Biblical Peace

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.   I Corinthians 3:11

1. Introduction
   
   
   • This month is a time when we remember in a special way the sacrifices of those who died in the wars that have raged around the world during the past century.  At the same time, we remember those who followed the Prince of Peace as Conscientious Objectors.  More importantly, this morning we want to look at the teaching and example of the Prince of Peace.
     
     
   • When we talk about Biblical peace, there is always the question of the Old Testament and the wars and the violence which they represent.  Let me say first of all that God’s ideal was for peace.  That doesn’t mean that he abandoned Israel in time or war, but war and destruction were not the ideal.  As early as Deuteronomy, we read that “Vengeance is mine, I will repay”.  This is quoted again in Romans.  The Psalmist in the scripture reading talks about depending on the hand of God when he says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of our God”
     
     
   • Secondly I want to suggest to you this morning that as followers of Jesus the Messiah, we read all of scripture through the words and the life of Jesus.  The words of Jesus were not a rejection of the Old Testament but they were a re-interpretation.  This is why we speak of the “Upside Down Kingdom”.  He turned the old understandings on their head one teaching at a time.  He said, “You have heard it said, but I say unto you”.  He also said, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first”.  He came not to perpetuate the misunderstandings of history but to introduce a whole New Order.
     
     
   • It is interesting to note when you read the New Testament that the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels and especially in the Sermon on the Mount are reflected in the Epistles.  We read all of scripture and indeed all of life through the Jesus lens.
     
     
2. Biblical Peace
   
   
   • When we speak about Biblical peace there is a temptation to limit our thinking to being passive.  Sort of a “do nothing” attitude.  In time of suffering believers may not have a choice but history is full of examples where, even in persecution and suffering, Christians responded with pro-active love. Romans 12 is one such example.  Most of us are familiar with the story of Dirk Williams.  Dirk was an Anabaptist believer imprisoned for his faith.  With some help from prison staff, he managed to escape.  Very soon he was pursued by a prison guard or a bounty hunter.  As Dirk fled across the ice, he managed to get across without falling into the water.  His pursuer however broke through the ice and was drowning in the cold water when Dirk turned back to rescue him. When his pursuer had been rescued, he turned on Dirk and arrested him. It was the arrest that led to his execution.
     
     
   • MCC/MDS – Organizations like MCC and MDS are designed to be pro-active for peace, “In the Name of Christ”.
     
     
   • Having said this, we need to be clear that Biblical peace does not say that there will be no suffering.  At this very moment, there are Christians suffering persecution because they are committed to follow the Prince of Peace. 

   When we speak of Biblical peace, we are speaking of a pro-active stance – the cup of cold water, the feeding of the hungry.

3. Two Kingdoms
   
   
   • Both the Old and the New Testament see the world as divided into two kingdoms.  There is the Kingdom of God and there is the kingdom of this world.  When Jesus appeared before Pilate, the question Pilate had was about the kingdom of Jesus; “Are you the king of the Jews?”  Jesus responded by saying, “My kingdom is not of this world, if it were my servants would fight”.
     
     
   • In 2 Corinthians 10:3 we read, “For though we live in this world, we do not wage war as the world does”.
     
     
   • At no time is the kingdom of this world more pronounced than in time of war.  Killing is the primary goal.  Propaganda works on the basis of deception and love is replaced by hate.
     
     
   • Herman Goering – At the end of World War II the surviving leaders of the Nazies were brought to trial in Nuremburg.  One of these was Herman Goering who said, “Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship.  Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.  This is easy.  All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.  It works the same in every country”.
     
     
   • Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking on TV, said that in time of war your have to be prepared to work on the dark side.  When he was asked to explain he said, “You have to be willing to break the rules”.
     
     
   • Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell speech to the American people warned the U.S. about the cost and the dangers of turning the country over to the control of the industrial-military complex.
     
