Chapter 1: What is the significance of the book of Jude?
It's changed in our day. We began embracing what has been labeled rightly, I think, as a therapeutic culture, that our self-worth depends upon our subjective feelings.
Chapter 2: What cultural shifts impact our understanding of self-worth?
Do I like myself? Do I feel good about myself? And what that does is it pushes you and I inward to be self-consumed. self-worshiping, self-identifying. You notice so Jude here, he's Christ-absorbed. He's Christ-obsessed. And there's so much rest in this. And it's something our culture doesn't understand. There's rest in being a slave of Jesus Christ.
There is rest in being a slave of Christ, and that's how Jude describes himself at the beginning of his letter. This is Renewing Your Mind on this Monday. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and today we will begin a new series that walks us through Jude's short yet powerful New Testament letter. This is the first time any of these messages have been featured on Renewing Your Mind.
So if you'd like digital access to all of them, along with the study guide, respond today at RenewingYourMind.org with a donation, and we'll unlock them for you in the Ligonier app. Plus, we'll send you a Renewing Your Mind notebook to help you keep track of all of your study.
This notebook is not available for purchase in our online store, so be sure to respond today if you would like the series and the Renewing Your Mind notebook. Well, here's today's guest teacher, Jason Holopoulos, senior pastor of University Reform Church in Michigan, to begin this study in Jude.
It's my delight to be with you. We're going to go through the book of Jude together. I appreciate you being willing to join me for this. Jude is not exactly the book that people hear a lot about or get excited about. I was thinking just this morning while I was getting ready, I read through it and it was just under four minutes to read through the whole book. That's all it took, four minutes.
And I was thinking, poor Jude, you know, there won't be complaining in heaven, but if someone had reason for a complaint, it's probably Jude.
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Chapter 3: How does Jude describe his identity in relation to Christ?
He would say, ah, nobody cared about my book, you know. I have—we do professions of faith at the church that I serve where children will have a Sunday, they come up and they do their profession of faith, and I introduce them to the congregation and say, you know, what is your name? And usually one of the questions I ask them is, what is your favorite book of the Bible?
And none of them have ever said Jude, none of them. But it is a wonderful little book, though she be small, she is mighty, and she has a lot for us to learn as we turn to it over these next seven sessions. It's a message that Jude is putting forth that is helpful, not just for the generation he was in, obviously, but it is one that I think is desperately needed today.
And he's going to teach us about contending for the faith. So that's what we're going to look at in this series, what it looks like to contend for the faith. But I want to pray for us, and then we're going to look at the first two verses and think about the context and the author together in this first session. So let me pray for us.
Our Father, we are thankful that you have given us your eternal Word, that it is sufficient for life, that it is sufficient for faith. We pray that even as we attend to these next seven sessions together, that as you have promised, that your Word would not return void.
that you would speak to us as we each have need, and that you would bring to the eyes of our hearts the beauty of our Savior Christ Jesus. It's in his strong name that we pray. Amen. Let me read verses 1 and 2, and then let's walk through a little context together as well.
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. So let's talk a little bit about the author to start with. Obviously, he names himself at the very beginning. It's why the book is named this. It is Jude. And Jude identifies himself in relation to two people.
If you look there in the opening line, Jesus Christ and James, whom he calls his brother. Now what you need to know is that Jude can be interchanged with Judas, and so some think this was the lesser well-known of the two Judases that were disciples of Christ. You have Judas of James, but of James does not mean brother of, it means son of. So I think we can rule out that this is that Judas.
There are others that point to Acts 15, and there is a man there by the name of Judas Barsabbas, and there are some that will identify him there, but he's not identified there as a brother of James. And usually, when you're interpreting Scripture, this is a good rule of thumb, when you interpret Scripture, the simplest answer is usually the best answer.
And so, let's think about what would be the simplest answer to this question. Who is this? Well, notice that Jude simply mentions James here. He doesn't feel like he needs to give any descriptor of who James is. He's expecting that the people that are receiving this letter know James, have some familiarity with James. So it's likely that this James is a famous individual in the early church.
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Chapter 4: Why is Jude's message relevant for today's Christians?
That's first. Christians are not those who search. They aren't even those who first believe. They are those who are first called. You can't believe without first having been called. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me, said Jesus. His word goes out. And as people receive his word, that calling, and they come, come to me, he says. His word accomplishes his purposes.
God calls. It's staggering if you're a Christian that God calls me. He called me. And that's where Jude is going to begin with them as he's getting ready. He's going to say some hard things to them, but he wants to remind them at the very outset of who they are. You were cold. You're cold. What is that cold?
I grew up when kids still played outside until dark, and I can remember living on Drawbridge Street and had a single mom and be out there with the neighborhood boys and we're playing basketball or catch or whatever we were doing. And then I would hear in that dusk hour, I would hear, Jason, it's time to come home. And what did that mean? I was loved. I was protected. I was provided for. Come.
Christians are those who are called. And so he's reminding them, he called you, he called me. You have to remind yourself often. As a Christian, he called me. Again, think of the context. Jude is encouraging them. He's writing to a church that is filled with trial. It is filled with disruption by heretics. And there is all kinds of division that is happening. And so he reminds them of this.
At the very beginning, God called you. He called you. There's rest in that. Why were they called? Because, as Jude says, they are the beloved in God the Father. The Christian is called and the Christian is beloved. Beloved in God the Father. Interestingly, these are two terms that are used of Israel in the Old Testament. And now he is writing this to the church. And that is right.
They are identified the same way. Why? Because Israel was the church in the Old Covenant age. And the church is Israel in the New Covenant age. We are the beloved of God. We, the church, are the beloved of God. You notice... That God is the active person. It is where the ones that are acted upon. Christians are the recipients, the beloved of God the Father. He's the actor. He's the initiator.
Why did he choose to call you? Because he loved you. There's that wonderful passage, Deuteronomy 6, the great Shema, where God is walking through Israel, the thing that will mark them more than anything else as the people set apart for God, you know, that they have one God. And then you get to Deuteronomy 7, and Deuteronomy 7, one of my favorite passages, where God
They are being spoken to, and Moses is speaking to them about this fact that they have been set apart by God for God. And he says this, he says, "'For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.'" The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasure possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Why is it that he chose them instead of the Canaanites?
Why did he choose them instead of the Egyptians? Why did he choose them instead of the Chinese? And Moses has one answer. Because the Lord loves you. You're beloved. It's not because of something you were going to become. It's not because of something that you are. To Israel, it's not because you were numerous. It's just because he loves you that he called you. Why does he love you?
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