Mother's Day Message 2024: To the Elect Lady
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: 2 John 1-13
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day! I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor, and what a day we’re having! A baptism, baby dedication, kids time, choir special, and musical praise and worship with the band. Thank you, praise band for leading this church family so faithfully every week. We appreciate your talents and your dedication.
I’d like to welcome everyone who is here in the room this morning, as well as all of you who are joining us online today. If today is your first time visiting with this church family, we want you to know how happy we are to have you here today! If you’re a guest in the room today, would you please take just a moment during my message this morning to fill out a welcome card? You’ll find them in the back of the pew in front of you. We want to be able to send you a note thanking you for your visit and to pray for you. You can get those cards back to us in one of two ways: First, if you’re in a little bit of a hurry when service is over, you can just drop that card in the offering boxes that are next to the doors as you leave. But if you have a minute, I would like to invite you to bring that card down front to me when service is over, so I can meet you for a moment and give you a small gift to thank you for being with us today. I promise it won’t take long.
Announcements
Announcements
Mother’s Day Offering for the NMBCH. Goal is $4,500. I wanted to share something that happened last year at BCNM Student Camp Sivell’s. This was the week we were at camp, and we were here when this happened. I’m going to let Sam Swann’s words tell the story:
During final celebration, as I was reporting to the group what the offering was, a student ran to the front of the room and handed me some more money for the offering. On his way back to his seat another student came running up, and soon there were a bunch coming and giving more money, so much so that I told them to just put it on the stage. I found out later that the first guy was actually taking the money up to the front on behalf of another student who was too shy to bring it up in front of everyone. His youth leader told him, “See what you started?” When it was all said and done, it was over $200 more. Don’t let anyone tell you that Gen Z doesn’t care about anything but themselves. They care, and they care deeply.
It was a powerful moment to be a part of.
What we didn’t know then was that there was a young lady there who was attending camp, but who lives at the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home. She was standing in the back, watching all of this take place. And afterwards, she said to Sam, “I didn’t know people cared so much for us...”
So we take up this one-day offering for the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home to help support that vital ministry. James 1:27 tells us: “Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” We care about the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home that our high schoolers are going to spend a week there this summer, serving in myriad ways.
If you want to give online, you can do so by choosing “Baptist Children’s Home” from the Fund drop down when you give. You can designate your gift this morning if giving in person by writing “Children’s Home” on your check or envelope. Thanks for prayerfully supporting this special one-day offering.
Opening
Opening
We’re in the last week of a three week hiatus from our sermon series through the book of Daniel. Next week, we will dive into chapter 7, the beginning of the prophetic part of the book. But for this morning, we come together on Mother’s Day.
For several years now, I have opened my Mother’s Day message with an acknowledgment for those who struggle with Mother’s Day. The shocking thing is how much positive feedback I receive on this acknowledgment each year. But the reality is that Mother’s Day can be a very difficult day for many.
For those of you for whom this is the case, let me just start by thanking you for braving being here today. You have had every opportunity, especially given the fact that we stream Family Worship every week, to not come either online or in person. You could have decided to skip today and listen to or watch a past message. But many of you are here in the room, and perhaps many more of you are here right now online, watching and desiring to worship with the body of Christ and to hear from the Word of God, and my hope and intent is to make good use of your commitment and dedication this morning.
To you ladies who want children, but for some reason cannot have them, the heart of the Eastern Hills family goes out to you. I know that a Mother’s Day service can be especially hard, and perhaps already has been. Please know that you are loved, and we don’t take you for granted, downplay, or ignore your very real pain. And some of you are “mothers-in-waiting,” and you intend and plan to have children at some point, but you’re just not there yet. We wait with you, and we pray that God will provide for that desire of your heart. For those of you who experienced the pain and heartache of miscarriage, we pray for you as well.
This day can also be difficult for those who have lost their children tragically. You are moms. You’re moms who cannot mother your child right now. Your church family is so sorry for your loss and your pain. You are loved and cared for by this body, and we mourn with you this day.
