WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.259 We're working our way on Sunday evenings through the Beatitudes and Jesus at the very beginning 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:15.860 of the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, he goes up the mountain and he speaks this 00:00:15.860 --> 00:00:20.059 new law but it says he speaks as one that has authority. 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:24.900 And we said from week one that this is like Moses, he's like the new and better Moses 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:29.420 going up the mountain all over again to deliver the Ten Commandments all over again. 00:00:29.420 --> 00:00:35.859 But when Moses gave the Ten Commandments he received them from God and spoke them as 00:00:35.859 --> 00:00:40.500 a mediator as a prophet but Jesus goes up the mountain and he just opens his mouth. 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:46.780 He speaks as God as one that's got authority and he gives this new law and we've said every 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.380 week this is the law of discipleship. 00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:54.020 It's what theologians throughout centuries have called the beautiful life, the description 00:00:54.020 --> 00:00:58.740 of the blessed life or the beautiful life and it's a life where joy and obedience are all 00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:04.620 wrapped up together in these nine ways to live, these nine ways to be blessed to live 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:06.120 the good life. 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:11.159 And tonight we come to number seven, this is the climactic number, the number of the 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:18.680 Sabbath itself, it must be particularly important and that's blessed are the peacemakers. 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:22.040 What is that peacemaking? 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.780 Why should we pursue it and how do we grow into it? 00:01:25.780 --> 00:01:27.280 Three things. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:31.620 So first what is it, the definition, peacemaking? 00:01:31.620 --> 00:01:37.879 There are four ways that the Bible uses the word peace, four different ways. 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:45.579 One of them is the way that the modern world knows the best and that's to say I have serenity, 00:01:45.579 --> 00:01:50.900 peace in my inner life that I'm okay, I'm okay with who I am, I'm okay with my identity, 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:54.740 I feel okay, I'm at peace about this decision. 00:01:54.739 --> 00:01:58.659 And the Bible does sometimes refer to that type of peace, the second type of peace though 00:01:58.659 --> 00:02:04.039 and more common is national peace, it's the type of peace you get at the end of great 00:02:04.039 --> 00:02:10.019 conflict at the end of war between nations, the kind of peace that we pray for Ukraine 00:02:10.019 --> 00:02:15.340 to know now, it's the kind of peace that Israel achieved so often through war throughout 00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:17.079 the Old Testament. 00:02:17.079 --> 00:02:23.740 But the third way is interpersonal peace, even the word, the opposite of this particular 00:02:23.740 --> 00:02:29.900 word peace often literally in the Greek text means to fist fight, you know, it's the opposite 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:35.300 of getting in a fist fight with somebody, it's peace between people, between interperson, 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:40.879 it's the end of interpersonal conflict, the type of peace that we all seek in the kitchen 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:45.300 with our spouses sometimes, at the end of conflict you want peace. 00:02:45.300 --> 00:02:51.900 And then fourth and finally is a peace that's very unique in the Bible and it's the peace 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:54.900 of total cosmic well-being. 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:59.219 You know, it's when all sad things come untrue, it's when everything that's wrong with the 00:02:59.219 --> 00:03:05.259 world is reversed, the curse is ended and this is of course the famous Hebrew term that 00:03:05.259 --> 00:03:10.180 many people, non-Christians even know and that's the term in the Old Testament, shalom, 00:03:10.180 --> 00:03:12.420 a very particular kind of peace, cosmic well-being. 00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:21.860 Now, when Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers, he is only here talking about one of these. 00:03:21.860 --> 00:03:25.700 And it's actually the third one. 00:03:25.700 --> 00:03:31.700 This is a particular phrase that we see a couple other places that very clearly refers 00:03:31.700 --> 00:03:38.260 to peacemaking in interpersonal conflict, the type of conflict that we experience in normal 00:03:38.260 --> 00:03:43.260 life with other people all around us, our colleagues, our neighbors, our wives, our 00:03:43.260 --> 00:03:49.580 siblings, our spouses, whoever it may be, interpersonal conflict, that type of conflict, that's what 00:03:49.580 --> 00:03:50.580 he's talking about. 