"The Terrible Twos" (Jude 5-7)

Yesterday my friend and teacher Herb Bateman preached, I had the day off.

It was great.

It has been a long time since I sat and listened to a sermon. The content was good, the presentation engaging, and the experience of learning was a real treat.

But, wow, Jude? What a trip. When was the last time you heard a sermon out of Jude? Such an overlooked but powerful little letter.

Herb focused on verses 5-7 and summed up the idea this way: Divine repercussions exist for those who persist in telling God, "No!"

He called it the "Sermon in a Sentence." I like that, I might steal it. After all, he probably stole it from someone else.

He explored some "angel rebellion" stories from 1 Enoch, which bothered some people, I guess, but absolutely fascinated me. The bottom line, it doesn't matter who you are, a follower of God, an celestial being, a pagan...if you rebel against God's norms there WILL be repercussions.

Ouch.

It got even better during sermon discussion (a weekly tradition at my church) where he shared that he believed Jude was written to Jewish believers who were at risk of being deceived by rebellious political dissenters who were stirring up people en route the soon-to-erupt Jewish rebellion of the late 60s - early 70s C.E.

As I thought about it, I slowly began to realize that if Herb is right, then the implications for modern day believers become even more challenging. As Jewish rebels were gathering strength, they would have done so (at least in part) by appealing to the nationalistic sentiment of their countrymen. A sentiment that almost entirely ignored the claim that Jesus was the real messiah, and his kingdom is not of this earth. In other words, throwing off the oppressive rule of a gentile empire (Rome) was not the concern of a follower of Jesus, the Christ.

This sounds like a teaching against rebellion of all sorts, not the least of which is rebelling violently against oppressive governments.

Yay Gandhi!

But that might be beside the point.

Undeniable is the strength of Jude's warning: persist in rebellion and there WILL be repercussions.

Good stuff, Dr. Bateman, good stuff.