Missions Paul

Don’t let what you believe become an optional lifestyle. The faith that was handed down to you needs to be held on to firmly. Do not drop the baton. You have been trusted to run with what was given you. What was presented to you was not so that you can adopt certain parts of it and edit it according to the times and the seasons you live in. The expectation was that you would carry and pass it on unadulterated.

Before we know why Jude changed his mind when writing this letter we see he reminds us of the challenge to hold on to what we have been given.

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” (Jude v3)

So what is within your faith? What was given to you to believe and base your whole life on? Maybe you already know and quote it verbatim. Perhaps a list is not a bad idea. So let me help you.

What do you believe regarding:-

1. The Bible
2. Sin
3. Who Jesus Christ is and what He has done?
4. What happens to humans when they die?
5. The return of Jesus Christ.

Your faith given to you contains all of those 5 messages and more. Battle to hold on to them, contend for that faith. Battle to keep it. Struggle continually to not let anyone rob it from you nor water it down. Don’t change what you have received and do not let others change it either.

How flexible are you?
Do you still know the feelings of compulsion?
Can you still feel the urge to change your mind when it matters most?

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” (Jude v3)

I was going to … It felt the right thing to do, at one time.
But now things have changed … I cannot.
Are you observing the circumstances? Are you seeing how they can change your message, your responses and approaches to people?
Jude was going to write a certain letter about our salvation shared within community. I am sure it would have been a great letter! However, Jude saw something and felt compelled to write something else. He was sensitive to the Spirit and wrote begging them to fight for their faith.

Your first thoughts can be good ones and would have no harm carrying them out. But the Spirit can show you something. He can compel you to change your mind and say I need to do this now.

Can He change your mind?

In June 2022, Boris Johnson had 41% of his own party vote against him. He survived for only a time as we know. Previously in March 1979 the Labour government was defeated with a vote of no confidence by 311 votes to 310 and it then saw the leadership of Margaret Thatcher as PM. Interestingly, the reason the government lost the vote was simply because 2 ministers abstained and another was gravely ill and did not vote. It was that close.

With the many circumstances of your life including illness, failed relationships, unemployment, even an ageing body, it is so easy to lose confidence in your position. Then there is the enemy of your soul who is constantly voting against you, reminding you, provoking you and for the simple reason to remove your confidence. It may have been so simple; it could have been so different; but circumstances went against you and perhaps you have re-lived those moments again and again; but the clock cannot be turned back; it happened and now you are not as confident as you once were.

We are reading a small letter from Jude and if you know the experience of losing your confidence or that of others then this is for you. From the opening which we will read and then those wonderful verses at the end this man knows what it is to gain confidence again.

This is a letter from a brother of Jesus who at one time refused to believe in who he was. He thought Jesus mad at least and certainly not the Son of God and he was not afraid to let that be known (John 7:5 – “For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”). But in the days preceding Pentecost he is in a prayer meeting (Acts 1:14 – “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers”). Why the change? Surely it was the living proof of the resurrection of his brother who was indeed the Son of God. Whether or not Jesus showed himself to Jude/Judas he definitely met James (1 Corinthians 15:7 “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles”).

We all have years of our lives where unbelief and periods of doubt dominated our walk with God. For some the knocks of life weakened our walk with God and perhaps we are not as strong as we used to be. Jude starts his letter by saying two words really, ‘Be confident’. False teachers had got into the church and he was having none of it. They were robbing the Christians and he wrote with clear description to oust these deceivers from the community. He wants the Church to stand firm and to be confident in Christ.

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.” (Jude 1-2)

• You are called. Not because of anything you have done whether that be a failure or an achievement. But called because of His love, the Father’s love that does not cast aside because of your imperfection but rather looks after you. This is not an angry Father God but a loving One. He unconditionally loves you and that is still the most powerful revelation to hold on to.
• You are called. Into the context of a world where forces are trying to cause God’s people to walk from the truth, Jude says you are kept for Jesus Christ. You are protected. You are saved. You will get through this because of Jesus. He will carry you.
• You are called. The benefits are abundant. They never run dry. The mercy of God is yours, the blood of Jesus, washing over your sins, constantly freeing you from the burdens of sin. Following mercy is the impact of your well-being, shalom, your peace with God who is merciful to you. Finally, living in this calling we are given abundance of love for other people and along with the other traits it is this that is the evidence of being called.

