Be Ready

Fake news.

There is nothing new in the world. Even the early church struggled to know what to believe and what was true. Jude, the brother of Jesus, had a dramatic transformation from unbelief to becoming a pillar of the early church. Jude’s short letter calls Christians to pay attention, but not just to what is being said. We also need discernment for those who try to tell us the news.

Jesus promises us He is coming back. His brother Jude, teaches us how to be ready for his big brother’s return.

Join us as we work on our discernment.

Transcript

Well, good morning. It was just so good. We should do it again. Do you want to hand that? I forgot to. Does anyone know what I’m talking about when I talk about the Left Behind series? Are there—I don’t know how well that translates down, but the Left Behind series was a book series that talked about the end times. And wow, did it capture everyone’s attention. I was just about done with college, getting into the real world when these books came out. And then a movie came out with Kirk Cameron, another old reference. But then apparently Nicholas Cage made his own version of this. Did you know about this? Anyway, if you’re interested, or maybe don’t look into that, but these books talk about the end times. And the Left Behind series took a very specific viewpoint and interpretation of what was going to happen. And it captured the minds of people. We talked about it a lot.

I don’t know about you, but it feels like maybe that’s not super popular. I don’t know that I run into a lot of people talking about the end times. There’s not a new book series out. I don’t necessarily hear it on Christian radio. So maybe when I talk about the end times, you have some emotions. Does it get you excited thinking about the end times? Do you get anxious? Or is it maybe a feeling of confusion? Maybe some of you are super pumped that I’m going to talk about the end times today. So, wherever you are, buckle up.

If you’re on vacation for MEA weekend or if you’re watching this, who knows, years from now, I hope that as we come to the part of the service where we’re studying Scripture, you’re listening to me talk, that we are reminded that God is trustworthy. God’s Word is trustworthy. In this world full of fake news and fake teachers and people who live fake lives, frankly, as Brian was saying, there are so many things we’re inundated with in our everyday lives when we scroll on our phones. And so we are studying a book written by someone who knew Jesus, likely a brother of Jesus, who knew Jesus the first time He lived on earth, and his name is Jude. Jude points us to Jesus, who is ultimately the trustworthy.

I’m going to summarize the series every week as we are learning. Statistically, very few of us come once or twice a month. It’s more often once a month or maybe once every six weeks. And if you are here more regularly and you hear some things that seem repetitive, it’s also a good way for us to learn and to remember. Oh yeah, I do remember that. I do know that.

So Jude starts in verse three. There are no chapters to Jude, first off. There’s just some free information for you about the book of Jude. There are no chapters. There are only verses. So, in verse three, Jude starts, “Dear friends, I have been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.”

I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches. That’s never a good sign when you’re paralleled with a worm, right? 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 Jude is a church leader. He grew up and, as we read about in the New Testament, he and other parts of Jesus’s biological family really thought that He was out of His mind. And many of them had a transformational experience. One of them—it was revealed, Jesus revealed Himself in His resurrected form to one of the brothers—and we can only imagine the ripple effect that had in His family.

Jude is going to write to the church. He was a church leader, was going to write to the church about salvation, but then he finds out about these slippery people, these wormy individuals who have come in. Not only are these people Christians, they claim to be teachers and leaders. And the Scripture, the Greek, explains it as like an exchange. I give you a five-dollar bill. Well, actually, it’s probably not a five. It’s more like a ten. And you give me a coffee. It’s like I got the grace of God. In exchange, I am going to do whatever I want. There was an exchange, and I’m going to pervert God’s grace.

Jude says you need to fight for the faith that we’ve been entrusted with. Defend it. Fight for it. And the Bible Project says that how Christians live is the most reliable indicator about what we believe. And if that is the case, Jude is saying these people are not Christians. These people are not pointing out the true way to live and to believe.

Jude says, “These people scoff at things they don’t understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction.” Last week, we talked about when you choose a certain way of life, you’re bringing it upon yourself. You’re removing yourself from what God has intended. Not only are we to defend the faith and point out what the fake news is or the fake truth is, we are to live differently. We’re to live how Jesus lives. We can avoid our own destruction that way.

But also, in a world full of church leaders and Christians who are living other than Christian lives, we have something different. We are trying to be like Jesus. And because of the size that we are, it’s way more likely that you’re going to get to know people and you’re going to be able to know who to trust and who not to trust.