00:03:50.580 --> 00:04:00.939 Jesus grew up and lived in an age of when Israel was under Roman occupation and we see 00:04:00.939 --> 00:04:06.340 very clearly across Matthew that there are all sorts of political tensions hinted at 00:04:06.340 --> 00:04:09.460 underneath the text that are arising at the time. 00:04:09.460 --> 00:04:16.980 Jesus lived under a very tense setting and that meant that he saw a lot of violence in 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:18.500 his context. 00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:24.980 And there was a group of Pharisees that left the Phariseeical tradition as it was practiced 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:28.019 and became what was called zealots. 00:04:28.019 --> 00:04:33.420 The zealot community was founded in about 6 BC, just a couple of years before Jesus was 00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:38.779 born and the zealots were essentially Pharisees with guns. 00:04:38.779 --> 00:04:42.300 They said, give me liberty or give me death. 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:47.980 They wanted the end of all Roman occupation and so they were willing to take the Old Testament, 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:53.300 the law of God from the Old Testament and use it to wield towards political revolution 00:04:53.300 --> 00:04:54.300 and violence. 00:04:54.300 --> 00:04:57.580 Anything that they could do to get out from underneath the yoke of Roman occupation and 00:04:57.580 --> 00:05:02.740 this meant that the entire realm that Jesus and the disciples lived in was one that was 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:07.340 tense and ready for political violence to break out at any given time. 00:05:07.340 --> 00:05:13.500 And we even see in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus actually calling a person out of the lifestyle 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:16.100 of the zealot and into discipleship. 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:22.660 Matthew chapter 10 tells us that Jesus called out Simon the zealot to come and to follow 00:05:22.660 --> 00:05:23.660 him. 00:05:23.660 --> 00:05:29.260 Now, I point that out not to say that there's no such thing as just war and not to say that 00:05:29.260 --> 00:05:34.500 Jesus is saying here that for the Christian we should say no to all moments of violence. 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:36.100 That's not what he's doing here. 00:05:36.100 --> 00:05:42.300 Of course, we have a rich tradition of just war thinking throughout Christian history or 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:43.300 even. 00:05:43.300 --> 00:05:51.180 Jesus is not saying that conflict is not important because it is. 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:55.819 Jesus himself said, I came not to bring peace, but to bring a sword. 00:05:55.819 --> 00:06:02.540 You see, there's a subtext throughout the whole of redemptive history of necessary conflict. 00:06:02.540 --> 00:06:09.060 Instead, what he's doing is he's speaking into a context that had intense political 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:18.220 debates, theological debates and racial tension that really caused public quarrel and strife 00:06:18.220 --> 00:06:21.340 on the streets all the time. 00:06:21.340 --> 00:06:28.100 You see, in the public square, there was political dissension and strife and bifurcation. 00:06:28.100 --> 00:06:35.740 There was theological enmity between different parties and there was immense racial tension. 00:06:35.740 --> 00:06:40.060 Now, does that sound familiar? 00:06:40.060 --> 00:06:44.939 And you see, there's a famous French saying and I won't say it in French, so I don't embarrass 00:06:44.939 --> 00:06:51.740 myself, but it says that things are always changing and things always stay the same. 00:06:51.740 --> 00:06:57.019 Every age in some sense is the exact same and ever since the beginning, intense political 00:06:57.019 --> 00:07:03.060 strife, intense theological debate and racial tension has marked every age and culture that's 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:07.420 ever existed in different ways at different levels from the beginning of time. 00:07:07.420 --> 00:07:12.780 And Jesus comes and says, blessed are the peacemakers in that context. 00:07:12.780 --> 00:07:16.540 Now this term, peacemaker, is an important word. 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:18.420 It's a rare word in the New Testament. 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:22.720 It only comes three times in the whole New Testament and you can hear in the English 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:25.060 exactly like it is in the Greek text. 00:07:25.060 --> 00:07:26.980 It is a compound word. 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:32.220 So the author has stuck two words together to make the word peacemaker. 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:39.900 And it's very important to notice this because it does not say, blessed are the peaceful. 00:07:39.900 --> 00:07:47.300 Because being peaceful just means being quiet and staying to yourself and not causing strife 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:49.820 with other people, but no, it says something more. 00:07:49.820 --> 00:07:52.020 It's not passive. 00:07:52.020 --> 00:07:53.060 It's very active verb. 