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Category Archives: The Church

Experiencing God’s Work

Experiencing God’s Work

We’re now going through the epistle of Jude, that tiny book toward the end of the Bible. He helps us to understand and identify false teachers and preachers in the body of Christ.

This is a very important verse that we need to pay careful attention to. Again, the word he uses for speak abusively against is the Greek word for blaspheme. But, what is it that they blaspheme in this verse?

That word, understand, literally means to know by seeing. In other words, they blaspheme things that they haven’t personally experienced.

Jude goes on to say that these people have a level of understanding. The Greek words that he uses mean that the knowledge they stand upon is in the natural.

That’s an important concept. He says that this natural knowledge will cause them to shrivel, wither, and become ruined.

The Apostle Paul dealt with this exact same issue in his first letter to the Corinthians.

That phrase, man without the spirit, is literally natural or soulish man in the Greek. In other words, like Jude tells us, they don’t accept what they don’t understand.

I’ve seen this many times in my ministry. If you were to label me, I’d be called a Charismatic preacher. That means I’ve received the baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues.

I regularly pray in the spirit (in tongues). I know, by experience that I cannot minister fully in God’s power without it.

However, I also know that there are many believers who haven’t experienced this manifestation in their lives. I don’t judge them or look down on them.

But, there are also those who preach and teach against this experience. Many of them go as far as to say that what I experience is of Satan. I have a big problem with this.

I’m about to say something that may sound like I’m bragging. I assure you I’m not because it’s all based upon the power of God and not my own strength or intelligence.

I have brought many people into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I have laid my hands on the sick and have seen them healed in the name of Jesus Christ. I have cast out demons in the name of Jesus Christ.

Why would the devil ever allow me to do that if I was operating in the power of the enemy. Like Jesus said to His accusers…

I believe Jude is talking about this. These people are blaspheming what they haven’t experienced. We need to be very careful about how we treat others in the body of Christ, especially if we don’t understand their ministries.

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 

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Warning Signals

Warning Signals

I’m currently studying the epistle of Jude. In my last post, we were looking at some characteristics of false teachers in verse 8.

Continuing with along this line, Jude tells us that they reject authority. That literally means that they cast off lordship.

I believe this is referencing the lordship of Christ. There are many Christians today who are embracing Jesus Christ as their Savior. On the other hand, they’re definitely not serving Him as Lord. This is a part of what I talked about in my last post. They claim to know Him, but by their actions they deny Him.

As church leaders, we need to be constantly aware of Christ’s lordship. He is Lord and we are not. Too many get in trouble by forgetting that one fact.

The next thing Jude talks about is what the NIV translates as slandering celestial beings. The actual Greek translation of this is that they blaspheme glory.

Personally, I see an important theme in the context of this verse. These false teachers are spiritually asleep, they’re not walking in righteousness, and they reject Christ’s leading.

All of these things are directly a part of our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Now Jude uses the word, blasphemy. I believe the glory he’s talking about is the Holy Spirit working in us.

Blasphemy is speaking evil about something or someone. This is speaking evil about the Holy Spirit or His work. That’s something the Jesus Christ expressly warned against.

Jesus said this when the Pharisees were saying that the Lord was casting out demons by the power of Satan. They were attributing God’s work to the devil. That’s speaking evil about the Spirit.

There are so many self-proclaimed teachers today who are speaking out against modern “revivals” and “moves of God”. This especially true online. Please be aware – you can remain anonymous to other online people – but not to God.

Be very careful about your criticism of other ministries. Many times, God does things that don’t fit into our neat little theological boxes. You don’t want to be found guilty of saying something the Holy Spirit is doing as being of the devil.

Too many people want to make a name for themselves by blasting others. Don’t fall into that trap. Take Jude’s advice.

If you have a problem with what you see happening in another ministry, pray for them. Let God handle the rebuke. Jesus Christ is the final judge of His people.

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on February 13, 2026 in Leadership, Ministry, Power of God, The Church

 

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Leaders Who Leave the Path

Leaders Who Leave the Path

We’re continuing our study through Jude’s letter to the church. He’s writing to combat the false teachers who infiltrate the body of Christ.

In verses 5-7, Jude is reminding the people about God’s character. Even though God is love, He’s also perfectly righteous and just. Because of this truth, we need to always keep in mind the laws of sowing and reaping.

Jude is reminding the church of the negative examples of this throughout history. He mentions the children of Israel who were delivered from Egypt, but died in the wilderness because of their sin.

He also reminded them about the angels who fell as well as Sodom and Gomorrah. These are all examples of those who persisted in their errors with no repentance.

