Matthew 5:9 — Series on the Mount #8

Welcome,

Let’s Pray…

“You look like your daddy.”
That’s what my son is told every time he goes anywhere with me.
We go get groceries and the checkout lady says it. “You look like your daddy.”
We go to the bank, and the old man in front of us in line says, “You look like your daddy.”
We go to church on Sunday morning, and everyone we see says, “You look like your daddy.”

It’s something we knew would happen, from my Pap down to my son, all the men in our family look the same.

My uncle, my brothers, my self and my son — we’re a bunch of clones.

Luckily, we’re gorgeous.

Today, we are going to look at a passage that brings up this idea in a much greater way. It says to us, if we are part of a particular family tree, we take on a resemblance of our daddy in heaven.

And, just as I look down at my son, when he walks beside me and I say, “Yes, you’re my boy.”

And just as I am filled with love and pride when people notice the resemblance,

So to our Father in Heaven is pleased to call us His children and to say about each one of us, “Yep, that’s my boy!” And, “Yes, that’s my girl!”

Please turn in your bibles to Matthew 5:9

Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they will be called sons of God

My son smiles when he is told that he is the spittin’ image of me. If I am wearing my baseball cap, he wants to wear his. If I am carrying my camera, he gets his little fisher price camera to carry too.

I long to resemble God in the same way.

We long to be called the children, the sons and daughters, of God because our resemblance to Him.

We want people to see Him in us.

We should desire to reflect Him in such a way that the family resemblance in unmistakable.

I rejoice in the times when I feel I am properly representing Him. Even those times are few.

I rejoice in those times when I realize — “Oh. I didn’t react the way I used to. I didn’t respond in that same negative manner. I didn’t fall into that temptation. Oh, Praise God!”

I long to resemble Jesus more and more in life.

That is what the process of sanctification is all about.
We talked about it a few weeks ago.

It’s the process by which the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of God is perfecting us from moment to moment from glory to glory so that one day,

Once we are done with this part of our existence,

When we are finished with this side of eternity, and we shed this old sin nature,
We will walk with our Father, as children in His house.

We want to be called the children of God. And He’s made that possible through the cross.

He promises that we can look to Him in that familial way.

Paul explains it in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 that once we have been saved by faith in Christ, we are no longer slaves to our sin, but we now belong to God.

And God is not just to be our master, but our Father — for we have been adopted by Him out of His grace to us.

So if we are Christians and we are reading this text (Matthew 5:9), we are already called the children of God. We are only, now, waiting for the completion of what that will ultimately look like.

So here’s the question. The question that we get from the text, “If we are already the children of God,

Adopted at the time of our conversion —

Adopted because of God’s great mercy and grace in giving us the faith —

Then what’s our right response in the light of that truth?

We are to be peacemakers. “Blessed are the peacemakers".

It’s in this act, according to Jesus, that we will be recognizable as His children in the world.

We are to strive for peace in this world in many different areas.

But first lets define peace.

We’ll look at the Peace of God, that attribute of the Father

And see what we can take from His example and live it out in our lives.

One of my favorite Bible scholars, Wayne Grudem, defines the Peace of God as His being separate from all confusion and disorder, yet He is always active in innumerable, well ordered, fully controlled actions. (read the whole definition in Systematic Theology Page 203.)

Lets look at that attribute of God and see where we can make it happen — where we can be peacemakers, by God’s lead in our lives. Tonight we will look in two areas, the family and the church.

