Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Matthew

Jude -2- Necessity is the Father of Exhortation
To Correct or Encourage?

Do I just keep encouraging my child, servant or follower, or must I instruct them with words of exhortation? Every parent, master, or leader must judge between the value of correction versus positive reinforcement.

Jude, a leader of the church no less loving of the recipients of his letter than the Apostles, faces this familiar dilemma of the parent. I want to encourage you, my beloved children, by acknowledging all of the good things you do. BUT, (Oh, oh, here it comes…) I have this against you.

If this approach of dealing with the church and individual wayward relationships to the Lord and each other sounds familiar, it should. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John exhortation to the seven churches also takes this form.

Like John, Peter, Paul and others, Jude has a close relationship with many individual saints of the church. As a father encourages a son or daughter, so the words of Jude touch the hearts of the hearers of his letter.

They will hear Jude’s letter as words from a beloved mentor. Many know Jude, Servant of Jesus Christ as the brother of James or know of him.

Jude’s greeting:

Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
Jude 1:2 KJV

ἔλεος Mercy to you, Jude writes.

It means kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. Jude not only knows them but cares about their struggles and community.

When Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan, our Lord convicts us that we often fail to show mercy to our fellow man. We too tend to qualify which neighbor we choose for our mercy. Yet like those who questioned the Lord we know which one acted as Christ would act.

“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
Luke 10:37 CSB

Jude shows the church compassion and mercy, also greeting them with peace and love multiplied. If you are one of those called by the Father you will recognize the same peace of Jesus Christ regardless of what exhortation will follow.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
The words of Jesus Christ, the Good News of John 14:27 NASB

ἀγάπη – Love

Love is much misaligned and misdirected in and by the church. Jude speaks here of agapē [ah-gah’-pay], the love by which all hearers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be known.

ἀγάπη – Agape is affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love; that visible relationship between Christians. One key reason Jude and others must exhort individuals to such love is so that others will always recognize us as beloved children of our loving Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus warns us in the Gospel of Matthew:

“Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.

Did our Lord not describe this familiar brokenness of the church in these last days? Jude must warn the saints faithful to the Lord.

Jesus added an encouragement to this caution about our potential loss of agape love:

“But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Jude will exhort believers to keep in Jesus’ love, abide in His love or live as Jesus taught us by His example.

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
Encouragement of Jesus – Gospel of John 15:9-10 NASB

Occasion of Jude’s Letter

Jude – NRSV

Jude clearly states the reason for his exhortation replacing unsalted positive encouragement.

3 Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

His indictment is clear, a warning to the saints to watch out for those ungodly ‘christians’ who have stolen their way into the trust of the church. They pervert grace into licentiousness.

Because now we rarely hear such pointed exhortation, let’s look just a bit closer into the problem outlined in verse 4.
- Certain intruders pervert God’s grace.
  - It’s not everybody or even the majority of the saints.
  - These sinners were marked out beforehand for condemnation, pointing to their same sins from the Old Testament. Jude’s following verses point to these OT examples.
- This is Jude’s and the church’s general condemnation of ungodly persons who turn from the grace of God, as opposed to the repentance possible for those God allows to return to righteousness.
- They pervert the grace of God into licencentious.
  - one of Jude’s two serious indictments
- and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
How can ANY man or woman identified as a ‘christian’ deny Jesus as the Messiah (Christ), Lord God & ONLY lord and master of your mortal and eternal life?

Jude, bondservant of Jesus, would have us ask this question of every hearer of his letter. Who truly serves Jesus Christ as your Master and Lord?

Other Description of Jude’s purpose

The Geneva Bible of 1599 states:

3 He warneth the godly to take heed of such men, 4 that make the grace of God a cloak for their wantonness:

Like licentiousness, wantonness leaves us thinking of an archaic approach to sin rarely mentioned in this day and translated gently for contemporary readers of Jude’s exhortation.

All will agree that Jude urges the saints (all Christians) to contend earnestly or defend the true faith handed down to the church by Christ and through the faithful word of God in the the Old Testament. From there we easily stray when called upon to confront a false claimant of Christ.

Who are these?

Jude writes, ‘certain men have crept in unnoticed,’ or ‘by stealth’ some versions translate.

Let’s examine Jude’s two-part accusation.

ἀσέλγεια – Licentiousness

Defined: unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence

We tend to think of the sin of these men Jude describes as sexual sin, a sin which may accurately describe just part of their specific acts against God. Yet other sinful behaviors men and women would hide from the saints with whom they worship certainly apply to Jude’s warning.

