3 John 1:1-14 • September 13, 2015 • s1113
Pastor John Miller teaches through the epistle of 3 John with an expository message titled, “Walking in Love.”
Pastor John Miller
September 13, 2015
1:1 The Elder, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth: 2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, 6 who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, 7 because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. 8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth. 9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. 11 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. 12 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. 13 I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink; 14 but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
As I said, we've come to the end of our series in the epistles of John and in 1 John, the apostle discussed fellowship with God. In the second letter, John forbids fellowship with false teachers, and today in 3 John, he encourages fellowship with Christian brothers and the support of the true servants of God.
Now, there's an interesting contrast between 2 John and 3 John. In 2 John, he writes to the elect lady, it's written to a woman. In 3 John, he writes to his beloved Gaius. It's written to a man. And just a reminder, this is a personal letter. It's not a doctrinal dissertation. It's a letter between the apostle and a loved one in the church there probably somewhere outside of Ephesus, maybe in Asia Minor.
And then in 2 John, he's telling the elect lady that she should not open her home to false teachers. In 3 John, he's commending Gaius for opening his home to true teachers, that false teachers should not be supported, that true teachers should be supported. That's how these two epistles kind of contrast one another.
Someone put it like this. 2 John condemns the departure from the truth, which is known as heresy. 3 John condemns the lack of love among professing Christians, which is what results in schisms. So, 2 John deals with heresy, then 3 John deals with the lack of love or schisms in the body of Christ.
Now, 3 John contains three portraits of three men, and this is the simple way to understand this third epistle, three portraits of three men in the church. The first man is called Gaius. He's dealt with in verses 1 to 8. The second one is called Diotrephes and he's dealt with in verses 9 and 10. And the third individual we're going to look at is Demetrius. He's dealt with in verses 11 and 12, and then 13 and 14 are the conclusion of this third epistle.
You might say it like this, Gaius is the encourager. He loved others. Diotrephes is the dictator. He loved himself. And Demetrius is the good example. Others loved and supported and encouraged him. Let's look at these three individuals and we get a picture of three different people that are found today even in the church.
The first man is Gaius. I call him the encourager. He loved others. He was the man who showed hospitality. Now, follow me in your Bible beginning in verse 1 and we'll read down verse 8. John says, "I'm the elder. I'm writing unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly that when the brethren came and testified to the truth that is in me, even as thou walkest in truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children, that is my spiritual children in the Lord, walk in truth."
"Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest and the brethren to the brethren and to the strangers which are born witness," verse 6, "of your love before the church whom if thou bring forward on their journey," he's talking about Gaius's support and help of true servants of God, the missionaries, the traveling evangelists, "and you do it after a godly sort, then you are doing well."
He's commending him that he's opened his home and supported the true ministers of Christ. He says the reason for verse 7, because "For his name's sake," that is the Lord's name's sake, "they went forth." They were missionaries and traveling evangelists, "taking nothing of the Gentiles."
He says, "We therefore ought to receive such." When he used the word we, he's including himself and the other apostles and the believers. He says, "We should receive them that we might be fellow helpers to the truth."
Now John starts again with this title, Elder. Why? As I mentioned last Sunday, he's an old guy. He's old, he's an elder. But more importantly he's a spiritual leader in the church, the word elder, pastor and bishop all are referring to the same office in the church. There are only two offices and that is of the pastor and of the deacon or elder and deacon.
Now, the pastor is also known as an elder. He's also known as a bishop. Why the different terms for the same office? Because the word pastor conveys the meaning that he's a shepherd, which by the way conveys the meaning that the church is the flock of God. The people are sheep, right? Kind of hate to tell you this, but sheep are dumb.
Thanks a lot, right? We see sheep out in the fields around Menifee here. You've seen the sheeps out in the field around? Wherever there are sheep, there will be a what? A shepherd. You don't find the sheep going, "We're sick and tired of you just sitting around in your trailer all day watching TV. We're going to go find us another pastor. We're going to go find us another field." And they may do that, but sheep need a shepherd. They're dumb. They don't have no sense of direction. They don't have any source of protection, so they need a shepherd.
