Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Text: Matthew 5:9
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Identify the three dimensions of peace in the beatitude — peace with self, peace with others, peace with God — and explain which dimension the beatitude primarily concerns.
- Explain the apparent inconsistency between "love your enemies" (Matt. 5:44) and "I came not to send peace but a sword" (Matt. 10:34) and resolve it.
- State the Christian's weapons from Ephesians 6:11-17 and II Corinthians 10:3-4 and explain why the absence of armor for the back is significant.
- Explain what is meant by a Christian "conscientious objector" and distinguish the Christian position on military service from pacifism as a political philosophy.
- State what it means for Christianity to be opposed to a "war system" and explain how a Christian mobilizes resources for peace.
Thesis
The peacemaker is not the person who avoids all conflict but the person who wages war against the things that destroy peace — sin, division, injustice, unbelief — with weapons that do not include carnal force. The Christian is a soldier of peace whose army and whose weapons belong to a different kingdom from any that has ever marched on earth.
Burden
The beatitude is a paradox of the kind examined in the previous sermon: "Blessed are the peacemakers" — but Jesus also said he came not to send peace but a sword (Matt. 10:34). The sermon resolves the apparent contradiction and develops the positive content: what kind of peace the beatitude is about, what weapons the peacemaker uses, what it costs to be a hero of peace, and what it means for Christianity to be a system that opposes the war system. The difficulty of the beatitude is worth the effort it requires.
Introduction
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). The Beatitudes are the curriculum of the kingdom — a description of the character that belongs to those who have entered it. The peacemaker is not merely a person who avoids quarrels; he is a person who actively produces the peace that belongs to the kingdom. The promise attached — "they shall be called sons of God" — is the highest designation available: the peacemaker is recognized as bearing the character of the Father, whose defining act in history was the reconciliation of a hostile world to himself.
"Peace" has a three-fold application: peace with self, peace with man, and peace with God (Rom. 5:1: "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"). The beatitude is primarily about the third — the peace with God that is the source of the other two — but the peacemaker is one who extends all three.
I. Inconsistencies
The ministry of Jesus began with peace: "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" (Luke 6:27). The Sermon on the Mount establishes the peacemaking orientation from the start.
Later he said: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34). The apparent contradiction is real if both statements are about the same kind of peace. But they are not. The peace Jesus came not to bring is the false peace of everyone getting along without truth — the peace that tolerates sin, avoids confrontation, and settles for harmony at the cost of honesty. The sword he brings is the sword of the word (Heb. 4:12: "the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword") — the truth that divides family members who respond differently to it.
Schoolmates on opposite sides in war — killing each other. Comrades of campus turning into haters as alumni. These illustrations name what war does to the human community: it dissolves relationships built in peace and reconfigures them as enmities built around political or national loyalty. War involves inconsistencies — it requires people to do to each other what peace forbids.
The resolution: Jesus is not inconsistent. He brings real peace — peace with God through the cross — at the cost of false peace. He brings a sword that divides truth-receivers from truth-resisters. The peacemaker of Matthew 5:9 is not the person who avoids the sword Jesus brings; he is the person who takes up the right weapons in the right cause.
II. Pacifism
Pacifism as a political position — the settlement of disputes by arbitration rather than force — is consistent with Jesus's teaching about good will toward all people and his role as the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). His victories are for peace: every victory the gospel achieves is a victory for reconciliation — between people and God, and therefore between people and people.
But Christian peacemaking is not identical with political pacifism. The Christian's commitment to peace is not rooted in a calculation that non-violence produces better outcomes; it is rooted in the character of the one who called him "son of God" for making peace. The distinction matters because political pacifism can fail when the calculation changes; Christian peacemaking cannot fail because it is rooted in the character of God rather than the outcomes of history.
III. Weapons of a Christian
"Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil" (Eph. 6:11). The armor of God is designed for the peacemaker's war: truth (belt), righteousness (breastplate), readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace (shoes), faith (shield), salvation (helmet), and the word of God (sword). Every piece is defensive or proclamatory — none is for aggression.
No armor for the back. The armor of God is designed for a soldier who faces his enemy, not one who retreats. The absence of back armor is a built-in call to stand: "Stand firm therefore" (Eph. 6:14). The Christian who turns and flees has no protection.
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses" (II Cor. 10:3-4). The weapons are not physical — not the sword, the rifle, the bomb. They are "divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses" — the arguments, the imaginations, the lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God (v. 5). The war the Christian is fighting is the war for minds and souls; the weapons suited to that war are not carnal.
IV. Heroes of Peace
History records the heroes of war in its chronicles, monuments, and cemeteries. The names are inscribed: the general who turned the battle, the soldier who gave his life on the hill, the admiral who held the line. The culture of war has its pantheon.
Peace has its heroes — they are simply less visible. The person who forgave when bitterness was expected; the missionary who went into hostile territory with a gospel rather than a gun; the elder who sat with a feuding family and did not leave until the feud was over; the preacher who stood in the face of social pressure and preached the truth about reconciliation with God. These are the heroes of peace whose monuments are people, not stone.
Every Christian a hero of peace. Not optionally — the beatitude is categorical: the sons of God are peacemakers. The Christian who is not making peace — who is not actively extending the reconciliation that the gospel describes, not working to restore the broken relationships that sin produces, not carrying the message of peace with God to those who do not have it — is not living up to the identity the beatitude confers.
