01 - Say Hello To Jude - 2011 By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

The epistle of Jude is the smallest book in the Bible and is evidently intended to be the entrance door to the Book of Revelation. Its contents and its position in the N.T. reinforce the idea that it is a prelude to the Apocalypse.

We see the believer standing on the brink of end-times judgments. All about him the dark clouds gather. A storm of awesome magnitude is on the way. Surrounding him are signs of the end. Jude, however, points him to only one such sign—apostasy!

The apostasy Jude was so concerned about is known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism was taken from the Greek word gnosis, meaning knowledge. Gnosticism promised salvation by knowledge of secret spiritual truths.

Some examples of Gnostic belief are:

All material things were sinful and evil. Thus, Gnosticism classed the Creator God as evil, since He had created matter.

Marriage was prohibited as multiplying evil matter. Also, certain foods were deemed inherently evil and eating them was a sin.

Theologically, Jehovah God was denounced as an alien and hostile deity, the “tribal God of Israel.”

And the most egregious of all—Gnosticism taught that God’s Son could not have come in the flesh, since flesh was evil. This relegated Jesus to a spirit being that never truly materialized as a flesh and blood man. This wrecked the Gospel and wreaked havoc on the church’s belief that God became flesh via the Immaculate Conception that He might redeem us.

Gnosticism was deadly poison to New Testament Christianity. It served as an organized attack upon the Bible and Christian theology. Even so, it spread rapidly and was professed everywhere in the civilized world by the second century. Once a person embraced the heresy of Gnosticism, their doom was assured.

Understandably, Jude was alarmed at the scope, seriousness, and success of this apostasy in his day. He wrote his letter in hopes of stopping up some of the leaks in the dam. Hence, it is the error of Gnosticism that Jude has in his sights in his one-page book. Paul made a full-frontal attack against Gnosticism in the Book of Colossians. The good news is that the church weathered that storm!

But Satan never gets tired, never stops trying, and never gives up. Every revival sent by God to awaken His church and stir a lost world is countered by fresh apostasy. Time and again in the long course of church history, as old lies in new clothing have appeared, God’s people have turned to Jude’s epistle.

Answers to every conceivable issue can be found in Jude—tares among wheat (vs.5), satanic invasion (v. 6), sexual perversion (v.7), social anarchy (vv.8-10), spiritual distortion (v.11a), Jewish persecution (v.11b), rebellion against authority(v.11c), strong delusion (vv.12-13), secular humanism (vv.14-15), and subversive criticism (v.16).

What Jude saw first flowering at the beginning of the church age we now see the full development of at the end of the church age. If this little book was so needed then, it is doubly needed now.

The New Testament Epistles present warning after warning against apostasy, especially the apostasy of the last days. Jude’s Postcard from the Past comes last. It is God’s final warning before the trumpet sounds, the true church vanishes skyward, and the curtain goes up on a world gone mad with lust, hatred, deception, and terror.

THE PLAN

“Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James…”

Most likely, Jude is the same man mentioned in the Gospels (Matt.13:55; Mark 6:3) as one of the sons of Joseph and Mary. Thus, he was a half brother of the Lord Jesus. John informs us that none of the Lord’s half brothers believed on Him during the days of His early ministry (7:5).

We are told in 1 Cor.15:7 that the Lord appeared to His half brother, James, after His resurrection. Thereafter, we find the Lord’s brothers in fellowship with those who had been apostles and believers previously (Acts 1:14). More than likely, it was James who had been instrumental in the conversion of Jude and the other family members.

Jude describes himself as “the servant of Jesus Christ” without making any reference to his family connection to the Lord. This strongly attests to what the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost had done to change all human relationships.

Jude addressed the Lord as “Jesus Christ.”

When the name “Jesus” is used in the gospels, it refers to the Man. When “Christ” is used it refers to the ministry. In verse 1, Jude emphasizes the man first, stressing the humanity of Jesus, which the Gnostics denied. But he also points to the fact that He was the Christ, a truth that, once again, the Gnostics entertained heretical ideas about.

