Good afternoon and welcome to the Panhandle. I pray this finds you to blessed to be stressed. When you hear the word “church” what do you think of? A building, a place to go on Saturday or Sunday so you can check it of your weekly to do list. Is it a place where you are fed spiritually? There are a lot of ways people respond to that word and not all of them are positive. What happens when someone comes in and starts to slowly change things and not for the better?
What the Church is suppose to be:
The church is to be subject Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:24)
The church is to be spotless, without wrinkles, holy, and blameless. (Ephesians 5:27)
The church is to be united with the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ; and not anyone or anything else. (Ephesians 5:30-32)
The church is to be actively performing the Great Commission. (Matthew 28:18-20)
The church is to be a place where preaching has the prominent position. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
The church is to be the pillar and ground of truth. (1 Timothy 3:15)
What the Church is not responsible for:
It is not the responsibility of the church to entertain you.
It is not the responsibility of the church to make you feel good about yourself.
It is not the responsibility of the church to focus solely on social issues.
False teachers, preachers, and leaders will attempt to get the eyes of the church off of God, to get them away from doing right as prescribed in God's Word.
Back in verses 5-7 Jude warned of those who were apostates. He also warned that they were creeping into the church. They were dishonest, deceitful, and treacherous, they had turned from God and they were trying to turn others in the church. In verses 8-10 Jude described the rebellious as filthy dreamers, defilers of the flesh, despise of dominion, and speaking evil of the angelic majesties. In verse 11 Jude used three Old Testament examples as examples of apostates.
What is an apostate? An apostate is anyone who has professed to accept the truth of who Jesus Christ is and say that they have accepted Him as Lord and Saviour. But in reality they only gave lip service and did not really have a change of heart. Soon these people are living an obviously sinful life and some even lead others astray. That is what was happening in the first century Church that Jude was writing to.
Cape Point, Southern Africa; In summer, the wind blows off the coast of southern Africa this allows the storms to lash the Cape Point Peninsula with a consistency and ferocity that earned it the name ‘Cape of Storms’. On these days, heaving swells cause the ocean to foam and a layer of electric haze settles over a salty ocean, often thickening to a fog.
These winter storms are what caused the Dutch East India Company to seek shelter in False Bay during the colder months, giving birth to Simonstown. But the treacherous coastline of the southern Cape Peninsula remained a perilous stretch.
Captains were caught in a conundrum: stay close to the shoreline for safety and risk crashing into one of the shallowly submerged rocks, or head out to sea and prolong the journey by several days.
At Cape Point alone, a total of 26 shipwrecks tells the story of how many captains made the wrong decision. There are two primary culprits. One is Bellow’s Rock, which you can see as either a dark patch or whitewater approximately three kilometers directly south of Cape Maclear. The other is Albatross Rock, one kilometer due west of Olifantsbosch Point.
Between them, these two submerged reefs have claimed no less than 12 of the 26 wrecks of Cape Point.
The deceptive false leaders of the 1st century church were also causing wrecks to occur. Jude wrote his letter as warning, as a kind of light house to warn the early church about these deceptive leaders.
Jude
12-13
12 These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm-shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted-twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
1. Deceptive Leaders (vs. 12-13)
Somehow these godless people had become leaders in the church. (vs. 12). They were hypocrites who had gained positions as undershepherds in the church, but they were not serving God; they were serving themselves. Just as Bellow's Rock and Albatross Rock could destroy a vessel, these people could destroy the unsuspecting church.
One way these godless leaders subverted God's Word and His people was with the “love feast.” These leaders, who mislead others and misrepresented themselves did not feel bad about doing so. It was all apart of their twisted plan and they had no fear in what they did. Why should they? They had no respect for God or the people of God.
The love feast was an intimate, communal feast that Christians ate together for the purpose of fostering fellowship and unity. Some commentators believe it was a reference to the LORD's Supper. These “shepherds” were suppose to be feeding the sheep spiritually, but instead they were feeding themselves physically. They were seen as blemishes on the meal. The word blemish is translated as “hidden rocks” in some translations of the Bible. These false teachers were seen by Jude as people who were about to cause the shipwreck of the church. The warning is explicit. Just as a ship needs to avoid such dangers at sea, we need to be on our guard so that we avoid the treachery of false teachers.
“They are clouds without water,” (vs. 12) Travelers in arid climates know the disappointment of seeing clouds that they hope will contain water-but don't or blow right on by. We know this disappointment here in the Panhandle too. The clouds promise, but they do not perform. They offer encouragement only to disappoint later. Clouds without rain are like wells without water—they are of little use. The false leaders said that they had brought the truth of God's Word. But instead they brought no water, they brought no truth, only lies and empty promises. They brought disappointment.
They are “late autumn trees without fruit,” (vs. 12) They were like trees in late autumn that did not bear fruit. They are not like those who are abiding in Christ who bear much fruit: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)
They are not only are they fruitless, but they are doubly dead since they have no spiritual roots through which they can draw up nourishment from Jesus Christ: Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (Colossians 2:6-7).
They had not really received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and that is why they had no spiritual roots. double death - With Christ Jesus as your Lord and Saviour you will only die once but because you know Him you have been born twice and have the promise of eternal life. Without Jesus Christ you are born once, but you will die twice, once naturally and once spiritually. You will be eternally separated from God.
They are “raging waves of the sea” (vs. 13). These false teachers are compared to the raging or “wild” waves of the sea. These violent waves produce foam which is their own “shame” or “disgrace.” Perhaps the shame of the godless teachers and preachers came from the pollution of their own bodies and the bodies of those they led astray.
Another way to look at this verse is to picture the ocean surf washing up on the shore, bringing litter and garbage with it, wave after wave. The godless teachers and leaders for all their talk (the roar of a wave) produce nothing but foam full of sin (the trash). However unlike the foam of a wave that dissipates quickly, the affects of sin remains with you. While you have to deal with the consequences of sin, there is one who will deal with the affects of sin for you. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
They are “wandering stars” (vs. 13). They are like the stars that have gone astray or have moved out of their intended orbit. Ancient mariners use to be able to navigate at night using the stars. The thing though is that those starts had to remain stationary or fixed points in the night sky. They could not be wandering or constantly moving points of light or else the mariners would become hopelessly lost. This statement reveals one of the great tragedies of the life of sin. It always takes us off course from enjoying the very best which God has prepared for us.
Sin and Satan were using these godless leaders to lead people astray, they are still using those around you to try and steer you off course. And if you continue on that course you will eventually end in ruin – in darkness forever. Where would you like to spend eternity – in darkness, eternally separated from God or in His presence and eternal sunlight?
The world is full of heresies today. The people who promote these do not care if the truth is taught or if the theology is straight. They have no concern whatsoever for those they preach to or for God's Truth. But here's the thing, there is only one truth God's Truth. And that truth is Christ Jesus (Son of God, God/man) was born a virgin birth, lived a sinless life, died a terrible death on a cross, was laid in a tomb, and raised to life three days later. And He did all this to save sinners like you and me. So there is the truth now, what will you do with it?
Until next week,
May the Lord keep and bless you
Biblesurfer
Amen... well said...
ReplyDelete