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:57.100 It says blessed are those who go and make peace. 00:07:57.100 --> 00:08:03.420 And this is how John Calvin describes it, by peacemakers, Jesus here means those who 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:09.740 not only seek peace and avoid quarrels as far as lies in their power, but those who labor 00:08:09.740 --> 00:08:16.580 to settle differences among others, who advise all people to live at peace and who take every 00:08:16.580 --> 00:08:22.379 occasion to counter hatred and strife. 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:27.819 Now there's an Old Testament correspondent to this that we have in the book of Jeremiah. 00:08:27.819 --> 00:08:35.139 Remember in Jeremiah, Israel had been captured by Babylon taken into Babylonian captivity 00:08:35.139 --> 00:08:40.539 and God comes to Israel in the midst of a context where there was intense political strife, 00:08:40.539 --> 00:08:43.580 intense theological debates and racial tension. 00:08:43.580 --> 00:08:50.580 And God says, Israel, my people, seek the peace of Babylon. 00:08:50.580 --> 00:08:57.460 Your job in the midst of a city that hates you even is to seek the shalom, the peace 00:08:57.460 --> 00:09:02.300 of this great city, even if everybody around you disagrees with everything you think. 00:09:02.300 --> 00:09:05.060 Seek the peace, be a peacemaker in the midst of this context. 00:09:05.060 --> 00:09:14.300 And look, like Israel and Babylon, like Jesus under Roman occupation and like today, ever 00:09:14.300 --> 00:09:19.379 since sin entered the world, we have all lived in a pluralistic context. 00:09:19.379 --> 00:09:20.700 And what's pluralism? 00:09:20.700 --> 00:09:26.939 Pluralism is when there are so many philosophies, religions and ideologies all around us in 00:09:26.939 --> 00:09:32.220 one culture trying to share life together that we disagree so much about what the good 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:36.820 life is we don't know how to chase after the common good in any coherent way. 00:09:36.820 --> 00:09:41.939 And so the question is always in the pluralistic context, how do we seek common ground with 00:09:41.939 --> 00:09:46.179 people around us when we can't agree on the common good? 00:09:46.179 --> 00:09:48.860 We can't agree on what's actually good for society. 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:51.180 What's good for going forward and progressing? 00:09:51.180 --> 00:09:52.180 We can't agree. 00:09:52.180 --> 00:09:54.259 So how do we find common ground? 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:56.980 And the answer is that most people don't. 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:03.860 And so in other words, we fight and we quarrel and we produce strife and we sit up late 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:10.060 at night on Twitter at 11 and get into debate after debate with people because we live in 00:10:10.060 --> 00:10:13.180 a pluralistic society and it's always been that way. 00:10:13.179 --> 00:10:21.299 And Jesus says, blessed are those who instead make peace, make peace. 00:10:21.299 --> 00:10:28.019 Now James, Derek and God's providence, Derek came and read from the text this morning that 00:10:28.019 --> 00:10:33.739 I framed almost my entire sermon around of James chapter three and four, especially 00:10:33.739 --> 00:10:39.579 four one, because James in James three and four, he comes and basically gives you an 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:43.540 exposition of both proverbs and the Beatitudes. 00:10:43.540 --> 00:10:48.500 And in it, actually, I think James is reading the Beatitudes and just writing. 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:51.220 Remember, James was Jesus biological brother. 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:52.980 And so that would make a lot of sense. 00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:54.180 He was raised with Jesus. 00:10:54.180 --> 00:10:55.780 He knew Jesus well. 00:10:55.780 --> 00:10:57.620 And here this is what James says. 00:10:57.620 --> 00:11:01.379 Here is what he calls the wise life, the wisdom from above. 00:11:01.379 --> 00:11:02.940 You might call it the beautiful life. 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:04.940 And this is exactly what he says. 00:11:04.940 --> 00:11:14.820 It's to be this peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, impartial and sincere. 00:11:14.820 --> 00:11:17.380 Okay, that's it. 00:11:17.380 --> 00:11:19.620 What does it mean to be a peacemaker? 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:26.260 This is the Christian posture, the way of Jesus in every age of human history where 00:11:26.260 --> 00:11:28.780 people don't agree with one another. 00:11:28.780 --> 00:11:30.960 Let me read it one more time. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:39.860 To be gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, impartial and sincere. 00:11:39.860 --> 00:11:41.420 Oh boy. 00:11:41.420 --> 00:11:43.340 Did you hear that list? 00:11:43.340 --> 00:11:49.139 In the age of social media, hatred and strife and what people think of as the most bifurcated 00:11:49.139 --> 00:11:55.900 society in all of human history, God says, Christ says, here's the Christian posture. 00:11:55.899 --> 00:12:04.419 Even in the midst of conflict, be peaceable, gentle, full of mercy, sincere and open to 00:12:04.419 --> 00:12:06.259 reason. 