Don’t Be Such a Diotrephes

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek preaches from his series,

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Short Letters, Big Stuff, a study in 2nd and 3rd John, and also Jude. Let's listen in.

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Well, good morning, Recast Church. Hopefully we get this recorded this week a little bit better than we did last week.

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As somebody said online this week, pastors all over the world are trying to make their services this week not look like a

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Bin Laden, Al Qaeda capture video. So we're going to try to do a little bit better job, not get me frozen again.

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But I really am grateful for technology. I'm so glad that we can connect in this way.

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Obviously, the best case scenario is the church gathered together locally. This is one of the weirdest things,

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I think, that many of us will look back on in our lives and identify that this was a strange season for us.

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I think even our kids will remember where they were and how old they were when this thing hit. But hopefully this morning, gathered together in your houses, you can connect with God's word.

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I love it that Dave and the band are able to bring us some songs and that we're able to continue to have a sense that we're worshiping together and even worshiping in our homes.

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I hope that you're looking forward to gathering together as God's people in this place, in this very room.

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And I sure do look forward to what God is going to do in us and through us, growing our faith now, in the present, as well as in the future.

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And I think that, remember that this is just a trial right now, that at the end of the day, we can waste in terms of fear and doubt, or we can use this as an opportunity to surge ahead in our faith.

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And so I hope that that's the case for you, that you continue to grow in faith, even as we might be a bit stunted for a season here in our growth in community, without our community groups meeting, and that we're a little bit stunted in our service.

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And to be honest, I'm praying that this time of relative isolation serves as a good reminder of the way that God has designed us to be connected to one another in community.

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We're designed to be connected together to one another in community. We're made, made, made for relationships, made for togetherness, and further, we're made to serve each other, not just to hang out together, but to serve one another.

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We all have something to offer to the body of Christ. And without using that gift to serve, we will not reach the sense of purpose and fulfillment that God has created us for.

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He's designed us to want to push into each other's lives in terms of love, connection, relationship, accountability, all of those things.

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And so this morning, we're going to be looking at another tiny letter in the New Testament. It's the letter of 3

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John, or as the Brits would say, and maybe even President Trump would say, 3 John, but 3

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John. This letter is so situational that it has very little direct teaching in it, very little that directly comes to us as a

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U Church in Matawan, U Church recast must do this.

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The themes of the letter require that we dig into the actual events surrounding the letter and the events of the situation, and that we see the principles that are at play there.

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So it's more like a teaching by watching. In that sense, it's a little bit more like the Old Testament, it's a little bit more like a narrative in that the lesson comes out of the moving parts of the relationships that are in there.

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And so there's a ton of speculation about the events surrounding 3 John. There's controversy in the church, there's no question about that, and John is writing because he loves the church and he feels responsible for it.

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We don't even know the location of the church that he's writing to. But there's conflict there between the

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Apostle John and a particular church leader, or at least a self -appointed church leader there in that community, and we may be shocked to see the very direct interaction that John tackles head -on with this man named

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Diotrephes. If you have any notion in your mind that church leadership, and a church leader needs to be a pushover, needs to just back off any time that any conflict happens, then this letter ought to correct that thinking because John takes it straight at Diotrephes, even calling him out by name in this letter.

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He certainly does this for the sake of the church as a whole, for the health of the church, and for the ongoing move of the gospel going forward.

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And it appears as though Diotrephes in some way was hindering the gospel, hindering the mission of the church, and so he's going to address it and take it head -on.

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And so before we read this, I want you to try your best to track with the three guys in the text.

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Now it's a short text, so it's not going to be too hard to track with it, but I want you to think about these three men and their role in this letter.

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There's first Gaius, who is commended for his commitment to the truth. Gaius, who is commended for his commitment to the truth.

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Then there's Diotrephes, who is called out directly in verses 9 and 10. And then there's

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Demetrius, who's introduced in a short section in verse 12 as a man of the truth.

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So you have Gaius, who's commended for the truth. You have Demetrius, or Diotrephes rather, who's called out for opposing the truth.

