Today we start a new book, the book of Jude, a small letter at the end of the Bible. And I'm entitling this, Hey Jude, because we're talking about Jude. And it was interesting seeing the history of the song, Hey Jude. Let me read this to you. The writing and recording of Hey Jude coincided with a period of upheaval in the Beatles. The ballad evolved from Hey Jewels, a song McCartney wrote to comfort John Lennon's son Julian after Lennon had left his wife for the Japanese artist Yoko Ono. The lyrics espouse a positive outlook on a sad situation while also encouraging Jude to pursue his opportunities to find love. After the fourth verse, the song shifts to a wordless, fade-out coda that lasts for over four minutes. Recording for the song took place midway through the sessions for the Beatles' self-titled double album, also known as the White Album, and led to an argument between McCartney and George Harrison over Harrison's idea for the guitar part. Ringo Starr later left the band only to return shortly before they filmed the promotional clip for the single. So, we have a song that's very famous that is entitled, Hey Jude, but it has roots in the life of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Cynthia Lennon, Julian Lennon, and all that was going on. Well, you talk about upheaval. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, is talking about what can happen if we as believers don't realize that there's a battle going on, a battle for the minds and hearts of people. But why study this book? Well, there's a few reasons. It is one of the only 66 inspired books given to us by God, and that's a good reason. if we ever get to the point where we're not willing to study or look at any book of the Bible and realize that this is important. And there's value in studying what's happening in the world, what's happening in the church, but what is needed more than anything else is to study the word of God. So in light of what this book, this letter teaches, in light of what's happening in the world, There'd not be too many churches who would actually promote that kind of philosophy. Most churches are gonna offer all kinds of things other than the exposition of the 66 books of the Bible. But we have to say, what is our role as the church? Our role is to continually teach and preach the word of God. Now, it's not the shortest New Testament book. It's a book that contains 461 Greek words, which is more than 2 John, 3 John, and Philemon. But Jude is a very powerful New Testament book. And the fact is that Jude is one of those rare inspired books, and that point can't be denied. It's quoted as a book of scripture by Irenaeus, Tertullian, It's specifically said to be an authentic book by Clement of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Jerome, Augustine, Clement of Alexander, quotes from Jude multiple times in his writings. And so there's such value, and because it is in the canon, we need to realize that this is a valuable letter book to study. So that's one reason. God wants us people to be able to be people that earnestly contend for the faith. And we see that in Jude verse three. We got a job to do. And that job is to be good and faithful and even a frontline witness for Christ and for what a Christian and church is supposed to be. So to be a good witness, we must know what we believe and we must know why we believe in it. And we must be able to spot those who don't believe what is right. And we're living in this PC, politically correct world in which no one wants to speak up or speak out against religious frauds. No one wants to point out evil, corrupt religious leaders or churches. Well, Jude presents a different idea. Jude said it's our responsibility to earnestly contend for the faith. And part of that means pointing what is true and what is false. And so he's hammering false religion. God doesn't want us to sit quietly on the sidelines, never opening our mouths. He wants us to confront these frontline contenders. So some people we witness to need to hear about the grace and mercy and forgiveness of God. And we see that in verse 22. Some people we witness to need to hear about the future fires of hell. We see that in verse 23. but it's the responsibility for each of us to earnestly contend for the faith system that says you may be saved by faith alone in Christ alone. And that's what we need today in churches that are doctrinally sound and clear-headed. We need to be people and we need to be a church that is able to stand up and stand out for the truth. And we live in an ungodly religious church world And the book of Jude is a book that's designed to help promote this idea of contending for our faith. A third reason is because we're living in the last days of the church age, and many religious people will be pursuing godless things and not godly things. As the church age winds down, and it's going to happen more and more, people are going to seem to be interested in church, but not interested in dealing with sin. There'll be more and more people interested in going to church to be happy, but not to be holy. So we need to be people who have doctrinal stability, biblical backbone, spiritual and moral integrity. God doesn't want us to be people that are ungodly or lust-crazed