Now Jude describes the characteristics of false teachers.

He first describes these people as dreamers. That word, dream, means to see something in your sleep. The fact that Jude calls them dreamers, points to the fact that they’re asleep. That’s an important spiritual concept.

Paul talked about this with the Thessalonian church.

The opposite of being spiritually asleep is to be alert and self-controlled. In my last post we saw that these false teachers were turning God’s grace into a license for immorality. This is the false “revelation” that these dreamers are seeing in their spiritual slumber.

The next thing Jude says about these people is that they pollute (contaminate, defile) their bodies. This is also something that Paul talked about.

In these verses, Paul actually tells us how to identify these “polluted Christians”. He tells us that their words don’t line up with their actions. They may say that Jesus is Lord. However, in their daily lives they’re not following the Lord’s instructions.

This type of life is an epidemic in the church these days. There are many who like the idea of saying they’re a believer. Unfortunately, they don’t realize that you can’t simply pick and choose what Biblical truths you want to follow.

We need to take our walk with the Lord seriously.

I’ll continue this in my next post.

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on February 11, 2026 in Leadership, Spiritual Walk, The Church

 

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Understanding Spiritual Battles

Understanding Spiritual Battles

In my last post, we started looking at the Apostle Jude’s letter to the church. He explains why he’s writing in the third verse.

Jude was one of the early leaders of the church. He was a half-brother of Jesus who became a believer after the resurrection.

In this short letter, he explains that he simply wanted to write a brief word of encouragement. He wanted to bless and uplift those who would receive it.

Instead, once he sat down to write, the Holy Spirit grabbed his attention and caused him to speak of the spiritual battle. Jude felt the urgency to warn them to diligently contend for the faith.

He sounds the same as Paul in the book of Ephesians.

Not all spiritual battles are the same. In Ephesians, Paul was contending against demonic forces. Jude is writing about contending against false teachings.

False teachings are the result of leaders who veer off the clear path of faith. This is what Jude is going to show us.

Jude tells us here that he’s talking about people who will be condemned. They’re headed in the wrong direction, spiritually. This implies that at one time they were correct, but they’ve now left the path.

He describes them as godless – literally non-worshipers. The Lord is not their primary focus.

What they’re doing is simply taking the teaching on the grace of God. They then use this teaching as a reason to abandon self-control. They basically say that you can live however you want, fulfill any desire, and God’s grace will cover it.

They’re conveniently omitting the truths of repentance and righteousness. In so doing they’re denying the the Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek word he uses for deny means to contradict. The Apostle Paul talks about these people as well. In writing about the last days he says there will be those who are…

Form without power. We know that the Holy Spirit is the One who gives us this power. Denying the power is denying the Spirit.

They may some of the right things. They might even quote some Scripture. But the fruit are missing. This is a warning sign for believers.

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 

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The Call to Leadership

The Call to Leadership

As we go through Peter’s first letter to the church, he’s just finished speaking to elders. Now he changes his focus.

Here Peter comes to the heart of the matter. In this verse, the phrase younger people literally means new or fresh. I don’t believe this is about age as much as spiritual maturity.

In actuality, all mature Christians should be leaders. As I said in my last post, we should all have a “forward passion”.

The Bible teaches that we must all submit to one another. All lead in some way and all of us have a leader to follow.

There seems to be an epidemic in the modern church. That is the desire to simply be a follower.

“I will show up on Sunday. Tell me what I need to do. I’ll do my job, then go home.”

That’s not God’s best for His people. Many of the apostles were frustrated by this.

The problem was that these people were slow learners on purpose. We see this today in our society, but especially our churches. These people want to stay followers – but why?

The true problem is the worldliness of God’s people. We realize that a commitment to lead comes at a price. There are things I can’t do in the world, if I commit to lead something in the church. So we don’t live up to our potential.

Everyone would say, given the choice, they’d want their church to grow. However, they’d prefer others to put in the time to accomplish it.

We need to humble ourselves before God and accept His call to leadership. Then we can give our anxiety to Him. Usually, we’re anxious because we’re afraid we’re going to miss out on what the world is offering us.

Follow God’s calling and walk in His freedom!

© 2025 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on October 27, 2025 in Leadership, Ministry, The Church

 

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Grace Distributors

Grace Distributors

I’m continuing to go through Peter’s first epistle. So far in this section, he’s talked about the leadership characteristics of self-control, love, and hospitality. The next one ties them all together.

The word for gift in this verse is the Greek word, charisma. The root is charis, which means grace. So, Peter is talking about grace-gifts in this verse.

