Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to afaithtalk.com. Today we’re reading Jude. It’s the book right before Revelation in the New Testament.
I’m in the NIV so grab yours or go here. Get something to write with and write on and you’ll be set to study.
Let’s Pray:
Thank You, Lord Jesus for leading us today. Thank You for revealing all that You mean to in this very short letter. Thank You for helping us study and for Your constant presence. In Your name, I pray. Amen.
Jude is one chapter long, so only verse numbers are in the directions.
Read Jude 1-2
Who is this written to?
Because you are loved and belong to Jesus, mercy, peace and love is yours in abundance. Yes, you have been called to belong to Christ Jesus. (Romans 1:6) So in faith and by faith you can feel His love, know His mercy and be indwelled by His peace. The Spirit of Holiness lives in you guaranteeing you belong to Christ. Abundance. Yes, all He offers is abundantly given.
‘kept for Jesus Christ’ what do you feel when you read that?
Read Jude 3
The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People
Jude is eager to write to them about what?
He’s compelled to write for what reason?
What do you think ‘contend for the faith’ means?
This is what m-w.com says for contend.
to strive or vie in contest or rivalry or against difficulties
These are the synonyms: battle, compete, face off, fight, race, rival, vie
Sometimes in faith we have to choose the best fit. So I’m going to say grow your faith especially due to difficulties or dangers and it’s a fight to grow it. Paul has also used Race terminology regarding faith so if we go that way we could say it’s a race to the finish with faith because faith is the only thing we have to have, faith in Christ and what he’s done for us.
Jude says that faith was ‘once for all’ what?
Do you feel like a ‘God’s holy people’? Yet to believe and to exercise and work out and grow your faith is turning you into a holy member of God’s family. So yes, when you believe you are given Christ and that is how you belong and are one of ‘God’s holy people’.
Read Jude 4-16 slowly.
“Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
“See, the Lord is coming…”
Did you recognize all those old testament names? Did you remember their stories? Absolutely go back and read about them if you don’t. See if you can discover the reason Jude uses those examples as negatives in these verses.
Read Jude 17-19
A Call to Persevere
Remember what the apostles told you? We’ve studied their words, some of them anyway. Ephesians, Romans, Timothy, Titus, John, James, Thessalonians, Peter, and now we’re on not an apostle but a brother of James who was Jesus’ half-brother. It was in a story I was reading last week. The family that Jesus grew up in had several boys and a few girls too. James and Jude were two of the boys. We don’t have names for all of them. Yet only Jesus is God’s Son, and He is the Only Son of the father before the apostle’s believe and are sent out to grow the kingdom. A gift of faith is adoption by God.
Also, I was reading a Bible Study in the magazine that Logos puts out and it was on Proverbs and to shorten a lot of what it says, if you picture a continuum, scoffers are on the far end away from the wisdom of God. While the word ‘scoffers’ is the noun form, to scoff, according to m-w.com means: to show one’s contempt in derision or mockery. ‘Scoff’ stresses insolence, disrespect, or incredulity as motivating the derision. Surely you’ve seen or heard of this lately. The advice in that study was don’t try to argue them down. Jesus put it, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:44-45
Jude tells us why in Verse 19: These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
Read Jude 20-21
But you, dear friends, (write these two verses starting with Dear) because he’s telling us what we need to do here and what’s at stake if we fail to do so. Eternity.
Read Jude 22-23
In John 15:17,
Jesus said, “This is my command: Love each other.”
Read Jude 24-25
Doxology
To present you before his glorious presence without what? And with what?
All the glory, majesty, power and authority is Yours, dear God, before time, now and forevermore! Amen.
Praise Him who is able, because He alone is able and He alone is worthy of our praise.