Title: Peace Process (7)
Series: Get Used to Different
Author: James Merritt
Text: Matthew 5:9
Introduction
1. If you were trying to sum up the history of the world from the beginning of time in as few words as possible, there would be one word you would have to use and it is unfortunate but true. That word is "war." What we mean by war is "an active conflict that has claimed more than 1000 lives." We are not talking about just a battle here or there or a little skirmish. I mean war.
2. Consider this. Of the past 3400 years, the world has been entirely at peace for only 268 years or just 8% of recorded history. In the entire history of the United States of America, there has only been fifteen years when we have not been at war with somebody. Peace has been a rare luxury in the history of the human race. Winston Churchill put it best.
"The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes there has never been peace in the world; and long before history began murderous strife was universal and unending."
3. As much as that may trouble us, I can assure you it grieves the heart of God, because God is a God of peace. The Bible is a book of peace. Peace occurs nearly 400 times throughout the Bible. The Bible is the word of the God of peace and it is full of peace. Of the twenty-seven New Testament books, eighteen begin with a greeting of peace. The Bible begins with peace in the Garden of Eden and ends with peace in the Garden of heaven. It should come as no surprise that deep down inside all of us there is a hunger for peace. It was put there by the God of peace who wants peace more than we do. As a matter of fact, God sent Jesus so that we might have peace with God, and peace from God, and the peace of God.
4. So perhaps that explains why Jesus said something in the next beatitude on the Sermon the Mount that on the one hand may have been surprising to the people who heard it then, but perhaps not. Here is wha ...
Series: Get Used to Different
Author: James Merritt
Text: Matthew 5:9
Introduction
1. If you were trying to sum up the history of the world from the beginning of time in as few words as possible, there would be one word you would have to use and it is unfortunate but true. That word is "war." What we mean by war is "an active conflict that has claimed more than 1000 lives." We are not talking about just a battle here or there or a little skirmish. I mean war.
2. Consider this. Of the past 3400 years, the world has been entirely at peace for only 268 years or just 8% of recorded history. In the entire history of the United States of America, there has only been fifteen years when we have not been at war with somebody. Peace has been a rare luxury in the history of the human race. Winston Churchill put it best.
"The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes there has never been peace in the world; and long before history began murderous strife was universal and unending."
3. As much as that may trouble us, I can assure you it grieves the heart of God, because God is a God of peace. The Bible is a book of peace. Peace occurs nearly 400 times throughout the Bible. The Bible is the word of the God of peace and it is full of peace. Of the twenty-seven New Testament books, eighteen begin with a greeting of peace. The Bible begins with peace in the Garden of Eden and ends with peace in the Garden of heaven. It should come as no surprise that deep down inside all of us there is a hunger for peace. It was put there by the God of peace who wants peace more than we do. As a matter of fact, God sent Jesus so that we might have peace with God, and peace from God, and the peace of God.
4. So perhaps that explains why Jesus said something in the next beatitude on the Sermon the Mount that on the one hand may have been surprising to the people who heard it then, but perhaps not. Here is wha ...
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