Righteousness and Peace Have Kissed

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they shall be called sons of God.

Let’s consider our great Peacemaker, Jesus.  As we have discovered in the beatitudes, except for mourning over sin, which Jesus cannot do, Jesus is our example for each of them.  Now, just a reminder, lest I lose some of you who are thinking – wait a minute, Jesus wasn’t poor in spirit either.  Well, Jesus showed us what poor in spirit looks like as He showed us His dependency on the Father, didn’t He?

Let’s look at His example.  He confronted those who misrepresented God; He turned over the tables in the temple; He refused to be politically correct and obey Sabbath rules that were not ordained by God; He exposed hypocrisy; He created division; He didn’t appease.  Consider Paul or Peter and the other disciples as the book of Acts records how they spread the gospel of peace throughout the known world.  Did the religious rulers and those who clung to the ways of the world consider them peacemakers?  Absolutely not. These followers of Jesus provoked riots and anger.

So, how can we call Jesus or any of His followers peacemakers?  What did they do that provoked peace?  Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "your God reigns!"

Remember what the angels proclaimed to the Shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth?  Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" God has goodwill toward men – and He sent Jesus to proclaim peace – to make peace by making a way for man and God to be reconciled to one another – a way for man to have peace with God.  That’s a peacemaker.  And we see Jesus doing that over and over again, as He offered forgiveness to the adulteress, as He called tax collectors to follow Him, as He continually, over and over and over again pointed to the love of God and the power of God and the peace of God.

Jesus didn’t avoid conflict.  He stirred conflict – Why?  To cause division; to divide; to separate righteousness from unrighteousness.  I love Psalm 85:10 Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed.  Only God, through our Lord Jesus, can bring these together.  

Only a peacemaker can do that – God requires truth; God requires righteousness.  A peacemaker brings mercy to the truth about us; a peacemaker shows how we can have peace in spite of God’s pure righteousness. Peacemakers are blessed people.

Believers Can Be Peacemakers!

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they shall be called sons of God.

We have arrived at an action word – a word that describes not how we are towards God, but how we are towards others.  Now this one, even unbelievers believe. It’s a blessed thing, a good thing to be a peacemaker.  I doubt that they care about God’s promised reward for those who are truly peacemakers.  But, they would agree that it’s a good thing to be.  The problem lies in the definition of peacemaking.  The world’s definition is not God’s definition.

Peace can be described as lack of friction or trials or conflict or war or strife.  Jesus, the greatest peacemaker of all, said we would have trials in this life; He didn’t tell us to help people not have trials. Jesus, who told His followers in  John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.

This Jesus told those who did not belong to him something very different:    

Luke 12:51 Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. Division means to divide up.  Jesus came to divide up – those who would come to Him and those who would not. 

God doesn’t use the world’s definition of peace. In fact, with God, He promises us a peace in the midst of those things.  So, the goal of a peacemaker, as Jesus would describe her is not to alleviate or avoid friction or trials or war.

The Bible uses the word peace 429 times. That tells me that peace is important to God -  that He desires peace for us.  Not only does He desire it for us, He calls us to be peacemakers.  Here’s the definition I found in my Zodhiates Bible Dictionary   The one who, having received the peace of God in his own heart, brings peace to others.  He is not simply one who makes peace between two parties, but one who spreads the good news of the peace of God which he has experienced.

That puts a criteria on who can be a peacemaker – only those who have received the peace of God.  Kind of like comforters – we are to comfort others with the comfort we have experienced from God.  Peacemakers offer the peace we have received from God.

So, Nobel peace prize winners are not peacemakers, people that avoid conflict are not peacemakers.  It’s not blessed are the peace lovers, or blessed are the peace keepers, but blessed are the peace makers.

Only those who belong to Christ can be peacemakers.  But – only those submitted to the will of Christ and the power of Christ are peacemakers. As a believer, what have you discovered about the ability God has made available to you to be a peacemaker?

Seeing The Captain's Face

Matthew 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart

for they shall see God

Although God is the “cleanser” we do have our part. James 4:8  … Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Or “you mixed minded”.  Notice – not, you evil minded, but you mixed-minded.

So, what’s our part in purifying our hearts? I think Ezekiel 18:31 says it well.      Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit…

James takes it a step further.  He speaks of this mix mindedness or mixed- heartedness in the first chapter of his letter.  James 1:5-8  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. [6] But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. [7] For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; [8] he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Mix-mindedness misses out on what God desires to reveal.

