Letters of John, 3 John 1-8 Introduction, Salutation, Missionary Support

Andrew? Yeah. Before we get started, I have a question. Sure, yeah. I have the Schofield. Okay. In the introduction, it's talking about, you know, the letter, and it says, no longer writing as an apostle, but as an elder. John addresses this letter not to the church as such, but to a faithful man in the church. Yeah. So, I mean, wasn't he, like, always an apostle? Why would he be described as an apostle? Boy, you come out with a hard question at the start. I think what it is, yes, he's still an apostle. He's one of the original twelve, and he's just And that's 60 years past, right, has passed now. We're in the 90s, 90 AD, 95 AD.

They say that he even wrote the book of Revelation prior to this. So he's been, he was on the island of Patmos and they let him go and now he's back. Maybe, I kind of think he's in Ephesus like retired. And he has a correspondence ministry at this point, it sounds like, because he's writing to a lot of people. I don't think he's, some say he's the elder of the Church of Ephesus. So he could be leading that church.

So he's an elder, but he's still an apostle. He could have very well started out this letter saying, John, an apostle, just like Paul does. He certainly could have done that. because that's his station but he's also an elder and you know Paul is an elder too so he just he uses his more personal title there if a title at all really right? so that's why does that make sense? yes and thank you for clarifying that yeah and I'm just looking at the first epistle oh yeah that you know when we studied the first letter of John he didn't even He didn't even mention himself there. He's more informal than Paul.

And especially with these people, he's just writing to two individuals, you know. So yeah, I think that's the reason. But he's still an elder, certainly. Okay, we're in the third book of John. And it only takes two weeks. Bob will cover the second half of the book after Christmas and after New Year's, but I have to do an introduction, plus I have to do these eight verses, so there'll be a lot of cramming up front, and then when we get to the verses, it kind of goes more smoothly, so I'll read one through eight of 3 John.

The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth, Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when the brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, than to hear my children walking in the truth. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers. and they have testified to your love before the church, you will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth."

3 John 1-8 Ironside's outline of The third letter of John, there's 14 verses, so part A is this man named Gaius, he addresses him. Part B, he addresses, not directly, but he talks about diastrophes, and then he talks about Demetrius, another fellow, and then he concludes. So there's three men in this letter. Two are positive, one negative. Diotrephes is the one that he addresses in the negative.

So who is Gaius? And I have to kind of dip into, I'm doing Gaius and Bob will cover Diotrephes and I think I'm pronouncing that right now and then Demetrius but I have to I have to describe all three of these men because it's in our context for this morning. So Gaius. Gaius is mentioned in Acts 19.

There was a riot in Ephesus right when the gospel was having great success and people were turning away from their of Artemis and Demetrius, the silver forger, the craftsman of these idols, got upset because that affected his business. So he incited a riot and One of the verses where Gaius is mentioned is 29 and 30 of Acts 19. The city was filled with confusion and they rushed with one accord into a theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia. And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, perhaps to rescue these guys, the disciples would not let him. but he got out okay I don't think Gaius I think they got beaten up Gaius and Aristarchus another Gaius or perhaps the same Gaius I think it's the same Gaius here is mentioned right after this this event in Acts 20 so they are traveling along with Paul and they wait for him in Troas up up north there because Paul went over to Macedonia So Acts 24, and he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea and the son of Phyrus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychus, and Trophimus of Asia. So we could say that this Gaius was from Derbe, which is way over to the west in what was Galatia kind of near Antioch where Paul was from but now he's you know around in Ephesus here but he could be traveling with Paul and that could be the reason there was a Paul there was a I'm sorry there is a Gaius mentioned at the end the very end of Romans the book of Romans which we'll see when we get there Romans chapter 16 we won't be there for a while but in the 10 a.m. class Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as do Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsman.

I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, host to me, and the whole church greet you. Eurastus, the city, greets you, and Cortus, the brother. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So here was Gaius, he was in Corinth here, and it looked like he was hosting Paul. Finally, there's a guise mentioned in the opening passages of 1 Corinthians. Here's 1 Corinthians 11-17, and I won't read it all, but it's that section where Paul says, you know, is there a division in Christ? you know some of you are saying I am of Paul some of you are saying I of I of Apollos some of you are saying I of Peter or I of Christ has Christ been divided and he says I thank God that I baptized none of you except for Crispus and Gaius and that none of you should say that you were baptized in my name so he's trying to to end these divisions within the Corinthian church here.

And, you know, is this the same Gaius as our guide today? We don't know. So that's the question. The main question is, is this the same Gaius who was beat up in Ephesus? Who waited for Paul in Troas after that riot in Ephesus? And is it the same Gaius who hosted Paul in Corinth? while Paul wrote the letter to the Romans. And if so, was that the same Gaius that Paul baptized?

