Called, Beloved, and Kept
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
The Book of Jude is probably not a book that is on anyone’s best seller list. Of all of the books of the Bible that you’ve studied, you probably don’t have very many verses memorized out of it and you probably have not heard a ton of messages preached from it.
However, Jude is an incredibly helpful book for us as believers because it was written to a church that was plagued by false teachers and who was called on to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Tonight, we are only going to get through the greeting, but there are some powerful words shared in that greeting that we need to hear.
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Pray.
Jude begins his letter by giving us his greeting. This was common in ancient letters and Jude identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James.
Ok, cool! So we get a little info on who Jude was. But wait a minute and look a little closer.
Who was James? When we understand who James was, it makes the fact that Jude calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ take on a whole new meaning for us.
There are some names in the Bible that are common names of people in their time period. We have names like Mary, John, even Jesus, which was a Greek version of the name Joshua, were all common names.
There are several different men by the name of James mentioned in the Bible. The one that most scholars believe is mentioned here in this letter is James, the half-brother of Jesus.
So if Jude is the brother of James, the half-brother of Jesus, what does that mean about his relationship to Jesus? He also is Jesus’s have brother.
Now let me ask you a question for a minute. If you wanted to write a letter to someone telling them who you were and also giving credibility to your letter, do you think you would do a little name drop to let people know that Jesus was your brother?
Some of y’all have done this before when you got pulled over. You might ask the cop if he or she knows a certain friend that you have. You might ask how they are doing and then tell the officer that you are good friends with the person, hoping that you will get off.
That is manipulating your friendship. Jude doesn’t do that or even mention that he is related to Jesus. Instead he humbly announces himself as a servant of Jesus.
Jude is just like you and I. We can introduce ourselves as the servants of Jesus. We serve Him with a humble heart.
Next, Jude introduces the recipients of his letter. This portion is where we will get the meat of the message from tonight.
1. You Are Called
1. You Are Called
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
What does it mean to be called? Paul mentions our calling as on of the first links in the chain of our salvation.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
To be called is to hear the gospel message and respond to it favorably.
It is not just the initial response of faith, but it is the continued life of faith. Paul says to the Philippians,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
2. You Are Loved
2. You Are Loved
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
The second thing that Jude reminds the church of is that they are beloved of God.
Have you ever stopped and considered that God loves you?
Think about all of the implications of that truth.
God loves you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins.
God loves you so much that He bottles up your tears when you weep.
8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
No matter what you may have been told by the enemy, God loves you very much.
3. You Are Kept
3. You Are Kept
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
The last thing that Jude tells the church in his greeting to them is that they are being kept by God.
What Jude is speaking about is eternal security.
Listen to how Jesus put it in His high priestly prayer for us.
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Paul echoes these words again in Romans.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Don’t misunderstand what Jude is saying. We are not eternally secure simply because we said a prayer. WE are secure because Christ enables us to keep our profession of faith. He holds us fast.
Conclusion
Jude ends his greeting by praying that God’s mercy, peace, and love would be multiplied to the church.
We need to pray that for one another as well. We need to remember that we are called by God, we are loved by God, and we are being kept by Him in the faith. He deserves all of our praise and all of our worship.