Jude’s exhortation describes a general conduct thought to be private which would cause a public disgust. These shameless excesses could include gluttony, tyrannical demeanor, greediness and other excesses of the fleshly senses, which include hunting for victims prone to your sins.

You may notice the similarity of the Greek word translated as licentiousness, ἀσέλγεια, and it’s Hebrew root, ἄλφα.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 22:13 KJV

This Greek description as a compound negative participle of Alpha, the word of God and Christ, indicates an antichrist, a description other New Testament writers use of those opposed to the Gospel.

ἀρνέομαι Ἰησοῦς Χριστός – Deny Jesus Christ

This is the most serious of Jude’s two accusations against these antichrists who have found their way into the church, men and women against whom he must warn other followers of the Lord.

Ungodly persons [ἀσεβής] καὶ τὸν μόνον δεσπότην καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἀρνούμενοι, that is: “only Master and Lord our Jesus Christ deny.”
- Jesus is our Lord, the LORD God
- The LORD IS our only Master
- Jesus IS the Messiah, the Christ
- We serve ONLY Him.
Many deny the Lord, our personal Master whom we serve as Christians. Ungodly persons may claim Jesus or claim God, yet not serve Him. Many more will claim a god or antichrist because they oppose the LORD.

Jude is not alone in his exhortation for believers. The Apostle John also warns of such antichrists:

… so now many antichrists have come. …They went out from us, but they did not belong to us… I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you.
First Letter of John, excerpts from 2:18-19 & 26 NKJV

Biblical warnings from the Old Testament

Next we will continue in Jude’s letter to saints of the first century church with his Old Testament examples. Remember, the Old Testament was the only Bible for Jesus, Jude, James and the Apostles. But feel free to preview these few verses as if you knew only this Bible, still applicable today.
```
To be continued...
```
July 17, 2019
Jude – Now I will praise the Lord
Who is Jude?

The first thing I want to know about any letter I receive is who sent it to me. So as a leader or member of one of several churches we would want to be certain of the identity of the author of Jude and the authenticity of Jude’s message.

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James
Letter of Jude 1:1a NKJV

To fully understand the identity of the man who’s name is translated in English as ‘Jude” we must look to both the original Greek text and the common name of its Hebrew origin in first century Judea and Galilee.

Ἰούδας

Pronounced: ē-ü’-däs — Most translations of the Greek use Jude, the Latin Iudas and Yehudah in the Hebrew Names Version. The root word of the Greek name is Yĕhuwdah from the Hebrew יְהוּדָה meaning “praised” and translated at Judas. (We understand why after Jesus’ betrayal no man wanted to be known by this name now synonymous with ‘betrayer.’)

In James – Witness of a Converted Brother we learned that Roman names derived from local languages had become Hellenized. James could be Jim, but Judas and Judah easily become, Jude.

Some fathers named their sons after a forefather of their tribe like Judah or Israel. Judah יָדָה is the familiar Hebrew root of both the Greek and English.

Brother of James

Jude means: he shall be praised.

The author of our letter identifies himself as the brother of James.

Jude refers to James, head of the church of Jerusalem, leader of the first century churches who exchanged letters throughout Asia minor, Greece, Palestine and other areas receiving the Good News of Christ. Most Biblical commentators agree that like James, Jude is is also a half-brother of Jesus.

Both James and Jude identify themselves as servants of Jesus, rather than claiming their biological relationship to the Lord. Most kings come to power via their family connection and install relatives in high positions.

One of the great Jewish controversies Jesus would take no part in was that of the legitimacies of kings and followers of certain political traditions. These political/family controversies had progressed and preceded Jude, James and Jesus by several generations back to the second century B.C.

Maccabees

Source: BibleHub.org (a hammer), This title, which was originally the surname of Judas, one of the sons of Mattathias, was afterward extended to the heroic family of which he was one of the noblest representatives. Asmonaeans or Hasmonaeans is the Proper name of the family, which is derived from Cashmon, great grandfather of Mattathias. The Maccabees were a family of Jews who resisted the authority of Antiochus Epiphanes king of Syria and his successors who had usurped authority over the Jews, conquered Jerusalem, and strove to introduce idolatrous worship.