00:12:06.259 --> 00:12:10.139 And what this means is that Jesus is not saying that there is no need for conflict. 00:12:10.139 --> 00:12:14.860 We know that because of sin because we do disagree that there's always going to be conflict 00:12:14.860 --> 00:12:16.319 in every age. 00:12:16.319 --> 00:12:19.139 But instead, what he's doing here is trying to chase after. 00:12:19.139 --> 00:12:25.699 James is saying, look, put on gentleness and mercy and peace and be open to reason and 00:12:25.699 --> 00:12:31.340 listening precisely because you have to enter into conflict sometimes. 00:12:31.340 --> 00:12:34.500 You have to meet people and say, well, I don't agree with that. 00:12:34.500 --> 00:12:36.019 I don't think that's the way to go. 00:12:36.019 --> 00:12:39.939 But peace and reasonableness and mercy and gentleness. 00:12:39.939 --> 00:12:44.340 Now James does one more thing before we move on and this is what Derek pointed out this 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:45.340 morning. 00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:51.620 He spells us the reason why we tend to not go the route of gentleness and mercy and peace 00:12:51.620 --> 00:12:55.460 and we do go the route of quarreling, strife and fighting. 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:57.860 And James spells it out very clearly. 00:12:57.860 --> 00:13:02.100 He says, what causes fights among you? 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:03.100 Okay. 00:13:03.100 --> 00:13:10.060 He says, is it not the passions that are waging war within you? 00:13:10.060 --> 00:13:14.660 So did you, James is saying the reason that we struggle with fighting with others and 00:13:14.659 --> 00:13:19.659 quarreling with others in damaging ways on the outside is because we don't have peace 00:13:19.659 --> 00:13:21.779 on the inside. 00:13:21.779 --> 00:13:24.379 And he says, here's what we have instead. 00:13:24.379 --> 00:13:29.939 He said, we struggle on the inside, chapter three, verse 14, instead with bitter jealousy, 00:13:29.939 --> 00:13:32.699 selfish ambition and boasting in the heart. 00:13:32.699 --> 00:13:34.379 Do you hear that? 00:13:34.379 --> 00:13:39.059 He's saying the reason that we struggle with anger and pride and quarrels on the outside, 00:13:39.059 --> 00:13:45.019 struggle and anger and strife and quarrels on the outside is because of pride and jealousy 00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:48.500 and envy and covetousness on the inside. 00:13:48.500 --> 00:13:53.459 He's saying that that's the reason that's why the world is broken is not because first 00:13:53.459 --> 00:13:57.739 of what's on the outside, but first what's on the inside with the human heart, that the 00:13:57.739 --> 00:13:59.579 problem is not conflict in itself. 00:13:59.579 --> 00:14:02.779 The problem is not engaging with disagreement in itself. 00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:07.219 The problem is how I approach it because of my own pride. 00:14:07.220 --> 00:14:11.940 You know, when I'm prideful and I approach a conflict, I say, you know, I say, I can't 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:12.940 stand for this. 00:14:12.940 --> 00:14:19.980 I can't let this go because disagreement then becomes about actually my own person that 00:14:19.980 --> 00:14:24.820 if somebody disagrees with me, they've actually attacked me down to the core that I want them 00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:28.460 to know that I'm better than them and that I'm going to win this thing and I'm going 00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:34.100 to have it out and I'm going to go 100 Twitter comments deep if that's what it takes to get 00:14:34.100 --> 00:14:38.500 all the way to the bottom so that I can know that I'm right and that they're wrong. 00:14:38.500 --> 00:14:42.899 And he says, the reason we fight in those ways is because fundamentally we struggle 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:44.659 with pride. 00:14:44.659 --> 00:14:48.580 Now look, here's the question. 00:14:48.580 --> 00:14:49.740 Here's the question. 00:14:49.740 --> 00:14:54.300 James and Jesus are begging us to ask, I think, and it's this. 00:14:54.300 --> 00:15:00.220 When you enter into spaces of disagreement and those will always be around as long as 00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:03.820 this world is full of sin, those will always be around. 00:15:03.820 --> 00:15:10.260 When you enter into that, what is the motivation at the depths of your heart for disagreeing 00:15:10.260 --> 00:15:12.740 with someone? 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:23.580 And James is saying, is it pride or is it or is it, you know, this is why it's so important 00:15:23.580 --> 00:15:29.340 to be open to reason, to be merciful because the true goal of all conflict in an age of 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:31.180 sin is what? 00:15:31.180 --> 00:15:32.620 The true goal. 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:34.940 It's not the win. 00:15:34.940 --> 00:15:42.259 It's to seek the good of the person that you've entered into a disagreement with. 00:15:42.259 --> 00:15:43.419 And so what's your motive? 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:47.019 When you enter in, when you feel like this, I've got to talk to this person. 