Video transcript below
Welcome to part eight of the Beatitudes series. You’ll recall we’re studying this based on John 10:10 where Jesus said that he came to give us life and to give us life more abundantly. We are answering the question of how can a Christian live in a way that is so abundant that when people meet us, they say, I want what you have. And Jesus gave us the roadmap through the Beatitudes.
So today we’re on part eight, like I mentioned before, which is taken from Matthew 5:9 which says,
“blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.”
And you know, we’ve already talked about so many amazing foundations Jesus laid before this. He talked about the importance of being poor in spirit, which is completely dependent upon God. He talked about mourning our sins so that it causes us to repent and to forsake it. He talked about being meek, which means strength under control, so that our strength is God channeling through us, God’s spirit speaking through us, not our own strength. And he talked about how these foundational attitudes lay a foundation for us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Because if we’re doing the first three, then we are going to hunger and thirst after righteousness. And that beatitude,that tells us we need to have the kind of attitude that hungers and thirsts after righteousness is very much tied into this beatitude about being a peacemaker.
It’s interesting that Jesus is not describing someone who lives in peace, rather someone who brings about peace. But it goes without saying that, to bring about peace, you must also possess it yourself. You can’t bring something to the table unless you already possess it, right? And look, we all want peace. You know, in my office, I talk to people who are full of anxiety and they just want some peace.
And they think for the most part, like most of us, that they’re anxiety will be relieved by solving a legal problem, right? I mean, we all think that way. We think, oh, if I could just have this, or I could just do this, or I could just get rid of this problem, that our anxiety will be extinguished or at least knocked down. At least until the next problem comes along, is that right?
So, it’s, but it’s interesting, you know, and it can be overwhelming, I think, to really think about how do we, how do we accomplish becoming a peacemaker in a world full of so much controversy and so much ugliness? How do we have the energy to bring about peacemaking? And it, my friend, I’ll just tell you, it all goes back to Jesus, who is called in Isaiah 9:6, the Prince of Peace. Jesus has to be our prince, and in order for us to be peacemakers, he has to be the center of our life, right? In the section about hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we read out of Isaiah 32:17 that says, the work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever. This idea of being a peacemaker ties very deeply into what we are allowing into our own life,that taints that righteousness. Remember, we have a body, soul and spirit, right? When we’re born again, our soul and our spirit are made clean in Christ. We’re made righteous, right, before God, because we’re in Jesus. We’re in Christ. But this flesh is never righteous. It’s never any better than the day we were born again. And so we have to discipline our flesh in the ways of God in order to be peacemakers.
So this first happens, obviously, when we’re born again, right? We cannot spread peace, through the prince of peace if he does not live in our life, if our soul and spirit are dead to a relationship with him. So, but when we are born again and given that inner peace, because we have Christ as Lord of our life, we must grow that, okay? Because our enemies, Satan, right, the flesh, this flesh that we sleep with every day and the world fight against us and do not want us to have peace. And the thing about it is, you know, we’ve got to be serious about this. Being a peacemaker is not some casual endeavor. You know, I went to four years of undergraduate school and three years of law school to be able to practice law. Then I took two bar exams, which were each about four months of studying. So it was no casual endeavor to become qualified to go into the courtroom and become an advocate. And I often look back at that and I challenge myself. What am I doing? How much work am I putting into becoming a peacemaker for Jesus Christ, right? Which is one of these attitudes we need to develop for life.
You know, I always think about the example of people who are called peacekeepers, right? And I’ll just use this example. My daughter-in-Law and my son are both Apache attack helicopter pilots for the Army. They’re attack helicopter pilots, and they did fly Apaches, now they’re doing something different. But you think about all the training that went into making them peacekeepers, right? With the US Army, the Army’s invested lots and lots of money into them, and they fly expensive equipment worth millions. And we, but we have, we have the power. They have the power to maybe make peace in a particular area, until the next evil person comes along that wants to overthrow a government or cause a coup. But each born again believer holds the keys to the kingdom, the keys to the bringing about, of eternal peace for the lost souls of men and women. We have the gospel. And the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And you know, what I find in my walk with God is that the best tool that I have to bring people into reconciliation with God, into a relationship with God, is my own testimony. And what’s very sad, and what I’m very ashamed to admit, is that until about 12 years ago when the Lord lit the fire in me, I hardly ever shared my testimony. Matter of fact, I’m not even sure I really knew how to effectively share the gospel, and I’d been saved for many years. So we need, if we’re wanting to be peacemakers, we need to know how to share the gospel. And the best gospel testimony we have is our own testimony, how Jesus Christ saved us, right?
