Build Yourselves Up...”

A sermon based upon Jude, 17-25 (CEB)

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

Sunday, October 25^th, 2020 (Growing In Grace)

A young country doctor was just getting started in his first practice. It was back in the days when doctors made house calls.    Late one night he got a call from a farmer who said, "Doctor, come quickly, my wife is seriously ill." Grabbing his little black bag he hurried out to the farm. The farmer met him on the steps, rushed him into the house, and upstairs into the bedroom where his wife lay sick. The doctor took a look at her, told the farmer to step outside and shut the door.

In just a moment the doctor opened the door and said, "Quick, get me a screwdriver." The farmer ran downstairs, got a screwdriver and handed it through the door. The doctor shut the door, they stood out in the hall wringing their hands; they could hear moans and groans.   In a minute the doctor was back at the door. He said, "Quick, get me a pair of pliers." The farmer ran downstairs, got a pair of pliers, came back and stuck them through the door. The doctor shut the door and they began to hear more moans and groans.    In just a minute the doctor came back and said, "Quick, get me a hammer and chisel." Well, by that time the farmer had had it. He said, "Wait just a minute, Doctor, what is wrong with my wife?" The doctor said, "I don't know, I can't get my little black bag open."

‘Dr. Jude’ doesn’t have that problem.  

To read this short, brief book is like opening up the doctor’s bag, taking out the stethoscope to listen and learn about some dark, difficult and challenging times in the early church.  

For if you read the first sixteen verses Jude (who was a brother to James, the Head of the Church, and both being brothers to the Lord Jesus); he pulls no punches in warning about those who leave the faith to live and teach falsely.  After naming them ‘people who go the way of Cain’ (v.11), Jude concludes, just before our text, that these are people who ‘pervert...grace’ and ‘deny the Lord’ (v.4)  “These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage. (16 NRS).  Now, we have the ‘black bag open’ wide open.  Now, we see some ‘sick’ realities that were going on the days of the early church.   It’s definitely not the kind of situation you would have imagined  Jude even says it got so bad, that it seemed like it was the ‘last times’ (v.18).     

IN THE LAST TIME...  (18)

Of course, it wasn’t the ‘last times’, but it certainly did feel like it, at least to Jude.

During my own ‘early years’, one of my favorite songs from the very creative rock group Chicago, was their early hit, “Does any body really know what time it is?   The opening line was pretty heavy for a teenager. Perhaps you remember:

As I was walking down the street one day

A man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was

on my watch, And I said 

Does anybody really know what time it is, Does anybody really care.

If so I can't imagine why.   We've all got time enough to cry.

But it was the last line in the whole song that was the clincher: “We all got time enough to die.” 

Robert Lamm, the writer and singer of the Song, said it came to him when he walked up to a man outside a movie theater in Brooklyn and asked, “What Time is it?”, and the fellow gave this answer, “Does anybody really know what time it is?”   That song became somewhat prophetic, when 8 years later, the lead singer of Chicago, Terry Kath, accidently shot himself while cleaning one of his guns.  

“Does anybody really, know what time it ?

It wasn’t ‘really’ the ‘last times’ for Jude or the early church, but difficult and dark times can certainly make you like it’s the end.   It some way,  the end is always near.

Hard times can also change your perspective and cause you to mature, to face the realities you wouldn’t ordinarily face.   And ‘facing realities and responsibilities’ is what this brief text in Jude is about.  “But you beloved,”  Jude says,  “Build yourself up in the on your most holy Faith!” (v. 20).  That’s what you do, when ‘times’ are bad.  Like the other group, the Beatles sang:

 “Hey Jude, Don’t make it bad.   Take a Sad Song, and Make it Better...”  The Beatles singing “Hey Jude”, is all many know about any Jude right?   But the Beatles weren’t singing about this “Jude”.  They were singing about John Lennon’s son, who was having a hard time with his parent’s divorce.  That probably felt like the ‘last times’ to him, too.   “Hey Jude,...Take a Sad Song, and Make it Better...!  You can grow through this Julian.  That’s was the word in that song, and it’s the word in our text too.