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And then Demetrius, who is, again, so you have this kind of truth sandwich. Gaius, the truth,

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Diotrephes opposing the truth, and then Demetrius for the truth.

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So the story of this letter produces for us an interesting glimpse into the early church, what the life was like there, the reality of conflict even in that early time.

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And it appears that even the early church had to deal with real humans. Even they had people, too.

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And so that means real human problems, because they were real people working to forge community together in Christ.

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And so grab your Bible, and I mean that sincerely, pause if you need to find a

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Bible, or navigate on a device to a Bible app. Maybe you have an analog

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Bible, an actual paper copy, I encourage you to pause the video and find one. And if by some chance someone in the

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Matawan area is watching this, and you don't own a paper copy of the

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Bible, and you would like to, then let us know, and Recast would love to drop one off to you.

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You could connect with us on Facebook, you could call the church number at 269 -668 -7050, and you could call us, and we would love to get you a copy of the

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Bible. And yes, I know, I know, I know that the Bible is very available online, but there's something that's really great about having a paper copy.

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I'm not a Luddite, I like to use technology, I'm preaching from an iPad here, and at the same time, we would love to get you a copy of the

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Word of God if you would just reach out and ask. And so someone watching this might really enjoy having a paper copy of the

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Bible, especially during this downtime, and we would love to facilitate that if at all possible. So let's read together 3

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John in its entirety, hopefully you're already there so you can follow along. And let's dig in.

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Recast, this is the powerful Word of God, the Word that God has revealed to us that has the power to transform us when we truly understand it.

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So let's listen in. The elder, to the beloved

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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.

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For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you are walking in the truth.

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I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

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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.

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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

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Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

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I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.

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So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us, and not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

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Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God, whoever does evil has not seen

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God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself.

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We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink.

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I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you.

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The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.

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Let's pray. Father, I rejoice in the opportunity that we have to hear from your word this week.

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It's a strange thing that we're living in the midst of right now. I recognize that there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of doubt, there's a lot of uncertainty that surrounds us.

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Father, I pray that you would hold your people closely in your arms. That you would indeed care for those who are in the higher risk categories, that you would take care of our healthcare workers and first responders that are out there on the front lines.

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And Father, that you would stem the tide of this coronavirus, that this COVID -19 would indeed be washed away, that you would provide a cure, that you would provide a vaccine.

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But in the meantime, Father, I pray that your people would be moved deeply to faith, deeply to joy, and deeply to peace.

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God, your grace is sufficient for us. The name of Jesus Christ is enough for us.

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The hope of eternity in him is enough. Father, I pray that you would make that real, even as we listen to it and think about it this morning.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Well, go ahead and get settled in with your cup of coffee and keep your

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Bibles open to 3 John, and we're going to go ahead and dig in here. And so this is the point where I, well,

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I've got some donuts here. I'm not going to eat one this week. I did that last week for you. But yeah,

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I think we're probably all sad that we're not eating donuts and drinking coffee together, but soon, soon we'll be able to do that.

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I'm going to start a bit differently than I normally would in a letter, because letters usually are propositional truth that kind of has argumentation and roles in an orderly fashion.

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But what I'm going to do this morning in this letter is I'm going to start by piecing together to explain the situation that the letter describes.

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Because this, as I said, it's more of a narrative letter. It's more like you grab somebody else's mail and they're sharing details about what's going on in their lives and in others.

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And so I want to stick with what's written with as little speculation as possible. And I say that because I mentioned a little bit earlier that there are tons of commentaries that want to read between the lines and fill in the blanks and speculate and kind of get a little off track or really add into the fire of what might have been going on during this time.

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For example, people will talk about Diotrephes as a pastor, as a pastor in the church.

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Now we could easily be moved to assume that because it's said that he has cast people out of the church, but that just may not be completely true.

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He may very well be a layperson who has risen up to some sense of power and authority within the church.

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What is the role of Gaius? Why is he there? And if he's sympathetic to John and Diotrephes hates

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John, then why has Gaius not been kicked out? And so some suggest, you know, get pretty far afield in thinking about these things.