The word pastor means shepherd, and the number one idea conveyed in that title is feeding the sheep. My number one job, my top priority as the pastor, the shepherd of this flock is to feed God's people God's Word. That's how a shepherd feeds the sheep. He teaches the Word of God and God's people grow in the knowledge of God's Word.
The word elder conveys the idea of maturity. A pastor has to be a mature man. The Bible says not a novice or newly planted, lest being lifted up with pride, he falls into the condemnation of the devil. Now, it doesn't mean he needs to be an old man, but it does mean he needs to be a mature man.
I actually was pastoring when I was in my early 20s, 21, 22, 23, 24. I got married at age 25. I had been for many years a senior pastor preaching to a congregation of 500 people every Sunday. I was very young, and I appreciated Paul's words to Timothy, "Let no man despise thy youth, but be that an example of the believers," and those words encouraged me as a young man.
Now, in a sense, I am an older man. Notice I said older, not old, but the word elder means mature. And then the word bishop or overseer, synonymous terms, that means that you oversee the whole work of the ministry and the direction and outreach of the ministry or the church.
Now he's writing unto Gaius, the well-beloved. And if you didn't notice in these first few verses, he used the word love or beloved four times. He used it in verse 1. He used it in verse 2. He used it in verse 5. He used it in verse 11. I like that title used among believers, beloved. I think we ought to reinstitute that when we come to church and we meet one another and greet, we ought to say, "Beloved," because it reminds us of two things. God loves me and I love you. God loves you. I love you. That's what's conveyed in that term, beloved.
Now John is writing to Gaius. We don't know anything about Gaius other than what we find here in this text. It was a common New Testament name. There are other Gaiuses in the Bible, but we don't know if they're the same Gaius that is referred to here in 3 John.
Now, what pastor wouldn't want or love to have a Gaius in the congregation? I pray God give us Gaiuses at Revival Christian Fellowship and there are Gaiuses in our church, but I pray that their tribe will increase. Because I want you to notice some things about Gaius, he had spiritual maturity. Notice in verse 2, he says, "Beloved, I wish above all things or I pray that in all things you may prosper and be in health even as your soul," what? "Even as your soul prospers." What does that mean? It means Gaius was spiritually strong. Gaius was spiritually prosperous, Gaius was strong in the Lord. He was strong spiritually.
Now this verse, and I took too much time on it for a service, so this'll be the abbreviated exposition, but this verse is one of the most misunderstood, misinterpreted and misapplied in all the Bible. It is commonly the text of what are known as the word faith preachers or the health and wealth preachers or the prosperity preachers. And there's no shortage of them in the world today and on TV today.
What do they basically teach? They teach that God wants all Christians to be rich and God wants all Christians to be healthy. So, health and wealth, health and wealth, financial prosperity, power, position, influence, even perhaps popularity, glamour. God wants you to have your best life now and I won't say anything more.
I got to resist it. I got to stop right there. I'll let you connect the dots. There are a lot of them out there and their favorite verse to preach on is 3 John 2, "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health." Excuse me, you're going to take that verse and make it a promise when it's a prayer? That is not a promise.
That verse is not a promise. This is why you need to be discerning when you listen to preachers. Always interpret a text in its context. You need to do a historical, grammatical, theological interpretation. What is he really saying here? This is not a promise, this is a prayer. This is a wish, for Gaius. He just so happens to say, "Gaius, you're spiritually strong. You're spiritually flourishing. I pray that God gives you physical health and prosperity to go along with your spiritual strength and health and life."
Now, it was a common greeting in those days. If you study the epistles of that period, even secular non-biblical, they would often open in the salutation, "I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health." Over and over and over and over, that was a common greeting in those days. It could be that it's just a general common salutation and that John added to it, "Even as your soul prospers."