Now verse 11. Jude isn’t done telling these teachers and leaders who have wormed into their midst about how not to live. Last week we talked about three different groups of people, how not to be that way. Well, Jude, for whatever reason, is real hot on this topic. And he’s got another triad for us. Okay. He says in verse 11, “What sorrows await them? For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, it’s very long story in the Old Testament. If you want some like nice Sunday afternoon reading, Balaam’s a very interesting story. It takes up chapters. It’s interesting why whoever decided to write that decided to take up so much room for Balaam. But Balaam was a prophet who was tempted by a king with money to curse God’s people instead of bless them, which is God’s intention. Balaam had such a hard time listening to God that God had a donkey talk to him to try to get his attention. Kora led 250 people to rebel against God. So it’s one thing like if you decide to be rebellious, but Kora managed to get 250 people to follow him to rebel against God. Jude is saying the people who are in your midst, the people who have wormed their way in, the people who have exchanged God’s grace for doing whatever they want, they are just like these people in the Old Testament.

Verse 12, Jude says, “When these people,” It’s never a good thing when you’re talking to someone, you’re talking about these people or those people, right? Jude says, “When these people eat with you on the fellowship meals, meaning communion was part of it, but they also just had like potlucks.” We think like church potlucks is maybe something we invent invented in the Midwest. I don’t think we did. I think they did in in Israel. These fellowship meals, they, when these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, that is what it’s supposed to be about. They are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead. This is my favorite. Doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by their roots. They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their shameless deeds. They are like wandering stars doomed forever to blackest darkness.

Jude is really serious about telling his people to avoid, to call out, and to defend the faith. He is so concerned that he is redundant. He goes on and on and on about just how bad these people are. It reminds me of watching certain news stations talking about certain candidates where it’s just like they’ve done this wrong and they’ve done this wrong. And by the way, did you know that the grandpa was like this? It’s like a political commercial.

Dangerous reefs. They’re hard to see, but they can destroy everything. Shepherds who feed themselves. They are the worst. Shepherds are intended to protect the sheep. And then there are these shepherds that actually eat the sheep. They only think about themselves. Clouds without rain. One of my least favorite things about a cloudy day is when nothing happens. It’s just cloudy. Like if it’s going to be cloudy, give us some rain or snow. I hate a cloudy day where you’re just like, why is it cloudy? It’s pointless. And then there are these double dead fruit trees that have been pulled up by the roots. There are six example friends in this section of what Jude is saying, this is what these people are like.

Now verse 14, he talks about Enoch. Enoch who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, which if you can go back to your Old Testaments again, they prophesied about these people, these wormy God, God God’s grace perverters. Enoch said, “Listen, the Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of this world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things that they have done and for all the insults that the ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” meaning against God.

These people are grumblers and complainers living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves and they flatter others to get what they want. So Enoch, and I could preach a whole sermon about this, y’all. Enoch is not in our Bible. However, back in Jude’s time, Enoch was a writing that they would have seen as worthwhile, good to learn by. Okay. Enoch prophesied about this time when the Lord would come with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment.

It says, this word judgment can bring up a lot of like, oh boy, here we go. Hellfire and brimstone. She’s talking about the end times. Okay. It can also simply mean separate. A judgment to execute judgment simply means we’re going to separate.

Now John in our book writes about the end times, writes for us about what is this going to look like when the Lord is coming. So in Revelation it says the this. The earth and sky fled from his presence. It was a vision that John had but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead both great and small standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the book of life, and the dead were judged, or again, think about that word, separated, according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.

To summarize that, I would say in the end times, there’s not going to be any more death. Death is going to be destroyed. It says in verse 15, “Anyone whose name was not found recorded in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” Then John says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.” Oh, and the sea was also gone.

John says, “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home now is among his people. He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. God will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death. There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things will be gone forever.’ And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I’m making everything new.’ And then he said to me, ‘Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.’ And he also said, ‘I it is finished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To all who are thirsty, I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But cowards, the unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshippers, and all liars. I love that, by the way, in case we start feeling really good of ourselves. I’m not a witchcraft person. Oh, liars. Crap. Their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.'”

I feel like Jude and Revelation are cousins. Jude is so clear about the separation between what is wicked and what is godly. He points it out again and again. Jude, Revelation, and I would say Jesus, he’s the one on the throne. Jesus is the one who is trustworthy.

Friends, there is always a time to repent. That is the good news. I can tell you every single Sunday, every minute that I’m with you, anytime I have a meeting with you, there’s always time to repent. But it is also my job to tell you that there will come a time, my friends, and hear me say this, there will come a time where there is not time to repent. There will be a time Kairos time actual time where there is not time to repent, and that is when Jesus comes back.

