3 John
Notes
Transcript
Walk in the Truth
Walk in the Truth
Good morning my friends…
I hope you have enjoyed a good week and have been blessed by the Lord’s goodness.
I certainly appreciate all who have been praying for Marci, We certainly appreciate and continue to covet your prayers for her healings.
These events teach us life has difficulty, life is not always easy but at the same time, the Lord is faithful to help us as we live in front of Him in this world.
We trust the Lord with all that we are, that is the very best choice we can make in the good and bad. This applies to our physical life and our spiritual life.
We trust the Lord....
Today in our text in 3 John we see the a man who trusted the Lord, and he faced opposition in the midst persecution.
But my friends, if we will walk in the truth we can live out our faith no matter the opposition a person might face in this life.
So this morning we will finish the epistles John wrote in His later life under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to those churches we ministered too.
(I will give you a hint for next week, we will look at Jonah in the Old Testament.)
So lets begin this morning and lets see what the Lord will say to us as we open this last letter from the beloved disciple, John.
So three things I want to point out from John this morning.
The first thought this this...
1. John Praises a Faithful Brother....
My friends, faithfulness is a godly characteristic that Christians should possess. It is the mark of a life well lived in Christ Jesus and I hope at the end of days, others would say that we were faithful.
Lets open our text today and look at verses 1-4 3 John 1-4
1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
So here, the beloved John again as the elder apostle, the one who has authority over them as the senior statesmen. And he is writing to this one man Gaius, tho is a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus.
Gaius is not only a faithful servant, John says that He loves in him in the truth, literally he is loved in Jesus. We believe they were well acquainted and perhaps even friends.
Now the name Gaius is a common name of the Roman empire. So while there are three other Gaius named in the Scripture, One in Corinth, Derbe and finally Macedonia, but there is no need to assume it is one of those three.
And for Gaius, he is a faithful believer, a member of the New Testament church and It is wonderful to see the blessing of being a brother or sister in Christ. John knew Gaius and thankful for him..
Now consider what John says about him...
A. John wishes Gaius both physical and spiritual blessings… John tells him I pray that it is going well with him, physically and spiritually… What does this blessing mean, well it means to prosper, but not in the sense of material items or wealth, but that he would have good lasting physical health and spiritual growth in his life.
And this is what Gaius appeared to be experiencing in his life,He was doing well physically and spiritually, and John wished it would continue with him...
Now is may seem very casual, but it is part of life between friends. It is a blessings if you will, We tell people, hope the rest of your day is a good one. Have a good day..... We are wishing them good things, success...
John wants the best for his younger believer who loves the Lord.
And, carrying this thought further, John praises Gaius for the way he was living His life...
B. John rejoiced in the way Gaius lived… John was happy, it brought him joy down deep to hear how he lived…
My friends, John is like a spiritual father, he was happy to hear of his success, it blessed John to know Gaius was living for the Lord.
This is a true thought my friends, we are blessed to see, to know those younger than us excelling in the faith, growing and becoming the believer God has planned for their life.
How was it walking? He was walking in the faith, verse 3. This was the evidence of a healthy spiritual life. John had received a report form others, Gaius is walking in the truth..
What does that mean?
1. He was faithful in what he believed… Gaius believed and confessed the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ. He knew Jesus was Lord and Savior, having come to this world in the flesh, giving His life as a sacrifice for sin, dying in our place upon the cross and on the third day, He rose from the dead, appeared to more than 500 over 40 days and ascended to the Father in heaven. This is essential my friends, you cannot be a child of God without or apart from the message of Jesus.
Consider what Jesus said of himself in John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Consider this...
Jesus is the way ..... All through the Old Testament, man was limited in approaching God. Only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies before God and then only once a year. Man was bared from drawing close to God, a physical veil separated where man was allowed to enter in the temple and the place where the Ark of the Covenant resided and where God would come down and be present . But here, Jesus is the way to the Father, and though his DBR we now have access to the Father. Acts 4:12 says...