Judas, one of the sons of Mattathias generally called in English the Maccabees, a celebrated family who defended Jewish rights and customs in the 2nd century B.C. (1 Maccabees 2:1-3 {from the Apocrypha, for those unfamiliar with extra-Biblical texts.}

Herodians

The end of the era of the Hasmoneans is probably the most turbulent time in Jewish history. It is hard to imagine a “Jewish” government more antithetical to Jewish principles and ideals than that of Herod and his successors, whose murderous, tyrannical ways would eventually lead to the destruction of the Temple and the beginning of the long exile that Jews find themselves in. – Source: JewishHistory.org

Herod the Great, born in Rome around 70 B.C and known as Herodes Magnus, was appointed a governor at around age 20 (along with his brother) and appointed King by the Roman senate in 37 B.C. He became known as Judah’s great builder and built the Temple in Jerusalem.

During the time of Jesus, James and Jude and continuing into the years of the early church, the Herods wielded much power. Rome finally turned on Jerusalem and their client king appointed to help Rome defend the Empire against enemies east of Palestine. The Herodians failed to control the “Jewish problem,” which caused trouble throughout the Empire.

Bondservant of Jesus Christ

The brother of James could have begun his letter to the church as a ‘brother of the King and Messiah,’ implying his authority of position via his family. The Herodians or Maccabees made familial claims to kingdom leadership, but not these half-brothers of Jesus who had not even followed the Lord prior to His resurrection.

James begins his letter (ἐπιστολή epistle, in greek): ‘James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Jude chooses to identify in the same way as a bondservant of Christ.

Jude would have been known to his readers as the brother of James, leader of the church in Jerusalem, both related to Jesus the Messiah.

Understanding the Servant of Christ

The Bible uses the word ‘servant‘ almost 500 times. A few English translations use the word ‘bondservant,’ a concept we no longer use or understand. Furthermore, many contemporary christians resist this concept of sometime voluntary compliance.

I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
Leviticus 26:13 KJV

עָבַד עֶבֶד – A slave or servant; to work, serve. Also used as form of address between equals.

Genesis 18: KJV

And the LORD appeared unto him [Jacob] in the plains of Mamre: … three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:

Jacob served the LORD. We serve the LORD. Jude served Christ, the Lord.

Malachi 4:

About four centuries before Christ (and Jesus’ half-brothers) the prophet Malachi writes:

“Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
Malachi 4:4

The closing verses of Malachi clearly point back to Moses and the Law with the Lord calling Moses, “my servant.” James and Jude are servants of Jesus just as Moses was servant to the Lord at Horeb.

עֶבֶד – `ebed

Are you, beloved follower of Christ, first a servant of the Lord?

διάκονος – diakonos

“If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Where I am, there my servant also will be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
Command of the Lord Jesus – Gospel of John 12:26 CSB

The servant (from the Greek context) is ‘one who executes the commands of another, esp. of a master.
1. the servant of a king
2. a deacon [diakonos], one who, by virtue of the office assigned to him by the church, cares for the poor and has charge of and distributes the money collected for their use.
3. a waiter, one who serves food and drink
“The greatest among you will be your servant.
The word of the Lord – Matthew 23:11

Abraham was a servant of the Lord. Moses was a servant of the Lord. And like their forefathers in the faith, Jude and James became servants of the Lord first and servants of the Lord’s followers second.

Paul, referring to the church writes to the church at Colossae:

I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known …

Jude writes to the church

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James:

To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:1b CSB

Are you a fellow servant of Christ Jesus? If so, know that you are loved by God the Father. Know that by His grace you are kept for Jesus Christ at the day of His victorious return.

2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
```
To be continued
```
July 10, 2019
James and Jesus: Brothers – 6
Although we took an initial look at the identity of the letter writer in Witness of a Converted Brother, before we ask ourselves about the conclusion of James’ letter, I would like to go back to take a look at the relationship between James and Jesus.

James, Bond-servant of his Brother

Ἰάκωβος θεοῦ καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
James 1:1a Greek; NASB

Picture James and Jesus after the resurrection. What a humble relationship the author James states here.

First and foremost, he is a bond-servant, δοῦλος, doulos or slave.

Slaves were common in the Roman empire. They served men of importance at many levels: kings, the rich, military leaders, land owners, regular citizens to whom one owed money. Slaves were not uncommon in Judea and servitude required the self-control of humility.

If the relationship between James and Jesus is one of a bond-servant to his master, James acknowledges that as a servant of God he serves Jesus as his lord. The risen brother (actually, half-brother) of James is God in the flesh!

James and Jesus of Nazareth

Surely by now Mary has told Jesus’ brothers and sisters what she had held in her heart: this son is the Son of the Living God by the Holy Spirit!

Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, aren’t they all with us? So where does he get all these things?” And they were offended by him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
Matthew 13:55-58 CSB

James was always the younger brother. Joseph had died, then Jesus assumed his role as head of their household. Later Jesus would leave Nazareth over controversy related to His teaching to live in nearby Capernaum.

