Session Eight: Blessed Are The Peacemakers

In Unit Three we are looking at how we live as members of the Kingdom of God. Last time we looked at the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now we are going to look some famous sayings from Jesus’ longest sermon. These titles are from the New International Version of the Bible.

In this session, we’ll explore:

• What does peace really mean?

• How can you be a peacemaker?

‘To be a peacemaker, you must know the peace giver.’

Billy Graham

1. Reflect

Read Matthew 5: 9

• What ideas come into your mind when you think about peacemakers?

2. Read

1. Ephesians 2: 14-18

   • What does this tell us about the peace that Jesus brings?

2. Acts 10: 34-43

   • How does this story demonstrate that?

3. Psalm 34: 11-14

   • How do we pursue peace?

4. John 14: 25-27 and Philippians 4: 4-7

   • What do these passages tell us about the peace of God?

5. James 3: 13-18

   • What does this tell us about being peacemakers?

6. Romans 14: 12-19

   • Bearing in mind all that you have looked at today, what does it mean to be a peacemaker?

Need help? Here are some hints…

1. Peace, (shalom in Hebrew), is not merely an absence of fighting but a much deeper biblical idea. Being at peace with God is related to salvation.

2. Here’s some background to this story about Peter and Cornelius. You can read it in Acts 10. Each of them had a vision. Cornelius, who was a Roman Centurion, loved God and showed it by his generosity to the poor. In his vision he was told to send to Joppa for a man called Simon Peter who was staying at the home of Simon the Tanner. In Peter’s vision he was shown many things that the Jews considered unclean and God commanded Peter not to think of anything that God called clean as unclean. Just then Cornelius’s messengers arrived and asked Peter to go with them. Cornelius became the first Gentile (non-Jew) to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.

3. These ideas about peace suggest a different quality of peace. What is behind that?

4. These ideas about peace suggest a different quality of peace. What is behind that?

5. Romans 14 is a dispute about whether it is right to eat food offered to idols, but the basic principles involved in it are about pursuing peace in the church.

3. Act

• In what ways can you be a peacemaker in your daily life?

• What situations do you face that will require you to do this?

4. Pray

• About anything that God has said to you out of this study.

• For situations in which you know you need to be a peacemaker.

• For those situations that challenge your own sense of peace or serenity.

• Any particular concerns that are on your heart.