Here, too, is a ‘sad song’ and sad times.  This Jude, who is ‘a servant of Jesus...and brother to James’ (1:1) was probably a leader in the early church during some very difficult times, which seemed very much like the ‘last times’ too.   And in fact, in many ways it was the last time, at least for Jerusalem.  IN 70 AD,  Jerusalem was completly demolished by the Romans, the Jewish people were scattered around the world, and the Christians literally, as Jesus had advised, ran for the hills.  Now, again, this wasn’t end of the whole world, but was the end of their world.  And when world’s end, many, many difficult and bad things happen.

Now, you don’t have to become ‘Chicken Little’ to appreciate what Jude was saying about the ‘last times’ in this text.   People often wonder, especially in difficult times like when the Coronavirus was spreading like wildfire, and the Stock Market was in free-fall, is this the end?   “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”  

Well, a lot of people claim it could be, don’t they?   

I read recently about how just before World War ii, the Nazi’s were getting guns and armies together to storm and take Jerusalem, after Hitler came to power.   If there was ever an Anti-Christ in the history of our world in recent times, it could have looked like Hitler.  Even his core message of a ‘1,000 Year Rule’ sounded just like the book of Revelation.  Hilter was actually intending to run all the Jews out of Jerusalem and take the capital and give it away to the Arabs.  He could have succeeded too, if hadn’t have been people risking their lives like my Father who landed in North Africa, attacked Hitler’s army and forced the Nazi’s away from Jerusalem to have to fight the Allied Forces North African Desert. 

I’m sure to people who fought in that horrible war, or who fight in any war, it can seem like the last times, and in some ways, in may be their last time.   But like one scholar once commented about all the ‘end of the world’ talk in the Bible, this is the only part of the Bible that has been misinterpreted 100 percent wrong, 100 percent of the time, at least, so far.  

The end has not come yet.   As one writer said, ‘the last came come again, again, and again, but they seem to never come.   Will the end come?  Well, even Science says the world can’t last forever, at least in the form it is.   This is certainly true.  What is also true, is the ‘end of the world language’ in the Bible always has something to teach about time, about life, and about having true faith in God?

This text from Jude has something very important to teach us too.  In verse 17, Jude moves from talking about people who are leaving the faith during hard, difficult times, to talking directly to those who remain true to their faith in Jesus Christ.    "But you, beloved..." he says.   “Remember”, (verses 17-19) how the ‘apostles’ predicted these kinds of things.   They told us how people what people would be like in difficult and hard times.  They told us how people would not only lose their faith in God, but people would ‘scoff’, mock and laugh at those who have faith.  Those very same people would deny our faith so that they could freely indulge in their own ungodly lusts.   They would be focused only on ‘worldy’ pursuits and completely devoid of the Spirit and if they came to church, they’d be trouble makers.  Wow!  Isn’t it interesting how ‘ending’, ‘transitional’, hard times are almost always the same?

KEEP YOURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD (21)

While there much to understand about how difficult ‘times’  can be, the most important message in this text is ‘positive’.  Jude sees these difficult days also as days of great, new, opportunities for the church.  He repeats again, “But you, beloved”, even in these dark and difficult times,  ...YOU...BUILD YOURSELVES UPON YOUR MOST HOLY FAITH...” (v. 20). 

Do you hear what Jude is saying?   When times get difficult and dark the hopeful and prayerful work of God in us can now be magnified even more.  But this, of course, isn’t automatic.  In such difficult times, we still must continue to focus on our Faith.  We must continue to pray in the Holy Spirit, and most of all, we must keep “OURSELVES”  in the love of God; as Jude says,  ‘looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus that leads to eternal life...”. 

Do you see the great opportunity here?    When times are at their ‘darkest’, the church, the people of God, who continue to keep their faith in Jesus Christ, will begin to ‘shine like stars’ in the dark of the night.  Another New Testament text uses that exact language, but here, Jude implies it and Jude is even more specific in telling us ‘how’ we can shine.  We ‘shine like stars’ by building up our faith.  We shine by praying in the Spirit.  And we shine because we keep ourselves in the love of God, focusing on what on what God will do, rather than getting lost in what is happening around.  

Jude is saying a lot here, but his major point is that we can still grow spiritually, and maybe even more so, when times are difficult.   If we will, if we want to, and if we will keep ‘building up’ our faith, we will ‘keep ourselves’ in God’s love, no matter what happens around us.   As the saying goes: ‘When Life gets tough, the tough keep going.”    

