 greetings and welcome back to the New Testament survey. So we are continuing to study on the next letter, letter to Jude. What do we know about Jude? Who is Jude? Anyone from the class? James brother. Okay. Okay. That's good. Just sharing the presentation. Give me a minute. Sorry. I'm just sharing. Okay. Jude known to be Jude's brother. Okay. James brother. Yeah. Jude James brother. Okay. Okay. So there are several people in the New Testament. I'm sure we would have come across who are the other Jude that we have come across as we studied the Gospels or the other epistles? Judas. Okay. Judas who betrayed Jesus. Okay. Who's the next person in Gospels Matthew and Mark all four Gospels along with the book of Acts. We see a Judas who was an apostle and son of James is also called as Tadeus. And when we read, yeah, we also see there's another Judas acts chapter five. Can I request all to turn to acts chapter five verse 37? If you have taken, can you please read? And the next person turn to acts 9 11 acts chapter five verse 37. Ex chapter five 37. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the senses and drove away many people after him. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So there's another Judas here. Judas of Galilee. This is a different person and acts 9 11. Acts 9 11. So the Lord said to him arise and go to the street college state and inquire at the house of Judas for one college soul of Tarsus for behold, he is spring. Thank you. So we see that this Judas is a man from Damascus who provided home for Saul to stay after his encounter with Jesus and acts 15 22 acts 15 22. Another person turned to Mark chapter six verse three. Yes. Then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to engage with Paul and one was namely Judas who was also named one was Silas leading men among the one was was and yes. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Nikhil. So we see there's another Judas is also named as Barsobus who traveled with Silas from Jerusalem delivering the decrees from the council. And lastly in map. Okay, Mark chapter six verse three. If you have taken can you please read Mark chapter six verse three. Is this not chapter six verse three? Is this not the carpenter the son of Mary and brother of James Jesus Judas and Simon. Okay, so we are talking about the natural brother of Jesus the half brother of Jesus. So this Judas. Yes, as you all said, he was the brother of James, but he was also half brother of Jesus. So Jude who is most likely to be the author of this book was the natural brother of Jesus and James. So this is what we read in Jude chapter one verse one saying Jude born servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. So Jude was numbered among Jesus other siblings who were not immediately convinced that Jesus was Messiah. And we also see like, you know, even yesterday when we were starting on the letter to James, we studied on few of the scripture verses on John chapter two. Can you all turn John chapter two verse 11 and 12 John chapter two verse 11. This beginning of signs Jesus did in Tana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Cappanna whom he his mother, his brothers, his disciples and they did not stay there many days. Thank you. So we see that James or Jude, they traveled with Jesus on various occasions on the ministry. So he also was absent from the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified. He was not there. We saw when we started the letter of James, James was not there. And even Jude was not present at the time of Jesus crucifixion. And he was one among the first to receive the message of Christ resurrection, because Jesus said, for I have yet to ascend to the Father, but go find my brothers and tell them that I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. And Jude was also present. He was one among the 120 people who were present in the upper room waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We also see in Jude verse 17. Can I request all to read verse 17? Jude chapter 1 verse 17. But you beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. So what we see here is Jude was also humble in nature that he didn't put himself as one among the 12 apostles. He said he did not consider himself among the 12 apostles, but he gave them the prominent. So little is known beyond this about Jude that what is written in the scripture. So the occasion for the book of Jude, as Jude was written after 2nd Peter's, we see the concerns are saying addressing this letter is written to address against the false teachers and false ministries that were creeping into the church. So this was a major concern. If you see when we read different letters of our apostles and the leaders in the church, the only concern that they all had was about sharing the gospel. As they share the gospel, they also see the heresies, the false teachers spreading out false teaching among the believers that was a concern. Here you see Jude's major concern was these false teachers and false teachings that were spreading across in the church. So he is writing this letter to warn the believers. He's writing to warn the believers against these false teachers and false ministries that is coming against the gospel of Jesus Christ. So how does he address himself? Even before he writes this letter and warns the believers, he addresses himself. When we read Jude chapter one verse one, we see that he addressing himself as the born servant of Jesus Christ and brother of Jesus. So he's relating himself to say that I'm the witness of Jesus. So what I am saying as more weight, because I have lived with him, I've seen him. He was truly a human and he was truly the Messiah, the Son of God. And he is writing with a clear conviction in him. And this letter seemed to be written approximately between 66 to 80 AD. The main message of this book was Jude is reminding them the true faith is a struggle for which we must contend because there were persecution around them. But at the same time, the false teachers were creeping in. So he is encouraging the believers in the church to hold on to the true faith. And he also warns the church against the false ministries and teachers. And he's also warning them against the flattery words. You know, false teachers come with a lot of flattery words. But he's saying, be very careful, avoid any flattery words because that is not what we wanted. And he is actually describing the false ministry leaders as dreamers. They are the defilers. They are the people who work against the gospel. They are the ones who try to serve themselves. They're not here to serve others. They are double-tongued wandering stars, murmurers, complainers. They are mockers. Be very careful with what they carry and come toward you. Can I request you all to read verse 11? So Jude is also describing, is actually giving us a description on what is an apostle ministry. So can I request you all to read verse 11? Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Lamb for profit and perished in the rebellion of Koran. Thank you. So as the Jewish believers were very familiar with the Old Testament scriptures, here you see Jude addressing some of the Old Testament actions, like he's comparing these false teachers. He's comparing to the Old Testament saying, they are following the way of Cain in a path of willful sin. These are the people who are impenitent or self-righteous. And he's also addressing the error of Balaam in the path of covetousness or greed, covetousness towards the goods. And he's also addressing the rebellion of Koran from the book of Numbers. He's quoting all these for the people to understand that these false teachers are like those people who are deceiving in nature. And he's also addressing some things like Apostle Paul spoke about the common faith and how Apostle Paul urged people to receive no other gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the same way he's emphasizing when we read chapter three, sorry verse three, verse three, he says, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning a common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exerting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. So he's addressing on Apostle Paul teaching and preaching and how we urge people to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and not any other gospel. And Apostle Paul also urged people to mark those who did not correspond to the tradition to hand over. So you need to hand over this gospel from one generation to the other generation because that carries power. Jude and Apostle Paul, both we see that they urged believers to earnestly contend for the faith that was delivered to them by the Apostles because they were the eyewitness of Jesus. And in the closing verse, can I request one of you all to read verse 20 to 25 please? But you loved building yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and to eternal life and own some have compassion, making a distinction. But others served with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the place. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with excelling joy to God our Savior who alone is wise. We glory at majesty, dominion and power both now and forever amen. Thank you. So we see in the script in the verse that you read from verse 20 to 25, we see certain keywords that has been used as key or kept. So the last few verses outlines the believer's responsibility in relationship and relation to keep themselves and to others. They are to keep themselves in the love of God and building themselves in this truth by faithfully praying in the Holy Spirit. Next point we see in verse 22 to 23, they are to have mercy on others and save them out of the fire. So we need to have this passion and within us to save others from the fire of hell. Verse 24 says they are to look to God who is able to keep them from stumbling. So we need to pray fully handled and minister to others. So the letter of Jude, we see that though there are only 25 verses in this one chapter, we see that the letter starts with the greeting and there is a purpose. So what is the purpose of this letter? We see that the purpose of this letter is to show mercy, peace and love. And by there's a message like what to do by contending the faith that we have and how you need to be aware of the false teachers where we may slip into those teachings. So here Jude is actually warning against the false teachers from verse 5 to verse 16. We see that is warning against these false teachers and he is exposing them to each of the believers saying be very careful against these false teachings. So he is not only by exposing them, he's also warning the believers. He's warning them to be aware and be away from these people. Keep yourself strong in the word of God. Pray in the Holy Spirit that you may not fall into, fall into pray for any of these false teachings. And at the end verse 24 to 25, it gives a benediction, gives a benediction and the theme of this letter, we see that Jude is exposing the false teachers and he is commending the believers to stand firm in the faith that they have. So the purpose of this letter, we see that is twofold. So first one is he is exposing the false teachers who are coming against the Christian believers and the second we see that he is encouraging the believers to stand firm in the faith and fight against these heresies. He's saying hold on to the truth and come against these false teachers. So we see that Jude is bringing an awareness against these false teachers and the false teaching to the believers is very aggressive in nature and he's clearly talking about it. And also he is bringing the importance of, you know, is bringing the importance for the believers to stand firm on the faith that they have on Jesus Christ. So believers were to do this by remembering the teaching that they receive from the apostles directly who were the eyewitnesses and he's telling hold on to those teachings and build upon it and you make sure that you pass on to your generation. Now how do you pass on? You need to hold on to it carefully by praying in the Holy Spirit and keeping themself in the love of God so that they, the believers may not fall prey to the false teachers or to the false teachings. Now as Jude is writing to the church there, he's also writing to us even in our times because there's always false teachers and false teachings spreading across the nation. So we need to hold on to the word of God. We need to stand firm in the faith that we have received through the word so that we may not fall prey to any of these false teachers or false teachings around us. So yeah, this is what Jude is encouraging even in verse 17 as we read. He says, but you beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ and verse 20, 21 he says, but you beloved, building yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ until eternal life. And he ends with the benediction in verse 24 and 25 he says, now to him who's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you fall less before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior who alone is wise be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen. So he's ending with a powerful benediction. Hold on to Lord Jesus Christ. So this is something that we also end this letter with saying, hold on to the faith, stand firm into the faith, stand firm on this faith that you have received and hold on to Jesus, hold on to the truth that we may not fall prey to any of the false teachers or false teaching that come across even in our time. So as we end this letter, would you like to share anything about the letter of John or Jude that can add on to our class? Or we can end the session with a word of prayer. And next week, we will cover the last letter that is revelations, the book of revelations. And yeah, we will come with that. We will complete the New Testament survey after which we can prepare for our final assessment in the last week of April. I'll put a note on the stream for the online students. Is there any questions or you would like to add anything toward the first, second and third letter to John and letter of John and Jude? Can I request one of you all to please pray? And end this time. Nina, would you like to pray? Father God, we thank you for this time you have given us Lord. We have gone through all the old New Testament survey. Father, we finished it. Lord, help us not to be just hear us, but be the doers of your word Lord. We submit each one of us on your loving hands Lord. Father, we pray that you give us wisdom and understanding to know what to do at the right time, Father. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for joining in today's session. See you all next week with the last letter. God bless. Thank you.