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So some suggest that John wishes him good health at the start of this letter. And that implies then that he must be in poor health, which then they would apply some guesswork and say that he might have been a shut -in who was able to, was not able rather to get to church.

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And so that was part of Diotrephes as he was a part of Diotrephes' church, but not in regular attendance.

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And so he was able to connect with John without Diotrephes finding out. And again, all speculation, not, not really important to the point of the text, but hopefully you can see that this goes far beyond what the text tells us when we start to speculate.

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And then we get caught far afield and trying to draw applications from the texts that just are not there, especially if we assign roles to these men in the church that we don't really know.

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So we could make our applications too narrow as a result of adding to the story.

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So let's look at the skeleton of the story that is given to us in the letter. We don't, we don't need all the details, but I'm confident that John has given us enough to understand what he wants us to understand.

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And therefore, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in 3 John, we have the story that we need.

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The details are there. We don't need to go far afield to try to reproduce all and every nuance of every detail.

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But we, our hearts want to do that, but the benefit is to just stick with the text as much as possible.

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So John, who called himself the elder and loved to, he did so in 2 John, he does so in 3

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John, and he's writing to a personal and close friend named Gaius. Now we know that from the text, this was a very common name.

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The name Gaius is a, is a crazy common name in Greek culture, especially during this time.

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We have four or five Gaiuses. We don't know if there's some overlap and maybe a couple of them are the same, but there's multiple

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Gaiuses mentioned in scripture, including a Gaius in Corinth that Paul himself baptized. And we see that in one of his letters.

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And we have a Gaius mentioned in Romans, and we have a Gaius mentioned here. But the fact that John calls this

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Gaius beloved, he calls him beloved, it shows the close relationship between them.

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Beloved would be the equivalent of calling somebody a dear friend, a close and loved associate.

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And John loves him, he says, I love you, you're beloved. And I love you in the truth, not, not just merely that I truly love you, but I love you in the truth.

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You see, what he's getting at is the, the love that binds us is the truth that we have in common, the common faith that we have in Jesus Christ, a common commitment to the scriptures as revealed, a common understanding of grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

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And John wishes well for Gaius here at the start. In verse three, we find out that some dudes had left John's church and went on a ministry trip that took them near Gaius.

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And they brought back a report to John that Gaius is a man of truth who is continuing to walk in the truth.

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He's walking, Gaius is a man who is walking, living out in obedience day by day, the truth of the gospel in his community.

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And John, it says, he greatly rejoices again, like, just like he said in second

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John last week, he uses the same phrase, a rare phrase where he basically is saying, I mega rejoice.

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I greatly rejoice. I'm super abundantly rejoicing to find out that you, Gaius, are walking in the truth.

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He's greatly rejoicing to find out that a man that he's ministered with and probably ministered to in the past is walking in the truth.

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The fact that he calls Gaius one of his children in verse four, or alludes to him being one of his children, leads me toward the idea that many commentators stated, and I think this is textually based, that maybe

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Gaius came to faith in Christ through the ministry of John. It was quite common for someone in that day and age, and especially for the apostles to call those that came to faith in Christ under their preaching, to call them children, their children.

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And he says, I rejoice greatly to see my children walking in the truth. So John expresses gratitude that Gaius faithfully supported these ministers as they came through his town.

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He calls it, in the text directly, a faithful thing to support ministers, yes, to even support strangers who have gone out for the sake of the name of Christ, who bear the name

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Jesus and readily speak the glory of the name, working for the name, working for the supremacy and the glory of Jesus Christ over all things, is the picture.

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So when this traveling group of missionaries went from John, ministered in the area where Gaius was, they came back to John's church,

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John says they publicly commended Gaius and his hospitality. They said, we went out, we were on ministry, this guy took us in, this guy was the real deal, he's walking in the truth, and publicly in front of the church they said, man,

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Gaius is the guy. Gaius is the man of the truth, walking in the truth, loving the truth.

