In a World of Diotrephes, Be a Gaius

Truth and Love in 2nd and 3rd John

Well, I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn all the way back to the book of 3rd John. You'll remember That we are going through the little letters and we spent two weeks going through the 13 verses of 2nd John and Tonight we are going to look at the 15 verses of 3rd John.

And when we examined 2nd John we noted that there was a dual theme That ran through the book the dual theme was that of truth and love and we looked at the value of truth and the danger of deception and This theme carries over into 3rd John.

The letter of 3rd John is not a sequel to 2nd John as I mentioned before. But it does in a sense go on the same theme and ride the same ideas and what it does is it gives us specific examples of men who are to be commended and One man in particular who is to be condemned.

Before we read I want to just mention something. We live in a world and I think you all know this without me even saying it but we live in a world that has Convinced itself that the only sin is Making a judgment call against someone in their sin but the only thing that's wrong is to say that something's wrong and How dare you tell anyone else that something is wrong?

You have no right to make a judgment claim. You have no right to make a claim against anyone else's Peccadillo's or peculiarities or their particular pet sins. And they often claim Jesus as their reasoning.

They say Jesus said judge not lest ye be judged and He did say those words. But that isn't all he ever said and if we interpret the words of Jesus Only on one sentence from his life and ministry We certainly will fail to understand what he has commanded us to do.

We are called to be a discerning people. Now that does not mean that we are called to be people who pick at knits. You know what? That is right a nitpicker. Okay, I just make sure. People who are always trying to find something wrong with someone else always trying to find and I and I and honestly I have I Have met people like that and they are exhausting.

They're always looking for something to attack. That's not what we are to be about. But there are times when it is necessary to call out The dangerous man. There are times when it is necessary to mark out the one who is bringing Problem whether it be in the church or well.

Primarily it should be within the church. Paul tells us in first Corinthians 5 that When it comes to the world, we shouldn't be surprised when the world sins. But we do have to be discerning within the church.

We have to be discerning within the body we have to look at what's going on and sometimes people need to be commended and sometimes people need to be corrected and so tonight we're going to see three men and What I think is interesting as we read and we're about to read the whole letter.

We're going to read all 15 verses, but as we're reading I want I want you to just keep this in mind. When we read this letter It reminds us that this is a real Letter written to real people at real in real history.

It's going to name three men Gaius Diocletian and Demetrius each one of them named forever in God's Holy Word. Two of them are going to be commended. One of them is going to be condemned. Can you imagine?

Yourself your name in God's Word to be commended in God's Word would be a awesome but to be condemned in his Word or at the very least corrected in his Word would would be a weight difficult to bear and.

So let us let us read this text and then I'll say a short prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to Give me what he wants me to say tonight and in regard to give me the power to say what he wants me to say. So let's look at third John.

Gaius, the Beloved Elder and His Commendation

John Begins a letter the same way he does second John by identifying himself as the elder the elder to the beloved Gaius whom I love in truth. Beloved I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul.

For I rejoice greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved it is a fateful thing you do and all your efforts for these brothers.

Strangers as they are who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name. Accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

Therefore we ought to support people like these that we may be fellow workers for the truth. I've written something to the church. But diatrophies who likes to put himself first. Does not acknowledge our authority.

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.

Beloved do not imitate evil. But imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. 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. I hope to see you soon and We will talk face to face. Peace be to you the friends greet you greet the friends. Every one of them.

This is God's Word. Let us pray Father I thank you for these personal letters Lord this Correspondence as we see here and we'll see later in Philemon a very personal pastoral letter. That Paul is or excuse me that John is writing to guys and father.

I pray that you would Tonight keep me from error as I preach. Open the hearts of your people to hear the truth and Lord bless us as we study this little letter in Jesus name. Amen. Alright so what we're going to do.

I did ask brother Andy he helped me out. He brought in the whiteboard. I'm gonna simply make a few notes on the board if if you're writing notes. This may help you. If not, it may at least help keep us in our minds as to what we're going to be talking about.

First is Gaius and then after that we have diatrophies and Then we have Demetrius. Now really in in one sense these three men give us an outline for the book because the book begins to Gaius and it gives a commendation and a command to him and then it gives a warning about diatrophies this second man and then it sort of supplies another blessing at the end by Throwing in another man's name who is probably this man is probably the one delivering the letter.

That's why he's receiving the Commendation we we commend this man to you. So therefore we have these three men and their purpose in the letter and and then he finishes of course with a with a pastoral note, which we'll look at when we get there, but let's talk about who these guys are because It's interesting when we begin to examine historically who these men are we find some things both biblically and Extra biblically and by extra biblically what I mean is we find their names not only in the biblical record.

