What a Blessing it is to be Saved!

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

Jude 1-2

Jude begins his letter by reminding us of three truths about the believer... and these three truths relate to our past, our present and our future. 

First, Jude reminds the Christian something about our past. He tells us that we are those who have been called to salvation. Jesus makes the same point strongly in John 6:44 when He says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them...” If you are saved, you’re saved because at some point in the past God called you to salvation. Your salvation didn’t begin and end with you. It began in the heart of God.

The second thing Jude tells us about ourselves relates to our standing before God in the present. If you are a Christian, then you “are loved in God the Father.” You do not stand before God any longer as an enemy who is under His wrath, but as a beloved son or daughter whom He has clothed in the righteousness of Christ. While it is true that God loves all people, He loves believers in a special way. There's a special love that the Father has for His children. God loves you!

The third thing Jude reminds us of has to do with our future. He tells us that we are “kept for Jesus Christ.” That word ‘kept’ means ‘to preserve’ or even ‘to guard.’ And in the context of there being false teachers who are trying to distort the gospel and lead us away from Christ, this is especially encouraging. Sometimes the idea of persevering in the Christian faith and of not giving in to doubt when we live in a world of doubt… can seem like an impossible goal. So, it’s encouraging to be reminded that we do not have to keep ourselves in the faith by our own power. You are kept for Jesus Christ. God Himself is guarding, keeping and preserving you from the strategies of the enemy.

And because of these three truths, you also have mercy, peace and love in abundance. You have abundant mercy, in that God has withheld the punishment your sins deserve. You have abundant peace as a result of your being put back in a right relationship with God. And it was His abundant love toward you that accomplished all of this on your behalf and that keeps you for the day of His coming.

Have you ever stopped to consider how great a blessing it is just to be saved? If you didn’t have a dollar to your name, no food, no possessions, no family, no nothing… if all you had in the entire world was your salvation; you would still be immensely blessed solely because you could say you were called, you are loved and and you are being kept for the day of salvation. If you had nothing else, you would still have mercy, peace and love in abundance. So, praise the Lord for the great and gracious gift of your salvation today.

A Debt We All Owe

In a very well-known passage in John 13, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. And then in John 13:14-15, Jesus gives His disciples this command. 

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. - John 13:14–15

That word that’s translated as ‘should’ in “you also should wash one another’s feet” is a word that refers to debt. It means to owe. Jesus is explaining to His disciples that since He washed their feet, they now owed Him a debt. And His desire was that they repay that debt by washing one another’s feet.

It’s the same with you. Because Jesus laid His life down for you, you now owe Him a debt. And His desire is that you would repay that debt by regularly serving and laying down your life for His children, for the church. You are commanded to serve other believers… in the most humble and helpful of ways.

Far too many people come to church expecting to be served instead of looking for a place to serve. Far too many people want to complain about what others are not doing, or they want to complain about how others are doing what they are doing, when they ought to be finding some way to humble themselves and serve.

So, let me ask, are you humbling yourself to serve other believers at church? Or do you go expecting to be served?

Soulless Worship

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:24

There's a question of how best to interpret this verse. When Jesus says that we must "worship in spirit" is He referring to the Holy Spirit or to our spirit? If He's referring to the Holy Spirit, then He's saying that in order for your worship to be acceptable to God you must approach the Father through the Holy Spirit. 

Many believe that is what Jesus means, but it seems like an odd interpretation to me. While I do believe that we gain access to the Father only by salvation which is a result of the finished work of Christ and is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit; I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about in this passage. Jesus is talking to the woman at the well both before He died and before the Spirit was sent, so I’m not sure how she could even hope to worship rightly if that was Jesus’ point.

No. To me the second interpreation option make more sense. If Jesus is referring to our spirit, then He is saying that true worship isn’t merely an act of the body. It isn’t going through the motions or performing a ritual. In order for your worship to be acceptable to God, it must engage not only your mind and your body but your soul as well. Worship that is pleasing to God is an activity of the soul.

Looking back at the verse, you'll notice that Jesus grounds this principle in the fact that “God is spirit." His point is that it isn’t where you worship but the manner in which you worship that matters to Him. To worship God, you need to engage the part of you that is most like Him. He is a spirit, so you must worship Him with your spirit. 

If we aren’t careful, we will fail to do this. You can go to church every week and go through all the right motions but do so without engaging your spirit in any way. If you aren’t careful, you can leave the very heart and soul out of your worship and offer up to Him a kind of soulless worship that is only an empty shell of right thoughts and right action. Jesus tells us that is not pleasing to Him.

Don’t make that mistake. When you worship God, worship Him from your spirit. Don’t just think right thoughts and do right actions, worship Him from your heart. In other words, put actual worship into your acts of worship. Offer to Him the worship that comes from deep inside, from your very spirit. That’s the kind of worship He desires.

Regular, Everyday Christians

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.... Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Acts 8:1, 4

Did you notice who was scattered? It wasn’t the apostles. It was everyone else. It was the regular, everyday Christians who were scattered by this persecution. And what did they do as they packed up and left Jerusalem? It says they, “preached the word wherever they went.”

The first major spread of the gospel in church history was the result of these normal, everyday Christians taking the gospel with them wherever they moved to avoid persecution. God ordained, that it wouldn’t be the few apostles, but the thousands of everyday Christians who would begin taking the word out with them beyond the walls of Jerusalem to the edges of the earth.

Why? Because the job of taking the gospel to the nations was never intended to be accomplished by the 12 apostles alone. It's too big a job for that! And you know what? It was never intended to be accomplished by preachers and missionaries alone either. It's too big a job even for that.

Sharing Jesus with lost people is a job God has given to all Christians in all times. And as we see in these verses above, often it isn't preachers or missionaries whose lives make the difference in bringing people to Jesus but normal everyday Christians. You can take the gospel to places that no pastor and no missionary will ever get an invitation to. And you will probably be more successful than we ever would be anyway. So, share Jesus everywhere you go. If the believers in the early church could do it, then you can too!