Take your Bibles, turn over to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5. As we continue our study of the Beatitudes. A man by the name of Quincy Wright wrote a book called The Study of War. And what he looked at was the years between 1480 and 1941. And he discovered that during that 461 year period, there were no less than 382 wars in this world. Of those wars, Great Britain experienced 78. France, 71. Spain, 64. USSR, 61. Austria, 52. Germany, 23. China, 11. Japan, 9. The United States, 13. And add another 110 if you add the wars that we fought against the Indians. That's 382 wars from 1480 to 1941. And if you go from 1941 to the present, you could easily add another hundred wars when you look at all the different wars that have been fought in the African countries, Vietnam, over in Europe. We are a civilization at war. Someone has noted that if an alien from another planet were to observe this planet, they would come to the conclusion that our major business was war. Someone has said that over the past 4,000 years, there has only been 300 years of peace. We need to hear the words of our Lord in this beatitude that we find in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5, verse 9. Let me ask you to stand as we read, beginning in verse 1 of Matthew's Gospel. Verse 1 of chapter 5. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth, and he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad. for your reward in heaven is great. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You may be seated. The beatitude that we're looking at today is found in verse 9. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. We need to first of all understand this word peace. What is Jesus' meaning when He says peace? Now, Matthew in his Gospel, when he uses the Greek word for peace, he has the Old Testament word of Shalom in mind. Now, when you and I think of peace, we usually think of the absence of conflict. Right? There's no war. And so we think, well, that's peace. To have peace at home means that mom and dad are not fighting against each other. It means that the kids and the parents are not fighting against each other. So we think of peace as being the absence of conflict. But this word shalom has a broader meaning, a richer meaning than that. It means not only the absence of conflict, but shalom means the presence of well-being, the presence of good blessings, the presence of even prosperity. It's not only the freedom from trouble, but the enjoyment of good things. Peace meant well-being, it meant contentment, it meant good blessings, it meant soundness, even prosperity. That's why shalom or peace was such a fitting greeting in the New Testament and Old Testament times. Because when you greeted someone and said, peace, you were saying more than just, I hope you don't have conflict, but I hope you have well-being and blessings as well. That's why Jesus told us 70 in Luke chapter 10, who were going out to share the news of the kingdom. He says to them in verse five of Luke 10, and whatever house you enter, first say, peace, be to this house. Now he didn't mean just simply say, well I hope you're not having conflict in this house, I hope you're not arguing. No, he had the much richer meaning in mind. I hope not only that you're free from conflict in this house, but I hope you have blessings, I hope you have goodwill, I hope you have prosperity. It is a fitting greeting when the fullness of the meaning of peace is understood. also paul used it in the greetings that he would write to the different churches over in ephesians chapter 1 as paul was writing to the christians at ephesus look at how he begins the letter grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wasn't just saying, I hope you're not having conflict at home. I hope you're not having fights in the church. He said, I hope not only you're not having conflict and fight, I hope you're having well-being. I hope you're having good blessings. I hope you're having prosperity, peace. And so when Jesus uses the term peace, when He says, blessed are the peacemakers, He's not speaking of peace simply as the absence of conflict. but also the presence of well-being, the presence of contentment. And notice Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers. He's not saying blessed are the peace lovers or blessed are the peace talkers. He's talking about the peacemakers. Now, a lot of people can wear t-shirts with the peace sign on it. And they can be peace lovers, and they can be peace talkers, but that does not make them peacemakers. We have some strange ideas in our society. Simply loving peace, simply talking about peace, will not bring about peace. Now that's been proven through years of history. In fact, some of the people that talk the loudest about wanting peace are actually working against it. They are calling for unilateral disarmament, strip everybody of everything, thinking that will bring peace. No, because somebody is going to keep some weapons, and they are going to be the ones that are going to keep us from having peace. I think unilateral disarmament is going to lead to war rather than peace. In fact, there are situations at home and at church that this attitude of do nothing to disturb the peace really does more to promote conflict because the thing just festers. It just grows. Rather than dealing with it, and going through the necessary conflict to solve the problem and get it worked out. They say, oh no, let's just don't do anything to disturb the peace. And it just festers and it grows and more conflict and war come as a result. Sometimes conflict is necessary in order to achieve peace. And Jesus pronounces his blessing on the peacemakers, the people who actively seek to bring peace and well-being. A peacemaker realizes at times temporary peace may be disrupted in order to achieve a