But we find their names in the the extra biblical writings. You understand that the Bible was not the only thing written in the first hundred years of the church. There were other writings that were written.

In fact, one of the things that I try to encourage people to do is at least be somewhat familiar With some of the writings of early church history. Because it can give you a better and broader picture of what was going on at that particular time.

It's easy for us to think that church history begins and ends with us. You know, I've told this story before but you know The old Peanuts cartoon with Lucy and Charlie Brown and Linus and his sister Sally I think is her name and she's writing a paper on church history.

And he says well, how what are you writing in the paper? And she says my pastor was born in 1935. That's church history. That's as far as it goes back. You know. Well, my pastor was born and that's that's the way a lot of people think church history begins with me.

One day when I die I'm in with me. But it doesn't and so there are historical records to go all the way back and we have we have tons of historical records. From the first second third century. In fact, it is said and I think this is true.

In fact recently I listened to a Dan Wallace is a textual critic that I like and I listened to a lot of his stuff and Dan was teaching on textual criticism and one of the things that he taught on was The the reality that if you were to take away all of the early manuscripts of the Bible and we really don't have a lot Of early ones, but if you took away all the papyri if you took away all the manuscripts and even the Latin manuscripts.

Which came out, you know began to show up in the fourth century and things like that. We took all those away. We would still have in the writings of the early church fathers almost the entire Bible in quotations as They wrote their commentaries on the text.

They wrote quoting the text. Therefore we have in their quotations the Bible. So that's another Another witness to the history of the text of how tenacious and Broad the copying of it was and so that's just an amazing reality that we have so much Writing from that.

How many have you ever seen the early church fathers like Christian book distributors? Christian book distributors is a is a book they if you ever bought from them they'll send you a book the rest of your life, so if you do buy from them get ready because they're going to send you a Magazine every month and In that magazine, there's a thing called the early church fathers and it's a volume.

It's it's several dozen books of the writings of the early church fathers. These are men some of them that actually learned at the feet of the disciples. So these are valuable Writings is everything in them.

Correct? No, nothing. I not everything I say is correct. You know, these are men they make mistakes, but I've kind of gone on a tangent. My point is we learned some things about these guys from those writings.

So let's look a little bit about Gaius. Gaius is Mentioned to us in four books of the Bible. I'm just going to write up here four books and The four books are he the name guys rather is mentioned in the book of Acts.

Mentioned in the book of Romans mentioned in the book of 1st Corinthians and mentioned here in 3rd John now. Here's what we learned. Gaius is a fairly common name and therefore these might not all be the same guy.

It's sort of like John how many Johns are there in the Bible there's there's quite a few how many James James. Specifically, right? You got multiple James's even in the twelve disciples right, so just because Gaius is mentioned in Acts 19 and Acts 20 doesn't mean it's the same Gaius as 3rd John and so a little bit of research and study has to be done to see if it's actually the same person and According to the sources that I looked at and we're studying.

It does seem to think that the Acts Gaius may not be the same as the 3rd John guy. So it might not be the same person. I'll read a quote it here. It says two of the guys has mentioned in the Bible were known for their hospitality.

So it might have been the same guy. Because they're both sort of known for the same thing and what's interesting and I know you're at least I think you're a fan of The Pilgrims Progress and we should all be fans of Pilgrims Progress.

What is it? Yeah, and he's what's he known for? The Hospitality, right he's known for his hospitality. So it seems as if even John Bunyan and in looking for a name to apply to somebody who's Hospitable saw Gaius as that name and so he applies that in in his writings the word Gaius means happy or one who rejoices and The men who bore the name in Scripture tend to be known for that if it is multiple men.

Bob Utley says this I've been Mentioning him a lot lately. He states in his teaching on 3rd John. That the early church fathers and this is one thing I like about Utley. He looks into a lot of the stuff researches a lot of stuff.

He says the early church fathers say Gaius the Gaius that we're talking about actually became the Bishop of Pergamum. So the early fathers mentioned this Gaius as becoming a bishop in a church and you guys Remember the Church of Pergamum, right?

Where's that from? Revelation so it would have been one of the seven churches in Asia Minor. Okay, so Gaius has a good reputation both in this book throughout the Bible. He's known for being hospitable and according to church history extra biblical writings.

He went on to become a bishop in a church. All right now diatrophies. Only happens once in the Bible so his name only occurs one time and it is in the book that we are reading tonight and His name is actually very interesting because the name diatrophies actually means nourished by Jupiter.

So not quite like Gaius who was named happy one who rejoices diatrophies come the name means it actually depending on whether you're looking at Greek or Roman because remember the Greek had their gods and the Romans had their gods and that.

