The Peacemaker

Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

What is a peacemaker? Usually, when we think about a peacemaker, we think of someone who stands between two parties and tries to settle a dispute. Perhaps two family members are at war with one another. A peacemaker would step in and try to get them to stop fighting and reconcile. This type of peacemaking is noble and biblical.  The person who takes on this endeavor to make peace is certainly serving God; However, I do not think this is what Jesus had in mind when He said: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

The Ultimate Peacemaker

The ultimate way to make peace is through the gospel, and Jesus Christ Himself is the ultimate peacemaker. The Bible refers to the gospel as the “gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15).  Humanity is hostile to God, and through our sin we have alienated ourselves from God. Jesus offered up Himself to reconcile us to God. It is through Jesus’s atoning sacrifice on the cross that we can be made right and brought into the family of God.

Your Part in Peacemaking 

The followers of Jesus also have a role in the peacemaking process. We are His ambassadors. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20) What a remarkable verse! God has chosen His children to be ambassadors for Him. He wants to plead through us for a lost and dying world to repent. We are the way that God has chosen to reach people with the good news of His Son. God does not reach the lost through angels or by writing the gospel in the clouds, but by our own mouths. If you have been praying that someone will share the gospel with your neighbor, you are the answer to your prayer. You are the one God has called to share the gospel with your neighbor.

Peace happens one soul at a time. Let God use you to make peace with your relatives, friends, neighbors, and coworkers.  

Pure In Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  Matthew 5:8

Jesus says that if you want to see God, you must have a pure heart. The interesting thing about Jesus’s statement is that according to the Bible no one has a pure heart. At the risk of trashing your self-esteem, let me show you some of the statements the Bible makes about humanity from Romans 3. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “There is none who seeks after God.  They have all turned aside.” “There is none who does good, no, not one.” “With their tongues they have practiced deceit.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” And to top it off, the Lord says in Jeremiah “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. (17:9)” We must understand Jesus’s statement about a pure heart in light of the whole counsel of the Bible.  The pure in heart will see God, yet no one has a pure heart.

The Need for Something Drastic

So, on the one hand, Jesus said that it’s the pure in heart that will see God. However, on the other hand, we see from the rest of the Bible that no one has a pure heart. Where does this leave us? That leaves us in need of something drastic. That leaves us in need of a new birth. Jesus told a very religious man named Nicodemus that if he wanted to go to Heaven Nicodemus would need to be born again. You have heard of the term “Born Again,” but you probably thought of it as just another term for “Saved,” “Evangelical,” or even “Christian.” But “Born Again” is not a figure of speech, Jesus was speaking literally. Does that sound strange to you?  It did to Nicodemus (see John 3).

What Does it Mean to be Born Again?

The Bible teaches us that when you sincerely trust Christ as your Savior something supernatural happens to you. You become a new creation in Christ. You may have seen a bumper sticker that says something to the effect of “Christians are Just Like Everyone Else, Just Forgiven.” These bumper stickers are well meaning but not biblically correct. Christians are not like everyone else. They have been made new in Christ. Ezekiel 36 gives us the essence of what it means to be born again. “²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” So you see that when a person receives Christ that person is given a new heart that loves God and wants to obey Him. You might say that person becomes “pure in heart.”

How to Purify Your Heart

The answer to our search for a pure heart lies not in our goodness but in the work of God. When you realize that you fall short of Jesus’s standard to be pure in heart, it leads you to the cross. When we trust in Jesus’s work on the cross and turn to Him, we are not only forgiven our sins, but we are born again. The Holy Spirit comes inside us and gives us a new heart that loves God and wants to obey Him.

One final note. I have noticed that there is a pattern for many people. They sense the need to be right with God. They try their best. They go to church. They try hard to stop some of their sins. This process lasts for a few weeks, and then they crash and fall back to their old life. Sometimes people repeat this pattern over and over. The reason for this may be that they are trying to be religious, but they are not born again.  Religion can’t save you.  Only Jesus saves. The way to live for God in a way that lasts and is meaningful is to trust solely in Him and let Him purify your heart.

You Must Forgive!

Jesus said something shocking in the Sermon on the Mount.  He said something that should make us do a double take when reading the Bible. He said something that, if we take seriously, it should make us examine our entire lives. What did He say? “But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:15) In other words, if we don’t forgive others, God is not going to forgive us. Jesus makes this clear in His statement, and it should shock us. It should make us evaluate our hearts. 

We Have Cried Out to God to Forgive Us.

Before we discuss why we must forgive others, let's talk about our relationship with God. A Christian is someone who has realized their sin has eternally separated them from God and that they have no way to save themselves. The Bible teaches that there is no amount of good works we can do to work off our sins. The Good News is that God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins. On the cross, He stood in our place and received what we should have gotten, the wrath of God. So if we are in Christ, our conversion must have started with us crying out to God for mercy and asking Him to forgive us based on what His Son did on the cross. The Good News is that God is merciful, and He will grant forgiveness to anyone who comes in faith to Christ.

