few biblical principles about the action steps that peacemakers take in restoring harmony.

1. Take the initiative. In two situations, Jesus spoke about what to do when disharmony has entered a relationship. In Matthew 18.15, Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” In Matthew 5.23-24, Jesus said, “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.” In both instances, the counsel of the Prince of Peace is to take the initiative in bringing harmony to the friendship. He did not say, “If your brother has a problem with you, wait until they bring it up.”

2. Pray for the one with whom you have conflict. In Matthew 5.43-45, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” Notice the “sonship” connection (Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God). If we can identify three blessings that we can intercede on behalf of those with whom we are attempting to make peace, it will change our attitude towards them. Ask the Lord to bless them, protect them, provide for them, give them wisdom, or to give them joy.

3. Do something kind for the person with whom you have conflict. Paul wrote in Romans 12.18-21, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is one of the five New Testament texts that use the word “peacemaker,” and the context tells us to demonstrate kindness through tangible expressions of love as we strive to live at peace with everyone. We haven’t really tried to be a peacemaker if we haven’t done something kind for the person on the other side of the conflict.

4. Sometimes peacemakers simply choose to be wronged instead of working to be proven right. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul was instructing individuals among the church in Corinth as they were trying to settle their conflicts. Since the church members were taking each other to court, it was obvious that disharmony was very present. Paul’s counsel to the church members included this statement: “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?” (1 Corinthians 6.7). In other words, for the sake of peace, sometimes peacemakers will bear the cost, accept the blame, or let go of further attempts to be exonerated. This will not always be the course of action for peacemakers, but it must be a considered option.

5. Peacemakers know the difference between compromise and non-negotiable truth. In other words, the Scriptures do not tell us to make peace at all costs. In fact, Jesus Himself made this very interesting statement in Matthew 10.32-39, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” In other words, peacemakers take up their cross and follow the Christ. And that decision may cause the member’s of our own household to hate us because they hate the Christ. We are not to abandon the Christ to bring peace within our household. Peacemakers know the non-negotiable truths, and they know which areas are open for compromise. And peacemakers are ready for the 8^th beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.”



Quoting from the modern source of all knowledge (tongue firmly in cheek), the collaborative encyclopedia “wikipedia” writes,

Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means “First, do no harm.” The phrase is sometimes recorded as primum nil nocere. Nonmaleficence, which derives from the maxim, is one of the principal precepts that all medical students are taught in medical school and is a fundamental principle for emergency medical services around the world. Another way to state it is that “given an existing problem, it may be better to do nothing than to do something that risks causing more harm than good.

The art of being a peacemaker is the art of putting mercy into action. It is one thing to decide to dispense compassion instead of justice to one who has wronged us, but it is another to take actions steps towards brokering peace with those to whom we are at odds.

Many who have written about peacemaking talk about passive peacemaking and active peacemaking. Passive peacemaking begins with “first do no harm.” In other words, if we are going to be involved in building bridges of peace with those whom have something against us, we must stop contributing to the problem that caused disharmony in the first place. Only after we have stopped contributing to the problem can we then begin to be involved in active peacemaking.

So, I offer a suggested top five biblical teachings for passive peacemaking, and I welcome the biblical principles that you might add to the list:

1. Consider others as more important than ourselves. Consider Philippians 2.3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” By thinking only of ourselves, we create situations of conflict. If we become persons who are wired to think about the other person first, we can prevent situations that disrupt harmony more often than not.

2. Refuse to slander (Slander is “a false and defamatory oral statement about a person”). 1 Peter 2.1 says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” The street word for slander is gossip. A person who gossips will stir up dissension (see Proverbs 16.28). Furthermore, a gossip adds logs to the fire of a quarrel (see Proverbs 26.20). We see this better in others than we see it in ourselves. If we are committed to bringing peace, then we will avoid any gossip and slander, both in the form of spreading it and in the form of enjoying hearing it from others.

3. Be a person of integrity by putting away every kind of falsehood and deception. Ephesians 4.25 says, “Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” A lie is a breach of confidence and trust and it always breeds conflict. So, if we are committed to being peacemakers, we will avoid any form of deceit that might breed disharmony.

4. Root out jealousy and envy. James 3.16 says, “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” Peacemakers must be painfully aware of our own motivations and desires. We cause many conflicts simply because we are jealous of another’s success, popularity, or stuff. Peacemakers must confess and repent of envy.

5. Listen more than we speak. James 1.19 says, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” It is an old statement but full of truth: “God gave us two ears and one mouth because He wants us to listen twice as much as we talk.” If we would just hold our tongue, we could prevent many conflicts from every getting started.

Tomorrow, we turn our attention to active peacemaking.