Mother’s Day at church can also be frustrating for those who have no desire to have children. This is a very real thing, and you may struggle just being here this morning with so much focus on children and motherhood, which is just not something you’re concerned with, at least not at the moment. I get that it may not feel particularly useful for you. Thank you for being here anyway, and I really hope that my message this morning will be useful for you as a woman, not just for moms, because really, my message today is for all of us.
I can’t truly understand what these women are going through, and I want to be sensitive to and respectful of that struggle, and just not mentioning wouldn’t be right. And even though it might seem like kind of a serious and somber way to open a message on Mother’s Day, I think facing these issues head on at the outset allows those wrestling with these things to understand and know that they are seen, heard, and understood by the church family this morning. So, Lord willing, it is my intent to open every Mother’s Day message with this kind of acknowledgment, and I pray that this message is useful to all who are here with us today.
And for those of you who have lost your mom or your wife, especially in the past year and who are facing this as the first Mother’s Day without her: we mourn with you as well.
For Mother’s Day today, we’re going to read an entire book of the Bible for our focal passage.
So please turn in your Bibles or Bible apps to the little book of 2 John. This book doesn’t get a lot of traffic, so it’s way in the back. Get to Revelation and turn back a couple of pages. As you are able, would you please stand in honor of God’s Word as I read our focal passage this morning:
1 The elder: To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not only I, but also all who know the truth—2 because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever. 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. 5 So now I ask you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6 This is love: that we walk according to his commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: that you walk in love. 7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves so that you don’t lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward. 9 Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and do not greet him; 11 for the one who greets him shares in his evil works. 12 Though I have many things to write to you, I don’t want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. 13 The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
PRAYER (mothers, and those struggling on this Mother’s Day)
The letter of 2 John is the second shortest book in the New Testament. It consists of 245 words in the Greek text, and takes up a mere half a page in most standard print Bibles. (In case you’re wondering, 3 John is the shortest New Testament book, even though it’s longer in English. It’s only 213 Greek words.)
Even though the author of the book is officially unnamed, introducing himself as “The elder,” the style, subject matter, and vocabulary of 2 John are so similar to 1 John that the two had to come from the same hand, John the Apostle’s hand. The more interesting question is who the letter was written to.
I had actually forgotten that this letter was written, “To the elect lady and her children...” until I stumbled upon it this week in study. Every commentator wrestles with the question of who this “elect lady and her children” are, and they all land in basically one of two camps: either this letter was written to a Christian woman who had several children, or “the elect lady” is a local church, and “her children” are the members of that church. Most tend to go with this being a letter to a church. I personally come down on the side of the letter being written to an individual woman of some importance, perhaps a woman not unlike Lydia from Thyatira, who housed and likely funded the fledgling church in Philippi, and who I preached on for Mother’s Day a couple of years ago. This woman was a believer, being the “elect” lady, and apparently had several children, but likely no husband since one is not mentioned.
But ultimately it doesn’t much matter which way you take it—church or individual—because the letter is a wonderful piece of exhortation for any group of believers.
The main focus of this letter is the truth—the message of hope found in the reality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, the Son of God, is “full of… truth,” according to John 1:14:
14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
And Jesus is Himself “the truth” as He said in John 14:6:
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
When Jesus said this, He meant that He is the ultimate reality, and everything else that exists derives its existence from Him. He is the exact expression of the nature and character of God (Heb 1:3), and no one comes to the Father except through the way that is Jesus because Jesus and the Father are One (John 10:30). I’ll explain that a bit more in a moment.
So here in 2 John, the Apostle gives four pieces of instruction regarding truth in these thirteen verses: how believers are to relate to one another because of the Gospel (love because of the truth), how we are to live our lives because of the Gospel (walk in the truth), how we are to guard our minds against falsehoods about the Gospel (Focus on the truth), and how we are to stand for the truth of the Gospel against those who would seek to disparage or diminish the message of Jesus (stand for the truth).
We will start with how we are to relate to one another because of the truth of the Gospel.
1: Love because of the truth.
1: Love because of the truth.
Okay…for some of you younger ones in the assembly this morning, we used to do this strange thing where we actually wrote messages to other people on paper (not texts or posts on their socials or in their dm’s), put them in envelopes, and sent them by mail (not e-mail) to those people, and it could take days to get there. To most of us, I’m being silly. But there honestly might be some of you younger students who are like, “WHAT!?!?”
