Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Dec 12, 2023

12 Dec 2023

Text: Jude 1-25

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

We don’t know much about St. Jude, and his book of only 25 verses is like no other book in scripture.  He matter-of-factly recites historical events that are not found in the Old Testament, and he quotes an extrabiblical book called First Enoch.  And even though Jude’s epistle is so small, a good bit of it quotes Peter’s second epistle.  The early church fathers were not universally convinced that Jude’s epistle was inspired, and so it took a while for the church to accept it into the canon of scripture.  But that it did.

And while this little book is easy to overlook – both literally (a single page easily lost between John’s epistles and John’s revelation) and in terms of its use in our worship and prayers, Jude has important things to say to us in these dark and latter days.

With great urgency, St. Jude warns us about “certain people” who have “crept in unnoticed.”  They are “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”  We need to be aware of this infiltration, dear friends, for James urges us that we must “contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.”  The faith is not ours to change at will.  It is an unchanging truth that was “delivered” or “handed over” – literally “traditioned” to the saints by God Himself.  We cannot deny it or change it without peril to our souls, and what’s more, we are to “contend” – that is, to fight, for it.

Jude reminds us that Jesus Himself was in Egypt with the Israelites – and these false teachers had already infiltrated God’s people there.  He reminds us of the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which “indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire” and were punished not only by fire here on earth, but also “eternal fire.”  These same infiltrators plague us today, dear friends, “relying on their dreams” instead of God’s Word.  They “defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.”  They pronounce judgments that not even the archangel Michael dared to utter against Satan himself.  These false teachers have a tradition of their own, from Cain, to Balaam, to Korah (who led the rebellion against Moses, engaging in false worship based on their own desires).  And they have been in the New Testament church as well: “hidden reefs at your love feats… shepherds feeding themselves… for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”  And we still find them in the church today: “grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires… loud-mouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.”

But we are not overcome by these infiltrators.  We were warned that “in the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions” who “cause divisions.”  As for the faithful, Jude bids us to be built up by the “most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit.”  But we are not only called to protect ourselves, but to “save others by snatching them out of the fire.”  And the only one who can keep us “from stumbling” and “present [us] blameless before the presence of His glory” is God Himself, “our Savior.”  St. Jude ends his letter the way we Christians end our prayers and hymns: in a doxology of praise to “Jesus Christ our Lord.”  And to Him “be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.”

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.