November 1, 2009
Matthew 5.7

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The text for Sunday morning’s sermon is the 7th beatitude:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matthew 5.9)

With each additional beatitude, the picture of a fully devoted follower of Christ gets clearer and clearer. I like how John Piper puts it:

With each beatitude another nail is driven into a coffin. Inside the coffin lies the corpse of a false understanding of salvation. The false understanding said that a person can be saved without being changed. Or, that a person can inherit eternal life even if his attitudes and actions are like the attitudes and actions of unbelievers….Therefore the beatitudes are like long spikes holding down the lid of the coffin on the false teaching which says that if you just believe in Jesus you will go to heaven whether or not you are merciful or pure in heart or a peacemaker.

If peace can be defined as “harmony in personal relations,” then one area where we need peace above all others is in our families. And it seems that harmony in family relations is withering away. The Institute for American Values has just released “The Marriage Index,” a comprehensive study of the state of marriage in the United States. The Marriage Index examines five essential measurements of the health of marriages and compares them to data from earlier to decades to trace trends.

The first indicator is the percentage of adults age 20 to 54 who are married. In 1970, 78.6% of adults were married but that number dropped to 57.2% in 2008. It seems that marriage is becoming a less attractive choice for young adults.

The second indicator is how many married persons self report to be “very happy” in their marriages. This figure has dropped slightly from 67% to 62%.

The third indicator is the percentage of first marriages that are still intact. 77.4% first marriages were still intake in 1970, but only 61.2% were intact in 2007.

The fourth indicator is the number of births to married persons. In 1970, 89.3% of all births were to married persons but that number has dropped to 60.3%.

The final indicator is the percentage of children living with their own married parents. In 1970, 68.7% of all children lived with their own mother and father. That number has dropped slightly to 61% in 2007.

When all five indicators are combined, the composite score reveals that marital health in the USA has dropped from 76.2% in 1970 to 60.3% in 2008.

The picture that the numbers paint is that when men and women unite together in a loving relationship and enter a marital covenant with each other, peace is very hard to maintain. Only three out of five couples are able to maintain enough peace to remain married. Two out of five couples lack enough harmony in personal relations to work together to raise their children. The picture is so bleak that almost half of marrying age adults choose to abandon the institution all together, a seeming admission that lasting harmony in personal relations is not possible, so why even try.

Against this backdrop, we hear the words for the apostle James,

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3.18)

Blessed are the peacemakers…

The prophet Micah made a powerful statement many years ago. He wrote,

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6.8)

What does God want from us? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

Any real attempt to live out the fifth beatitude (Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy – Matthew 5.7) will lead you to the ultimate and logical conflict between justice and mercy.

According to the dictionary, justice means “the administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishment.” Mercy means “compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power.” Or, to give working definitions, justice is “to make things right” and mercy is “not giving someone what they deserve.”

So, the prophet tells us that God wants us to work towards making things right but to not give others what they deserve? God wants us to walk north but move south?

The problem is that mercy is not something that we show to others in a vacuum. To show forbearance (which means “to refrain from the enforcement of something”) implies that I am in a situation where something (a debt, a right, or an obligation) needs to be enforced. Justice demands it. And yet Jesus is telling me to show mercy, to refrain from the enforcement of justice.

At this point, the “walk humbly with our God” instruction is easy. The call to act towards justice but to show mercy leads me to seek the daily leading of the Spirit to know how to speak and how to act in every given moment. As others have noted, we want mercy from others but give justice in return. The sinful heart lashes out in justice much more easily than in mercy. How hard it is to leave room for the wrath of God, choosing to demonstrate love and mercy to my enemies instead (Romans 12.19-21)?

Most of us are familiar with the most famous of all of the miracles of Jesus, the feeding of the 5000. It is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. Unfortunately, most of us are not as familiar with the follow up conversation Jesus had with those who experienced the miracle firsthand. You can read it for yourself in John 6.

After the miracle, Jesus went to the other side of the lake, only to find that the people had followed him. Instead of rejoicing that the people were seeking Him out, Jesus was a little bit put off.

“I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. (John 6.26-27)

In other words, they were hungry and “had their fill,” but of the wrong type of food. Instead, they should have been hungering for food that does not spoil.

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6.35)

Blessed are the hungry and the thirsty. And then, Jesus delivers the kicker punch line.

I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. (John 6.53-56)

After this statement,

Many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6.66)

Why did the followers of Jesus stop following Him when Jesus pointed them to the source of real satisfaction, to the source of real life? Because the teachings were too hard (see John 6.60).

I submit to you that it is at this point that Christians today stop following Jesus, too. When Jesus gets in our face and tells us that the only source of genuine satisfaction is to “remain in Him,” we just can’t handle it because we are convinced that our hunger and thirst can be better met in a better job, nicer accommodations, more exciting vacations, or among more pleasant people. The answer to the question of the emptiness in our souls simply cannot be as easy as remaining in Christ. And so we look elsewhere.

After the crowds left Him, Jesus asked the twelve is they wanted to leave, too. Peter answered for the group.

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6.68)

That simple confession takes most of us years to discover, that the only source of satisfaction for the longing and emptiness in our souls is in Christ Himself.

