Jun 11 2023 - Peacemaking Jesus' Way

Unfortunately, the audio for today's service did not work properly - so here is the text:

Peacemaking Jesus’ Way

We are continuing our series on being Peacemakers

From the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus’ definitive statement:

Matthew 5:6

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

The Beatitudes are indications of Kingdom People.

God is a peacemaker – and being a peacemaker makes us try to be like God – but there is a problem – and we all know that –

As Jesus was heading into Jerusalem -

"If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! (Luke 19:42)

If you had known…

But you didn’t – so destruction is coming!

Destruction and misery are in their paths. And the way of peace they have not known. (Romans 3:16-17)

The problem is that we humans do not know the way of peace. We are to be Peacemakers – but we don’t know the Way of Peace.

We have our own, human, worldly ways of peace. The Roman Empire had their way of peace. They promised that they would bring peace to the world – that was their thing – what they were going to do!

The thing about Roman peace – they conquered, oppressed, subjugated, eliminated – so they have peace! That is probably not God’s way.

We have this peace through strength way – which is better than subjugating…

And many of us remembers drills of getting under the desk and closing our eyes – because you want to save your eyes if the nuclear bomb went off.

There is appeasement- a term in England before WWII as Hitler was annexing.

All of those are geared toward stopping war and violence. But God’s peace – and God’s way of peace – is very different.

Peacemakers are much more than diplomats and negotiators. Their goal is to broker peace. But God’s way of peacemaking goes beyond that to restoring and healing relationships that are in conflict – and the world can’t do that.

That is what God did with Jesus on the cross – we were in conflict and He made peace with us.

And someday – He will make peace with all the nations – healing the land and restoring it to where it was meant to be.

How to be a peacemaker like Jesus – how to be a son of God.

First – we need to be people of nonviolence.

Now, I don’t mean pacifism – there is a difference. Jesus talked about this a lot.

We will stay in the Beatitudes in Matthew:

Matthew 5: 21 "You have heard that it was said to an older generation, 'Do not murder,'

(We get that that is violence)

and 'whoever murders will be subjected to judgment.'

(and we are good with that!)

22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subjected to judgment.

I talked about anger a couple weeks ago – and how to address it – and I realized – well, I was kind of floored – what He is saying – He is comparing the two – BOTH are subject to judgment. We talked about Cain – how anger leads to violence. But Jesus is saying – ANGER IS VIOLENCE.

Anger is a hard thing to know what to do with – there are verses that make it difficult to figure out what to do with it.

I started to dig into it – there are two words for anger – one of them has 5-6 different forms. We talk abtou God being slow to anger. But there are other words that only talk about human anger and satanic anger – never God’s.

So there is something about anger that is hard to grasp – what about the anger of God – or be angry and do not sin – but Jesus says here – anger is violence.

The word – at its root – is upsurging.

It is getting at this thing that happens inside of us. We have all seen this – we’ve been wronged – or we see some kind of injustice – there is an upsurge in us emotionally that just boils up. That is normal and natural. But what the Bible is clear – at that moment – we come to a line – and we have very little time to determine what we are going to do with that!

With Cain – He says – why are you angry? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted? If not, sin is where? Crouching- ready to attack – at your door. It is immediate.

But when Paul said – be angry and do not sin – or don’t let the sun go down on your anger – there is not much time here for you to make a decision./

What about righteous anger then? Some say – only God can have righteous anger – and they have biblical evidence for that. And others say humans can too – and they have biblical reasons for that.

My opinion – when we see injustice – and there is an upsurging in us – that is righteous anger – but what happens next is what really matters.

It is hard for us to discern between righteous anger and just anger. Is it because we have been wronged – or because we have been thwarted? Injustice or our egos have been wounded?

Even if we come to a point of righteous anger – I don’t believe scripture gives us the freedom to act upon it – I believe that action – that vengeance – that wrath – belongs to God. And only to God.

I think we use God’s righteous anger sometimes to justify our human anger.

James 1:20 – the anger of man never accomplishes the righteousness of God.

That is a difficult saying. But don’t worry! It gets harder! As we move on through the passage.

