Persevering In The Last Days | Jude

June 3, 2012

Book: Jude

INTRODUCTION

We live in a multireligious context and we come across different practices and different patterns of religiosity around us. The challenge one can face is the temptation to compromise our Christian faith and practice. Jude in his letters warns the readers to be vigilant against such false teaching that has crept into the church and to contend for the faith in the last days.

Today, we will look at the letter of Jude.

Outline

Opening greetings: v1-2
Main body: v3-23
Closing citation: v24-25

Author – Jude.

Jude 1

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

He is also the half-brother of Jesus.

Mark 6:3

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Jude is a general epistle.

Audience: It is not clear where his audience are, most likely the church in Judea.

Date: Unknown, scholars give 50-70 AD.

Location: It is assumed that he lived in Judea. Probably after the death of James, the leadership vacuum prompted Jude to write this letter. Some commentators think he was an elder in Jerusalem church and also traveled some.

Purpose of writing:

To expose false teachers.

To encourage believers to persevere in the last days.

Jude

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

²Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

⁵Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. ⁹But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”¹⁰Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

¹¹Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

¹²These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”¹⁶These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²²Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Doxology

²⁴To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

If you carefully observe this letter, Jude is calling his readers to content for their faith in the last days or he is telling us as to how to persevere in the last days.

Jude 3, 20

²⁰But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

Jude writes to the church to contend for the faith.

Reason? False teachers had crept into the community of believers. They were corrupting the whole church. Most probably they are apostates within the church community, they have left the faith, but they stay back or linger to corrupt the believers intentionally.

What are the Teachings of the False Teachers?

Jude 4

⁴For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only.

They Denied Loyalty to the Gospel

The false teaches denied the Loyalty of the Gospel by living the way they want. The false teachers had transformed the teaching on grace into an excuse for licentious or indecent behavior. In doing that, we are denying the Lord and Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Deny Lordship over our lives by living the way they want. They denied the life of the Gospel.

Heretical. They Denied the Divinity of Christ

They deny Jesus Christ as our only Sovereign and Lord. False teachers denied the belief of the Gospel. They denied the deity of Christ.

This error had both a theological and moral component.

Jude in this letter gives proof of Trinity & the divinity of Christ.

Trinity:

Jude

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

20-21

Proof of Divinity of Jesus Christ

Jude 5

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Some early manuscripts read Lord as Jesus. Jude is presenting Jesus as the pre-existent one. Jesus as the one who delivered Moses and his people out of Egypt. Jesus existed before he was born. Jesus is given credit in the OT for saving his people out of Egypt. This is a very strong argument for Christ’s pre-existence.

Jude 25

….to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Jude tells of Jesus Christ as our Lord before all ages, now, and forevermore. Jesus Christ is presented as Lord before time began, now, and all through eternity.

The Traits/Characteristics of these False Teachers.

Jude uses some strong vocabulary to address the false teachers:

Ungodly & unbridled sexuality: V4, 7 12, 16, 18

⁴For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

⁷In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.

Reject Authority: v8

⁸In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.

Slander, live by instinct; v10

¹⁰Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

Greedy; v11,12.

Their motivation is Greed.

¹¹Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

^12aThese people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.

Other Characteristics; v12b-13

V12 – Waterless Cloud, fruitless tree.

V13- Raging waves & Wandering stars.

^12bThey are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

They do not Have the Holy Spirit.

Jude 1:19

These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

Punishment of the False Teachers

Their punishment or condemnation was long written or announced:

Jude 4, 13

⁴For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.

¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Jude is connecting the false teachers with people with bad behavior in the Bible.

Jude is calling his readers to remember 3 different patterns of Past rebellions against God and God’s judgement on them. Jude predicts the downfall of false teachers and uses OT types for his point.

Exodus Generation

Jude 5

⁵Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

The people who celebrated the Passover, cross the Red Sea but was destroyed who did not continue to believe. Everyone were destroyed in the wilderness except Joshua & Caleb. The false teachers likewise started off well but they turned away from God. They will be destroyed.

