Good morning everyone. It's great to see everyone who's
here today. Glad to have our visitors, glad
to have our regulars. And we share in the most
wonderful thing that anyone ever shares in hope, joy, salvation,
things that we do not deserve, like we just sang about, but
things that we can all be confident in.
And as we've studied through first John, as we now move on to
2nd and 3rd John, I hope we can all sing that song confidently
and I hope we will work daily to make Our Calling an election
sure, so that we can have that hope of that home at last.
What a wonderful service that we've had so far.
I decided to go into second, third John and I talked to some
of you and, and I said, I don't know if I'm going to go into
that. It's I'm not super confident in
some of the things this teaches going into this.
Like, I don't know what I would say about it or I didn't know
exactly all the conclusions to draw from it.
And so I was thinking I was going to avoid this and move on
to something else. But as I thought about it, I
don't think I've ever heard a full lesson taught on second and
third John or second John itself or third John itself.
So I said, you know what, I better do it.
I better take this initiative because anytime I have an
opportunity to fill a hole in my knowledge, I feel like it's
worth my time. And I hope it'll be worth your
time to consider these things in second and third John, the theme
that we see in these letters written by, I believe the same
person who wrote first John, the theme is fellowship.
And if we've established that John wrote the 1st letter, the
second and third letters of John are almost identical in their,
in their style, in the theme, the tone and all these ways.
So we can pretty comfortably say it's the same person.
And if we've established that it was John before, then we can we
can assume that with second and third John, the book of
Ecclesiastes says Ecclesiastes 3, verse 5 to everything there
is a season, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from
embracing. And if you've read that, you
know, there's a long list of things and that he says there.
And this letter, I think, does pull out a key concept of when
to let go and when to withhold and when to embrace.
And both sides of this are equally important as we prepare
now, as we consider fellowship and where he's going to maybe
draw some lines and where he's going to tell them to welcome
people. It's important to remember what
we've already covered, what he's already established in the 1st
letter of John from John was that this, that which we've seen
and heard, we declared to you that you also may have
fellowship with us. That's the goal.
The goal is that we establish grounded, strong, loving
fellowship always. And it's based on the fact that
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus
Christ. So that is all laid before this.
So I don't want to rehash everything we've already taught,
but we're going into this with this perspective in our mind.
And he said in first John 210 that he who loves his brother
abides in the light. So that is a indicator of our
own walk with God is how are we walking with our brothers around
us. So I want to make sure we're
walking into this situation with a, with a lead with love first
mentality. There's going to be reasons for
us to have caution, but we lead with love and we lead with open
arms to people. And that's our goal.
That's our that's our end goal is to always establish a strong
fellowship based on truth. So we're going to leave with
loving fellowship. And throughout the New
Testament, we read of people who were commended for how gracious
they were with hospitality and with their fellowship.
So if that's a commendation, we should go into it this mine.
But as we're going to see, there are limits to our fellowship and
it's all centered around truth. But I don't want us to leave
this study today in fear of fellowship and how, you know, I
need to watch out and be really careful.
And pretty soon we're kind of clamming up and we're we're
becoming hermits because we're afraid of some limits.
That is not the goal. What he will establish, I think,
is very instinctual things. There are things we need to
protect from. And if we know truth, it will be
instinctive that we protect from those things.
So as, as we consider what he, his advice is, don't lose the
common sense that I think is, is all over this letter.
And part of the reason I don't want to go, I don't want to
leave us with too many strong conclusions of, oh, we need to
be doing XYZ. And that's that's a big thing is
because he says, I'm not writing to you a new command.
I don't believe there's things in here that it's, it's like,
well, this is totally new and and we should, we should be
totally changing what we're doing as a whole.
It's not a new command his that he's bringing.
It's it's an old command. And so in this letter, as we
consider these things and 3rd John and as we go forward, he's
going to give us some examples of loving hospitality and the
damage of the wrong approach to hospitality and fellowship.
OK, so that's the theme. It starts out by saying the
elder and that elder is who we believe to be John the elder.
