This exposition of Jude 1-2 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, December 2, 2018.
Intro:
I do a lot of head scratch’n. I find myself on a daily basis wondering if I’m living in a dream. Things just don’t add up, they don’t make sense. I read comments on Facebook, I hear comments on the radio and in conversation and I wonder, “Are we having the same conversation? Are we talking about the same thing?” I have to admit much of what I hear passed off as Christianity has little or nothing to do with historic Christianity.
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I’m not talking about music styles or building design or what time services are held, I’m talking about the essence of the faith. I’m talking about the truth once and for all delivered to the saints. I hear some folk’s version of what it means to be Christian and I don’t even recognize it. But let’s be honest that’s nothing new. This is not a recent development due to secular humanism or postmodernism or any other “ism” to come along in recent years. The same was true before the Reformation. Luther and the other reformers where saying, “Wait a minute. What is this? This isn’t biblical faith. This is some hideous distortion of the truth.” But neither was it unique to Luther’s day. The apostle Paul said to the Galatians, “How is it you have so quickly abandoned the gospel for another gospel which is no gospel at all?” John said that the spirit of antichrist was alive and well in the first century. God’s truth has been under attack from the beginning. Understandably given that Satan roams to and fro seeking whom he may devour. The enemy of our souls wants nothing more than to distort and destroy the truth after all he is the father of lies, the old deceiver. That is why one first century writer pleaded with his readers to “earnestly contend for the faith.” That man was writing, probably in the mid to early 60s! He is writing within a few decades of the life and ministry of Jesus. Yet, he describes a cultural context very much like our own. Tonight we begin a look at the book of Jude.
Text: Jude 1-2
For most of us, Jude is that strange little book right before Revelation.
You probably know about the doxology at the end of the brief letter.
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. (24-25)
We are going to focus this evening on just the first two verses.
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
This is a common greeting according the 1st century style.
But there is so much here that is important for what is to come.
It is in the manner in which he address his audience.
I began by talking about the confusion over what it means to be a Christian. What defines us as the people of God. When we talk about defending the faith and withstanding the threats from without this is where we must begin. What does it mean to be Christian? We are witnessing the shrinking of the Church. Fewer people are going to church. Fewer people have a loyalty to the Church. I would argue we are not losing the Church we are losing nominal christians. Christians in name only. We are losing those who are loosely associated with the church for the sake of convenience but not those who are genuinely converted.
As we work through these two verses I want us to see that…
Thesis: Facing the challenges of living in a hostile environment, bombarded with false teaching and lured by false prophets demands a solid grasp of what it means to be a Christian.
Knowing who we are, this is the basis on which we stand.
Jude says three things in this regard in this opening greeting.
- A Christian is one who is effectively called out of darkness and into the light.
- A Christian is one who is loved by God the Father.
- A Christian is one who is kept by Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
This sets the context for all that follows. Our contending for the faith, our standing our ground is based on the fact that we are the people of God, called, loved and kept.
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