a world soon to be born, again

The Word for today:
Jude 1-16


Hey, Jude…who are you?
Jude was Jesus’ half-brother--they had the same mother--and a full brother to James (see Matt. 13:55).


Apparently neither Jude nor James believed in Jesus until after His resurrection (cf. Mark 3:21). Therefore neither of them identifies himself as Jesus’ brother, but as “servants of Jesus Christ,” recognizing that Jesus is the glorified Christ--and that human relationship to Him is not meaningful in any way. They had come to Christ as sinners, accepting Him as Savior just as anyone else—including Mary--does. (cf. Luke 1:47)


The book of Jude was supposed to be about something else, until the Holy Spirit changed the subject.  Jude had something else in mind for the book of Jude, but the Author wanted Jude to write a reminder that faith fights:
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.


Jude picks up right where 2 Peter left us, warning about false teachers in the church: 
“For there are certain men crept in unawares…” (1:4; cf. 1 John 2:19)
It is imperative that we heed this warning, because
1. The church has been harmed far more from the inside than from the outside;
2. Jesus was betrayed by an insider to His own nation, who then handed Him over to the Roman outsiders.


Beware the darkness.
The powerfully poetic Jude captures the bleak, blank destiny reserved for the false teachers:
…shepherds that without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved forever.


Where are we, today, "located" in the Bible?
We are in “Acts 29”—somewhere between Acts 28:31 and Revelation 1:1.
I personally feel we are in these very last verses just prior to Revelation. I’m not certain that Jesus Christ is coming back soon, but I know He will come back, on that day of our Father’s choosing.


It’s right around here, in these closing verses of Jude, that I feel the current waves swelling and today’s wind blowing where the Spirit wills--as He broods over a world soon to be born, again.


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