He traveled throughout Israel for three years prior to His crucifixion and resurrection. James, as the elder brother, would have cared for his mother, brother and sisters.

What was it like to grow up with Jesus?
```
Much of the commentary to follow is best read as historical fiction from a probable first-person narrative of James, half-brother of Jesus, based on the scriptures linked.
```
Although the risen Christ anoints James as head the church of Jerusalem, he would have traveled there many times.

James and Jesus would have been known as Galileans, Nazarenes and familial brothers, not Judeans or leaders of Jerusalem. But now he is one of more than five hundred witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. James accepts the difficult call to lead the church in Jerusalem.

Though we have no sermon, but only his letter to the churches, his personal witness of Jesus must have been subject of much preaching.

“What was it like to grow up with the Lord Jesus,” so many believers must have asked?

Humbly, James would have confessed, “I did not believe.”

The Child James and Jesus

{Hear James’ voice in his later good news to the church.}

The physician Luke interviewed our mother Mary and many others in order to tell us about Jesus, before His recent miraculous and powerful earthly ministry of only three years. Our mom now retells a story I will share with you of when Jesus was a young man and I was just a small child.

Luke 2:

[Jesus] grew up and became strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was on him. Every year our parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival. Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, and they had to return to Jerusalem to search for him. (They sent us back to Nazareth with relatives.)

After three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

(I remember when they came back to us in Nazareth.)

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.

In the Synagogue of Nazareth

A few years later Dad died, and Jesus watched over all of us. When we grew older I heard my brother teach in our synagogue. but I did not believe in Him. Of course, I too worshiped in the synagogue on the Sabbath Jesus read from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah.

Luke 4:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me…
Luke 4:14 from Isaiah 61:1

Then my brother Jesus said: “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

My own brother, yet I could not believe the words He proclaimed to all of us, we who witnessed the Lord in the flesh. They all spoke well of my brother. We all wondered what Jesus meant.

“Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” What does your brother mean by this?

Then He said: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ referring to a local rumor of a miracle He was said to have done nearby.

Jesus said they resented that He did not prove himself in our hometown, using familiar illustrations of the prophets Elijah and Elisha doing miracles outside of Israel.

Then the crowd turned. I didn’t know what to think, but I still didn’t believe Jesus and I too would have loved to have seen proof.

Everyone in our synagogue was enraged. They got up, drove Jesus out of town to the edge of the cliff, intending to hurl him over it.

I thought of the words of Judah after Joseph’s brothers had thrown him into the pit. A few of us helped Jesus to quickly escape the angry Nazarene worshipers.

Capernaum and Jesus Preaching Nearby

Jesus had already become very popular in Galilee before Nazareth rejected Him. Although I had not seen any yet, many attested to miracles my brother worked in nearby towns. That is why some had said, “do a sign for us here in your hometown.”

People now followed Jesus into towns and everywhere He went.

Hillside near Capernaum where Sermon on the Mount may baye been preached

Matthew 4:

13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea…

From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Matthew 4:17

We heard reports of my brother’s teaching many times as people traveled through Nazareth from here or there. Merchants of the fish markets and others also told us that Jesus had preached things like, “blessed are the poor,” and “blessed are the humble.”

Teaching, Preaching, and Healing

23 Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. (That’s what the Romans now call the region near us.)

… 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

James and Jesus, a family visit

Jesus lived in Capernaum, but He traveled mostly. When word came to us where to find Him, we often followed the crowds to see my brother. Mom delighted to see and hear Him, when we could. But me… I still didn’t fully believe all the reports we heard.

We heard that some Scribes and Pharisees had come up from Jerusalem to see Jesus. So we traveled alongside the crowds to see Jesus.
- Ruins of Capernaum
- Gottlieb painting Christ preaching in Capernaum
I sent a messenger to push through the crowds to speak to our brother.

Luke 8:

20 He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

21 But he replied to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear and do the word of God.”

We waited for Jesus to finish, listening to Him. Jesus preached many of the sayings we had already heard. And finally, we managed to meet our brother, who kissed and embraced us all. Then we stayed with Him, returning to Nazareth the following day.

I met with Jesus other times too, but of course I could not follow Him because of my responsibilities to our family.

Jerusalem

Jesus had said to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

I won’t get into politics since it’s so complicated. But next I would like to tell you where my brother stood on some of the controversies in Jerusalem.
```
To be continued... James and Jerusalem
```
May 16, 2019