God's Communication of Love
Notes
Transcript
Jude 1-2 ESV
1 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: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
As we have now entered October, the tenth month of the year, the year is officially three quarters of the way through. There are three months left in the year, the month that we are in now, next month which will be November, and then we close out the year in December.
And it is my desire, as we close out the year, to tie up any loose ends that may remain in the many sermons that we have gone through this year by preaching through a very short book in the Bible that leaves no opportunity for loose ends to remain.
That book that we will be working through to close out the year is the concise book, or epistle of Jude.
And what is so interesting about the epistle of Jude is that though it is small, it packs a serious punch. In it we find the earnest plea for the people of God to stand up and defend the orthodox faith in an age where it is being rejected and compromised left and right.
We see comparisons of apostasy in this age, that age, and all other ages before it with the age that we live in today. And the common theme that we see in every case is the destruction of those who reject orthodox truth and refuse to trust in God.
And lastly, in this epistle we see the call to stand firm and cling tightly to the Author and Finisher of our faith in the midst of these seemingly never-ending storms, knowing that He will inevitably keep the faith of His elect people pure and undefiled to the end, even in a wicked and perverse generation.
And as we begin this series of sermons this morning, we begin by looking at what we call the greeting of this epistle. In it we will see the author of this epistle, how he describes himself, the recipients of this epistle, and how the author describes them, and lastly, we will read a brief prayer that the author prays over the recipients of this letter.
But most importantly, what we will see in our sermon for today is the absolute dependence that the author of this epistle has upon the omnipotent power and everlasting love of God.
As we look to the very beginning of this epistle and look at the very first word of our reading, we are introduced to the author of this epistle as this epistle begins with the word “Jude”.
Now, this makes sense that the author of this epistle is named “Jude” seeing that the epistle itself is titled the Epistle of Jude. But as we go on in this first verse, what we see is Jude introducing himself by describing who he is.
And as Jude describes who he is, he does so not by lifting himself up, but rather, he describes himself by and through his relationship with two people.
We see this as Jude begins his epistle by identifying himself as:
Jude 1a ESV
1a Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ
This is how Jude is sure to immediately identify himself. It is what he glories most in, and that is in being a servant of Jesus Christ.
Now, to say that someone is a servant of someone else indicates that the servant is under the authority and control of the one who has placed him in servitude.
Thus, as Jude identifies himself as a “servant of Jesus Christ” what he is saying is that Jesus has purchased him with His own blood. He is saying that he is no longer his own, but he belongs now to Jesus Christ. And thus, Jude identifies himself as a servant of Jesus, because Jesus Himself has bought and claimed Jude as His servant.
And because Jude is a servant of Jesus, he is therefore under the authority and control of Jesus, his Master.
This term, “Servant of God” is used all throughout the scriptures. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Job, David, Isaiah, even Jesus Himself and many others are identified throughout the Bible as the servants of God.
What this means is that Jude, like the others just mentioned has been graciously chosen by God to such an office, the office of “servant of God”. And to be a servant of God means to be chosen, called, enabled, and effectually made by God to give oneself fully to the service of God.
Indeed, this is the greatest office that any could be called to, the office of being a humble servant of God. And thus, Jude immediately lets the recipients of this epistle know that he does what he does and writes what he writes under the command and direction of God Himself.
But Jude does not identify himself only as a servant of Jesus Christ, he also identifies himself as a:
Jude 1b ESV
1b brother of James,
Now, the James who is spoken of here can be safely identified as the James who was the leader of the Jerusalem Church at that time, who had written the Epistle of James, and who further was the half-brother of Jesus.
This James, it is believed was a son of Mary and Joseph, thus a younger sibling of the Lord Jesus according to the flesh. And if Jude identifies himself as a brother of James, then that means that he too is a son of Mary and Joseph and thus also a younger sibling of the Lord Jesus according to the flesh.
And so, many of us may look at this and think that Jude should glory first of all in the fact that he is a biological half-sibling of the Lord Jesus, but no, Jude recognizes the most important relation that he has with Jesus, and that is not his familial relation. No, the most important relation that Jude has to the Lord Jesus is that Jesus is indeed his Lord and Jesus has graciously provided Jude with the salvation that he needed by dying for him.
Thus, knowing who wrote this epistle and how he describes himself, we next look at who Jude writes this epistle to, when he says that he writes:
Jude 1c ESV
1c To those who are called,
Now, in looking at who Jude writes this epistle to, it is important that we get this “calling” right.
If I call you, you may not answer my call. Maybe I’m calling out to you, “Hey you!” but you don’t answer. And the reason why you don’t answer may be because you don’t hear me calling out to you. Or perhaps you hear me, but you don’t want to talk to me, so you ignore me. Or it may even be that you hear me call you, but you think that I’m calling to someone else, and for that reason you don’t answer my call.