They were often they overlapped but the names were different like Jupiter and Zeus are the same. So it could either mean nourished by Jupiter or reared by Zeus either way it's the same thing and all we know about him is what we're going to learn tonight when we read in this epistle and It's it's not a lot but it's enough.

It's enough to recognize that he was a man unworthy of imitation imitation. And I say that because right after we hear about him the next thing that John writes is do not imitate evil. It writes about him and then it says don't do what this dude does.

Don't be like him. Maybe the title of tonight's sermon if when I post it online, I'll type the title will be don't be a diatrophies. It's actually a pretty good title. I remember that and what's the main thing?

We see we're gonna see that he likes to put himself first. What a description. What wouldn't it be great if no one ever said that of us. That he likes himself to be first. That is a that's a terrible way to be described and yet that's the way he is described for eternity in the scriptures.

And then we have Demetrius his name appears in Acts as well Acts 19. It appears twice in verses 24 and 38. But here's the thing the Acts 19. I want you to look at this if you don't mind real quick. Just turn in your Bibles to Acts 19.

Because I it's interesting because we don't know if this is the same Demetrius, but if it is it's a neat story. Because what we what we see in Acts 19 is we see a Demetrius that is actually acting against the church.

Go to verse. Well, let's let's begin in verse 21. It says now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem saying after I have been there I must also see Rome and having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers Timothy and Erastus.

He himself stayed in Asia for a while. Verse 23 about that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way remember the word. The way is how Christianity was originally described was called the way Jesus said I am the way so this is how it was described.

So no little disturbance meaning a big disturbance. That's the Bible's way of saying wasn't little therefore it was big for a man named Demetrius a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis. Which I believe was the the the Roman version of Diana who was the goddess of fertility.

Brought no little business to the craftsmen these he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said men. You know that from this business We have our wealth and you see and hear that not only in Ephesus.

But in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying the gods made with hands are not Gods and there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute But also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing and she may even be deposed of her magnificence.

She whom all Asia and the world Worship then we jump down just jump down quickly to verse 38. It says if therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone the courts are open and there are Procouncils let them bring charges against one another so we see Demetrius his name twice and he is involved in an attack against The teaching of the gospel because it's hurting him financially.

He is a craftsman he is he's the one who sells these things and he's he's seeing his his work come under attack and so he goes out and begins this rabble rousing crowd to try to stop Paul in his teaching and so this is where he is mentioned and then we get to Third John and we see it says Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone.

So the question becomes is this the same guy? We don't know. I'm sorry. I can't prove it one way or another now, maybe later. You'll show me something that will prove one way or another. I know that depending on the commentary you read one will say yes.

One will say no one will say of course. This is not him. How could a guy who hated Jesus ever start loving Jesus? I'm like you ever met Paul Saul of Tarsus he kind of started out hating Jesus and now loves Jesus so it can happen.

So could this be the Demetrius of? Acts 19. I think or I think it's possible. I'll quote you from Alexander McLaren. Alexander McLaren, by the way, Stephen Alexander not Brian. I mentioned I quoted McLaren Sunday and he goes that's not Brian McLaren.

Is it if y 'all don't know Brian McLaren is a terrible teacher. He's a dangerous false teacher. So no not Brian Alexander much older much more sound but he does say this in his notes. He says if this is the Demetrius of the acts and he became a Christian.

The first thing that the truth required of him would be to shut up shop to give up the lucrative Occupation by which he had his wealth and to cast in his lot with the men that were warring against his idols.

We in our degree will have in some form of another the same self surrender to exercise. I love that how he puts that application in there. He says he says if this is the Demetrius what he had to do was he had to give up the idolatry?

To serve Christ and one day. Hopefully we've already faced these things, but but if we are Christians, we have to face those same things. What in our life do we jettison for the sake of Christ? I? Mentioned this earlier nowadays.

It seems like nobody feels like they have to give up anything. You just become a Christian and just live how you lived before but that's not what Christianity is. The Bible says Christianity is a change to life the old things pass away the the new things come and we live a different life.

If we are the same person we were before we met Christ. There's a good chance. We have not met Christ Amen so this is I Like to think that it's the same Demetrius. I can't prove it and I again I'm giving you some thoughts to take home and ponder and again Bob Utley mentions this he says that the early church fathers Say that this Demetrius the third John Demetrius who's mentioned in two books since I wrote I'll mention there who's mentioned in likely in two books.

This became the bishop of Philadelphia. Another church in Asia Minor, which is interesting because we know something about it. We know something about Pergamum as well, but we know something about Philadelphia.