There's some people believe he might have been 8090 years old
at this time. So he is older than them,
writing to these people. He says to the elect lady and
her children, whom I love. In truth, some people try to
make this phrase, the elect 80's, the elected lady, some
really nuanced things that I don't believe it's teaching at
all. I think it's very simple.
The elect lady, who is this person?
Well, throughout the New Testament, the church is given a
feminine personification. We're giving her as the bride of
Christ. In Ephesians 522, Romans 7,
verse 4 and Revelation 21, she's described as a bride adorned for
her husband. So the the church is often
describing a in a female personification.
And I think that's all he's saying.
He's identifying the church with a singular by saying you the
elect lady. The, the elect means the chosen.
We are the chosen group of the church and I believe and her
children refers to the individual members that make up
that elect lady, that church. And it says whom I love in
truth. So Paula or John is saying that
he loves the church and he loves the individual members of the
church. So this is who he's writing to,
he says, and not only I, but also all those who have known
the truth. He started out the 1st letter by
saying we have fellowship with you and you have fellowship with
each other. Because of the connection.
There's a triangulation between those who love now and you have
loved before and whoever will love God.
We all have a triangle of love because of that.
And all who have ever known the truth share in this because of
the truth which abides in US and will be with us forever.
We can still have fellowship with John here because we have
the same truth that has lasted for thousands of years.
This has been masterfully preserved better than any
document in the world's history. We can know that this abides
forever. It's not going anywhere.
Have you noticed how many times he's already said truth?
Maybe if he says it three times in the 1st 2 verses, maybe in
the first sentence, maybe we'll understand that this is around
truth. And if we're going to have
unity, if we're going to have fellowship with people from 2000
years ago and with people from today's day, from different
walks of life, it has to come from somewhere.
It has to come from a truth, the truth, He says grace, mercy and
peace will be with you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love.
I rejoice greatly that I found some of your children walking in
truth as we received commandment from the Father.
What's the reality? We read from this, some people
in the church do walk in truth and some people do not as he's
going to identify. But I love how he says I rejoice
greatly. This is an old man.
Life can harden us. John could have been hardened by
the years of his life that they were challenging.
John could have had so many experiences that and dealing
with people and dealing with life and dealing with problems
in the church that left him hardened.
He could have been hardened by any of those things.
He could have been hardened by the false teachers, the internal
fights, those who would so soon turn away.
As we read in Galatians, Paul says some people just turned
away so soon, and the frustrations that would cause a
preacher. And yet he found things to take
joy in as an old man. And he didn't just take joy, he
took joy greatly. Especially as men, I think
sometimes we can struggle to show joyful emotions.
Sometimes we can be so task focused that it's like, well,
yeah, I'm having, I'm, I'm enjoying this or I have
enjoyment, but I'm just, I'm focused.
And so our focus doesn't always manifest in joy outwardly and
showing it to other people and noticing other people and
affirming them and showing and communicating joy.
And John does a good job of that.
May we, especially as men work on that.
Sometimes our our female counterparts are better about
that than than we are about that emotional component to a
relationship. Let's remember that to have joy
and show joy. And John says I rejoice greatly
about what that there are people walking in truth, the best thing
he could find to take joy in. And now I plead with you, lady,
not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that
which we have had from the beginning that we love one
another. There we go.
So we're we've reestablished that key concept that we love
and that's the commandment. We show love and this is love
that we walk according to his commandments.
This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the
beginning, you should walk in it.
You're like, haven't we already heard this before?
This was much of first Job. You're right, we have heard that
phrase a lot, but he keeps going back to that.
Walking in God's commands is loving people.
Verse 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do
not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
That is a deceiver and an Antichrist.
Some many translations and maybe more literally translate this as
this is the deceiver and the Antichrist.
So I think this is a good point to look back and say, hey,
remember when we talked about the Antichrist and how some
people believe it's this is the Antichrist, this person, watch
out for him. He's using the same language
here. He's saying this is the
Antichrist. This is the person who would
take Jesus's work and melt it down into something it's not.