Hunger plays a prominent role in the biblical narrative. From the very beginning, it was mankind’s hunger that broke up their fellowship with the Divine. Remember Adam and Eve? They saw that the fruit of the forbidden tree was good, and pleasing to the eye, and desirable. Their hunger was natural, even God created, but they hungered for the wrong thing. As a result, they ate but were not satisfied.

In the exodus story, God set the captives free from the oppressive land of Egypt. With Egypt in their rearview mirror, they faced the hunger and thirst of the desert before them. God provided them with manna to eat. But not satisfied with a food so strange to them that they called it “what is it?” (the literal translation of “manna”), they hungered for something better.

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ⁵We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. ⁶But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11.4-6)

And so they ate the quail that God sent down, but they were not satisfied because a severe plague came with the craved meat.

The prophets would use this image of hunger that is wrongly quenched. Isaiah said,

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. (Isaiah 55.1-2)

And again, the prophet Jeremiah used this image when he said,

My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2.13)

Hunger even enters the Jesus narrative. Led by the Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil, Jesus got hungry, of course, because He was made like us in every way. The Devil tempted Him to solve his hunger problem by turning the stones into bread. In resisting the Devil, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 8. Here is the whole verse from which His reply came,

³He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8.3)

From the beginning, hunger is the natural craving placed in our stomachs by our creator. But hunger is also a symbol that points to a greater reality. Our souls hunger, too. Our souls naturally crave something that it lacks, something (or someone) whose absence is painful. And from the beginning, mankind has been trying to quench that painful thirst with broken cisterns, with bread that does not satisfy.

Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5.6, that those who want to be satisfied, those who want their souls to be quenched, those who want to be filled must long for the true source of quenching. Later in His ministry, Jesus would say it like this:

I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever. (John 6.53-58)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Our text for this week is Matthew 5.6, where Jesus speaks the fourth beatitude:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (NIV)

A good place to start with Bible study is with an effort to understand the meaning of the words used by Jesus. When used metaphorically, “hunger” means “to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire” and “thirst” means “to painfully feel the want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened.” So, it makes sense that “filled” means “to fulfill or satisfy the desire.” Jesus is saying that those who crave ardently, who seek with eager desire, who eagerly long for the things by which the soul is refreshed will be satisfied.

But what are we to eagerly desire? Jesus is not saying that those who desire for their souls to be satisfied will be satisfied regardless of what it is that they long for. In fact, He tells us very plainly what it is that we are to be longing for: righteousness.

To grasp the full meaning of His words, we will have to explore what this word righteousness means, but for today, I find myself meditating on the simple idea of being satisfied. We all know what it means for our souls to be unsatisfied, to feel the pain of an un-refreshed soul. And yet I hear Jesus saying to me that soul satisfaction is possible for those who crave the right thing.

John Piper, his book Christian Hedonism, says that our problem is not that we crave pleasure but that we find pleasure in things that are not pleasing. God has created us to crave satisfaction and fulfillment, but we are convinced that we can find those things in empty vessels.

The prophet Jeremiah put it like this: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2.13). Or to paraphrase Jesus, “Un-refreshed people crave the wrong thing, but blessed are those who know where to find the soul quenching good stuff.”

Lord, lead us to the soul quenching good stuff this week.

Did you know that the world is coming to an end on December 21, 2012? The ancient Mayan Long Count Calendar comes to an abrupt end on that date, and there is a group of folks preparing for the end of the world…sort of.

You can visit their website and read all sorts of information concerning the coming doomsday. They are hosting a survival conference this weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona where you can learn urban survival skills, sustenance gardening, going off the grid, and natural medical remedies. The speaker, Cody Lundin, is a professional in the field of primitive living skills, modern wilderness survival, and urban self-reliance. He is the author of two best selling books on survival and preparedness and frequently appears on nature and science channels.

What is interesting about the 2012 Survival Conference is the conclusion they reach about the coming end of the world. In their mind, when the world comes to an end, the result is that the world economy will collapse, grocery stores will no longer have food to sell, and society as a whole will breakdown into total chaos.

On the other hand, the Bible is rather clear about what happens at the end of the world.

“Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9.27).

It seems strange to me to spend an awful lot of energy preparing for a doomsday that may or may not come on December 21, 2012 but to totally neglect the day that we know is going to come for every single person on the planet, which is the day our life on this earth comes to an end. When standing at the judgment seat of Christ, it will not matter if I have developed urban survival skills, or know how to grow my own food, or if I can live off the grid. The crucial question will be, “Will I be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Will I be able to see God? Will I be shown mercy? Will I be called a son of God?”

In the beatitudes, Jesus describes those who are Kingdom folk, those who can have the confidence that on that great day, they will begin the best part of their journey. It is not a doomsday, but it is a day to look forward to, a day to hasten.

Who is ready to see God? Those who have a pure heart. A pure heart does not just happen because we like the idea. A pure heart is the result of consciously choosing to examine ourselves, to confess our sin, and to turn away from the sin.

Join us on Sunday morning as we continue this discussion.