It's one of the few churches in Revelation that is commended without a condemnation so it's a wonderful church that he becomes the the bishop of all right. Now we've done a little groundwork on these men.

We've studied a little bit about their history and their names. Let's now actually look at the text and we'll spend the rest of our time just walking through it. So begins the elder to the beloved guys whom I love in truth very similar to second John.

Identifying himself as the elder and he's and he begins in verse 2 by saying 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 and. Then he says in verse 3.

For I rejoice greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you are walking in the truth. So what we see here is we see one he's praying for Gaius. This is John and he's also rejoicing over him.

And what we're seeing is we're seeing the pastoral heart of John. We're gonna see it again at the end because he's gonna say there's more that I want to write. But instead of writing it I want to say it face to face the Greek.

There is is literally stoma. Prostoma means literally mouth to mouth. I want to be in your presence and. So I'm gonna stop writing and I'm gonna get going. I want to be there with you. And so we see this pastoral heart.

He prays that all will go well with him that it will remain in good health that his soul will be well. And I want to ask this question. Because we're gonna pray in a little while brother and he's gonna come up here.

We often pray For sickness and we should I mean several families in the church are dealing with Elderly family members who are sick and we're gonna pray for them and we should. But But how when was the last time notice this what it says he says I pray it goes well with your soul.

How often do you pray for the souls? Not just that they would be saved. But do you pray for my soul? That things would go well with my soul. Do you pray for one another that things would go well with with their soul?

I don't know about you, but there are times when my soul really is in conflict. Whether I'm struggling with personal issues anxiety frustration grief. All kinds of things. I mean, I'm not Superman. I'm flesh and bone and I deal with all of those things sometimes sometimes really heavily.

And Spurgeon talks about the dark night of the soul, which is a time of that he himself felt genuine depression. Do you pray for one another soul? I don't know when I read that it just stuck out to me that we you know I can pray for brother Andy's I and I do and I can pray for brother Mike's migraines and I do.

But I should also be praying for their soul that even if their health is struggling. That it would be well with their soul. You know, it is well with my soul we sing, but is it truly? So it's just it's just very pastoral here.

I'm praying for you and I'm praying that it would go well with your soul and I rejoice greatly. When the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you're walking through and I got to tell you something that phrase stuck out to me to verse 3 because When he says they testified to your truth and I thought about it.

Isn't that a weird way of saying it? I don't know if it says it that way in the King James. How does it say it in the King James verse 3? Okay, I like that better I do. Don't go get any ideas. No, I do like that because when it says in the ESV testified to your truth.

It almost sounds like the modern expression of like your truth versus my truth, but that's not what it's saying. It's saying exactly what the King James is saying. It's saying the truth that is in you.

It's your truth. It's not your truth in that like Stephen has his truth. I have my truth man has his truth and Andy has no. That's not what it's saying. He's saying I'm rejoicing over the truth that you have.

It's yours only in the sense that it's it belongs to you. You you you don't just know the truth, but you possess the truth. You don't just profess it you possess it and he says I have no greater joy than to hear that my Children are walking in the truth and by the way.

Remember we debated as to whether or not second John was to a church or to a woman and we said it mentions her children. Well in this sense we can know something and it might help us with our interpretation of second John.

Because when he says I I have no greater joy than to hear my children. This is definitely not talking about physical offspring. But it's talking about the children that he has in a sense Given birth to through the through the gospel.

It makes him it gives him joy to preach and to see and I'll say this I mean we have on our wall. You'll see it if you come next Wednesday night on the wall of the Foskey home. We have third John 1 5 4 1 4 what your verse it is verse 4 and it says I rejoice Greatly to hear that my children are walking in the truth and in that sense a lot of people would look at that and think that we're talking about our children in it and we sort of Are because I think that's what the person who made the sign was thinking but it's sort of out of context because the context of this is not my children, but it is Those who have heard the gospel and believed it's those who like Paul calls Timothy his son in the faith.

But I will say this from a father's perspective it is a great thing to know that your physical children Walk in the truth. So from for just an extended truth. It's a terrible thing to have a child. That's not in the truth.

And so Certainly that application can be made even if it's not the direct interpretation. All right. So Gaius has been introduced now. He's commended verses 5 to 8. We have a commendation for his hospitality says beloved is a faithful thing that you do in all your efforts for these brothers now.

He doesn't say who these brothers are. But he describes them. He says it is a faithful thing that you do in all your efforts for these brothers. Strangers as they are you guys remember when we talked about the word?

Fellowship, I'm sorry, not the word fellowship the word hospitality. Remember the word hospitality comes from the word which refers to outsiders. Right, the word is Filo Xenos and filo Xenos. I'm writing it in English.

