Peace as a Place, Not a Feeling

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 15, 1985.

Sermon transcript

are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” Let us pray. Father, is there a word upon which we can count? Is there a word that is true and faithful? Is there an infallible word, a word without error? Our Lord, we know that there is.

And our confession that this is so is a work even now of your Holy Spirit in us. And surely, as we have confessed it, we must also live it. Lord, we ask for all of your purposes in us. to be made complete. We pray these things in Christ Jesus, our Savior’s name. Amen.

What about peace? Certainly we hear a great deal about peace at this time of year. And as we look at the Beatitudes, it seems as if Jesus, in giving us these Beatitudes, has built to this final Beatitude this one that concerns itself with peace and the making for peace. But how are we to understand what Jesus speaks of here? Last week we pointed out that the specific word that is used here for peacemakers appears nowhere else in Scripture. There are passages that sound the note, the note of peacemaking, but the word itself is not used.

In this connection, we looked at James 3, a passage well worth our time. And this morning we’ve read from Romans chapter 14. And if you take a look at the 17th and 19th verses of that 14th chapter of Romans, you see once more that the matter of peace is foremost prominent in the Apostle’s mind. And isn’t it foremost and prominent in our lives? Peace, our peace, the making of peace, these things for which our hearts long.

But let’s understand peace and peacemaking as Jesus speaks of it in the Beatitude. And our habit hasn’t simply been to look at passages in the New Testament that parallel the thought of the Beatitude as Jesus expressed it. Rather, our habit has been to back up a bit, return to the Old Testament there in an effort to understand better what Jesus has in mind. A study of peace in the Old Testament may take forever. But let’s look at a few of the instances this morning in the Old Testament Scriptures where peace is spoken of. First of all, we can group some of these passages under the heading, Peace is a present blessing for the people of God. Peace is a present blessing for the people of God.

Think, first of all, of those warrior kings, those heroes of Israel. How it was that through their exploits they brought about peace. We think of little David, his battle with the giant Goliath. And as a result of his victory, the Philistine armies are put to flight, and peace comes to Israel through this peacemaker. Think of the judges of Gideon in his battles against the Midianites. As the Lord raises him up and he is victorious, peace is the fruit. and especially of Joshua, that Old Testament Jesus. Joshua enters the land, and by him the armies of Israel triumph, and at the end of his life, if you look at Joshua 21, the latter part of that chapter, you have a marvelous description of what has been brought to pass because of the triumph of Joshua and the people of Israel through him.

Indeed, Joshua is a peacemaker, and the children of Israel experience peace as they take up their dwellings in the land of Canaan. Peace is a present blessing for the people of God. It’s part of the territory. Belonging to God means then, in some fashion, that peace is a reality.

It’s well for us also to take stock of how rulers in ancient times were considered. These ancient rulers, including the figures of David and Gideon and Joshua, warriors though they were, were seen as peacemakers. They were understood as those who brought by way of their conquests the fruit of that conquest, namely peace. and because of their greatness and because of their power, because of the immobility of their throne, they were seen also as guarantors of that peace which they had brought. If you were to turn, for instance, to the prophecy of Daniel and read that magnificent fourth chapter, the letter that Nebuchadnezzar distributes to all of his subjects about how he has been found of, or how he has found the Lord in his distress. His greeting goes like this to his subjects, “‘May your peace abound!’ The one who speaks from the throne extends to his subjects peace. He guarantees that peace in the power which his throne signifies.

But in Israel, thinking of Israel specifically, peace is united to religious fidelity, spiritual loyalty to God and his cause. And therefore, we have that greatest, I think it’s the greatest, of Old Testament texts. Isaiah 26, verse 3, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Just the speaking of it has an aura. In Israel, then, you see, peace is related, joined, inseparably to religious fidelity, spiritual loyalty. This proved by magnificent passages like Isaiah 26 verse 3. And that verse, is it not so wonderfully instructive? For it tells us that peace is the present blessing of those who keep God. foremost in their hearts. So precious is this piece, so valuable. Can anybody think of anything that can compare to it? So precious is this piece and so valuable that it takes second place to know.

In the desires of men. The father is able to say. The thirty-fourth Psalm, the fourteenth verse. Seek peace. Among all those things that you might seek. Seek peace and pursue it. Now we have gathered together a number of texts in which peace is spoken of. Is there something even more basic that underlies these considerations, these passages, that should be kept in mind by us behind each of these texts? There stands a world, a world of concrete realities.

Not as if peace were attached to ether, vapor, the air. As if peace were something that you couldn’t get your teeth into, hold on to, grab, hold What I mean here is that the peace in view, as the Old Testament speaks of it, is not some sort of ethereal world out there somewhere, or some kind of inner world of psychological tranquility, as if the Bible were offering to us a supercharged promise of mind health. Now please understand, this is not to say that the Bible isn’t interested in our psychic dispositions. However, I think you are well aware of the fact that much modern religion has become nothing more than a sort of clinical pietism. in which the chief objectives are coping with stress, finding true happiness, while developing our own personal sense of wholeness, stability, self-esteem, and even sanity. But as worthy as these goals are, and as desirable as these conditions of mind may be, they are not what the Scripture has in mind when it speaks about peace. The Scripture does not begin with these sorts of considerations. You see, behind the Bible’s talk of peace, Behind that Old Testament word, shalom, there stands the realistic image of the kingdom of God. And this kingdom must be understood in all of its power, in all of its strength. The kingdom is real, the kingdom is spatial, the kingdom is environmental, the kingdom is atmospheric. It is a reality.