We should be separate from all confusion and disorder
— In the family — I don’t want to add confusion or disorder at home. Home should be a refuge from the storm of the world. It should be where we come to encourage and build one another up, where we feel safe and secure and at peace.
o That means I should not do my own thing, without regard to the way it affects my family.
o I should communicate with them — they are not mind readers.
o That means we don’t snap at our kids or our spouses or our parents. If there is a problem, we are to deal with it constructively — with love, gentleness, and humility.
o Ephesians 5 and 6 give us a blueprint for a peaceful home
— Ephesians 5: 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
— Ephesians 5: 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
— Ephesians 6: 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
— Ephesians 6: 4 Fathers, do not exasperate (Frustrate) your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

o Finally we avoid confusion and disorder in that we don’t abuse our family, physically, mentally, emotionally, or sexually.
— Some of you may have been in those homes. Some of you may BE in those homes where there is abuse.
— Some have been the victims, and some have been the perpetrators.
— If you are dealing with that, get with me after the service. We will get you some help.
— Abuse robs the family of peace. And, it does NOT resemble our loving God.

(Moving On)
— I don’t want to add confusion or disorder with my church family either.
o I don’t complain about the things that are wrong or need to be changed if I’m not willing to take positive proactive measures within my capacity to make the changes.
o I don’t want to spread gossip masked as prayer requests.
o And, this is the one where a lot of people walk off from the church. I don’t add to confusion or disorder in the church by turning a blind eye to sin — whether it is my own or someone else’s.
— This is important and I think it has been under taught in the church today.
— Jesus, and His apostles call on us to maintain church discipline.
— This is a sermon in itself, but lets go to: Matthew 18: 15 –17

15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

o I think there are four big reason this has repelled people historically:
— 1st – We seldom follow this path. We go to others and gossip (pray for) our sinning brother or we go public before we have done the one on one work.
— 2nd – We forget that we are also sinners saved by grace and if we forget that, we lose humility and compassion and then we need our own correction or discipline.
— 3rd – We may also be living in blatant sin and we come across as the hypocrites that Jesus was constantly confronting. It’s to the last two that Jesus told to remove the plank from our eyes before we deal with the speck in the other person’s eye.
— So those are the three big ways the church has dropped the ball. The 4th reason church discipline goes bad is on the side of the person being disciplined. It’s the outright rebellion that says “I’m doing what I’m doing and you’ve got no right to tell me to stop.”
— What we forget is that God understood we would need constant gentle correction from one another, because we are ALL still carrying around this baggage that causes us to drift from God’s path.
— If we are operating out of gentleness, concern and love, not pride or self righteousness we can do nothing kinder than correct one another.

o Getting back to the children of God part of our passage, discipline from God, is one of the true signs that we are His children.
o In Hebrews 12:5-8, we read,

5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." [Quote from Proverbs 3: 11-12]

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Then skip down to verse 11:

11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Finally, before you or I or anybody can have the peace of God in their family, in their church, or even in the workplace — we must first come to peace w/ God.

Because you can do all the right things, you can treat your family well, you can go through the motions and even be a productive and well liked member of society, but, God is clear that all of our good works and all of our nice looking lives are garbage without a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.

In fact, without Jesus interceding on our behalf, we are actually enemies with God and cannot find peace.

Please turn to:

Colossians 1:19-22 (New International Version)

19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21 Once you (That’s us) Once You were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior (our sin). 22 But now (here comes the Good News) he (God) has reconciled you (made peace with us — stopped looking at us as His enemy) by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

If you haven’t accepted the gift of Jesus’ saving work on the cross, I pray that you would take that step tonight. It is the only way to come to peace with God. It is the only way to be on His side.

It’s the only way to be adopted into His family.

Through that adoption, we will know peace.

Then we will walk it out – to reflect His peace to our little slice of the world. In our family, in our church, in our workplace and in the grocery store.

And we will be called — by God — sons and daughters of God.

And IF we truly grasp this. If we really hear the words of Jesus and PUT THEM INTO PRACTICE (Matthew 7: 24-27), we will be recognized as different from this world.

And then when people ask you what is different about you, why you can rejoice in trials, why you don’t add fuel to the fire with gossip, why you don’t try to get revenge, why you aren’t acting selfish — why you aren’t that way anymore.

You can say, I think I’m starting to look like my daddy.
Let’s Pray