It's actually would be in Greek but filo Xenos would be what? It would be lovers of outsiders lovers of strangers. See, that's what Gaius is giving. Testimony, that's what the testimony here is as he's loved people that he didn't even know.

He has shown hospitality to the people that he didn't even know he's welcomed him in and he has loved them. He it says beloved. It is a faithful thing that you do in all your efforts for these brothers.

Strangers as they are who testified to your love before the church. You see these men came in were loved by him then they went out and they testified this guy guys. He knows how to love he knows how to open himself to strangers.

You might say but wait a minute. Isn't that dangerous? It is dangerous sometimes. That's why you go back to second John and there are some there are some standards that you have to propose in second John.

That's why I do think these kind of go together because second John deals with. Those people who come who shouldn't be welcome who are preaching a false gospel and things like that. Yes, of course, there has to be some standards.

But at the same time we are to love the brethren and even those that we don't know. And he says you will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God for they have gone out for the sake of the name accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

Now that phrase right there is is I don't want to get caught up but that particular phrase is An example that is worthy of imitation. We ought not Solicit the world to do the Lord's work but we ought to give sacrificially and With our own money to see the Lord's work done and here's here's.

I heard this is so funny years ago. We had a youth. I was a youth leader here from O2 to O5 before I became the pastor. While I was a youth leader, I was teaching in class. And I don't remember who said it.

I think it was actually an adult but it was a class of young people and there was happened to be an adult in there and She said and I said something about how the church runs off the generosity of its members we receive tithes and offerings and we use that money to Pay the bills and do the things the church needs to do and she goes.

I thought the government Funded the church and I was like, oh First of all What a terrible idea. Because if the government is funding the church, what does the government then have the ability to do? Demand what the church says and doesn't say I'll say this even on the issue of things like taxes, you know.

We are a 501c3. People say that I'll type you want to know what it means. What that means essentially is that we are not taxed like a for-profit business because the church is not out for profit. Therefore we are we are under the banner of a not for profit business.

That's the way the church does and so we have certain tax benefits because of that however, if Having that ever stood in the way of preaching the gospel that's got to go. We pay the taxes we preach the gospel you cannot let anyone With their hand of money to you demand what you're going to say.

That goes for the church that goes for you as an individual brother. Mike, I hope he doesn't mind me telling the story. I'll ask him later for permission. Years ago. He was I think it's okay. He's I think he's told this publicly.

He was he was doing he's gone around a lot of places like he preached in in England during the During the Olympics he preached he's gone to Jerusalem and done open-air preaching and stuff. He's been all over and brother Mike said there was a man one time who was not a believer.

But liked Mike and wanted to wanted to financially contribute and say he said I'll send you wherever you want to go. Mike would not accept it. Because he said this verse compelled him that he did not want to be funded by an unbeliever that he felt like if God had called him to that the church would provide for them and That's what he believed and that's where his commitment was and this is the text that he that he cited.

And so again, we are as a church Commanded to be generous and To give and not expect the world but expect ourselves to Provide for the ministry again. I said I wasn't gonna go off on a tangent, but I did so so there there's verse 7.

And then of course Verse 8 it says therefore we ought to support people like these that we may be fellow workers you realize when you give to missions. You are get you are actually Helping them do the work.

See that's the thing we miss is when we give to Scott Phillips. We are actually it's as if we're there with him because we can't all go and not everybody's called To get on a plane and go to Indonesia.

Some people think that everybody is called to be in Foreign missions not everybody's called to be in for missions. Everybody's called to be a missionary in the sense that we're all called to be gospel proclaimers wherever God has planted us and we're called to bloom where we plant.

Bloom where we're planted, but we are not all called to get on a plane and go to you know Indonesia or anywhere like that. It's it's that is not because if that were the case It wouldn't be churches here.

There has to still be churches where we are in gospel functioning churches here. And so. But we are called the term used in missions work is called holding the rope. And the idea is if a man is down in a hole or a man is in a well or a man is down in a mine.

Somebody's got to stand on the outside of that mine and hold the rope and make sure that rope is steady for him to be able to come back. If that rope is let go. If that rope is not held then that man's in peril.

So what we do for missions is we hold the rope and We pray for them and we give to them and we give sacrificially above them, by the way next week We're going to be doing the manger offering and that's going to go to missions because that's what we want to do.

We want to do something different or something Different than our normal giving we want to go above and beyond to support and hold the rope so that is What we're called to do in verse 8 now verse 9 It seems as if John takes a little turn here and I'm gonna take a few extra minutes tonight because I do not want to Stop like I did last time.