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The Bible Breakdown
Jude 01: Contending for the Faith
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, jude chapter, and only chapter one, and today's title is Contending for the Faith. Contending for the Faith. And I'm going to tell you something. This is one of my favorite books in the entire New Testament and this is a shout out to anybody who's a little passionate, a little fiery. If you kind of have a little bit of a quick temper, you are going to love the book of Jude because he kind of comes off to me as a guy that you don't want to mess with, because he got something for you if you mess with him a little bit. But he's also one of the most surprising people that you may find in the entire New Testament. So I hope that's got you excited to learn more about him and so, if you have your Bibles, want to open up with me to the book of Jude. While you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment and like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help us get the word out. It doesn't cost you anything. As well, you're going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook. It's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job over there, and the more we dig, the more we find, and if you're not careful, jews gonna find you. This joke is gonna cut you, yeah.
Speaker 0:So before we jump into this, I want to ask you a question, and that is this have you ever been in an environment where you are? You are, you're talking to somebody and man you are, you've just got something on your mind and you start off talking about the weather and before you know it, you're talking about politics, or you're talking about something going on in Australia or just whatever it is, and you can almost see the look on the person's face of wait a minute, I thought we were talking about the weather. How did we get from the weather to talking about who's going to win the next election? How did we? But it just kind of happens that way, and that looks like that is what happens in the book of Jude. It's like he starts talking about one thing but then he's like no, no, no, I got something else I need to tell you people, and he just jumps in and does a fiery job, and so we're going to jump into this. And for anybody who's ever chased a squirrel, or you get a little fiery. This book is for you, so let's dive into it.
Speaker 0:The overall idea, once again, is it's contending for the faith, and so it is an apologetic defense of the faith book, and it was written by a guy named Jude. Now, what some people may not know is Jude is the Greek way to say his name. The Hebrew way to say this name of this very Hebrew guy is Judah, and so if you ever read like a messianic Jewish rendition of the New Testament, then you may have trouble finding the book of Jude, because you're not going to find it. You're going to find the book of Judah, and so actually, what was very interesting is he was named after the tribe he was part of, because his dad's name was Yosef, joseph, but there's no J in Hebrew, there's just a Y, and so his name would be actually Yehudah, so Yehudah ben Yosef of Yehudah. So that's kind of what his name would have been.
Speaker 0:And if you recognize the name Joseph, it's because Jude, or Judah, was the half-brother, the biological half-brother, of Jesus. So the way that works is Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit, supernaturally by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus was born, and then, after that, don't listen to the Catholics. God love you and I love you if you're Catholic. But after that, mary and Joseph had sexual relations, after Jesus was born, and they had a flock of kids, because the Bible says they did. One of them was a guy named Jude, and so he became the half-brother of Jesus. So same mother, different fathers.
Speaker 0:And what I love about this, though, is he doesn't use that. Can I just go ahead and tell you, if I was the half-brother of Jesus, I would have some business cards made up, and they'd have one thing on it Brandon, half-brother of Jesus. I would have some business cards made up, and they'd have one thing on it Brandon, half-brother of Jesus. And every time I go to the restaurant, I just put that card down. I go to the grocery store, I put that card down. Whatever it is, before I say a word to you, I'm going to hand you my business card, just in case you're wondering. Buddy, I'm the half-brother of Jesus, but you know what? Jude doesn't do that. As a matter of fact, he calls himself the servant of Jesus in this letter, so that's already awesome about him.
Speaker 0:Now, where was this written? We don't know. We're not entirely sure where this was written, but because of the idea that it was written to the overall church, we are assuming that it was written probably where he lived, which was probably somewhere near or around the area of Jerusalem. Now, to whom it was written and when it was written to the overall church, because he is going to be talking about a heresy, a false teaching that is coming into the church, called Gnosticism, and we'll get to that in just a moment. So he's telling everybody to be careful of these fools that are coming in. And it was written most likely between 65 and 70 AD, so this is right before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, which is kind of a big deal for the Jewish community, and so it really kind of is a marker of this happened before and this happened afterward.