Today do not let any infiltrator rob you of your calling in God. This is the message Jude brings and it is needed today more than ever. You will have a vote of no confidence from someone for the enemy of your soul will make sure of it. However … you are called!

Having just finished reading through 2 Peter we will see this book entitled ‘Jude’ (which the English translations have shortened from the correct name of ‘Judas’ wanting to disassociate from that reference) and which has very similar themes running through the letter. So it makes sense to read it now.

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James …” (Jude 1)

He is the brother of James and we know from verses like Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 that they were both brothers of Jesus.

How do you introduce yourself?

Do you focus on what you have done? What you are doing? Where you are? Who your family and friends are? And if you do would you say, ‘James is my brother’?

People want the introduction don’t they? They want to know you have the right, the experience and the authority to speak to them, especially if what you have to say is directive and challenging.

“Jude the brother of Jesus Christ whom I serve and James the leader of the Council of Jerusalem, who is my brother also, is the one writing to you.” He could have written it like this but he didn’t.

How Judas opened his letter means this for us:

• I have nothing to boast about not even the privilege of family connection. Your bio is not as impressive as you being a man/woman who fashions your life around the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
• I want you to not see my privilege of being connected by family but my present status of being a servant of Jesus just like anyone. Your acknowledgment that you are actually an ordinary person who has had to make repentant changes continually through your life so that Jesus remains the One in charge is the attraction itself.
• I submit to the One where the focus should rightfully be on. The fact that you cannot wait to get to speak about Jesus and move past who you are is a testimony itself.
• I’m happy for others (James) to be the name which is greater than mine, I am his brother. How you view other people and their importance above yourself reveals you as an attractive person who is good to be around.

Written by Paul.

How are you responding to what is happening in your life right now?

Is it Amen?

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” (2 Peter 3 v 18)

Why do we say Amen?

At the end of each of the 12 curses from God in Deuteronomy 27, the Amen is said. It is a response of ‘Yes may it happen!’. But now we declare it as the declaration of the promises of Jesus.

It is to say ‘Yes Lord do it’.

It is to say ‘I believe you can do it God’.

It is to say ‘Thank you Lord for what you have done.’

Amen! Perhaps declare this word over your situation today!

In Peter’s closing remarks he not only warns us not to lose our confidence but he tells us to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus.

‘But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” (2 Peter 3 v 18)

We grow in the grace gifts that he gives us by using them. Have you let one of your gifts slide?

We grow in desiring more grace gifts. Which gift do you not have but would desire?

We grow in the work of grace in our lives and our approach to others. Right now how can grace be seen in our lives?

We grow in the knowledge of His Lordship? What new thing are you submitting to right now?

We grown in the knowledge of His salvation? What are you being saved from?

We grow in the knowledge of who He is.

We grow. That’s the instruction and the desire for all of us today.

It was a 50cc red moped (a small motorbike) and my pride and joy! I had a red helmet to go with it. Boy I looked good! That was until one particular day approaching the drive of my home where I lived with my parents I took my eye off what was in front of me and viewed my surroundings. Three girls had turned the corner and was walking down the hill. I can’t even remember if they were particularly worth looking at but they were enough for me to take my eyes off the fact I was heading towards the garden wall and not the drive. Motorbikes don’t go through walls. What they do is they crash into them with such a force that the rider who was previously holding the handlebars fly into the air and with a somersault land on their back brutally dazed in the garden! I was 17yrs of age and 40 years later I still have not got back onto ride a motorbike though I have been a pillion passenger a few times. The experience caused me to lose my confidence in actually being a sole rider.

In the last few sentences of Peter’s letter he warns his people that if they are not careful, if they do not pay attention to what he has been telling them then they will lose their confidence.

“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.” (2 Peter 3 v 17)

Peter is not saying we can lose our salvation. But he is saying we can lose our confidence. That position where you feel secure to share your faith, to pray for someone for their healing, to use the gifts God has given you. The list goes on.

He is saying if we do not take Scripture seriously and apply it to our lives then everyone of us can lose our confidence in who God says we are. The security of our position which God has declared over our lives, for example, the assurance that we are saved, can be lost.

