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Last Sunday of the Church Year
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
November 24, 2024
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, Jude 20-25, Mark 13:24-37
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Text: pastorjud.org
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itunes: bit.ly/pastorjud
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We have come to the end of another church year and Jesus still has not returned. Jesus is coming back…but when? It could be this afternoon and it may not be for thousands of years. Jesus promised to return, so, as a follower of Jesus, you wait. However, while waiting, many people get distracted trying to figure out when Jesus will return, but Jesus does not want you to guess when He will return. Mark 13:32 (ESV) 32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Jesus is coming back and there will be the judgement and Jesus wants you to be prepared when He arrives.
Mark 13:34–37 (ESV) 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
As you wait for Jesus to return you must stay awake. Not physically awake, but spiritually awake. You need your sleep and you need to stay on guard. Do what you have been given to do and stay ready for Jesus to come back. Live out your good Christian character.
The great basketball coach John Wooden once said: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are…the true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”
Do what you have been given to do even when no one is watching. Do the right thing every day and if you find yourself doing something you would not want to be doing when Jesus returns…stop doing it. Repent. Cut that sin out of your life. Confess that sin and receive forgiveness. This is an ongoing struggle. This process has to be repeated often, stop, repent, confess, be forgiven. Battling sin is frustrating, but in your frustration with your natural immorality, do not give up the fight.
Jesus returning on the Last Day is a troubling teaching. You know you should be doing what you are supposed to be doing. You know that you do not want to be engaged in open sin when Jesus returns. You also know that you are, by nature, sinful and unclean and your struggle with sin and temptation is real. Jesus gives a serious warning, Mark 13:37 (ESV) 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” Jesus returning for judgment is troubling because you know that on your own you will not be ready.
In our reading from Jude you get instructions on how to live in preparation for Jesus’ return. How do you take care of each other in this dangerous world full of people warring against the truth? Jude is a short book with only one chapter, so there are no chapter numbers. It is often an overlooked book, but Jude has much to say to us today. The book of Jude is an appeal to followers of Jesus to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. It is a stern warning against false teachers. Jude 4 (ESV) 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Jude warns that God will punish sin. Jude shows how God punished those who turned away from him with three examples. Jude 5–7 (ESV) 5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”
Jude exhorts to contend for the faith that was delivered to us from the apostles and do not give in to false teachers and Jude does not pull punches when describing false teachers. Jude 8 (ESV) 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.” Jude 10 (ESV)10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.”
What is truth? How do you know what is true? Do you, like a growing number of people, follow the ways of unreasoning animals and understand instinctively by following your feelings, or do you abide in the truth of God delivered to you in the words of Holy Scripture? Do you follow your feelings -- or the Bible?
Jude 17–19 (ESV) 17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”
A very great danger that has lurked from the earliest days of the Christian Church is false teachers who want to abuse the grace of God to permit, and even promote, sexual sin and other sins. These minions of the evil one; these wolves in sheep’s clothing, want you to follow your feelings and be led onto the road to hell. Jude warns against giving in to these false teachers.
Jesus’ return for judgment is troublesome. God punishes sin and you are a sinner. Jesus is coming back for judgment and you are by nature sinful. How do you stay ready for Jesus’ return? Jude tells you how, he does not leave you in fear. Jude points you to the truth of scripture, that Jesus is the savior from sin; the one who paid the price for you out of love.
Jude 20–21 (ESV) 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
Build yourselves up in your most holy faith. As Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:24 (ESV) 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Build yourself on the solid rock of Christ. Keep yourself in the love of God. As God the Father tells Peter, James and John at the transfiguration, Matthew 17:5 (ESV) 5 …“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Listen to Jesus and do what He says.
Pray in the Holy Spirit. As a baptized child of God your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Bring your praise and concerns and desires and confessions and thanksgivings to the Lord. And when you do not know what to pray, the Holy Spirit will pray for you Romans 8:26 (ESV) 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Keep yourself in the love of God. Jesus loves you, this you know, for the Bible tells you so. John 3:16 (ESV) 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. Come to worship. Hear your sins are forgiven. Hear God’s Word declaring His love and forgiveness. Receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. Keep yourself in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
Jesus is coming back. You are in Christ. You know that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Abide in Christ. Abide in His Word. And look out for each other on this journey toward the Last Day. Jude 22–23 (ESV) 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”
As brothers and sisters in Christ you are called to care for each other. Jude here speaks of three levels of caring for those who are in danger of going astray. There are those who are uncertain in their faith. They have doubts. They wonder, “Is forgiveness really true? How can God do that? Am I really saved?” To these we admonish them to trust the promises of Christ and put aside their doubts.
To those who have almost been led astray by false teachers we should snatch them like a burning stick of wood from the fire and get them away from the eager claws of the devil wanting to pull them down to hell.
To those who are on the verge of turning aside from the narrow path to heaven to go on the wide and easy path to damnation you offer loving and merciful assistance, but you do it in fear and humility lest the one offering help is pulled in by the temptation. Lutheran theologian Paul Kretzmann writes about dealing with others getting caught up in sin, “In our entire attitude there should not be the least indication of pride and presumption, but only a holy horror of sin, of the spotted garment of the flesh. And as for ourselves, it must be our constant effort to keep the garment of salvation, of the merit of Christ, with which God has clothed us, unspotted both by false doctrine and by carnal life…” When helping others caught up in sin you need a healthy fear of the attractiveness of sin and the power of temptation.
Jude ends his short letter with a wonderful conclusion pointing you back to the one who has the power to save. The one bringing mercy and forgiveness. The one who makes you holy. Jude 24–25 (ESV) 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.
Jesus is coming back and you don’t know when. In Christ you are ready. Stay awake. Amen.