If you have questions – feel free to ask – I know it is a difficult thing and I am giving you my understanding.

He continues:

And whoever insults a brother will be brought before the council, and whoever says 'Fool' will be sent to fiery hell.

Wow! Jesus doesn’t mince words sometimes!

Insulting words are an act of violence.

How much do we hear today that words aren’t violent? Jesus didn’t think that way! This is connected with MURDER! He is tying all of these things together.

We know our world is filled with violence. But there is exponentially more violence in our insults than physical violence – and I am not diminishing physical violence.

We all do this. And I think we do it without even knowing we do it.

And I think we do it and justify it as a defense of righteousness. We think if we are doing that – it is okay to insult people.

I am going to get into a few things you might disagree with. There are things we should discuss, have debate and dialog, and disagree.

The Bible doesn’t address everything. There are so many things that you cannot come up with a verse for.

What does it turn into? Insults.

Think of racial divides – things need to be discussed, debated – and dialog must occur. But let me say this – I have had discussions with people – maybe I heard them say something that is racist – or someone talks to me about their issues – You know, I think I have a problem with racism? We should discuss, help, and understand.

Yet, when you call someone a racist – that is an insult.

What you are saying here – is not good! You might want to think about that! It is so easy to call people racist.

Here is another one – if you say someone is ‘woke’ – that is an insult! Look what Jesus says about insults!

When we bring up insults – we introduce violence into the conversation – I really believe this is what Jesus is communicating.

I’ll give a couple other examples

We can disagree about politics and culture – but when we start calling each other right-wingers or leftists – and there are worse words – we introduce violence.

Same with biblical convictions – there are all kinds of things that Christians should talk about

Let’s look at the role of women in ministry – and the role of husbands in marriage – and good Christians disagree on these things – but when you say someone has conformed to the world due to their honest belief about what the Bible teaches – you have introduced insult into the discussion.

The issue – I look at me – and say – I’m guilty of these kinds of things! Myself!

Softball here – Cindy talked to me something a long time ago – My parents used to live in California – and I’d often say – you know – the land of fruits and nuts – and while it was joking – I don’t think that Jesus says – Oh, he was joking – it’s okay.

Saying “You fool” today is different than what this is addressing. This is a word of deep and utter contempt. SO the purpose of this insult is to shame, attack a person’s character and reputation – and to dehumanize them. It is a way of saying – you are subhuman! And that has been used throughout history to allow people to exercise violence. TO give them a pass. The colonizers called the indigenous peoples savages – what does that mean? They are subhuman and violence can be used. Barbarians. Hitler called them, the problem. And that gave freedom to insult and to do violence.

When we are angry at a person – or something is upsurging in us – we are at a line and we need to address it at that moment – or, like Cain – sin is crouching at the door. Insults dehumanize people and allow people to do violence.

This is played out in front of us every evening on the news.

This is just normal in our world – and we are unaware how often it is being done. I have been focusing on this this week – and I realize how much insulting goes on in our world.

Peacemakers do not insult.

Let me give a couple of practical things in closing –

Here is what I would challenge you to do – Pay attention and eliminate some things.

How much do you listen to insults? How much of your listening – podcasts, radio, television – contains insults? Insulting of specific people.

How healthy is that? Think of things you would never listen to – that should be one of them – people who insult others.

Then the second – pay attention to the small ways, like I said – I’m sure we are not calling people fool like they called people fool – but there are ways that we do this.

Are there insults that you have accepted as common speech? Just accepting it as the way people talk?

Think if there are ways you have used insults to defend what you believe to be right – standing up for God insults. Realize – you don’t have to stand up for God, He is pretty good at that! That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t show His glory –

People defending scripture – is like defending a chained lion from some dogs – just let the chained lion become unchained.

Sometimes we use insults to get a laugh – but I’m not sure that – there are ways that are joking around that are not harmful, but I’m not sure there are ways to insult people that are not harmful.

I think when we talk about nonviolence and peacemaking – we go to these big global problems – and those are important – but if all the Christians in the world – and we only looked at these verses this week – if THAT were our character – that would really change – that would be really powerful!

For next week – think through the ways you have found help dealing with anger and or peacemaking

Let’s pray.