We begin today with the epistle of Jude. Jude for beginners.
We're gonna cover verses 1 to 16 in this one chapter epistle.
This is part one of a two-part series.
Well in a regular adult Bible class there are a variety of ways to approach
the study of God's Word. The most common approach
is to study about a person, pick a character in the Bible or you
pick a topic or an event or
a specific teaching or doctrine and you go through
the Bible or through the New Testament if you wish
always looking at all the passages that have to do with that person or that event or
that particular teaching.
These types of lessons
you know where you're looking at you know a person or teaching or an event,
something like that, they are called topical lessons,
because the teacher has a topic or a person
and teaches us what the Bible says about that particular
person or topic and so on and so forth but
this is not the the only style of preaching and teaching as you well know.
Another approach is called expository preaching or expository teaching.
Expository preaching is where a teacher
focuses on a single verse of scripture.
He picks one verse of scripture
and explains the meaning of that verse of scripture
in the context of the entire passage
in which it is found as well as the context of the entire Bible.
So in expository teaching the key is to determine
what the passage (you know the selected passage)
what does that passage mean or what did it mean
to the people it was originally spoken to
and then once you've kinda discovered that you kind of make
you make applications in the
modern era or for today's hearers.
Now aside from a topical
lessons or sermons, an expository
Bible teaching and preaching there's also what's called
textual preaching and teaching this is where the teacher
will try to explain the purpose
and the content of an entire chapter
or even an entire book of the Bible and the goal
of textual preaching or teaching is to summarize the reasons why
the book was written, who wrote that book or epistle,
and what it said to the people at that time as well as what it says to the people
of today. So you may be wondering why my
explaining all this as we go into
the study of the epistle of Jude? Well the reason I'm telling you give you this
little bit background is this
two-part series that we're doing
is a textual lesson that will review the author and the content and the purpose
of this particular epistle. So just a few preliminary remarks before we begin
our actual study. So let's take a look at
you know in that context of doing a textual study.
Let's do a little bit a background about
Jude the individual whose name
is attached to this particular epistle.
We know that Jude names himself
in the very first verse about this epistle and says that he is the
brother of James.
Now the fact that he assumes that his readers will know who James
is, suggests that
it is the James you know one of the
leaders of the Jerusalem church at the time.
And the writer of the epistle of James.
The fact that there's no explanatory information about who
this James is, this suggests that he was
the James that was well known in the church for his epistle and of course
for his leadership in the key Jerusalem church. As I mentioned.
So this would make Jude another brother of Jesus
(Earthly brother of Jesus). We know in Matthew 13:55,
Matthew names Jesus' earthly brothers:
James, Joseph, Simon and Judas.
Which is another form of the name Jude.
Now along with his brothers Jude
did not believe while Jesus was
ministering here on earth and must have been converted
after the resurrection and we know
therefore that he was with the Apostles in the upper room on Pentecost Sunday.
We learn about that in Acts 1:14.
Now there's not a lot of
information about Jude, only what we can gather from
putting together the the clues if you wish
in his epistle but church historian Eusebius
in 96 AD wrote that Jude
the brother of Jesus suffered the arrest of his grandsons
during the Roman persecution and they told, apparently,
they told the Emperor at that time that they were farmers
and that the kingdom of Jesus was not of this world
but of the next world when Jesus would return
to judge everyone. Aside from that mention in history,
we don't know much else
about this particular person the
the writer of the letter of Jude.
Now the Epistle itself, let's take a look at that.
There are similarities between Jude's Epistle
Epistle is a word that means letter so you know they are interchangeable.
There are similarities between Jude's Epistle
and the second chapter of II Peter. As matter fact one of the passages
is a direct quote. This has led to the conclusion that
during the period when various heresies we're entering into the church
at that time, Peter the Apostle wrote
his second Epistle in order to refute
some other false doctrine that was being spread in the church.
Now Jude had been intending to write
an Epistle with a with a broad themes something
based on the idea that you know salvation is only in Jesus Christ,
he writes about that in verse 3: but when he recognized the threat to the church
after reading Peter second letter he wrote this much shorter and much more
pointed Epistle
concerning the very same subject that Peter was writing about.
Remember these people
here are contemporaries and they're reading each others material and they're circulating
in the same circles. Now there's been no doubt
about the authorship of this letter by Jude
and the subject matter suggest that it was written around the same time or
perhaps a slightly later
then II Peter and that would put it around 67 AD
Now it took a while for the letter to be accepted into
the New Testament canon
The term canon, not like a cannon,
a gun, but 'canon'
means a measure and it was the
the canon of the New Testament refers to those books which measured up if you wish.