The thing about grace-gifts that we need to know is they are not like normal presents that we receive. These are gifts that God gives, but He still maintains control over them. The Lord tells you how He wants you to use them. You’ve received them from God. Now you must serve – wait on – one another.

By doing this, you become an administrator of God’s grace. The literal word used there is a house-distributor. That was the title given to the servant in charge of the house while the master was away.

We receive grace gifts from God. Then, we serve, wait on one another. God has made us administrators of His grace.

This verse says that you must administer the different graces of God. That’s something we’re missing in our generation of Christianity. It requires spiritual sensitivity.

First, I must recognize the graces I’ve received. Then I must distribute them to those God has called me to minister to.

Here’s the problem: Brother Jones has the grace of the healing gifts. But he wants to do nothing in the church and only shows up once a month. Pastor Nick wants to see people healed and prays for everybody – with no results. This is the condition of much of the church today.

What is your grace-gift given by the Lord? Is it encouragement, wealth, teaching, healing, prophecy, helps, intercession, etc.?

That’s why Paul says…

If Paul is giving us this warning, then it’s possible to receive God’s grace in vain. That means you received it and don’t use it.

The Bible says that we are both servants and house managers. The key to these positions is being faithful. We are to receive grace, and we give grace.

Why does there seem to be no grace in some churches? It’s not being distributed. The more grace distributed, greater the flow of God’s power is seen.

© 2025 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on September 19, 2025 in Leadership, Ministry, Revival, The Church

 

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The Forms of Love

The Forms of Love

As we continue through 1 Peter, he’s now giving us the exhortations that develop leadership character in our walk with the Lord. In my last post, I talked about the ability to pray effectively. Now Peter moves forward.

Now the apostle talks about something that’s above all. Before you do anything else, you must learn to love. That’s the agape love of God. It’s the non-emotional choice to positively participate in the lives of others.

But more than that, as leaders, we must love deeply. This means that it must be done intently, fervently, and without ceasing. As believers, we must learn to love one another.

This will be the greatest need of the church as we get further into the last days. This means not just showing love by our words. There must be a willingness to participate in each other’s lives.

That’s how the world will know we’re His disciples. Not loving by emotion, but by our actions.

Peter tells us that this is because love covers over a multitude of sins. Sin is missing the mark. You can miss the mark in a lot of things. But if you’re known for your love – it covers a lot of the other areas where YOU miss it.

Along those same lines, Peter tells us…

This concept of hospitality is important for us as believers. It seems to be a lost art in the body of Christ. He literally says we must be alien lovers. That’s the word the Greeks used for being fond of guests.

The Lord wants us to learn to become hospitable. For too long we viewed the church as “that building.” I see a trend taking place. Because of world events, the church is moving back into homes.

There have been burnings, attacks, and anger. Many times, we’re labeled as “Right-wing extremists”.

Look at the early church. According to Acts 2, believers devoted themselves to teaching and fellowship.

Notice how Peter says they met together in their homes – without grumbling.

“I’ll let people in my house, but I won’t be happy about it.”

In actuality, the house owner receives a special blessing. Hospitality is a big way that we can show love to one another.

© 2025 Nick Zaccardi

 

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Together Minded

Together Minded

We’re currently going through Peter’s first letter to the church. To review where we are at this point, in chapter 2, Peter started talking about our good lives silencing our critics.

When they see how we live, it draws them to Christ. A big part of this is our attitude toward authority, government, the workplace, and the home. But our biggest witness is how we act in the church.

Jesus said, in John 13:35, that everyone would recognize that we are His disciples. How? Because we obey the law? Because we have a nice family? NO! They’ll recognize it because we have love for one another.

This is what Peter is going to talk about in the next section we look at.

These are the goals if we want to draw people to Christ. The first of these goals is to live together in harmony. He uses 5 Greek words in this section to describe this harmony.

He starts with the word harmony itself. It’s a word that means together-minded. This goes against everything we want to strive for in American independence. We want to be able to say, “I accomplished this all by myself.”

That’s not how it works in the church of Jesus Christ. We are a body of believers. We are called to do this together. It’s never about what one person can do by himself or herself.

We need to cultivate a “together mindset”. It’s the knowledge that I’m going to have to work with others if I’m going to accomplish my destiny in Christ.

The next word he uses is translated as sympathetic in English. That word literally means together-passioned. This means that we are all passionate about the same thing.

In my experience, this is one of the hardest things to work on in the church. It requires us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. This way we can take on God’s heart. We can all be passionate about what God is passionate for.

Then there’s brotherly love. We must recognize that we’re a family. But we’re more than that – we’re closer than blood relatives. That’s because we’ve been blood bought. We are all together in the family of Christ.