Anyway, I think that the ancients had a better way of writing letters than we do. If we don’t write something on letterhead or stationery, the person reading the letter has to look down at the bottom to know who it’s from. The ancient Greeks and Romans normally led with who was writing, whom they were writing to, and a greeting that set the stage for what they were writing about. John does that here, with a very warm greeting to the elect lady and her children.
1 The elder: To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not only I, but also all who know the truth—2 because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.
John opens by telling his recipients that he loves them “in the truth.” He mentions love twice in this opening, and implies it once, each time in connection with the truth. Because John is in the truth, and because his readers are in the truth, then there is this bond of love between them (1a), but also with all who know the truth. What does it mean to “know the truth?” It means to know Jesus.
Because of what God has done for us in Christ, everyone who belongs to Jesus is to have love for one another. Jesus set this up as an example for us in John 13, part of what He said and did during the Last Supper:
1 Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
After this, John explained that Jesus took on the clothing of a servant, took some water in a basin, and washed His disciples’ feet. This was the lowest task in a household, assigned to the lowest of the servants. And the King of kings, the Lord of lords, God in the flesh, the Creator of all things and the Maker of those very feet, put Himself in that position. Once He had finished washing their feet, He put His normal clothes back on, and then said this:
14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.
Then, later on in the same chapter in the Gospel of John, Jesus said this:
34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
If we want people to know the truth—to know Jesus—then we are to love one another, following Jesus’s example for us. It doesn’t mean that we specifically have to wash each other’s feet (unless that’s what a brother or sister truly needs)… it means that we see others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, as more important than ourselves (Phil 2:3), and we are willing to serve one another because that’s what Jesus did for us.
Jesus is the only Person to ever live a life completely without sin. That means that He never did or said anything that was contrary to God’s holiness, and He never failed to do or say exactly what matched God’s holiness. None of us can say that we’ve done that. And our sin ruins our relationship with God, because it means that we are rebels, enemies of God’s holiness. But the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, willingly took our place in the punishment that we deserve because of our sin. He died on the cross for us. He did this so that anyone who trusts in Jesus’s death for their forgiveness will be forgiven, because Jesus has already paid the price we owe. But Jesus also overcame death and rose from the grave, so that anyone who has identified with Jesus’s death for forgiveness will also receive eternal life with Jesus, because He has conquered death.
John summarizes this in verse 3:
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
Daniel Akin explained this well in his commentary on 2 John:
Grace is God doing for us what we do not deserve, mercy is His not doing to us what we do deserve, and peace is God giving us what we need based upon His grace and mercy. The word order is significant. God’s grace is always prior. Mercy and peace flow from it.
—Daniel Akin, New American Commentary—1, 2, 3 John
Jesus took our place in death and rose again to eternal life so that we can be free to love if we are in the truth. Freely we have received love because of the truth, so freely we can pour love out because of the truth that we have set free from the power of sin and death through Jesus. We can serve one another because we are secure in our salvation, both now and forever.
And since we are to love because of the truth, then we should also walk in the truth.
2: Walk in the truth.
2: Walk in the truth.
The ancient concept of someone’s “walk” was that walking was an apt image of what someone’s life looked like. Walking is how most people got around, even on very long trips, and so walking became a euphemism for how someone journeyed through life, or what their “way of life” was. John had apparently met some of the elect lady’s children, and was able to rejoice that their “walks” were in the truth:
4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. 5 So now I ask you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6 This is love: that we walk according to his commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: that you walk in love.
John here connected “walking in the truth” with “keeping a command we have received from the Father.” He connects what we claim to believe with how we live. He knows the children of the elect lady are “walking in truth” because they are found to be “keeping” this command. So the claim of loving the truth must be backed up by actually living the truth. Jesus said it more clearly in John 14:
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.
Jesus tied loving Him with keeping His commands. This isn’t to say that keeping His commands saves us. It means that the one who is saved, who is in the truth, who claims to love Jesus, will look like it through obedience—That obeying Jesus flows out of our love for Jesus.