Which were permitted to be included in
the group of books which are considered inspired, so the New Testament canon
is made above those books which measured up,
if you wish, to be included in that group so it took awhile for this particular
letter to be accepted
into the New Testament canon because of its brevity
and the fact that it refers to non inspired sources.
You'll see as we study that Jude
refers to Enoch and then to the Book of Moses and these are two books
that were not in the Old Testament canon, in other words they weren't inspired
books and so there was some question as to
should we include an epistle or a letter
in the canon that refers to other material that
is not in the canon but eventually it was, eventually its authenticity
and the soundness of its teaching were recognized
and accepted as inspired material.
Now, Jude's goal in this letter was to encourage or exhort the church
not to depart from the established teachings of Jesus Christ
and his apostles and you know he was telling them to stick to that and not
move towards the false teaching
of the false teachers that are at that time.
Who were teaching a form of gnosticism.
I'll explain what that means in a moment. So from his writings we conclude
that there existed in the first century, a body
of Christian doctrine that was recognized as authoritative
and complete for the purpose of
evangelisation and teaching and so on and so forth.
And according to his writing, this body of information, this body of
Christian teaching
was not to be added to or taken away
from or changed in any way so this is the main thrust of his
exhortation to those who are reading his letter.
Now, we in the churches of Christ, we believe that
this body of doctrine was recorded and preserved
in the Bible and as Jude wrote in his epistle
in the modern day, today, we're very careful to teach
and to preserve and to pass on this body of doctrine to the next generation
and we encourage them of course to do the very same thing
until Jesus comes. So this approach to Scripture
is a actually unique in many ways to our brotherhood
and it's one of the important ways that we are different then many of our
neighbors in the
religious community. Alright,
so there's a little bit a background about the times in which
this letter was written, some information about
Jude himself, the letter, how it was accepted in the early church
and a little bit about the main theme or main idea.
Let's take a look at the
outline of this letter. Jude's letter focuses
on the danger of following or teaching things which are false
and so the outline follows this particular theme.
So you have the salutation in verses 1 and 2.
Then the danger at hand - he explains what the danger is to the church
vs. 3 and 4. Then he talks about the people who are bringing this danger
who are causing this danger - vs. 5 to 16.
An exhortation or encouragement to
avoid the danger and how to avoid
this particular danger and then a doxology or or praise
in the last a couple up verses. Alright, so there's the outline let's start to
look at this text, as we follow the same
outline for our study. So we begin
with verses 1 and 2 he says,
Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ,
and brother of James, to those who are the called,
beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
Now the name Jude
could be a form of common names of that era,
Judas or Jacob, that the writer changed for obvious reasons,
you know, he wouldn't wanna call himself Judus and be confused with the
disciple or the apostle that had betrayed the Lord.
So what does he say about himself? Well he claims to be a bond servant
or a slave of Jesus Christ
and a brother of James, which
as I mentioned helps us fix exactly who we is in the context of that time in
that family and the church.
So this is an indirect way,
if you wish, of referring to his other relationship
with Jesus as his earthly brother. He didn't come out and say it
I think humility restrains him from actually saying it but he says it in an
indirect way, everyone knew that James was
an earthly brother of Jesus and so he says well I'm
a brother of James and so it's left to the reader
to kind of, you know, connect the dots if you wish. We know that James
was killed by the Jews in 66 AD
and that this letter here may have been Jude's
attempt to step into his brother's place as one of the leaders
of the church in Jerusalem. Natural. He was involved.
He was recognized. His brother James,
a very important leader in the Jerusalem
congregation is killed and so Jude steps up
to fill some of the vacuum left behind. So he refers to the church
in these first 2 verses in 3 ways, very interesting,
He first of all, refers to the church as the "called"
in the Greek, which is the language in the New Testament
'ecclesia' which literally meant the called out.
Now originally
this term ecclesia or the called out was a term used
for the elders or the leaders of a city
or a village, who were chosen or called out to occupy
a certain position, a position of leadership, a bit like the city
council, the city fathers, if you wish,
but Jesus took this term
and applied it to those who were called out of the world by the gospel
and became his people, the church,
and ultimately this term ecclesia was used
exclusively in reference to
the church. He refers to the church as the "called"
then as the beloved in God the Father. Now these people,
the church, have a new status in regards to God, they're no longer condemned sinners,
they're no longer enemies of God because of disbelief.
