Text: Jude 1-2, Title: Preparing for a Fight, Date/Place: LSCC, 8/27/06, AM
A. Opening illustration: Several centuries ago, a Japanese emperor commissioned an artist to paint a bird. A number of months passed, then several years, and still no painting was brought to the palace. Finally the emperor became so exasperated that he went to the artist’s home to demand an explanation. Instead of making excuses, the artist placed a blank canvas on the easel. In less than an hour, he completed a painting that was to become a brilliant masterpiece. When the emperor asked the reason for the delay, the artist showed him armloads of drawings of feathers, wings, heads, and feet. Then he explained that all of this research and study had been necessary before he could complete the painting.
B. Background to passage: This epistle was probably written after the death of Peter in 68, but before the destruction of the temple in 70. The purpose for writing was to combat false teachers that were presently in the church. Because truth is crucial to the Christian life. And the most difficult battles for truth, come not from attacks against the church from the outside, but from those that bend the truth on the inside. And the consequences are far more devastating to the kingdom. This is a kingdom battle!
C. Main thought: And our text gives us Jude’s encouragement in preparation for the battle
A. Gotta have a leader (v. 1)
1. The name Jude or Judas is mentioned of at least six men in the NT. This Jude is identified as the brother of James, not the apostle, but who was the pastor of the Jerusalem church, and the half-brother of Jesus. He is the only NT writer that identifies himself by another person (other than Jesus). But Jude doesn’t base his authority on his physical relationship to Jesus, but upon his spiritual one. He says that he is a doulos. This term is used to describe a relationship of absolute dependence, total commitment, and ownership toward a kurios. This implies unconditional surrender and resolve to be in absolute submission to one’s master. This title was also one of authority, and also one that emphasized the deity of Jesus Christ, substituting Him in for the LORD in the OT.
2. Matt 20:25, 1 Pet 5:3, Deut 34:5,
3. Illustration: The Muslim on MPBN that considered his life a service to Islam. If I was a writer, a journalist, a businessman, Poem about submission, see below, Dr Bennett said that the one thing that your people need more than anything is your personal holiness. In a church I once attended, there was a man of tremendous faith. His wife is an alcoholic, His daughter has psychological problems. He was often poor in health. Yet, week after week, he never complained. He always smiled and asked me how I was doing. He faithfully brought to church a young blind man who had no transportation. He always sat with the blind man, helping him sing the hymns by saying the words into his ear. That man was a ‘Christian leader’,
4. A physical relationship to nothing (not a person, a church, or a family) will not benefit you in terms of getting points with God in heaven. Becoming a bondslave to Jesus does. Is Jesus a master to you, or more like a friend whose advice you can take or leave? Is there anything that you would not do, would not endure, would not receive if Christ asked of you? This is the standard for NT leadership: servanthood. But not only for leadership, for discipleship. If you are following Jesus, you must see yourself as a servant. Ask the question: How does my job serve Jesus? How does my recreation serve Jesus? In looking for leadership in the local church this is the number one qualification: closeness to Jesus. It doesn’t matter what the job is, nor the skills of the individual, if one is not wholly committed to Christ.
B. Gotta have some soldiers (v. 1)
1. The next thing that we see in Jude’s greeting is the recipients of the letter. He labels the people to whom he writes as believers in three ways. He is doing this to shore up their faith for a battle for truth. He reminds them who they are in Christ, so that they may remember that in the heat of battle. He places the word for “called” at the end of the sentence for emphasis. This is the calling of God on every Christian’s life at salvation, where God opened your eyes to your need and His provision. It carries the connotation of selection or chosenness. Secondly, Jude says that we are beloved of God. “That’s not what my bible says!” Explain that it should be beloved, agapao. Perfect passive participle indicating a permanent past action with lasting results. The ppp is also used with the third quality of the Christian soldier. We are being kept by Jesus Christ; permanently and infallibly.
