Sermon Tone Analysis

Purpose, Occasion, and Background

It has been suggested that 2 and 3 John were originally preserved because they were part of a single packet containing all three Johannine letters.

On this view, 3 John was a personal letter to Gaius commending the courier of the shipment, Demetrius (v.

12); 2 John was to be read aloud to Gaius’s church; and 1 John was a sermon for general distribution and not a letter in the strict sense.

This scenario cannot be verified but is a useful hypothesis in envisioning how John’s letters could have arisen and been preserved in early Christianity.

Unfortunately, no other information about Gaius has survived.

Key Themes

Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2443.

Key Themes

1.

The support of traveling Christian workers is noble and needful.

; ; ;

Acts 16

Acts 16

Why do we do this?

2. Church discipline can be necessary for healthy ministry to flourish.

2. Church discipline can be necessary for healthy ministry to flourish.

; ; ; ;

Where there is no repentance or evidence of change, there is church discipline needed.

You guys have probably never seen this demonstrated.

The heart behind this:

1 Corinthians 5:4

1 Corinthians 5:

3. The integrity of faith is proven by actions.

Our actions represent our integrity.

Supporting those who are set apart by God is what the Bible commands us.

Separating those from the church who are divisive is also what the Bible commands of us.

Purpose, Occasion, and Background

It has been suggested that 2 and 3 John were originally preserved because they were part of a single packet containing all three Johannine letters.

On this view, 3 John was a personal letter to Gaius commending the courier of the shipment, Demetrius (v.

12); 2 John was to be read aloud to Gaius’s church; and 1 John was a sermon for general distribution and not a letter in the strict sense.

This scenario cannot be verified but is a useful hypothesis in envisioning how John’s letters could have arisen and been preserved in early Christianity.

Unfortunately, no other information about Gaius has survived.

It has been suggested that 2 and 3 John were originally preserved because they were part of a single packet containing all three Johannine letters.

On this view, 3 John was a personal letter to Gaius commending the courier of the shipment, Demetrius (v.

12); 2 John was to be read aloud to Gaius’s church; and 1 John was a sermon for general distribution and not a letter in the strict sense.

This scenario cannot be verified but is a useful hypothesis in envisioning how John’s letters could have arisen and been preserved in early Christianity.

Unfortunately, no other information about Gaius has survived.

Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2443.

Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2443.

It has been suggested that 2 and 3 John were originally preserved because they were part of a single packet containing all three Johannine letters.

On this view, 3 John was a personal letter to Gaius commending the courier of the shipment, Demetrius (v.

12); 2 John was to be read aloud to Gaius’s church; and 1 John was a sermon for general distribution and not a letter in the strict sense.

This scenario cannot be verified but is a useful hypothesis in envisioning how John’s letters could have arisen and been preserved in early Christianity.

Unfortunately, no other information about Gaius has survived.

Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2443.

Who was Gaius?

; ; ; ;

John refers to this person with strong description.

Beloved and whom I love in truth.

How do Gaius and John meet?

1.

A Corinthian Christian mentioned after Crispus and before the household of Stephanas as one of the few people baptized by Paul during his stay in Corinth in the early 50s ().

Being baptized by Paul, it is reasonable to assume that Gaius was partial to Paul’s position in the disputes among the divisive Corinthians.

(This guy familiar with hospitality and persecution and divisiveness)

John Gillman, “Gaius (Person),” ed.

David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 869.How do Gaius and John meet?

How do Gaius and John meet?

Their paths cross through his disciples in Ephesus.

Gaius showed hospitality.

We see that:

These disciples were from .

The Application and Example

Example:

3 John 9-

Who was Diotrephes?

Application:

An early churchman who asserted authority over all in his local church, rejected the authority of the elder who wrote 3 John, attacked the elder in public, forbade anyone to receive the elder’s emissaries, and excluded all who did ().

The name Diotrephes, which means “nourished by Zeus,” occurs in the NT only in this one passage.

The author of 3 John, however, never charged Diotrephes with heresy.

According to one view, Diotrephes was a monarchical bishop (Zahn 1909, 3: 374–81).

On the other hand, he could have been an elder or a deacon who abused his authority.

Or he may have exercised authority over the entire church by the dominance of his personality without holding any office.

The conflict between the elder and Diotrephes probably represented a transition period in church government.

In that case the elder represented the older, centralized leadership of an elder over a number of churches in the region.

Diotrephes represented a younger generation that sought greater local autonomy and moved in the direction which eventually led to the monarchical episcopacy (Dodd Johannine Epistles MNTC, 163–64).

Virgil R. L. Fry, “Diotrephes (Person),” ed.

David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 204.

Application:

3 John

Our Standard:

What’s the right example?

Don’t have to look far...

2 Timothy 2:14-

Let’s look to Jesus...

Philippians 2

And again...