Jude says they are now beloved and cherished,
especially loved,
group by God and then
the third term "kept" for Jesus.
Three ways are referring to the very same people, God's hand,
he says, is protecting these people from the second death,
from condemnation and punishment so they can be with Jesus forever
when he returns. So there end
he says at the very beginning of the letter, will be different
then the destiny of others. They are kept aside.
They're protected. They're kept safe for the time that they will be
transported, if you wish, or changed or glorified
into a heavenly realm with Jesus.
So after this introduction and reading he moves on to the
to the matter at hand. This is verse 3 and 4 he says,
Beloved while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation,
I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed,
those who were long before hand marked out
for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turned the grace of our God
into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
He begins by sharing the motivation
behind you know his writing of this particular letter.
His original thought was to write to them
a kind of a summary of the Christian faith
and encourage them to, you know, persevere in the
faith and pass it on to other people,
but it seems that he changed the substance of his letter
and redirected the thought to deal with some of the issues
that Peter, as I mentioned before, that Peter the Apostle dealt with
in his second epistle. So this was the
influence, what he's talking about here is the influence
above the gnostic teachers and the gnostic
type doctrine that was being promoted in the church.
Now the persons that he mentions
are the teachers who have crept into teach these things
in the church and he says that
these people were marked and judged
beforehand. The fact that he says this is a reference to Peters epistle
and the denunciation of these people.
Peter talks about the very same people, very same problem in II Peter
chapter 2 and following. He says that their sin
is that according to their teachings
anything done in the body has no effect on the soul.
That was the essence of the false teaching that was
beginning to creep into the church at the hand of these
teachers the idea that you did whatever had no effect on your soul.
So this idea here lead to all kinds of
immoral behavior effectively turning the idea of God's grace into a kind of
permission to do
pretty much anything you wanted to do. You know,
the net result of this kind of thinking and lifestyle was to grossly
disrespect the fact that
Jesus sacrificed his body in death to obtain
forgiveness for the very things that these teachers were promoting
You know, they were saying, "look
whatever you do it doesn't affect the soul" you know it was
based on the idea of duality there's a separation you know
between the body and the that the spirit in the flesh they didn't
co-mingle in any way, so whatever you did in the body was just in the body
it didn't affect the soul it didn't affect the spirit.
Well you know, that was a
dangerous teaching, it was a very dangerous teaching we'll talk about
how this would play out in the congregation and in the minds of people.
In the end he says Jude says in the end the false teachers were found guilty
of denying Jesus and the danger for those who followed them
was that they would be guilty of the same kind of sin
that the teachers were guilty of.
So you know, they were dangerous people who were going in to the church.
Let's read some more and he talks about these, he says,
Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all
that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed
those who did not believe.
And angels who did not keep their own domain,
but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds
under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
And then he says, just as Sodom and Gomorrah
and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross
immorality and went after strange flesh
are exhibited as an example in undergoing
the punishment of eternal fire. So what's he talking about?
First of all, he's talking about this false doctrine permeating
and then these men here who are teaching this
are going to be condemned. Well he mentions here, he gives examples of what
happened to various individuals
who disobeyed or disbelieve in the past
so he mentions the Israelites, at first,
you know, they were God's people and they were
freed from slavery in a miraculous way but Jude says
when they disbelieved and rebelled God destroyed them
in the desert. I mean from the generation that left
Egypt the only people that made it to the promised land
alive were Joshua and Caleb.
All the others died in the desert and why
Jude said because of their disbelief because of their disobedience.
Then he mentions angels.
He says angels who are you know of course more powerful beings than human
were also punished when some of them rebelled
against God. They each were created and were placed at a certain station,
or rule or dominion
in the spiritual world we know that. Ephesians 1:21 & Colossians 1:16
tells us that.
However, Jude says, some of them were dissatisfied with their place
and they desired a position not available to them
and what happened? They were punished for their pride
now you know that a lot of speculation about this we
We don't know the details of this rebellion
(about the Angels) only that it happened
and the results. Now some think that
the sin here that Jude is talking about
is that angels took wives.
Let's look at a passage here
In the Genesis chapter 6:1-4
Now it came about when men began to multiply on the
face of the land and daughters were born to them,
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful
and they took wise for themselves whomever they chose.
Then the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever
because he is also flesh; nevertheless as his days shall be hundred and twenty years."
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days,
and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men
and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men were of old,
men of renown.
So, this passage here where
Jude is talking about angels and they went after strange flesh
some people believe or the theory suggests
that angels took women as wives
and this theory suggests that in doing so they created a race
of super type humans
who led the rush to wickedness that eventually
resulted in the flood.
