The Word This Week
Jude 1...
Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, brings a challenge to the Church that is necessary for its survival.
He isn’t talking about how to make the Church better, or how to make it prettier or more appealing to outsiders, he is talking about the spiritual warfare that opposes God’s kingdom and seeks to extinguish it.
It has been this way from the beginning. Jude reminds us God’s people have always been violently opposed. Our great hope is God has never allowed the forces of evil to succeed.
Jude takes us all the way back to Cain’s evil attempt to offer God what displeased God, and his murder of his brother – whose offering pleased God. Even before that, God dealt with the angels who fell from their proper domain.
The Old Testament history of the Jews is a litany of this kind of rebellious behavior inspired by the spirit of anti-Christ. Jude mentions many of these rebellions, but certainly not all of them.
The rebellions he does mention were dealt with severely by God in His time.
There are also some salient points of doctrine found in Jude which are not covered anywhere else in the Bible. This indeed is a very fascinating letter, meant to open the believer’s eyes to what has been and will be taking place in the unseen realm until Jesus comes for His Church.
The exhortation to the Church is to be vigilant because the enemy is not going to back down but increase his opposition as the time of his end approaches. The fact Satan knows he cannot and will not succeed does not dissuade him from attempting to pick off and destroy individual believers. Jude’s encouragement is God will protect those who choose to keep themselves under His protection.
To be happily comfortable in a church must be preparing you to contend for its survival rather than languishing in its ease.
Pastor Bill
Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, brings a challenge to the Church that is necessary for its survival.
He isn’t talking about how to make the Church better, or how to make it prettier or more appealing to outsiders, he is talking about the spiritual warfare that opposes God’s kingdom and seeks to extinguish it.
It has been this way from the beginning. Jude reminds us God’s people have always been violently opposed. Our great hope is God has never allowed the forces of evil to succeed.
Jude takes us all the way back to Cain’s evil attempt to offer God what displeased God, and his murder of his brother – whose offering pleased God. Even before that, God dealt with the angels who fell from their proper domain.
The Old Testament history of the Jews is a litany of this kind of rebellious behavior inspired by the spirit of anti-Christ. Jude mentions many of these rebellions, but certainly not all of them.
The rebellions he does mention were dealt with severely by God in His time.
There are also some salient points of doctrine found in Jude which are not covered anywhere else in the Bible. This indeed is a very fascinating letter, meant to open the believer’s eyes to what has been and will be taking place in the unseen realm until Jesus comes for His Church.
The exhortation to the Church is to be vigilant because the enemy is not going to back down but increase his opposition as the time of his end approaches. The fact Satan knows he cannot and will not succeed does not dissuade him from attempting to pick off and destroy individual believers. Jude’s encouragement is God will protect those who choose to keep themselves under His protection.
To be happily comfortable in a church must be preparing you to contend for its survival rather than languishing in its ease.
Pastor Bill