Now those two things are probably true. This Gaius who was in Corinth hosting Paul got baptized by him. That makes a lot of sense. We just don't know if it's our Gaius today. And that's a good question. Are they the same Gaius? I prefer yes. I think that this Gaius was traveling around with Paul all these years. And so now Paul is gone and Gaius is continuing, you know, doing what he's doing, this missionary, this work that he has of hosting traveling ministers.

So what's uh we're still in the introduction phase here but what's third john third book letter of john in what's it about in a nutshell um ironside says and this is good it acts as a corollary to the second letter of john and that is if we remember back to studying the second letter he's talking to a chosen lady and he's saying Don't take these guys, these apostates, these antichrists into your home.

Don't be hospitable to them. You know, don't even give them a proper Godspeed or greeting. You know, get as far away as you can from these guys. Whereas in 3 John, the opposite. He's teaching that by all means guys should show hospitality and fellowship with preachers, with ministers who are in the truth or with the truth. The man at the end of this letter, Demetrius, is endorsed by John and John says that Demetrius is from the truth itself and that Demetrius should be supported. So two things, you know, to the chosen lady he's saying get them away from you this way because they're false teachers third John he's saying support these men because they're true teachers and there it's a corollary to second John and this letter is a letter about missionary support and hospitality so long as the missionary or the minister is a true minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and not a deceiver As we remember in 2 John, he talks about these false teachers as deceivers, as apostates, as antichrists. So John encourages one hospitality to these ministers of the gospel.

Then we should look at contrast, and John provides a contrast to what guys should do, and that's Diotrephes. D-I-O-T-R-E-P-H-E-S. I'll spell it for the people on the internet. And they can pronounce it correctly if I'm pronouncing it wrong. Diotrephes. But anyway, John gives a testimony against the way that Diotrephes handles these ministers. So who is Diatrephus, quickly? He was the elder or self-appointed leader of an unnamed church in which John apparently wrote to. His name means nourished of God. And he had an incredible ego.

We'll see all this in a couple weeks when Bob takes these verses. In verse 9, he loves to be the first among them. he had a lot of brass or moxie he unjustly accused John says he unjustly accused us with wicked words and by that I think he means himself and perhaps Gaius in verse 10 he was inhospitable towards the brethren in verse 10 He had a power complex putting those who are hospitable to traveling ministers out of the church in the style of excommunication. So, Gavalin, Arnold Gavalin in his little intro to 3rd John calls him a Pope in Embryo or you know the beginnings of the papacy. because he was acting like a pope trying to excommunicate people from his church Demetrius, who's Demetrius? apparently he's the itinerant preacher in question of this letter and he's a preacher of the true gospel of Jesus Christ he had the truth verse 12 he had good reputation among everyone he came into contact with verse 12 of 3 John and he was endorsed by John in verse 12 so that's Diotrephes and Demetrius and Gaius is our man that we're studying this morning so verses one and two the elder to the beloved Gaius whom I love in the truth beloved I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health just as your soul prospers and that's the salutation John again uses this, his title as elder and he calls everyone beloved, beloved of God and I think Goliath, if he knew him personally, I don't know or maybe he heard about him and he's just writing to him but he's He's personally beloved by John, this guy. So it's both by God and by John. And that's consistent with how John writes 1 John and 2 John.

I said, I kind of thought these are his calling cards by using the words beloved and referring to himself as an elder. He prays that he may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. So prosper is to have an increase in success. Good health, he wishes in good health, as you see up there in verse 2.

Good health is hyggeano, and that's our only Greek word today, so it'll be easy today. So hyggeano is the good health. And you see the we get our, I think we get our word hygiene, right, from English word hygiene from huviano, and that means soundness of being, free from disease.

The book of Luke, or Luke, uses this word huviano three times. First, you know, Christ says that the it's not the sick who it's not the well who need a physician it's the sick and that's why he's here he's the great physician but he uses the word huggiano christ does and then when the centurion's slave was was healed you know they went up and they found that he was in good huggiano good health and then thirdly the prodigal son when he was came home You know, they checked him over and he was found in good health. So that's our word, Houdiano.

Now, Paul uses it eight times, but differently. His use of the word in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are all exhortations to be in good health spiritually. So, he used it. When he says sound doctrine, sound words, and sound teaching, and he says that, eight times to Timothy and Titus and that sound, that word for sound is Hugiano.