But I have a wild theory and you'll allow me this liberty for just a moment and it could be wrong. It's just a crazy theory. I can't base it on any facts, but I wouldn't be surprised if Gaius was physically afflicted and suffering, and that John singled this concept out because though Gaius was suffering physically, could it be that Gaius was soaring spiritually?
Whenever I look at a child of God, I look at Joni Eareckson Tada. She's one of the most amazing Christians on planet earth and she's a quadriplegic. She is so spiritually prosperous. There's a woman I like to, whenever Joni Eareckson speaks, I listen. Not only do I listen, I weep because she is amazing. Google her, YouTube her, listen to her preaching, listen to her teaching, listen to her message. She's amazing. She's a quadriplegic. She's paralyzed from neck down. She's in a wheelchair. She has been since she was a young girl.
It's more important to source spiritually than it is physically. Is it a blessing to have a strong body? Is it a blessing to be able to walk? Is it a blessing to be able to have hands and feet that move? Yes, it is but Jesus said it like this. He said, "What would it profit you if you gained the whole world and you lost your soul in the process?"
Jesus said, "If your right hand offends, you cut it off. It's better for you to go into heaven halt or maimed than to cast whole into hell." You know what? The Bible teaches the priority is your spiritual life, not your physical life, and we are redeemed people in an unredeemed body. Don't you forget that. Next time you get out of bed and you can't straighten up, it's like, "Oh." Remember this theological truth, I have a redeemed spirit and an unredeemed body.
But one day I'm going to get a brand new body, amen? A brand new model that'll never be thirsty, never be tired, never get stuck, bent over. Never have a pain, never have an ache. No more cancer, no more disease, no more sin, no more death. Can you dig it? I can dig it. That's what's awaiting you.
But until the day of your full redemption or salvation, we have an unredeemed body. That means no matter how healthy you are, no matter how strong you are, sooner or later all you need is time and you'll get weaker and frailer and your body will wear out. The Bible says our bodies are tents, right?
Who likes to live in a tent? I don't even do tents for camping anymore. I spent three months in a tent one time. You can't get me in the tent if my life depended on it. I don't even want to see a tent. I can't. Man, when I got out of that tent, three months in a three man tent, when I got out of the thing into a house, I went, "Praise God. A bed, a shower, a real house, a ceiling. I can stand up."
Now, some of your tents are leaning a little bit, some of your tents are leaking, some of your tents are torn. Some of your tents, the stakes have up. You just got one stake and it's flapping in the wind. Sucker is ready to go.
And I said all this because Gaius may have been sick, but he was soaring spiritually. The priority in the Christian life is the spiritual man, not the physical man, and this is no carte blanche promise that every Christian will have health or wealth. Don't let those teachers, those false teachers tell you otherwise. He was soaring spiritually.
Write down 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul said, "Though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Praise God for that. Though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed. Now I stayed on that point far too long and I need to move on because I want you to notice that secondly, that Gaius, that he had a good testimony, verses 3 and 4. He says, "For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and they testified to the truth that is in thee, even though thou walks in truth," so you have truth in you, you walk in truth.
"I have no greater joy," verse 4, "than to hear that my children are walking in truth." He had maturity, he had integrity. Notice in verse 3, "The truth was in him." Notice in verse 4, "He walked in the truth." This is what made Gaius such an awesome person. He had maturity, he had integrity, and he had a faithful ministry.
Thirdly, I want you to notice verses 5 to 8, "Beloved, you do faithfully whatever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers, which are born witness of your love and before the church whom thou bring forward in the journey after a godly sort, because that for his name's sake, they went forth taking nothing at the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive or help or assist such that we might be fellow helpers of the truth."
Now, I want you to notice this. He had a faithful ministry. Notice the marks of faithful ministry. We need more Gaiuses in our church. He seeks to honor God for his name's sake, verse 7. Why was Gaius doing hospitality and assisting ministry? Because he was doing it for God's name's sake. I want to encourage you here at Revival Christian Fellowship, if you serve here, if you minister here, do it for the glory of God, amen? You do it for his name's sake.
