Episode Transcript
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ASID are those who were persecuted for
Righteousness Sake, for theirs is the Kingdom
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of Heaven. Blessed are you when
they revile and persecute you and say all
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kinds of evil against you falsely.
For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly
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glad, for great is your reward
in heaven, for so they persecuted the
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prophets who were before you. Thus, farthest reading of God's holy word,
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the grass withers in the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures
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forever. Please be seated. Let's
pray. Well. We pray, as
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we come to give our attention to
the reading and the preaching of your word,
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that you would give us your blessing, as we've already asked this morning.
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Loll. We pray that you would
give us ears to hear, minds
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to understand, hearts to believe what
it is you would have us know,
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Lord, where we need to be
bound up, bind us up and encourage
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us, where we need to be
convicted. Convict US and point us to
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the way that we ought to go. Where we need direction. Give us
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direction. Where we need hope,
give us hope. We thank you,
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Lord, for your word. We
thank you for your good news that runs
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from the beginning to the end of
the entirety of the Bible, the good
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news that you love us, that
you are with us, that you are
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for us. So we pray that
you would let the words of my mouth
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and the meditations of our hearts be
pleasing to you, our great redeemer,
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King Amen. Well, as you
can see from the passage that we have
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before us, we return again to
my aunt again, off again series in
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the beatitudes. Hence, thus far
we've gone through the first several of them,
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and this week we come to verse
nine. Blessed are the Peacemakers,
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for they shall be called Sons of
God. Now, as a reminder,
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these eight beatitudes that we find here
in the beginning of Matthew Chapter five form
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the introduction to Jesus's greatest sermon,
the sermon on the mountain, and in
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these beatitudes Jesus is telling us something
of the characteristic of characteristics of the happiest
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people on Earth. And I say
that because, if you recall, or
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if you weren't here before, I'll
tell you now, the word that's translated
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is blessed. In all of these
beatitudes is a Greek word that literally means
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supremely happy. It's one of those
sort of church words we use that doesn't
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really mean anything even to most of
the people who use it, but it
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means supremely happy, supremely happy.
So Jesus is telling US something of the
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character of the happiest people on Earth, which will seem odd when next we
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turn to the last beatitude that says
that you should rejoice and be exceedingly glad
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when you're persecuted and spoken of evily. But that's for another day. Today
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Jesus is continuing to tell us about
supremely happy people. He's also describing for
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us what the citizens of the Kingdom
of Heaven look like. Matthew's Gospel has
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three main themes or purposes, and
the three main themes of Matthew's Gospel are
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this to proclaim to us that Christ
is king, to show us what citizens
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of the Kingdom of Heaven Look like
and to call upon us to respond to
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Jesus as citizens of his kingdom.
He's describing to us what citizens of his
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kingdom look like. He isn't telling
us what we have to do to inherit
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the kingdom. He's not giving us
a list of Che checklist of dues and
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don'ts that we have to fulfill in
order to get a passport into heaven.
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Instead, what he's doing is he's
describing to us how we can recognize those
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who already are and are being made
into citizens of Christ's kingdom. And,
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as I've noted before, these beatitudes
are something of a process. The first
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be attitude literally says if you're called
supremely happy, are the spiritually destitute.
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So the very first step, the
entry point to Christian discipleship, is to
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realize that we are all spiritual beggars. The next several beatitudes are like layered
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steps that characterize the growth of the
Christian and then the last two ours that
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we have before us this morning,
and the aforementioned persecution be attitude, tell
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us what the Pinnacle of Christ Likeness
Is, the pinnacle of Christlikeness. And
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this seventh be attitude, Jesus tells
us how we can recognize those whom he
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describes as the sons of God.
