It is one of the tiniest and most overlooked books in the New Testament. After the four gospels the Book of Acts introduces the Church Age, or the “acts of the Apostles.” In contrast, the Epistle of Jude writes about the “acts of the apostates” in the latter days of the Age of Grace, a sort of vestibule that leads directly to the Book of Revelation. It is the only book written entirely to the “great apostasy.”

Apostasy is translated from the Greek word apostasia which means to “defect, depart or abandon what one has professed.”

In the third verse Jude writes that he set out to write of our common salvation, but “it was needful for me to write unto you…” Your modern translations might say “necessary” or “necessity” but it is such a classic failure of the English language to capture the intensity of the Greek word “anagke” (Strongs G#318) which underscores the Divine compulsion that came over him, that he was pressured to write this letter.  How strong is this Greek word? Compare to Acts 17:3 or 1^st Corinthians 9:16. (Refer 2^nd Peter 1:21)

Why should we want to study the Book of Jude? Because it is written for us today. In effect, it provides the last instructions for the Church Age.

“…That ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

The word for “contend” means “to agonize upon” or “contend strenuously in defense of.”  It was generally used in Greek military jargon to denote aggressive action.

Contained within these 25 verses are added insights to events that occurred in the Old Testament that the writer assumes we know: the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, the rebellion of Korah. There are allusions to the unbelieving generation of Israelites that died in the Wilderness, the fallen angels of Genesis 6 that left their first estate, and likened theirs to the sins of Sodom & Gomorrah, and the dispute between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses mentioned nowhere else in the Bible.  All of these are leveraged in a “lookback” to the Old Testament as a form of instruction to the latter days Church.

“Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” (1^st Corinthians 10:11)

Jude’s epistle even provides us with the first Second Coming of Jesus Christ prophecy of Enoch given prior to the Flood and from outside the canon of Scripture.

There is a remarkable parallel between the Books of James and Jude. First, we know they are brothers, and half-brothers of Jesus Christ, but neither of them were Apostles. In fact, John 7:5 tells us none of Jesus’ brothers believed in Him until after the Resurrection. Yet James would eventually become the leader of the Jerusalem church. And whereas James’ epistle deals with good works as evidence of saving faith, Jude’s letter deals with evil works as evidence of apostasy. Do you see this in the Church today?

Why are we to “contend for the faith?” Because there are tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30), false brethren have stolen into the church (Galatians 2:4-5), and the saints are in peril (2^nd Corinthians 11:26), all due to the “doctrines of demons. (1^st Timothy 4:1)” This all began in Jude’s day but Paul and Peter (2^nd Peter 2:1; 3:3-4) add to his warning that these attributes will be all the more amplified in the last days.

As a mention, there is a beautiful and unique structural outline to the Book of Jude that is symmetrical in nature. It begins and ends with the assurance for a Christian believer as an example. The center of this structural outline are the three apostates from the past. So, how do we identify the false teachers, the agents of apostasy?

At times there is noted a seeming pun on words in the Bible employed by the Holy Spirit’s authorship. As an example, Joshua is God’s appointed to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land and his name is the root name for Yeshua or Jesus. Coincidence? Think not. Interestingly, the title and first word of this epistle is “Jude” which in the Greek translates as “Judas,” which is synonymous with the very acts of betrayal and apostasy….precisely what he is writing about.

Jude lists 18 separate characteristics for those who will lead the Church astray that I would encourage you to discover on your own. Whether it is the Prosperity Gospel or Word Faith movement, self-anointed prophets and apostles, the perversion or degradation of the Word, or the humanism which has been allowed to creep into the Church, all can be identified within these 18 attributes.

However, and to pivot, the intriguing order and direct actions of 10 persons, entities or groups are named by Jude, besides the false, corrupt teachers that play a role in the battle for the truth of the gospel beginning with the Exodus generation. Specifically, verses 9-10 share an insight that is not found in the Old Testament in that Jude recounts that the archangel Michael (#4) and Satan argued over the disposition of the body of Moses. Our recollection from Deuteronomy 34:5-6 is that Moses died near Mt. Nebo, specifically Beth-peor, and that God buried him there. Why would God bury him, why would Satan want his body, and why is Michael dispatched to oppose him?

It is interesting to note that in John 1:20-21, at the time of Christ the Jews were looking for either Messiah, Elijah or “The Prophet” (Moses)(-Deut. 18:15,18). We also know that it was Moses and Elijah who later attended to Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration. A distinction about these two men comes to mind: they both had successors to their ministry, Moses to Joshua, and Elijah to Elisha. But Moses died. And both Enoch and Elijah were raptured or taken up to heaven without dying.

