First, why a sermon series on Jude and why spend so much time in an epistle that is only one chapter with 25 verses? For starters, it is because we believe the Bible is the Word of God, and that it is fully inspirited by the Holy Spirit who superintended the personality and language of individuals to reveal His will to mankind in all matters upon which the sixty-six books that make up the Bible touches upon. Because the elders and I believe the Bible is the Word of God, it is our conviction that, “…it is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms, obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises.[1] This is why, included in Meadowbrooke’s Statement of Faith are these words:
We believe the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, is the divine revelation, the original autographs of which were verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit, thus rendering them trustworthy and solely authoritative in faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Pet. 1:20-21). The Scriptures reveal the mind of God concerning the need and the method of human redemption, the character and destiny of mankind, and are “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (Jn. 5:39, 2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Expository preaching is the best method to teach and communicate the intended meaning of any given section of the Bible. Because there is so much packed into 25 verses in Jude, I will spend the next five Sundays preaching from it.
The second reason why a sermon series in Jude is necessary is that we live in a very interesting time where I believe the following to be true:
- There is a new Gnosticism that threatens the Church today.
When it comes to the types of things that have threatened the church in the past and what threatens the church today there is little difference, just different dress.
Permit me to give you an overly simplistic explanation of the second century Gnosticism that threatened the early Church. First, the Gnosticism the first Church faced shared some characteristics with Judaism and Christianity, but those who were gnostic believed that salvation could only come through revealed knowledge that was either long forgotten or newly discovered. Some of the key beliefs of Gnosticism included:
- The material world is governed by evil and ignorance.
- True salvation is experienced through a secret or hidden knowledge.
- Truth is more subjective rather than objective.
Some variants of Gnostic beliefs viewed the material world as evil, to include our bodies, as such, there was no harm in indulging fleshy desires, such as sex outside of marriage, since there would be no resurrection of our bodies. Other variants of Gnostic beliefs stressed a form of asceticism, or acts of piety to earn salvation. New Testament books such as Galatians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, and Jude address and warn about Gnosticism. Paul warned of the sort of teaching the Gnostics were guilty of with these words: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8-9).
Ever since the apostles and the inclusion of the 66 books in our Bibles, there have been other books written and falsely ascribed to Thomas, Philip, Judas, and Mary, among many other writings that those sympathetic to gnostic beliefs believed to belong in Holy Scripture. Some of those writing suggest that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, Judas was actually a hero who carried out secret instructions from Jesus to betray Jesus. These writings have been long rejected throughout Church history for good reason. Jude warned about such teachings: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4).
Today, there is a new Gnosticism, or perhaps a variant of the same old Gnosticism but in 21st Century dress. There is a resurgence among Christians that there is a secret knowledge that is uncovered by ancient sacred writings not included in our Bibles due to some conspiracy to keep them closed and unavailable to the Church.
- Related to both the old and new Gnosticism is a growing trend to question, doubt, or reject the belief that Jesus is God.
This is not only true of Gnosticism, but also of any false teacher. Regarding those, “…who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (v. 1), there were “certain people” who “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (v. 4). What are some ways they deny Jesus? They deny the incarnation, that is his humanity, or his divinity, or the sufficiency of what he accomplished on the cross for sin-cursed humanity.
The one thing that just about every cult or perversion of the Gospel has in common is a diminishing of Jesus’ divinity and humanity. Why attack Jesus in this way? Because to do so is to create a different Christ. We will spend time unpacking this point during this sermon series but let me leave you with something to ponder. If Jesus is not God, then for over 2,000 years Christians have been worshiping a false God. How so? If God is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then we worship a false god. Let me put it in another way: If you trade a Jesus who is fully divine (God) and fully human, then that means you reject God as a Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), which means that you have rejected the true God for another god.
The nature of Jesus is critically important for Jude. According to Jude, God keeps those who are beloved in God the Father, for Jesus (v. 1), and it is Jesus who keeps those who are beloved in God to present us blameless before God (v. 24). If you get Jesus wrong, you will get the gospel wrong; this is why the false teachers who crept in unnoticed, attack the nature of Jesus and this is why doctrine matters.
- We live in a day and age when doctrine does not seem to matter among many who claim to be Christian.
God has communicated his will through the instrument of human language. By doing so, He has chosen to use language and the rules of grammar to reveal his will, character, nature, redemptive plan, and everything else Holy Scripture addresses. Therefore, our view and understanding of all that the Bible teaches is subject to a reading of the Bible that takes a particular section of Scripture in its grammatical, theological, historical, cultural, and literary context. This is what is called a Biblical Hermeneutic and it is a system that the Holy Spirit honors to shape and guide the Christian. This is how our understanding of the various doctrines of our faith are formed and shaped.
We live in a day and age when what or how one feels about God or His Word is the hermeneutic used to understand His Word. In other words, the doctrines of some who call themselves Christian are shaped by their feelings. According to a 2022 Ligonier Ministries’ State of Theology survey those who indicated that they strongly agreed with the following were considered evangelical:
- The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
- It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
- Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
- Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.
What is shocking is a significant number of evangelicals surveyed profoundly misunderstood the nature and character of God:
- Almost three out of four (73 percent) agree with the claim that Jesus is the “first and greatest being created by God.”
- More than half (58 percent) believe that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
- More than half (56 percent) agree that worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church.
- More than half (55 percent) believe the Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.
- More than half (55 percent) agree that “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”
- More than half (53 percent) disagree with the claim that even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.
- More than one in three (46 percent) disagree that every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.
- Almost half (44 percent) say that Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.
- Almost one-third (29 percent) agreed with the statement that God learns and adapts to different circumstances, while only 43 percent disagreed.[2]
What this survey reveals is that many Christians today do not understand or hold to, “…the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). For these reasons and more is why I am convinced a sermon series in Jude is important.
- There is a lot going on in our world that is unsettling.
There are great global sorrows we may face in this generation or maybe the next generation; the question I am haunted by is how am I as your pastor preparing you for such sorrows that are coming? John Piper wrote in his book, Spectacular Sins: “Christians in the West are weakened by wimpy worldviews. And wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. God is weightless in our lives. He is not terrifyingly magnificent. His sovereignty is secondary (at best) to his sensitivity.”[3] I believe Piper is right. I believe an expository sermon series on Jude, or any book for that matter, helps prepare us for both global sorrows and personal sorrows such as cancer, divorce, general suffering, etc.
Here is what expository preaching does best: It shines the light of God’s word upon the mind in such a way that the Holy Spirit creates fire in the heart of the Christian.
For all that is going on in your world, Jude begins his letter by revealing a Christ who made it possible for you to be the recipient of the mercy, peace, and love of a holy God. Jude then concludes his letter by reminding us that it is not by our power or might that salvation is possible, but on the Christ who keeps us:
“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.” (Jude 24–25)
[1] The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy; 1974.
[2] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/state-theology-2022
[3] John Piper. Spectacular Sins (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books
