Jude 11-19

Jason VonBehren

Jude • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Intro

In the 80’s and 90’s there was a tv show on PBS about painting by a man named BOB ROSS.

It was called the Joy of Painting. Bob is an icon. A pop culture phenomenon. If you want pause this and google Bob Ross and see what I am talking about.

But one thing i loved about the show was how he filled in a smudge of color and made it in to a beautiful, clear, picture of real nature.

I was reminded of Bob’s style as i looked at this passage of Jude where he is going into great detail to show the church all the ways bad teaching and unbeleivers, have crept in and poisoned the church.

Last week we saw how Jude drew from Jewish and Old Testament historical events to say hey look what happened to these people, this is the same crew here now and it will end the same so watch how you live out your faith.

Like Bob Ross Jude is going to keep adding depth and examples to fill in the picture for His church and leave no room for misunderstanding.

This week we are going to see how he fills the picture of it out with examples of three people, an old saying, and a new saying

Let's read Jude again and then dive in……..

GREETING

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James:

To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

JUDE’S PURPOSE IN WRITING

3 Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. 4 For some people, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

APOSTATES: PAST AND PRESENT

5 Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe; 6 and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day. 7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

8 In the same way these people — relying on their dreams — defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones. 9 Yet when Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil in an argument about Moses’s body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you! ” 10 But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct — like irrational animals — by these things they are destroyed. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam’s error for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

THE APOSTATES’ DOOM

12 These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn — fruitless, twice dead and uprooted. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.

14 It was about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied: “Look! The Lord comes with tens of thousands of his holy ones 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all the ungodly acts that they have done in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against him.” 16 These people are discontented grumblers, living according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage.

17 But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They told you, “In the end time there will be scoffers living according to their own ungodly desires.” 19 These people create divisions and are worldly, not having the Spirit.

Remember last week he started to fill in the picture of cheap grace with 3 events from history and literature.

He wants to keep their attention so for good measure he goes on to show three people from Israel's most wanted and shocks his readers to contend for the faith

Three People (11-13)

11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam’s error for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.12 These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn — fruitless, twice dead and uprooted. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.

Jude is filling in the picture here. The three events of last week showed the sin. Apostasy, autonomy, and sexual freedom.

These three people aren't jude repeating the same things over...he is adding more to the picture of these people the church must look out for.

These aren't just people who don't care about sin...these are people teaching this life to others...and excusing it with the grace of the Gospel.

He rattles them off right off the bat with the form of a text out of the Old Testament books of prophets with “Woe”...woe was an introduction signalling the peril awaiting those about to be described.

11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam’s error for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

Genesis 4 tells us the story of Cain murdering his brother Abel.

I am sure if you have just connected the dots you are thinking wait...you said these are examples of teachers who lead others to sin..cain was a murderer he wasnt a pastor?

You are correct but Jude is an intellectual and academic giant. I love this guy.

Traditions in Judaism outside of the biblical texts such as Josephus, Philo, and Clement, Jude is much much more than a sinner he is the first archetypal sinner and leader of others in his way of sin

Some authors saw him as the prototype of hate, envy, greed, violence, lust, and the great corrupter of all mankind.

Targums were Aramaic translations of the Old Testament. But the Targums expanded on the biblical texts and stories and one of the most consistent expansions in all the found Targums is right in Genesis 4.

Some tell the story of the argument that took place that awful day when Cain killed his brother. But all of them expand on the Genesis account to show the far reaching damage of Cains heart

The Targum traditions that Jude uses show The forerunner and leader of sin Cain was

Cain is teaching others that God is unjust and not worth honoring

Cain is teaching that there is no real judgement to fear God doesn't send people to a real hell which is why they say he went ahead and committed the murder

Cain is teaching that God is not even present in the day to day of your life you are in control

Jude knows the targum tradition and he knows his people do to.

For him to mention Cain here as a teacher would have meant a man who taught others after him that there is no real judgement so live how you want uncontrolled and inhibited.