Where this leads is to identify who the Two Witnesses are in the Book of Revelation.   We know one will assuredly be Elijah but who will the other be, Moses or Enoch?  Revelation 11 cites attributes (bringing fire from heaven, shutting heaven from rain, turning water to blood, calling down of plagues)…all attributes demonstrated through Elijah and Moses.  So, what about (#8) Enoch???

Enoch was a Gentile.

And Jude quotes him, it is the oldest prophecy uttered by a prophet, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (verses 14-15)

There are four facts emphasized in these verses:

1) We know the Lord’s coming is sure;

2) We know who will accompany the Lord;  (the “Beloved” (verse 3))

3) We know the purpose of His coming;

4) We know the result of the Lord’s coming.

Not only did Enoch prophesy about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ but he was also given foreknowledge of the Flood. How do we know that?

Because Enoch named his son “Methuselah.”  In the Hebrew “Muth” means “death” and “Shalach” means “to bring.”  Combined it translates “his death shall bring.”

Apparently, Enoch received the prophecy of the Great Flood, and was told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld. The year that Methuselah died, the flood came.

According to Church tradition and Jewish rabbinical writings, Methuselah died seven days prior to the Flood. He outlived his son Lamech by five years and the Bible records Methuselah was the oldest living person who lived, and his life exemplifies that “God is long suffering, that none should perish.” (2^nd Peter 3:9)

Enoch, of course, never died: he was “translated”….or raptured.  What is interesting is that in Jude’s account he is the eighth person/group listed among ten and we are reminded that there were eight who entered Noah’s ark before the Judgment of the Flood. In that regard, does Enoch as a Gentile symbolize or act as a type of the Church?

In these days of pandemic, so much of the world shut down or in quarantine, there is do doubt these are part of the “labor pains” that our Lord told His disciples would foreshadow His return. Even the locust swarms in Africa and the Middle East are now 20X larger than what they were just two months ago and a great famine threatens later this year.

There is a growing call for a revival and many of us are praying fervently that God would bring fire from heaven, a movement of the Holy Spirit to bring about the harvest of millions of souls from all the nations. We cannot return simply to “business as usual.”

The Church should be like Enoch fully knowing what is coming on the horizon, yet we should bear His witness and “walk with God” uprightly just as he did before the day of “translation” comes.

Within this window of time let us be reminded of Jude’s concluding exhortations to us today,

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And on some have compassion, making a distinction;  but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. (Jude 20-23)

Some months ago, a Bible scholar stated that as the return of the Lord draws near, several observable trends are reversing back to where they were 2,000 years ago at Christ’s first coming.  First, Israel is back in the Land as they were then.  Second, the world is reverting to paganism as Paul encountered.  What then, would be the reverting trend for the Church?

I cannot recall his name, but he reminded that the first century church met in homes, there were no church buildings or cathedrals, and that in the future that might become more common.  It is remarkable that within this stunning coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdown affecting almost 3.5 billion today that churches are meeting in homes once again, more often than not aided by online broadcasts, or video conferencing.  This week as we celebrate the Resurrection one cannot help but note the number of communion services being conducted online as members partake of the elements within their homes.

Some have cited that there is even a more remarkable parallel in Israel, Jews are more or less stuck in their homes as we are, waiting out the isolation of a deadly biblical plague, and observing the Passover in a similar manner as the first Passover 3500 years ago as recorded in Exodus 12-13.  At that time, they applied the blood of an unblemished lamb over their doorposts to avoid the destroying angel.

The message of the Passover and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ could not be clearer than today in the midst of this pandemic.

Have we claimed the Blood of the Lamb -Jesus Christ- over our homes and family?  Have we applied it symbolically?  Psalm 23 tells us He is the Good Shepherd who loves us.  We have a God who has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).  Jesus said He would be with us always (Matthew 28:20), thus we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.” (Hebrews 13:6)  And we know that no tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 38-39)

Yet, we are reminded that there are lessons we can learn from the Old Testament.

“For when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isaiah 9b)

Amos, whose name means “burden-bearer,” is the third of twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament and he prophesied in the 8^th century B.C. against the northern 10 tribes of Israel.  Much like the Western world of today, Israel had turned away from God over the course of time and in receipt of his prophesying, they considered Amos to be a “burden.”  Despite God’s chastening, Israel refused to turn from her sinful ways and depravity.  In the fourth chapter God lists 5 disciplinary actions He had taken and each time He concludes, “yet you have not returned to Me.”