In other words, he's telling us what
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the genetic trait or family resemblance is
that will give us away as being the
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sons and daughters of his father and
the family trait that he has for us
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this morning is that the citizens of
his kingdom, the Sons of God,
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are peacemakers, and I'd like us
to look at this this morning in two
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parts. First, I'd like us
to consider the Prince of peace, whose
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likeness we bear, and second I'd
like us to see what it means that
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we are to be ambassadors for Christ
in the world. So the Prince of
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peace and ambassadors for Christ. Jesus
says here in our beatitude that we're called
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to be peacemakers, or it probably
better to say that that Jesus says that
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if we are sons of God,
if we are Christians, we will be
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peacemakers. It's an important distinction and
it's also interesting, I think, to
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note that the word here for peacemaker
is an unusual word in the Greek New
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Testament. It only appears twice in
the whole Bible. Once it appears here
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in this sermon on the Mount and
the second time it is used to describe
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Jesus's own work. Now the plate, the place that it appears in Colossians
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chapter one is a passage that is
a hymn that is praising the greatness of
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the Gospel and it's important for us
to understand, to understand what it means
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to be a peacemaker, that this
should be the case because, as every
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one of US needs to remind ourselves
every single day, all of the Christian
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Life is about the Gospel. The
Christian life isn't about rules, it's not
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about being good, it's not about
having your religious ducks in in order.
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The entirety of the Christian Life is
about the Gospel, the Good News,
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the simple truth that God so loves
you and me that he sent his only
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son to die so that we might
enter into a love relationship with him free
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for nothing, totally apart from all
of our works and our efforts and our
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failures. That simple truth is the
power, the motive and the standard for
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every aspect of the Christian life.
The whole of the Christian life is about
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our response of love to God,
for Jesus and for Christ, sacrifice for
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us. And so if we're going
to understand what it means to be peacemakers,
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we have to understand something of the
peacemaking of the Prince of peace,
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who is the author of peace itself. Now in our world. I think
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peace is something that everybody says they
want. All the bickering Nadabbserverb what was
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it that that the vice president said? YAMMERING NAY BOBS OF NEGATIVISM? I
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believe it was it was Spiro Agnew
said that. The nattering nabobs of negative
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negativism, all of them on the
Internet and the talking heads on TV,
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whoever they may be, they all
say that they want peace. Most everybody
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says that they want peace, and
I think for the most part we mean
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it when we say it. But
it is a commodity that demonstrably isn't very
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short supply. Everybody has ideas about
how we can have peace. I'm sure,
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like me, you've seen the bumper
sticker that says peace through superior firepower.
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That seems like a good idea to
some people. Back in the old
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West there was a pistol that was
called the peacemaker. Other people think that
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international piece is found through unilateral disarmament, or perhaps stockpiling more guns and nuclear
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weapons and whatever else. I've seen
one place where someone once made this observation,
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saying peace is that glorious moment in
history when everyone stops to reload.
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Now I think. I think that
that last one probably comes close as to
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the truth of what peace between nations
or groups or individuals is like. It
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isn't a true piece. It's just
sort of a brief, brief cessation of
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hostilities until we start to fight and
squabble and divide all over again. But
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in scripture piece is a lot more
than the mere cessation of hostilities. In
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scripture, the idea of peace is
best expressed by the Hebrew word Shalogne.
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If you ever want to go do
a really interesting word study, go sit
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down and go through it. The
idea of Shalogne hom in scripture, Shalom
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is far more than the mere absence
of war. Biblical peace, Shalom is
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both the absence of hostility, war
fighting, squabbling and the like. See
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the absence of that, but it's
also the presence of wholeness and harmony and
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Concord. Shalom among people's are groups
is found when they put aside their competing
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interests and desires in order to live
in harmony together. It's when people abandoned
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that which divides them from one another
in the interests of a greater goal.
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Jen Kirkpatrick, who was President Reagan's
you in secretary once said this. She
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said we have war when at least
one of the parties to a conflict wants
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something more than it wants peace.
That bears repeating. We have war when
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at least one of the parties to
a conflict wants something more than it wants
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peace. And Shalom in our relationships
is found when two people who are at
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one with one another. It's found
when two people who may have been separated
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by anger, hostility whatever are now
found to be reconciled to one another in
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love, where enemies become friends.
