3 John 9-15 Teaching
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Today we arrive at the end of 3 John. We will cover the latter half of John’s letter to its completion. While this is John’s final letter, it is not his final book, chronologically, in the biblical canon. Rather, he wrote one more book after this: Revelation. Revelation is God’s revelation to John while he was exiled on the island Patmos. If you move to Wyoming, then you can join us for that study!
Context
Context
The first half of this letter, John commends and praises this faithful brother Gaius for his fidelity to the truth and love for saints from other churches.
Now most the rest of this letter will be spent condemning a man who did the opposite. A man who renounced John’s authority to speak into their lives, even.
The main verse that encompasses this letter is verse 11:
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
In John’s letter, we see both the evil doer and the good doer; the one who is of God and the one who has not seen God.
Scripture
Scripture
The elder:
To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health, just as your whole life is going well. For I was very glad when fellow believers came and testified to your fidelity to the truth—how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in truth.
Dear friend, you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers. They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, since they set out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from pagans. Therefore, we ought to support such people so that we can be coworkers with the truth.
I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, does not receive our authority. This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome fellow believers, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. Everyone speaks well of Demetrius—even the truth itself. And we also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
I have many things to write you, but I don’t want to write to you with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
Peace to you. The friends send you greetings. Greet the friends by name.
Verses 9-10 Description of One Not to Imitate
Verses 9-10 Description of One Not to Imitate
I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, does not receive our authority. This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome fellow believers, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.
Wicked Diotrephes
Wicked Diotrephes
Who is Diotrephes?
All we know about this man is found in this letter in Scripture. Diotrephes is not mentioned anywhere else. In this church, he was either a very influential member or even a pastor of sorts. This is believed because of the authority John describes him as exercising.
We can at least say that he assumed authority and acted on it as if he was a pastor in this church.
Remember what John praises Gaius for:
Walking in the truth
Welcoming stranger Christians
Praised by his church for his love
Now let’s see how Diotrephes is described:
Loves to have first place in the church
Rejects Apostolic authority
Slandering Apostles
Refuses to welcome fellow believers from other churches
Expels believers who do welcome fellow believers from other churches
Let’s go through each of these descriptors and talk about them.
Loves Having First Place in Everything
What does this mean? What was Diotrephes doing that brought on this description?
I would imagine John is taking his other actions and giving this as a summary statement of his character.
AKA Diotrephes loves to have first place in everything because he rejects and slanders those whom God has placed above him, he refuses to welcome fellow believers and expels those who do because he sees their church has the highest and best!
Diotrephes loves to have first place in everything because he views himself as greater than all those around him, even those who are his authorities such as the Apostle John.
There are men and women who try to live as if even those who have authority over them aren’t really their authorities. Teachers, police, pastors, parents, bosses; none of these individuals are good enough in their eyes to truly be their authority. These are those who say things like “I answer to no one.”
Diotrephes and those who exalt themselves like this, are not just disparaging their earthly authorities, they are disparaging God as their authority. See, God has placed you under someone, or many, for a reason! Their authority over you is not meant to crush. Really, good authority will cause you to prosper.
Far be it from us as Christians to do as Diotrephes does and exalt ourselves over everyone around us. Jesus and all the NT writers actually exhort Christians the complete opposite direction.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest. Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.” He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him who sent me.”
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
Do not imitate Diotrephes. Imitate Jesus Christ. Do as He says.
Rejects Apostolic Authority
John directly says that Diotrophes does not receive our authority. Remember what I said about the Apostles last week:
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, these men were entrusted to write God’s Word. Look at the book of Acts and see how the Apostles were given authority to do as Jesus did and reverse the affects of the curse! They cast out demons, healed paralytics, and even brought the dead to life, all in the name of Jesus.
To reject their authority is a major issue. Rejecting any authority points to a disregard of God’s authority, but rejecting the Apostle’s authority is even more so!
It is important to note that Diotrephes was not the only one to do this, then all the way through to now! Read 2 Corinthians and you’ll see Paul was being opposed by some in the Corinthian church who claimed to be super-Apostles! And today, there are progressive Christians who, in an attempt to change what the Bible says, do not receive Paul’s authority. They claim things like “He was a baby Christian, why should we trust his words?” or “He was clearly misogynistic and bigoted, God probably wasn’t speaking through him.”