“I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword,
Along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the Lord. (Amos 4:10)

On a second occasion, God appeared to Solomon after he had dedicated the Temple.  Acknowledging his prayers, God advised Solomon that in the days ahead if Israel fell back into its worldly ways and rejected Him as they had done so many times in the past, He would afflict them with natural calamities and pestilences. “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people,” (2^nd Chronicles 7:13) But He goes on to offer an opportunity for repentance and reconciliation: “ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (verse 14)

In so many ways here in the United States and throughout much of the West we have rejected God, His Son, His ways, His laws, His word instead clinging to our idols of wealth, power, sex, entertainment, sports, technology, and pleasure.  If ever there was a time to place our faith, trust and hope in God, confessing our sins and repenting of them, casting down our idols it would surely be today.

But today we live in the Age of Grace, and yet God has allowed this pandemic to occur.  Why?  Because He is calling upon the peoples of the earth to turn to Him for salvation.

Interestingly, it was Amos who also prophesied about the last days saying “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.”  (Amos 9:11)

What is your point in raising this old prophecy?  How does this relate?

One of the most exciting developments in Israel today is the continued progress and discovery of the  twelve caves at Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls excavations.  Amongst the archaeologists, historians and staff of the Israeli Antiquities Authority there is strong belief that with recent deciphering of the Copper Scroll that not only do they think they know where ancient Temple treasures are buried but they also believe they now know where the Tabernacle of David is buried.  This has greatly whetted the appetite of Jews in Israel who seek the rebuilding of a Third Temple in Jerusalem.

I still don’t follow, please make your point.

For it was James filled with the Holy Spirit who stood at the Council of Jerusalem and addressed the apostles and elders:

“And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:

Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.

And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,

After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:

That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.” (Acts 15:13-17)

Speaking in the Spirit, James is not only quoting the Amos 9:11 prophecy in interpretive manner, but he has added a key phrase in place of “In that day.”  He invoked “After this.”  So, what is “THIS?”  It is the calling out of the Gentile Church, the Bride of Christ.  What James is saying is that before the ruins of the Tabernacle of David are raised, that the calling out of the Gentiles will have been completed.

Moreover, this is amplified by Paul, the “Apostle to the Gentiles,” who after likening the Gentile Church as a “wild olive shoot” grafted into “the olive tree” introduces one of the eleven key mysteries of the New Testament:

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” (Romans 11:25)

In other words, “until” means there is a totality of the “fullness of the Gentiles” before the partial hardening of Israel is lifted, and it is this specific time period (Age of Grace) that James and Amos reference before the Tabernacle of David is raised.  To put it bluntly, there is an end date, a final number that is only known by God.  When the “fullness of the Gentiles” is reached the Church Age will end with the Rapture of the Bride of Christ.  Revelation 3 ends the Church Age and chapter 4 begins.

So, we were on the topic of the coronavirus, shutdown, etc.  How does this tie in?

Shortly before Jesus was crucified, He told his disciples the signs of His return. “And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows (labor pains). (Matthew 24:7-8 emphasis added) Given the unprecedented nature of this global pandemic within just a 90 day window literally shutting down half of the nations of the world, one cannot help but mark this event as very real evidence of increasing labor pains that ultimately lead to the  Great Tribulation.

Archaeologists suggest that the raising of the ruins of the Tabernacle of David may be close at hand that go hand in hand with the Bible’s timeline of events.

But the Bible does seem to also suggest that the world will recover from this pandemic for a time based on what Jesus spoke, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.” (Matthew 24:37-38)  These verses seem to infer that at His return, life on earth will be normal if not prosperous, that eating, drinking and weddings will continue as they always have.  Thus, a recovery from this unprecedented pandemic event would seemingly follow.

In American football it is known as the “two-minute warning,” a brief pause signaling there is not much time left in the game and subsequently, teams enact an aggressive, time efficient offensive game plan to score quickly in the time remaining.

Assuming this global coronavirus pandemic begins to ease, the hope is life will return to normal. The signs of Christ’s impending return are abundant, and this virus is a major wakeup call to the nations of the world.  But, unlike society the Church needs to do anything BUT return to “business as usual.”  We need to pray for a major revival among the nations that only God can author.

Jesus chastised those hypocrites who studied the signs of the seasons but did not recognize the time of their visitation (Luke 12:56).  Likewise, the Church needs to acknowledge the signs of our times especially in light of this pandemic…….and respond.

No one knows the day, time or hour but know this: that the time will come soon when no one can work (John 9:4).

Awaken Church.