Jesus did come in the flesh, but they want to take that away from
him. And because of that, they are
deceivers. Whether they realize it or not,
they are deceiving people with this, with this wrong and with
this falsehood. He says look to yourselves,
watch out for yourself that we do not lose those things which
we have worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
This is a big deal because some people it's going are going to
lose their reward. This isn't just, you know, you
believe in Jesus, you think he's the Savior.
It's if you look at him the wrong way now he he's focused on
a very core foundational concept of Jesus work and ministry.
But that has a contingency on their reward, on their eternal
salvation. Whoever transgresses and does
not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.
So he has two opposite words here.
He uses one is the exact opposite of the other.
To transgress means to go outside of or to run ahead of or
to go outside of something. What is that something, the
doctrine of Christ? And the contrast is someone who
does not abide in that's that's someone who would stay within
the doctrine of Christ. And that person does not have
God. So we're going to ask the
question a minute. What is this doctrine?
But he goes on to say, if anyone comes to you and does not bring
this doctrine, do not receive an into your house nor greet him
for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
OK, you read that verse. I read that verse.
I say, OK, what do I do with that?
How do I, how do I take that? That seems to be a strong
sentence there. Let's take this piece by piece
and let's remember the the common sense side of this that
we're that we're going to keep trying to focus on the first
piece. If anyone comes to you and does
not bring this doctrine by saying they are bringing in a
doctrine, this is inferring that this implying this is somebody
who's teaching. This is somebody who's bringing
a teaching and sharing it with others.
OK. I don't think this is just
somebody who has a belief in their head, right?
Because there's a lot of people around us who have beliefs in
their head that are we just putting a wall up to everyone
around us who doesn't believe the same thing.
I don't think that's what he's teaching.
He's saying if someone comes to you and does not bring this
doctrine, he's already said this person is not just any old
person. This person denies that Jesus
came in the flesh. This person is a deceiver.
We're dealing with someone who teaches and who is deceiving.
OK, So what is this doctrine that they are bringing them?
He's already said that this person is it is, it is the
deceiver and Antichrist who does not confess that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh. So we know for sure that he's
saying to watch out for this people and do something.
We're going to say what that something is in a minute with
people who had undermine Christ's fleshly coming.
And if you're not aware, there are groups who claim to be
Christian groups who do not believe that Jesus Christ came
in the flesh. There are a couple big groups
that I can think of just off the top of my head.
There are prominent religious groups who do not confess this.
So he's, he's giving us a caution against this teaching.
But people would say, well, how far does this go?
What is the doctrine of Christ? Because it is very true that
throughout the Bible when someone says the teachings of
the apostles or the teachings of God, it is all things that
coincide with what they bring. So is it just this doctrine that
Jesus came in the flesh? He's already said to watch out
for truth and that those who obey his commandments are what
we're talking about here. So I can see someone saying,
well, if someone comes and attacks foundational truths like
Jesus, come in the flesh, avoid that.
But like I said, he's already discussed how those who walk in
truth and those who abide in his commandments are the ones who
they have fellowship with. So I don't know how you separate
and say this doctrine that he's talking about is only the
teaching about Jesus fleshly coming.
Because there's a lot of things that are the doctrine of Christ,
the teachings of Christ, because of the unity of God's message.
God's whole message is from the Father, from the Son, from the
Holy Spirit. They work together as one.
So I don't know how you make pull that apart and say, well,
if somebody follows God's teaching in the quote UN quote
big stuff, but not in the other stuff, I don't know how you pull
those things apart. OK, I'm going to leave that for
there for now. I believe this is so far what he
said. If someone comes to us who
teaches things that are not truth from God's word, which in
this situation looks a lot looks like not affirming Jesus's
physical work. I think that's a summary that I
would give so far that we can definitely that we can say he
he's addressing. OK, So what about these people?
What do we respond with? He says do not receive him into
your house nor greet him, for he who greets him shares in his
evil deeds. OK, so it says do not receive
him into your house. Well, whose house are we talking
about? He addressed this to the Elect
Lady. So the most to me, most obvious
connection is this is the Elect Lady's house.