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They were loved and cared for by this dude, they probably were fed by him, he provided them, most likely, lodging while they were there in the area of his town, and John even encouraged

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Gaius to send them on their mission in a manner worthy of God. We talked back in the book of Romans about a

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Christian hospitality, a hospitality that looks different than the world's hospitality, a hospitality that is worthy of the saints, in this context, worthy of God.

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A Christian type of hospitality, though ancient world was hospitable, Christians were called to even a higher standard than that, of love and care and encouragement because we understand the ministry that these people are on, we understand their mission because we're united in the truth, and because we're united in the truth we have so much more in common than sitting around and watching a football game together, or a basketball game, sorry to bring that up, guys, that's not happening right now, is it?

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We have so much more in common than that, and in this time, you know, where there's no March Madness, there's instead

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March Sadness, and there's all of this stuff going on around us, all the more reason for us to connect, even through technology, with like -minded individuals who we can encourage and spur one another on toward faith in this time where there's a lot of faithlessness and a lot of fearfulness that's going on in our culture around us.

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And so, John even encouraged Gaius, he said, send them on in a manner that is worthy of God.

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And those sent out missionaries then received, he goes on to declare, they don't get anything from the Gentiles.

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What he means by that is that these missionaries received no compensation from those that they were ministering to.

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They're going out on a mission to try to reach out to non -Christian pagans, these would be people who worshipped the pantheon of Greek gods in that era and that time, and they're going out on this mission, and they're ministering to them, and they don't receive, they don't charge anything for their ministry.

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Just like modern -day missionaries, they don't charge the nationals for the gospel.

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So John encourages Gaius to support people who are ministering for the name of Jesus Christ. And he says they're ministering without any mindset of personal gain.

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They were not charging for their messages, and so they needed help from the church. They needed the church to bring in some money in order to disperse it to those who are ministering.

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And he even encouraged Gaius that when we support people who are truly bringing the good news of the name of Jesus Christ, then we get the benefit of being fellow workers with them.

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Even though we are only secondarily supporting the ministry, we're not physically involved in it, we still get the benefit of actually participating and being fellow workers with those that our money goes to support beyond our actual physical hands and feet going and helping.

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So what we see is that when these traveling missionaries left from John, went to the area of Gaius, they're sharing the gospel with Gentiles, by no means at their big tent revivals would they pass an offering plate.

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They were not taking up an offering among those that they were sharing the gospel with, but instead it was on the church to take up an offering to support them.

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And that's exactly what we do here at Recast. We do support many local ministries, including the gospel mission.

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We support Youth for Christ. We support Wings of God. We have multiple things that we support.

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We sent the Lloyds to Indonesia, obviously they're back again. We have recently taken up Isaac and Casey Mann, who also work in Indonesia.

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We need to be praying for them and hopefully you had a chance this week to watch the video. If you didn't, go back to the Ecast and there should have been a video there for them presenting their ministry and just kind of introducing themselves to the church.

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We're considering a couple of other missionaries, foreign, to take on. But things turn in verse 9 here.

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John had written a previous letter to the church, so he says, thank you for supporting them.

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And they came back, they reported, well, you did a good job. But then they turn in verse 9. And what we find out right away in verse 9 is that John had written a previous letter to the church where Diotrephes is.

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But that man Diotrephes intercepted the letter. And Diotrephes, according to the text, is not a good dude.

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Again, we don't know of his official role in the church, but he certainly has some leadership, whether formal or informal, whether appointed outside of himself or whether self -appointed, we don't exactly know.

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But he likes to put himself first, the text says. Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first.

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He doesn't acknowledge the apostle John's authority. He likes to have the authority.

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He talks a lot of smack against John. He refused to welcome any ministers coming from John.

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And he even stops people in his church from providing hospitality and support for those who come from John.

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And he has even gone so far as to threaten and act out church discipline and even to the extreme of excommunication for anyone who would support

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John and those sent from John's church. This guy has it out for the apostle

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John. So without much speculation, it's fair to say that this Diotrephes here in the text is bad news.

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So John told Gaius to not allow Diotrephes to be the example. Don't follow the example of evil, but instead he holds up a different guy,

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Demetrius, likely the same guy who's carrying this letter to Gaius from John.