Please do not ever end up with this view of the Bible. Rejecting the Apostles is rejecting God’s Word is rejecting God. The Bible was not written to make you comfortable or to be molded to your opinions. The Bible was written for you to mold yourself to it. God has spoken, you must adjust.
Slanders Apostles
John says Diotrephes was slandering us with malicious words....
So, it isn’t like he was saying “Hey, John is a great guy who loves God, but we shouldn’t listen to him.” That would still be an issue! But on top of him rejecting the Apostles’ authority, he is spreading lies about them.
We do not know how exactly he was lying about them or what he was saying, but we know it was slander.
I’d like to just encourage you all: do not listen to those who talk very poorly about their authority figures, and don’t do it yourself!
There is a difference between reporting someone for immoral behavior and just nitpicking everything they do. If your authority figure misuses their authority, you should probably approach them about it and if that doesn’t turn into anything, speak to someone you should speak about it to. Don’t just spread this throughout your business.
But if the one over you is making decisions you don’t understand or don’t agree with, your role is not to talk to everyone else about how foolish that person is. “I can’t believe he is doing this. This is going to end terribly. He doesn’t know what he is doing.” If you are someone who does this, you are the last person I want following me!
If you have serious concerns about the direction your leader is taking you, just talk to him! Voice your concerns with humility and understanding.
Unlike Diotrephes, let’s be extremely charitable towards our leaders. Assume the best. Voice concerns directly to them. Trust God is leading them. Yes there is much more nuance to our response to leaders when they are being sinful, but I won’t go into that right now.
Refuses to Welcome Fellow Believers From Other Churches
Unlike Gaius, Diotrophes encountered these believers from other churches and pushed them out.
Why would Diotrophes do this? There are a few potential reasons:
Hoarding church resources
Fearful of influence on church members
Exaltation of their church
I just want to note that these are reasons that a cult is so closed off. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses will not accept any literature from you that isn’t from JW.org. They also will invite you to their “bible study” but would never attend yours. Do you see the issue?
Some pastors and church members do the same thing in their church and make it sound righteous
“We need to conserve our finances for what God is doing here.”
“God has called me to be the sole preacher of our church.”
This is simply unloving to the body of Christ. As we discussed, loving one another is not reserved for inside your local church, but requires love for those in other churches as well!
Diotrephes was not being loving to fellow believers by doing this.
Expelling Those Who Welcome Others
It seems as if Diotrephes was invoking church discipline for the sake of ridding of those who welcomed fellow believers. This is completely crooked.
Church discipline is a practice Jesus teaches from Matthew 18 where a member of a church refuses to repent of his sin and is then brought before the church body. The church body would then, if he still doesn’t repent, the church is to remove him from the body. This is typically done by a vote from the members of the church. You can see Paul encouraging it in 1 Corinthians 5.
Once again, this is reserved for unrepentant church members; those living in sin refusing to stop.
Example: Husband commits adultery on his wife and sees no issue with it. How can the church affirm this man is a Christian?
Now Diotrephes twisted this to be for getting rid of those who were bothersome to his agenda.
Obviously this is a huge problem—he is twisting the Scriptures.
Verses 11-12 One to Imitate
Verses 11-12 One to Imitate
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. Everyone speaks well of Demetrius—even the truth itself. And we also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
Now we come across the thesis verse of this letter: verse 11.
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
John does not want Gaius to get caught up in Diotrephes evil works and imitating his actions.
There were probably not many church leaders accessible for one to choose from to imitate. Many were still being built up! Therefore, Gaius may have felt tempted to bend to Diotrephes’s ways and John puts an end to that.
He ends it by pointing out the evil in Diotrephes ways and then exhorting Gaius to not imitate what is evil, but what is good.
To really hammer his point, John then points to Diotrephes heart:
“Diotrephes is doing evil in the church, and the one who does evil has not seen God.”
Purity and Seeing God
Purity and Seeing God
This recalls another verse from the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Clearly, the Lord ties a direct correlation between seeing God and purity.
What is seeing God?
This is not necessarily literal as in looking directly into his face. Scripture says that no one can see God’s face else we die (Exodus 33:20). Yet at the same time, The Lord Himself commands us to seek His face (2 Chronicles 7:14). So what does this mean and how does it pertain to John’s description of the evil one not seeing God?
