The Christian Antidote

Introduction

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Nick Bilotta. I am our youth director and ministry intern here at Emmanuel and I have the honor of getting to wrap up our study In Jude today. If you’ve been with us the last couple weeks as we’ve studied the book of Jude you’ve gotten to hear the book also preached by Brian and Tyler. And as Tyler said last week you’ve probably noticed, I did decide to shave my head and grow a beard. No I’m just kidding. I enjoy having my hair too much, so I’m sorry to let you guys down this week.

Brian got us started in this series looking at the beginning of Jude and we saw that Jude is a brother of Jesus and he’s writing to a group of believers. We saw that Jude has a unique and powerful greeting to the intended audience of this book as he writes about mercy, peace, and love. We later read that Jude had wanted to write to the people about our common salvation but instead found it necessary to write appealing for all Christians to contend for the faith. Jude does this because there have been false teachers that have crept into the church. These false teachers deny Jesus Christ and pervert the grace of God.

Tyler continued us in this series looking at the middle of Jude and we saw how God judges these false teachers. Jude gives us three examples of the past to help the original readers of this book see the false teachers for what they are. He first talks about how Israel, who was God’s chosen people, were delivered from Egypt by God but later unbelievers were killed in the wilderness. Secondly, Jude talks about how angels, who have a special calling from God, yet those angels who were disobedient were punished by God. Lastly, Jude talks about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and how they pursued things contrary to God and were destroyed because of their immorality. Tyler showed us that Jude uses these examples to remind us of history and show that God must judge sin. After writing about these three examples of the past we saw that Jude turns his focus to the false teachers of the present and how they are following the same dangerous paths. Jude condemns these people and compares them to three bad precedents: the first being Cain who had no respect for his brother, Balaam who led Israel astray for personal gain, and Korah who rejected God’s authority and rebelled against Moses. These false teachers are then blamed for destroying Christian fellowship, being concerned only for themselves, and failing to produce what they promise. Jude wraps up his disdain for these people by reminding the reader of Enoch’s prophecy which would have been well known to the readers in those days. Jude does this to show that these false teachers will certainly be punished and destroyed like the people of the past that have disobeyed and turned away from God.

As we wrap up this book today, it’s important that we remember what we’ve learned the last few weeks. From the very beginning of this book, we can see that Jude has a plan and it’s well thought out. We saw at the beginning of the book Jude’s intent for writing which is to stir up the reader to contend for the faith in the presence of these false teachers. Jude goes on to condemn the false teachers in the middle of this book for what they are doing to the church and he exposes them for what they really are. As we conclude this book today, we are going to see that Jude prescribes a plan of attack that allows us as Christians to take the fight to these false teachers.

Outline

The New Bible Commentary is going to help us outline the conclusion to Jude today. If you’re taking notes I’d encourage you to write down our outline for today.

The Christian Antidote (v. 17-23)

Closing Commendation (v. 24-25)

In this plan of attack we’re going to see that Jude urges us to go on growing in our Christian faith and expression, He calls us to lose no opportunity for evangelism, and He reassures us of God’s sure promises.

Sermon

It’s worth noting that the New Bible Commentary outlines this section in Jude as “The Christian Antidote”. When we think of the word antidote we immediately think of poison. In fact, you might remember in the gospel of Matthew, specifically in Matthew 23, Jesus calls out the pharisees and other religious leaders for being false teachers. As Jesus is condemning these people for their actions, He says something that I think is pretty interesting in the context of what’s going on here in Jude. In Matthew 23:33, Jesus calls out these religious leaders for what they are. Jesus calls them

Matthew 23:33 ESV

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

The Bible does not mince it’s words when it comes to false teachers. We already saw last week how Jude condemned them and now were seeing how Jesus condemned them. Jesus compares them to a bunch of vipers, a bunch of venomous snakes. I think this is a really powerful analogy Jesus is making. I mean come on, how many of you actually like snakes in this room. And if you raise your hand you’re a bunch of liars. I did a little research this week and found that in 2016 there was a study done examining people’s specific fears in the U.S. and 56% of Americans admitted to being fearful of snakes. For me personally, I absolutely hate snakes. I think they’re creepy, they’re gross and scary looking, they can kill you, even Indiana Jones who in my opinion is one of the coolest movie characters has one weakness… Snakes! I mean come on even Satan himself appeared in the Garden of Eden as a snake! That’s a huge red flag. Putting my personal feelings for snakes aside, when we think about this study in Jude we’ve gotten to the point that we’ve seen these false teachers or as Jesus said these “brood of vipers” and they’ve latched onto the church and their poison is spreading among the believers. So let’s take a look at this Christian antidote to false teachers in Jude verses 17-23. Jude says