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But he holds him up and he says, don't follow evil examples, but follow good examples like Demetrius.

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And as much of a no -brainer as that sounds, like think about the advice that John is giving here. Hey guys,

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I got an idea. Follow good examples and don't follow bad examples.

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Like that's the advice here. And it sounds silly, but I would suggest to you that when we get caught in the fray of interpersonal conflict in relationships, and especially when we have our opinion and other people have their opinions, we can easily be led astray by a person who appears to have good intentions and deep down has evil intentions.

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And we become, we have a hard time with blinders that we put up that at the end of the day, we just, we have a hard time seeing exactly what's going on in those situations.

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And so Demetrius, the text goes on explaining the situation,

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Demetrius comes highly recommended by John. He is likely the guy carrying the letter, as I mentioned, and everyone speaks highly of him.

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And so if you hold up his life to the true life that God desires of us, the truth testifies that this guy is indeed a good guy.

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He's a good example. And John in his own church also, he says, we all speak highly of him.

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You guys know that he's a good guy. The truth testifies that he's a good guy. We all back here in the church that sent him out know that he's a good guy.

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So it's not enough, by the way, notice this in the text, it's not enough that the man is spoken of well by people, but notice that in the middle,

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Demetrius does well according to the truth. A person's life cannot ever strictly be measured according to popularity or good things said about him by falling humans.

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A person must be measured according to the word of truth. And by the standard

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Demetrius, by the standard, by the standard of God's word, by the standard of truth,

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Demetrius shines out as a man of the truth. Now he's not perfect, mind you, but a man of the gospel, a man of grace, and therefore a man of the fruit of the

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Holy Spirit. So that's really the flow of the text. There's love, there's joy and gladness at the start.

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John rejoices in the report of Gaius. He's glad for him.

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There's turmoil in the middle of this, though. So you've got John rejoicing in the truth and rejoicing in the report of Gaius, but then there's turmoil with Diotrephes in the middle, a dangerous teacher, a dangerous leader who is sowing animosity in the church and creating a very unloving division.

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So there's a contrasting example in the end with Demetrius, who is a man of the truth, a man of the truth,

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Gaius, a man of his own way, Diotrephes, a man of the truth, Demetrius.

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And you see the sandwich there. And John closes this text with a clear plan to visit the church face to face, even a plan to confront

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Diotrephes. He says, I'm coming, and when I come, I'm going to take it to him directly. And he concludes with personal greetings to this church, who he affectionately identifies as his friends.

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So where is the truth in this kind of narrative? What does this have to do with us in 2020? How does this filter down to us, especially we're in the middle of a crisis here, we're going through difficult times, and what does this situation between Gaius and Diotrephes and Demetrius have to do with us?

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Well, as a pastor committed to the word of God, I have the conviction that every part of scripture has something for the church to apply.

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And I believe this one is no different. And so I'm breaking this text down into five principles for your consideration.

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This is a narrative of real conflict. We could look at it and say, well, that happened. Apparently, there was conflict in this church, and then just walk away.

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But this historical account is preserved for us, church. It's preserved for us in this letter, so it shows us some things about church life and about our own church here in Matawan in 2020.

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So the first principle found in verses one through four is simply this, love and rejoice over those who walk in the truth.

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Love and rejoice over those who walk in the truth. I want to point out here at the start that John wasn't a hater.

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You could think that he is, but without this opening interaction with Gaius, he may have come off as a complete jerk, insensitive, calling out

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Diotrephes by name, calling out his smack talk, all of that. But instead, what we see is a

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John here at the start of these first four verses who loved people deeply, and it shows.

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He was very close with Gaius. He loved him, it says in the text, in the truth. And for us who share the truth in common, we indeed ought to love one another, and that obviously looks different in this day and age, this current time of social distancing.

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We ought to use technology as much as we can to try to reach out to those around us, to those that we love, and demonstrate that love and care in checking in with one another.

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But look at verse two. John prayed for the health of Gaius and even prayed that his outer health would match his inner health.