Jesus Himself said that many are called, meaning that all people have a responsibility to recognize the call of God to submit to His Lordship and willfully answer that call. But Jesus finished that statement by saying that though many are called, few are chosen to answer that call.
Thus, God calls, but those who are not chosen to answer that call God leaves to make their own choice. And because they are not chosen by God to answer that call, the choice that they will inevitably always make is to not answer the call.
God does not force them to not answer the call, He simply leaves them to themselves, and they, being at odds with God without the gracious intervention of God on their part, they always freely choose to reject God, the One Whom they are at odds with.
But the chosen whom the Lord Jesus speaks of are those who have been effectually called by God. That word “effectual” means producing a desire or intended result. Thus, for the chosen, it is God’s desire and intention for them to accept His call to salvation. And because it is God’s desire and intention, it produces that effect.
And thus, those who Jude speaks of here, those whom he describes as being “called” is obviously in reference to a group, or a subset of those who have been effectually called to salvation and are thus saved people.
And these called, saved people whom Jude is writing to he describes first as:
Jude 1d ESV
1d beloved in God the Father
These whom Jude is writing to he says are “beloved”. And to be “beloved” means to be someone who is much loved, a dearly loved person.
And Jude says that these are beloved, dearly loved, “in God the Father”. Now, this means more than just being beloved by God the Father; indeed, as these are those who have been effectually called by God, here as we speak of these being beloved in God the Father do we see the establishment and origin of their calling.
In saying that these are beloved in God the Father, Jude declares that the ground of the election of these is found in God the Father. In other words, our election originates in God the Father choosing us to salvation.
That is what got the ball rolling. Our election originated in the sovereign choice of God the Father, and that choice came about as a result of sovereign, covenantal, love.
For this reason, those whom Jude writes to, the elect, are described as being beloved by God the Father, but also as beloved in God the Father.
And in the last part of this first verse, we see these being described as:
Jude 1e ESV
1e kept for Jesus Christ:
It has always been the orthodox belief that those who are truly saved, remain saved, and thus can never be anything but saved from that point forward, and are therefore kept saved.
And what has also always been an orthodox belief is the fact that we who are truly saved, in no way keep ourselves saved. Indeed, it is not possible for us to keep ourselves saved. And thus, the orthodox belief is that whom God has saved, God keeps saved forever. It is His work, not ours.
But we ask, for what purpose are we saved and kept saved? We find the answer to that in this portion of our reading. We are kept saved by God for Jesus Christ.
Thus, while we may view the purpose and end of our salvation to be something that ultimately concerns us, the reality is that the purpose and the end of our salvation is so that God the Father may present us, His elect people, as a pure, undefiled Bride to His Son. And we are effectively presented to Him pure and undefiled as we are kept saved by God the Father, and thus kept pure and undefiled.
Thus, having addressed and described those to whom he is writing, Jude then blesses his recipients in offering a prayer on their behalf in verse 2, where we read Jude saying in regard to his recipients:
Jude 2 ESV
2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
This blessing which Jude prays for his recipients involves first, mercy.
Mercy is indicative of not receiving what one deserves. What all people justifiably deserve is eternal condemnation. We come into this world already at odds with God and thus are natural-born rebels, and as rebels, we deserve the eternal punishment of a rebel.
But mercy means that God does not give us what we deserve, He does not condemn His elect people, indeed, He is merciful even to the reprobate, those who are not saved and will not be saved by not immediately giving them the damnation that they deserve.
But this extends to those of us who are saved and is active even now because we still constantly mess up. We still constantly sin against God and yet God mercifully does not condemn us, though we deserve it.
And as we continue on in Jude’s blessing, we see that it next involves peace.
As was said, we are born at odds with God, hostile to one another, and what peace indicates is the end of the hostility between God and those whom He has graciously chosen to salvation. And this end of hostility comes about through the application of the life-giving blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to the elect people of God.
But this peace isn’t just indicative of the end of hostility. Hostility can be brought to an end between two people and the people still don’t really like each other, they’re just not fighting anymore. You see, when God makes peace between He and His elect people, not only is hostility brought to an end, but friendly relations then ensue. For this reason, Jude’s blessing lastly involves love.
This love that Jude speaks of is in indicative of the relation that God and His elect people share after they have been reconciled and peace has been established.
As was said earlier, the elect people of God are beloved in God the Father. This is the grounds of our election, the love that God has for those that He has chosen to be His own. And it is this love that keeps us secure in our salvation.
And this love that God has for His people, Jude prays will be multiplied. This means that it is the desire of Jude that the people of God, His chosen people will advance in godliness by the hand of God Himself, that the security that they have will seemingly grow stronger, and the love that they experience from the hand of God will be apprehended and experienced more and more throughout their pilgrimage on earth.
Beloved, this promise, this blessing is not only for those to whom Jude was then writing, but it is for us today who are among God’s people. It is for those tomorrow and in the days to come for those who are among God’s people.
And as we now go to partake in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we experience that love afresh.