And Shalom in the individual heart is found
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when you and I have the peace
that comes both from being right with God
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as well as knowing that we are
right with God. We're both are right
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with God and we know that we
are. Sort of like the difference between
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saying I know God loves me and
saying I believe God likes me. It's
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a sense of inner harmony as you
live a life that is rightly directed toward
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the glorification of God and the enjoyment
of his presence in your life. See,
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we all chase all sorts of other
ways to find peace in our hearts,
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don't we? But I think that
I know that scripture and I believe
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that experience tells us that everything other
than being right with God is a denial
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to ourselves of true peace. And
scripture tells us that Jesus is the one
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who makes peace between man and God. And what's more, it's only this
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peace that Jesus makes between us and
God then allows peace among men. In
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First Colossians chapter one, are excuse. First in Colossians chapter one, beginning
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in the nineteen verse, we read
this for it pleased the father that in
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him all the fullness should dwell and
by him to reconcile all things to himself,
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by him, whether things on earth
or things in heaven, having made
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peace through the blood of the cross, and you, who were once alienated
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in enemies in your mind by wicked
works. Yet now he has reconciled and
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the body of his flesh through death
to present you holy and blameless and above
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reproach in his sight. Paul says
that Jesus made peace by reconciling us to
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God. And the word here for
to make peace is the same word that's
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used in Matthew for peacemaker. I
told you, it appears to places this
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is the other place. Jesus's goal, is a peacemaker, was that we
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might be reconciled to God. Now, the word reconcile literally means to make
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friendly again, as after a quarrel, to make friendly again as after a
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quarrel. One of the commentators that
I read use a little illustration I want
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to share with you. He says
this. I once read the story of
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a couple at a divorce hearing who
are arguing back and forth before the judge,
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accusing each other and refusing to take
any blame themselves. Their little four
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year old boy was terribly distressed and
confused. Not Knowing what else to do,
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he took his father's hand and his
mother's hand and kept tugging until he
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finally pulled the hands of his parents
together. Now that story is so very
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sad because we know that that little
boy's efforts were useless. Though he was
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ever so earnest in his desire to
play the peacemaker and to reconcile his parents,
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he was powerless to affect that reconciliation. Neither parent was willing to let
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go of his or her hurt,
his or her desire for blame and to
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be vindicated in front of the world. Each of them love their own hurt
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and their own pain and their own
desire for vengeance more than they loved peace.
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It might even be the case that
you could say that they loved their
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longing for vengeance more than they loved
their boy. But though their son was
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unable to be a peacemaker between that
man and that woman, God's son is
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able to affect a reconciliation between God
and man. That was Jesus his goal
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in coming to Earth, to be
a peacemaker by reconciling us to our father
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in heaven. Colossians one tells us
how he did it, you who were
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once alienated and enemies in your mind
by wicked works. Yet now he has
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reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy
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and blameless and above reproach in his
sight. Through Jesus's work on the cross,
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he has taken us, who were
once alienated from God, and he
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has made peace between us. Another
word. Alienate here means to be a
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stranged, to be indifferent, hostile, unfriendly. Paul wants us to know
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that we were when we were as
strange from God as that little boy's parents
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were as strange from one another.
When our sin and our hatred of God
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and his righteous need to punish our
sins, when that alienated us from him.
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At that point, Jesus allowed himself
to be killed in our place so
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that, through his blood, he
might take our hand and take our father
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in heaven's hand and bring us together, reconciling US and making peace. In
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fact, that the heat there,
the Greek word for peace, literally means
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to bind together. In other words, Jesus is our peacemaker, has taken
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that which was once implacably opposed and
has bound them so closely together that they
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become one, the prince of peace. Now, in Matthew Five Nine,
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Jesus tells us that when we become
the sons of God, we will begin
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to be peace makers just like him. Now that Christ has done this work
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of reconciliation for us, we are
called to be those who are making peace
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among people through our Ministry of Reconciliation. In Second Corinthians, Chapter Five,
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Verses Eighteen and twenty, Paul says
this. Now all things are of God,
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who has reconciled us to himself through
Jesus Christ, and has given us
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the Ministry of Reconciliation. Now,
then, we are Ambassad sitters for Christ,
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as though God were pleading through us. We implore you, on Christ's
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behalf, be reconciled to God.
Now, what do you make of that?
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Christ has reconciled men to God,
and now we, who have been
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reconciled by Christ, are called to
reconcile men and women to one another.
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Paul says that this is part of
what makes US ambassadors for Christ. The
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dictionary tells us that an ambassador is
a diplomatic official of the highest rank sent
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by one country to another as its
representative. It's someone who is able to
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speak and act with the authority of
one country or ruler to another, and
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so an ambassador for Christ is a
person who has been given both Christ's authority
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as well as Christ's power to plead
with other people to be reconciled to God
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and to be reconciled to one another. Another way of putting it to use
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the idea of the beatitude is to
say that, now that we have been
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adopted into God's family, he expects
us to start to exhibit the family resemblance.
