Remember how we said last week that 1 John, 2 John, and 3
John are near Jude and Revelation at the end of the New Testament and the Bible
proper?
Did you maybe say to yourself, “Jude? Who’s Jude?” Jude is our last entry in the Tiny Books Of The Bible
series! I hope you guys have
gotten a few chuckles out of it. I
like doing these series, it’s a way to really get into the nuts and bolts of
the Bible that perhaps a regular sermon at your church might not provide.
IT’S SO SMALL!
I CAN’T FIND IT! WHERE IS
IT?
Jude is right before Revelation, the last book in the Bible.
HOW SMALL IS IT?
Jude is two pages, one chapter long.
WHO WROTE IT?
Jude did. He’s
the half-brother of Jesus (sharing Mary as a mom), and full brother of James,
who also wrote James, another book in the New Testament, but James is too big
for our Tiny Bible series.
WHAT’S THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT?
This book was written around 65 AD or thereabouts, maybe
earlier. The early Christian
church was dealing with a bunch of weird beliefs and teachers worming their way
into leadership positions. Jude
was writing the book as a kind of warning, whistle-blowing about those wormy
teachers.
WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT?
Jude’s warning the church (not a specific church, this
letter would be carried to several early churches and read aloud to their
congregations) about “godless men, who change the grace of our God into a
license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
(Jude 1:4b) Basically, these false
teachers were claiming if you believed that you were saved by grace, you could
live however you wanted. You could
eat a bunch of Funyuns, or rob banks, or sleep around with whomever you
want. Sin meant nothing to those
forgiven by God.
Jude reminds the church about the time of Moses, how OT God
destroyed those people who didn’t believe, and saved those that did. But belief itself wasn’t enough, as
Jude also brings up Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities whose actions condemned
them.
Jude also mentions fallen angels (1:6), archangel Michael
(1:8) and everyone’s favorite Owner Of A Talking Donkey Balaam (1:11) in
warning against these teachers.
Jude winds up the letter by quoting other apostles of Jesus,
“In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly
desires.” (1:17-18), and that the church should protect themselves so “build
yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” Keep yourselves in God’s love as you
wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”
(1:20-22)
Then Jude finishes with the Doxology. If you’re a regular churchgoer, this
may sound familiar, “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present
you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only
God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (1:24).
Ends every single service at my church, anyway.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
WHY DO YOU THINK IT WAS IN HERE?
Can I just say something that may get me into trouble
later? By all means, go ahead. I
don’t understand people, scholars, I guess, who make it a large part of their
life to research and write papers and do all sorts of academic things, all to
cast doubt on things in the Bible.
Some people don’t believe Jude wrote Jude. Some people don’t believe Jude was related to Jesus. Some people don’t believe Jude should
be in the Bible. And that’s
just THIS book. You can go down
many dry and dusty rabbit holes of academia and you will never get the evidence
or answer that would change the world’s opinion. Just justifying your own education and intellect, I
guess. It seems to be such a
rarefied career, and for what?
Really, for what? Dunno.
But Jude is in here because he’s the half brother of Jesus,
and what he’s warning about in his letter matched up with what the early
Christian churches were facing, so in the Bible it goes. The End. Of this series, anyway. :)
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