greater peace. Was it not our own Lord Jesus, the peacemaker himself, who said in Matthew 10, do not think I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And he's the very same one that said, blessed are the peacemakers. There sometimes needs to be war in order for there to be peace, lasting peace. It was Teddy Roosevelt who said, speak softly, but carry a big stick. now the reason you can speak softly is because you have the big stick you see sometimes there must be that threat of war in order to have peace sometimes there has to be that engagement in war in order to have peace well then who are the peacemakers Blessed are the peacemakers. And that brings us to the question, who are the peacemakers? First of all, they are those who have peace with God. Those that have peace with God. You see, the problem with the world's way of seeking peace is they don't have peace with God first. You can get men sitting around a table from nations trying to achieve peace, but if they don't have peace with God, let me tell you, they're not going to achieve peace. History, again, has proven that. You have the League of Nations, you have the United Nations, organizations that are designed for the purpose of maintaining peace. But have they been successful? No. Because the men and women that make up those organizations don't have peace with God. And you see, the problem is not the weapons, it's not the guns, it's not the missiles. The problem is the people. It's the hearts of the people that are the problem. War starts in the heart. And even if you don't have those weapons, men are going to come up with some weapon to fight because war is in the heart. James tells us that. You remember last week, we saw that the heart is desperately wicked. It is deceitful. Who can know it? Look at what James says about the heart in James 4. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? In other words, where do wars come from? Where do we get fights and wars? Is it not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and do not obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Where does war come from? It comes from our hearts. A heart that is greedy, a heart that is envious, a heart that lusts and wants, is a heart intent on doing what it takes to get those lusts fulfilled and that's war. So first, if you're going to be a peacemaker, you've got to have peace with God. You've got to have peace in your heart. Well, how do you come to have peace with God? First of all, you must recognize that you're born at war with God. You're born at war with God. We come into this life kicking and screaming in rebellion against God. We want our way. Colossians chapter 1 verse 21. Paul speaks about our condition when he says, and although you were formerly alienated, and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds. That's us. That's all of us and we're born into this human race. Let me tell you, we are hostile toward God. We are alienated from God and we are engaged in doing our own thing, which is evil in the sight of a holy God. So we're not at peace with God. That's the first thing we've got to realize. Man, I'm at war with God. Because I'm not willing to go his way. I want to go my way. And then secondly, we need to realize that Jesus came to reconcile us to God. He came to make peace. He came to do what we couldn't do. And that is to intercede on our behalf and bring a peace agreement between us and God. Again, in Colossians 1 verse 22 we read, And yet He, speaking of Christ, has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Jesus came as the Peacemaker to make peace between us and God. And He did that by dealing with the sin problem. Because it was the sin problem that brought the war between us and God. And Jesus came and He took our sin upon Himself on the cross. He received the punishment that we rightly deserve to receive. And now God can be at peace with us through Jesus Christ. But you see, there's one thing left for us. We must surrender. unconditionally surrender to God. You see, when God calls for us to make peace, He says, my son Jesus has done everything necessary to accomplish peace between you and me. The punishment that my holiness demanded your sin receive, He's received it upon Himself on the cross. Now, Your part is to surrender unconditionally to Me. Stop fighting. Stop resisting. Stop seeking your own way. Unconditionally surrender and come before Me and say, God, I lay down My life before You. I lay down My weapons. I no longer take the offensive, but I surrender all to You. Through faith, I receive what you've done for me in Jesus. And Paul says in Romans 5, 1, Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By simply placing our faith in what Jesus accomplished through His perfect life, Through His death on the cross, through His resurrection from the dead, placing our faith, Jesus, You did it all. You made peace between me and God. Now I surrender by faith and accept that peace. Surrender my will to His will. I'm no longer going to walk in rebellion against You, God. But I want Your will for my life. I surrender all to You. And God says, You're at peace with me now. We're at peace. We're no longer at war. So first, a peacemaker is a person that has peace with God. Secondly, a peacemaker is one who has the peace of God. Not only does God want you to have peace with Him for there to be the absence of conflict, but He wants you to have His peace that brings a sense of contentment and well-being. He wants you to have the peace of God. Paul talks about this over in Philippians chapter four. Look what he says. In verse six, but be anxious for nothing. Don't be worried. Don't be upset. Don't have a lack of peace for anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Come to God with your problems. Come to God with your anxieties. Place those before Him. And what does