Me, Too

Mathiston FBC

March 2025, Evening Services

Study of Jude

Message 1, 03/02/2025

Jude 1-4.

Central Idea: Every follower of Christ should stand firm in and defend the Gospel, including me, too.

Objectives: I want the hearers to know (cognitive) that false teaching is present among us every day; to feel the urgency to defend the Gospel; to respond by studying, growing in their knowledge of, sharing, and defending the Gospel.

Three Questions:

1. Who are we? [v. 1]

We are called by God. (Kletois, κλητοις)— adjective

We are beloved in God. (Agapemenois, ηγαπημενοις)— Perfect tense participle

We are kept by Christ. (Teteremenois, τετηρημενοις)— Perfect tense participle

2. What is our responsibility? [v. 3]

We are to share the Gospel with others.

The tradition of faith was handed down through generations, likely through oral tradition at first. (The faith was delivered once and for all to the saints)

We are to defend the Gospel.

Every follower of Christ has the responsibility to contend for the faith and to ensure it is passed along to the next generation accurately.

The word contend (Gk. epagōnizomai) appears only here in the New Testament. It is a word from which we get our English agonize and was used in New Testament times of the struggle between wrestlers. The emphasis is upon great effort being expended. Presumably, “contending for the faith” involves recognition of error, clarification of truth, refutation and rebuke of false teachers, and eventual exclusion. (Baker, William H. 1995. “Jude.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1191. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.)

3. Why should we act responsibly with the Gospel?

There is urgency because there are false teachers present among us (just as they were among first century believers)

False teachings in America today:

Prosperity Gospel

Easy Believism

Universalism

Belief that Jesus is not the only way to salvation or acceptance by God. 56% American Evangelicals, in 2022, agreed “God accepts the worship of all religions including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”

Arianism

Belief that Jesus was created by God and has not always existed. According to 2022 research, 73% of American evangelicals agreed “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God”; additionally, 43% agreed “Jesus was a good teacher, but he was not God.”

Pelgianism

Belief that people are good by nature. According to 2022 research, 57% Evangelicals agreed “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature” While 66% other Americans agreed— only a 9% difference between Evangelicals and non-evangelicals on this. [1]

False teachers are often inside the Christian circles who have been deceived with false doctrine.

William Barclay commented on the word translated as “stealthily” writing, “It is used of the plausible and seductive words of someone who pleads their case cleverly, seeping gradually into the minds of the judge and jury; it is used of an outlaw slipping secretly back into the country from which he has been expelled; it is used of the slow and subtle entry of innovations into the life of society; which in the end undermine and break down the ancestral laws. It always indicates a stealthy insinuation of something evil into a society or situation.” (Barclay, Jude, 204-205) 

Notice the description of the false teachers:

Ungodly

Manipulators of God’s grace

Immoral

Deny Jesus Christ as Master and Lord

Response Questions:

[1] Are you an active part of sharing and defending the Gospel?

Sources:

Editorial, Ligonier. “What Is the Prosperity Gospel?,” Ligonier.Org, July 10, 2023. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/field-guide-on-false-teaching-prosperity-gospel.

McDade, Stefani. “Top 5 Heresies Among American Evangelicals,” Christianity Today, 2022. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2022/09/state-of-theology-evangelical-heresy-report-ligonier-survey/.

TableTalk. “The Lordship of Christ,” Ligonier.Org, 2009. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/lordship-of-christ.