16 minute read
My Pulpit Message Notes: CONTEND FOR THE FAITH
from TT 187
by TIMES TODAY
CONTEND FOR THE FAITH
Advertisement
This epistle was written to the early church that they may be strong in very tough times.
1. AUTHOR: Jude 1a
2. AUDIENCE: Jude 1:1b-3
3. ATTACK: Jude 1:3-19
AUTHOR - Jude 1a
It is obvious who the author of this particular book is, Jude, or known as Judas, but who is he outside of the name, because it was a very common name? What is the author’s DNA? What was his true identity? And he does that by self-revelation in verse one.
I. Servant / Bond Slave
- Jude, a servant (other versions - a bond-slave) of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. We see several things there that betray who the core of the Jude is. First, a bond-servant, literally a lifetime slave.
-When we read Jude a ‘servant’ of Jesus Christ, sometimes what comes to mind is a waiter. You are in a restaurant and there are some wait staff waiting to attend to you and you order some cold milk and they bring it to you. Sometimes you have a table that is designated and you have a particular waiter for your table, or for your section and so you may call a waiter and they come and serve you etc.
- But this is not that kind of servant. This is beyond dedication to your table. This is a lifetime slave. This is a loyal, and owned, un-distractible, someone whose full attention is to Jesus Christ. A personal servant. A sign of dedication.
- Jude doesn’t want us to get confused who he is in his core. His true identity, DNA is that, ‘I am a bond-servant, a slave for life, with no choice of relief, willingly, laying my life for Jesus Christ.’
II. Brother of James
- Secondly he says, a brother of James. If you are a brother of James, it also means a brother of Jesus Christ. But why doest he bring it up to the surface?
- Mark 6:3, talking about Jesus,
- Acts 1:14
These brothers became church fathers. 1 Corinthians 9:5, (Paul trying to defend his rights as an apostle says,
If really this Jude was a brother of James, then he was a brother of Jesus. But why aren’t those decorations / achievements an integral part of his CV and DNA?
- Several reasons have been suggested by Biblical commentators, one of them is; these brothers did not believe in Jesus. It was until Jesus resurrected and they realised, this is true.
Remember these are the same ones who went to take care of Him when He is doing miracles, they are saying, “This man has not eaten for several days, he is out of his mind.” Somethings happens when the facts of this so called half brother of theirs dies and resurrects and they say, it is enough, I need no other argument, I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. That is when Jude becomes a believer and his brothers as well.
- But you see, Jude is not too rushed to associate himself with brotherhood with Jesus Christ. Because he knows, we may have shared a mother, but His Father is in heaven. He could not too closely associate himself and his whole DNA with Jesus Christ because he knew, I am unworthy to call Him brother, because He is so majestic, He is so great.
- Personally, if I had been brought in the same house with Jesus, even with all the respect, I would be calling Him, Bro God. “Bro God niaje? Do you remember that day when we were riding bikes? Do you remember that day when we were in dad’s carpentry shop and then we just mess things up?” But, imagine when He is not around and I am at the shopping mall, and I exclaim, ‘Ah, I’m so tired. You know this day reminds me of the day my big bro and we were just walking and suddenly He touches this montezuma car and the widow of Nain, her son is just healed. That bro of mine!”
- I want to associate myself in ways that show, for me, a proximity.
Lesson from the Author - What do we learn from this author? Humility.
- This humility is the same one found in Jesus. We are told in Philippians 2, ‘Who being in very nature of God did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped.’ If you and I are going to be effective soldiers in the army of the LORD, one of the things that we learn from this author is - humility.
- I’m not saying there is anything wrong with all the achievements, accolades that God has helped us to gather, but have those achievements, accolades, academic, financial etc, entered our DNA? There are things that are supposed to pass through our system and not to become part and parcel of our system.
- Imagine with me, if eating cabbage regularly and in large amounts would bring that cabbage to a point where it is embedded in your DNA so that when you are tested, one of the things peculiar about you is DNA? That is not the role of wonderful things like cabbage. We are supposed to eat it, be nourished, bring nutrients to our bodies and out through the digestive system, not to become an integral part of our DNA. Cabbage should not define us!