The criteria of being pure in heart is this:  coming to God and allowing Him to do the cleansing that only He can do – and often.  Psalm 119:2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!  A pure heart is one that seeks God wholly. 

The result – we will see God.  Now, what does that mean? Let’s look at just two things.

1.  To see God is to be awestruck by His glory – by a direct experience of His holiness.  Seeing God is not about physically seeing Him.  Yes, all who are believers will one day see Him face to face – but, it’s about experiencing Him.  After God spoke to Job in the whirlwind (Job didn’t physically see God), remember what Job said?  Job 42:5   "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,   But now my eye sees You.

2.  To experience His grace.  And remember a good  definition of grace is the acronym – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  So, what we are saying here is that seeing God is experiencing what Christ died for us to experience - knowing Him, His comfort His peace, His presence, His mercy, His forgiveness….. I could go on and on – maybe some of you could do that by posting a comment J

In Psalm 27 David declared the goodness of the Lord.  And then in verse 8, he wrote:  When You said, seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face Lord will I seek.

Robert Louis Stevenson, in one of his stories, wrote of an interesting incident in which some people were out in a boat, in the midst of a storm.  It was a rather small boat.  And in the midst of the storm they became very fearful about what was happening, and one of them said he would creep up to the deck and take a look and see how things were.  So he crept up to the deck, and he came back not long afterward and said, “It’s alright.  I’ve just seen the captain’s face.”  James tells us that we don’t get the captain’s wisdom if we are double minded.  Really, we don’t experience any of His graces.  But, the pure in heart do – because we want it more than anything else.

Blessed Are The Cleansed of Heart

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they shall see God.

Blessed are the pure in heart.  What’s you initial response as you read those words?   We’ve read the other beatitudes – difficult, but not impossible with the Lord.  As believers we have all experienced being poor in spirit, mourning over our sin, and meekness.  We have all wanted more of Jesus and so, hungered and thirsted after righteousness.  And we’ve all showed mercy to someone – at least once.  But, this one.  Pure in heart.  I’ve never been that – and I know you haven’t either.  Not even once has my heart been pure.  So, you, like me, might read this one and say, well, that leaves me out – and it does – it eliminates everybody that has ever lived out.     Jeremiah 17:9  "The heart is deceitful above all things,   And desperately wicked;…   Above all things my heart, your heart is deceitful and it’s desperately, desperately wicked.  Who can know it?  You can’t.  I can’t.  Our heart all too often surprises us, doesn’t it?  And so we say things like “I can’t believe I said that” or “did that.”

Some of us have tried.  We’ve tried to be pure.  But no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, we find our hearts to be just as corrupt as when we started.

The  word used to remind us that we can’t know our hearts, is the same Hebrew word that is used in other verses to describe the fact that God knows our hearts.  And yet, we can’t discount this beatitude, because look at the blessing of being pure in heart – they shall see God.  Oh, how I want that – not just in heaven, but in this life – right here and right now.  And if I’ve got to be pure in heart to see God, I want to know how that can happen.  Remember to the unsaved, Jesus is putting forth impossibilities in this sermon. But to the saved, He is putting forth a way of living that is possible and blessed.

Just what does Jesus mean when He speaks of the pure in heart?  Let’s consider the opposite – we might think it to be evil in heart.  But the true opposite of pure is “mixed”.  A good definition of pure is “unmixed”.  Before we came to the Lord, our hearts were just evil – selfish – out for ourselves.  Even when we did something seemingly good, there was a selfish motive behind it.  So, what did God say to us? Isaiah 1:18  "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow;…

So, how does this happen?  David overwhelmed with his sin with Bathsheba wrote psalm 51.  What was his cry?  Have mercy on me, O God.  Then what did He tell God?  I’m going to get it together.  I’m going to be good from here on out?  No, David knew better than that.  David knew he couldn’t cleanse his heart and an uncleansed heart is prone to sin. 

So, what was David’s prayer?

v.1 blot out my transgressions

v. 2 wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

v. 7 purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow

v.10  create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit in me

Wash me, cleanse me.  This word translated as "pure" has often been translated as “clean” in the Bible.  Once it was translated as "clear" – again, unmixed. God is the cleanser of hearts.  I love looking at this beatitude this way : Blessed are the cleansed of heart.