Jude 17–23 ESV

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

So in the opposite way of false teachers, Jude now directs his attention to the Christians. Here he addresses these set of verses to “the beloved” which is how he addresses the believers in the beginning of this book. Here he calls Christians to remember the warnings he gave earlier in the book about false teachers especially when they bring about division in the church. He also calls Christians to grow in their faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, abide in God’s love, and look for the completion of God’s work in us through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. The final thing Jude tells us to do is to not keep this faith quiet and to ourselves but to do the work of an evangelist. Jude reminds us of our responsibility to others through the great commission. Jude tells us to do this by making us aware of three groups of people out there.

The first group he talks about is when he says “to have mercy on those who doubt”. What Jude is talking about here is that we as Christians ought to have compassion for those who doubt or struggle with the truth of the gospel because of the influence of false teachers. These people should not be ignored or rejected, but instead should be shown compassion and kindness as we encourage them in the truth and patiently point them to Jesus.

The second group Jude tells us about is those that need saving by snatching them out of the fire. I like that word snatch that Jude uses. There is a sense of urgency there. Jude makes it seem like for this group of people, there isn’t much time left. And by using this word “snatch”, he’s showing us that for this group of people the time to act is now. These people need rescued from the fire they are destined to go towards.

The third group of people Jude talks about are possibly the most desperate of all. Jude says “to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh”. This group of people are people who have bought into the lies of false teaching and their lives are now corrupted as well. These people are a danger to themselves and a danger to others. Because of this, Jude gives a sound warning to have mercy and compassion towards these people but with caution. Jude uses a powerful image that the very clothes they wear are stained with sin. Essentially what Jude is saying about this third group of people is that sin has contaminated them. We should love these people, show mercy towards them, but be careful because their sin could corrupt us and we could become like them. We may still be able to reach them and rescue them, but we cannot become like them. For this group of people Satan wants us to believe that we have to live like them to reach them but Jude is pushing against this idea and telling us to have caution around these people. We don’t have to drink like these people to reach them. We don’t have to curse like them to reach them. We don’t have to party like them to reach them. In fact, by displaying caution and not taking part in their sin, this usually opens a door for evangelism to these people.

Oftentimes for us as humans and especially Americans it’s really hard for us to accept this part of Jude’s plan, Hell is not a popular subject and people don’t like to talk about it or even think about it but our sin takes us down a path of death. Romans 6:23 tells us “the wages of sin is death”. It doesn’t matter how hard you work in life or all the good things you try do in life. Because of our sin, we have to be punished. That is the punishment you and I deserve for our sin, death. Luckily, that verse doesn’t end there. God in His infinite love for us sent his one and only son Jesus to live the sinless life that we couldn’t live and take our punishment by dying on the cross for our sins and later resurrecting on the third day. The end of Romans 6:23 says “but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”.

For the Christian friend in the room. Those of us who have called on the name of the Lord to be saved. Those of us who have received that free gift. Jude makes it very clear what we are to do. There is a world of people out there who have been misled, who are heading towards the fire, and who are contaminated with sin, people who have not heard or received the good news of Jesus that are on the path to Hell. They could be in your family, they could be your friends, they could be in your community, they could be at your job, or in your school, they could be in this building sitting next to you right now. Jude calls us to deal with some of them gently, some of them quickly, and some of them carefully. But ultimately, we are to reach out to these people and tell them about the good news of Jesus Christ and His love for us so that they might be spared from their punishment and live with Jesus in eternity. We must never forget, for as long as we live, that there is a very real place called Hell out there that as sinners we are destined to go unless we are saved by the power of Jesus Christ.

In our American culture, it’s easy for us to do the first few things Jude asks of believers. Growing in faith sounds good, praying to God sounds amazing, remaining in the love of God sounds wonderful, patiently wait for the return of Jesus Christ sounds awesome. Evangelize the lost… hmmmm hold on. I don’t know about that one Jude. There’s a few reasons why I think this last thing Jude calls us to do is so hard.

First is fear. In our American culture today it’s frowned upon to share your beliefs with other people and we’re often worried about people responding negatively to us. We’re scared that if we share our faith with a friend our relationship might change. We’re scared that if we come out as a Christian at work that we might be treated differently or even lose our job. We’re so scared of what other people might think that we don’t share.