And those who promote this idea, this theory, suggests that
this was an attempt by Satan to destroy humans
and of course avoid the eventual coming of Christ.
Again, speculation about what exactly Jude
is talking about.
So let's get back to our main point right, so Jude is saying the
false teachers are going to be judged and he give some
history about others who were judged for disbelief and disobedience the Israelites,
for example, were judged for
a disbelief then and disobedience
then he mentions the angels who left their proper place whatever they did,
they disobeyed God, they also
were punished and then he mentions
the pagans they also are punished
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their disobedience of God
and their disobedience of God's law concerning sexual conduct.
They were destroyed by fire.
So the point that Jude is making here is that
regardless of the person or the being,
whether it is a saved person, you like the Israelites,
a chosen person by God, or a spiritual being
like an angel or even a pagan people
like the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and
by extension even a Christian who denies Christ somehow.
If you disobey God's command,
if you deny God's Savior, if you disbelieve his Word,
Jude is saying, you will be punished and
you will be destroyed. So a very strong
warning against the false teachers
and their teaching and those who
are seduced by that and go over to that particular teaching.
So now Jude turns his attention to the false teachers themselves
not just their judgment, their eventual judgment, but those people themselves
and he describes the manner in which they operate
and the sins that they commit in their quest
to capture unsuspecting souls. So let's read verses 8, 9 and 10, shall we, it says,
Yet in the same way these men,
also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and rejected authority,
and revile angelic majesties.
But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about
the body of Moses,
did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said,
"The Lord rebuke you!" But these men
revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know
by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things
they are destroyed.
So the things these false teachers teach
have no basic authority,
this is what Jude is saying,
apostolic teaching and divine interpretation.
They have no authority to teach
like the Apostles have authority to teach. Jude is saying their work
is a result of nothing more than their imagination,
their dreams. The results of their
dreaming however are threefold. First of all he says,
they cause men to defile their flesh. In other words, they cause man
to participate in immoral behavior.
Well think about that for a second.
If you believe the idea that nothing you do in your body has any effect on your
soul or your spirit, well then you can do whatever you want in your body
conscious free, right?
With a clear conscience. You can commit adultery. You can
participate in any form of sexual immorality or dishonesty or
whatever because you're saying you know whatever I'm doing in my flesh
has no effect on my soul. So that's one of the results
of the teaching. Another one it says they reject the
authority of Christ
and his Word over them. The idea there is this is not at all what Jesus
taught and what the Apostles taught. So by teaching this
and accepting their particular doctrine
the brothers there, the Christians there
were in effect rejecting Christ, rejecting his authority
and then he says, they insult (they the teachers)
they insult angelic beings who are greater than they are
with their attitude and teachings. Perhaps their teaching,
(they the false teachers) perhaps they're are also teaching
incorrect things about the role angels and so on and so forth and by doing so
they insult the angels. And he uses Michael the archangel
his humility not bringing you know
a curse on satan.
So Jude cites an inspired example of what angels are really like
and how they act in regards to respect for Christ.
And that final passage, where he talks about
Michael the archangel in a situation where Michael
would have a reason to pronounce judgment on Satan
he restrains himself and defers to Christ's judgment knowing that this is
not his place
only the place of Christ. In other words, Christ will do the judging.
So even a mighty angel who is greater than a human being
in power and so on and so forth,
will not pronounce judgment, will not
leave his place, will not do something against God's Word
like these false teachers. So these men ,these teachers, however
they have no such restraint, no such respect for the Lord
and the act like animals he says. Following not reason
or revelation but like animals following their feelings
their instincts and he says they're going to end up like animals who are
oblivious to the fact that they're being fattened for the purpose of slaughter.
You know, God permits their disobedience and rebellion
so that there will be no question that their punishment will be justified when
it comes. It's as if God is saying, "go ahead do your worst."
but there'll be no excuse at the end when you're judged
and when you are punished.
So in verse 11 it says, "Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain,
and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of
Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah."
So Jude names other infamous people who like these false teachers
faced condemnation and punishment for following unrighteousness.
He uses Cain, for example,
as an example, about what happened to Cain. We know what happened to Cain he
was ostracized. He was marked.
Then he talks about Balaam. Balaam was a false prophet who led the Israelites
into idolatry and then later was killed
for his rebellion and if we remember also the Old Testament the
sons of Korah they rebelled against Moses authority,
and what happened to them? They were swallowed up by the earth.
We read about that in Numbers 16:1.