The next descriptive word is compassionate. This takes some explanation because the exact translation is good spleen. This is because the ancient Greeks saw the spleen as the seat of our emotions. This speaks about maintaining a good attitude while with your fellow believers.

The final word Peter uses is literally humble courtesy. We need to learn to treat people correctly. There are times I’ve seen Christians treating each other poorly, because “they have to walk in forgiveness.” We need to use common courtesy with one another.

All of these traits are how we should live together to accomplish God’s will. Paul said the same thing.

The word agree in this verse is where we get our English word, symphony. The church should be a symphony of different instruments for God’s glory. We are not all the same, but we are playing the same song under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

© 2025 Nick Zaccardi

 

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The Flow of Authority

The Flow of Authority

I’ve been writing about Peter’s first letter to the church. In my last post, I started talking about godly submission to authorities. We concluded by seeing that submission is always to the powers established by God, not to a person.

This is important to understand, because power always flows down the authority structure. But that brings up a question. What structures are there?

Actually, there are four authority structures that God has established. They are the government, the home, the church, and the workplace. It’s through these that authority flows down from the throne of God to the individual.

When they first hear this, some say that I missed one – the school system. No, God didn’t establish that structure independently. Scripture tells us that the parents are to train up their children. So in reality, the school is under parental authority.

As we talk about godly submission, the true question is “How do I submit?”

We need to be reminded of this truth sometimes. That word, obedient, literally means to allow yourself to be persuaded by. Submission always allows persuasion to take place.

“What if I don’t like that person?” It doesn’t matter. The only case where you would rebel against the person is if that person contradicted the known will of God.

It’s like what happened when the Jewish Sanhedrin ordered the disciples not to preach or teach in the name of Jesus. These believers made it clear that they had an obligation to serve God rather than man.

Now we can understand what Peter was saying. We must be under submission to the ultimate and sent authorities. That means we must place ourselves in a position to be persuaded by their leadership.

Peter continues by showing us God’s purpose through all of this.

Peter always speaks his mind. This is quite the verse if you read it in the original Greek. The apostle says that it’s God’s will that through your doing good, you can muzzle the ignorance of the mindless people.

It’s the next verses that are the key in speaking about submission.

Here he tells us to live our lives unrestrained. Yet, as we do this, we don’t hold our freedom as a cloak for evil.

As God’s people, we understand power. We serve the ultimate power. Submitting to the office that people hold, allowing ourselves to be persuaded by the person holding that position.

Then we must place the correct value on everyone. This includes love for fellow Christians. Fear of God and honor for government officials. We must place ourselves in the position of correct submission.

© 2025 Nick Zaccardi

 

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Authority and Submission

Authority and Submission

We’ve been going through 1 Peter verse by verse. Now he starts a new topic – submission to authority.

Submission to authorities is a very important truth. As a matter of fact, you can’t serve God without learning submission. This verse tells us that we need to submit to all the authority structures of mankind.

To submit literally means to arrange under. It’s how we view ourselves in relation to others – both in the body of Christ and in society

The first thing we must see is that we’re to submit ourselves under authority. This tells me that submission is always voluntary. It cannot be forced from the outside. We must decide to arrange ourselves under all the structures of man.

In order for us to have a better understanding of this, Peter gives an example that he’s familiar with. He starts with the king, who is held above as the supreme authority. He adds this description so that you can replace king with whatever the highest authority is in your government.

But not that only, he goes on to mention the governors. These are the leaders or commanders. He explains that these are the ones who are dispatched through him (the one held above).

Their job is to punish “bad-doers” and to praise “good-doers.” So, there are two levels here. There is the one at the highest, and there is the enforcer.

Here in the USA, we do not have a king – but we have a supreme authority. You may be surprised to learn that it’s not the president, congress, or our judges. The supreme authority in the USA is the constitution. This means that our entire government is in the hands of dispatched people.

Paul also talks about this.

America allows us to choose those whose job it is to enforce the authority of the constitution. Once chosen, it’s then our job, according to Scripture, to submit.

But this verse goes on to explain the terms of our submission. The word for authority here is actually the word power, not a person. God does not establish the person, but the office.

God didn’t tell me who He wanted for president. But He established the office, so regardless of who I voted for, or my opinions, what people say – I submit to the office of president. Right now, this is Pres. Donald Trump.

The other choice is to rebel against the authority, not the person, God has established. That’s because submission is always to the power. That’s why as believers, we submit to the office, not the person.

In my next post we’ll continue with this subject.

© 2025 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on April 9, 2025 in Leadership, Relationships, The Church

 

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