This is the exact teaching of the Others in Judes church. They taught that you can live unhindered and uncontrolled because no real judgement existed.

Sounds a lot like our day doesn't it. I mean you are not going to be a very popular pastor if you teach and believe in an actual hell. You aren’t going to be very popular teaching that life is found in submission to Jesus as opposed to being the master of your own destiny

If you teach delayed gratification instead of immediate uncontrolled behavior to feel good in the moment or remove anyone who stands in the way of your fulfillment. But you as the church have to choose for yourself who you will follow.

There are plenty of pastors in this town who follow the way of Cain just.

You have to choose the truth

This is Genesis 4….and still the same today this teaching will wreck your life

To follow in the way of Cain means you reject the lordship of Christ. Assert your own way as the true way and deny there are any serious consequences anyway

Next he holds up Balaam as the next teacher well known to his Jewish audience

Balaam was a famous example of preaching to make money if he described today. His account in the bible takes place in Numbers 22, 24, and Deuteronomy 23, and Nehemiah 13

Here again Jude uses the extrabiblical tradition and development in the targums to show Balaam’s way as the prototype for those like him who would follow.

In the biblical story the great teacher and prophet of Israel is enticed by reward to come to Moab and place a curse on Israels army so Moab may win

In the biblical account, though he went, he didnt place a curse on Israel

But later Jewish tradition outside of the bible developed his character into a villain and enemy of the people of God...one responsible for the loss to the Moabites

Richard Bauckham says here “by highlighting and developing certain aspects if he biblical account Jewish tradition remembered Balaam primarily as a man of greed, who for the sake of reward led Israel into debauchery and idolatry”

So you may be saying “you just said he didn't take the money and curse Israel so how is he a bad guy and a teacher like these others”? GREAT QUESTION

He didnt take the money anb curse them but he showed the Moabite King how to tempt them...and lead them to destruction

According to the Jewish tradition Balaam told Balak to get a bunch of good looking ladies in nothing but some jewelry, some cold beer with an open bar and the Israelite army will fall into sin and curse themselves...and they did….24,000 Men died in Israels fall

The jewish tradition made Balaam the leader of the falling away from a life of sin

Ruth Reese makes the connection Jude is driving home. “The others are made part of an extra biblical, tradition story about money, greed, trickery and scheming that leads people into ways of living that are contrary to the ways of God. ...the others may not engage in the same behavior as Balaam, but they are pursuing their own gain.”

They don't care what happens as a result. I know a pastor in Greenville who has taken his position as a pastor, taught feel good truthless sermons to get people all hollerin and drives a 100,000 car.

This is again what you have to choose. God has placed everything we could ever want or desire to fulfill us in the backyard in the fence.

Do you believe it or do you believe the Balaams who say its ok just go in the road and play it won’t be bad. And then profit off of feeding you lies…

Jude is using the Jewish tradition around this familiar story because it highlights several things the others leading the church astray do too

Balaam wanted to wander from the truth so much God let him go...and let him wander into his own destruction

They prayed on the generosity of the church to make a profit

This is everywhere here. This is a letter to the church. They like us must contend for the faith in what we live. Because teachers of cheap grace and no Lord who will give you over to your rebellion exists

This is here today. This is why it is so important to know the word yourself. Know the character of God. know the truth so when you hear the lies you wont wander off when these liars come.

Last in verse 11 is another of the Old Testaments greatest villains...Korah and the example he set that Jude sees these others as following.

Korah was that guy who is always complaining about the leadership. Always talking behind the backs of everyone.

His story is recorded in Numbers also and it is epic. In the biblical story he and all his crew were swallowed up by a sink hole in the ground.

Here again Jude is using his jewish history and the tradition of what the story became in legend to serve as his example of those in his church

I love what he is doing here. It is one thing to take biblical principles and tell them to the church.

Jude is taking the stories they grew up with. The epic stories of the villains of the biggest stories of their history and bringing the damage to life...connecting it to their heart and not just to their mind

The christian faith is not a set of rules to keep so God blesses you like santa.