And His command here in 2 John: to love one another; was a new command when Christianity was starting through Jesus’s earthly ministry according to John 13:34, which we read a moment ago. At the point of John’s writing this letter, probably about 55 or 60 years later, it was a command that Christianity had had from the beginning. Loving one another was not optional for this Christian fellowship, and it’s not optional for us.
In 3 John, we find that John said something very similar about his friend Gaius walking in truth as well:
3 For I was very glad when fellow believers came and testified to your fidelity to the truth—how you are walking in truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in truth.
Think about this for a moment: Moms, as well as dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents… can you identify with John in this? That there is no greater joy than to see or hear that your children are walking in the truth?
Not sure if you agree with John? Flip it around: would it be a devastating heartache to find that your children are NOT walking in the truth? Maybe you have children who are wayward. Is this not one of your greatest pains?
John’s statement should challenge us, parents. What’s our greatest joy when it comes to our kids? Is it their grades? Their looks? Their batting average or their three-point percentage? For our adult children, is it their college or degree? Their job? Their bank account? Before you get frustrated with me: I’m not saying that these things aren’t important. I’m saying that they’re not MOST important. When we distill it all down though, we have to ask ourselves: If I had to choose between one of these things and having my child walk in the truth, which would I choose?
I am confident that both of my daughters are walking in the truth, and it is truly a source of great joy to me and to Mel. That’s not me boasting on me or Mel or my girls. It’s me rejoicing in what God has done in their lives and in mine.
And my prayer for them is that they would continue to cling to the truth, which is our third point:
3: Focus on the truth.
3: Focus on the truth.
At this point in the letter, John doesn’t specifically use the word “truth” any more. He’s used it six times in as many verses. Now he shifts to ways that the truth may be denied. The first is by deception:
7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
A deceiver is a liar. It’s someone who either blatantly tells a falsehood or who tweaks the truth so that it becomes untrue. John confessed that many such deceivers have gone out, and their primary point of deception is to deny the incarnation—that Jesus came in the flesh, fully human and fully God. This is one of the foundational issues of Christianity—a first-order doctrine.
There was a belief that was forming at this time called docetism: it basically said that all that is material is “evil” and all that is spiritual is “good.” Therefore, they believed that the perfect spirit of God the Son could not have taken on an actual material body, at least not permanently. At worst, it would only do that temporarily. At best, they held that Christ only appeared to be material—that His physical being was some kind of illusion to make us think He was human. Those who think in such ways are deceivers, and are literally “opposed to Christ”—the antichrist. John had written about the concept of the antichrist in 1 John 2:
21 I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
John will have none of this deception—If you get Jesus wrong, you get everything else wrong as well. Think about it. If Christianity rests on the foundation of Jesus’s life, death, burial, and resurrection, if the incarnation is not true, then none of those foundational truths can stand. If Jesus didn’t actually have flesh, then He did not live a sinless life—it was all an illusion. If He didn’t come in the flesh, then He could not have died. If He could not have died, He could not have actually been buried. Do you see what happens when you remove the incarnation as a foundational truth?
So John warns the elect lady and her children to focus on the truth:
8 Watch yourselves so that you don’t lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.
“Watch yourselves” is the first direct command in this short letter. John is stressing the importance of staying alert, eyes open for deceivers so that you will not begin to take in their lies. We are to be focused on the truth so that no corrupting deception can make its way into our thinking. And parents—is it our job to watch for our kids as well, as their spiritual covering, and to set an example for them: do they see us focusing on the truth in our own lives?
But what is John saying that we might “lose” that we have “worked for,” or that we won’t receive a “full reward” for? Some say that John is referring to salvation, but I do not agree. If we could manage to lose our salvation, then I would argue that we never actually had it in the first place.
No, here John is saying that if we start to stray off of the course of the truth, then we will see less reward for our Christian service here on earth, and that we will miss out on the full impact of what we might have experienced upon our arrival in heaven. According to Paul, if we are actually in the truth then our salvation is assured, but our works will still be evaluated and rewarded based on whether they are of eternal value:
10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one is to be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.
The truth is our foundation. We must focus on building that which will last for eternity. This means both knowing and growing in the truth ourselves and sharing the truth of Christ with others, especially with our children.
So we must love because of the truth, walk in the truth, and focus on the truth, and then finally John tells the elect lady and her children that they must stand for the truth:
4: Stand for the truth.