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Jesus is the truth… He brings all that the Old Testament had taught to fruition, revealing God and making sure we know the truth of all that God requires of humanity. He brings us the truth of God Listen to John 1:17...
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
And finally Jesus said He is the life… The one who is the Creator of all things (Colossians Chapter 1), who brought life to man now brings spiritual life.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the fullest. John 10:10. He did this so that humanity could return to the Father and no longer be separated from Him.
And then John was pleased with Gaius conduct...
2. He lived what He believed… Gaius was faithful in how he lived. His conduct, actions however you want to describe it matched up to His words. He lived it.
His doctrine and deeds were commendable, consistent and he was praised for it.
My friends, what you believe will affect how you live and that is noticed by others.
Gaius lived, and walked in the truth because he believed the truth of the Lord Jesus contrary to what many others were teaching.
John praised Gaius for these things, it brought joy and happiness to see these spiritual children living in the faith.
It is no different for us today my friends, we are blessed to see those we have seen grow up, to see new Christians start off on the right foot so to speak and continuing in their faith.
We praise those lives who are faithful.
And Secondly today, John Praised Gaius for loving the church..
2. John Praised Gaius for Loving the Church....
The church is the body, the individual members who make up the collective one, the body, the bride of Christ. And friends, loving the Church is important...
Look at John words here in verses 5-8 3 John 5-8
5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
In our Christian faith, I think you would agree with me that it is special, wonderful to see God’s love extended to other believers, to help and assist them in their mission and life before God.
John here in our text is praising Gaius for living and conducting himself in that way. Gaius was faithful in the way he lived alongside of other believers.
Verse 7 tells us of these believers, they were missionaries, servant of the church, teachers who had gone out to serve others. Think of it like when you send us out to serve others. We represent this church, but more than that, we represent the name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth.
There were some who had gone out, perhaps from the home base where John was living and serving and when the mission was complete, they came back and reported what happened, how things went and so forth.
One of their testimonies was of Gaius, how he, not even knowing these men previously yet treated them well.
Look again in verses 5-6 3 John 5-6
5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
John tells Gaius of their report, of how he loved them and the local body of believers, the church. He was hospitable to them, He cared for them, assisted them in their travels and most likely he sacrificed something of himself in serving them.
Wow, he was so very gracious to them and made sure their needs were met.
Now lets carry this thought a little further and connect the dots if you will..
Do you remember what we talked about previously? John praised Gaius for the blessing of the way he lived his life. he lived for God in both word and deed. He was walking in the truth.
It is evident to the truth of that here, Gaius, …His faith, what He was committed too, it had such an impact on his life that serving others, taking care of these missionaries, the traveling teachers so easy for him.
Gaius, I am sure did not count it a burden to serve and help others, God has so blessed him, he could do nothing less than to love and help those other servants of the Lord Jesus.
So when we sent our young adults to the Passion conference, it wasn’t a hard decision. No, it was a natural one because of our faith.
When you give to a missionary or a teacher that you believe is faithful, it is no burden to you. You know it is the right thing to do…
He lived in a fashion like 1 Cor 10:31, in everything you do, do it until the glory of God.
Did you know that if you serve what many may think is a terrible responsibility, do it in that attitude and God is glorified. its true...
When you love and serve with the right spirit and heart, God is glorified my friends. Why? You did it in honor of the one who loved you and give Himself for you.
This was Gaius spirit of service my friends and how wonderful if was for those who keep on serving the Lord Jesus and his church.
How are you serving? Are you serving with the same attitude of heart?
Everything we do in life, requires some sort of sacrifice my friends, whether it is teaching Sunday school or carrying off the trash. Let God be glorified no matter what you do for Him and His church.
And this brings me to our last thought my friends as we wrap up this last epistle of John the beloved...
3. John Continues to Rebuke Evil...
I think you would agree with my friends, evil cannot be tolerated, we cannot give evil a pass…
And sadly evil and the influence of the evil one is all around us. It has been this way from the beginning. So we must be careful with our words and deeds.