It is not a free pass to sin as much as you want because a vague love exists.

Jude is not telling feel good stories so the palestinian christians have better self esteem

He is after their heart and will with the power of the Gospel and the destruction and pain of life apart from your creator.

The three examples of teachers he left out all had loves that were ultimate to them. they were all loves that did not find their ultiimate end in obedience to their creator.

they saw ultimate fullfillment in their own ends

this is the greatest threat to Gods people througout time

Jude knows these false teachets poisoning his people are preying on the loves of his people

So he keeps appealing to their hearts with how obedience to God love of the God who made you is the ONLY WAY TO BE SATISFIED

Church father Saint Augustine opens his Confessions with the statement

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

Here is the danger of the human heart Jude sees these others preying on

Imagine a kite....flying high in the air. in love with the view the freedom the experience.

It feels the rush of the wind and the power it feels

Imagine the kite looking down and thinking if i could just cut this string imagine how i could soar. the kite sees the string as an annoyance a hinderance.

A better life could be had without the constrant

Imagine the kite says to iteself i could be free of the string and the one who holds it tight.

so it cuts the restraint to really fly.

ever flwon a kite…it may fly for a minute

As soon as the kite cuts the taught string instead of freedom to soar it crashes in to a pile of destroyed wings. Never to fly again.

it is actually in the string tied to the hand who keeps it safe that arodynamics come alive. physics blossom. soaring is free.

these false teachers prey on the human heart that is bent on sin to treat God as the annoying string who limits freedom when in reality it is only in his hand that we truly soar.

What does a jsut God do to creation who treats him as these 3 examples, like we do?

He judges…either judges his son who took our broken place in a crumbled mess cut from our maker…or in our pride we reject him

Jude wants his people to know the time to pay for what we have done is as sure as the sun coming up

My preaching hero Dick Lucas says this of the power pact message Jude keeps punctuating to his people

“Jude’s message rolls relentlessly along as if he could not bear to lose our attention for a moment.”

Relentless rapid fire from Jude

Lucas again gives a great look into the context of these early believers

“The first Christians sometimes called their meetings ‘love feasts’ (agapai). These would have been ordinary meals at which they shared their problems, prayed, sang, ate bread and drank wine in memory of Jesus’ death, and at which there would have been some teaching”

Ever been at the beach and not seen coral or a rock unde the water and scrapped it or stepped on it? Ever see a ship too close to a hidden reef.

Proximity to unseen danger can cause unimaginable damage.

This judes warning and ours. It highligts the role of shepherds to see threats to the people of God and call it out like a ship crew.

these people are inside. Devisive and teaching that life is found by cutting the string of obediience

Lucas says “ by their presence at the church meetings these people present a severe danger of either wreckage or pollution”

Jude uses a powerful allusion to the greatest condemnation of Israels shpeherds found in Ezekiel 34

34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed their flock? 3 You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty

The promise is that God has stepped into our falleness and promised to shepherd his people and end the selfish rule but the wicked still try and use the sheep.

There are many pastors who believe the church exists for them..instead of Gods model of shepherding where the shepherd exists to lay his life down for his people.

Shepherding that says life is found outside of Gods design leads to starvation for the sheep.

he rattles off a powerful set of pictures to get to the peoples hearts

empty clouds: Proverbs was no doubt on Judes mind from 25:14 The one who boasts about a gift that does not exist is like clouds and wind without rain.

In the deserts of Middle Eastern climate and culture a cloud signaled hope and rest. But a cloud that passed with the wind with no releive from its promise was worthless and left the ground it passed over more desperate than before

2. Barren Trees highlight again the pain between promise and unfulfilfilling performance. Fruitless when the fruit of their vines is needed for sustaining life. Fruitless in this life and dead…promised a second death in the life to come.

Lucas again says “The people Jude writes about are already marked out for that destiny. Until we die, we all have the opportunity to respond to God’s grace; but these men, having heard the gospel, have turned their backs on it. Their future is horribly certain”

3. Stormy Waves were another sign of chaos as a symbol of a life without constraint. uncertain where it will turn next and crash into.