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Now, it is quite possible in this that there may have been some health issues that Gaius was facing, but this is a big deal in our current context that John requests this, because let me just encourage you to be requesting that for one another as well.

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Like John and Gaius, we're all separated right now. Like John and Gaius, there is unknown conflict swirling around us and uncertainty.

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Like John and Gaius, there is love between us. And so like John and Gaius, we should indeed be praying for one another, praying that our outward health matches the inward health that we see.

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And we ought to be corresponding with one another as much as possible. And in verses three and four, we see the joy of John.

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He says that the highest level of joy he can receive is knowing that people he has ministered to, people that he has been walking in the truth with, that they, after he is gone, they would continue to walk in the truth.

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And I feel this when we love each other, Recast. I see it. I've seen it for 11 years now, and it's been a beautiful thing.

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I cannot express to you how much I rejoice. I mega rejoice. I greatly rejoice when

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I see you guys loving one another. And I do. I catch it all the time. I catch you behaving well, and I love it.

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And I see you walking in the truth and walking in love toward one another. So that's the first principle.

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Love and rejoice over those who walk in the truth. The second principle is found in verses five through eight. And it's simply this.

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We should support those who minister for the name. Support those who minister for the name. Starting in verse five,

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John talks about ministers sent out from his church that Gaius took in and supported.

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Gaius took them in and then helped them along their way in their ministry. And these traveling evangelists are described as going out for the sake of the name.

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Really, ultimately, they are committed to proclaiming Christ. And I don't think it's a stretch to identify the name as the name of Christ.

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Thinking about all that John has said in 1 John and 2 John, it makes sense that the name is the name of Christ in 3

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John. And they're not like the false teachers mentioned in other places who are all about the paycheck, all about getting that new jet or a beach house for themselves.

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As a matter of fact, these guys don't even pass an offering plate at the revivals. And therefore, that's why they need support.

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They are dependent upon the generous support of local churches to help them on their way.

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John tells us to support ministries like that. Support ministries where Jesus is held high and the gospel is proclaimed.

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Look for missionaries like that. Look for churches like that. Now I'm going to say something here, and I mean this sincerely.

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Those of you who know Recast, you know that we don't pass an offering plate. I can actually say, and I have to be careful not making it a source of pride, but we have never passed an offering plate at all.

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We've always had either a box, now we have a welcome table with a slot in it. And so what

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I'm about to say, I say only to those of you who have a routine habit, a routine plan as part of your spiritual walk with God to give to the church.

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If that's you, then I would encourage you, if you've been a regular giver, and you currently don't know how to go about that, because we're not meeting in our building and you can't drop a physical envelope into that slot.

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And so you've been wondering, well, what should I do during this interim time? Well, we still have ministries to support. As a matter of fact, the elders are quite confident that we're going to be coming on some times where we're going to need to really reach out even more heavily to the church body and to the community at large with help and assistance.

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And so I don't think that our need for finances have gone away. So if you're a regular giver,

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I would encourage you to use your bank's online pay or send in a check to the office and that will get into the welcome slot and be counted.

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And we're grateful for that. You could give online at PayPal. They take two and a half percent, just so that you know that up front.

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And so sending a check in is much better than giving through PayPal. But again, this is only for those of you who already routinely give to the church.

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We recognize that some of you are actually in fearful economic, experiencing economic ramifications of this current crisis.

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And so I just encourage you to just do whatever the Lord is leading you. That's completely between you and him.

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We are not here grabbing for money at all. And so I'm just grateful for the way that God has provided for our church through the giving slot over the years, which is obviously not available in this time of crisis.

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So if you're still in a position to be able to continue to support the church, great. If this is a time where you really need to hold off on that, we respect that too.

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So but we're going to continue to minister to the needs of the community as they arise. And we're going to continue to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and lift him high here.

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And so in supporting ministries, both foreign and local, we become fellow workers for the truth.

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And that goes for within the church as well as outside of the church. Just make sure that whatever ministry that you support, that you know that it lifts high the name of Christ.

