Jude - Don't be Afraid

Jude 1:3-4


Don’t be Afraid


Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord ^[a]God and our Lord Jesus Christ.


Well it’s October and that means Fall Festivals, but also Halloween and scary movies! We have an interesting relationship with scary movies. Fun fact! During times of social or economic difficult viewership and consumption of horror movies increases! Think of the original Universal Horror films Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, all were made during the great depression. In the 90’s, I remember a lot of talk of Generation X as the “Lost generation” so it’s fitting that the greatest horror movie of my generation was not Kevin Costner’s Waterworld but The Blair Witch Project. A movie about three college age kids that got lost in the woods, couldn’t find there way out and got eaten by a witch or something.


Now, I personally do not care for horror movies. If I want to be scared  ‘I’ll think about the fact that my daughters are going to be dating sooner rather than later. Yet, when The Blair Witch came out in the summer of 99 I somehow, was talked into going to see it by my friends Nick & Jared. They also had the bright idea of going to see the latest showing of it. Show of hands anyone willing to admit that they’ve seen this movie? That’s a creepy movie still today, it was seriously terrifying in 1999. The ride back to Nick’s house right past the county line wasn’t to bad. There was 3 of us in the car. The 10 minute or less ride from Nick’s house to my house was another story. Here it is like 1:30 in the morning or something. It’s dark, still, and quiet. 501 wasn’t as developed back then as it is now. I had never noticed so many wooded areas on my ride home. Then I started hearing noises. Then this thought popped into my head. What if my truck breaks down? This is pre-cell phone era! I’d have to walk!


THAT’S EXACTLY THE WITCHES PLAN TO GET ME! HER AND THE BOOGEYMAN! By the time I had gotten safely home (all 8 minutes of that drive) I had formulated at least 20 different plans on what to do when I was attacked by a made up monster that I didn’t even know what it looked like! Yet, that’s what fear does. It gets us all wound up, puts us on tilt. Let’s dig a little more into Jude with tonight’s message “Don’t be afraid”

 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 


Last time we looked at who wrote Jude and why. Jude was written by Jude the full brother of James (book of James) and the half brother of Jesus. Yet, instead of claiming close blood relation to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, he instead referred to himself as a bondservant, a person totally dedicated to the service of their master, of Christ. Now with the introduction done he gets to the point of his letter.


He says, beloved, those that are loved by the Father, I write to you concerning our common salvation. Our salvation isn’t common in the sense that it is cheap or that everyone has it. It is common in the sense that we are saved in common, we have all come by the way of the Cross. One of the times I went to Asia on mission I got to enjoy a service at an International Baptist Church. It was one of the most unique services I had ever attended. It wasn’t unique in it’s methodology. In fact it looked similar to any service you might attend on a Sunday in the US. There were greeters, a baptism, we sang some hymns, there was a praise band, then the pastor went through his sermon while running some PowerPoint slides. No, what was so different was the audience! The deacons I met were Chinese. The gentlemen that was baptized was British. South Africans were running the sound system. The family in front of us was Canadian. The pastor, was a good ol boy from Kentucky! It truly was an international service. We all rejoiced in our common salvation.


God doesn’t have one way for the rich and another way for the poor, or one way for the good and another way for the bad. We all come to God the same way. If it isn’t a common salvation, it isn’t God’s salvation – and it isn’t salvation at all.


To be a Christian is to be a part of a community. To be a Christian means you stand shoulder to shoulder with millions of Christians who have gone before. We stand with strong Christians and weak Christians, brave Christians and cowardly Christians, old Christians and young Christians. We are part of an invisible, mighty army that spans back through the generations. A mighty fortress is our God, and a mighty army is under His command.


. “Upon other matters there are distinctions among believers, but yet there is a common salvation enjoyed by the Arminian as well as by the Calvinist, possessed by the Presbyterian as well as by the Episcopalian, prized by the Quaker as well as by the Baptist. Those who are in Christ are more near of kin than they know of, and their intense unity in deep essential truth is a greater force than most of them imagine: only give it scope and it will work wonders.” (Spurgeon)


Jude says, hey you are the mighty army of God! Act like it! We are to contend for the faith! The ancient Greek word translated “contend” comes from the athletic world – from the wrestling mat. Side Note: Righteous mania would make an excellent wrestling themed VBS.


What’s it mean to contend? We fight for something, we agonize over it, we are in a constant state of struggle over it. We win some, we lose some, but we always contend. We all know how to contend for things that we want and things that we believe. Yet, what are we supposed to actually be contending for?


⁴ For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord ^[a]God and our Lord Jesus Christ.


Funny thing is, when it’s our opinion, when we think we are right about something, we will fight to death over it. The last presidential election saw us lose members, friendships were damaged, some still haven’t been repaired to this day. I’ve had to physically separate people before on a Wednesday night, during college basketball season. I know of more than one romantic relationship here in the church that broke up due to an argument over what song to play in guitar hero. Who knew Guitar Hero was so divisive?