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If Jesus is a peacemaker, then
we are to be peacemakers too.
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He did that in all of his
relationships to one degree or another, and
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ultimately he did it through his own
death. Therefore, if we are sons
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of God, Jesus tells us that
we will inevitably begin to exhibit the family
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resemblance by working for reconciliation in our
relationships. Peacemaking is a hallmark of God's
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children. But, of course,
on the flip side, if we do
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not see seat set ourselves to the
goal, to the hard work of seeking
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reconciliation in our relationships, then we
have to ask ourselves if we really are
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sons of God. John Macarthur the
commentator I read from earlier, and I
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think we're all familiar with him,
he makes a very poignant and profound comment
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when commenting on this passage. He
says this peacemaking is a hallmark of God's
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children. A person who is not
a peacemaker either is not a Christian or
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is a disobedient Christian. The person
who is continually disruptive, divisive and quarrelsome
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has good reason to doubt his or
her relationship to God. All together,
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her God's sons, that is,
all of God's children, both male and
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female, are peacemakers. Only God
determines who is children are, and he
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is determined that they are the humble, the penitent, oversin, the gentle
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the seekers of Righteousness, the Merciful, the Pure and Heart, and the
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Peacemakers. Now want you to let
that sink in for a minute. I
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was really convicted when I first read
this, and it may be one of
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the hardest things some of us may
hear for quite a while. A person
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who is not a peacemaker either is
not a Christian or is a disobedient Christian.
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The person who's continually to disruptive,
divisive and quarrelsome has good reason to
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doubt his or her relationship to God
all together. So let me ask you
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a very difficult question. Are you
a peacemaker? Are you characterized by a
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spirit of reconciliation? If you were
to ask someone who was willing to be
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really honest with you, would that
person say that you are personally a force
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for reconciliation, in love, in
your relationships amongst strangers, in the workplace,
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in your home, in the church, Fellowship, on the Internet?
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Or are you characterized by contrariness,
divisiveness and disruptiveness? Do you have itching
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ears that prick up when gossip is
afoot? If there are two people who
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are as strange and alienated from one
another? Do you listen to tales being
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told? Do you tell them yourself? Do you feed that fire? Or
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Do you seek to remind people of
Christ and of his Gospel and of his
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commandment and bloody invitation to love one
another? Are you a peacemaker? And
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Second Corinthians Nineteen and twenty Paul tells
us how to be peacemakers. Listen very
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carefully. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world to himself, not imputing
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their trestpasses to them, and is
committed to us the word of reconciliation.
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Now, then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God were pleading
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through us. We implore you,
on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
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Paul says that as ambassadors for Christ, we are supposed to remind others
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of Jesus is good news and plead
with them, for the sake of that
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Gospel, not to hold others sins
and trespasses against them. Now, there
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are some circumstances, some extreme circumstances, where you need to divide yourself off
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and have nothing to do with a
horribly destructive person. I'm not talking about
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that. I'm talking about the normal
course of life, even difficult circumstances.
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If someone does you wrong, for
the Sake of Christ crucified for you,
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do not hold that sin against him. If someone is a jerk, if
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someone is stupid, if someone acts
like the north end of a southbound donkey,
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for the Sake of Christ crucified for
you, do not hold that person's
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sin against him. And when you
see someone else holding something against another,
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for the Sake of Christ crucified for
you, implore that person, plead,
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beg that person, for the Sake
of Christ crucified for him or her,
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not to let themselves hold the sin
against the the other. Do you see?
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It's all about the Gospel and applying
it. And when you do get
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upset, when you find it really
hard to let go, even for the
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sake of Christ, I want you
to ask yourself something. Whatever it is
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that's causing the breach of peace between
you and others, whatever it is that
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you are griping about, whatever it
is that's the PA and your mattress and
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you, just like the girl in
the fable. You can't get comfortable because
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of it. If you were to
get your way on that issue or in
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that debate, would get in your
way? Number One, promote peace and
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love and harmony between you and the
other and, number two, would it
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help your neighbor? No, Christ
and be reconciled to God? What's more,
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regarding the way that you're going about
whatever it is that you want,
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is the way that you are relating
to others, your modus operande? Is
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it promoting peace and love, or
does it leave a trail of wounded people
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in your wake? Wounded people who
may say, yeah, I have to
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do what I was told. They
bow under, they do it, but
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their wounded. Now do not do
this. Do not look at the next
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guy and say what about him?