Well, what is that? That is the church.
Now specifically during this day and time, they had house
churches. They did not have all these
separate buildings that we do that we have.
That takes a lot of finances to buy a new building and to have
that place designated only for worship.
So they worshipped in people's houses and so to accept someone
into their house, I believe probably contextually is talking
about bringing them in, welcoming into church and having
their place in the pulpit. Now you might ask, well, what
about is he saying individual homes don't welcome people into
your house, your individual home?
Who's bringing these teachings? Now there might be some common
sense caution there. If someone is teaching false
doctrine, bringing them into your house if you are not
seasoned has it's dangers we're going to talk about in a minute.
Having them teach you and teach your family.
Common sense tells you, I mean, however far you want to take
this, it doesn't make a lot of common sense to do that anyway.
OK, So what is the risk? What is the risk of bringing
people like this into the house, Whether it's the House of the
church to teach for us or whether it's our individual
homes to bring this teaching #1 the influence it has on the
elect lady's children. Who is that?
That's the people of God in a church we are commanded to
worship, to come together. That means there's people who
are young, there's people who are old, there's people who are
advanced in their in their understanding, there's people
who are unskilled in their understanding by nature of how
God commands us to come together.
So when anybody comes in who's going to teach, they can
influence people who don't have strong knowledge or those even
who do have strong knowledge. All these people who are the
children of God, of the elected lady, can be influenced.
What about #2 what about the teacher themself?
If someone is teaching wrong things, our best influence on
them is to not accept those things, because people have
taught error and have been changed from that.
And we as a church can change them by not standing with their
error. That is one of the strongest
things anybody can do against a false teacher is to stand
unified together against wrong teaching so we can influence
that teacher in a positive way. Perhaps #3 what about onlookers?
When someone is welcomed in to teach and to spread their their
their teachings? What about other people who who
see that happen? Are they thinking that, hey,
this is OK because this person is allowing this kind of
teaching to happen? There's a lot of risk
associated. If spiritual matters really are
are important, there's a lot of risk here that could come from
someone who brings wrong teachings.
OK, so it says don't bring him into your house, It says, nor
greet him for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
OK, this word, greet him. Some translations will say
welcome him. Do not welcome him.
Well, what is a welcome? Well means to be happy that you
have come. And if you take somebody who is,
who is teaching falsehood and say we are happy to have you.
With us to teach for us, that's not going to send the right
message. Now, other commentators will say
more specifically, this isn't just a typical greeting like we
might say welcome. This is the phrase they would
have used as Cairo, which literally means Godspeed.
So whenever someone would give them this greeting of Godspeed,
they were given approval of a course that they were pursuing
for he who. And that fits more in the
context of the rest of the verse.
He says for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
Me saying hi to somebody who doesn't teach truth, I don't
know if you could say that is me sharing in their evil deeds.
But if I say Godspeed, brother, go ahead, do your thing.
That's me sharing in their their evil deed.
If I push them on their way and send them on to do that work,
Godspeed. Keep doing your thing, man.
That is approval that I believe is really at the heart of what
he's saying here because they're going to be people that we can
have an influence on. There are people all the time
who I interact with who I'm currently working on trying to
maybe have a study or talk Bible.
What do you think about this passage?
I know you've said that before. I try to sneak it into
conversation here and there. I got to build a rapport with
them before they will accept a truth.
They understand my biblical perspective, OK, if he has a
sound biblical reasoning on these subjects, maybe I'll hear
him on this matter. And so I think there is some
common sense to be had here. But we have to watch out for
giving these people our approval.
It's not just, hey, we're all Christians, book of Acts.
Remember, they're all everybody's so happy.
Everything's going well. We're we're sharing all all of
our things together. We're selling property and
everything is just so good hunky Dory.
And then someone tried to take advantage of that, and Ananias
and Sapphira were dropped dead because they were taking
advantage of that by trying to lie to the Holy Spirit.
There are limits to truth, to what's right, and we have to be
wise as serpents and harmless as doves, the apostles are told.