Forgive as We Have Been Forgiven 

As Christians, we base our entire standing with God on His forgiveness towards us. In turn, we should be the most merciful people on the planet toward others. We have realized what great lengths to which God has gone to forgive us. It only makes sense that those who have been forgiven should themselves forgive others.

When It’s Our Turn to Forgive, and We Don’t

However, the truth is that there are many people who, though they have come to God for forgiveness, absolutely refuse to forgive others. How does God feel about that? Jesus told a story to tell us how he feels about it.  In Matthew 18 Jesus told a parable of a man who owed a king a great debt.  The man could not pay and begged the king to show him mercy.  The king agreed that he should be merciful, so he forgave the man’s debt.   However, the same man went out and found someone who owed him money and demanded payment. The other man begged for mercy asking for more time to pay his debt, but the man who was just forgiven by the king would not. The news traveled back to the king that the man he had forgiven would not forgive another man’s debt. The king was furious!  He rebuked him saying “should not you have had mercy on your fellow-servant, as I had mercy on you?’” (Matthew 18:33) The king then threw him into prison until he could pay all his debt.  The point of the parable is that once God has shown you mercy by forgiving you, you had better show others that same mercy by forgiving them.

The Real Issue: What Refusing to Forgive Others Says About Us

Why would a man who received forgiveness of a great debt refuse to forgive another man his debt? The answer is that the man was not truly repentant in his heart. He just wanted to get out of a jam. When he got out of the jam, he went back to being his old miserable self. In the same way, people who call themselves Christians expose their hearts when they have a chance to show others mercy by forgiving them but refuse to do so. If you realize just how much God did for you by showing you mercy, you should jump at the chance to show mercy to others. How can we who cried “Mercy, Lord!” and received it, not do anything but lavish mercy on others? If you refuse to show mercy and forgive others, it may show that you never really repented and turned to Jesus.  Maybe you weren’t genuine, but you just wanted out of a jam?   Don’t be like the man in the parable. Instead be exceedingly generous in showing mercy to others because God was to you!

“Blessed are the Meek”… Does Jesus Command us to be Wimps?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5

Jesus declares “blessed are the meek,” but America does not appear to agree.  Most people see being meek as a weakness instead of an asset. Several years ago, I was watching a baseball game where the camera panned in on someone wearing a t-shirt that read “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing.” It seems that our culture has not only rejected what God values but, in the case of meekness, it flat out mocks it. 

A major factor in our negative perception of meekness is that we don’t understand what it means to be meek. Before we discuss what meekness is, it is first necessary to discuss what it is not.  “Meek” is not a synonym for weak or pushover.  Slumped shoulders and spinelessness does not personify meekness. The wimpy kid is just wimpy, not meek.   Jesus described Himself as meek, and Jesus was not a wimp. Just ask the money changers in the temple.

So what does meek mean? In actuality meekness is strength.  Meekness is strength under control.  In any study of the word meek, you are likely to see the example of a horse.  When a horse gets “meeked,” its power becomes harnessed, and it is under control. We see meekness illustrated in Jesus Himself. The Greek word used for meek in Matthew 5:5 is praus. Praus is the same word for “gentle” used in Matthew 11:29. There Jesus says of himself, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jesus is our all-powerful Lord and Master, but He is not harsh or heavy-handed. Instead, He chooses to lead us gently.  Jesus is not a cowboy who drives His cattle by force, but the Good Shepherd who gently leads His Sheep. 

Meekness is lived out in at least two ways in our culture. Our first opportunity to be meek is when we have authority over others.  We are to use the strength, power, and authority we have, not to get our way with others, but for their good. Jesus told His disciples that He wanted them to serve those they were in authority over. Any authority we have as Christian leaders, parents, spouses, bosses, etc., is for the good of others, not to use as leverage for ourselves.  Secondly, we can choose to be meek by accepting when we do not get our way.  Some people cannot accept it when things do not go their way. They scream, kick and fight until they get what they want, which is the antithesis of being meek.  In contrast the meek trust God for His provision instead of throwing a temper tantrum.   

You still may not think of being meek as something to be desired, but God does.  God is going to reward the meek by allowing them to reign with Him in His Kingdom. Those who lord their authority over others for their good or fight to get every last thing they want, have their kingdom now. 

The Road of Poverty and Mourning is the Path to Riches

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn,  For they shall be comforted. " Matthew 5:3-4

God’s values are not man’s values. What we perceive as a blessing is not always a blessing, and what we perceive as a curse is not always a curse.  Jesus begins His “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7) with a section referred to as “The Beatitudes.”  The word “Beatitude” is from Latin origin and means being in a state of supreme happiness or blessing. Jesus declares nine groups of people to be “blessed.” However, these people possess qualities, attributes and circumstances that Americans would never consider a blessing.  God sees our present circumstances differently than we do because He views things from an eternal perspective.  The circumstances that can bring hardship, suffering and turmoil now are judged against the fruit they may bring for eternal life.