In comparison to what Jude is saying, can you think of a time when you ‘grew’ and ‘grew up’ even more in hard times, than in easy times?  I used to hear my mother tell story after story about how difficult times were growing up on a farm during the Great Depression.  But she also reminded me, just as many times, of the great ‘life-lessons’ she gained in those difficult times.  She learned to appreciate the ‘value of a dollar’.  She learned to appreciate the value of having family and staying in touch.  And she learned to appreciate learning how to trust God, no matter what happened.    These are not easy lessons to learn in life, and they are the kinds of lessons you mostly learn by experience.   

SAVE OTHERS...OUT OF THE FIRE (23)

Jude’s final word about growing in ‘difficult’ times, is to remind us of another important responsibility we have, as God’s people, especially when times are difficult.   He says, in verse 21, that we are to ‘look forward to the mercy of our Lord’, and we are also to ‘have mercy on some who are wavering; (to) save others by snatching them our of the fire; and have mercy on still others...’ (21-23).    

Here, our major responsibility is to those among us who might be slipping away from the faith.  Jude says, we must ‘have’ or ‘show’ mercy on them, not becoming judgmental.  WE are even to ‘snatch them out of the fire’; that is the ‘fiery trial’ they are going through that might threaten their faith.   He even reminds us how we are not to ‘hate’ them, but we should ‘hate’ the sin, which he calls the how ‘the tunic’ they are wearing is defiled by ‘their bodies’. 

The language here is graphic, but it makes a valid point for the church living in difficult times.  We don’t only focus on keeping our faith, but we also focusing on helping others who might be losing theirs, even ‘grabbing’ them out of the ‘fire’ that could destroy their lives. 

The final message here is that the church still not only a message to hold on to, but it also has a ministry and mission during dark days.  WE have a mission to ‘snatch’ people out of the fire’ of these difficult times, by showing them the same ‘mercy’ God has shone us, learning how to focus on hating the sin, rather than being hateful toward the sinner.

That is very difficult to do, isn’t it?  But it might just be the most important way the church can grow in faith during difficult times.   We learn how to separate hating what sin does to people from hating people because they are sinners.  We learn how to show mercy toward those who are wavering, rather than judgment.  And most of all we learn that our mission and our ministry is to keep ourselves built up in faith, and strong in God’s love, so that we can ‘stand without blemish’  when Christ’s glory returns, whether in this world, or in the new world that is to come.

There’s certainly, a lot to think about here, isn’t there; especially in these times in which we live.  These are certainly, changing, transitional, ending times; but they could also very well be times of new beginnings and new opportunities.  As I said earlier, the end comes ‘again and again’, and as Jesus said, ‘It’s still ‘not Yet’.   I don’t know.  You don’t know.  The Bible doesn’t say.  No one knows, except the Father in Heaven, and Jim Baker, of course.

Did you see him on TV again, during the Coronavirus threat and the times of rising fears?  Jim Baker was on TV, trying to get people to buy some kind of Herbal Medicine based on Silver, which he said had worked against some forms of the Coronavirus.   I’m sure all kinds of people believed him now, just like they did when he took their money in Charlotte many years ago, and went to jail for it.   There are always those who will take advantage of you in difficult, dark, and dangerous times.

But Jude is a different kind of Doctor, opening up the ‘black bag’ of God’s promise, even in difficult times.  His RX is to keep ‘building yourself up in holy faith’.   Keep prayng in the Holy Spirit, and most of all, keep yourselves in God’s love, looking forward to God mercy in eternal life.   AND while you are doing this,  show some mercy to those who struggle.  Don’t walk on them with a spirit of superiority, but offer to walk with them, having ‘mercy’ ‘with fear.  

If you will follow this prescription,  Jude says, God will not only ‘keep you from falling’ in your faith, one day God will ‘make you stand without’ flaw, ‘in the presence of his glory’ and you’ll look back all what God brought you through with ‘rejoicing’.  Can you see ahead that far?  Jude does.  And he does this not in his own power, but in the ‘power and authority’ that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, who was ‘before all time’, and is also there in the last time, no matter what kind of ‘last time’ it is.  Amen.