At this point in my life, I’ve heard more than 2,500 Sunday sermons. It’s humbling when I compare how much I’ve forgotten from those messages to what I remember (it’s not even close). And I imagine I’m not the only one who feels that way.
But some sermons, by God’s grace, keep preaching long after they were preached the first time. I heard one of those sermons on February 14, 2010. My pastor and friend, C.J. Mahaney, was expositing the first two verses of Jude:
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. (Jude 1–2)
Jude is one of the shortest letters in the New Testament, so when I heard C.J. was preaching from that book, I assumed it would be a one-and-done sermon, or maybe two. I mean, how much can you say about a letter that is slightly longer than one page in my Bible?
I was about to find out.
What Really Matters
Faithful preachers seek to show from a passage of Scripture what God said, why he said it that way, and what it means for our lives. Most importantly, they help us understand how the written word points us to Jesus, the living Word.
But while these truths are being expressed, something else is happening. Members of the congregation are being taught how to read their Bibles. When preachers make much of the original languages, verb variants, commentaries, and debatable issues but say little about what the passage means for our lives, people learn to read Scripture through the lens of scholarship and academia. They treat God’s word as something to figure out and evaluate more than receive, submit to, and celebrate. When a preacher barely references the passage he’s preaching and engages the church with human-interest stories, current issues, and moral principles, people learn to read Scripture through the lens of culture, personality, and preferences.
But when a preacher clearly and passionately proclaims Scripture for what it is — the living God revealing himself to us — hearts are softened, eyes are opened, and lives are changed. By the work of the Spirit, he both models and cultivates a hunger for the beauty, goodness, and truth of God’s word. His listeners better understand that only God can tell us what really matters. And from the day I first heard that sermon from Jude, I’ve never forgotten four things that matter.
1. Introductions Matter
C.J. began his message by pointing out how we tend to skim past introductions in the New Testament letters. Guilty as charged. When reading the Epistles, I often assumed the writers were using common greetings of their day with a Christian twist. But C.J. noted Jude’s self-description: “a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.” Jude accented his submission to Christ, not the fact that having James as a brother also made him the brother of Jesus (Galatians 1:19). His very first words revealed the profound transformation the gospel produces.
Since that day, I’ve tried to slow down and ask more questions about the initial words of the New Testament Epistles (and all the other books of the Bible). That practice has enabled me to benefit immensely from the first few sentences of books like Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 1 and 2 Peter. And I have no doubt more treasures are in store!
2. Every Word Matters
I had been a Christian for almost forty years when I heard C.J.’s sermon. But I had never noticed the three words Jude uses to describe the recipients of his letter: Called. Loved. Kept. Called by God before time through a divine summons. Loved in a way that far exceeds our comprehension. Kept by God’s power from the effects of indwelling sin and false teaching. How had I missed those words of comfort, encouragement, and hope? I’m not sure, but God used that Sunday sermon to plant them indelibly in my mind and heart.
3. Eternal Realities Matter
Jude wrote to protect his readers from the heresies of his day. False teachers were perverting the gospel, threatening the faith of the saints. But before confronting these current issues, Jude heralds the good news that everything remains under God’s wise and sovereign control. The sermon that day reminded me, and continues to remind me, that behind every attack our society makes on the gospel, God stands unmoved, working out his unchanging plans.
Theological truths aren’t meant to be merely talked about, debated, considered, or even preached. They are foundations for our lives that sustain us through the best and the worst of times. And while many sermons I’ve heard through the years have carried a similar emphasis, the sermon from Jude that day helped me rest more securely in God’s eternal decrees.
4. God’s Love Matters
If you had asked me before I heard that sermon if I had difficulty believing God loved me, I would have said no. But as C.J. unpacked the meaning of the phrase “beloved in God the Father,” it became evident that my attitude was based more on presumption than faith. I had previously struggled with anxiety and depression, and still fought the battle against craving people’s praise. There was a crack in the foundation of my trust.
C.J. quoted a paraphrase of John Owen to help us feel the importance of receiving God’s love for us. “The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is not to believe that he loves you” (see Communion with God, 109). What burdens God? How do I show my unkindness to him? By refusing to believe that he truly, deeply, personally, passionately, eternally loves me — not because of anything I’ve done or am, but simply because he has chosen to love me. And he demonstrated that love by giving his beloved Son to die for our sins on a hill called Calvary. At one point, C.J. gently admonished us, “Give up trying to find any reason in yourself that God should love you!” It was counsel I’ve sought to follow to this day.
Still Kept
I have returned to thoughts, quotes, and points of this message over and over in the past decade and a half, helped by having the opportunity to hear it multiple times in other contexts. Its effect has been deep and long-lasting, a fountain of refreshment, encouragement, strength, joy, and faith that has helped me know and love more deeply the God who created and redeemed me.
One never knows which sermons God’s Spirit will use to accomplish his work in our hearts. But I’m especially grateful for this one, which has turned out to be a sermon that kept me, continues to keep me, and keeps on keeping me from drifting into a casual response to God’s word and God’s heart.