Speaker 0:Now the big idea of Jude is this book shows that the early church dealt with heresy, hedonism or, excuse me, heresy head on. Hedonism is another thing, and so they did not look at anything else other than this is heresy. So we're going to hit it, and so the idea of we're going to love our neighbors is very true, but one of the ways we're going to love our neighbors is to speak truth, and they just went ahead and hit this idea of Gnosticism. Now the overall idea as well is that God's truth must be defended and his people must remain faithful even when false teaching and moral decay are rising within the church. Now the reason why Jude is important for us to read is it warns us of internal threats such as false teachers. I think that that is something that we, on one end, assume, but on the other end, we don't assume. I've talked to so many people who are absolutely shocked and surprised when the church people are not perfect and we say, well, yeah, they're people. Well, yeah, but they go to church. Well, what in the world difference does that make? That just means they're headed toward Jesus, but they still got stuff and things like the rest of us Like, don't you? Well, yeah, well, you go to our church. So Jude is saying, hey, there's fools up in here, so we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, all right. Then the next one is Jude reminds us that truth matters and that grace is not a license for sin. And also, this book offers the clearest call for spiritual vigilance and it encourages us to stand firm while relying on God's power.
Speaker 0:Now the background of what's going on in the world. This is what's so very interesting about the book of Jude, and there are some things that are unique to the book of Jude. So I want you to hear this First of all is remember this is before the destruction of the temple, so Nero would have been the emperor, and there is growing Christian persecution, like more than just we don't like you, you're not invited to our party, but people are being put to death at this point. Also, the early church is spreading, but so is the heresy of Gnosticism, and the Gnosticism is the idea of overplaying spirituality, even to the point where they tried to say that Jesus didn't come in a human form, he was just a spirit kind of floating around and I know that's like stupid and stuff, but at the same time, this was a heresy that was going around and they had to refute it. Also, there are tensions between the Jewish and Gentile believers. That is still being worked out, and Peter and Paul have possibly been killed. So, if you think about the context, jude is one of the final main guys at this point, because between 60 and 70 AD, a lot of the early church leaders that we would think of and we would know were put to death. Paul was put to death, peter was put to death, a lot of these other ones were put to death, and so you have one of these guys who is toward the end of that era, who is still alive, but he is fighting the good fight. And so you see him just saying hey guys, listen, I know some of these patriarchs have died, but man, the new generation is coming up and we got to make sure they know how to fight against these bad guys, and so I see this as him just investing in the next generation. Now a couple of interesting facts, and we're going to dive right in. First of all, jude was the biological half-brother of Jesus.
Speaker 0:We covered a non-book of the Bible as a reference point, and it's a lot of controversy. As a matter of fact, I would dare say that some of you have probably clicked on this book of the Bible just to hear me talk about this. So we're going to talk about this. But he quotes from 1 John, verse 14, in the idea of talking about the idea of kind of what happens to, or what happened to the different angels that fell back in Genesis, chapter 6. And he is citing this extra biblical Jewish literature. We're going to get into that in just a moment. He also references the dispute over Moses' body. That is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, and he actually is going to be talking about an extra biblical source to talk about that.
Speaker 0:And he wanted to write a letter of encouragement but was divinely redirected to write about that. And he wanted to write a letter of encouragement but was divinely redirected to write about a warning. So, in other words, that's what I'm talking about the idea of him saying hey, listen, I had this idea. We was going to talk about encouraging you, but listen, I got to tell you about something. The best way I can encourage you is to warn you. And so that's where he's going to go. With us, we're going to dive into this very interesting book of the Bible and we'll stop along the way and see what God's Word says to us.
Speaker 0:Okay, so if you're ready, jude, chapter 1, verse 1, says this this is the letter from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. Pause. So once again, remember he is the half brother of Jesus, but he doesn't claim it. He just says I'm a slave of Jesus and then a brother of James. Remember who James is. James is likely the first leader of the church in Jerusalem and probably one of the preeminent leaders of the Christian movement. At this time. We don't really hear about him a whole lot, but if you look in the book of Acts you can see how he is leading some of these different councils. And James was also the half-brother of Jesus. All right, let's keep going.
Speaker 0:He says I am writing to all who have been called by God, the Father, and who loves you and who keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more mercy, peace and love. Dear friends, I have been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share, but this is where he shifts. So, in other words, he's saying God gave us his word, it's up to us to defend it. Verse 4,.
Speaker 0:I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only master and Lord, jesus Christ. So I want to remind you though you already know these things that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful. And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of their authority that God gave them, but left the place where they belonged. God kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the day of judgment. That's where he's quoting from the book of Enoch We'll get into that in just a moment and don't forget Sodom and Gomorrah. He's going to quote from it again. By the way, don't forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion, towns which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God's judgment.
