Are You Spiritually Healthy? | Jude 1:17-23
Series: Contending for The Faith
Title: “Are you spiritually healthy?”
Scripture: Jude 1:17-23 NIV
Bottom line: Healthy Christians remember the Words of God, remain in the love of God, and rescue those who wander from the mercy of God.
INTRODUCTION
CONTEXT
OUTLINE
CONCLUSION
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
NOTES
YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION
MAIN REFERENCES USED
My opening prayer: Lord God, help us grow to be and do like Jesus, while abiding in him and leading others to do the same.
OPENING STORY
Watch what a firefighter does before running into a burning building, and you’ll notice the order. The gear goes on first. The mask, the tank, the suit — minutes of careful preparation before they ever touch the fire. To an anxious bystander it can look like delay. It isn’t.
An unequipped rescuer doesn’t save anyone; he just becomes a second victim. This is exactly Jude’s order in verses 20–23.
First — build yourselves up, pray, keep yourselves in God’s love.
Then — go pull people out of the fire.
Most people hear “contend for the faith” and picture an argument. Jude pictures a rescue, and rescuers prepare before they run in.
CONTEXT
Up to this point Jude has kept the false teachers under the spotlight — Israel, Sodom, Cain, Balaam, Korah, waterless clouds and wandering stars, all paraded across the stage in a dozen blistering verses. In verse 17 the camera turns: “But you, dear friends.” For the rest of the letter the subject is no longer them but us. Jude’s first move is to steady the church — don’t panic, and don’t assume something has gone wrong. The apostles said this would happen; scoffers chasing their own ungodly desires were predicted, not accidental, a fixed feature of “the last times” we now live in. So corruption showing up in the church isn’t proof the faith has failed — it’s proof the apostles were right. Having calmed their fear, Jude hands them something to do, and notice its shape: one command sits at the center — keep yourselves in God’s love — ringed by the actions that make it possible (building up, praying, waiting) and the mission it spills into (mercy and rescue for others). This is where the “contend for the faith” of verse 3 finally gets its job description.
Bottom line: Healthy Christians remember the Words of God, remain in the love of God, and rescue those who wander from the mercy of God.
OUTLINE (Help from Shaddix/Akin)
God's prescription for spiritual health aka 3 Remedies that lead to healthy Christians:
I. Remember the words of God. (17-19)
A. Expect false teachers. (17-18)
B. Recognize false teachers. (18-19)
C. Jude and Paul call us to expect and be able to recognize false teachers:
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” -Acts 20:28-31 NIV
II. Remain in the love of God. (20-21)
A. "Build" on the word of God. (20)
B. "Pray in the Holy Spirit" of God. (21)
C. "As you wait for the mercy of" God which comes from the Son of God. (21)
III. Rescue those wandering from the mercy of God. (22-23)
A. Deal gently with those who doubt. (22)
B. Deal quickly with those in danger. (23)
C. In 2004, during the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, a British family was vacationing on a beach in Thailand when their 10-year-old daughter, Tilly, noticed something strange.
The ocean was behaving oddly. The water was frothy. It kept surging instead of rolling normally.
Two weeks earlier, her geography teacher had taught her about tsunamis and the warning signs that precede them. As she watched the water, she realized: This is exactly what he described.
She started warning her parents: “There’s going to be a tsunami!”
At first, they didn’t believe her. The sky was blue. The beach looked peaceful. There was no giant wave in sight. But Tilly became more urgent, more insistent, until finally her father trusted her warning and alerted others on the beach.
Moments later, a massive tsunami crashed ashore.
Over 230,000 people died across the region. But at that particular beach, not a single person died.
Why?
Because one little girl recognized the warning signs and refused to stay silent.
Her father later said, “If she hadn’t told us, we would have kept walking. I’m convinced we would have died.”
Jude is writing like that little girl. He sees warning signs others are ignoring. False teaching. Distorted grace. Spiritual drift. And he refuses to stay silent because the danger is real.