That is good news. However, when Jesus comes back, it doesn’t have to be hellfire and brimstone and a bad Nicholas Cage movie. It doesn’t have to be something you have to be afraid of. We are making jokes. By the way, there are free vegetables in the gym. Sorry those of you online. We were making jokes that there are tomatoes out there and if my sermon was bad, you could toss a few at me. Hellfire and brimstone. I don’t want that today. But I hope you can hear the good news in this today.

Eugene Peterson’s commentary on the book of Revelation says this. The end times are not really even an ending as we might expect, but it’s actually a fresh beginning. The Bible starts, as we assume, with a beginning. Adam and Eve were formed. Cain and Abel were sons. It was a beginning. That makes sense, right? It’s the genesis of the thing. But it ends with the same. The story that had creation for its first word has creation for its last. That is why we look forward to it. Not, oh man, all this is going to be over. Let’s burn it up. I am going to be so glad when it’s all over. No, we can look forward to it because everything that we experience that’s death and dying and brokenness is going to be reformed and made new. And if we have Jesus, we get to be part of that which is made new. We get to be part of that new heavens and that new earth as it was intended from the beginning and for eternity.

Does that make sense? God will live among us. There will be no more death. There will be no more crying. There will be no more grief. The earth and the heavens will be made new. Meanwhile, we have to live here with the fake news and the fake reporters and elections. God have mercy.

Jude says this in verse 17. “But you, my dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ predicted. They told you that in the last times there will be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires. These are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they follow their natural instincts because they do not have God’s spirit in them.”

This is the dividing lines, my friends. This is the separation. Jude is pointing to what the difference is between the scoffers, the ones who do not follow Jesus, the ones who do not live like Jesus, and the ones who do. Because I don’t know about you, but I cannot live like Jesus on my own. I cannot just wake up in the morning, be like, I’m going to be like Jesus today and paint it on or I just can’t do it. I can last maybe 20 seconds and that’s generous. I have to have God’s spirit within me.

Well, way back in the day when Jesus was walking on the earth, he had a conversation with someone who wanted to know what this looks like. What does it mean to have God’s spirit? As Jesus was having this conversation with this man named Nicodemus, Jesus said, “Well, you know, for God so loved the world that God gave his only son.” Does this sound familiar? So that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world but to save the world through him. There’s no judgment against anyone who believes in him. Okay? There is no judgment against us who believe in Jesus.

The judgment is based on this fact. God’s light came into the world, but the people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.

I sometimes think when I get to this point in my message, I just say the same thing here every week. It’s the same thing every week. Go to Jesus. If you are convicted about something, confess it and repent. I hope that we are a one trick pony here. I hope that you get bored hearing the same thing over and over again because I don’t want to preach any message other than that message that Jesus loves you. You probably have something in your life that you need to turn away from or if you haven’t turned away from that life without Jesus, you need to turn towards Jesus. I hope I never preach any other message other than that.

Nicodemus knew God. Nicodemus who had this conversation with Jesus, what does this look like? And Jesus said, “Actually, you have to be born again.” Nicodemus knew possibly by heart the first five books of the Bible. Jude lived with Jesus and didn’t believe. At some point, there’s a dividing line where we choose, what to turn away from, and what to turn towards.

Many will say today that there are signs that we are really close to the end times. Oh boy. Just Google it. Whoopee. It’s something else y’all out there. Some of the most famous Bible teachers of the time have just printed new books, new studies. I myself read a John Bevere book to get ready for this week. People have different ideas, however, about the order of things. You might hear the word rapture, the seven years reign of Jesus. Oh, then this is going to happen. I don’t know. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of disagreement about the order of things, but what we all agree on is that Jesus is coming back.

And as I get older, I get more and more excited about it. And I think about it more and more. Maybe this message today is for you to wake up to what Jude is saying. But you, my dear friends, Jude said, you must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus predicted. There are going to be those that are going to try to sway you and say, “It doesn’t really matter what you do. God’s grace is sufficient for that.” Or they’re going to tell you, “You don’t really even have to think about it. Just do what works, right? We’re all busy.”

Jesus is coming back. Jude wants us to defend our faith. Jude wants us to remember when you hear today that Jesus is coming back. If Jesus were to come back in this minute, do you have a sense of where your eternity lies?

I’m going to ask the worship team to come forward. We have a choice today to be ready when Jesus comes and to take more time to think about it. You still have time to repent because I don’t think Jesus has come back, right? I mean, wouldn’t that be something if it happens when we’re here at worship? One day there won’t be. Jesus told us that no one knows when it’ll be, but Jesus did encourage us to be ready.

I’m going to invite some of you who have your kids in Sunday school to go receive them. And Brian, as we reflect on what Jude has for us, please continue leading us in worship.