And in the last part of 3 John, we see the elder Apostle John continue to rebuke evil.
Look at verses 9-12 3 John 9-12
9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
Opening this passage it would appear that perhaps John had written a letter to this particular body or sent word to with in hopes of giving them instruction on receiving missionaries, men who were evangelists and teachers that have been sent to them.
But John instruction had not been received. In fact, John says there is one who is only interested in himself and his own desires. This man is Dio-tre-fes = Diotrephes .
Look at John’s words, He likes to put himself first and does not acknowledge our authority. Wow, those are serious words my friends.
So this one loves preeminence, to be first over all… Now think of that, this is not Dio-tre-fes’ idea alone, no - this is the world’s idea then and now… And it comes from the evil one.
Think about it, the world teaches us that we should be number 1, that our needs, desires and even dreams are more important any anyone else.
So all this does is elevate our ego, our mind that no one is as important than me… and this will last for a while, but then the rug will get pulled out from under you and you will not know what to do or how to do anything… because the lie the world ( and its leader ) taught has shattered all what we knew and believed…
Yet Paul would tell us that Christ is the one who is first, preeminent in all things...
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Consider that, Jesus is the head of the church, He is Lord over us and the corporate body of believers over the world.
So why is Jesus the head of the church? Look at what Paul says, He is the beginning. Jesus is the one who stood with the Father, and the Holy Spirit at the creation of this world. But there is a more important designation here.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Jesus gave his life as a ransom from sin, not only paying our penalty for sin, and satisfying the justice demanded by God but He is the first one to die and then rise again.
Jesus died and on the third day rose from the realm of the dead into a new life.
Death infected humanity because of sin, and since sin brought death Jesus entered the realm of humanity, endured our punishment and rose victorious with the power of the Spirit.
Now there is a new existence because of his resurrection. It is a resurrection existence, a life after death existence that is guaranteed by Christ and the Holy Spirit is our guarantee of the good things to come in Jesus until we experience them first hand.
For this reason, the Father made the Son, Jesus preeminent in all things.
So we cannot be first, Jesus is first. That is the error to
Dio-tre-fes. And then secondly, he does not listen or act in accordance with the authority of John, the last living Apostle.
What a shame, but this is what sin leads us toward…
John goes on and says that if we come, we will be talking about his wicked actions… And here John shares even more detail about this person… Dio-tre-fes.
A. He gossips maliciously about us…
B. Refuses hospitality to traveling teachers.
C. Prevents others in the church from doing so...
D. Threatens to put any out of the church who go against him.
What a shame to see one individual hurt the church and its individual members… You know what is going to happen. The Son of Thunder is going to show up and settle all these things.. John is not feeble my any means..
And then he moves on and tells Gaius and others not to imitate evil. 3 John 11-12
11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
There are two commands here, do not imitate evil. Imitate good instead.
John is calling for those in the church to mimic, those who are spiritual, and do good things, godly things.
You see God is not gloried if we act in any way that contrary to His commands. Micah 6:8 teaches us this wonderfully.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
In acting this way, we will be able to put God and others ahead of ourselves.
My friends, be a faithful person. Love the church, and stay away from evil.
In all these ways, God is glorified and we are blessed.
Let me ask you:
1. Are you a faithful Christian.
Faithful to church, what about faithful to the Word of God, what about faithful to pray? We are called to be faithful.
2. Do you love the church, namely other believers? Listen we are called to love one another and to put others ahead of ourselves.
And if you have a problem, with another person in the church seek them out, ask for their forgiveness..
3. Do you stay away from evil? Sometimes evil isn’t always easily recognizable. But if we remain in the word and prayer we will know what is good and bad with the Lord’s help.
If it looks bad, if you think it is bad, most likely it is. We are called to shun the very appearance of evil. If it even seems like evil, stay away from it.
** In this we will walk in the truth.
** join with me as we pray
** Come and pray this morning, come and give thanks, and come and praise the name of Jesus today.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”