Everyone of us can take our eyes off the road and become distracted by many things. We become too casual and we no longer stay alert to the dangers around us.

So ‘be on your guard’!

Peter didn’t. We discovered yesterday that he calls Paul a ‘dear brother’ or ‘beloved’ years after he was publicly corrected and himself called a hypocrite by his fellow colleague. But we see more things to show that Peter was not carrying a grudge against Paul.

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

2 Peter 3:15-16

There are 5 things that show Peter was not holding a grudge. If we adopted these 5 things into simply how we respond and view people then whether we get hurt by them or not our world would be a better place.

1. Honour them as servants of God.

He acknowledges the letters of Paul as being wisdom from God. Peter is not jealous so as to be robbed of honouring a fellow colleague. We need to recognise the work of God in each other. We don’t have a monopoly on this.

2. Value their work.

He has read Paul’s letters. Peter obviously had taken the time to read the letters of Paul. These churches in what is now Turkey had already received letters from Paul covering the same topics as Peter and he had read them. Peter wasn’t so consumed with his ministry that he didn’t value someone else’s.

3. Generous acceptance of God’s inspiration in their life.

He calls these letters the ‘Scriptures’. Even in Peter’s day the letters of Paul (13 altogether) were being used as Scripture from God. The Bible as we know it was being formed as early as this time. In time Peter’s 2 letters will be used in the same way.

4. Honesty is better than smooth talking someone.

He says some of Paul’s work is ‘hard to understand’. SOME but not ALL of the Bible is hard to understand and Peter recognises that the wisdom Paul is at times tough to grapple with. His honesty revealed that even Peter was still a learner. Aren’t we all? So let’s say so when we can.

5. Defender of people

He calls the enemies of Paul ‘ignorant’ and ‘unstable’ and are heading to their ‘destruction’. He defends Paul and judges those who don’t hold to the infallibility of Scripture. Those who distort what has been written or said need to be challenged. We need to defend people when they are not in the room to defend themselves.

These 5 things prove Peter was not holding a grudge against Paul and we need to adopt them in our lives with people.

Peter didn’t. As we draw to the end of his letter we find something beautiful about Peter. He didn’t hold grudges. He spoke well of a fellow apostle who had even criticised and rebuked him publicly. Paul records the incident of Peter’s compromise in Galatians 2:11-21 and how he had to correct Peter and yet years later look what Peter calls him…

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him…” (2 Peter 3:15)

‘Dear brother’!

Paul called him a hypocrite! Years later Peter calls Paul ‘dear brother’ or ‘beloved’.

Would you be able to say ‘I love that person’ when that person had hurt you years earlier? Or would you write that person off. Burn the bridge. Never to let that person near you ever again. You might be forgiven for thinking like that. But not Peter. He loved Paul.

That doesn’t just happen does it? It takes a deep self-awareness; facing the truth and maybe even admitting to the truth and changing one’s way because the truth can hurt before it sets you free.

Are there any prisoners in your heart today?

If we just waited before we reacted; I can think of many situations today that have simply got worse because people waded in with their judgment far too quickly; and happily I can think of people who under incredible provocation have and are demonstrating longsuffering/patience.

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation …”(2 Peter 3 v 15)

The return of Christ hasn’t obviously happened yet. Why? It is simply because God is being patient and we all must agree that He does this as the world brings incredible provocation to Him. They blaspheme Him, they commit atrocities even in His name, they misrepresent Him, they turn their back on Him and they live lives devoid of His presence and power.

I love the reports that come in from the pastors who every weekend are seeing salvations and baptising new people who have come into the family of God. How thankful we are that God has waited and Jesus is not here yet! Can you imagine if these people had missed their opportunity? Of course that will happen to someone at some point for Jesus is returning. However, it reveals the reason why He hasn’t yet returned; God wants as many as possible to come to Him.

If God can wait then can we? Or are we far too quick to right someone off especially if they have spoken against us. Who is the owner of vengeance? The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 12:19 that the owner is God according to the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:35).

Maybe if you simply wait awhile it will give them time to turn around and to repent before you. Obviously this can only last for a certain amount of time before you step forward for you certainly don’t want to endorse bad behaviour and this waiting by God will also only last a while. But perhaps we should do what He has been doing and that is to offer patience.