     
   • Pentecostals – Early in the 20th Century, the Pentecostal movement began to sweep across the world.  The founders of this movement emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit, evangelism, and peace.  From their early beginnings until about 1950, they were officially a peace church.  During World War II, there were those who believed that the U.S. military was in need of evangelism.  They arranged with the U.S. government to supply 300 chaplains for the military.  One condition was that they get military training and become part of the military.  To the surprise of the chaplains, they were rejected by the front line soldiers.  These soldiers said, “If you are so serious about your faith, what are you doing here in the killing and destruction”.  These same chaplains returned to become pastors in Canada and in the U.S. so that today North American Pentecostals are more militant than the general population.  In Europe, Pentecostals are still marching to the Jesus drum.
     
     
   • Ravi Zacharias grew up in India.  As a young man, he was told that he would never amount to anything.  To prove his critics wrong, he decided to join the military.  He took the train to the recruiting station where he and 300 others were competing for 10 positions.  After several days of testing, he came out at number 3 out of 300.  Delighted about his success, he sent a telegram to his parents.  However he had one more interview before his acceptance was final.  The military psychologist spent time interviewing Ravi and asking a whole lot of questions.  Finally he said, “We can’t accept you in the army.  The military is about killing and you are no killer”.  Ravi Zacharias today travels the globe to speak in churches, colleges, and universities as an apologist for the Gospel.
     
     
   • Early Church – For the first 2 or 3 centuries, it was almost unheard of that Christians participated in the military, and they refrained for two reasons.  First, the life style of the military and the purpose of the military were both understood to be contrary to the life and teaching of Jesus.  Secondly, when they did get into the military, they undermined the military killing function.  It was only at the end of the 3rd century and early in the 4th century the Christians became involved in the business of killing.
     
     
4. The Nature of the Church
   
   
   • Today more than ever the church is a global body.  Fellow believers can be found in virtually every country of the world.  This means that in any war between two countries, you will have Christians killing each other.  In World War II, an army officer went on patrol duty on Christmas Eve (1944) on the eastern front while his men had a short time off.  While he was on patrol, he heard the sound of Christmas carols drifting across from the Russian soldiers who were also taking time to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.
     
     
   • Siegfried Bartel grew up in a Mennonite home in Germany during the 1930ties.  No one in his home or his church ever mentioned the teaching of Biblical peace to him in his growing up years.  As a youth, he joined the Hitler Youth and when the war came he quickly became an officer in Hitler’s army.  Early in the war against Poland he met a young soldier and he asked him, “Are you Polish?”  The young soldier replied, “I am evangelical”, which translated into “I am Lutheran”.  Suddenly in that moment he realized that a part of his duty as a soldier might involve killing other Christians including his cousin who was in the Polish military.
     
     
   • If you stop to think about it, this raises a host of questions including the question of missions and evangelism.  How do you evangelize with a bomb or a gun?  How do you tell the people on the opposite side that God loves you but I am going to kill you anyway?
     
     
     
5. The Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5 – 7
   
   
   • The Anabaptists of the 16th Century were determined to follow the teachings of Jesus, including the Sermon on the Mount, no matter what the cost.  For this group, this was the Magna Carta of faith.  In his teachings Jesus did not discard the Old Testament but he came to give it real meaning.  Indeed if you read the New Testament, you will see how the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospels are reflected over and over again.
     
     
   • January 1525 – I remind you today of that group of 15 young men who met together in the City of Zurich to struggle with the meaning of discipleship - what does it mean to be a passionate follower of Jesus.  This group, led by Conrad Grebel, Felix Mantz and George Blaurock, baptized each other and began what came to be known as the “Radical Reformation”.  They were determined to follow Jesus at any cost, especially when they read Matthew 7:21 where Jesus said, “Not everyone who says Lord, Lord to me will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.
     
     
   • It was a movement that spread quickly all over Europe.  They called for a separation of the church and state and for believers’ baptism.  They refused to take the oath and they preached and taught peace.  Some estimates suggest that 1500 of the believers were killed for their faith.  Many others were imprisoned and still others fled or went into hiding.
     