The second reason is feeling unqualified to share. A lot of us are afraid to share our faith because we don’t want to mess up or say the wrong thing. Some of us don’t know how to share the gospel and think if we tried we wouldn’t be able to do it in a clear way. Some of us think that because we aren’t a pastor, or an elder, or a seminary student that we can’t possibly be able to share the gospel to people because we don’t have the knowledge or education to.

The final reason I think this is so hard for us is apathy and this is one I really had to wrestle with this week cause I know I can be guilty of it. Pastor John just finished a series in Malachi on Spiritual Apathy. I think for a lot of us sometimes we just don’t care. None of us would ever admit it but our lives show it. We don’t make time in our schedule to engage with people who don’t know Christ. Oftentimes we clock into work with the mindset of getting our work done and getting out of there. For some of us we don’t have any relationships with unbelievers. Our words may not admit it but our priorities in our lives show that evangelism is not one of them. And the reason I’m sharing this with you is not to make you feel down about yourself because friend I’m guilty of feeling this way too. The reason I’m sharing this with you is to challenge you and make you realize that all of these reasons are lies that Satan wants us to believe to prevent us from sharing the gospel. Instead of believing these lies we should trust what scripture says.

John 15:18-19 says

John 15:18–19 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Here Jesus tells His disciples plainly that the world will despise followers of Jesus because the world despises Jesus. We shouldn’t get so consumed by fear of rejection or other consequences when we share the gospel. Instead we should understand that the Christian life is in opposition to the world. Because of that Jesus tells us we will face rejection sometimes but it’s okay if we do. If people reject Jesus when we share, they’re rejecting Jesus not us.

1 Peter 3:15 tells us

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

It’s clear here that we are to be ready to share our faith to anyone at any time. This verse doesn’t say for the educationally qualified to be prepared to make a defense of our faith, it calls all Christians to be prepared to share and defend their faith to anyone who asks.

Finally 2 Timothy 4:1-5 says

2 Timothy 4:1–5 ESV

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Doesn’t this sound familiar? “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths”. That’s the world we’re living in right now. And our American culture really plays into our apathy. I don’t think we intentionally don’t care about evangelism. I think instead Satan wants us to believe there is so much going on in our life that we don’t have time for it. But instead no matter what we are doing we need to do the work of an evangelist and fulfill the ministry. When you clock into work tomorrow, do the work of an evangelist. Teenagers when you go back to school in August, do the work of an evangelist. Mothers and fathers when you take care of your children and tend to your homes this week, do the work of an evangelist. No matter what you are doing, do the work of an evangelist.

This is the plan of attack Jude gives us. In order to counter the effects of the poison infiltrating the church by the false teachers, Jude prescribes this antidote. Believers are to acknowledge that there are people out there following after their own desires who seek to cause division in the church, Believers are to build up our faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, remain in the love of God, wait for the return of Jesus Christ, and evangelize to the lost. That is the Christian antidote.

As we wrap up the book of Jude the last thing we’re going to see is this Closing Commendation in the last two verses. Jude 24-25 says this

Jude 24–25 ESV

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Despite the sad reality of false teachers, Jude ends this book on a beautiful high note. He concludes with a powerful doxology or a form of praise. Jude points the reader to God and what He can do for us. Just as the beginning of Jude tells us that we are kept by Jesus now he says that Jesus is there to keep us from stumbling and to present us without fault before the presence of God. Believers have an eternal security through Jesus. In these last two verses, Jude gives all glory and might to God our Savior. As should we in our lives.

Conclusion

Jude showed us that the purpose of this book is for the believers reading it to realize that we need to contend for the faith. We as believers need to be ready to fight for the faith even in a world full of false teachers and ideologies. Jude gives us a plan of attack and prescribes us this Christian antidote to contend for the faith.

Thought of the Week

This leads me to our thought of the week and it’s this: Christians should build up their faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, remain in the love of God, await the return of Jesus, and evangelize the lost. I know that’s a long one so we’ll leave that up on the screen for those of you taking notes. (Repeat Thought of the Week one more time)

William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army and a Christian. He once said this “If I had it my way, I would not send my workers to four years of college. If I had it my way, I would not put them through three years of seminary. If I had it my way, I would put all of my workers in hell for five minutes! That would be the best theological training they would ever receive.”

Lost people matter to God, so lost people must matter to us. As believers we are to remember the words of our Lord, and remain in His love. We need to rescue those who are perishing and care for the dying, understanding that life is short, time is limited, and Heaven and Hell are real.

At this time Greg Mosley is going to come up and lead us in communion. Greg