So I think this is a summary of how I might take away from this
and I think I think this is both conservative.
It's not overstretching to say this really by any stance at
all. If someone comes to us who
doesn't teach truth, which in this situation looks like not
affirming Jesus physical work. We shouldn't give them a
platform and we shouldn't provide active support for their
work. As we're going to see in a
minute what active support does look like verse 12 having many
things to write to you. I did not wish to do so with
paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to
face that our joy may be full as I've left some room for.
I'm still learning here. I'm still learning about all
these situations, the what ifs that would come up.
I love how he ends this letter because it's a perfect synopsis
of really what the what the situation entails.
There's a lot of nuance when it comes to dealing with people and
interactions. There's a lot of nuance when it
comes to what is this person's background, where are they
going, what are they saying? And a lot of it, he just needs
to talk to them about it. Some things are not easily to
record in the Bible and just lay it all out there for us because
let's take this situation. You have people passing through
this church who are teaching error.
There are is a long list of context that Paul is or John is
not just going to write to them and retell everything.
They already know that's happened.
If someone were to write a letter to this church, there
could be a long list of things that would go on for pages and
pages and pages about the context.
But it wouldn't make sense for someone to write to us telling
us our context all over again. That's just not how you write a
letter to somebody. It would take forever and you
can never get all the details. And I think that's part of
what's going on here, as there are certain things that are
contextual to their situation that he had to go and talk to
them about and it would not easily be all relayed over a
letter. And when we're dealing with
people, I think it's wise to sometimes not always send things
over text, not always send a letter in writing, because you
can't always get the whole thing in the writing or in the text
message or in the the e-mail that's sent.
And so sometimes you need to have a conversation.
And I think that is a large part of why he ends this letter kind
of in a short way, because there are things to be worked through
situational details. And I would tell you that I
don't have all the situational answers, but I would encourage
this to produce conversations, if we have conversations around
truth, around what is accepted, what around what is permitted,
And especially in the Lord's house, this is the goal that he
would have for us to watch out for the children of your elected
sister. Greet you.
Amen. OK, moving on into third, John,
I kept these together because I do believe they have a similar
related message. So #1 I believe he's going to
talk about some exemplary fellowship that is extended.
So as he's told us about ways to maybe not extend that full
fellowship and welcome, there's going to be a good example of
fellowship, but then there's an example of someone who withholds
fellowship that shouldn't have done that and how much damage
diotrophies causes because of that.
So I this is my kind of synopsis of chapter 2 and three.
It's fellowship. It's how to extend it, how to
sometimes withhold it, but the dangers of doing it wrong on
either side. He says the elder, so the same
address he gave before, but this time he's not writing to the
elect lady. He says the elder to the beloved
Gaius, whom I love. In truth, if you know your
Bible, that name comes up quite a bit.
That's because Gaius is a common Roman name.
You hear this name a lot in Scripture, and so we can't
definitively tell which Gaius this is.
There is a clue in Romans 16 where Gaius has commended for
being a keeper of many in his house.
And So what Gaius has commended here is almost the same
attributes, but we don't know for sure it's the same person
because it's such a common name. Verse 2.
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in
health just as your soul prospers.
So Gaze's physical health is probably not doing well.
He's not well physically, but his soul is prospering.
He is doing so well spiritually. Verse 3 For I rejoiced greatly.
There it is again when brethren came and testified of the truth
that is in you just as you walk in truth.
Here we go again with the truths.
There's truth that's in Gaius and there's truth that he is
walking in. He says, I have no greater joy
than to hear that my children walk in truth.
John is the elder and so he is mentored many and so they in a
sense they're his children that are walking in truth.
Having truth to guide our actions is absolutely necessary.
Some know the truth, some appreciate the truth, some even
defend the truth, but most importantly, others would walk
in the truth. That is a complete summary of
all those things that we would walk in truth.
And this man, Gaius, or Gaius, however you want to say it, is
doing just that. He says, beloved, you do
faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers
who have borne witness of your love before the church.
He's commending and complimenting him, saying he is.