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Don't support ministries that are going to shy away from the name of Jesus, that none of their literature mentions

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Jesus, none of their literature mentions the cause of the cross or the need for repentance from sins.

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Make sure that you support ministries that lift Jesus high. And so the third principle from this text is the reality that broken leadership isn't a new thing.

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So if we go back on the first one is love and rejoice over those who walk in truth. The second is support those who minister for the name.

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The third is broken leadership isn't a new thing. Even at this very early stage in the church, we see that human leaders got off track very early in the history of the church.

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Diotrephes has some things that are declared about him that are significant warning signs for us to consider in anyone that we would adopt as our leader.

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And that's adopt as our leader. That's by the way, not assigned leadership. That's not just because I'm the pastor here.

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This is someone that you would, you would seek to follow and allow to persuade you in any direction.

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This might be somebody you listen to on the radio. It might be an author. It might be another preacher that you listen to on podcasts, but listen to this

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Diotrephes. Here's the first identification of somebody to watch out for. He likes to put himself first.

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This is the kind of leader who lets you know that they are the leader. He likes the attention.

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He wants to be ahead of everyone else in line and he wants everybody else to know how important he is.

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That's a Diotrephes. A Diotrephes is someone who doesn't acknowledge the authority of others at all. In this case, he wouldn't even acknowledge the authority of one of the disciples who walked with Jesus Christ.

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One of the very original 12 apostles, one of the original 12 disciples, John, who was there through all the ministry of Jesus.

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That John in Diotrephes says, nah, I got no room for you because I'm a pretty big stuff myself.

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A Diotrephes will trash talk nonsense about others and discredit them. And in verse 10, this is exactly what it says he was doing to John.

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The word nonsense gives indication that these were false criticisms leveled against John. He was just inventing stuff.

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A false leader will do whatever it takes to discredit someone who threatens their authority or who looks to be bigger and higher and stronger than them.

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A Diotrephes refuses to welcome anyone who disagrees with him. In this case, there seems to have been a theological issue that would have kept

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Diotrephes from receiving ministers who were endorsed by the very apostle John and John sending workers and they're being rejected.

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John sends a letter, it's rejected. So John says, Gaius, I'm coming myself.

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I'm going to come and take care of this. A Diotrephes will be intimidated by his followers receiving any other's voice in their lives.

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He wants to be the sole voice in your life. That's a Diotrephes.

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He will stop people from connecting with the truth through other channels. And lastly, in verse 10, we see that a

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Diotrephes will resort to radical fear tactics to command allegiance. In this case, he even went so far as excommunicating anyone who would receive a message from John, a messenger from John or John.

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That's the extent, that's the extreme of this guy's attitude. Leadership can indeed go bad.

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But I want to point out, we do not even know the role that Diotrephes had in his church. He very well may have been in the role as an influencer without an official role.

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A Diotrephes, a person who fills that role, a Diotrephes could be a lead pastor, yes, but it could also be a

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Sunday school teacher. It could be a greeter at the door. It could even be a community group leader who begins to go off the rails.

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Recast, a lesson for this is don't be a Diotrephes. And second of all, don't follow a

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Diotrephes. And we have a pretty good outline of what to be careful for. The fourth principle is found in verses 11 through 12, and it's follow the good example.

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Follow the good example. In the midst of church squabbles, it can be really hard to discern who is right or even what is right.

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So in verse 11, John brings our attention back to some basic principles. There are good examples and there are bad examples, he says.

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Imitate the good examples. Whoever continues in good is from God. Imitate them. Whoever continues in evil has not yet even met

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God. Don't imitate them. That's the point. Some will propose to give you spiritual insight and they don't even know

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God. And it's demonstrated by their works and by their actions. And so John intentionally shows us how to determine the good from the bad.

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It is good that Demetrius received a good testimony from everyone. Reputation is not a terrible place to start when it comes to spiritual leadership, but it cannot ever be the sole standard.

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My hunch is that there are many people who would have said that Diotrephes is powerful, Diotrephes is strong,

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Diotrephes is a good leader. How could he even be leading if there weren't people following?

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But move on to the test of the word. How does their life match up with the truth found in the word of God?