it say? Verse 7. And the peace of God, the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, all human understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. God says, I want you to have My peace. That no matter what you're going through in life, no matter how difficult and hard it might be, that you can have a sense of well-being, a sense of contentment, Because you have laid it before me. You have come before me with prayer, thanksgiving, trusting me, looking to me. And I will give you that peace that passes human understanding. Now why does it pass human understanding? Because people who don't know God can't understand how you can have such peace in such awful circumstances. They can't understand it. How can you have peace when all this is going on in your life? it surpasses comprehension it doesn't make logical human sense when you're looking at it from the outside you know how that piece comes? only one way absolute surrender i was talking to somebody this week uh... who's just found out that they're going to be having their first child and you women think back now to when you found out you were going to have your first child Well, all these fears start coming up. What if something happens? And what if the baby's not right? And you remember, ladies, all these anxieties that come up? And I said, the only way you're going to have peace is you've got to surrender this child to your sovereign Lord. And you've got to say, Lord, no matter what happens, I'm going to trust you. That I want your will to be done. I want your glory above everything. And if that means something's got to happen, then I'm just going to trust you for the grace. Now, that's not an easy place to come to in your life, but that's the only place you're going to find peace. It's total surrender. Lord, whatever will bring you the most glory, that's what I want. Then you'll have peace. Anything less than that, you're going to be holding on anxious. Well, it's not going to work out. This is going to happen. That's going to happen. He wants you to have His peace. Not only peace with God, but the peace of God. Thirdly, a peacemaker is a person who proclaims the gospel of peace. You see, since there can be no real peace between men without a changed heart, therefore we must proclaim to them the gospel of peace. that God has come and come to reconcile men to Himself through Jesus Christ. And you and I are to proclaim that. We are to be the peacemakers. In 2 Corinthians 5, 20, Paul says, Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. God has called us to be His ambassadors. We are His representatives. An ambassador represents the President. He's in the country where the President is not, but He speaks on behalf of the President. He takes His Word from the President and He delivers it. We are ambassadors for Christ. We live here on this earth and we are to speak His Word of reconciliation, His Word of peace. We are to proclaim that He's made a way for you people to have peace with Him through Jesus Christ. It's like God's even speaking through us, Paul says, right? We are His spokesmen. We are His mouthpiece. And to be a peacemaker means you proclaim the gospel of peace. You proclaim how men and women, boys and girls, can experience peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then fourthly, to be a peacemaker means that the person desires to be at peace with all men. Peace with everyone. A peacemaker desires well-being and prosperity and the absence of conflict with all men. Paul talks about this over in Romans 12, 18. Look at what he says. He says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. As far as it depends on you, you are to be at peace with people. Now why does he say, as far as it depends on you? Because there are some people that are just not going to be at peace with you. I don't care what you do. They're intent on war. They're intent on conflict. They're intent on disagreement. And no matter how hard you try to make peace, they won't have it. Well, you can't control that. What you can control is what you do. And Paul said, as far as it depends on you now, you be at peace. I know that boss is unreasonable. I know he won't understand. But hey, It doesn't matter. You seek to be at peace with Him as far as it depends on you. That means you return good for evil. That means you pray for them. You say, God, what can I do to be a peacemaker in this relationship? What can I do? And then you seek by the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life of being a peacemaker. Whether they return it or not, hey, that's between them and God. Between you and God is are you seeking to be a peacemaker? Are you seeking their well-being? All right, let's review now before I give you some very practical steps on how to be a peacemaker. First, we talked about what Jesus meant by the word peace. Not only absence of conflict, But he meant the presence of well-being. I said, well, who is a peacemaker? First, a person that has peace with God. Secondly, a person who has the peace of God. Thirdly, a peacemaker is one who proclaims the gospel of peace. And then fourthly, a person who desires to be at peace with all people. Now let's get down to where the rubber hits the road. What are some practical things you can do to be a peacemaker? Number one, learn to keep your mouth closed. We could stop right there, couldn't we? Huh? Learn to keep your mouth shut. James says, let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. My dad used to say to me, son, God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. You're to listen twice as much as you talk. Learn to keep your mouth closed. When somebody says something offensive to you, somebody does something offensive to you, and you're tempted to reply, don't do it. When you'd like to give them a piece of your mind, don't do it. You can't