and be people that are not pursuing Him. God does not want us to be people who are worldly-minded. We see that in verse 19. God does not want us to be people who promote just political causes. Verse eight, God wants us to be holy people who make powerful statements for him. God wants us to be people who are controlled by the Spirit. And then fourthly, because Jude is probably, well, most likely is one of the most neglected books of the New Testament, If you've talked to people and you talk to them about verses, they know the last two verses and those are cited many times at the conclusion of church services. I've read it many times in benedictions, closing a service. But beyond those two verses, even Barclay says this, William Barclay, he says, Jude is more bewildering than profitable. And that's dangerous when somebody says something like that. It's a book rarely read at all. And if it's read, most people don't seem to care if they know what it even means. But let's be clear, there's godless men and women who go to church and are going to hell. And this book needs not to be neglected. And so that's another reason. So who wrote it? Well, the first word of the book tells us the name of the man who wrote the book. And the first word is Jude. Jude is the English name Judas. in the Greek and Judah in the Hebrew. And the problem is trying to figure out which Jude wrote it. In the New Testament there are six different men named Jude. There was a man named Jude of Judas of Damascus in whose house Paul prayed after his conversion in Acts 9-11. There's a man named Jude or Judas Barsabas who was a leading man who was sent by the Jerusalem Council to travel with Paul back to Antioch in Acts 15.22. There was Jude or Judas Iscariot the traitor, Luke 6.16. There was Jude or Judas, not Iscariot, the son of James and an apostle, John 14, 22, Luke 6, 16, Acts 1, 13. He's one of the 12 and seems to have been called Labeus or Thaddeus. We see that in Matthew 10, 3 and Mark 3, 18 and Luke 6, 16 and Acts 1, 13. Then there was Jude of Galilee who stirred up the Jews after Christ's birth, but he died. in Acts 5.37. And then there was Jude or Judas who was the brother of James and the half-brother of Jesus. And James was the brother of Jude and also the half-brother of Jesus. And this James became famous as the leader of the Jerusalem church. So we get specific helpful information in that first verse when we read that Jude was the brother of James. So obviously Jude was written by a man named Jude who is the brother of James. No other writer of any book of the Bible identifies himself by this family connection. So there's two possibilities. If Jude is the apostle, then his father James could have been James, the son of Alphaeus. The problem is he said he is the brother of James. The only other possibility is that this Jude was the brother of James and the half-brother of Jesus. And in the chronological listing of the children of Joseph and Mary, Jude is the third son listed by Mark in Mark 6, 3, and the fourth son listed by Matthew, Matthew 13, 55. So either he was the youngest half-brother or next to the youngest half-brother of Jesus. So if Jesus were born in about 4 BC and was crucified around AD 29, 30, When Jesus was about 33, then Jude would have been about 20 when Jesus died and arose and ascended back into heaven. So there's typically a two to three year gap between children. We aren't sure just when the half-sisters were born. So Jude could have been about 20 when Jesus died. So let's ask this question. Why didn't Jesus say, I am the brother or half-brother of Jesus Christ? There is one main reason. When Jude was growing up, Jude did not believe that Jesus was who he actually was. John 7, verse 5. Namely, the God, Savior, Messiah. We may assume that since Jesus appeared to James after his resurrection, both James and Jude believed in him. 1 Corinthians 15, 7. Jude had come to realize who Jesus Christ actually was. He realized that Jesus Christ is God. He's the master, he's Lord, he's Savior. We see that in verse 4 and 24 of his letter here. He came to realize that the person he grew up besides was not a normal brother. He came to realize that Jesus was, in fact, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Now, he would not call himself his brother, but his servant. He realized his own insignificance in view of Jesus Christ, and he did not even bring up the fact that he had been his half-brother. There's a church historian named Eusebius, and he tells this amazing story of Jude's two grandsons who were brought to appear before Domitian, the Roman emperor. From AD 81 to 96, he was the Roman emperor and he was already in the execution of all in the Davidic line. What ultimately happened was that Jude's grandsons were used by God to actually stop this persecution of Christians. And here is what Eusebius writes. And there still survived of the Lord's family, the grandsons of Jude, who was said to be his brother, humanly speaking. They were informed against as being of David's line and brought by the veteran before Domitian Caesar, who was afraid of the advent of Christ as Herod had been. Domitian asked them, Jude's grandsons, whether they were descended from David and they admitted it. Then he