Angelic Beings

Jude 6

⁶And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling (probably an allusion to Gen. 6)—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

Sodom & Gomorrah:

Gentile Urban Centres

Jude 7

⁷In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Three other Patterns of Rebellion: 3 Men from the past: Cain, Balaam & Korah

Jude 11

¹¹Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

Cain: He grew jealous and angry with God when God accepted his brother’s offering. Out of envy, he killed his brother Abel. God cursed Cain, condemning him to be a restless wanderer on the earth away from the presence of God. Genesis 4:11-12

Balaam: Killed by the Israelites in the battle as a punishment for leading Israel into idolatry and sexual immorality. Numbers 31:8

Korah: A Levite rebelled against Moses & Aaron challenging their authority. He gathered 250 to join him challenging God’s chosen authority. God caused the ground to open, swallowing Korah, his family and followers. Fire from God consumed the 250 offering unauthorized incense. Numbers 16:31-35

Jude is pronouncing severe Judgement on the false teachers. This is similar to what Peter says about false teachers.

2 Peter 2:4-10

⁴For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell (tartarus) (this is where the titans or supernatural giants in the Greek stories are sent for punishment or imprisoned), putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; ⁵if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ⁶if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. ¹⁰This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.

God Punishes the Wicked but God Rescues the Righteous.

Believers of Jesus are Called to Persevere in the Last Days

HOW TO PERSEVERE IN THE LAST DAYS?

Jude 3; 20-22

²²Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

We are going to derive some points as to how to persevere in the last days.

Contend for the Faith.

Believers are called to contend for their faith.

Contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.

What is the faith that was entrusted to God’s holy people? The Gospels and the epistles.

Galatians 1:23

….if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Acts 2:42

They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching….

We have the Gospel of Jesus and the apostle’s teaching. It was once for all handed down. There is no supplement to it, there is no alteration, there is no correction to it. The Gospel does not need re-definition.

1 Timothy 3:9

They (deacons) must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.

Contend for the Faith.

It is like a strenuous struggle to overcome an opponent in a wrestling match.

Moving on: Jude 20

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

Build Up in the Faith.

It is an architectural term. How do you build a house? Foundation and the brick-by-brick, right? Likewise, one need to intentionally work to build our faith based on the scripture.

Pray in the Holy Spirit.

We have the Holy Spirit in us and we can pray in the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6:18

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Romans 8:26-27

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Our greatest helper is God himself and we secure his help through prayer.

Keep in God’s love.

²¹keep yourselves in God’s love…

How do we keep ourselves in God’s love?

John 15:9-10

⁹“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

1 John 2:28

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

We keep ourselves in God’s love by: Remaining in Christ, abiding in Christ, continuing in Christ. When we depart from His word and His will, we are putting barriers between us and God. We keep ourselves in Christ by abiding in him.

Wait for Jesus’ Return.

²¹keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Jesus is coming back again. He is going to come and eternal life to his children. Now we are spiritually in that Kingdom. When Jesus comes, we will be transformed, glorified and physically enter His Kingdom. We are to wait eagerly for his coming.

Jude also says that when Jesus returns, there will be a judgment:

Jude 14-15

¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”¹⁶These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

Jesus is coming with his holy ones. All the dead in Christ will rise.

Jesus is coming to judge the world.

Jesus is coming to bring eternal life, everlasting life to those who believe in Him.

In fact, Jude tells in v1 that we have been called by Jesus, loved by the Father, kept for Jesus.

Jude

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

ILLUSTRATION

Have you noticed how mothers, when one of their children is abroad or out of town, often set aside a special treat or delicacy they’ve made at home, like a cake or dessert, reserved just for that child? Likewise, we are kept for Jesus.

Jude repeats that again in his closing statements, doxology.

Jude 24-25

Doxology

Persevering In The Last Days | Jude