And then I want you to notice secondly, he sought to witness to the lost. He sought to maintain a proper witness to the unbelieving world. That's why it says verse 7, "They went forth. They went out as itinerant evangelists taking nothing of the Gentiles." What does that mean? It means that when they went out to preach the gospel, they didn't expect non-Christians to support the gospel. They didn't take offerings, they didn't take collections. They didn't do donut sales among unbelievers at the grocery store so that they could support the church.
God's people should support God's work, not unsaved people, not unbelievers, not non-Christian. We don't go to the world and ask them to support the work of God. I've seen many of church and many of parachurch organization get in big trouble because they've allowed wealthy businessmen, non-Christian businessmen to give money to their ministry. And I can promise you there's always strings attached. They want glory, they want credit, they want influence. They want it for their name's sake. You don't want to risk the possibility into thinking that in any way that their donations earns them a place into heaven.
I am suspect, and I hate to say it, but I don't even want any money from someone that's not a Christian. If somebody who's not a Christian wants to give money to this church, I'd say, "Get saved first, dude. Why would you want to support the work of God? You need to get right with God. Your salvation is far more important than you..." And besides, it's God's church and God will support it with his people. That's just crazy.
So when it uses the phrase, "They went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles," it means they didn't go to the world for their support. They trusted in God, they put their faith in God. We go out and minister for his namesake in faith and dependence and reliance upon God.
And then thirdly, verse 8, they did it in obedience to God, we ought therefore to receive such. "We ought" indicates a responsibility. The New Living Translation has, "We ourselves should support them." God's people should support God's work. Don't support false teachers, do support true teachers.
When God touches a person's heart, he also opens his wallet. Did you know that? When God transforms a person's heart, he opens the person's wallet. You become generous and you want to do the work of God. Show me your checking account, I'll show you how spiritual you are. Show me what you do with your money and I'll show you how spiritual you are, where your priorities really lie.
Now, people don't like to hear that. Tell me how wonderful I am, tell me how much God loves me. Don't talk about money, preacher, especially my wallet or my checking account. That's a barometer. That's an indication of the depth of your maturity in your love for God and how much you value getting out the Word of God. I want you to notice also fourthly, a mark of ministry is that fellow helpers to the truth, that he helped others preach the truth. Verse 8, notice it in verse 8. He says that we might become fellow helpers to the truth.
Now, you may not be called a full-time ministry. You may not be called a pastoral ministry. You may not be called to be a radio preacher. You may not be called to be an evangelist. You may not be called to be a missionary. You may not be called to be a preacher of the gospel. Maybe God's called you to be a truck driver or electrician or a banker or a housewife or whatever it might be. And you might feel like you're second class, not so. You become when you support, pray for, and give to those that are preaching the gospel, you become fellow helpers and partakers of the gospel.
And that's what you do here at Revival Christian Fellowship. When you give to this church, when you give to this ministry, you're supporting ministry, you're supporting outreach, you're supporting a church that teaches God's Word, that's discipling people, that's winning the lost. We have a daily radio ministry, 88.9 every morning, FM 88.9. You're going to turn on the radio and you can hear the Word of Life, or excuse me, the Revival Christian Radio.
My Word of Life was my old radio ministry, Revival Radio. Got to remember where I am and what church I'm pastoring right now. Thirty-nine years in one church, it's hard to forget. And I'm blessed that you support that. When people and we're getting more response and more letters written, we're getting people driving from San Diego to come to this church because they hear the Word taught on the radio, and that's amazing to me.
And you are fellow helpers. You're participants in that. When you get to heaven, some of them are going to come up to you and they go, "Do you go to Revival Tree?" "Oh yeah." "Thank you for putting John on the radio. Thank you for supporting that." And you're going to be partners. You're going to have people greeting you in heaven that get saved through this ministry that you partnered with and you prayed for.