And you know, you may know by now, we have a podcast called Truth in Love. The reason we call it truth in love is because giving the truth of God’s word by itself is just cruel. Because the truth without love is just, Hey, this is your problem. This is what’s happening, and you’re going to go to hell if you weren’t saved. And there’s no compassion, there’s no empathy, there’s no identifying with the person who’s in the state of anxiety. Or, if you just give love, but you don’t tell ’em the gospel, that’s cruel too. So that’s what we call it, Truth in Love. That’s just an aside. But this is the same principle with regard to being a peacemaker.
You know, if we are determined to divorce ourselves from the darkness, if we’re determined to hate sin and recognize that sin kills peace, sin kills everything good in this world, sin causes war, right? Then we can be carriers of peace, not just people who walk around saying, peace, brother. No, not that. I’m talking about when people come up and they say, you seem like you have so much peace and satisfaction. What are you doing different? In our series on self-care, that actually precipitated the whole series. Because I had a man come up to me and said, I want to know what you do for self-care. You have so much peace. And I was kind of surprised. Because I really, if you look at my fingernails, I don’t have much selfcare there. But I recognized that what he was identifying was Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. And, I’m not saying I’m perfect at all. I’m just saying that when I allow him to be Lord of my life, the peace is very evident to those around me. And it is an opportunity to share the gospel. So that’s what I shared with this man. Well, it starts with being born again and being connected to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Does that make sense? So we have to, and what’s brilliant about these beatitudes, is the way Jesus laid them out. You know, first our admission, that we are nothing without him, right? For both salvation and then for Christian living, I can’t manufacture peace that attracts people to Jesus. That has to come from Jesus. And that only comes from Jesus, that only flows through me freely if I am living after the Spirit. And because God is holy, I need to live according to His word. Right?
You know, I did a series several months back, maybe even a year ago, about which God are you praying to? And what that was about was how we pick and choose our rules from the Bible. And for example, we may think, oh, it’s okay to tell white lies, all right? Or maybe it’s okay, to you know, to cross lines on entertainment or cross lines in a relationship that are clearly unbiblical. And so when we pray, we are praying to the God who says those things are okay. And that’s not the God of the Bible. We are praying to a powerless God.
Well, the same thing is true with peace. When we take God’s word and treat it as if it’s a buffet that we can pick and choose whatever rules we want, then we are having to grasp and claw and find, desperately, find peace from this God that we’ve chosen to serve, which is not the God of the Bible. This is not the omniscient, omnipotent, Prince of Peace that created the world, that sustains the world. That’s in fact giving me the ability to even talk to you right now. So if we want to have the attitude of a peacemaker, it’s very much tied to our hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
You know, it’s interesting that Jesus said that peacemakers will be called the sons of God. You know, that is actually, it’s like it’s remarkable. There’s not really a word I can think of that’s big enough or great enough to describe that. Think about that for a minute. If somebody comes up to you and says, I see something different in you, and you can say, that’s Jesus, and they’ve never seen it before.
We are representing, we are representing accurately who Jesus is. That’s why we’re called a son of God. Because you know, this world culture, Satan, who is called the God of this world, he devises chaos. He devises anxiety. He uses everything to cause just disruption in the human race. So when you see somebody with peace, then you are also having the, because Jesus is flowing through you, you also have the ability to be a peacemaker because it’s credible.
Your message is credible. Oh, yes, I know Jesus. He is the Lord of my life. And what you’re seeing right now is what he can give you. You can’t sell something very well that you don’t believe in.
And I’m not saying I’m selling the gospel, but you know, exhibit A, if exhibit A is your life, and your life represents peace, then you can lead them to the Prince of Peace. And that is the ultimate peacemaker. Somebody who leads a soul to reconcile with Jesus Christ, who is the Prince of Peace. You know, Isaiah 26:3 says, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee. You see, when we get to the point in these beatitudes, we’re working upwards towards being more unified with Jesus Christ. We come to a point where the only place we want to be is in unity with Jesus Christ. Because that’s where our mind is at rest. Our heart is at rest. Our soul is at rest, and we have perfect peace. And let me tell you, perfect peace is unmistakable.
So tomorrow we’re going to, or the next video, we’re going to finish up this last beatitude. And I think you’re going to be really moved by what Jesus was saying when he told us that it is blessed, we are blessed when we are persecuted. I was shocked and amazed at the message of this last beatitude. So hope you’ll join us for the next video.