     
   • Their attitude to the teachings of Jesus was important especially in view of the fact that many powerful leaders and theologians tried to find a way around the Sermon on the Mount.  Martin Luther believed that this was written for another time period.  Ulrich Zwingli believed that unless the government accepted it, it was not valid.  John Calvin argued for the sword.  Rhinehold Niebuhr more recently argued that it was an ideal which no living person could live up to.  On the other hand, Kart Barth took the side of the Anabaptists.  He said that there is no way around the Sermon on the Mound and yes, humanly speaking, it is impossible.  However as the Holy Spirit equips us, we can learn to live out the words of Jesus.
6.  Historical
   
   • In spite of the powerful witness of the early church, in spite of the fact that the Anabaptists spread like wild fire (over 1000 groups in 5 years), there is a powerful tendency to drift to a faith that makes no real demands and a faith that avoids the call to discipleship.
     
     
   • Less than 200 years after the Anabaptist movement began, German Mennonite churches were caught up in the wars of Napoleon.  In 1803 when Napoleon marched through Germany, many of the Mennonite young men joined in his march to Moscow.  Very few survived that disastrous march.
     
     
   • In World War II, 10851 young men declared themselves as “C.O.’s” or Conscientious Objectors.  Of this group, 75% were Anabaptist and 25% was made up of Pentecostals, United Church, Baptist and others.  In fact, England had more C.O.’s than Canada.
     
     
7. Temptations
   
   
   • Apart from the temptation to avoid the narrow way of Jesus, there are many reasons why Christians avoid a peace position.  There are those who are sincere in reading the Bible differently and we want to love and respect them.
     
     
   • There is a powerful temptation to settle for cheap grace – to claim salvation without discipleship.  Bonhoeffer in his book “The Cost of Discipleship” says that “Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life”.
     
     
   • There is always the temptation to read bits and pieces of the Bible without the context.  It is common to read Romans 13 for several verses and then to skip over the last part of that chapter.  There is a temptation to read “The Lord’s Prayer” and skip over the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.
     
     
   • There is a further temptation to go to extra Biblical sources, be that the Pope, famous theologians, or some new cult leaders.
     
     
     
8. Challenge
   
   
   • The first challenge we face as Anabaptists is to love those who disagree with what, to us, is the plain teachings of Jesus.  The Fruit of the Spirit includes loving all those who carry the image of God.
     
     
   • The second challenge is to look at what God is doing in the world today.  I am saddened when I see Mennonite churches drifting into the cultural bandwagon of our day, but at the same time, I am excited by a moving of the Spirit in many different parts of the world.
     
     
   • In Chile a group of Baptist churches has asked to be Mennonite because, in their understanding, this most nearly represents the Gospels.  Jack Suderman reports that the leading evangelical pastor of Cuba has said that the church in Cuba is in serious difficulty.  The only solution he can see is that they go back to the Radical Anabaptists of the 16th Century.
     
     
   • Today, (Anabaptist Network) there is a rapidly growing group in England and in Africa called the Anabaptist Network.  This group, made up of Baptists, Anglicans and others, is saying that the narrow way of Jesus is what the Anabaptist modeled.
     
     
   • Pentecostal – Today a group of Pentecostals has been established to help that church return to a teaching of peace as Jesus taught it.
     
     
9. Menno Simons Was Right
   
   
   • This past week, I spoke with a Mennonite pastor who connects with Jewish Christians.  He tells the story of a Jewish university student who was confronted by the Gospel at the university.  In response to this, he set out to prove that Jesus was a pretender and not the real Messiah.  The more he studied and the more he searched the more he began to see that Jesus was for real, that he was indeed the Messiah and out of that search there came a living and dynamic faith.
     
     
   • Shortly after, he began to study history to find out how Jesus had been served through history.  After a thorough study of church history he came to the Mennonite pastor and he said, “In all my studies, I have found only one leader who had it right.  Menno Simons was right."
     
     
   • A good way to summarize the way of Jesus is the words which say:

     To love means loving the unlovable.
     To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable.
     Faith means believing the unbelievable
     Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
     
     

10. My Prayer

Today my prayer for you is that your faith may be ever more real even as you build on the one true foundation – Jesus Christ.

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