Jude 1:8-25 Series

A Study of the Letter of Jude

JUDE v. 8-25

Teaching Lesson 5

June 13, 2012

Now we have established that Jude is warning the church about false teachers who are preaching false gospel… tonight we will conclude our study by a short review of WHO these people are and then the dangers they pose to the church… finally ending in an exhortation of God by the author…

8In the same way, these people—who claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings.

Ok, here in v8 Jude continues in his description of the people he introduced in v4. In the NLT he says ‘some people’ in the ESV it is translated as ‘certain people’ but the point is that he is using a generic descriptor for a group of people that is attacking the fellowship of believers.

Last week we looked briefly at v8 where Jude informs us how these people think…

They use their dreams as authority for their teaching… like some many cult leaders today project what they dream in their conscious or unconscious mind onto their followers!

And the sad part is that many people fall prey to this every year… the authority of what they follow is not grounded in the word of God but in the dreams of a leader…

These people live immoral lives and scoff at supernatural beings… This is picture of our modern day new age movement. The new age movement is big on projecting god-like characteristics onto humanity… in other words we are ALL gods!

They would ridicule the one who believes in a singular, ALL powerful God, and scoff at the very idea! The New Age movement is also very instrumental in an anti-authoritarian viewpoint, rejecting any and all earthly authority over any person, specifically (but not limited to) anything to do with spirituality…

9But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (This took place when Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses’ body.)

Now this verse is a verse that is difficult to understand unless you have some knowledge of Jewish traditions and extra biblical resources…

Just to let you know there are many people who have openly discounted the validity of Jude’s letter… whether or not is should BE in the Bible or not…all BECAUSE he used this extra biblical source for his letter…

This story Jude refers to is what may have been familiar to his audience as it was published in the writings entitled “The Testament of Moses.”

However, the ‘ending’ of the ‘Testament of Moses’ has been lost to us today, and what we do know is that the entire work has been reconstructed by several other authors over the centuries…

In this particular story, the devil is portrayed similar to how he is portrayed in the book of Job. The setting seems to be a sort of legal courtroom setting and that Satan is the accuser or prosecutor in this setting…

He basically argues that since Moses had broken the Law by committing murder in Egypt he was not entitled to a proper burial and so Satan should get his body…

Now while Moses is a grand figure in the history of the Israelite story and worthy of recognition as such… Jude is not using this story to draw attention to Moses.

On the contrary, Jude is using this story to reveal the demeanor of Michael the Archangel and his method of confronting evil…the devil!

What we see from Michael is a controlled response that relies on God’s sovereignty and not any use of slanderous accusations against Satan.

Jude is commending Michael for his self control in addressing Satan. Here Michael is exemplified for referring this matter of accusation to God’s authority… as his only response to Satan was “The Lord rebuke you…”

The choice of Michael leaving the rebuke of Satan to the Lord underscores the gravity of the ‘real’ battle being played out…a grand battle between good and evil.

In Zech 3:2 “The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan!’” In numerous encounters with Satan, Jesus rebukes him and his minions time and time again… establishing God’s supremacy over the demonic realm.

So the point here is that God was the lead in rebuking Satan and Michael did NOT overstep his bounds by doing it himself!

When Satan comes OUR way – and he will – We must realize that our rebuke of him will mean nothing to him and will affect nothing toward Him, but when we pray for God’s rebuke of Satan… it is a powerful tool to send Satan packing!

But what does this mean for this story? What does this story have to do with the false teachers that Jude is dealing with in his letter to these believers?