00:15:47.019 --> 00:15:49.860 I've got to, I do need to enter into disagreement. 00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:55.620 Is it because you love them so much that you want to seek their good? 00:15:55.620 --> 00:16:00.779 And that's actually what it means to be a peacemaker, to go forth saying, you know, I 00:16:00.779 --> 00:16:03.659 actually want, I love them and I want their good. 00:16:03.659 --> 00:16:11.259 And so I'm going to make peace by trying to gently, reasonably, mercifully enter into 00:16:11.259 --> 00:16:18.459 discussion, to listen, to bring them along, to help them see the truth, the truth. 00:16:18.459 --> 00:16:19.459 All right. 00:16:19.459 --> 00:16:22.860 Secondly, and briefly, why seek this? 00:16:22.860 --> 00:16:26.179 Now, I just want to ask this question very quickly. 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:30.579 Why seek peacemaking at all? 00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:35.300 And when you, when we ask a question like that, when you say, well, why are you, why 00:16:35.300 --> 00:16:37.460 am I asking a question like that? 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:42.820 Because you might think, why would it ever be necessary to ask why be gentle? 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:44.020 Why be a peacemaker? 00:16:44.020 --> 00:16:46.860 Why be open to reason? 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:51.900 And let me suggest this, that if you're struck by that and say, we don't need to ask a question 00:16:51.900 --> 00:16:58.340 like that, it may be because either you were raised in the church or you were raised in 00:16:58.340 --> 00:17:05.259 a place like Scotland that's steeped in a history of Christianity to the point where 00:17:05.259 --> 00:17:09.980 virtues like peacemaking and gentleness and being open to reason are things that just 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:11.579 filter through you like instinct. 00:17:11.579 --> 00:17:13.779 You know, you hear that and you say, that's, that's very positive. 00:17:13.779 --> 00:17:15.180 Of course, we want to be that. 00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:18.860 But look, let me say this. 00:17:18.860 --> 00:17:22.819 Whether you're a Christian or you're not tonight, all of us are swimming in the realm that is 00:17:22.819 --> 00:17:25.740 the modern worldview. 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:30.740 The worldview that we might call, for lack of a better term, secularism. 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:36.380 And because we swim in that world, we always have an inner conflict going on. 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:39.980 Not just the inner conflict that we have with our pride and our selfish ambitions, but something 00:17:39.980 --> 00:17:40.980 else is going on. 00:17:40.980 --> 00:17:44.220 And let me, let me explain it. 00:17:44.220 --> 00:17:48.740 The modern worldview says this, it says that this is your past. 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:50.779 You're an animal. 00:17:50.779 --> 00:17:54.980 You know, you're, you're, you're now called a homo sapien, but you got here how? 00:17:54.980 --> 00:17:58.819 Because you were first red and tooth and claw. 00:17:58.819 --> 00:18:04.420 You know, you got to where you are today, human being only because of domination of 00:18:04.420 --> 00:18:09.420 other creatures, of subordination of other beings with wit and selfish ambition. 00:18:09.420 --> 00:18:15.059 You rose to the top and that life fundamentally, if there's a philosophy that life has got 00:18:15.059 --> 00:18:19.259 to be thought of as personal survival above all else. 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:22.700 And then your future, that's your past, but your future, your future in the modern worldview 00:18:22.700 --> 00:18:28.059 is that death is completely natural and that it's normal and that even if you are the last 00:18:28.059 --> 00:18:32.220 one on earth, eventually the sun is going to burn up and you're going to die either 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:34.539 by heat death or cold death. 00:18:34.539 --> 00:18:38.059 And there's going to be no creatures and no consciousness left and no memories and no 00:18:38.059 --> 00:18:40.100 great names and no monuments. 00:18:40.100 --> 00:18:44.220 And it's all going the way of the dodo. 00:18:44.220 --> 00:18:47.880 That's your, your past is that you're an animal and you got here through the domination you 00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:51.980 needed to use red and tooth and claw survival. 00:18:51.980 --> 00:18:56.700 That's your ethic and your future is that there's nothing beyond death. 00:18:56.700 --> 00:19:03.740 And look, and so that means secular people love your neighbor. 00:19:03.740 --> 00:19:07.339 You know, get out there and be a peacemaker. 00:19:07.339 --> 00:19:15.460 Give away your money, support, be philanthropist, support great causes and be gentle and be open 00:19:15.460 --> 00:19:16.460 to reason. 00:19:16.460 --> 00:19:21.059 And look, I hope you realize that those things don't fit together. 00:19:21.059 --> 00:19:23.019 They don't work well at all. 00:19:23.019 --> 00:19:26.700 The secular worldview says you're red and tooth and claw. 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:31.139 That's who you really are from history and that you have no purpose beyond death. 