We could also dwell for a long time on the amazing fact that Jesus begins by saying “come to me.” There is a whole world of grace in that simple invitation. That He beckons us to draw near is amazing enough— that He even wants us near and has made it possible for us to draw near!!!— but then to attach such kind and generous inducements to that invitation. It boggles the mind to think of how deep His goodness to us is. However, and this brings us to the paradox that we’ll be studying together this Sunday, in Matthew 7:14 Jesus describes the path we must walk in coming to Him this way; “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  How do we reconcile the promise of rest and a light, easy burden with this language about a “hard way?” And of course, Jesus also said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me?” (Matthew 16:24) Is the cross an easy or light burden? Or what about Acts 14:22, “that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God?” That doesn’t sound very restful or easy.  

How do we reconcile these paradoxical teachings in our minds as we live the Christian life?

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Last message we introduced the paradoxical truth that the Bible calls Christians both to judge one another within the church and to judge not. We studied 1 Corinthians 5 which describes how Paul responded to a difficult scenario that was playing out within the Corinthian church by calling that church to confront a man’s unrepentant embrace of sin in order, “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” The question we were trying to answer last week was when is it appropriate for Christians do that and what guidance does Paul’s example provide that might instruct us how to go about it. 

This Sunday, we want to study the other side of the paradox, which is the command to judge not. In John 8, we find the account of a time when the scribes and pharisees bring a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the very act of adultery. This account famously ends with this exchange between Jesus and the woman, “Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Why, we might wonder, is this scenario different from the one we studied last week in 1 Corinthians 5?  Why was the command there to judge, but here to judge not?

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Greg provides the following as a preview of where he hopes to take us in God’s Word this Sunday:

“I remember when I started to attend State Road as a college student in 1982. My girlfriend had started attending at the invitation of her boss. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the idea. I was a junior at the university of Maine at Presque Isle and Elaine’s boss had given me a Bible and I had begun to read it. However, I wasn’t sure how I felt about being surrounded by Christian strangers. Two years later, I would make the decision to turn my life over to Jesus Christ. It is obvious to me now that God’s Spirit had been at work in me for a long time, perhaps all 22 years of my life, perhaps from eternity past. God was using His Spirit, and the faith community to guide me to a relationship with Him that He had planned all along. I suspect some of you can identify with these experiences.

For those of us who are “amazed and perplexed” (Acts 2:12) by the growth of our church attendance these last few years, we can’t help but see God at work through His Spirit in the lives of men and women and whole families here at State Road. I encourage each of us to read Acts 1 and 2 as we approach Sunday morning and our time together. Let’s pray for God to reveal Himself and His message for each of us”.

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It is paradoxical the way that the Bible calls us to think of such things as up and down, first and last, and high and low. The law of gravity says that what goes up must come down, but the law of our God states that people who lower themselves will, in the end, be raised up. This Sunday as we continue our study of the paradoxical teachings of the Bible we’ll be looking at a number of scriptures that confound fallen expectations surrounding such notions as greatness, and becoming first.

If you’re looking for a passage to begin preparing your heart for this subject, try spending a little time this week with Philippians 2:3-11. That might be a good place to start, and it would be a great scripture to commit to memory.

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This summer we’ll be exploring some paradoxical teachings that we find in the Bible, and my hope is that God will use these studies to deepen our understanding and commitment to the truth.

There are many famous paradoxes in the Bible, and we’ll get to many of those, but we’ll begin this Sunday with a lesser-known paradox found in Proverbs 26:4-5:

Answer not a fool according to his folly,

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42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Throughout 2024 and in between sermon series we’ll be returning to those three statements that are so central to our efforts to become better disciples and to make disciples of Jesus here at State Road. Those three statements are “Loving God, Loving Others and Love in Action.” This Sunday we will be revisiting the passage above from Acts 2 and talking about this picture of the early church and what it means for us in our disciple making efforts here at State Road.

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One generation shall commend your works to another,

C.S. Lewis once wrote this about God, “For He seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.” That is one of the mysterious things about our God. It must please Him more and is somehow more glorifying to Him to use broken human means to accomplish all kinds of divine ends. This reminds me of mothers. God in His wisdom gave us Moms, and to be more precise, He gave each of us our own specific Mom. In so doing, God delegated (or you might prefer other words like “charged,” “called,” or “commissioned”) to them the important work of raising their children to become fully committed followers of Jesus.

I suppose the same could be said of dads, but it goes almost without saying that moms and dads are different. They are not more than or less than dads, of course, but they are definitely a different kind of wonderful. We all intuitively grasp the beautiful synergy and the complimentary balance that flow from those ancient words found in Genesis, “male and female He created them.” When God said of Adam that it was not good for him to be alone, what He meant was that Adam could not on his own reflect the fullness of who God is, but Adam and Eve did. Moms represent God to us in a way that dads typically don’t and vice versa.

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Later, of course, Jesus appeared to Thomas and invited him to see and even touch the proof that he had been bodily resurrected. In response to this compelling proof (understatement of the century) Thomas confessed his belief saying, “My Lord and my God!” However, Jesus concluded this interaction in a curious way. He posed a strange question and then made something of a strange statement. Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Why is it more blessed to believe without having seen?

As we think back on the other post-resurrection encounters that we have studied together we are reminded that it was the act of physically seeing the resurrected Jesus in the flesh that convinced the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and Paul and Thomas that he had indeed been raised from the dead. However, Jesus looked beyond those disciples and He had you and me in mind when He said “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

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