Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed 05/31/20

Intro:

• Fear Factor was a show in the early 2000s that presented teams of people with challenges to accomplish which forced them to face their fears.
• As simple or as difficult as the challenges might be, the contestants had to find some factor that allowed them to overcome their fears.
  • In the show the contestants might be covered with snakes, or have to escape from a sinking car.
  • All the while cameras capture the reactions and fears of those in these challenges as they try to win the prize money.
• For most of us some fear is more than just a passing feeling.
  • We harbor real fears that might paralyze us from action or cause us to react poorly to situations.
  • But we are not born with fears.
  • We come into this world certainly with needs, but fears, other than by instinct must be taught.
  • As we get older, fears creep in as experience makes us uncomfortable with change at the same time it teaches us about dangers around us.
  • Just think about the fears the violence in Minneapolis and other major cities has brought into our nation’s discourse right now.
    • Experience has taught people of color that they cannot expect that they will be heard unless they resort to extreme protests.
    • The wrongful and violent arrest of George Floyd has served to remind people of color about this reality so they have been rioting.
    • Experience also teaches authorities that extreme protests quickly boil over from hatred into violence.
    • As the protests over Floyd’s death spread, authorities everywhere are uneasy as they wonder if they will encounter hatred for the actions of distant, bad cops.
  • Grace and courage are far from the discourse of our nation as fears and fury dominate.
    • Few remember words like those of Martin Luther King Jr. who said,
    • “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others” (Strength to Love, 1963).

Hook:

• Fear can be controlling and destructive.
• So we need factors to overcome it.
• For fourteen verses Jude has been warning the church about their worst fears.
• In their day, as in ours we should be afraid of disruptive, dissatisfied, disgruntled people who will disrupt the church and die without Christ.
• Now he begins the call to action, offering them three factors to help them face their fears.

Message Points:

• Before we begin examining the factors that will help us overcome our fears, let’s review Jude’s basic warnings.
  • First he wanted to write to them about their common salvation, but realized that he must warn them about false converts.
  • So Jude helps them identify false converts as those who diminish meaningful membership, abandon accountability, and defile their spiritual health.
  • He then warns that the church would ruin its witness if false converts led them into selfishness, criticism, and gut reactions.
  • He further made sure that they were aware of the hellish consequences for stubbornness, enticements, and dissatisfaction.
  • Last week he warns them that everyone will face God’s judgment, but only those who choose the High Way rather than My Way will be found worthy.
• As we look at verse 17, Jude picks back up with his address of “Beloved” or “dear friends”.
  • By returning to this address, he is indicating his readiness to call the faithful to respond to the dangers he presents.
  • This loving address was last used verse 3 and now will be used two more times in the concluding verses of this letter.
  • Thus, this passage serves as a transition from the warnings to the appropriate responses which begin in verse 20.
  • Jude sums up his call from the past fourteen verses as a precursor to guiding them to respond.
  • As in the quote from Dr. King above, he is in essence asking them where they stand amid the challenge and controversy of false converts.
• He continues in verse seventeen to call them to remember.
  • This word is one used often in ancient literature not only to call attention to knowledge, but to ask them to act upon the knowledge they have.
  • As commentator Green says “present engagement against evil is undertaken with a thorough knowledge of divine revelation.” (113)
  • Once we forget God’s Word, and the example of those saints who have gone before us, we can be sure that we will slide into the spiritual deterioration (Hiebert, 274).
• Jude clearly asks them to remember the apostles words, but in doing so, by mentioning the apostles he inevitable also brings to mind their testimony and example.
• This is the first factor we must remember. We’re not the first, others faced their fears with faith (17)
  • The apostles were terrified during Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
    • They had been tormented and scared by the persecutions of Saul.
    • They had been terrified at the martyrdom of James the son of Zebdee and the imprisonment of Peter.
    • Eventually Peter and Paul’s martyrdoms under persecution must have rocked the church.
    • Perhaps most recently the martyrdom of James, brother of Jude and pastor of Jerusalem’s church, would have been terrifying.
  • Yet the apostles not only foretold the struggles, they found a way to face their fears in Christ and persevere.
  • When we see times of persecution and opposition to the faith – inside or outside of the church it is terrifying.
  • But knowing that someone came before us and persevered helps us to  contend for the faith.
  • For instance, consider the life and example of Barry Marshall.
    • Barry was born in the 1950s in Australia and sought to become a physician.
    • While in medical school in the 1970s, he and a classmate, Robin Warren from the University of Western Australia discovered a correlation between H. pylori bacteria and peptic ulcers.
    • If true, this meant that untold numbers of people suffering with ulcers would be able to have relief with the treatment of targeted antibiotics.
    • This discovery from medical students in the equivalent of a backwoods medical university challenged medical doctrine that ulcers arose from stress, spicy foods, and an overabundance of acid.
    • Their discovery, while demonstrably accurate was laughed at and discounted for around a decade, as they tried to convince the medical community with more research to no avail.
    • That is until Marshall chose to take action.
      • So He have an elective base-line endoscopy.
      • The he drank a broth containing the bacteria expecting to develop within the year ulcers.
      • Only three days later he developed nausea, bad breath, and vomiting.
      • By day eight he was back for another endoscopy which showed gastritis and a definitive colony of the bacteria in his stomach.
      • He began taking antibiotics and had a third endoscopy displayed the colony of bacteria had been eradicated.
    • After Marshall experienced his self-inflicted bacterial ulcer and treated himself the rest of the medical community began to believe him and eventually awarded him the Nobel Prize for medicine.
  • Once we know of someone who faced fears with faith, it become a huge factor in our ability to face fears with faith.
  • And friends, that is one reason that gathering together with fellow Christians is so important.
    • Every time we hear a story of how God brought someone through a trial, our faith is strengthened.
    • When we get together in small groups and pray for one another and God answers, our faith is strengthened.
    • We find the factor to face our fears when we know we are not the first to face our fears with faith.
• But lets return to Jude’s point in verse 17-18.
  • He connects the apostles words to those prophecies of Scripture he has mentioned before.
    • In other words, the apostles words are Scripture, just like the Old Testament is Scripture.
    • We can trust them as reliable promises of what is to come.
  • Weather forecasts are amazing things.
    • All of the meteorological data that comes together so that we can have a prediction of the weather is tremendous.
    • But there were forecasts even in the ancient times.
    • Certain signs in the sky like dark clouds or a sky bearing a certain color warned people of the potential for rain.
    • Further when certain signs were present, even ancient people could prepare and plan their days.
  • So when Jude tells the people to remember the forecast of the apostles, he was telling them to prepare for the inclement weather ahead.
    • Notice in verse 18 that it tells us that scoffers would arise “in the last times”.
    • All over the New Testament we read of people describing the end times.
      • Jesus does so in Matthew 24-25 as well as Mark 13 and numerous references in Luke and John.
      • In the epistles Paul warns of this in 1 & 2 Timothy; John in 1 John 2:18; and Peter in 3:2-3.