Consider the steps taken in David's prayer.  What do you see?

Mercy Stands Against Deserved Judgment

Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful,

for they shall obtain mercy.

Consider this quote:  mercy stands against deserved judgment.  Does that grate against you?  I mean, if we are going to be merciful, probably the first people we feel mercy towards are those whom are struggling through no real fault of their own.  That’s the kind of misery we tend to want to alleviate. But, those who are suffering as a result of their own actions?  They made their bed – let them lie in it – right? That makes sense.  But probably there is this uneasiness in your soul.  The blessed don’t dismiss or ignore that uneasiness.

Yes, we are not to circumvent consequences that God has put in place; but, yes, we are to be merciful, by attempting to do something to alleviate the pain of those who have put themselves in it.  Sometimes, that is so very hard to determine.  That’s why Biblical mercy is motivated by the Holy Spirit and not our own sense of rescuing or compassion towards those in pain.  Biblical mercy involves prayer – seeking Him so that we don’t get in the way of what He is doing, or allowing in a person’s life.

James 2:13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

The merciful get mercy; the judgers – (get this definition of judgment – “an opinion formed or expressed”) – those that do that, or those that withhold mercy get mercy withheld.  Oh, how very desperate I am for God’s mercy, aren’t you?

Then there is this absolutely glorious statement – Mercy triumphs over judgment or mercy rejoices over judgment.  I like thinking of it this way, in terms of playing cards – mercy trumps judgment.  Just picturing Satan playing his cards against us - judgment coming down  - and suddenly Jesus plays His mercy card. We should be doing the same towards others.

As you read the following account of a man who fell into a pit, consider which of the “responders” you tend to be.  What has God taught you about showing mercy to others?

A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out

An empathetic person came along and said, “I feel for you down there”

A Pharisee said “Only bad people fall into pits”

A gossip wanted to know all the details

A self-pitying person said “You should see my pit”

A fire and brimstone preacher said – you deserve your pit

A psychologist noted - your parents are to blame for your pit

A self-esteem therapist said – believe in yourself and you can get out of the pit

An optimist said – things could be worse – at least the pit isn’t full of quicksand

A pessimist said – there’s nothing worse than this

But, Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.

The blessed are meek – they know who they are (poor, but precious) and they let God take care of them.  The blessed hunger and thirst after righteousness (hungry but know they are fillable).  And the blessed are merciful (sinners deserving judgment but getting mercy instead and passing it on to fellow failures).

May this day, be a “mercy” day for you and through you to others.

   

Living in the Mercy Cycle

Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful,

for they shall obtain mercy.

Consider another reference to mercy -  Luke 6:36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. In what ways has God been merciful to you?  If your list of God’s mercy is scant, so will be your mercy towards others.  Our beatitude here says that the merciful shall obtain mercy – but that’s put in a way that it would be easy to misunderstand – kind of puts the cart before the horse.  

This phrase obtain mercy is in the same verb tense (future passive) as the phrase will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him in John 14:21.  The entire verse says:    He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

What came first?  This verse might make us think that we loved God first.  And, because of our love for Him, God then loved us. So, which came first - our love for God or His love for us?  John gives us the answer 1 John 4:19  We love Him because He first loved us. It’s kind of circular.  God loved us, so we responded by loving Him, who responded to that by manifesting Himself, revealing Himself more to us, by causing us to know more of His love, which makes us love Him more, and on and on it goes.

Romans 5:8  But God demonstrates (proves) His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Now, that’s mercy.  And God started the expression of mercy, we didn’t. 

When we read this beatitude, we must understand that the merciful are only merciful because they have received and appreciate God’s mercy towards them.  It’s then that they pass it on, as the Holy Spirit prompts them.  In doing that, they receive more mercy and a greater appreciation of His mercy – and on and on it goes.

What have you learned about God’s mercy that provokes you to be merciful?

This Morning's Message from Pastor Dale

Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! 

 Let it be to me according to your word....Luke 1:38

Hi girl's (oops - I stand corrected.  Thanks to Tim's announcement this morning). Hi ladies and guys.  Really, guys, we would love to read some comments from you too!
Let's take today and reflect on this morning's message.  I encourage you to post a comment.  I love the way the Lord is using the comments.  Please keep posting - and thank you to those of you who are obeying God's "nudging".  Your comments have been a blessing. 

Love in Jesus,

cathy