00:19:31.139 --> 00:19:35.299 And so you need to love your neighbor and you need to be a peacemaker in the city and 00:19:35.299 --> 00:19:38.099 you need to do good to all that you can. 00:19:38.099 --> 00:19:42.339 And that's why Friedrich Nietzsche in the 19th century, he's the greatest atheist philosopher 00:19:42.339 --> 00:19:43.940 that's ever lived. 00:19:43.940 --> 00:19:49.299 He said that the young atheist of the late 19th century had tried to kill God, as he 00:19:49.299 --> 00:19:55.019 put it, in terms of concept, in terms of idea in the secular modern world. 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:56.419 And in large part they succeeded. 00:19:56.419 --> 00:19:59.779 They convinced so many people to turn away from religion. 00:19:59.779 --> 00:20:01.220 But Nietzsche pointed out the problem. 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:04.379 He said the problem is that all these young people tried to kill God, but they kept all 00:20:04.379 --> 00:20:06.579 the Christian ethics. 00:20:06.579 --> 00:20:10.980 You know, they said we're all just animals and nothing's beyond death, but you know, 00:20:10.980 --> 00:20:13.339 you should be a peacemaker. 00:20:13.339 --> 00:20:15.180 You should do good to your neighbor. 00:20:15.180 --> 00:20:17.460 You should love your neighbor as much as you can. 00:20:17.460 --> 00:20:24.140 Nietzsche said you're trying to kick God out, but you kept all the ethics that was underneath 00:20:24.140 --> 00:20:25.140 it. 00:20:25.140 --> 00:20:26.140 That was with it. 00:20:26.140 --> 00:20:30.900 And that's why the modern world of you is in such turmoil and such conflict, why nothing 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:35.860 that the modern world shouts at us ethically from the buses and everywhere else makes 00:20:35.860 --> 00:20:36.860 any sense. 00:20:36.860 --> 00:20:41.299 None of it really fits together because it doesn't have a coherent past or a coherent 00:20:41.299 --> 00:20:46.259 future to fit the peace narrative that it tries to suggest. 00:20:46.259 --> 00:20:51.379 And that's why we have to ask the question, why be a peacemaker? 00:20:51.379 --> 00:20:55.539 Because everything around us is actually telling us why, why? 00:20:55.539 --> 00:20:57.160 Just seek comfort. 00:20:57.160 --> 00:20:59.619 Make as much money as you can. 00:20:59.619 --> 00:21:01.579 Dominate everybody in your workplace. 00:21:01.579 --> 00:21:06.460 Get as comfortable as possible because when you die, there's nothing else. 00:21:06.460 --> 00:21:07.859 Here's why. 00:21:07.859 --> 00:21:11.420 Here's why to be a peacemaker. 00:21:11.420 --> 00:21:17.060 In the second half of this verse, God, Jesus tells us, be a peacemaker because that means 00:21:17.060 --> 00:21:20.860 you will be called a son of God. 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:23.820 Peacemakers are called the sons of God. 00:21:23.820 --> 00:21:29.820 Now Jesus is writing and speaking here into a context that's largely Jewish, but he also 00:21:29.820 --> 00:21:34.140 has a Gentile audience sitting in front of him. 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:39.660 And the Gentile God fears at the time who believed in the God of Israel. 00:21:39.660 --> 00:21:45.460 They like the Jews knew something very important about this phrase, sons of God, that it's 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:50.620 only used of two different groups in the whole of the Bible. 00:21:50.620 --> 00:21:57.580 It's used of the holy angels, the sons of God, and of Israel themselves in the Old Testament. 00:21:57.580 --> 00:22:04.540 And now Jesus is turning and he's saying, being a son of God, a daughter of God is not 00:22:04.540 --> 00:22:06.660 about bloodline. 00:22:06.660 --> 00:22:13.420 Instead, blessed are the peacemakers because it is them who are the sons and the daughters 00:22:13.420 --> 00:22:14.420 of God. 00:22:14.420 --> 00:22:17.980 And last week, Robin said, you know, you can flip these Beatitudes around and read them 00:22:17.980 --> 00:22:18.980 very correctly. 00:22:18.980 --> 00:22:21.580 You can say it like this. 00:22:21.580 --> 00:22:27.380 The sons and daughters of God are the peacemakers of the world. 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:29.060 But in other words, why? 00:22:29.060 --> 00:22:30.060 You see what it's saying? 00:22:30.060 --> 00:22:36.140 It's saying, why pursue a peacemaking life when the world around you tells you, look, 00:22:36.140 --> 00:22:37.900 get comfortable as quickly as you can. 00:22:37.900 --> 00:22:41.580 And if you need to dominate other people to do that, do it. 00:22:41.580 --> 00:22:42.580 Why? 00:22:42.580 --> 00:22:43.580 And this is what it says. 00:22:43.580 --> 00:22:50.860 It's saying, because peacemaking is what God does. 00:22:50.860 --> 00:22:56.700 You want to be like God, a child of God, a son of God, a daughter of God, then be a 00:22:56.700 --> 00:23:03.100 peacemaker in the world because then you reflect the divine agency itself that you look like 00:23:03.100 --> 00:23:04.100 God. 00:23:04.099 --> 00:23:08.059 Well, wrap up this point by saying this. 00:23:08.059 --> 00:23:11.500 You could come and say to that, you could come and say to that, okay, you're saying 00:23:11.500 --> 00:23:16.899 that the reason we should be peacemakers is because God is a peacemaker. 