He's doing a faithful work. Everything that you're doing
guys, is awesome. You are doing this faithfully in
your service to God, for brethren and for strangers.
This is similar to what Matt what Jesus says in Matthew 25
verse 23 where Jesus says his Lord said to him, well done,
good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few
things. I will make you ruler over many
things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.
Guys has been commended for his hospitality because it is
faithful as a servant of Christ for brethren and for strangers.
And these people have appreciated it so much.
And his level of whatever he's doing for them is so good.
He is so skilled and so servantly about it that he these
people are telling everyone in the church about it.
They're passing along the word of his wonderful hospitality and
service to them. This is a great man.
Verse 6. If you send them forward on
their journey in a manner worthy of God, you do well because they
went forth for his name's sake, taking nothing from the
Gentiles. As I understand this phrase,
send them forward is not just like good luck.
Send them forward was what it would entail is providing for
anything they needed. It's almost like He took them
and He brought them forward along their journey.
If they needed a place to stay, if they needed funding, if they
needed food, if they needed encouragement, that was taking
somebody forward. Sometimes maybe they would even
travel with them to get them going on their journey, maybe
for safety or company. This is not just a pat on the
back as He walks out the door. This is carrying their burden
with them. Why is that important?
Because these people are people who are going forth for His
namesake. These are people who are
preaching the gospel, doing the work of God and travelling and
being supported by Gaius. The people who do the Lord's
work need to be supported, not just financially.
They need to be taken forward, sent forward, like Gaius was
able to do for them. We as the church must uphold our
preachers because these people who choose to preach are not
taking things from the Gentiles, from the people who are not
God's people. Now, as I understand during this
time, some of them would actually, it was like a almost
the religious people would take donations from the community and
that was maybe something they solicited.
And he's saying as the teachers in the Church of Christ, he says
we don't take things. We don't go out and solicit
things. Hey, fund our preaching journey
as the Church of Christ. Fund our, our, our sale.
He said we're not going out doing that.
And So what happens is these preachers are being left in
whose hands? Ours preachers take a leap of
faith where they are jumping into the unknown because they
don't have a career in the same way that people who were served
the Gentiles would. Where there's plenty of Gentiles
out there to pay for your stuff. They'll take care of you if you
have a trade or this or that. Preachers surrender and step out
in faith. And yes, they're trusting in
God, but they land in our hands. May we take care of them, not
just financially. That's not that's not what we
need as humans to complete us. They trust their lives, their
potentials, the careers they could have gone into, their
finances, their securities, their families into our hands.
And people like Gaius changed the game for preachers so much
to the point that they were telling everybody about this
guy. We therefore ought to receive
such the word receive, as I understand, doesn't just mean
to, OK, we'll take you. It's it meant illiterate to get
a hold of from underneath and to lift up as we think about how we
as individual church members support preachers.
Let's get that image in our head.
I'm going to get under and I'm going to lift up this person who
is doing something for his name's sake so that we may
become fellow workers for the truth.
We join in the same work that they do when we step up this in
this way. Galatians chapter 6 verse 2 says
bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
So what does it mean to send them forward in a manner worthy
of God? That's what he said there.
Send them forward in a manner worthy of God.
That's quite the modifier he put there.
That's that's a, that's a big modification to that and a
manner worthy of God. What does that mean #1 I believe
it means we understand their need.
If you're going to help somebody, you've got to
understand their need. Side note, understanding a need,
let's look at James one, verse 27.
He says pure and undefiled religion before God and the
Father. Is this to give orphans and
widows a ton of money because they're sad?
Is that what he said? He says to visit orphans and
widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the
world. What's the need of a widow?
What's the need of an orphan? They need people.
The loneliness people feel, the pain they feel.
You can't buy that. People need visit.
People need time. So when we understand the need,
we can actually feel the need, right?
James one verse 19 says be swift to hear.
We can't understand the need if we're going to just jump in and
do whatever we think without even considering the other
person. We have to understand their
need. So this is a good place to
start. What would I need?
You know, after hearing what would I need if I were in their
shoes? No, that's not the end all be
all because they're different than you.