And the missions that we support, the missionaries we support, they've now started that church in Galway, Ireland. Jess McKernan, they started Sunday morning services last Sunday. They had their first meeting, they had 13 people. A church is born and they're preaching the gospel and how exciting that is. And it's your fellow help, your participation, you're supporting the work of the ministry.
I love what Warren Wiersbe said. He said, "It's one thing to fight apostasy and refuse to entertain false teachers." That's 2 John, "But quite another to open our homes and our wallets to promote the truth." That's 3 John. We need both the negative and the positive. We need more people like Gaius who are spiritually healthy, obedient to the Word, and sharing what they have for the furtherance of the truth.
And I say amen, amen, amen, and amen to that. God, give us Gaiuses. But sadly, there are Diotrephes and I want you to notice in verses 9 and 10 that this is a man that I would not want in our church. Gaius, you're welcome. Diotrephes, you're not welcome here. We don't want this kind of people in our church. There are actually some people that we don't want in our church, and one of them is named Diotrephes. Let's look at him, verses 9 and 10.
He says in verse 9, "I wrote unto you or I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, received us not. Therefore if I come, I will remember his deeds, prating against us with malicious words, not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren. He forbids them who would, and he kicks out of the church whoever he wills."
We do not want Diotrephes. I call them Diotrephes, the dictator. He is proud. He is arrogant. He is domineering. His philosophy is my way or the high way. That's Diotrephes. Now I want you to notice some things about Diotrephes. He's a man who loved to be first. Notice that in verse 9. He loves to have preeminence. We're in trouble when we have a church full of people that want to be the boss. "I want to be the boss. I want to run the show. I want to tell everybody what to do." You ever know people that they just want to boss everybody around?
Remember when you're a kid and you're playing in the yard, "You're not the boss. You're not the boss. I'm going to go tell my mom. I'm telling my dad. My dad can beat up your dad." Everybody's dad could beat up the other. We used to sit around and talk about whose dad could win a fight. That's what little boys do. How stupid is that?
Then we get old and we join the church and it's like, "I'm the boss. I'm running the show. Don't tell me what to do. This is my ministry. That's my pew. Scoot over. You're sitting in my seat. I catch you sitting in my pew again, I'm going to kick you out of the church. Welcome to Revival." We joke about it, but some of you do that. You come here, "What are they doing in my seat? I've never seen them before. Who are they?" Did you buy the pew for heaven's sake? Is this your church? What's the deal? And then you get these people that just, "I love to be the boss."
Gaius loved people. Diotrephes loved himself. And Jesus said, "If any man come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." Jesus said, "Who would be the greatest in the kingdom? Let him be like a little child." 1 Peter 5, Peter is talking to the elders and the pastors, the spiritual leaders. And he said, "Don't be lord's over God's heritage, but be examples to the fly." God actually says to pastors, "Don't be lording over God's people." They're not your people. This is not your church. They're God's people. This is God's church.
And anyone who does ministry needs to keep that perspective. It's not my church, it's the Lord's church. Sad when carnal men and women get into ministry and leadership. It's sad when unspiritual men get on boards and corporate boards and some unspiritual men get in the pulpit or unspiritual men run the church. I've been around long enough, I've seen it. "I paid for this church or I'm the big tither. If you don't do it my way, I'm going to stop tithing to this church and I give more money than anyone to this church." Number one, how do you know what other people give? Shame on you.
And number two, it's not your church. If you don't give it to God and you don't give them the right attitude, then go buy a Big Mac or something. Go buy yourself a new car. Don't give it to the church. God doesn't need your money. I've actually seen congregations where someone in the church buys the building and it's in their name and they own it. And if the pastor doesn't do what he wants, he kicks them out. That is just flat, I'll give you a theological term for that, stupid. That's just ridiculous, trying to domineer and control and run the church. No one should be in ministry. No one should be in ministry. And by God's grace, no one will be in ministry in this church because they're rich.
