Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed 05/24/20

Intro:

• In 2001 a show premiered named the Amazing Race. 
  • Pitting two person teams against one another as they raced to complete tasks and make it to a destination, the teams had to strategize and plan how to advance and delay other teams from reaching their destinations.
  • Shows like this, including Big Brother and Survivor often display players finding strategic but questionable ways to outlast and win the game.
  • For us they pose the pragmatic question, does it really matter how we run the race so long as we win the prize?
• Oddly enough on May 19, 2001 Caroline and I were married.
  • We of course are a two person team, and we have been in an amazing race of life in ministry together.
  • But just imagine if we had tried some of the schemes, flatter, or plotting to make it in ministry and life.
  • We try to give no one the illusion that we are perfect, but if we were so pragmatic, justifying our means by the end goals we had, would this congregation want us to serve?
  • And if we were not to be able to serve in the end, for us, our race will have been a failure.

Hook:

• Just think friends about the dangers of pragmatism to a church or to our spiritual lives.
  • Pragmatism is that system that encourages us to try what works, justifying any method by the results it achieves.
  • When we begin to justify our means, by the desired result, we open ourselves up to great danger.
  • For a church we can adopt pragmatic means to fill our sanctuary or bolster our budget; apart from God’s means of sharing the gospel and stewarding our resources for Christ.
  • As believers we can adopt pragmatic means to live on a spiritual high while neglecting God’s spiritual exercises of prayer, Bible reading, and serving others.
  • If we accept and celebrate pragmatic activities we almost certainly will welcome into our lives some things that the Lord forbids.
• No matter how amazing our race might seem, if the Lord is not please with us in the end, the race will end in failure.  
• This is the point of Jude’s warning in this epistle and our test for today. He offers us three tasks on our Amazing Race to guide us towards Christ and away from pragmatic disaster.

Message Points:

• So as we begin to consider this text, remember Jude’s basic warning.
  • First he wanted to write to them about their common salvation, but realized that false converts threatened their faith.
  • So Jude warns them that false converts will diminish meaningful membership, abandon accountability, and defile their spiritual health.
  • He then made sure to warn them that the church would ruin its witness if the congregation allowed the false converts to lead them into selfishness, criticism, and gut reactions.
  • Last week he warned them that the road to Hell was paved with stubbornness, enticements, and dissatisfaction.
• Today, as we begin Jude picks up his warning with a reference to the Old Testament figure Enoch.
  • We find info on his amazing race in Genesis 5:21-24.
    • Enoch lived at a crucial time, seventh in the line of Adam; just before God would judge the world with the Flood.
    • He lived pragmatically, for himself about sixty-five years and then fathered Methuselah.
    • This  evidentially changed Enoch’s race because verse 22 says “after he fathered Methuselah Enoch walked faithfully with God”.
    • Even the name of his son reveals the change as it has a prophetic double meaning.
      • It can simply mean “man of a dart or spear”.
      • But in a more prophetic way, it can be taken to mean, “man who sends forth” or who launches something.
      • Methuselah was the oldest man to ever live, and at his death, the flood was sent forth.
    • The most Amazing part of Enoch’s race was yet to come as verse 24 says, “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
  • Enoch’s race legendary by the time of the New Testament.
    • Biblical writers under inspiration referred to him.
    • In the “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11:5 we read, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: ‘He could not be found because God had taken him away.’ For before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God.”
    • But we also know that extrabiblical writers in Judaism also wrote legends about his race.
      • The first of these appeared in the first century BC and compiled into the Book of Enoch.
      • Here Enoch prophesied about God’s coming judgement both in the Flood generation and in a generation yet to come.
      • Eventually two other books of Enoch were also written.
      • Jude here quotes from the extra biblical text of 1st Enoch referring to it as an accurate prophesy about what is to come for those who are false converts.
    • Jude’s quote is very similar to the way that in modern days we might quote our favorite teachers.
      • He uses the word prophesied, which ordinarily is reserved for referring to an author of Scripture.
      • But think of how we quote our favorite teachers, especially about their teaching on the end times.
      • While their teaching is not on par with Scriptures,  if Anne Graham Lotz or Dr. David Jeremiah say an end times text means a certain thing, we accept it, quote it, and believe it no matter what other options might exist.
      • The major difference with Jude’s quote and ours is that the Holy Spirit not only illuminated Jude’s understanding of how 1 Enoch agreed with Scripture; but the Spirit inspired him to write about that agreement. 
        • He includes a reference to the Lord Jesus that 1 Enoch did not have.
        • He adds the word Behold or See in our text that alerts us to an important fact to remember.
        • He changes the tenses of the verbs from the present tense to a tense which signifies the certainty of an event’s occurrence, though it may still be future.
      • Commentator Gene Greene says that Jude takes  1 Enoch’s explanation of scriptural themes of God’s eventual judgement and “transforms it into a passage that refers to the advent of Christ.” (105)
• That brings us to the content of 1 Enoch’s prophecy and our Route Info task for our Amazing Race.
  • If you are not familiar with the Amazing Race, the route info gives us a clue as to their destination or next clue.
  • Jude’s clue is Stand before the Throne.
  • Look with me at the quote in verse 14. It tells us that the Lord is coming again.
    • The Lord is the new testament way of referring to Jesus. It was also the Roman title for the emperor.
    • It further describes Jesus’ second advent, by telling us he comes with thousands upon thousands.
    • That is the word we could translate as myriads, referring to a innumerable multitude.
    • Further it tells us that He comes with his holy ones.
    • While this could refer only to the angels it also can include all the saints who have, like Enoch arrived in the heavenly kingdom.
  • But then the quote continues in verse 15 to tell us that he is coming to judge everyone.
    • In other words, we must all stand before the Throne.
    • This long weekend, called Memorial Day, is a judgement day of sorts.
      • We celebrate those who gave their last full measure of devotion in service to our nation and to ensure our freedoms.
      • This holiday was set apart for us to decorate the graves of those heroes and remember their sacrifices.
      • The service and sacrifice of every one of our American heroes is placed before our thrones and we should rightly judge every one of  them as worthy of our remembrance.
      • We are very comfortable with these kinds of judgment days in our society, where everyone in view is certain to be honored or celebrated.
    • But as we read verse 15 we should note that the Judgement Day that Jude has in mind will include not only those who are worthy of remembrance, but also those worthy of wrath.
      • Literally the original language tells us that the Lord comes to “do judging” which involves examining evidence and pronouncing a verdict on what has been presented.
      • Just imagine friends, if we were on the Amazing Race.
        • The cameras would never turn off.
        • Every action would be caught on tape.
        • And the entire world would be able to see it.
      • When we look at verse 15 it refers to the evidence presented as ungodly acts and ungodly words.
        • Jesus told us in Matthew 10:26 “nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known”
        • In other words, Every Detail of our lives is being recorded and will be presented for all to see on Judgment Day.
  • Then verse 15 continues to say that Jesus will convict all of them of all the ungodly acts.
    • The word convict indicates that the case is over and the punishment is delivered to demonstrate sinfulness. Convict points out that every sin has a consequence
    • Romans 6:23 is true, “the wage (or payment) of sin is death.”
    • And the text of verse 15 by using the words ungodly acts refers to sins that are not “of weakness into which they fell unintentionally” (Hiebert 269).
    • The repetition of the word ungodly in verse 15 indicates that it was a willful choice to go against God.
    • This is made plain in verse 15 when it refers to how the words spoken are “against God.”
• But we should notice that there is a Detour challenge that Jude offers in verse 15 as well.
  • On the Amazing Race a detour challenge is a choice between two tasks.
    • Teams are free to choose either task or swap tasks if they find one option too difficult.
    • And there are consequences to the task that is completed.
  • There is a subtle clue and hint in verse 15 that we should notice.
    • Some translations, like the NIV make this clue more difficult to notice.
    • The Lord will return to judge EVERYONE, but he will only convict all the UNGODLY ACTS.
    • The ESV makes this more plain when it says, “to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly”.
    • In other words we do not have to be convicted and face the consequences of our sinfulness.
    • We really have a choice in how we live our lives. It is My Way or the High Way.
  • Einstein is quoted as having said, “there are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
    • Lets consider for ourselves which way of living thinks everything is miraculous.
    • First remember that God has all our lives on tape. He will present everything on Judgement day.
    • Now consider the options.
      • We can repent of our sinfulness and trust that Christ paid the penalty for our sin.
      • Or we can believe that somehow we will not face the consequences for our actions.
        • We might think that we have been good enough.
        • We might think that God will go easy on us for rebelling against him.
        • Or we might just say that the whole vengeful, wrathful god thing is a myth or a hoax.
    • Which way of living seems to rely more on the miraculous?
      • I would submit to you that believing that we will face no eternal consequences for our actions takes more of a belief in the miraculous than believing that God provided a substitute payment for our sin through Christ.
      • It is like the funny quote, “you don’t need a parachute to go skydiving. You need a parachute to go skydiving twice.”
      • We don’t have to be an Einstein to understand the truth in that statement, but to make it plain.
      • Believing that there are no consequences for our actions is believing that we will somehow miraculously be able to survive a skydive without a parachute.
      • We do not have to be an Einstein to choosing to repent of our sin and trust in Christ is putting on surest of parachutes: forgiveness and grace.
  • Which way will we choose?
• This leads us to verse sixteen and our next task, a ROAD BLOCK.
  • On the Amazing Race a ROAD BLOCK is a task that only one team member can complete and until it is completed they are stuck in their tracks.
  • For Jude, he makes a point in verse sixteen about the false converts and all those like them.
  • As we look at the verse we find four references to their speech that is motivated from their evil desires.
    • They are grumblers.
      • The wilderness generation that did not make it into the promised land grumbled against God.
    • They are faultfinders.
      • This is a similar accusation to being dissatisfied.
      • They must always point out how they are not content.
    • They boast about themselves.
      • Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
    • They flatter for advantage.
      • This sort of flattery is referred to in the OT as those who would show partiality in order to pervert justice.
      • In other words they would offer unfair judgements and decisions if they received a bribe.
    • All of these are really ways that we speak against God.
  • By referencing these three ways of speaking in a passage on Judgment Jude is telling us that we will be blocked from a right relationship with God so long as we speak against God.

Conclusion:

• But friends it need not be that way. Remember the words of Romans 10:9 “If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
• There is no road block to Heaven or an eternal relationship with God for those who use their mouths to profess their faith in Jesus Christ.
• In fact, the only way to have an Amazing Race is to profess and possess faith in Jesus Christ.