V. "Conscientious Objectors"
Followers of the Prince of Peace. The term "conscientious objector" in the time described the person who refused military service on grounds of conscience. The outline applies it to the Christian's relationship to the war system in a broader sense: the Christian is, by definition, a person whose conscience is formed by a Prince whose victories are for peace, and whose methods of warfare are not carnal.
One who refuses to take up arms in the kingdom's conflicts — meaning: the Christian does not fight the kingdom's battles with the weapons of the kingdoms of this world. The battle against false doctrine is not won by political pressure; the battle against sin is not won by social coercion; the battle for souls is not won by force. The conscientious objector to these methods is not a coward; he is a soldier who has chosen the right weapons for the right war.
Does not don the uniform — does not adopt the identity of the culture's war system, with its language of enemies to be destroyed and territories to be captured. The Christian lives in the world's social order but is not shaped by its military imagination.
VI. No Christian "War System"
Christians live in peace as their default orientation: "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men" (Rom. 12:18). The qualifier "as far as it depends on you" acknowledges that peace requires two parties and cannot always be achieved unilaterally. But the default is peace; the exception is the failure to achieve it despite the Christian's best effort.
Christians' system is peace, not war. This does not mean passivity in the face of evil — the armor of God is for standing, not sitting — but the engagement with evil is through the weapons of the word, prayer, and the demonstration of the gospel's power.
Christianity opposed to military rule as a governing principle. Not opposed to civil government — Paul commands prayer for rulers and obedience to the governing authorities (Rom. 13:1-7; I Tim. 2:2). But opposed to the militarization of the kingdom's mission. The church does not advance through force.
Should mobilize resources for peace. The energy and organization that war requires — the logistics, the training, the commitment, the sacrifice — is the energy Christianity calls for in the service of peace. The Christian who is as committed to making peace as a soldier is to winning wars is the peacemaker the beatitude describes.
Application
The sermon presses two concrete applications:
Where is the battle you are avoiding? The absence of armor for the back means the Christian is supposed to face his enemies — the arguments against the faith, the relationships broken by sin, the person who needs to hear the gospel but makes hearing it uncomfortable. The conscientious objector does not avoid these encounters; he engages them with the right weapons.
Where are you making peace? The heroes of peace are not passively at peace — they are actively making it. Where is the person who needs to hear the reconciliation the gospel offers? Where is the broken relationship that the power of forgiveness could restore? Where is the false teaching that the sword of the word needs to engage?
Conclusion
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). The designation is the conclusion: sons of God. The character of the Father is the character of the one who "reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (II Cor. 5:18). The peacemaker bears the family resemblance. He takes up the weapons his Father used — the word, the sacrifice, the appeal — and goes to the people his Father loved — the hostile, the broken, the still-enemies — with the peace that passes understanding.
Invitation
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). This is the peace the beatitude flows from. The peacemaker makes peace because he has peace — the reconciliation with God that Christ secured and that the gospel announces.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Prince of Peace. Repent of the hostility toward God that sin produces. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). And receive the peace with God that makes you a peacemaker — one who shall be called a son of God.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peacemakers | eirēnopoioī | those who actively make peace | those who actively make peace | eirēnē (peace) + poieō (to make, to do); not passive possessors of peace but active producers of it; the word is active: peacemaking is something done, not merely something experienced; the son-of-God designation belongs to those who are doing it. | Matt. 5:9 |
| Peace | eirēnē | the Greek word corresponds to the Hebrew shalom | the Greek word corresponds to the Hebrew shalom | wholeness, completeness, right relationship; it is not merely the absence of conflict but the presence of right order between persons and between persons and God; the peace of Romans 5:1 is the condition of those who have been justified. | |
| Weapons of our warfare | ta hopla tēs strateias hēmōn | the instruments of campaign | the instruments of campaign | strateia is a military campaign; the Christian is on campaign, but his weapons are "divinely powerful" (dynata tō theō) for destroying arguments and mental fortresses, not physical ones. | II Cor. 10:4 |
| Sons of God | huioi theou | sons in the sense of bearing the family character | sons in the sense of bearing the family character | the Semitic idiom "son of X" means "characterized by X"; a son of God is one who displays the character of God; the peacemaker is characterized by the reconciling nature of the God whose defining act was reconciliation. | Matt. 5:9 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" | Text | Matt. 5:9 |
| Peace with God — the source | Intro | Rom. 5:1 |
| "Love your enemies" — ministry begins with peace | I | Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27 |
| "Came not to send peace but a sword" — false peace vs. real peace | I | Matt. 10:34 |
| Sword of the word — the dividing truth | I | Heb. 4:12 |
| Full armor of God — designed for standing, not retreating | III | Eph. 6:11-17 |
| Weapons not carnal — divinely powerful for destroying fortresses | III | II Cor. 10:3-4 |
| Ministry of reconciliation — we are ambassadors | VI | II Cor. 5:18-20 |
| "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all" | VI | Rom. 12:18 |
| Peace with God through Christ — ground of the beatitude | Invit. | Rom. 5:1 |
| Baptism for remission — entry into the peace that makes peacemakers | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 118. Primary text: Matthew 5:9 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "aJJ/J/ication" → "application"; "f>eace" → "peace." Doctrinal audit: the inconsistency between "love your enemies" and "came not to send peace" resolved by distinguishing the peace of reconciliation with God (real peace) from the false peace of conflict-avoidance (the sword that divides truth-receivers from truth-resisters); Christian conscientious objection treated as a matter of method (carnal vs. spiritual weapons) rather than absolute political pacifism; Christianity's opposition to military rule stated as opposition to the militarization of the kingdom's mission, not to civil government; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