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If believing the gospel, trusting in Jesus, think about it, believing the gospel, trusting in Jesus and exhibiting the fruit of the spirit.

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If those are the test, how does their life match up? Think about the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

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Powerful things that the spirit will work into the life of one who is called to lead. So find a humble example who loves

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Jesus, a humble example who knows they are sinful and is quick to correct wrongs and quick to repent and then imitate them only in as much as they are imitating the truth of God's word.

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Lastly, the final principle is found in verses 13 through 15, but really just 15 because really he gives a couple of comments in verse 13 and 14 that really just wrap it up and say

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I'm coming to visit. But in his final lines of this letter in verse 15, he greets the church with a beautiful term, friends.

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Even calling his own church, the friends, and then asking Gaius to greet the friends there.

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And he says, greet those friends with you guys, greet them by name on my behalf.

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He knew them, he was in community, he was close in friendship with those who were in the truth.

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You see, we need community, we know that, we need relationships. We need each other even more so when a crisis hits.

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And so this COVID -19 just emphasizes how we are designed. A crisis that causes us to withdraw from others really gets under our skin.

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I know that it's getting to many of us, especially those who are extroverted, it's already got you. But some of you introverts are celebrating right now, but you won't be by the end.

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Even for introverts, this will be short -lived as you come to the end of your glee over being alone.

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I'm convinced that even the most introverted among us still need deep down in your soul human interaction.

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God has designed us to need friends. And the church should be increasingly a gathering of friendship for you.

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So let me encourage you, Recast, encourage all of you, and all of you that are taking this in, to reach out with love and care in the coming weeks.

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Maintain those friendships. Call each other, text, FaceTime, use technology to actually get some look at people.

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Use those technologies that you don't usually use. I just downloaded a new app called

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Marco Polo where we can get more connection with immediate family members and extended family.

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And I'm using different technologies that I've ever used before just for the sake of trying to keep some level of connection.

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So from the short letter, let's recap the principles before we wrap up. First, love those who walk in the truth.

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Second, support those who minister for the name of Jesus. Third, remember that broken leadership is not a new thing and be on guard for it.

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Fourth, follow the good examples. Fifth, the church should be full, full, full of friends, friends and friendships.

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So let's close with this thought. Those who went out for the sake of the name in this text, those who went out for the sake of the name of Christ, went out declaring the good news of salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ in him alone.

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It is never enough to set out a measure of good and bad and then try to be good. That is not what this text is.

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That isn't the place that this message is meant to end. Because the church is made up of people who know that they are sinful and hopeless without a savior.

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Jesus Christ came to earth. He lived a sinless life. He was crucified as the sacrifice for our sins.

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And he rose again there days, he rose again there in that grave three days later.

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And he rose again so that anyone who puts their faith and trust in him might receive eternal life.

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The hope that goes beyond this life. The hope that coronavirus cannot touch.

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That nothing here on this planet can touch this hope that comes through the cross of Jesus Christ.

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Place your faith in him now. In times of uncertainty, this message gives his people hope.

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It is the source of our peace. It is the source of our grace and our love reaching out. So let me encourage you to ask

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Jesus, if you have not done this before, to maybe even now ask Jesus to save you from your sins.

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He loved you enough to make a way for you to be forgiven. He made a way through his body and his blood for you to be set free from the consequences of your sins.

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So let me encourage you to turn to Jesus for hope and peace. Even today.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your grace and for your mercy. I thank you for the hope that goes beyond this current crisis that we find ourselves in.

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A hope that will carry us beyond the grave. A hope of resurrection.

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A hope that our sins could be washed away and we could be reconciled to you. Father, I thank you for the example of John here in the text who takes the truth seriously.

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The very truth that is centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that you would make us a people who are faithful to you.

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And during this crisis, would you hold us all? Would you bring us all back, each and every one of us, to this truth of the gospel?

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Do not let fear reign in your church. But allow trust and faith and grace and love toward each other.

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Abound all the more and more. Even if it's just merely through technology. I ask this in Jesus' name.