We know we should contend, we just don’t want to contend for what matters. We will fight to the death, burn our entire world down, to be right about something stupid, and irrelevant, because someone hurt our feelings. When those things could easily be brushed aside with just a fraction of the grace and forgiveness God has shown us. Yet, when it is time for us to fight for what matters we stay silent.


Because of this, certain men have crept in unnoticed, ungodly men, who take the grace of Christ and turn it into lewdness. Who deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ. False doctrine is subtle. It creeps in unnoticed it pretends to be our friend, but it isn’t. It plays on our fears and our selfish desires.

What’s false doctrine? Anything that tries to add to or take away from Jesus on the Cross. Anything that presents Jesus as less than God incarnate. Anything that says there is another way to heaven that’s not the way of the cross. We are saved by grace through faith not of works lest any man should boast. These are the things worth contending over. These are the things where we speak the truth in love to any and all whom we might find an audience with. This is the hill to die on. Not an election, sporting event, or video game. I know how scary this can be firsthand, yet I praise God constantly for the people that reached out to me in faith before I knew Him. So many got such terrible responds from me as I reacted out of pain and conviction. I look forward to seeing them in heaven and going hey! It made a difference. God used you to make a difference. Praise Him!  


Conclusion:

I listened and read from a lot of different pastors, with different backgrounds, denominations, churches, locations, etc. It’s really helpful to hearing other points of view whether or not I agree with them. This one guy told his amusing story from when he was a teenager growing up in the church.  He was up here in the mountains of NC at one of those old timey tent revivals. The big tent, the organ music, the large preacher with the layered suit that’s mainly for the purpose of removing while he preaches. The handerchef to dab the sweat from his face, neck and brow. Good ol fashioned KJV fire and brimstone! He  comes down during the altar call and the preacher prayed over him saying “Be ye not askeered for the Lord is not askeered!”


It makes me laugh every time I think about it honestly. We so quickly get dominated by our fears. In the next 12 months you will be hit with ad, after ad, social media post after social media post, that is designed to make you feel one thing “Fear”. Fear of democrats and republicans, foreigners and neighbors, the rich poor, men, women, children and fast food restaurants. You need to be afraid of them all for they are coming to get you! Lock your doors and load your guns! Then comes a subtle lie. That the only way, the only way, to stay safe is if the right people get elected and for them to get elected they need your support and by support they mean money.  Certain people, that crept in unnoticed, who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Now I think you should vote and vote prayerfully and intelligently. I don’t think you should be afraid.

Whomever sits in the oval office, the governor’s mansion, or even at city hall, it doesn’t Change for one nanosecond who sits upon the throne, The Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! Don’t be Afraid.

Hey from Jude

I stated in my last sermon I would start putting my notes online. Here you go! This is my most recent Wednesday night sermon. The disclaimer is that while these are my notes, what my notes are and what comes out of my mouth is not 100% the same. Maybe 90% or so. Enjoy!

Jude 1:1-2


Hey from Jude.


Earlier in the year we finished our study of the books of Samuel. Last time we finished our study of the 7 last sayings of Christ from the cross. I’ve had an increasing number of you start to request my notes over the last few months. I have ambitions plans to start putting those online in addition to the videos you can replay on our youtube channel.  If/When that happens I will let you know. Tonight we start our new book! We started Genesis in 2008 and finished that in 2012. Then we started 1 & 2 Samuel in 2013 and finished in 2019. Tonight we start our next new book! How long will it take? Weeks? Months? Years! Let’s find out! Turn to Revelation Chapter 1. That’s exciting right? The book of Revelation! That’s an indepth study that could easily take years and years.  Let me know when you have found it with a hearty amen! Great. We aren’t actually studying Revelation though. So, go back about 1-2 pages to the book of Jude. As we get into our next book and tonights message entitled “Hey, from Jude”.

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,

To those who are called, ^[a]sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:

² Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you

So, any pastor will tell you one of the greatest battles they have when preaching & teaching is what next? Even when you are in a book or series that you know will be years the “What next God?” is usually there in the back of your head. Realistically, it’s not like you can go wrong with God’s Word. It’s all good and more importantly it’s all God. After much prayer I started learning towards Jude as a Segway between the rest of the year and January when we start our next book which will be, one of the books in the Bible.


You generally don't hear many messages from Jude. Most of us might not have known it was a book in the Bible. It’s so short. It’s just kind of sandwiched in-between 1,2,3 John and Revelation. Almost like a speed bump if you will, or that in flight safety demonstration that flight attendants do right before the plane takes off.


After all, Revelation is the grand finale! The special effects extravaganza! It’s the end game!  Revelation is the apokalupsis, the apokalupsis being the appearing of Jesus Christ, the second coming. In fact, the book of Revelation is called the revelation of Jesus Christ.


There’s nothing to add to Revelation. When Revelation is done, all that God wanted to say has been said because that takes you write out into eternity. Right? It ends with the return of Jesus Christ, His millennial kingdom, at the end of which He defeats the final rebellion – Satan and the sinners on the earth, and healthiest earth and its environs, the created universe as we know it is uncreated, goes out of existence. The new heaven and the new earth, which is the eternal stage, are created, and we go on to eternal heaven, and the ungodly, along with Satan and all those who were associated with him in demonic or human realms, go into the lake of fire forever, and that’s the end.


