An Overview of Jude

Welcome to the Well Community Church. If we have not met yet, welcome to those who are here in person and those joining us at one of our other gatherings, whether it’s our Fig Garden campus or the Rowdies hanging out in the PM. My name is Brad, and I get the privilege of hanging out with you here today.

We’ve said this before, but it’s worth drawing your attention to it again: we are very committed here to the Bible. Today, we’re going to be doing an overview of a book called the Book of Jude. If you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn there. If you don’t have one, we have Bibles at the Welcome or Information Centers at both campuses that we’d love to put in your hand. You’re certainly welcome to Google it, but I think it would be helpful to have the text in front of you as we do an overview of the entire book.

A Legacy of Truth and Authenticity

To set things up, I want to take you back a couple of decades to the launch of this church. When we started The Well Community Church, it was a handful of college students who really wanted to launch a church that had some uniqueness to it. There were wonderful churches in Fresno, but there was a unique heart and desire for something fresh and different.

As we talked about what type of church they wanted to be a part of, they said, “Look, I really want it to be authentic. Can we be honest about our junk? Can we not have to put on the ‘Christian face’ where everything is always perfect?” I mean, God is good all the time, but sometimes life isn’t. They wanted to do life in smaller groups with authentic relationships, engage our city with the gospel, and be deeply committed to the Word of God.

I’m so grateful that twenty-plus years later, those college students—who are now parents sending their own kids to college—still hold those same values. That tethering to the Word of God remains a critical component of who we are.

I share that because when we launched The Well, it was a very interesting time for the church in our country. Something called the “Emergent Church” was launching. There were theologians and thinkers leading the way in reforming what churches looked like. We were excited about it at first because it felt fresh. We engaged in those conversations with names you might recognize: Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, and others.

I remember going to a conference where a guy in a breakout session was talking about getting people into the “rhythm of God.” He said that if you could get people to behave rightly, then they would eventually believe rightly. He wanted to focus on behavior first and let belief follow.

I raised my hand and asked a question, but I wasn’t satisfied with the answer. Twenty years ago, I had the same passion but even less polish, so I raised my hand a second time. By the third time I raised my hand, about twenty goatees looked at me. Back then, if you didn’t have a goatee or a soul patch, you weren’t a pastor! As those twenty goatees stared me down, I realized, “This is not my tribe.” This group was not committed to the Word of God the way we wanted to be.

Interestingly, many of the people on that list have since completely punted from the Christian faith. We realized they weren’t committed to truth. They would even say, “Don’t lead with truth; you’ll turn people away or be offensive.” But I would argue that biblical truth informs behavior. If we don’t have biblical truth, we are just like any other philanthropic organization trying to do good deeds without the gospel.

If we aren’t a people of truth, we become like the people described in Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:14 (NASB)

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

Truth is the rudder in our spiritual life because our God is truth. He has revealed Himself in truth, called us to Himself in truth, and instructed us to live in truth. If we don’t believe rightly, we cannot behave rightly.

The Subtle Art of Drifting

In 1942, C.S. Lewis wrote a revolutionary book called The Screwtape Letters. It’s a fictional tale of a chief demon, Screwtape, mentoring his young apprentice, Wormwood, on how to lead people astray. The whole book is about the art of subtlety—wooing people away from the truth bit by bit.

If you asked me to write a “Screwtape letter” to the church in America today, I would probably write a letter that promotes Christian nationalism to confuse love of country with love of God. I would encourage you to distance yourself from the Bible by suggesting it’s full of contradictions. I would try to get you to pursue a relationship with God without your Bible. If I could get you to do that, I’ve already won.

Looking at our culture, it’s a battle we are already losing. Thankfully, the Bible speaks to these issues directly in the Book of Jude. Jude is trying to anchor us to truth. He wants to expose false teaching and invite us into a faithful fidelity to the text.

Identifying the Author

Let’s talk about the author. Names change depending on the language—like Roberto and Robert. The Hebrew word is Judah, the Greek is Judas, and the English is Jude. They all mean “praise of God.” There are eight men named Jude mentioned in the Bible, but we can narrow it down.

It’s not Judah the son of Jacob, or the Judas from the intertestamental period. It’s likely not Jude the Apostle, because in verse 17, the author distances himself from the apostles. If he were an apostle, he probably would have used that title to establish credibility.

I believe the author is Judas, the half-brother of Jesus. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, but He had half-brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude.

Matthew 13:55 (NASB)

’Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

Can you imagine growing up in the house with Jesus? He never misses curfew, He always does His chores, and He eats all His vegetables. He probably drove His brothers nuts! In John 7, we see that His brothers didn’t initially believe in Him.