spare it, trust me. Don't give it to them. Refrain, keep silent. But now I think it means something else. Don't repeat things that stir up conflict. Don't repeat things that cause problems. Proverbs talks about a person that stirs up strife among brothers. It's an abomination to the Lord. What am I talking about? Let me tell you what so and so said about you, Filiberto. You won't believe it. And I tell him what they said. Now how is that going to affect Philiberto? Is that going to make him all rosy and loving feeling and have a warm feeling toward those people? No. He's going to have to deal with that issue. It's going to start stirring him up. Look, you got my permission to never tell me anything anybody says bad about me, okay? I don't need to know it, don't want to know it. For some reason we think, well, you know what, they need to know people are saying that about them. He needs to know that they're saying that. No, I don't need to know it. Trust me. Don't want to know it. If it's true, then God will deal with me. If it's a lie, He'll deal with the person saying it. Right? Don't go to somebody, don't think, well, you know, I think it's one of Satan's attacks to go to people and say, you know, I just need to tell you so-and-so said this about you. That stirs up strife. That stirs up conflict. That's not being a peacemaker. Never say anything to anyone about somebody else, what they might have said, that's just going to stir things up. Don't do it. Learn to keep your mouth closed. Second, surrender your personal rights. Jesus said over in Luke 9, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Deny yourself means die to your personal rights, die to your self-life, die to your interest. Most of our conflicts come because we're selfish. We want our way. Right? And we don't get it and we get upset. We get angry. We get mad. And then war starts. Learn to surrender your personal rights. Put everybody else's interests above your own. And that will bring a lot of peace. The meek person is a peacemaker. Be willing to sacrifice your rights to achieve peace. Don't be thinking, well, that's just not right. I can't believe they did that to me. That's just not fair. That's just not right. That's just not just. No, just say, God, you're my advocate. The Bible says vengeance is the Lord's. He will repay. It's not your job to take vengeance. It's not your job to even have to look after your own rights. He'll look after your rights for you. You deny yourself. You take up your cross. You die daily. And you'll be a peacemaker. The next time you start getting angry and upset, stop a minute and say, now wait a minute. Why am I getting upset here? Why do I feel this anger coming up in me? Why am I wanting to say something mean and ugly right now? And you take a moment and what you're going to find out is that one of your personal, what you feel is a personal right or something you wanted has been violated or taken away or things have not gone your way. It's your selfishness that's causing A gentle word turns away wrath. Next, consider God's glory above all else. Consider His glory above everything. As a Christian, your main goal is to bring glory to God. In every situation, you need to consider, before you respond, what response would bring God the most glory? What response would lift him up and exalt him in the eyes of others? And then you do that and you'll be a peacemaker. And then number four, go out of your way to make peace with those who are not at peace with you. Someone who's seen terrible things about you, okay, you didn't speak back, that's good, but go a step further. That person's having some financial difficulties, then why don't you give them a check and help them out? Jesus said, feed your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, right? So go a step further and do something beneficial for that person. And that's gonna take the power of God's grace in you, I tell you. But that's the steps to go through to be a peacemaker. You go a step beyond, you take the second mile, and you seek to bring peace. And then, number five, seek to bring peace wherever you are. As a person that radiates God's peace, do everything you can to avoid needless controversy. Love covers a multitude of sins, the scripture says. People are going to hurt you. People are going to sin against you. We're human. That's going to happen. Now, how are you going to respond to it? Are you going to just let love cover it and forgive them? Be a peacemaker? Or are you going to get all up in their face and tell them, oh, I can't believe you hurt me like that. You did that to me. I can't believe this. I can't believe that. And I'm just going to get you back. Or are you going to go tell somebody else what they did to you? Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. When you have peace with God, then you are one of His children. You show yourself to be a true child of God when you are one who seeks to make peace. Like father, like child. Jesus. God the Father is the greatest peacemaker. cause he came to make peace with us through Jesus so when you and I seek to be peacemakers we're giving testimony that we truly are sons and daughters of God are you willing to be a peacemaker today? you may know the situation you're involved in right now where there's conflict there needs to be peace will you ask God to show you what you can do to bring peace? to be a peacemaker. Maybe it's something at work. Maybe it's a situation at home. Maybe it's in your neighborhood. Maybe it's at school. But will you be a peacemaker? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, give us that grace we need to be peacemakers. even in a world that seems to be so intent on war and on conflict because of the selfishness of the human heart. Transform our hearts, Lord Jesus, that we might truly be peacemakers. In Jesus' name, amen.