2. Rom 1:6-7, 8:28, 30, 1 Cor 1:9, 24, Eph 4:1, 2 Tim 1:8-9, Eph 1:4, 1 John 3:1, 4:9, Rom 8:38-39, John 6:39, 10:28-29, 2 Tim 1:12, 1 Pet 1:5, Philip 1:6
3. Illustration: I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who could even cut it in the Marine Corps. I want to see those two or three immediately in the dining hall when we are dismissed." He turned smartly and sat down. When he arrived in the dining hall, those students interested in the Marines were a mob, I learned what the word “ineffable” meant this week, In the Cross we may see the dimensions of Divine love. The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the exhibition of the heart of God. At the back of the wall of the world stands God with His arms outstretched, and every man driven there is driven into the arms of God. The Cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the love of God. –Oswald Chambers, We’re like that (iron: ugly and hard) with our sins. We are hard, and we are rigid, and we do not bend easily. We are intractable; like dogs returning to our vomit, we go back and back and back again to the same old sins. But God loves us, and not because of anything within ourselves. There is no reason why he should love us. He loves us, as Moses says, Just Because, “Salvation is not dependent on our holding on to God, but on our being securely held by and in Christ.”
4. If you are a Christian today, you are a recipient of God’s call. He has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And you are to walk worthy of that calling in holiness and purpose. Do you have a sense of calling? This is not just for preachers and missionaries, this for every Christian. Before time began, currently, and throughout all eternity you were, are, and will be the object of God’s sacrificial, unconditional, boundless love. God loves you! This love is not based on your performance, but on God’s character. And no matter what happens, the love of God is constant and unfailing. You can never lose your salvation if you ever really had it. We are secure in Christ. He is guarding, protecting, preserving you now and forever. When we go into battle, we must remember that we are called, loved of God, and kept by Jesus.
C. Gotta have some resources (v. 2)
1. Jude then lists three resources in the form of a prayer, that they be multiplied toward these believers as they enter the battle. He wants God to provide in the fullest measure mercy. This is the only greeting in the NT that mercy is used in (usually grace is used in its place). Grace means the unmerited favor of God, but mercy communicates His compassion in times of suffering. It also communicates a reminder that all of our lives are filled with mercy, because we don’t get what we deserve as rebels against God. Jude next prays for peace to fill these believers. This is not a peace that is external in circumstances (Peter in the jail cell sleeping), but an internal, calming, confident rest in the sovereignty and goodness of God. Thirdly, he prays that love be given to them in the fullest measure. That it would be consciously realized, experienced, and showered around them. It was going to take a lot of love to confront sin, immorality, and heresy. Love? Yes, these people were about to battle for the souls of men and women, and needed to care about them before they began to confront their sin.
2. Matt 5:44-45, Eph 4:31-32, Phil 4:6-7, 1 John 4:4, 2 Cor 2:14, Rom 8:31, 1 John 4:7-8,
3. Illustration: Derek’s testimony of mercy with the apartment fire, Megan’s testimony of mercy with the rusted out brake line, President Coolidge showing mercy to a burglar needing some help. The artist rendition of peace not being like the gentle breeze across the countryside, but the man calmly reading in the home by the sea as the waves crashed, thunder boomed, and lightning flashed. In 1871 the Chicago Fire gutted the section of the city where the Moodys lived. Dwight was preaching at church on the Sunday evening the blaze lit up the Chicago skyline. Alone at home with their two small children, his wife Emma calmly dressed each child in two suits of clothing and led them to the window before they fled, promising them a sight they would never forget: a cityscape engulfed in flames. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child’s breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, “Momma, kiss me!” Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn’t count the cost. The Bible says, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”
4. As you enter your spiritual battle trust that whatever happens is an extension of God’s mercy; and thing could be and should be much worse for you. This will help you live gratefully for everything. It will also help you have the ability to exercise mercy for those that don’t deserve it from you. You can have internal peace while the war in raging because we know for certain God’s character. You can have peace because you know that the victory is Christ’s. The love of God can flow through you like a river, helping you love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, and do the impossible (in human terms). When you are fighting a spiritual battle, you can’t do it on your own strength. You will fail. Like every other part of the Christian life, it must be fought by faith, trusting in God to provide the resources, the strength, the strategy, and to fight the battle for you.
A. Closing illustration: Shelia speaking about Adam’s rendition of training for Iraq
O Lord, my best desire fulfill,
And help me to resign
Life, health, and comfort to Thy will,
And make Thy pleasure mine.
Why should I shrink at Thy command,
Whose love forbids my fears?
Or tremble at the gracious hand
That wipes away my tears?
No, rather let me freely yield
What most I prize to Thee;
Who never hast a good withheld,
Or wilt withhold, from me.