asked them what property they owned and what funds they had at their disposal. They replied they had only 9,000 denarii between them half belongings to each. This they said was not available in cash, but was estimated value of only 25 acres of land from which they raised the money to pay their taxes and wherewithal to support themselves by their own toil. Then according to Eusebius, they showed him their lands, putting forward as proof of their toil, the hardness of their bodies and the calluses impressed on their hands by incessant labor. When asked about Christ and His kingdom, what it was like and where and when it would appear, they established or explained that it was not of this world or anything on earth but angelic and in heaven and would be established at the end of the world, when He would come in glory to judge the quick and the dead and give every man payment according to his conduct. On hearing this, Demetian found no fault with them, but despised them as beneath his notice let them go free and issued orders terminating the persecuting of the church. On their release, they became leaders of the churches, both because they had borne testimony and because they were of the Lord's family. And thanks to the establishment of peace, they lived on into Trajan's time." And we see that in Eusebius, the history of the church. So the emperor questioned the grandsons about Jesus Christ and his kingdom, and they told him that Christ's kingdom would ultimately come at the end of the age, and that each person would give an account. And that apparently hit this emperor Demetian hard, and he stops the persecution. So when was Jude written? Well, Jude is very difficult to date. In fact, scholars disagree on when Jude was written. There's not much in it that helps us solve the issue except for the fact that there is an allusion to the fact that the Jewish teachers and false apostles and prophets had crept into the church in a way that polluted the grace faith system. The apostolic grace teaching was well known by that point. So it's probably safe to conclude that Jude was written somewhere between 67 and 70 AD. There's no mention of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. It would appear that Jude was written sometime after 2 Peter because Jude quotes from 2 Peter and alludes to what Peter wrote in many places. So if we assume that 2 Peter was written about 65-66 AD, a year before Peter died, we may assume that Jude written sometime later, maybe 67 to 80 A.D. Since there's no mention of the destruction of Jerusalem, we perhaps could conclude that it was written between 67 and 70 A.D. So if Jude were 20 in A.D. 30, he'd be about 57 in A.D. 67 and he would be about 70 in A.D. 80. So what's the purpose of Jude? Well, the purpose of Jude is to communicate to God's people that they need to remain faithful to the salvation that they had heard of, the true gospel, and contend for the faith in the face of these religious groups and individuals who are religious apostates. He has a passion to expose these heretics and apostates. In fact, more than one commentator has said that one key thought that characterizes this epistle is to be aware of apostates. This man, Hebert, said this epistle is without parallel in New Testament for its denunciation of libertines and apostates. It's a very strong and negative epistle. It's a judgmental epistle. It's filled with fiery indignation against religious sensualists. These religious phonies who want to play games with things like Sodom and Gomorrah are going to face the wrath of God. This book warns and threatens against moving into areas contrary to the truth of God. It's probably why Jude has been called the most neglected book in the New Testament. And it's an epistle of few lines, but full of strong words. So most people in churches don't like this book and don't want this book, but we need to be like Jude today. We need to be the frontline warriors. And to whom, one of the last questions I have for you, is to whom was it written? It's hard to actually pinpoint who these recipients are. All we really know is what we read in verse 1. It's written to those who are called, who are loved by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. And there's an article that goes with the participle beloved, kept, and called, which grammatically suggests that it's a specific target. So it's possible that it was written to Christian Jews who were in Palestine because Jude uses many references to Old Testament things. He talks about Egypt, he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, he talks about Moses and Cain and Balaam and Korah and Enoch and Adam and even fallen angels. But when we look at the manuscripts, we look at the data, it certainly suggests that this book is written to Christians everywhere because what he's describing here is a threat to any church. So more than likely, Jude wrote this to all believers of the church age and to all churches that had been established. And so there are a lot of churches today There are a lot of steeples today, a lot of people today in churches, but there's very few that would want to hear what the book of Jude has to offer. Let's step into it these next few sessions together and see what the Lord does.