Let's finish well - Doxology

Jude

A couple of weeks ago I spoke about the book of Haggai and I mentioned that it was a small book and a good one to read if you wanted to read if you wanted to boast that you have read a whole book of the bible. Today I am going to speak from the book of Jude in the the new testament. It is the penultimate book coming just before revelation, Jude makes the book of Haggai look long.

It contains 1 Chapter and only 25 verses.

The brevity of the book should not be used to ascribe it with a lack of content, meaning or relevance.

The book was (as far as we can tell) written by Judas, not Iscariot but the Judas the brother of James and the half brother of Jesus., Jude is the latinised form of Judas

The purpose of the letter of Jude is to warn his friends (other believers) about false teaching. It starts...

Jude 3–4 NIV

3 Dear 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. 4 For 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.

Judas writes in a hurried (is that why it is short) to warn them about false teaching and to encourage them to Fight (to contend for the faith.

Relevance to Today.

If Jude was writing today he may right to warn about:

Watered down faith

Mixed up beliefs

Cultural context setting versus eroding the core nature of Christ (tolerance is good / universality is not)

Popularity of speakers versus the message of the gospel.

All these are relevant today. But what I want to focus on this morning is right at the end of Jude and really gives this mornings message it’s title - Let’s finish well.

Doxology

This is how the letter from Jude ends...

Jude 1:20-25

Christian Standard Bible Jude

But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. 22 Have mercy on those who waver; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

What a great and powerful ending, it is a little better than kind regards, or having that internal argument of yours sincerely versus yours faithfully.

Endings to texts like this are referred to as a doxology.

What is a doxology

DOXOLOGY

AN EXPRESSION OF PRIASE TO GOD

We often refer to A Doxology is a short hymn of praise usually at the end of something or a passage of praise at the end of letter.

A Doxology generally contain two elements,

praise to God (usually referred to in third person) and

an expression of His infinite nature.

The term “doxology” (“word of glory”) itself is not found in the Bible, but both the OT and NT contain many doxological passages using this formula.

Passages (Exod. 15:18),

Exodus 15:18 NIV

18 “The Lord reigns for ever and ever.”

psalms (Ps. 146:10),

Psalm 146:10 NIV

10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.

Doxologies conclude four of the five divisions of the psalter (Ps. 41:13; 72:19; 89:52; 106:48), with Ps. 150 serving as a sort of doxology to the entire collection

and prayers (Matt. 6:13)

Matthew 6:13 NIV

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Doxologies also occur at or near the end of several NT books (Rom. 16:27; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 6:16; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 13:21; 1 Pet. 5:11; 2 Pet. 3:18; Jude 25) and figure prominently in the Revelation (1:6; 4:8; 5:13; 7:12).

And as we can tell from Jude letters.

Judes Doxology

24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling

the emphasis appears to be on His ability to keep us from “stumbling”

1) “stumbling” does not refer to the occasional sin

2) But to stumble so as to fall away completely - cf. 2 Pe 1:10

This is reassuring in an epistle filled with warning about ungodly men who would seek to

lead one astray

God’s ability to keep us from stumbling was implied at the very beginning of this epistle

- cf. Ju 1 (“preserved in Jesus Christ” )

But as we have suggested in previous texts, our faith must cooperate with God’s power if we are to keep from “stumbling” - cf. 1 Pe 1:5; 2 Pe 1:5-11

by Jude himself states:

1) “Remember the words spoken before...” - Ju 17

2) “building yourselves up on your most holy faith” - Ju 20

3) “praying in the Holy Spirit” - Ju 20

4) “keep yourselves in the love of God - Ju 21

5) “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” - Ju 21

If we continue in faith, heeding such exhortations, we know that God is able to keep us from falling! That is surely worth praising about.

Jude goes on

and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,

Here, the focus is on God’s ability to produce the ultimate goal of redemption

That goal is expressed here as presenting us before God...

1) “faultless”

a) As Paul expressed it in Ep 5:27...

Ephesians 5:27 NIV

27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

1] “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing”

2] “holy and without blemish”

b) This is necessary if we are to be permitted in the presence of God’s glory

EXPAND

2) “with exceeding joy”

a) Without a doubt this will be the condition of those so blessed!

b) But let’s not discount the joy God will experience when He sees His redeemed

ones at last!

c. God will bring His scheme of redemption to pass - as it says in

Ro 8:28-30

Romans 8:28–30 NIV

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

25 to the only God our Saviour,

it is all about HIM.

through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time,

“glory” comes from “doxa” {dox’-ah}, and is used to suggest dignity and honour

“majesty” comes from “megalosune ” {meg-al-o-soo’-nay}, meaning “greatness”

These terms are closely related in concept, suggesting GOD is worthy of awe, praise, and worship

“Authority” is from “kratos” {krat’-os}, and means “might, power, strength”

“power” is from “exousia” {ex-oo-see’-ah}, and refers to “authority, jurisdiction, liberty,

power, right, strength”

The use of these words demonstrates that Jude recognises

that it is God who rightly deserves and exercises authority over all

Jude seeks to have all glory and majesty given to God

Not a bad example

Not only does he recognise it, it is his fervent prayer that it continue (as we read on...)

