The General Epistle of
Jude
Introduction
“Studying the little Epistle of Jude is like working a gold mine because of all of the rich nuggets which are here just for the mining.” Fuller clapped his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation of leading the Gatherers study group into the next study. “Is everybody ready to do just that? Mine for gold nuggets of truth?”
“I’m ready, Skipper!” Fronk exclaimed.
Fuller ignored the Gilligan’s Island reference toward himself. “This really is such a small book, it shouldn’t be too difficult to go through, should it?”
Erin shook her head. “No. There’s only 25 verses in the whole book.”
“Could spend a minute on each verse and be done with the study in 25 minutes,” Staci pointed out. She looked at Fuller. “But you’re not going to do that, are you?”
Fuller regarded her. “Would you like me to?”
“Well, no. I want to learn as much as I can, no matter how long it takes.”
Lenox agreed. “You can never out-learn God’s Word.”
“Then, let’s begin.” Fuller paused. “What do we know about the Book of Jude? Who wrote it?”
“I would have to say Jude,” Barrington replied with a chuckle. “It’s kind of got his name on it.”
“Then, I would have to say that you’re correct. The writer is Jude, which is the English form of the name Judas.”
Staci’s eyes widened. “Not the Judas? The one who betrayed Jesus.”
Fuller shook his head. “No. This Jude is the brother of James. Now, in the gospel records there are three or four men by the name of James, and there are three men by the name of Judas. We’re helped in our identification of the writer of this epistle by the record in Matthew. ‘Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 1’ "
King smiled as he nodded his head. “So two of these brothers, James, the writer of the Epistle of James, and Judas, the writer of the Epistle of Jude, are half brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Yes,“ Fuller responded. “There are two other men by the name of Judas, and they both were among the twelve apostles of our Lord. The best known, of course, is Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed the Lord.” He smiled reassuringly at Staci. “This Judas is not the one who wrote the Book of Jude. Now the other apostle by the name of Judas is distinguished in this way…‘Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 2’ The way he is identified is just that he is not Judas Iscariot. Therefore we believe that the writer of this epistle is the third Judas which Scripture mentions. Judas, the half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Notice that neither James nor Jude identify themselves as brothers of the Lord Jesus,” King pointed out. “James introduces himself in James 1:1 as ‘… a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…’ And Jude introduces himself as ‘the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James.’ Jude calls himself the servant, meaning ‘bond slave,’ of Jesus Christ.”
“Why didn’t James and Jude capitalize on their blood relationship with Jesus?” Fronk wanted to know.
“I think the reason is obvious,” Barrington replied.
“You do? ‘Cause it ain‘t so obvious to me.”
“Neither James nor Jude believed in the messianic claims of Jesus until after His resurrection. It was the Resurrection that convicted them and confirmed to them that Jesus was who He claimed to be. Up until that time they thought He had just gone off on religion, that He was, as the Scripture puts it, beside Himself. But after His resurrection, that’s when they became believers.”
Erin blinked. “How is that obvious?”
Barrington paused. “Okay…You see, it was possible to grow up in a home with Jesus in the days of His flesh and not recognize Him. I believe we see in Psalm 69 that He suffered loneliness and misunderstanding during those growing up years in Nazareth. Therefore His brothers felt that, although they had been reared with Him, they hadn’t really known Him at that time. As Paul expressed it later when he said, ‘Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 3’ Jude, though a half brother, recognizes that Jesus is the glorified Christ and that human relationship is not meaningful to him in any way. He had to come to Christ as a sinner, accepting Him as Savior just as anyone else did.”
“I’ve got Psalm 69 here,” Lenox said.
Fuller nodded encouragingly. “Read it for us.”
Lenox paused. “It’s quite long. Longer than the Book of Jude even.”
He chuckled. “Go ahead.”
Lenox nodded and read Psalm 69. “‘Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O LORD; for thy loving kindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein. For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.’ ”
Shiva shook his head. “Wow. That is some Psalm.”
“Amen to that, brother.”
“By the way,” Fuller began, “this is the marvelous answer of both James and Jude to an attitude which arose after the era of the apostles. There was a brief period when the family of Jesus was revered in a rather superstitious and sacred way as if they were something special. Actually, they were not superior; they were simply human beings who had to come to Christ just as you and I must come to Christ.”
“I believe Mary has been ignored in some areas, such as Protestantism,” King replied. “She was a wonderful person, you know. It was no accident that she was chosen of God to bear the Son of God, but that does not mean she is to be lifted up above all other people. She takes her own rightful place. Elizabeth called her blessed among women, not blessed above women, and Mary herself confessed her need of a Savior when she said, ‘And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 4’ Therefore the brief period through which the church went when the family of the Lord Jesus was elevated to a very high position would certainly have been opposed by James and Jude. They themselves took the position of being merely bond slaves of Jesus Christ.”
“When was the Book of Jude writen?” Fuller asked.
“I have no idea,” Staci said.
“This book was written around A.D. 66–69,” Shiva replied. “That’s what I have in the footnotes of my Bible.”
“And what about the theme?” Fuller inquired. “What would you say the theme of this book is?”
“I’d have to say,” Lenox began, “that the theme of the book is assurance in the days of apostasy.“
Fuller nodded. “Jude picked up the pen of inspiration to write on some theme or truth concerning the gospel and our salvation. He could have chosen the subject of justification by faith, but Paul had written on that in Romans. He could have chosen the resurrection of Christ, but Paul had written on that in 1 Corinthians. Or he could have chosen the doctrine of reconciliation, but Paul had written on that in II Corinthians. Probably Jude could have written on the great subject of faith, but Paul had written on that in Galatians. Or he could have selected the church as the body of Christ, but Paul had written on that in Ephesians. Or he could have selected the person of Christ, but Paul had written on that in Colossians. Jude could have written about our Great High Priest, but the writer to the Hebrews had already written on that. Or he could have chosen the subject of fellowship, but John was going to write on that later on. So the Spirit of God caused him to develop another subject rather than to develop one of the great doctrines.”
“Paul sure did a lot of writing,” Staci replied thoughtfully.
“Yes, he did,” Fuller agreed with a smile. “However, the Spirit of God arrested Jude’s purpose before he could even put down his subject and directed him into another channel. Jude’s subject is the coming apostasy. He gives us the most vivid account that we have of the apostasy, and he presents it in a very dramatic manner. Jude hangs out a red lantern on the most dangerous curve along the highway the church of Christ is traveling. Jude describes in vivid terms and with awe-inspiring language the frightful conditions that were coming in the future. This little epistle is like a burglar alarm. Apostates have broken into the church. They came in the side door while nobody was watching. And this little epistle is like an atom bomb. The first bomb did not fall on Hiroshima or Nagasaki; it fell when Jude wrote this little epistle. It’s an atom bomb, and it exploded in the early church as a warning.”
King nodded. “I agree. Jude gives the only record in Scripture regarding the contention of Satan with Michael the archangel over the body of Moses. It is a very remarkable passage of Scripture.”
“Also, Jude records the prophecy of Enoch, which is found nowhere else in Scripture. He sees the Lord coming with ten thousands of His saints. And before we begin in earnest, there’s one more thing to note about this little book. The little prophecy of Jude affords a fitting introduction to the Book of Revelation.” Fuller paused as he regarded the study group. “Are we ready to begin?”
The Gatherers were ready.
This concludes the Introduction of Jude.