3 John 1:1-8
Notes
Transcript
The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
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.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
1st, 2nd, & 3 John. Some of the last written books of the bible.
Written by, of coarse, as the title of book indicates, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, John.
3rd John, the shortest book in the bible. Followed by the next shortest book we just got done studying, 2nd John.
2nd John written to a church.
3rd John is a personal letter written to Gauis.
These letters are also written by a man that has seen alot!
In his 20’s he literally walked with Jesus on this earth, seen His persecution and death.
He then went on to...
Care for Jesus’ family.
Help organize the early church.
Discipled many!
Was persecuted many times.
And was serious about the truth of the gospel.
All this while living into his 90’s.
And this is when these books are thought to be written. As an old weathered man, that has seen a lot come and go but ruled by the love and truth of Christ.
And what do we see from this man to a brother in Christ?
Caring words, thoughtful words, truthful words, loving words.
We’ll be seeing three different people mentioned by name throughout this letter.
Gaius, Diotrephes, & Demetrius.
Gaius, is who the letter is written to, a faithful believer and follower of Christ.
Diotrephes, is brought up as a warning, to be on the look out. He’s not abiding in the love of God.
And Demetrius who is the opposite of Diotrephes. Demetrius’ testimony is good and true in Christ.
This is what a 90 year old man’s personal letter to a brother has in it.
For today’s message we’ll be looking in to just the first part of the letter. Gaius, a brother to John in Christ.
The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
Just like in 2nd John, the introduction starts with “The elder”.
Meaning this letter needed no more introduction than that. The early church knew John as this during this time frame. You could read this opeing verse as “I John to the beloved Gaius”. This is the type of identification used here as “The elder”.
“to the beloved Gaius” who is Gaius? We’re not quite sure exactly. It seems that Gaius was quite the popular name and is used several times throughout scripture for different people.
So to say with certainty which Gaius this is, we can’t.
But what we do see within this letter is a man who occupied responsibility and leadership in the early church.
We read of Guais’ walking in the truth, efforts being put forth for the Kingdom of God, people testifiying to his Christ loving ways, sending people prepared, supporting others, and the serious warnings that come later in this letter to watch over the flock about Diotrephes.
What else about Gauis? He’s beloved, John using this word 4 times in this letter to Gaius.
A meaning of being dearly loved or dear to the heart.
This is an important person to John, someone that looks to be discipled by him personally. A relationship of deep friendship and love in truth!
This love for God and God’s people! A selfless, servanthood type, a looking out and caring for others type of love over oneself. A love that is pure and from Love himself, God!
A love that is shown daily in a Christains walk, within the works of the cross of Christ!
This is what we see about Gauis in this letter.
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. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Oh, what endearing words!
When you care for someone, concerned only with what’s best for someone, when we truly love someone.
And you get words back that show that they are truly safe, truly secure, truly well. What does that bring? JOY!!!
Folks this is what we are seeing here, Truth setting the captive free, the Truth bringing life and freedom, and a rejoice in this great truth in love!
Oh that we may all be so fortunate in loving someone to Christ as this!
So much so that we can pray for someone without concern over their soul in pure thankfulness and gratitude in Christ’s security over them.
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.
To pray for your temporal physical well being to be as well as your eternal spiritual soul.
Oh that we could always pray for that instead of it the other way around.
How painful would it be to go skydiving with someone we love and be asked over and over to check their googles, check to make sure they have their phone before the jump, check to make sure their outfit is right, check that there’s no clouds so they have the perfect view, check to make sure they jump first so they can have the best view, verify shoes are tied…you name it. All this secondary, unimportant stuff, is asked about, all the while, never asking, is the chute fully packed right, hows the buckles, where is the rip cord again, how about that altimeter? Can you help me cinch this down tightly. None of that, just how do I look, and make sure I get what I want.
Did they forget about truth? Gravity is real and so death!
Prosparity Gospel…(maybe?)
How painful it is to pray for something temporal while the eternal goes unnoticed.
How joyful it is to pray for something temporal because the eternal is secure in and through Christ!
Folks, we love you. We aren’t perfect at it but one thing for sure, we want you to know Christ and not just know Him but to truly understand that you are loved by Him and through this love you are changed.
We share the truth as the truth as been shared with us!
Nothing hurts more than to see a loved one walk away. It’s truly like a death in the family.
These are words that every Christain wants to hear about there loved ones...
For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
To witness the security in Christ, oh what a JOY!!! Amen?
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
We see here the letter moves from the truth of Gaius to the love of Gaius.
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
We see the truth being practiced in love.
Because of the truths of Christ and HIS love, we are moved to love!
“it is a faithful thing” Faithful, how?
Georgia team. These brothers and sisters in Christ, reached out to us out of the blue, being called by God to practice love to strangers, by driving some 1700 miles for over 25 hours one way, just to encourage, support, LOVE, the body of Christ.
No, we’ve got this planned and this planned. And we’ll have a great revival, with several baptisms and outpouring to your community.
Just faithful in Christ to move when said to move. Faithful in Christ to love in one truth and encourage others in it.
It wasn’t easy for them, in fact it stretched some them out of their comfort zone.
They did it in love for the Father and love for His body.
And they were faithful in this by acting on this calling to serve total strangers.
We are called to do the same.
It may not look like driving across the country. It may look like helping christian brothers and sisters passing through as it looks like Gaius was. It may look like going up to help the Salt Lake City Mission like we done years ago.
The point is, it is a faithful thing to love and support the full body of Christ even when they’re total strangers. As long as it’s in love and truth.
Strangers as in we don’t know them, we’re not 100% sure on how they minister, and how effective they might be. But we know that they’re faithful to the truth and therefore where faithful to love and let God be God! Amen?
For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.
Why do we do what we do?
Is it to earn brownie points from God?
I could really use that healing right now and better put in extra credit.
Is it because that is what were supposed to do as Christains, no heart, no love, just boot on my boots and mud through this? Guilty...
Why do we do what we do?
“For they have gone out for the sake of the name”
Who’s name?
We love because he first loved us.
“accepting nothing from the Gentiles”
What is this about?
Nothing from unbeilievers, or nothing from the world.
They weren’t doing this for personal wealth, health, and prosperity.
This wasn’t selfish ambition, but pure faithful love in Jesus.
There were and is today, people that use whatever tactic they can to pray on the weak for personal wealth, health, and prosperity.
Including the God of the bible.
This is the heart of this. It isn’t wrong to receive help from unbelievers, it’s comes back to why do we do what we do?
The heart!
To proclaim God or ourselves?
For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.
Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
“support people like these”
Who are “these”
People that know the truth, are forever changed by the truth, and therefore love as He loves.
And how is that? Selfless, caring, truthful, concerned more with the Father, than with anything else.
This is who we are to support when they come are way.
When missionares of Christ come through, we support.
And what else? “that we may be fellow workers for the truth”
We’re all missionaries!
From family and friends to co-workers and the random people we bump into daily.
We’re all on mission.
Chris’ co-workers at Sutherlands, “what time is service”
This is the mantra of this Church.
Know, Grow, Go.
Say it with me.
This isn’t Know, Grow, become more selfish and just feed me.
It’s Know, Grow, Go.
Why Go? The Gospel!!
Why Go?
We love because he first loved us.
We go because he first came for us.