“BOTH NOW AND FOREVER”...

Jude’s fervent prayer is that dominion and power, glory and majesty remain God’s

Not just for the present, but for eternity!

Something to build our own prayers on...

Prayers are not just lists of longings.

ADD about prayer.

Another well known doxology

“Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow…,” the 14th stanza of the Morning Hymn begins. The lyrics are designed to be sung to the tune of the “Old 100th” – wone of the most widely-known melodies in all Christian worship

Video 1

Every word in this hymn is pregnant with meaning and, when coupled with its melody, stays in the heart and mind for good.

It forms a great model for our worship and our prayer.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow

Praise is an enduring word that resonates with the anthropologically ancient idea that to acclaim, honour, appreciate, and celebrate an individual is to elevate their attributes for others to remark upon, emulate, replicate, and affirm as good.

When we praise God, we do as the angels did in Luke 2:14, filling the heavens with words akin to, “Glory to God in the highest….” Our inner world is righted, ordered, lined up, in accord with praising rivers, praising mountains, praising oceans, and praising trees – as we praise God (Psalm 96:12).

Psalm 96:12 NIV

12 Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.

Praise Him, all creatures here below

Having set our posture to praise , we can focus the physical, creational world all around us. The book of Genesis portrays a flourishing bounty of material creation, leaping from its stall in full, multi-sensory glory.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

We can embrace the idea of “above” as turning the gaze of hearts toward the heavens, or heaven (whichever we choose – both in my view), and its inhabitants.

The heavenly hosts can speak of planetary objects, galactic arenas, or multi-verse possibilities. The heavenly hosts can speak of unseen creatures, again, such as angels and archangels and seraphim and cherubim (and more in Revelation 4).

The heavenly hosts could speak of those realms within a heaven worth longing for, a heavenly space where God dwells, where all is filled with living creatures in concerted praise, a time yet to come and an event happening now , N.T. Wright supposes, ha as worship in the heavenly realms pluses with “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord; God of power and might” (Sanctus) our voices join in.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Committing us again to a God who cannot, and never will, be relegated to a religious box.

The three in one God outside of the human boxes we construct as a controlling and defining tabernacle.

The Father, our Creator, and Life-Sustainer, Who holds all things on course and wraps His arms around all we know and do not, Who crafted the colour of our eyes as surely as the aurora borealis itself, is to be praised.

The Son, our Rescuer, and Invading Life-Reclaimer, Who modelled the ways of the Father to us, Who revealed to us the mysteries of being fully human, Who was innocent and pinned to a cruel cross at the hands of scapegoat-seekers, who rose from death to sit at the hand of the Father in interminable intercession for the human family, is to be praised.

The Holy Ghost, our Comforter, our Truth-Guide, Who indwells the disciple of Jesus, Who moves in response to prayer, effecting change and making new that which Jesus has come to renew, Who advocates for us within in our own minds as we turn our face to the world, Who leads us in empowered mission to join the Son in seeking and saving what is lost (Matt. 18:11), is to be praised.

Purpose of Doxology today

Our age is beautiful, yet ill, in it we see God alive and yet we are surrounded by hunger, pain, fear and death.

It is so easy to bring those things in prayer to a God who is worth of all glory and honour and praise without giving Him what he deserves.

God demands, seeks, and requests our worship because He deserves it, because it is the nature of a Christian to worship Him, and because our eternal destiny depends upon it. That is the theme of redemptive history: to worship the true, living, and glorious God.

I encourage you to finish things well and develop the habit of Doxology - not that it is a verb.

But to make sure that when we give praise, we acclaim, and magnify the personal, loving God who is in pursuit of every member of the human race, not just present Him with a list of problems.

In Doxology, we affirm a personal, living God.

we affirm that the animate world has both an origin and praising purpose.

we affirm that worlds beyond our apprehension or comprehension are united in that same essential, adoring posture.

we affirm the Father’s loving creation, the Son’s restoring acts, and the Spirit’s renewing breath.

Let’s form the habit to finish well. end prayer well. end the day well, end activities well, give praise to God.

Doxology worship - .

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The Doxology: Why The Doxology Is One Of The 21st Century's Most Powerful Anthems - by Dan Whit.