This is referring to seeking God, pursuing Him, by studying His Word and speaking to Him and worshiping Him. When we do these things, we “see” God. Those who are not pursuing Him but rebelling against Him do not see Him. In fact, those living in their sin unrepentantly do not see God even if they’d like to—their hearts are hardened towards Him
Your sin will stop you from seeing God. Impurity clouds our vision and hardens our hearts. Sin blinds us and makes us stupid. Then our very reason for existing: glorifying God and enjoying Him forever, is not being fulfilled because we cannot see Him.
Imitate and Be Imitated
Imitate and Be Imitated
Everyone speaks well of Demetrius—even the truth itself. And we also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
Following this word on imitating good, not evil, John brings up another brother in Christ we do not know: Demetrius. While he only gets one verse, John says that everyone speaks very well of him.
When he says “even the truth itself,” I think John is saying this isn’t just everyone praising someone who isn’t deserving of it; Demetrius’s life is truly commendable and righteous!
Why would John bring up Demetrius to Gaius here after scolding Diotrephes?
Once again this is rooted in verse 11: 3 John 11
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
John knows Gaius may be tempted to imitate Diotrephes in his wicked ways, but wants to discourage doing so.
I’d say either John wants Gaius to imitate Demetrius or John is reminding Gaius of Demetrius as someone who is imitating him. We do not know what it is, but either way there is good truth for us to keep in mind.
You should be imitating and living in a way which you can be imitated.
Tell Target story.
I want to implore all of you to seek someone who is godly and further along in their walk with Jesus and imitate them!
Imitating does not necessarily mean to do everything they do, change your profession, get the same dog, etc. What this means is look at their life, share life, and imitate them as they imitate Christ. Learn from how they live and do as they do right. See their sin and failures when they come and learn from those too.
See, the church is meant to function as a living organism with believers discipling believers, the older pouring into the younger.
You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered.
If Gaius was going to remain strong and not fall into wickedness, he needed godly, humble men to imitate. Else he lives not seeing God due to his sin.
Verses 13-15 Face to Face Fellowship
Verses 13-15 Face to Face Fellowship
I have many things to write you, but I don’t want to write to you with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
Peace to you. The friends send you greetings. Greet the friends by name.
And now here at the end of the letter, John finishes about the same as he did in 2 John. Writing to a beloved friend, he says he wants to save the rest of what he needs to say for when he sees him face to face again.
The best fellowship, the fullest relationships, these happen in person.
I know that this is almost an indictment against us. We are moving very far away and will be unable to be in this more intimate fellowship with you all. But please know that we are not running away from anything. God has given me and Dez a full life here with deep, meaningful relationships. He has allowed us to be close with our families and friends. We certainly are not running. I praise God for these past 14 years I have lived in Alabama and for all that He has done in this time.
But now He is calling us away, not away from here, but to somewhere else. Even more so, to some other people. To many people who haven’t experienced the fellowship we have. To many people who haven’t experienced the salvation we have. I pray to God and plead that He would let you all come and join in the mission, but I also know that not everyone is called to go like this. Many are called to stay.
Riley story.
There is much happening here in the Phenix City/Columbus area that needs you. Life does not stop with beloved friends moving. Fellowship does not stop with beloved friends moving. I implore you all to ensure this fellowship we had is continued in some regard. I am not necessarily saying “Never end the home group,” though thats good too. I am saying you need to provide that fellowship for others! Invite them to your house. Feed them. Play games. Love them. Show them your Savior. Study the BIble with them. This will not cease with some leaving, rather it must move forward and you must do it.
Finally John concludes his letter.
Peace to you. The friends send you greetings. Greet the friends by name.
John was in a church writing to Gaius who was in another church. These sister churches were connected in love and truth. So much so that John could say “Greet the friends (those with Gaius) by name.” John is saying “I know everyone in your church, greet them for me. Everyone in my church knows you too.
Yes we are going and will be very far, but the fellowship will still exist. We will still be connected by love for God and the truth of His Word. And even if we never see one another again, one day, in glory, we will.
Order of Service
Order of Service
Prayer of Praise
Psalm of Praise
All Creatures
Mediator
3 John 8-15 Message
Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor
Prayer Time
Benediction
Doxolgy