- So this example of Jude, half brother of Jesus Christ, he could have said, all those things and he was, but those were facts that they grew up in the same house, but it is not his DNA.
- This author wants to make it abundantly clear, my relationship with Jesus Christ is slave, bond-servant. My relationship with church fathers is, brother of James. - You need some calibration if ‘cabbage’, education, association, material things, different honours that the LORD has allowed you to achieve in this world have entered and they define you, not so Jude.
AUDIENCE - Jude 1:1b-3
Who is Jude writing to?
I hasten to think of who he is writing to, because in 3 John, John is writing to, ‘my elder and dear friend Gaius’. He names him, but Jude doesn’t write to a particular person. When you read the book of Colossians, Ephesians etc they are written to believers around that city of Ephesus, or Thessalonica etc. Those books are specific who Paul is writing to.
- Jude is fairly undefined by geography or by name. There are good indications that is written to the Jewish community of faith because of the reference of many of their cultural books that are not inspired / canonical / part of the Bible, but part of their history.
- But verse 3, is what shutters my mind. He is writing to ‘dear friends.’ This is because, the way we run the community of faith today does not lend itself that when we are writing to each other letters, that we can say, ‘Dear friends’. He says dear friends to them and it is not a PR exercise, or good English manners - how do you do? How do you do- well thank you.’ No. There is something that he has gone through that he knows they have gone through and because of that common denominator, he calls them, ‘Dear Friends.’ Not just acquaintances, but, dear friends.
- I was listening to a Bible commentator talk about this, a Scottish man preaching in the US, has been ministering in the US for a long time and he said when he was preaching to this message he looked at his notes and there was something written there CBK. And he couldn’t remember what CBK meant to the sermon and then it clicked on him why he had written in his notes CBK. Because he and those dear friends he was writing to had something common called CBK. An expression of recipients of the excellencies and riches of God’s grace.
Called
Beloved
Kept
i. C- Those who have been Called
ii. B- The beloved of God.
iii. K- Those kept in and for Jesus Christ.
C- Those who have been Called
Jude is writing to people who he is so overwhelmed because of the grace that is common for them and him that he goes into this past, present tense explanation of the grace of God. That they were recipients of that grace that awakens one who is dead in the spirit and made alive in Jesus Christ (Justification). Those who in eternity past, God made provision for and awakened them.
B- The beloved of God.
Those whom grace has embraced. The beloved of the Lord. Those who in the present continuous tense are continuing to receive this grace that is sustaining them through this time (sanctification).
K- Those kept in and for Jesus Christ.
Those who are and continuing (future tense) to be kept for Jesus Christ. And small wonder v 24 “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence blameless and with exceeding joy” when you have had such a rich common experience with some people, they become dear friends.
- In Kenya we have two football clubs that really antagonise each other, more so in the past as these days there are others who have come into the league. They used to have a tournament called ‘Mashemeji Derby’ meant to say they are in-laws, but the way their fans fight and the players really struggle, there is no mashemeji there. But when the two teams are at Kasarani, City, or Nyayo stadia, it is clear those who are supporting either team. The antagonism is obvious. And dare you sit on the wrong side and start cheering a goal for the other side. From no where people who came dressed smartly, from invisible pockets, come huge stones to fight each other because of a small piece of sewed cowhide called a soccer ball. But the same people come the next weekend and players are drawn from both teams, Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards into the national team and are now playing against Tanzania, suddenly they are together. And when they are able to score several into the goal of Tanzania or Uganda etc, you see these former enemies of last weekend, because of that experience, suddenly they are friends. They hug each other regardless of tongue. They hi-five each other. What changed? A common experience.
- Jude having grown up in Joseph and Mary’s house with his half brother Jesus, having doubted him for years, when he is converted at the resurrection, his eyes on everybody else who has that experience, who have been CBKd, whose real DNA and identity is because of being recipients of the grace of God, he calls them, ‘dear friends.’
Lesson from the - Audience - Lesson here is - grace.
This grace transforms our relationships.