4: Stand for the truth.
The last part of the body of John’s letter can be easily misinterpreted, because John uses some very direct language as he seeks to address one final issue that he is concerned about for the elect lady and her children:
9 Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
John gives both a warning and encouragement in verse 9: the one who “goes beyond” Christ’s teaching does not have God. This doesn’t mean merely someone whose theology is incomplete or imperfect. All of our theology is imperfect in some way or another. But our salvation is by God’s grace alone through faith in Jesus alone. Jesus is the perfect Son of God, both fully God and fully man. To try to add anything to Him only makes Him less perfect. For example, docetism that I mentioned a moment ago would be Jesus minus flesh. This denies His humanity. It makes Him a less perfect mediator, because Jesus could not have died in humanity’s place if He wasn’t human Himself. This is the kind of straying that shows that we were never actually saved to begin with.
In another commentary on 2 John written by Daniel Akin, he speaks of the “Mathematics of the Cults.”
Addition (+): They add an extra-biblical source of authority by prophet, pen, or professor.
Subtraction (-): They subtract from the person and work of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Division (÷): They divide our allegiance from God through Christ alone to others.
Multiplication (x): They multiply requirements for salvation. All advocate some form of works salvation.
—Daniel Akin, Exalting Jesus in 1, 2, 3 John
This can help us see where something is a cult. If it does these things, it has gone “beyond” Christ’s teaching, and neither knows nor has God.
John’s encouragement is that we can be sure that we are in the truth—that we have both the Father and the Son—if we remain in the teachings of Jesus.
And finally, John addressed how the elect lady and her children should respond to false teachers looking for their support in verses 10 and 11:
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and do not greet him; 11 for the one who greets him shares in his evil works.
These verses are easy to misinterpret in the most severe ways. John wasn’t saying that we can’t have lost people over to our houses. He also didn’t mean that we can’t say, “hello” to someone from a different faith, and if we do so, we are a part of their evil. Unfortunately, some have taken this to mean exactly these things.
No, John is still talking about people who are false teachers about Jesus. And when he uses the word “greet,” he means that we are not to offer a blessing in support of their work, to say: “may it go well for you.” We do not want their work teaching lies to go well. We want the truth to prevail. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be kind and polite, and hopefully, evangelistic!
We are to stand firm in the truth, not supporting error or falsehood. We are to make sure, moms and dads, that the things of faith taught in our homes are true, even if it means taking a stand against falsehood. And we can take this stand together, church, as Paul wrote in Philippians 1:
27 Just one thing: As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel,
Closing
Closing
John’s closed his letter with a final paragraph:
12 Though I have many things to write to you, I don’t want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. 13 The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
This brings us full circle. John returns to his warm terms of endearment, expressing his longing to be with them so that their joy in each other’s presence would be complete: they would have joy (not fear) at John’s arrival, and he would have joy (not sadness or frustration) because they are living by the truth of the Gospel. And the believers that he was staying with when he wrote the letter, the children of another “elect” woman, send their greetings.
And so we close this morning with an invitation to respond to the message of God in 2 John. In a moment, the band will return to the platform, and I’ll be joined down front by Trevor, Rich, and Joe (Noreen?).
If you have never trusted in Jesus for your salvation, then you are separated from Him—lost. Jesus died so you could be saved. Believe in Jesus, and surrender to Him this morning. You can surrender right there in your pew, or wherever you are online.
We saw believer’s baptism earlier. If you’ve been saved, but never baptized, we’d love to talk with you more about baptism.
If you were convicted by the Spirit through the Word this morning and need prayer, you can come and pray with one of us or at the steps if you’d like.
If you believe that this is church family where you can plug in and grow in your faith while you serve in this body, come and let us know. If you’ve already had that conversation with me and you’d like to present yourself for formal membership this morning, this is the time.
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading (Joshua 22-23, Psalm 132 today… finishing Joshua tomorrow, then two catch up days on Psalms 134-135 before hitting Judges)
No Pastor’s Study for Mother’s Day
Prayer Meeting on Wednesday, continuing our focus on David’s prayer of thanksgiving in 2 Samuel 7.
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
20 But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.