00:23:16.899 --> 00:23:21.699 And I think back on the Old Testament, a modern person is going to say, well, look, I think 00:23:21.699 --> 00:23:24.899 back on the Old Testament and I remember the book of Joshua. 00:23:24.899 --> 00:23:32.539 I remember Chronicles and Kings and I remember the wars and the blood. 00:23:32.539 --> 00:23:37.619 And we don't have time to defend this tonight, but let me assert something to you that when 00:23:37.619 --> 00:23:41.619 you go back through, you work through carefully, you read through the Bible, through all of 00:23:41.619 --> 00:23:42.619 redemptive history. 00:23:42.619 --> 00:23:48.259 What you find out is this, that every single thing that God ever did in all of redemptive 00:23:48.259 --> 00:23:56.139 history was ultimately the divine peacemaking mission of bringing shalom to the world, 00:23:56.139 --> 00:24:01.740 that even going into conflict with humanity was all about bringing peace, bringing shalom, 00:24:01.740 --> 00:24:07.099 bringing the shalom that could only come through divine justice, that the only reason 00:24:07.099 --> 00:24:13.339 God ever brought conflict into the world at all was not because, because nothing else, 00:24:13.339 --> 00:24:14.339 but that we did it. 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:16.819 We said, I'm at war with God. 00:24:16.819 --> 00:24:18.099 I'm at enmity with God. 00:24:18.099 --> 00:24:19.380 I don't want peace with God. 00:24:19.380 --> 00:24:26.819 And so God, look, the greatest expression in the Old Testament of God's ultimate divine 00:24:26.819 --> 00:24:31.500 peacemaking mission is in the temple itself. 00:24:31.500 --> 00:24:36.220 You know, you look at the heart of the temple and at the heart of the temple, you see blood 00:24:36.220 --> 00:24:39.700 and you see sacrifice and you see death. 00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:45.460 But that is God saying to the world that I've come staying my hand of justice in order to 00:24:45.460 --> 00:24:50.380 give you peace, that even the bloodiness of the temple is all about the fact that God 00:24:50.380 --> 00:24:52.779 has come to bring peace to the world. 00:24:52.779 --> 00:24:57.539 Now at the climax of the Old Testament, and we read it just a little while ago, we saw 00:24:57.539 --> 00:25:08.220 in Isaiah chapter nine, God says that he was coming as the prince of peace. 00:25:08.220 --> 00:25:13.980 In the early, the very late first century BC, just before Jesus was born, when the Roman 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:19.579 Empire was established, there was a emperor named Octavian. 00:25:19.579 --> 00:25:24.420 And he was one of the early emperors, the first emperor, main Caesar of Rome. 00:25:24.420 --> 00:25:31.259 And it's very likely that Jesus has this context in mind when he says this. 00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:36.900 Octavian had defeated all these different tribes across Europe, what we now call Europe. 00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:41.519 And when he had did that and he had built the Roman Empire for the first time, he stood 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:45.940 up very famously, Philo records this for us as well as Josephus, a couple of different 00:25:45.940 --> 00:25:52.860 historians and he said, he said, I am the peacemaker. 00:25:52.859 --> 00:25:54.619 I am the son of God. 00:25:54.619 --> 00:25:56.619 And he used those two titles for himself. 00:25:56.619 --> 00:25:58.059 He said, I'm the peacemaker. 00:25:58.059 --> 00:25:59.299 I'm the son of God. 00:25:59.299 --> 00:26:03.819 And how did Octavian make peace in the land? 00:26:03.819 --> 00:26:10.579 He made peace by going tribe after tribe and saying, bow the knee to me or die. 00:26:10.579 --> 00:26:16.859 And you see, he did it just like the modern, he said, look, I'm red in tooth and claw. 00:26:16.859 --> 00:26:21.219 And you know, I'm an animal and I only get one life. 00:26:21.220 --> 00:26:23.779 And that life is about empire building and comfort. 00:26:23.779 --> 00:26:26.180 And so he went and he said, I'll make peace. 00:26:26.180 --> 00:26:28.579 I'll kill you or you can bow the knee to me. 00:26:28.579 --> 00:26:34.339 Now look, Jesus Christ in that context where everybody in the Greco-Roman society knew 00:26:34.339 --> 00:26:36.940 that the emperor is the peacemaker. 00:26:36.940 --> 00:26:40.420 That's what he named himself, son of God, peacemaker. 00:26:40.420 --> 00:26:42.420 Jesus comes. 00:26:42.420 --> 00:26:46.779 Jesus Christ, the prince of peace comes and how does he make peace? 00:26:46.779 --> 00:26:51.740 He comes to make peace by letting God himself go to war against him. 00:26:51.740 --> 00:26:59.619 He comes and makes peace by becoming the Lamb of God, crushed, cut open. 00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:03.819 The one who could only then could he take away the sins of the world. 00:27:03.819 --> 00:27:08.980 And so this text is saying to us, the reason that you can be a peacemaker today is only 00:27:08.980 --> 00:27:16.740 if you have been named son or daughter of God because the prince of peace lost all peace 00:27:16.740 --> 00:27:18.339 for you. 00:27:18.339 --> 00:27:19.740 He's the opposite of Octavian. 00:27:19.740 --> 00:27:23.620 He's the opposite of everybody in the modern world view. 00:27:23.620 --> 00:27:25.339 He is the true peacemaker. 00:27:25.339 --> 00:27:29.740 And so finally, let me conclude by saying this thirdly. 