What about her? Because you're not responsible
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for them. The conviction here is
for you and for me. Don't ask
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Whoa, Whoa. Well, okay, if I give up what I want,
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well then, if I let Katie
have her way and everything will is
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that going to promote peace? Huh, don't ask that forgive me, Katy.
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Your responsibility before God is to be
a peacemaker yourself. Your responsibility is
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to strive for peace among men and
especially for peace in the body of Christ,
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Paul says, in Colossians Chapter One
again versus twenty one through twenty four,
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and you, who were alienated,
enemies in your mind by wicked works.
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Yet now he has reconciled in the
body of his flesh through death,
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to present you holy and blameless and, above above, reproach in his sight.
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If indeed, you continue in the
faith, grounded insteadfast and are not
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moved away from the hope of the
Gospel which you heard, which was preached
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to every creature under Heaven, of
which I, Paul, became a minister.
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I now rejoice in my sufferings for
you and fill up in my flesh
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what is lacking in the afflictions of
Christ, for the sake of his body,
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which is the church. Paul says
that he has been given this Ministry
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of Reconciliation for the sake of Christ's
body, which is the church. Remember
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two things. One, Jesus died
for the church, as Ephesian says.
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He died that he might present her
to himself, a glorious church, not
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having spot or wrinkle or any such
thing, but that she should be holy
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and without blemish and number two,
that he has died for the church in
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order that she might be a witness
to the world around her. The context
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of the beatitudes is that they are
wedged between the narrative of Jesus is calling
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the disciples in order that they might
be fishers of men in chapter four,
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and then he tells them that they
are to be salt and light, shining
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forth the light of Christ in a
world of darkness. In other words,
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he wants us to be peacemakers in
order that the world might come to know
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him. But how can the church
be used by the Lord for making peace
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between men and God if we don't
strive for peace in our own midst here
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in our church, with other Christians
outside of our church? The body is
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called to be a peacemaking institution,
and if we don't do that, if
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we allow unreconciliation to go on in
Christ's body, then we deny the very
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gospel that we claim has changed our
lives. If we are to be faithful,
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indeed if we are children of God
at all, we must, we
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will be faithful, to set ourselves
to the work of reconciliation and peacemaking,
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and God knows that this is hard
for us and Coloshin's one hundred and twenty
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four. Paul says that it is
so hard to be working for peace in
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the body. Says this, I
rejoice voice in my sufferings for you and
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fill up in my flesh what is
lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the
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sake of his body, which is
the church. Paul recognizes that this is
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hard. Peacemaking is tough. Seeking
to be reconciled to others, to reconcile
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others together, man, that is
hard, hard, heartbreaking work. Letting
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go of what I want for the
sake of the Gospel is hard. But
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Paul comforts us here. He's telling
us that when peacemaking becomes so painful that
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we shy away from putting our hand
to that plow any longer, Paul says
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that we are actually participating in the
sufferings of Christ. We are making up
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in our body. He says,
what was lacking in the suffering of Christ.
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In other words, even when peacemaking
is hard and even when we want
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so very much to impute the other
guys sent on to him, when I
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want to make him eat a holy
fish sandwich, just sit there and listen
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to me tell him about it,
and it's killing me not to do it.
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Even then, we can be comforted
and strengthened because of the Gospel promise
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that g Jesus absorbed in his own
flesh the sufferings that we endure in the
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interests of peace. He takes the
other sin so that I might be reconciled
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to him. And as we do
this, as we seek to exhibit the
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family resemblance by working for peace and
reconciliation, Jesus says that we shall be
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called the sons of God. He's
using a verb tense, the continuous future,
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passive, meaning forever and ever into
the future. Other people will look
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at you and me as we strive
to reconcile, as we strive to be
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reconciled with others. People will look
at us and they will see the family
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resemblance that we have for Jesus and
they will glorify God. They will,
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as Paul says, they will even
glorify God in me. And as they
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see that, as Jesus says later
in Matthew Chapter Five, he says they
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will see your good works and they
will glorify your father in heaven to the
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praise of God forever and ever.
That that is good news. Amen.