The first group of people who are pronounced “blessed” by Jesus are those who are poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit means to understand that you are spiritually bankrupt.  Most people believe that they are generally good people. They view themselves as having some flaws and having sinned a few times, but they believe that as a whole they are good and deserve to go to heaven.  They believe this because they compare themselves not to God and His righteous standard, but to the outright evil people they see on the news.  By contrast, those who are poor in spirit recognize their own sin and acknowledge the dire consequences of it. The poor in spirit do not evaluate themselves against others, but against God’s perfect standard.  They do not believe that they are worthy of heaven, but the poor is spirit realize that they are utterly impoverished when it comes to their spiritual condition. Jesus says that these who are poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

The second group of people who are pronounced “blessed” by Jesus are those who mourn.  They mourn for their sin and the condition in which their sin leaves them.  They do not dismiss or even glorify sin, as our culture does, but they view their sin and sinful condition soberly.  They look on their sin and their souls are moved to mourning because they realize they have sinned against a good and loving God.  Jesus states that these people who mourn will be comforted.

The first two beatitudes seem to go hand in hand. Being poor in spirit and knowing that you are spiritually bankrupt leads to mourning. The poor in spirit have the humility to know that they need a Savior, and He brings them to the kingdom of heaven.  Those who mourn will be consoled because they will cry out to King Jesus and He will comfort them.

Coming to grips with your poverty is not easy, and no one wants to mourn, but owning up to your condition now and turning to Jesus leads to the riches of eternal life. 

Seen Any Good Movies Lately?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled Matthew 5:6

Not too long ago, I took two of my nieces to the movies.  As the lights went down and the previews came on, it dawned on me that we were going to be exposed to much more than just the movie that we’d come to see. We would also be exposed to the previews before the movie. This particular night there was a series of previews for movies that push the envelope of unrighteousness. From sex to murder, to straight out evil (witchcraft and demonic activity), it would seem as if the producers of these movies actually opened the Bible, saw what God said not to do, and then made a movie glorifying it. Over the years there has been a steady diet of these types of movies and TV shows fed to America.  As the years go by, the entertainment industry gets progressively worse and worse. You will occasionally hear someone protest by asking, “Why does Hollywood make such filth?” The unfortunate answer is that we have a taste for this type of “entertainment.” America has developed an appetite for unrighteousness.

Wanting What God Wants

Standing in contrast to our culture, Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”  People who hunger and thirst for righteousness have a deep desire in them to see God’s perfect standard lived out not only in their lives but in our world.  Most evangelical Christians would agree that much of what Hollywood produces is a stark rebellion to God’s righteous standard. Although we may know this to be true, we seem to think that it is acceptable to watch because we are being entertained.  Romans 1:32 states, “Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (ESV) Even if we do not practice the things we see in the movies or on TV, watching and paying to watch them is a type of approval. Christians should be aware of what God’s standard calls for in this area.

A Call for Discernment

When I was growing up the wisdom from many of the church leaders was that it was wrong to even step into a movie theater or to rent a video.  I am not endorsing that viewpoint. There is nothing wrong with watching a movie for entertainment value. However, we as Christians should practice much discernment with what we watch.  It is not only for our own personal holiness that we need to practice discernment, but we must realize that in an indirect way we influence non-believers by the forms of entertainment we choose.  We are showing approval of the content of a movie when we watch it.  Each individual Christian should make a decision about what they watch. Do you believe that God hates adultery? Why would you watch a movie or a TV show that glorifies adultery? Finally, imagine the effect it would have on the entertainment industry if everyone who claimed to be a Christian would not watch movies that stand in direct contrast with Christ’s teaching. Not only would it be a witness to them that we believe in Jesus, but that we believe Him. Imagine if by our witness we could change what Hollywood produces.  

Why Are You Fearful?

²⁶ But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. Matthew 8

Why are you fearful? What a great question! Most Christians will admit to being fearful about something, but why are we fearful?

Matthew 8 contains a well-known story. Jesus and His disciples got on a boat to sail across the sea. Jesus took a nap and a great storm arose. The disciples panicked and woke Jesus. Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. He rebuked the tempest and then there was a great calm.

Why were the disciples fearful? The answer may seem obvious to us; they were in a small boat and a big storm arose. The prospect of capsizing in a tumultuous sea didn’t appeal to them. Drowning seemed likely. To Jesus, though, their fear was the result of a lack of faith.  Who was in control, God or the wind and waves?  

In His Word, God promises to care for us and our wellbeing. Do you fear for your life? God’s Word states that nothing dies apart from His will -- not even a sparrow. God cares more about you than a bird. The days of your life aren’t left to chance, but are protected by the sovereign will of your loving Father (see Matthew 10:29-31).  

Are you fearful about not having enough money to pay the bills, or that you may miss out on some blessing in life? Romans 8 says “³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” If it’s good and you need it, God says you will have it. God loves you so much He gave His Son to the cross for you. If He went to that great length for you why would He hold any good thing back from you? Whether food, shelter, a spouse, children, wisdom, etc., why would God send His Son to die for you but ignore your needs? God is good and you can trust Him.

The next time you look at the tempest around you and begin to fear, have faith. Have faith that God has your very life in His hands and nothing can happen to you apart from the will of God. Have faith God cares about you so much that He gave His only Son to the cross for you, and won’t hold back any good thing from you. When your faith is in God, even in the midst of the tempest a “great calm” will come over your life.