Speaker 0:In the same way, these people who claim authority from their dreams live immoral lives, defy authority and scoff at supernatural beings. But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare to accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said the Lord rebuke you. This took place when Micah was arguing with the devil over Moses' body. That's where he talks about that, verse 10,. But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction. What sorrow awaits them, for they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money and, like Korah, they perish in their rebellion. When these people eat with you in fellowship meals commemorating the Lord's love, they are like and excuse me dead, and they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots. They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their shameful deeds, and they are like wandering stars, doomed forever to blackest darkness. Here he goes.
Speaker 0:Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said but do so with great caution, hating the sin that contaminates their lives. Now, all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him, who is God alone, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. All glory, majesty, power and authority are his before all time and in the present and in beyond all time. Amen, wow.
Speaker 0:So let's talk about the overall idea. I'll tell you about the book of Enoch and then what we can take away from it. So what's happening is is Jude is talking about the fact that there are these false teachers who are coming in and are saying you don't have to follow any kind of law, you don't have to follow any kind of moral code, you just be free and do whatever it is you want to do, don't worry about anything, it's all okay, it's all all right. And so I'm curious about how many of you have been in those kind of environments where you've heard the same thing. It doesn't matter, it's all free grace, it's all good what you would say.
Speaker 0:Be very, very careful about these things, because these people are perverting the truth and they're taking away all of the good things that God has said. He's put boundaries in our lives for a reason, and so the overall goal here is is make sure we're sticking close to scripture not sticking close to what we want to be true about Scripture and then he also says to not even give them a place, but to be very, very careful. So if they are not abiding by what God's Word says, keep a wide boundary in place so that you are not seduced by their very, very sneaky teaching, which is why we do this. We read God's Word every day, so we know what God's Word says, and then we know what to do, know what God's word says, and then we know what to do with what God's word says. And so that is the overall view of the book of Jude. And it so burdened him that he said I was going to write to you something different.
Speaker 0:But, man, it just broke my heart when I realized that this is not so easy for a lot of people. So I got to tell you not everybody that calls themselves Christians is your friend. You've got to make sure that you go to God's word first and then after that you listen to what someone has to say. But you always have an open Bible. Whenever you're talking to someone, you're listening to someone. I've told people in our local congregation that never feel bad about asking me for my sources if I preach something to you on Sunday and you're not entirely sure you agree with it. Because if I can't back up what I say, you need to hold me to account for that, because it has always got to line up with God's word, and I think that's important for us to do. Always God's word is the final authority, not your local minister, no matter how much you love them. Right?
Speaker 0:But then also some of the controversy in the book of Jude has to do with this scripture, so I'm gonna go back to it real quick. When he says this, and then we'll finish up, and that is he says in verse 14, he says Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these things, saying listen, the Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world and he will convict every person and I do realize now I skipped a couple of scriptures right there so he will convict every person. And I do realize now I skipped a couple scriptures right there so he will convict every person of their sin is basically what he's talking about right there. Well, some people have gotten mixed up about this. When it said now, wait a minute, if he is quoting the book of Enoch, does that mean that the book of Enoch is divinely inspired? And then is he saying it's inspired? Because he is saying, okay, not just any Enoch. Okay, now I'm confused because my Old Testament doesn't have the book of Enoch, but he's saying that it was a seventh from Adam, which means it's not just any rando, it's the guy in the book of Genesis. Is this divinely inspired? Well, here's the thing. No, it's not divinely inspired.
Speaker 0:First of all, the book of Enoch was a book that was written between the time of the book of Malachi and the time of Matthew. It was about 400 years. We call it the 400 years of silence because there was no prophetic voice, but it was very much not silent. There was a lot of people who were doing a lot of research, a lot of study, a lot of things, and they were writing a lot of things. It's just none of it was considered divinely inspired, and so one of them was written by a guy who called himself, in this book, enoch. And there's actually four Enochs first, second, third, fourth Enoch, but the one that everybody really talks about is first Enoch, and so he is simply quoting, because he's saying that this makes sense of what was going to happen. Well, what about him saying well, it's the seven from Adam? Well, in the book of Enoch, that's what he refers to himself as. So he's not saying this is the guy from Genesis who wrote this. He is actually saying you remember that book of Enoch that's going around? Okay, that book says this, and so he's simply referring to the way the guy who wrote it referred to himself, if that makes sense.