So these false teachers will all be destroyed
like their predecessors. Basically what Jude is saying, giving
example after example of those who acted
in the same way as these false teachers and what happened to them.
So let's read verses 12 and 13, he says, "These are the men who are hidden
reefs in your love feasts
when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves;
clouds without water, carried along by winds;
autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead,
uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam;
wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever."
So Jude rebukes these false teachers for their sins
and basically points out how worthless they are
and I don't know if you noted here the ways that he talks about
how worthless they are. First of all, he says they are
they are reefs that present the unseen danger
in what seems like a calm water of congregational light. You know the reefs are
always under water,
the water looks calm and you think you can just the take your
boat or ship
but the reefs lie underneath, and present danger. He says well
they're like reefs their under the surface there,
the calm water of peace and love in the congregation but underneath you know
there's the danger of these guys here,
their work, their teachings, to destroy the church
He says they're like
waterless clouds promising a lot but delivering nothing.
He says they're like fruitless trees that require care
and pruning and so on and so forth but they don't produce anything, so
therefore they're not worth anything.
He calls them waves that make noise and produce
only their shameful deeds as a result.
And then he says they're like wandering stars, you know,
in other words, not fixed stars, that are up some use
but wandering stars that will be swallowed by the blackness of hell.
So quite a rebuke,
quite a powerful rebuke here.
So Jude delivers a stinging attack on the value and character
of the ones advocating this false doctrine,
this false teaching, and also this immoral and unfaithful lifestyle
that this particular teaching seems to produce.
So he goes on and talks about in verse 14 and 15,
he says, "It was also about these men that
Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam,
prophesied, saying "Behold the Lord came
with many thousands of His holy ones,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their
ungodly deeds
which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which
ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
So Jude does something interesting here I mentioned at the beginning.
He goes to an unusual source for a prophecy
against such people and how they will be,
how they will be punished. Now so far,
Jude has referred to the Old Testament
to different chapters in the Old Testament
and also to Peter's epistle for quotes and for ideas to build his case
but now he goes to the book of Enoch
as a basis for how God will treat the likes of these false teachers.
So let me tell you a little bit about the book of Enoch.
Now, the book of Enoch was,
rather not the book but Enoch
was the seventh generation from Adam
and as Genesis 5:21-27 says
Enoch was a prophet of God for his generation
Enoch was the father of Methuselah, right?
we know Methuselah, the oldest recorded
life span, Methuselah. So Enoch was the father
of Methuselah and he it says that Enoch did not suffer death
but was taken up by God.
So in some way Enoch's prophecies were handed down verbally
and then in written form
so that the Jews of the first century had access to them in some way.
Now even though Enoch's words or book
were not sufficiently accessible, or complete enough, to be included in the
Old Testament canon, (those inspired writings)
Enoch's book was not included in that group writings.
It seems that Jude, as an inspired writer,
used a portion of his ancient prophecies
to apply them to this particular situation.
So Enoch spoke of the end times when God would judge
all evil men and Jude
uses this quotation, if you wish, to apply to these particular
men in his time, in his generation.
Now we don't know what you know. Why did Jude use
Enoch's word. You know we don't why but we do know however
that the words fit the occasion.
So I make a speculation here, perhaps
Jude is using a non-inspired,
you know, source here
to show that their type, in other words these false teachers, these
type of evil men were always known
even in antiquity and their end
was predicted from long ago. So the point I'm making here is that,
he uses Enoch, a writer and a person that goes all the way back to
before the flood, okay,
and he shows that even in those ancient times
the prophets of God knew who evil men were
and knew what would become of them in God's judgment. So he's saying, look
even the men of old knew these guys and knew what would happen to him
and so he brings it forward and he says these are the same types, the same spirit,
the same evil, is going on
and the same judgment will be visited upon these individuals.
Then in verse 16 he says,
"These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts;
they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage."
So verse 16 is kind of a bridge, if you wish, to the final section of the letter
where Jude will address the faithful and encourage them.
He's finished talking about the evil ones.
He's talked about the teaching and the emptiness of their teaching, the danger
of their teaching, he's talked about the individuals who are doing the teaching
and what will happen to them,
and in our next lesson we are going to take a look at some of the things that
Jude says to the faithful about maintaining their faith.
So in this verse he describes the character and the style of these men
and as I said he's gonna go on to encourage
the faithful not to emulate their particular action.
Okay, so there's the starting lesson, first portion of Jude.
We're going to continue in this series,
another lesson next time we meet. Thank you very much for your attention.