00:27:29.740 --> 00:27:32.660 How do we grow into being like God? 00:27:32.660 --> 00:27:36.180 Let me tell you two ways in two minutes. 00:27:36.180 --> 00:27:37.180 Okay. 00:27:37.180 --> 00:27:44.259 First, there is no growing as a peacemaker unless you first find and have and fight for 00:27:44.259 --> 00:27:46.620 inner peace. 00:27:46.620 --> 00:27:48.420 That's what James says in James four. 00:27:48.420 --> 00:27:50.820 Why do we fight in coral? 00:27:50.820 --> 00:27:52.980 Because we're struggling with inner peace. 00:27:52.980 --> 00:27:56.660 Now look, the gospel comes and says, here's the good news. 00:27:56.660 --> 00:28:05.259 The good news is that you can be freed in your inner life from pride and selfish ambition 00:28:05.259 --> 00:28:08.339 and envy and covetousness and boasting. 00:28:08.339 --> 00:28:11.019 The gospel frees you from that. 00:28:11.019 --> 00:28:17.140 The gospel says to you, you don't need to think much about yourself because before God, you 00:28:17.140 --> 00:28:20.859 have nothing to offer, but God has come to make peace with you. 00:28:20.859 --> 00:28:26.379 God has made you great not because of what you've done, but by the prince of peace going 00:28:26.379 --> 00:28:27.539 to war with your son. 00:28:27.539 --> 00:28:33.140 And so you can look in the gospel, you have the freedom to say no to pride. 00:28:33.140 --> 00:28:36.500 And in the gospel, you have freedom to say no to selfish ambition because you can say, 00:28:36.500 --> 00:28:42.420 look, even if I don't accomplish a lot in my life, because if I was going to accomplish 00:28:42.420 --> 00:28:44.860 everything I want to do, I'd probably have to dominate people. 00:28:44.860 --> 00:28:49.500 I'd probably have to create war and conflict, but I'm okay. 00:28:49.500 --> 00:28:52.340 I've got the vision of God himself in my future. 00:28:52.340 --> 00:28:53.860 The gospel's given me that. 00:28:53.860 --> 00:28:55.780 I can put this away. 00:28:55.780 --> 00:29:02.900 And so that means that when you approach disagreement, a necessity of life, you can be freed. 00:29:02.900 --> 00:29:07.340 You can be free to be only about the good of the other person. 00:29:07.340 --> 00:29:11.100 I'm entering into this only because I love them and want their good. 00:29:11.100 --> 00:29:14.259 Secondly, and finally, objective peace. 00:29:14.259 --> 00:29:20.140 Now we live in the age of conflict, the digital age. 00:29:20.140 --> 00:29:25.740 It's almost a cliche to talk about how we're all bifurcated and divided in the modern world. 00:29:25.740 --> 00:29:31.380 Let me give you, and I'm just going to read them three postures, three postures to approach 00:29:31.380 --> 00:29:35.540 objective disagreement in the digital age, in the modern age that we live in. 00:29:35.540 --> 00:29:37.660 Here they are. 00:29:37.660 --> 00:29:45.300 Because God has made peace with us, we can be one, humble without being defensive. 00:29:45.300 --> 00:29:50.380 Put on humility in disagreement, not defensiveness. 00:29:50.380 --> 00:29:56.140 Because God has made peace with us in the good news of the gospel, we can be secondly, patient, 00:29:56.140 --> 00:29:58.140 not coercive. 00:29:58.140 --> 00:30:02.180 So if we're going to be gentle and open to reason, we have to approach disagreement with 00:30:02.180 --> 00:30:08.340 patients listening, not forceful coerciveness. 00:30:08.340 --> 00:30:12.700 Humble rather than defensive, patient, not coercive. 00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:18.580 And finally, respectful rather than demonizing. 00:30:18.580 --> 00:30:22.780 Because God says that every person that we encounter is created in the image of God, 00:30:22.780 --> 00:30:25.340 we never demonize. 00:30:25.340 --> 00:30:27.740 We want their good. 00:30:27.740 --> 00:30:28.740 We respect them. 00:30:28.740 --> 00:30:31.620 We want them to put away evil and sin. 00:30:31.620 --> 00:30:37.700 And so we fight against what God says is wrong with the world and it's sin. 00:30:37.700 --> 00:30:39.819 We respect the image of God. 00:30:39.819 --> 00:30:40.819 We never demonize. 00:30:40.819 --> 00:30:43.140 So we're humble rather than defensive. 00:30:43.140 --> 00:30:45.779 We're patient rather than coercive. 00:30:45.779 --> 00:30:49.099 We're respectful rather than demonizing. 00:30:49.099 --> 00:30:50.779 And we do it all. 00:30:50.779 --> 00:30:51.779 We do it all. 00:30:51.779 --> 00:30:54.059 We make peace in these ways. 00:30:54.059 --> 00:31:01.339 Only because the God of peace has made peace with us first through the Prince of Peace. 00:31:01.339 --> 00:31:02.339 Let's pray together. 00:31:02.339 --> 00:31:07.019 Father, we ask now that you would give us peace in our hearts through the Prince of 00:31:07.019 --> 00:31:14.139 Peace and we give thanks that you did not go to war with us in the way we deserve. 00:31:14.139 --> 00:31:18.099 You went to war for us in the death of Christ on the cross. 00:31:18.099 --> 00:31:23.940 And so we now ask that you would give us inner peace, that we could put away our pride and 00:31:23.940 --> 00:31:31.980 our selfish ambitions and our envy and boasting and jealousies and be people that make peace 00:31:31.980 --> 00:31:34.580 with others around us. 00:31:34.580 --> 00:31:35.580 So give us these hearts, Lord. 00:31:35.580 --> 00:31:38.779 We ask now as we go into our week and we pray this in Christ's name. 00:31:38.779 --> 00:31:39.779 Amen. 00:31:39.779 --> 00:31:55.579 Congratulations. 00:31:55.579 --> 00:32:06.099 Thank you.