Isaiah 57:20 says

20 But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea,

for it cannot be still,

and its water churns up mire and muck.

21 There is no peace for the wicked,”

says my God.

Waves on the beach leave you mid shin with the foam and dirt and sand of the ocean. You nottice the wave, these teachers are seen for sure.

But they only crash and bring mess and pollution from the ocean.

4. Wandering stars: before we had iPhone and google maps stars were the compass for the world.

anyone who followed a star that had no normal orbit or location and moved all over the sky would wandetr with it.

One Commentator Summarizes this collection of images so well when he says “That broad span narrows down to one single destiny: blackest darkness is reserved for them. It is true that Cain’s murder, Korah’s rebellion and Balaam’s subversion received almost instant retribution, whereas the false teachers in Jude’s churches and ours often seem to go from strength to strength, gaining in influence and popularity, and growing in credibility. But the position that faith takes is that God is God even over rebels, and if he knew how to judge Cain, Korah and Balaam, he will be able to judge any who oppose him.”

So what you may be thinking and i dont blame you.

How about a teacher or church that jsut says move in together you will probably get married. there is not life there. It victimizes women, compromises loyalty, makes sex cheap, and leads to exponentially higher divorce rates. That life is affirmed all over the place

How about teaching that is centerd on your self esteem. It is a twice dead tree. Your heart is the greatest problem you have. A better version of you cant save you. This leads to a self centered life where everyone and everything exists for you. Not that you live on mission for others

How about the acceptance of pornography. You shouldnt be alone it doesnt hurt anyone. It destroys any realtionship. Makes humans commodities for you to consume and trash. That teaching is out there. others will affirm it.

Jude is warning us today the teaching of these people leads to pain and destruction.

They may look like they are getting away with it but judgement is coming. Again he goes to pop culture to hit their imagination and heart in verse 14 and goes way back to an old story

Something Old (14-16)

Jude is a master composer here and is adapting an old story from literature outside of the bible drawing biblical truth for us from a story his readers would have known the magnitude of.

Verse 15 says the first point Jude wants us to see…Judgement is universal. No one is gettign away with anything and that should cause us to fear or fall in love and awe of the savior who took our place.

But 15 also shows that Gods judgement on these others is moral, it is right and based on the chosen actions of all

Here is the powerful application for us becuase in find myself drifting here myself and Dick Lucas hits Judes point home

“Once people think that they are free from any scrutiny by God, they will feel free to cut themselves loose from his standards. God will be seen as a grumbling but ultimately soft-hearted parent who makes impressive threats but cannot bring himself to act upon them. That is the assumption of many well-intentioned people today, who honestly do not believe that God will act as he has said he will act, and judge according to the moral law he has revealed”

Jude is desperate that his people dont fall into this view of what is coming. contend in how you live out your faith because this day is coming. that day should excite all who are his. live for it, share the gospel like it, use your money and home and time like that day is coming.

remember that day is coming and that is his last point. He has shown the old and now the new words from the apostles.

Something New (17-19)

We will be back in these verses next week but i wanted to hit one thing Jude calls us to in contending for our faith.

Remember

remember the aposltes told you these people would be here. verse 16 told us how miserable they are.

they are toxic. They are always complaining and know better.

You try and shepherd peoples souls. it isnt easy if you want to negative bond over a decision or the music or the sermon or the carpet there is always a toxic ear somewhere to join you.

But my favorite part to remember is the gospel.

You want to contend for the faith in a radical life of obedience and mission. you want to see and run away from false teachign of pleasure and ease. Remember the beauty of the Gospel

Remember the beauty of this one truth i want to leave us with…we forget him. we dont remember but he never forgets. He always his covenant. He always remembers to be merciful gracious abounding in steadfast love.

You will never be at risk of him not remembering to be all He is to you in all He has promised if you are His covered by the blood of the Son.

Remember the God who remembers you in the Gospel and never budge from it.

Contend for the faith.

lets pray

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