They're different than me. Maybe in a different situation,
but that's a good place to start.
What would I need if I were doing their work?
Well, what is their work? What do they do every day?
What are their tiredness? What is their anxieties?
What is their stresses? So someone who is good might do
something that they want to contribute.
If you were going to be someone who does something and Amanda
worthy, worthy of God, you might do something that you want to
contribute, say home, how can I help?
I I want to do this, you might do something good.
In that way, someone who does better would ask how to most
effectively contribute. But someone who does best would
independently identify needs and fill them.
Now, I don't want to undermine any of these.
I don't want to undermine someone stepping in and doing
something they can think to do off the top of their head.
Every good act is good. But focusing on the needs and
finding the needs so #1 understanding their needs is how
we can give, send them forward and support them in a manner
worthy of God. Because these people are doing
God's work, and we can too, in this in just a different way.
We are equally involved #2 and most preachers aren't going to
say, I have a laundry list of things that I need you to do to
do for me, that I need from you. But what every preacher will
tell you is I want people who are involved.
Are you equally involved? To our supported evangelist
here, I did not say, do you have as many Bible studies as Frank
does? I didn't say do you teach in the
pulpit like Frank does. I said, are you and am I equally
involved in God's work? I would argue this is the most
important thing on the list that I've thought of, or that that
God's Word teaches. If we are equally involved, like
people we read about in Scripture, many of the things
will take care of themselves. Romans 16, verse one.
I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the
church in Tantria, that you may receive her in the Lord and a
manner worthy of the Saints, and assist her in whatever business
she has needed you for. Indeed, she has been a helper of
many and in myself also. Paul writing this letter notices
the people who are really there to serve.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers.
There it is, people who are involved in the work.
Are they doing it the same way? No, but they're involved to
where Paul felt like I've got people there with me in Christ
Jesus who risked their own necks.
That's investment, risking their own necks.
They're involved, just in a different way.
To whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the
Gentiles. Greet my beloved Epinatus, who
is the 1st fruits of Akia for Christ.
Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
Does it say what she did? No, but she was involved, great
Andronicus and Junior, my countrymen and my fellow
prisoners. Does it say what they did?
No, it tells you how involved they were, How deep did they go?
They were in prison who are of note among the apostles, as also
were in Christ before me. I can go on and on, but the next
one I think of is Barnabas. He is described in his
Scriptures as the encourager. I think I mixed up the order of
my slides. But as he's described as the
encourager, it doesn't just say that, you know, he told people
nice things and that's good. That's not, there's nothing
wrong with that. But how was he an encourager?
It was through all the things that he did.
He stood with Paul. When Paul was converted, nobody
wanted to stand with him. They're afraid of him.
This guy, this seems sketchy. He stood with Paul and he
welcomed him when nobody else would.
He even accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys.
He sold his land to donate to the work of Christ in the book
of Acts. He was one of those people.
And then he helped lead the members in the Antioch church.
And Barnabas was somebody who exemplified who's being prepared
to sacrifice. Thirdly, I can think of if we're
going to send preachers forward in a manner worthy of God, we're
prepared to sacrifice. If we want to be involved, we
got to be prepared to sacrifice. That's the mindset Jesus teaches
to save some time. I'm going to keep on moving.
In First Samuel 24 verse 24 we have a great example of this
where David is going to give a sacrifice to the Lord.
And somebody offers him their land for him to do the sacrifice
on. And David says no, but I will
surely buy it from you for a price.
Nor will Ioffer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that
which costs me nothing. What is a sacrifice if it
doesn't cost us anything? If we're going to support
preachers and the support those who are working for God, we have
to be prepared to sacrifice next.
We are. It means that we are as
consistent as they are. You know, I think if if if a
preacher wasn't at their congregation, if Frank wasn't
here, especially on the day that he was going to teach, things
would not function the same. And so we see a very functional
role like that. And we think a preacher, a
conversate congregation needs a preacher.