Joshua then, that Old Testament Jesus, secures a domain, a realm, in which God’s people come to dwell in peace. Those greetings of peace which Nebuchadnezzar extends to his subjects. Those greetings of peace were more than mere salutations. They were guarantees, for the ruler who extended that peace stood behind the greeting that he gave to ensure that peace would in fact be the reality for everyone who was within his realm. both the piece of Isaiah 26 and Psalm 34, has behind it that anxiety-free, righteousness-filled realm, domain where God rules. Speaking realistically, peace is a place first, according to the scriptures.

But while the Old Testament portrays peace a present reality and a present blessing, and to be sure, that portrait is broad in dependence upon the imagery of the land of Canaan, still the peace of the Old Testament Now, that’s not to say that the peace is deceptive. But there is an illusive quality to the peace of the Old Testament.

There are certainly a number of indications of this. On the personal level, there is the continual reminder of the stricken conscience, as the people must prepare to the temple, making sacrifices and offering up their peace offerings to God. In this light, we consider then the power and importance of the Book of Leviticus. and its relationship to the message of peace. But there’s more.

We’ve said that peace is a place, and in the Old Testament, particularly attached to the land of Canaan. But now we also realize, as we move through the Old Testament, that that realm in which peace is to dwell is under continual threat. the realm can be lost, the kingdom destroyed, the blessings in the land can dissolve. But proving the point, the elusive character of peace, Old Testament peace, is underlined by the fact that there is the promise that comes to us out of the pages of the Old Testament. Promises concerning that idyllic state of existence, thoroughly, excruciatingly delightful in its blessedness and adorned with peace, a peace that shall never end.

Look at Isaiah again. If you read from the fifteenth verse to the end, here you have the Prophet speaking of that environment, that atmosphere where peace dwells, never to be lost, never to be diminished, never to be destroyed, until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, he says, and the wilderness becomes a fertile field. and the fertile field is considered a forest, then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness will abide in the fertile field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the service of righteousness—listen to me—isn’t this that for which you long? The service of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation and in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places.

And the final verse of that chapter, how blessed will you be You who sowed beside all waters, who let out freely the ox and the ass.” He remembers a picture from Isaiah 11, a passage read at this time of year, regularly The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them. And the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and the nursing child will play on the whole of the cobra. and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. Then they will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountains, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

And over this kingdom This kingdom, which was promised, of which the Old Testament kingdom was merely a shadow. Over this kingdom, there comes the promised Prince of Peace. He will reign. Isaiah 6, verses 6 and 7. And the peace of his realm will never end. And he, according to Isaiah 53, will gain this peace by the root of his own chastisement, his own sufferings, for our sake. What is it then that stands behind Jesus’ use of the word peacemakers in the seventh and last beatitude.

It is an entire world, it is an entire domain which He inaugurates, over which He rules. His realm is a realm of peace, and this One who rules in peace and by peace, who has brought about peace through his ministrations as a servant, he then is making those who are of that kingdom like unto himself. They are patterned after his image.

And as his message of peace and his work of peace did not arise out of the earth or any kingdom of this world, but came down out of heaven, the very visions of peace above informing him. So now for us as well, the domain that is in our purview, the kingdom which we see, that which motivates us in our peacemaking, is not some kingdom of this world. But it is heaven itself, for by him we have seen into the realms of glory and understand that heaven is a place where there is no discord, where there is no complaint, where there is no distress, where there is no want. It is the realm of perfect tranquility. As such, it becomes the focal point of all our endeavors. It becomes foremost in our mind. It becomes our chief desire and delight. Our minds are focused on it, and we seek it above everything else. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that kingdom which is filled with peace, and everything else shall be added unto you.”

Now do you begin to understand why it is that the programs and vaccinations of this world are so useless in bringing about the peace of humanity? They start in the wrong place. You go to the clinic? Do you expect the clinic to give you peace? Is it your hope that they will teach you how to cope? Let me tell you, the best they can do is give you a piece of this world.

Jesus tells you to start at a different point. And by grace, he gives it to you. He gives you heaven and he tells you that the reality of heaven is peace, and now, in that atmosphere, in that environment, you live. If you make that kingdom of peace first, everything else will be given to you. even the peace that you are trying to find at the clinic. Peace is a place. It is a place procured by the blood of Christ. It is a place in which you are privileged to live by grace.

And living in it, you are called the sons of God. By faith now, Father, we confess that your kingdom is not of this world. That it is a kingdom, nevertheless, whose realities are filled, experienced here. And Lord, we who are yours, called sons of God. We, our Father, would know the fullness of that peace, that we might be informed by it and transformed by it, and from it live as we become the

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.