So, what do we know about Jude? Why place it here of all places? God doesn’t do things without a purpose. Let’s see what Jude has to say about himself.


Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother to James. This is, most likely,  this is not James the Disciple but James who wrote the book of James. James, of the book of James, was half brother to Jesus. That makes Jude the half brother to Jesus.


Let’s switch gears for a minute and talk about clothes. Anyone here currently own or have owned a piece of clothing from Polo Ralph Lauren? That’s a decent number of you. Fun Fact! If you do own something with that polo pony logo on it. Unless you bought it overseas, that came from Greensboro, NC! Polo Ralph Lauren’s Distribution Warehouse for all of North America is in Greensboro, NC! IT employees about 3000 people. For two months in late 2005 I was one of those employees! I worked in their IT department as one of the guys on the phone that reset your password and asked if you had tried turning it off and on again.


The thing that struck me about that place though, was the pecking order. You immediately knew where you ranked amongst everyone else in the entire organization worldwide, not just the people in NC. Everyone threw there weight around no matter how little they had. I literally had two documents pinned to my cubicle wall with flow charts of the top 1% of the company.


Obviously the most important person was Ralph. Just slightly below that tier was Ralph’s Son David and Ralph’s first employee a lady named Buffy.  I never got to talk to Ralph. I doubt more than a handful of people in that entire building every got to talk to Ralph. However, not to brag but, on my last day there, your illustrious associate pastor, got to talk to David Lauren’s Administrative Assistant’s, Administrative Assistant! While I am 5 people from Kevin Bacon, I am only 3 people from Ralph Lauren! As of August this year I am now only 1 person from the Pope, which I believe makes me the most Catholic person in the entire county! You can tell who the yankees are by who laughed at that joke.


Jude is the half brother of Jesus! The King of Kings, The Lord of Lords! The Author and perfecter of our faith! Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jude could claim close blood relation to Jesus! Many societies may have viewed him as a demigod. He could wield power and influence over a significant number of people just on that name! Yet, how does he refer to himself?


A bondservant of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be a bond servant? We don’t understand. We don’t have servants. In fact, to even remotely hint at something even resembling being a servant is enough to get people outside your place of work protesting you and calling for you to be fired and made anathema to the human race for the rest of your existence.


The Greek here is Dolas, a slave, a bond man, a person of servile condition, devoted to one’s master to the disregard of one's own interest.


Sunday, David asked, who is Jesus to you? Tonight, I asked the other side of that question. Who are you to Jesus? Are the one giving orders or are you the one taking orders? Are you the one working to please your master or are you the one who wishes to be pleased? Who is on the cross? Who is on the throne?


Without a doubt, Jude valued the fact that Jesus was his half-brother and that he grew up in the same household as Jesus. But even more valuable to him was his new relationship with Jesus. To Jude, the blood of the cross that saved him was more important than the family blood in his veins that related him.


Now that we know who wrote it. Who is he writing it to? Believers.


We so frequently forget who we are. We spend so much time trying to be someone or something else. Maybe we are trying to be who people say we are or say we should be. Maybe we are trying to be the opposite of those things just out of spite. Somehow we simulteanously thing we are the worst thing in the world and the best thing in the world and we wish to be treated as both!

Yet, it doesn’t matter what we think we are, or other people. What matters is who God says that we are.

To those who are called, ^[a]sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:

Jude identified his readers as Christians. And gives us three signs, three reminders of who we are. We are the called. We are Christian because God has called us, and we answered when that call came in. Many of you have told me your stories of how you ignored and avoided that call but God pursued you until you finally answered!


We are the sanctified of God. We are set apart, apart from the world, saved by and for the Lord that we might do good works, not for our salvation, or our own glory, but His.


We are the preserved in Jesus.  When I say preserved, I imagine most of you thought of food. Maybe you literally thought of preserves. Maybe you grew up on a farm canning food for the winter. That’s not what is being talked about here. This is actually a military term. It’s talking about a fortress, or a large military force prepared for battle. We are preserved in Jesus. Jesus Christ is our guardian, our protector, our fortress. He will be with us every step of the way. His will will be done.


Finally, Jude says “Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” If I told you, you could get 3 wishes from God, what would you ask for? You could ask him anything and he would do it. I think for the majority of us the first two would be some form of health and wealth. The third one we would likely be held on to until we really needed or some type of personal wish fulfillment. Athletic ability, superpowers, really good luck, etc. 


Yet, if we talked about why you want those things and drilled down to it. It’s so we would worry less. It’s so we wouldn’t be afraid. If we had enough money, we wouildn’t worry about money things. If we and all our loved ones were 100% healthy then that carries a measure of relaxation as well. When we are honest, at the root of all our fantasies, wishes and worries is a desire for peace.

Yet, the only place we find true lasting mercy and peace is as bondservants of Jesus Christ.