Speaker 0:And so the fact that the New Testament authors would quote from other sources doesn't mean those other sources are inspired. For instance, in the book of Acts, paul goes to a place called Mars Hill and he is discussing with Greek philosophers the idea of Jesus being raised from the dead, and he actually quotes a philosopher that they would have been familiar with. In doing that, he is not saying that that philosopher was divinely inspired. He is simply using a quote to make a point. And what Jude is doing is he's using a quote that would have been familiar to this audience to make a point that it has been known for a while that the Lord is coming and that he is going to judge the ungodly. So that's all that. That is in the idea of looking at what this is. So there actually is no controversy.
Speaker 0:The book of 1 Enoch is not intended to be in. The text of Scripture is not intended to be inspired. The reason why he says something from Adam is that's what Enoch says of himself in the letter. Probably part of the reason why some of your TikTok people have gotten confused is they've never actually read the book of 1 Enoch. That's why they have no idea what they're talking about, which actually is an amazing point, because it gets us back to the reason why Jude wrote this letter. He wrote this letter because people were not going by scripture, they were going by their opinions and they were just saying what other people had said. And so, therefore, they are looking at these different things and they're making up this strange doctrine and confusing people. And so Jude is very much talking to those people and he's saying you have got to be careful to not fall into the slippery slope of Gnosticism and heresy. You've got to make sure that you keep your eyes on Jesus. That's why the overall idea is contending for the faith, and I want to say this as we get ready to close our time together today More than ever, there are people who are trying to manipulate, and there are more people who are trying to pervert the gospel.
Speaker 0:You've got people on the outside of the church who are saying God doesn't exist. You have people who I think are on the outside of the church, called progressive Christians, who are trying to reinterpret scripture and, because so many of us don't know the Bible, we don't know when it's true and when it's not. Then you have people who go too far in the other direction and they're trying to say that the Bible says something it doesn't say at all. And so many people come to me as pastor and they say pastor, how in the world do I find out what the Bible actually says? And they even say I'm just going to listen to you. You just tell me I'm going to listen to you and I tell them don't do that. Now I'm going to do my very best to tell you what the Bible actually says, but what if I get it wrong? And so you see the look in their eyes going well, I don't even know what to do. And here's what you do, exactly what you'd said Contend for the true faith.
Speaker 0:Know God's word for yourself. I'm not saying you need to become a Bible scholar, even though that would be my dream and my hope for all of us but you can read it. Well, pastor, there's so much I don't understand. Well, how about focus first on the things you do understand? That'll give us enough trouble, right? You know, it's not the passages I don't understand that bother me, it's the ones I do understand, that bother me. And so what if you start with the ones you do understand? Read God's word with me every single day. We're slowly unpacking it and it takes time. It takes a lifetime to build that personal theology of contending for the faith.
Speaker 0:And then, when you come up with a question you don't have the answer for, do your research. Don't go to chat GPT, don't go to Google by itself, but start going to Bible references, bible commentaries, all this stuff. Well, pastor, I don't have that kind of time. Respectfully, can I say, say, if you have time to get on YouTube and Netflix and TikTok and social media, then you have a little bit of time to know something of eternal value. And that's not me just as a pastor, but that's saying, if this has to do with your eternal soul, if it has to do with the salvation of those around you, can you skip one Netflix show to dig a little bit deeper? I think you can, because I think that you have the capability of doing it. And as you grow and as I grow and as we grow together, we'll do what Jude says, and that is, we will contend for the faith, we'll know what's true and what's not true and we'll get in the right direction and we will help not only ourselves but we'll also help others as we grow together. Let's pray together right now.
Speaker 0:God, thank you so much for today, thank you for your word, thank you that it's true, it is active, it is alive, and that, god, we can know your word and we can know when the enemy's coming against us, when it's time to fight, when it's time to learn and it's always this time to grow. I pray, holy Spirit, you'll open our eyes to see your word. I pray you'll give us a supernatural hunger to know your word, because your word is truth and where your truth is, you set people free. You, jesus said you are the way, you are the truth and you are the life, and it's in your presence that we find fullness of joy. And god, your word leads us to you. That's why we study it Is we study it with our, with smiles on our faces and our hearts open, because we know that it leads us straight to your presence. We're thankful for your word and we're thankful for how you lead us every day.
Speaker 0:In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. And what God's word says in Jude 1, verse 3, I urge you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. That's our job. God has given us his word. Now it's our job to know it and to defend it so that other people can come to know Jesus the way we have. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for the next part of the Bible breakdown podcast.