We don't want anyone in spiritual leadership in this church because they own a big business, they have lots of money and they're influenceable, and everybody knows them and they'll be a big contributor. That's just wrong. That's flat out sinful. God raises up whom he will in this church. And God uses the humble. God uses the meek. God uses nobodies. God is using the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. That's what God does.
And this is not my church. This is the Lord's church. This building doesn't belong to me, praise God for that. It belongs to God and He takes care of it. God's people serve in God's name for God's glory and they support the work. Jesus washed the disciple's feet. And he said, "If I your Lord and your master have washed your feet, you should wash one another's feet." May God help us to follow the example of our master Jesus Christ.
And that's only the first point. I've tarried longer on that than I should. He loved to be first, and then notice secondly, he loved to receive. He would not receive John. In verse 9 it says that he wouldn't even receive us. I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes who loves to have preeminence among them, he would not even receive it.
Think about that. The Apostle John, the last living apostle, he writes a letter to the church and Diotrephes rips it up and throws it in the trash. Are you crazy? That's from the Apostle John. He's not only apostle, he's the last living apostle. And he goes, "No one's going to read that," because he felt threatened by John's leadership.
People do that in the church. They're threatened by other people and they're trying to power struggle for their position in the church. And thirdly, he lied about John. This happens to true leaders. The false leaders, the ones who love themselves, they lie about the true servants of Jesus Christ. "Prating against us," verse 10, "with malicious words." With malicious words, that's a sad thing.
And then fourthly, he rejected John's associates. Notice in verse 10, he refuses to welcome traveling teachers. He actually refuses to welcome the true servants of God. Now, the elect lady in the second epistle was accepting into her home, false teachers. Not good. This Diotrephes, he was rejecting true teachers. Not good. This is why we need love and truth. So, he refused.
And then fifthly and lastly, he disciplined those who he disagreed with, verse 10. He kicked out of the church, verse 10, those who would assist the true servants of God. Think about that. This dude walked around the church kicking people out. That's crazy. Now, there is such a thing as church discipline, but church discipline is to get people into the church. It's got a goal in mind. We discipline people to get them to repent, turn back to God so that they can be a part of the church. We don't kick them out so that they won't be around. We kick them out so that they'll come to their senses, repent, and come back.
Remember when you were little... I talked to the men for just a moment. I'm a guy. I remember when you were a guy and you're playing football, little guys playing football in the yard. I remember, I'll never forget this. When I was little, there was only one kid on the street that owned a football. And in the fall, boys liked to get out. We used to get out and play football in the front yard and we had a stretch of yards with no walls between them and just the grass just connected.
We had a whole footfall field on our street, but only one kid on the block had a football. And when we play, if he ever got upset or he ever got angry or he was losing or the game wasn't following his rules, you know what he would do, right? "I'm going to take my ball and go home. It's my ball."
And I'll never forget so many games we're having a blast, and he would get all mad because he's losing. He'd take his ball and go home and we're like, "What happened?" We're like into this. We're all sweaty and we're out in the front yard and we're having football and there's like the ball's gone. "Oh, he took his ball home, he got upset, he took his ball and went home."
The very same thing happens in the church. If it doesn't go my way, I'll just take my money and I'll go somewhere else. If you don't do what I want, I'll just tithe somewhere else. I'll just rip my pew out. I bought that pew. I'll take it out. Imagine coming to church some Sunday and there's pews missing. What happened? "Oh, they got mad. They took their pew."
Sometimes, some churches, you'll see a drinking fountain in the foyer and it says dedicated by the Smiths or something, has a little plaque on it. Can you imagine the Smiths got all mad and ripped out their drinking fountain? What's with that? I don't think it's a good idea for people to buy a hymnal, to buy a pew, to buy a place in the pew, to buy their drinking fountain, living water donated by the Smiths. That's just flat out stupid. People put their names on trees and bushes and rocks. Everybody knows who donated stuff. It's God's stuff, the Lord's church. We do it for his glory.
