Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. Matt. 5:9

Men, when you became Christians, you became the sons of God. As sons of God, the Holy Spirit granted you the spiritual capacity to develop the character and likeness of your Heavenly Father. The old saying, “Like father, like son” is a fitting expression of your relationship with the Father and ought to be something that you pursue.

Peacemaking is the particular fatherly quality that Jesus mentions here. God the Father is a peacemaker. The Scriptures teach that your Heavenly Father is the “God of peace” (I Thessalonians 5:23). This peacemaking quality of your Father in Heaven was clearly demonstrated when “He made peace through the blood of His (Christ’s) cross” (Col. 1:20).

Since the Father is a peacemaker and you are His son, you ought to be a peacemaker too. Men, your leadership in this area of peacemaking is needed at home, work, and at church. Conflicts, fights, division, and broken relationships are far too common. Can you think of a situation or relationship right now where help is needed to bring peace? (If not, the day is sure to come soon). Are you providing leadership to bring peace? Or are you part of the problem—are you adding to the fighting and conflict?

There is so much that can be said about how to be a peacemaker; just look at some of the passages that speak of it: Romans 12:14-21; Ephesians 2:11-22, 4:1-32; Phil. 2:1-18, and Colossians 3:12-17. For our purposes though, just think about how the other beatitudes that we have already looked at could help you in your peacemaking efforts (poor in spirit, mourning (over sin), meekness, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, merciful, and pure in heart). You might flesh out some of these in your men’s meeting this week. Which qualities do you need most to practice to provide leadership as a peacemaker?

Christ ends by saying that you are blessed if you a peacemaker. Why? Because you will be recognized as a son of God at the judgment. The heavenly Father will look at you and see the reflection of His wonderful peacemaking character in you, which is the evidence of a genuine faith. In response, you will hear Him say something like, “welcome home, son”! That is something to look forward to and that ought to spur you on to being a peacemaker.

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” — Matthew 5:8

Purity of heart means a heart that is undivided, fully loyal to the Lord Jesus and free from all compromise with sin. So Christ is telling us as Christian men and leaders to be unmixed and undivided in our loyalty to Him. Our loyalty to Him ought to supersede and rank far superior to other loyalties we might have, such as family, work, hobbies, the church, etc.... While it is fine and of good character to be loyal to people and good causes in this world, they are to never rival or supplant our loyalty to Jesus Christ. He is God the King, so our allegiance must be first to Him.

There are many reasons why this is difficult for us. As the hymn writer said, “Prone to wander — Lord, I feel it — prone to leave the God I love....” Add to our own human tendency to wander away from our loyalty to Christ, the tempting reality that the life of sin is constantly portrayed as pleasurable and satisfying by the people we work with and by the media (movie stars, TV commercials). And that’s not all; peer pressure is at times a strong influence in moving us away from an undivided heart. We inordinately desire approval and acceptance by our peers (we want to be one of the guys) so we end up compromising in some way — participating in dirty joking with the guys at work, or passing on pornography received via email, or perhaps lingering at or even frequenting these same sites and on and on we could go.

How do we move toward a pure heart? First, it is received by faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 15:9). Jesus lived a pure life. He never compromised with sin. And He was always entirely devoted to God the Father. In Christ we have been given the purity of heart we need. His purity of heart has been credited to our account. We need to recognize this and rejoice! Second, we need to pursue a matching pure heart of our own. How so? We need to ask God in prayer to give us a pure heart, the way King David asked in Psalm 51. Then we need to read the Word of God which has the power to purify our hearts (Ephesians 5:26). Men, look at your men’s groups as a practical means of helping each other develop and maintain pure hearts for Jesus Christ.

What does Christ promise? The pure in heart will see God. This means that we will be admitted into the presence of the King of Kings so that we see Him face to face and behold His glory. We now see images of His glory in the words and works of Scripture and in creation. But when we get to heaven, His glory will no longer have to be deduced. We will experience and enjoy it directly (Rev. 21:23). As John Piper says, “The beauty of His holiness will be tasted directly like honey on the tongue.” Such a promise ought to be plenty of motivation for pursuing purity of heart.

Men, consider these questions as you pray for purity of heart:

What interests or activities do I have that tend to compete with my loyalty to Christ?

To put this first question into perspective, how conscious are you of always being in God’s presence?

What matters more to you – honoring that presence of God or not wanting to be different from the guys when off-color stories are told?

What desires do I need to say no to in order to put Christ first?

How can I pray for my brothers and encourage them to greater purity of heart?

Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy — Matthew 5:7

Mercy and men surely don’t go together! Maybe machismo, but not mercy. Well, the world’s only perfect man, Jesus Christ, speaking to Christian men, calls them to be merciful. He goes against the norms of the prevailing culture and says, Men in my kingdom are to have the character quality of mercy.

Mercy is compassion for people in need. It involves seeing a person in distress, feeling pity for them in your heart and then taking concrete action to relieve the distress regardless of the person. The Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is a great example of mercy. He sees the distress of the Jew left for dead on the side of the road (v. 33). His heart wells up with pity (v. 33). He proceeds to take concrete action to relieve the distress (v. 34). To cap it off, the Samaritan does all this for an enemy — the Samaritans didn’t get along with the Jews.

Opportunities for mercy abound in our lives as men. Think about it. What opportunities confront you right now? This week? Maybe the following examples will remind you of a situation in your own life:

· From time to time someone at work will be going through a rough time at home or because of job pressures. This can be an opportunity for you to come along and inquire if there is something you can do to help.

· Perhaps your spouse or one of your kids make a bad decision that creates problems. You could either blast them or realize their frail nature, take pity and work to assist them in correcting the problem.

· The Lord may bring a poor person along your path; more often than not, our hearts ought to be moved with compassion to wisely assist him.

Do you have any situations right now where mercy is in order? What is holding you back?

A merciful heart comes from a person to whom God has shown mercy in Christ. God the Father saw your plight, He took pity, and sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to bear your wrath and suffer your punishment. As a result, when you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ, you were forgiven and made right with God. (See Psalm 103:8-14.)

Christ ends this beatitude as he has all the others, pointing out why a disciple is blessed if he has the character quality of which He is speaking. Here He says that you will be shown mercy. In other words, when Christ returns, those who will receive mercy from Him are people who have been merciful themselves. Christ will look at the evidences of your trusting in Him for salvation. And when He sees works of faith, such as mercy, He will pour out His mercy and welcome you into His heavenly, eternal kingdom. This is something to motivate you to show mercy now, and something to look forward to in the future.