      • There are numerous allusions in Acts and the other NT books and of course there is Revelation.
    • But what we must recognize is that this is not referring to a future age.
      • False converts and false teachers are present now, and thus we are in the End Times.
      • For the writers of the New Testament they see the end times as beginning with the incarnation of Christ and extending to his second coming.
      • This verse written by the apostles is not predicting some future events, but events that have already come to pass.
      • This is a report not of what is to come but what is; and thus it is news to act upon.
• This is our second factor to remember: The forecast is news, so we must now face our fears with faith.
  • This is important for us to remember as we look at our age.
    • If the last days would be filled with scoffers and hat was occurring in the time of Jude’s audience, what should we continue to expect in our day?
    • Scoffers are those who ridicule, make fun of or mock in addition to deceive or trick.
    • He further describes them as ones who advocate for following any and every desire that wars against God.
    • When we look all around us, we see people chasing their desires in defiance of what God has said or is doing.
      • We have run from the abuse of alcohol, to the prevalence of illegal drugs, to the demand for legal medical marijuana; all so that people can escape their reality.
      • We have transitioned from back-room pornography, to the hook-up, free love culture, to now the demand for erotic liberty so people can pursue any consensual sexual activities desired.
      • We have moved from confusion over gender, to crossdressing and gender reassignment surgeries, to the insistence that gender is fluid all so that we can identify as we please.
  • The pattern is all around us, and at every turn those who believe in Jesus Christ; who proclaim salvation for all those who repent of sin and turn to Him are ridiculed, mocked, and degraded, so they can stop our gospel witness that makes them uncomfortable.
  • WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAST TIMES friends, but we cannot live in fear.
    • We must become laser focused on accomplishing what pleases Jesus.
    • We cannot be afraid of these times, or those who would mock and ridicule us.
    • We cannot accommodate to the culture around us but should seek to love and win this culture with the good news of Jesus Christ.
    • WHY? Because we know God has allowed this season just like every other season in history.
    • This is a time that our witness can be more powerful as it puts on display a sharp contrast between living for self and living for Christ.
    • What if people of faith rose up to speak to the violence and the fears in our nation right now?
  • Tell the story of Barry Byrd
    • Called to be a pastor but wife assured him she was not a pastors wife.
    • After years of working as a science teacher and youth leader, his wife finally was convicted by God of his calling.
    • So he began to look for a church to pastor and realized that very few churches wanted a science teacher rather than a seminary trained pastor.
    • He finally found a very small church in Monroe that needed a pastor or to close their doors.
    • He was facing the big city culture of Charlotte that was fast encroaching upon Monroe.
    • Many people scoffed when he was called as pastor and believed that soon the church would close.
    • For fourteen years amid scoffers he preached God’s Word, prayed fo  people, and weekly went out witnessing.
    • He trained deacons and young preachers to do the same.
    • In those years the church grew to 150-200 members and saw Christ revitalize the church.
    • In 2004 that called me to serve as youth pastor and Barry became my mentor. He is the one who taught me to believe that God could revitalize churches.
• In a final reminder of who the church faces, Jude calls the faithful back to his previous warnings.
  • He does this in order to remind them that very quickly without great care challenges and concerns can build up like scum in a path room or pool.
  • The three qualities he focuses upon are all ones he has mentioned before and seem to be the hallmarks of the false converts.
    • First he wants them about those who would cause divisions.
      • We must be careful here, because this word can be used positively to describe how Christ sets us apart from the world.
      • Literally it means drawing a boundary or a setting up a marker.
      • For Christians the boundary marker has always been faith in Jesus Christ as the one who frees us from sin and frees us to live eternally.
      • Anyone who would advocate for a different boundary – whether a legalistic (Jesus and) or a libertine (Jesus minus) – are ones Jude refers to as causing divisions.
    • The worldly are ones who base all of their decisions on what is naturally or physically best for them, never thinking about what God might want or say in his word.
    • The unspiritual are ones who have refused the knowledge of the spirit in favor of living by the knowledge of their own desires.
• Friends this is the third factor we must remember: Jesus scrubs S.C.U.M, so face fears with faith.
  • Duane Milioni a Raleigh pastor speaking as SEBTS mentioned that he calls such worldly living S.C.U.M. drawing the acronym from Ephesians 5:3-4. It stands for:
    • Sexual Immorality
    • Corrupt Communication
    • Ungratefulness due to Ungodly Expectations, and
    • Money/Material Lust
  • When we open our pool every year, we place our cleaning robot “Wanda the Whale” in the pool and she goes to work.
    • Most of the time the pool is so green on the bottom and covered with scum that no one, even on fear factor would want to jump into the water.
    • Instead of being afraid to swim in the pool we drop Wanda in and she scrubs the water.
    • And whenever we notice a buildup, she goes back to work and soon the pool is clean.
  • That is similar to how we face the SCUM in our lives.
    • We need to allow Jesus to cleanse our lives with his precious blood.
    • We need to our filter our thinking with his cleansing Word.
    • And we nee to see the Holy Spirit cleanse our desires as we give him control.

Conclusion:

• So friends we do not have to be afraid, we can face our fears with faith.
• It takes turning to Jesus to be cleansed and filled with faith.