- I keep wondering, what would happen to you and I, how strong would our church be if we became genuine, dear friends to one another? This is what Jude writes to them and equips them for all the challenges (panda-shukas - ups and downs) they are about to go through.
ATTACK - Jude 1:3
Jude says in verse 3, I was going to write to you an epistle like the epistle Paul wrote to the Romans. Breaking down precept upon precept, a neat dissertation of the gospel, of the news of Jesus Christ our Saviour. That is what I was planning to write. I was planning to write to you a letter that is almost like Ephesians 2:1-10 just highlighting what the gospel is, what grace is and how we have been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and as important as that may be, much as that is what I wanted to write to you, I feel compelled. I must lay aside what I wanted to write to you, my dear friends, and write to you because we are under attack. We have been infiltrated. We are under ambush. I must urgently call you. A call to arms. A call to the foxholes, to arm yourselves, not just defensively, but offensively as well.
- So Jude writes to them in verses 3 and 4, “3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”
- ‘Contend’ is an old word that really means to fight. The root of the Greek word used here is ‘agony’ from which we get the English word, agonise.
- Jude writes to them and tells them, we have been infiltrated. They have secretly entered among us. It is time for war. Agonise. There is nothing passive about this call. It is a call to fight - and not to fight culture, liturgy, or tradition, no. It is a fight for our faith.
- Evangelicals are said to have a knack to major on the minors and ignore the major things.
- In Verse 4 Jude writes to them and says,
- Jude singles out the people of God who left Egypt to go the promised land and in between did not believe, how God dealt with them. He deals with human beings in Sodom and Gomorrah all through to verse 19 are examples of how God dealt with the ungodly whether they were human, angelic, or demonic, our God is at war against ungodliness.
- Ephesians 5:11
- Jude writing to the believers at that time, tells them that there has been an infiltration, so wake up and fight.
H - Humility
G - Grace
F - Fight
Jude writes to them and tells them, it is not enough just to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
- When it comes to some of these things, there are fallacies that we go through that take us to spiritual passivism. One of them is coined, “What happens on peoples bedroom is their own business.” First class nonsense! Because if anybody was entering that bedroom to do whatever they want with bodies that they had made themselves, that did not belong to this Sovereign and Lord, then perhaps they would have a chance. That whatever happened in their bedroom would be their private business.
- You see Adam was not somewhere walking around the garden, very dissatisfied with manila papers placarding in demonstration ‘haki yangu’ , ‘I need a me honey.’ No. Adam didn’t even know. It is God who saw that he was alone and needed a helper, a companion. And so God has every business to define what happens in our bedrooms and it is in the Bible and it is written, it is prescribed, glory be to God.
- I don’t understand why, when the devil wants to do something, somehow all these devilish things always have a string of immorality. What is it about Godly intercourse that affects the devil? What is about the blessed gift of sex that God gave Adam and Eve and those who are married to enjoy in holy matrimony, what is it that he has a problem with?
- You and I are not fighting our own war. The One who have those bodies has said, in His Word, and so it must be. So you and I must take up this fight and gently instruct, with great patience, those who feel, think and practice otherwise to the glory of God.
2. I hear people saying, ‘Those who live in glass houses don’t throw stones. This person may be doing this, I just leave them, because I may be having a problem with lying. Each to their own sin.’ Again, first-class nonsense!
Because once you have been redeemed by Jesus Christ you don’t live in a glass house. “Therefore if anyone who is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone, behold, all things have become new”. And Anyway, when I am talking to you, I am not exhigiting my own life and my own experiences. No. I am relying on the Word, ‘It is said, it is said, it is said.’ And not only that, my body is not a glass house. By definition of 2 Timothy 3:16 is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And a house He has gone to prepare for me, coming soon to a theatre near you.
- So Brothers and sisters, are you willing to fight for the faith entrusted to us?
- The Bible also says of these immoral things, this is what some of you were, but by the grace of God, He has taken you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. And for that, by this grace, not only do we identify ourselves with a DNA that is not cabbage, not only do we relate by a grace that is, ‘Dear friends’, by the way one of the greatest marks of being related to the divine is the ability to forgive.