You would notice if that was not happening, if there was not
someone there to preach. But if the members are not
consistent, like the preacher, is the congregation really what
is it? It might look like there's a
service functioning, but is that congregation alive?
And I'm not making any accusations here, to be clear.
I think we, I think we have so many good things happening.
I'm offering this challenge to myself.
That's what I'm thinking of when I teach this, when I'm going
over this. Are we as consistent as the
preacher is? I want you to think about your
role like like if Frank were up here preaching and he didn't
show up. That's the hole that is left
when you don't involve yourself completely.
It's just any different way. May we stand in that
consistency. And finally on this list I have.
It means we will adapt our supports.
And we've already talked about Barnabas.
Barnabas was supporting in many ways.
May we be willing to adapt our supports because sometimes we
get like, hey, this is what I'm willing to do and I'll take my
hands off of that. I got one responsibility.
I'm willing to take on Barnabas. Look at all these different
things he was willing to do filling needs involves having
some flexibility, having some adaptability.
OK finally to finish up, I'm not going to spend long here goes on
to say after identifying how we get the verse there verse 8A lot
of slides in between there. So he said, We therefore ought
to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the
truth. Verse 9 He then says.
I wrote to the church, but diotrophes who loves to have the
preeminence, He loves to have the 1st place among them.
He likes to be in the spotlight. He wants to be the most
important. This man among them does not
receive us. So here's an example of someone
who is not receiving in a way that is worthy of God.
And if you and I think you know it.
There are problems today. John was one of the apostles
writing this letter and they were already causing problems
with him. So this is nothing new.
This is from the beginning that this stuff was happening.
Verse 10. Therefore, if I come, I will
call to mind his deeds, which he does, praying against us with
malicious words. That word praying means unjustly
accusing or empty accusations or unfounded charges.
So the problem is not that this man diotrophies as calling John
out, it's that it's completely unfounded.
It's completely empty. And the whole theme we've been
talking about is truth. If something is completely
invalid and completely baseless, then this person's parading and
their words are wrong. And not content with that, he
himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who
wish to putting them out of the church.
So it's not good for us to just put up all these walls with
people to where we make it more and more strict to where nobody
is even. We're putting up all these walls
because we can end the process, rule out people who are doing
truth. And so our accusations cannot be
unfair. They cannot be based on anything
other than truth and what's right according to action and
scripture. Beloved, do not imitate what is
evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but
he who does evil has not seen God.
He ends with a positive. Demetrius has a good testimony
from all and from the truth itself, and we also bear
witness, and you know that our testimony is true.
I had many things to write, but I don't.
I but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink.
But I hope to see you all shortly and we shall speak face
to face. There it is again.
You might leave with a lot of questions as I do, but some of
those things have to be worked out in conversations where the
wisdom of Scripture is worked through and considerations are
given to all these things. He says peace to you.
Our friends greet you greet the friends by name.
He ends with a note of fellowship, of camaraderie and
positivity. So walking away from this number
one, may we lead with loving fellowship.
We're not leading with this untrusting mindset, but we lead
with fellowship and love. But that there are limitations
to our fellowship. And may we base that on truth.
And we've been looking over some examples of what loving
hospitality looks like. But watch out if we put up
barriers that we shouldn't put up because of the damage they
can cause with people like Diotrophes.
That's our study today. Do you have fellowship with him?
And I pray that we are teaching truth and walking in truth so
that we can have fellowship together with him.
And if you're not in that place, you can start today to begin
this walk. We learned that hearing is how
you learn to believe. You can't believe before you
hear. So Romans 10 verse 17 gives us
that foundational step. And upon hearing, we can believe
according to Mark 16, verse 16, that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God and He died for our sins and is our Savior and we can repent
of our past life. If we are really one who
believes, we will repent and we will trust in Him with our
action more than just a mental belief, and we will confess
before men that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and be baptized
for the remission of our sins. Mark 16, verse 16, if you
started that walk, but you need to get back on the right path.
There is a place for that in this earth where we are going.
What's done is done. But today we have an opportunity
wherever we stand to be right with God and make it right with
God. Please do that while we stand
and while we stand.