D. Deal carefully with those who are defiled. (23)
E. Alex the Jehovah's Witness encounter or
F. Every trained lifeguard learns one hard truth: a drowning person will pull you under. The instinct of someone panicking in deep water is to climb on top of whatever is closest, and that includes the person trying to save them. So lifeguards are taught to rescue and protect themselves at the same time — to reach the drowning without being dragged down by them. That’s the strange balance of verse 23: “snatch others from the fire,” but show “mercy, mixed with fear — hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Go in after people. Love them enough to reach. But don’t let the very thing you’re rescuing them from get its hands on you on the way out.
CONCLUSION
Bottom line: Healthy Christians remember the Words of God, remain in the love of God, and rescue those who wander from the mercy of God.
"The second picture is of the great preacher of the First Great Awakening, George Whitefield. His final day on earth exemplifies what it looks like to keep yourself in the love of God. He was only fifty-four years old, he had suffered much for the gospel, and he was near death. And yet he was intent on finishing well. His biographer writes:
'After preaching for a week in the Portland [Maine] area, Whitefield was again forced to recognize that he was too unwell to proceed....
Accordingly, he once more turned southward, to begin, as he thought, the long journey back to Georgia. The date was Saturday, September 29, 1770.
By noon of that day he reached the town of Exeter. He had not planned to preach there but on arriving found he could not refrain from doing so.
That is, an outdoor platform had been erected and a large company of people had gathered and were waiting to hear him.... Whitefield's sermon ... was two hours in length....
Following this tremendous effort Whitefield continued his journey and late that afternoon arrived at... Newburyport, Massachusetts ... the street in front of the house had filled with people, and as he began to make his way up the stairs, several of them were at the door, begging him to preach.
Unwilling, despite his weariness... he stood on the landing, halfway up the stairs, candle in hand, preaching Christ. He was soon greatly alive to his subject and becoming heedless of time he continued to speak, till finally, the candle flickered, burned itself out and died away. That dying flame and that burned out candle were representative that evening of the man himself and of his life?'
Whitefield went up to his room and died that very night. He had kept himself in the love of God — which meant keeping himself all the way to death. His message never changed. He kept the faith. He never perverted it by accommodating it to the age. He never denied Christ. He disciplined his life. He fled from the presence of sin. And he did it all until the candle of his life was extinguished. And on that night, as a result, he entered into the presence of God.
May it be so for you and for me. May our lives burn brightly in our keeping. And may we not live one day beyond their flame. Do you want to contend for the faith? Then remember the apostolic testimony and "keep yourselves in the love of God" until death." -Helm/Hughes
Next week Jude will remind us that the God who tells us to keep ourselves in His love is also the God who is able to keep us from stumbling.
We keep because we are being kept.
Pray
NEXT STEPS for you:
Questions (Write this down) - grab an index card and pen
What is God saying to you right now?
What are you going to do about it?
Write this down on the index card in the seat pockets.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for your small group:
Discovery Bible Study (DBS) process: https://www.dbsguide.org/
READ the passage together.
RETELL the story in your own words.
DISCOVER the story
What does this story tell me about God?
What does this story tell me about people?
If this is really true, what should I do?
Who am I going to tell about this?
Find our sermons, podcasts, discussion questions and notes at https://www.gracetoday.net/podcast
NOTES
"William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. Booth is often credited with saying,
If I had my way, I would not send my workers to four years of college. If I had my way, I would not put them through three years of seminary. If I had my way, I would put all of my workers in hell for five minutes! That would be the best theological training they would ever receive. (Source unknown)" -Shaddix/Akin
YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION
MAIN REFERENCES USED
“Jude" by David Helm, Preaching the Word Commentary, Edited by Kent Hughes
Exalting Jesus in Jude, Shaddix & Daniel Akin
“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)
“The Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)
Outline Bible, D Willmington (OB)
Willmington’s Bible Handbook, D Willmington (WBH)
NIV Study Bible (NIVSB) https://www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/
Chronological Life Application Study Bible (NLT)
ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) https://www.esv.org
The Bible Project https://bibleproject.com
“Look at the Book” by John Piper (LATB)
“The Bible in One Year 2023 with Nicky Gumbel” bible reading plan on YouVersion app (BIOY)