Next, Jude underlines three truths about our salvation:

“To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ” (v. 1b).

We were sanctified, secured, and selected.

SANCTIFIED (by God the Father) means “set apart for God, of being made holy, of being made like God.” It tells us that as believers we are to be separated from evil ways.

SECURED (preserved in Jesus Christ) refers to Jesus watching over us, taking care of us, keeping an eye on us, and being aware of everything that concerns us. In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus said to the Father, “While I was with them in the world, I kept (tereo tay-reh'-o) them in your name: those that you gave Me I have kept (phulasso foo-las'-so), and none of them is lost…” (John 17:12).

The first Greek word tereo means “to watch over, take care of, keep an eye on, observe attentively.” That was how the Lord preserved His disciples. This is how He takes care of us. The second Greek word phulssao means “to be sleepless, to watch by night, to guard and to defend.”

David spoke of this aspect of God’s care when he wrote, “He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”—Ps 139:3-4

So we are “preserved” or “kept” in Jesus Christ.

The idea of being “in Christ” is one of the great theological concepts of the New Testament. We are told that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Paul told us that there is no condemnation to them that are “in Christ” (Ro. 8:1).

This points to one of the monumental differences between the Old and New Testaments. In the O.T., to be where God could bless, one had to be in the land. In the N.T., we have to be in the Lord. In the O.T., everything had to do with a place. In the N.T., everything has to do with a Person. In the O.T., one had to be in Canaan. In the N.T., we have to be in Christ.

In Christ we are sanctified and secured. And thirdly, we have been selected. We are “called” says Jude. First, God’s call is for everyone. It is universal. Paul told the men at Athens that God “now commands all men everywhere” to repent (Acts 17:30). John 3:16 declares that “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him would not perish.”

This promise of salvation becomes personal when we accept it. Once we do, then we have stepped into what Paul calls a “high calling” (Phil.3:14), a “holy calling” (2 Tim.1:9), and a “heavenly calling” (Heb.3:1).

Next, Jude speaks a blessing on them:

“Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” (v.2).

Mercy is the upward look.

Peace is the inward look.

Love is the outward look.

Since Jude’s epistle is really a declaration of war against heresy, he knew full well there were going to be a clash of opinions, a struggle of right against wrong, truth against error, goodness against evil. He knew that decisions were going to have to be made as to whether one would stay with truth or not.

There would be sleepless nights for some people. Families would be divided. Hard feelings would be generated. Lies would be told, accusations would be made, tempers would be inflamed, and tears would be shed. Jude knew that casualties would occur in the coming battle.

The local church is intended by God to be a place of blessing, strength, fellowship, spiritual growth and salvation. But it can also be a place that endures vicious attack from within its own ranks.

For instance, we know from scripture that the church can be a place of divided loyalties.

“For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?” (1 Cor.3:3-4)

And the church can be a place of heated differences. “One person believes he may eat anything,” writes Paul, “while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains,” (Ro.14)

The church can be a place of bitter disputes. “When one of you has a grievance against another,” Paul writes to the Corinthian church, “does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?” (1 Cor. 6)

And the church can become a literal war zone. “Where do wars and fights come from among you?” asked James. “Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war” (James 4:1-2).

Jude knew that the church could also become a place where deception takes root and threatens to spread. “O foolish Galatians!” wrote Paul to the Galatian church, “Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth…? (Gal.3:1) The Galatian church had literally become bewitched by false teaching!

Are these things God’s will? Never! But because we yet dwell in houses of flesh, and can easily slip from walking in the Spirit to reacting in the flesh, these unfortunate things happen in the local church from time to time.

Not everyone who sided with the apostates were necessarily apostates themselves. Some of them would be genuinely deceived, others would be sincerely confused, and still others would get snared and carried away because of their family/friendship connections.

Jude anticipated all of these possibilities as he went for the jugular of the Gnostic heresy worming its way into the church. What would be needed in bucketfuls were mercy, peace and love, so Jude blesses them with this blessing.