John 7:5 (NASB)

For not even His brothers were believing in Him.

But then something happens. Jesus rises from the dead and appears to His half-brother James. Eventually, the whole family is transformed.

1 Corinthians 15:7 (NASB)

then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;

Acts 1:14 (NASB)

These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with [the] women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Both James and Jude became leaders in the early church and wrote the epistles that bear their names. Jude, however, doesn’t start his letter by name-dropping his famous brother. Instead, he identifies himself as a bondservant.

Jude 1:1 (NASB)

Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:

That word doulos refers to someone who was a slave, was released, but then willingly placed themselves back under the authority of their master. More important than being Jesus’ brother, Jude was a willing slave of the Christ.

Style and Content

Jude writes in “triads”—groups of three. You’ll see them everywhere. In verse one: called, beloved, and kept. In verse two: mercy, peace, and love.

Jude 1:2 (NASB)

May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

He also assumes we are intimately familiar with Jewish literature. He quotes the Old Testament constantly—the Exodus, Sodom and Gomorrah, Balaam, and Korah. He even quotes non-canonical Jewish literature like 1 Enoch and The Assumption of Moses. Some people get bothered by that, but it wasn’t unique to Jude. The Apostle Paul quoted pagan poets and other Jewish traditions not found in the biblical canon as well.

In just 25 short verses, Jude forces us to jump all over the biblical timeline. He wants to show us that being faithful to the truth informs how we live.

The Question of Apostasy

Jude deals with a group of people who seem to have walked away from the faith. This raises a difficult question: Can a follower of Jesus lose their salvation?

The Bible teaches that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are secure. You didn’t earn your salvation, so you can’t “un-earn” it.

1 John 5:11-13 (NASB)

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

However, it is possible to think you’re a believer when you aren’t. Jesus said that if you continue in His word, you are truly His disciple.

John 8:31 (NASB)

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ’If you continue in My word, [then] you are truly disciples of Mine;

If someone claims to know Him but doesn’t keep His commandments, the Bible calls them a liar.

1 John 2:4-6 (NASB)

The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

When someone walks away from the faith, they are either a disobedient believer who will have a very tough conversation with Jesus one day, or they were never truly saved to begin with. I worry that sometimes we “soft sell” the gospel, and people believe in something other than the real Jesus. Jude seems to be dealing with people who were never truly believers. He describes them in verse 19 as “worldly-minded and devoid of the Spirit.”

Jude 1:19 (NASB)

These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.

If you embrace the gospel, you are sealed with the Spirit. These people had a guise of godliness but weren’t the Lord’s.

An Outline of the Battle

Here is how the book breaks down. Verses 1-2 are the introduction. In verse 3, Jude tells us he wanted to write a happy letter about our common salvation, but he had to call an audible. He felt compelled to tell us to “contend for the faith.” Jude is feisty! He’s saying we have to pick a fight and stand our ground.

In verses 5-19, he gives examples of why we must contend. He points to rebellious Israelites, rebellious angels, and rebellious men in Sodom and Gomorrah. He notes that when truth is removed, sexual indulgence usually follows. When we lose our moral bearing, we become driven by the flesh.

He then points to three wicked individuals: Cain (murder/wickedness), Balaam (seducing people into pagan worship), and Korah (rebellion against authority). He follows this with illustrations of selfish shepherds, clouds without rain, and chaotic waves. Finally, he gives us warnings from the apostles and Jesus Himself to be on guard against those who would lead us astray.

Our Closing Charge

Jude closes by showing us that God is building a new community—a new temple of believers built together in love. This community shares faith, prayer, and a disdain for the flesh. He ends with one of the most beautiful doxologies in Scripture.

Jude 1:24-25 (NASB)

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Why do we spend time doing this? Why go through what feels like a seminary experience today? We do it because the more we understand the context and the author, the more the Word of God comes off the page. We don’t ask, “What does this mean to me?” We ask, “What does this mean?” and then, “How does it apply to me?”

Our hope at The Well has always been to be a people who hold to the Word of God. Twenty years later, we just have a little more gray hair, but the mission is the same. We must handle accurately the word of truth.

Jude is going to raise our sights to see the beauty of the God who is truth. Let’s go on this journey together. Amen?

Let’s pray. God, we are grateful for the truth of Your Word. May that plumb line never be removed from us. We pray for a revival of truth in our city and that we would be mindful of any voices that lead us away from what is true. Bless us as we hold to what You’ve revealed. In Jesus’ name, Amen.