Please turn with me to Matt 5:9-16.
During my preaching rotation, we have been covering the Beatitudes, which depict the blessed life of a disciple of Christ, a citizen in the kingdom of God, a born again Christian. During the first week, we covered the 4 personal qualities of a Christian.
Last week, we talked about 2 out of the 4 relational blessings that further round out what a Christian looks like. The first relational blessing is meekness. If you are meek toward others, God says, you will be blessed. The second relational blessing is being merciful. If you are merciful toward others, God will have mercy on you.
Today, I want to cover the third and fourth relational blessings and tie it to the few verses that follow.
The third relational blessing is found in v9–
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
The fourth relational blessing is found in v10-12–
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
If I were to ask you, what is a Christian, or what does a Christian look like, what would you say? You could point to several passages like Gal 5, a Christian is one who bears the fruit of the Spirit, but I hope this section, the Beatitudes (Matt 5), would be on your list. A Christian is poor in spirit, a Christian is one who mourns, a Christian is meek, he hungers and thirsts for righteousness, he is merciful, a Christian is pure in heart, and then, we get to the final two, a Christian is a peacemaker and if you are a Christian, expect to be persecuted.
Matt 5:1-12 focus on the character of a Christian. The following verses, v13-16, refer to a Christian’s influence in the world. It is no accident that Jesus talks about being the salt of the earth and the light of the world and a city on a hill on the heels of summarizing what a Christian is. Here are the 8 qualities of a Christian and immediately after that, here is the influence that a Christian has in the world.
We are not Christians so that we can be lonely monks in a monastery, praying and reading the Bible all day. A Christian by definition is one who impacts or influences his surroundings.
I want to key in on v9 because I think it ties the rest of the verses together.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
This reward is the most interesting on this list. Peacemakers. This one is easy to define. What is a peacemaker? One who make peace. And what is the reward for being a peacemaker? They will be called sons of God. Pretty cool. To me, this reward stands out. The rest of the rewards are things like inheriting the kingdom of heaven, inheriting the earth, being filled and so forth. But what is the one activity that sets us apart such that we can be called sons of God? Peacemaking.
It makes sense because the entire Bible is about peacemaking. The story of redemption is about peacemaking. From the moment Adam and Eve fell in the Garden, God has been on a rescue mission to save humanity. To make peace and to bring the rebels home, culminating in the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is THE peacemaker. His main activity, his main goal and mission was peacemaking. He is THE Son of God and we are described as little sons and daughters of God if we follow Jesus’ example in being a peacemaker. Jesus came to earth on a peacemaking mission. Therefore, blessed are the peacemakers, for they, you, me, we will be called sons of God.
How does Jesus make peace? He stands as the mediator between sinful humanity and a holy God. Like when 2 nations are on the brink of war, each nation sends a diplomat, an ambassador to broker a peace treaty. Jesus came as an ambassador of peace. On one side, you have God, who is holy, holy, holy, perfect in holiness, unable to tolerate even a single sin. On the other side, you have rebellious humanity, helpless and hopeless in our sin. It doesn’t matter what your background is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, it doesn’t matter if your parents took you to church or not. None of that merits salvation. None of that makes us worthy to be saved. Our sin separated us from God. Give it a million years, give it a billion years and still, we could never find our way back to God. This is the human predicament. We are cut off from God and unable to save ourselves. We are in need of rescue.
Is humanity better off today than it was 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, or a 1,000 years ago. No. Scripture is quite clear. There is no one righteous, not even one. Even with the advances of society, we are still as lost today as we were thousands of years ago. The only thing that made a difference was the coming of Jesus. We were helpless and hopeless until Jesus became our peacemaker by dying the death that we deserved on a cross so that we can stand justified before a righteous and holy God.
Jesus, the Son of God, is our peacemaker, he made peace with God possible so that those who repent and place their faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross can be called sons and daughters of God.
How can you tell if someone is truly a son or daughter of God? We will be joining Jesus in his peacemaking efforts to reconcile the world to our heavenly Father. Isn’t it any wonder that Jesus’ final words to his true disciples were to go and to make disciples of all nations. That’s peacemaking. Telling others about Jesus. Not simply telling them about Jesus. But after conversion, teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded, discipling them. Peacemaking is at the core of the Great Commission.