If you're not willing to give and trust the spiritual leaders of this church to direct the funds of this church, then find somewhere where you do trust the leadership, where you're seeing fruit being born, where the Word is being taught. We ought not to support false teachers. We ought to support true teachers. That's your responsibility. And so we need to be careful that we don't become like Diotrephes and we kick people out of the church, the ones that should be in the church.
But in closing, there's one last person we need to look at. His name is Demetrius, and I call him Demetrius, the good example. He was exemplary. He was a man who was faithful. Notice verse 11 and 12. It says in verse 11 and 12, it says, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but the doeth evil has not seen God." Don't follow the bad example, but follow the good example.
Here he is Demetrius, verse 12. "Demetrius has a good report of everyone." Everybody loves Demetrius, "and of the truth," so he was doctrinally sound, "Yea, and also I bear record and that you know our record is true." Now, Demetrius is a good example. Don't follow the bad example of Diotrephes but follow the good example of Demetrius. Imitate him.
And then notice verse 12. His good example is that he had a good report of all men. When others talk about you, when others think about you, when other comment about your life and ministry, do they have a good report? And then secondly, he was a man of truth, verse 12, and of the truth. And John the Apostle said, "I know him. He's faithful and I can testify to that."
Demetrius lived an exemplary life. He lived in accordance with his profession. Here's my question for you today. Do you live an exemplary life in accordance to what you profess with your mouth, the people you work with? "I'm a Christian." "Okay, well, I'm going to watch you." The people you live with, "I love God." "Okay, I'm going to watch you." The people of this church, "I'm a Christian, I love Jesus." "Okay, we're going to watch you." Are you living an exemplary life? Does your actions back up your words?
Now, in conclusion, verse 13 and 14, he said, "I again have many things to write to you, but I will not write with ink and pen. But I trust," verse 14, "that I shall shortly see you and we shall speak face to face." He wishes them, "Peace be with thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name."
Now, as we look at 3 John, there are three types of people that are still found in the church today. Which one are you? There's the hospitable like Gaius, supporting and loving others. There's the haughty like Diotrephes, seeking to control and dominate others. He loved himself. And then there's the humble like Demetrius who needs the support of others. Are you hospitable, loving and serving and supporting others like Gaius? Are you haughty and proud like Diotrephes, seeking to control others? Or are you humble like Demetrius, and you need the support of others? You're involved in true ministry.
And we should pray for them. I encourage the staff at Revival and I encourage the congregation. If you see somebody in this church that's faithfully, humbly, sincerely serving God and you can do something to help them, help them. It starts with prayer. It may be time, it may be money, it may be your talents, whatever it might be. Do you see somebody laboring in the children's ministry? Pray for them, encourage them. Send them a note, say thank you. Pray for all the people that are serving and helping and be gracious and supportive.
We're all on the same team. We're all doing the same thing. We're all seeking to get the good news of Jesus Christ out to a lost world, amen? We pray together, we give together, we serve together, we work together for a common goal. May God give us Gaiuses and may God convict Demetriuses, or Diotrephes excuse me, those who seek to control or dominate others. And may He give us Demetriuses that we can serve together and work together.
Now, three epistles, 1, 2, 3 John. And here's how I would summarize them. 1 John, we live in fellowship with God, walking in the light. 2 John, we stand in the truth. And 3 John, we labor in love. We live in fellowship with God, standing in the truth, laboring in love. Amen?
Pastor John Miller teaches through the epistle of 3 John with an expository message titled, “Walking in Love.”
Pastor John Miller is the Senior Pastor of Revival Christian Fellowship in Menifee, California. He began his pastoral ministry in 1973 by leading a Bible study of six people. God eventually grew that study into Calvary Chapel of San Bernardino, and after pastoring there for 39 years, Pastor John became the Senior Pastor of Revival in June of 2012. Learn more about Pastor John
Pastor John Miller teaches through the epistle of 3 John with an expository message titled, “Walking in Love.”
Pastor John Miller
September 13, 2015
A study through the book of 3 John by Pastor John Miller taught at Revival Christian Fellowship in September 2015.
3 John 1:1–14