Daily Devotionals with Pastor Rod: Jude 20

Monday, June 18, 2012

Prayer Does The Body Good! (Jude 20-21 Part 2)

Video Blog:
Prayer does the Body Good! Jude 20-21 (Part 2)

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.

THE STUDY:

Last week we looked at the first part of this passage: building yourselves up in your most holy faith. This was focused on the community and the believers building each other up. The next thing Jude mentions along with and as a means of building themselves up in their faith is to be praying in the Holy Spirit. Pray is in the present tense, indicating that prayer needs to be a constant activity of Christians.

Prayer in the Holy Spirit takes place in the control of as well as under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Prayer in the Holy Spirit is not in a special prayer language. Regardless of how believers pray, their prayers should be continual and they should be offered in submission to and in dependence on the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26–27 gives us this understanding, 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. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. It was undoubtedly Christ’s prayer in the Holy Spirit that enabled him to pray to the Father, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39).^{^[1]}

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

We walk away this morning with the understanding that prayer should be continual, submissive, and dependent on the Holy Spirit. But is should never be “just about you.” Jesus showed us that prayers and supplications should be for the body of believers as well.

CONCLUSION:

A close friend of mine at one of the churches I pastored lived close to the main roads in town. He had a 12 year old son who had stepped out into the road and was hit by a car. I remember visiting the ICU over the next month and praying for my friend and his son.

My friend developed new friends who had children and/or family members in the ICU as well. They started to bond together as a group and the next thing I knew, my friend was praying for them as well. I remember one of the last conversations I had with my friend before His son and he walked out of that hospital. He said, “The first few weeks my prayers were all about my son. But as I got to know the others who were in similar situations in the ICU I started praying more for them and less for my son. It was at that time my son started getting better, faster.”

I am not saying, pray for others and your personal prayers will happen faster. What I believe we need to remember is to not just pray for our own situations and request but include others as well. Remember, Prayer does the body good! Yours as well as the body of believers.

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

^{^[1]} Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2 Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (293). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Build up Your Faith! (Jude 20-21)

THE STUDY:

Jude commands his readers: build yourselves up in your most holy faith. The image of building the Christian community is a widely used metaphor in the NT (1 Cor 3:9; 1 Pet 2:5). The reflexive pronoun yourselves (heautous: each other) indicates that Jude does not mean that each believer should build himself up … but that all should contribute to the spiritual growth of the whole community. While false teachers “divide” the church (v 19), true believers unite and strengthen the church as they build each other up.

The phrase your most holy faith might indicate how believers should build up each other—build yourselves up by means of your most holy faith. But it probably identifies the foundation upon which believers should build.

As in v 3, faith refers to what Christians believe—the orthodox body of truth and practice from the apostles. Jude’s appeal is twofold: his readers are to seek an ever deepening grasp of what God in Christ has done for them as handed down by the apostles (v. 3). The lawless teaching of the false teachers leads to godless and immoral behavior. And so, by contrast, true believers build each other up on the solid foundation of the moral instruction of the faith. The Christian faith is most holy because it is not derived from human reasoning, but from the holy God who has revealed himself to believers through the holy one, Jesus Christ.^{^[1]}

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

We walk away this morning with understanding that as believers we are to build each other up by our faith. This brings about unity and strength.

CONCLUSION:

I was sitting on the top level of the bleachers at my youngest sons little league baseball game. You get to know many of the families during the season and they get to know you as well. I was talking with one of the grandfathers of the players and he found out I was a minister. He ask me a question with all serious in mind, “What is going on with our world? I feel like the whole world is going nuts!”

What we are seeing in our society today is a culture that is not being built up in the faith. As a result, we see division! Division within the heart, within families, within churches, and the list goes on.

I looked at this grandfather, whose question may have been because of his concern for his family, and said, “The world is walking away from its faith. We see the heart of man separating from God, separating families and dividing churches. Today, let us remember, if we are struggling in our faith separation and division is just around the corner. Build up your faith so that separation and division doesn’t come visiting.

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

^{^[1]} Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2 Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (292–293). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.