So Gaius' soul is prospering in good health and that we know because John says it several times. He's very pleased with Gaius. So John is praying that his bodily condition might be made to follow. who was I listening to last night? McGee, J. Vernon McGee said that he thought that Gaius was in poor health, very poor health. So that's why John prays for his good physical health. But we don't know that. Maybe John is just saying, I hope you, you know, I wish you health like a lot of people do.

And I was wondering, I don't know the answer to this but it seems that like the Holly Hills, let's take our fellowship, everyone's soul is very healthy and people are spiritual and I never think about people's really spiritual condition because it's always in good health but people's physical health is a different different story. We're always praying for, you know, people. That's all our prayers really is for health.

So I wonder if those are opposite. If you're in good health, I don't know, the health of your soul is not so great, but who knows? I was just wondering that. So it's something to think upon. I was thinking, this sounds like Mr. Spock, doesn't it? Live long and prosper. When John says, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health. I just thought of that. It sounds like the same, much the same salutation and wish.

So, 3 and 4, 3 John 3 and 4, John says, For I was very glad when the brethren came and testified to your truth, that is how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this, than to hear my children are walking in the truth. And that we've seen in the 2nd of John, when he's talking to the chosen lady and specifically about her children. he says the same thing he's very glad it brings me joy to hear that you know his spiritual children plus the children of the chosen lady are walking in the truth as I say in point one here is the exact same sentiment he gives to the chosen lady walking in the truth we looked at that in second John that walking is peripateo and it's just the treading of feet and here we are treading the feet in the realm of truth. It's our daily walk in our conduct of life.

This phrase, the brethren came and testified to your truth, that was the occasion of believers in John's fold coming to him and testifying Or what was the occasion of believers in John's fold coming to him and testifying to the faithfulness of Gaius? So a lot of people were giving John a phone call, you know, whatever. Not a phone call, but they were coming by and telling John how faithful Gaius was.

But we'll look at that in 5 and 6. Which is really, 5 and 6 is the crux of this 3rd John letter. the occasion of the letter. So in 5 and 6 John says, Beloved, talking to Gaius, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers, and that they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God. So I say this is the crux of the letter because this is the issue that Geist has. It's right here in 5 and 6.

We're talking about these men who are itinerant or traveling preachers. Their gospel is true and correct according to John's endorsement. Itinerant, I had to just simply look this word up because I thought it was a pejorative term Intel, I studied this and so you look up itinerant in the dictionary and iter means a way of a journey, way or journey. So an itinerary is the route of a journey that you ride out. But an itinerant is one who travels along a way. And I always kind of had this thought that itinerant means, you know, hit or miss. A guy whose itinerant is maybe he'll be here, maybe he won't hit or miss, you know, but that's not the case. So the adjective is a good adjective, it just means way or journey, so someone who goes along the way of a journey.

One thought about the occasion for John writing this letter is Dias' confusion or lack of confidence in his action of providing hospitality to these traveling itinerant preachers. And John must assure Gaius that he is indeed acting faithfully and is in the truth. And you see that up in verses 5 and 6. That seems to be the core of what John needs to tell Gaius and to reassure him because possibly, and this is a possibility, that Gaius was given a rebuke by Diotrephus, and he was quite upset about it, leading Gaius to ask himself if he had done the right thing, or am I aiding and abetting these vagrant, vagabond, town-to-town preachers? Have I acted in the wrong?

So that could have been the reason that he wanted to seek counsel from John here, because this dire trafes really came down on him, which we'll see in the second part of this letter in a couple weeks. So Gaius has a great spiritual gift and that is, I think it's a ministry of, I guess you'd call it helps. He has an exceptional heart for hospitality and hosting these traveling saints. Especially if the Gaius we're talking about here is the same Gaius who hosted Paul so well in Corinth while Paul stayed with him for a year and a half and Paul wrote the letter to the Romans this could be the same Gaius which says that this is this man's modus operandi you can see he's he's a man of means and he is always hospitable and stranger this word xenos I guess we have three Greek words in this lesson, don't we? Xenos means a foreigner or alien. One without a share in your community or association. So if you're xenophobic, that's been in the news a lot. It means you're afraid of foreigners and aliens.

So continuing on with verses 5 and 6, Apparently, along with the Demetriuses of the world, the good preachers who traveled from town to town, there were a lot of false teachers that had risen up and were also making the circuits alongside the good teachers. Think of Paul. Paul was an itinerant. He was a traveling minister, a traveling preacher. So basically, Demetrius was doing the same thing as Paul. These men are on the move, like missionaries.

They don't have a fixed church base. And they... This Diatrephes might have been driven mad because they were informal and they were freelancing they were freelancing the gospel instead of being in a you know a nice church and he being in charge of a body and you know Di Trefis could have been a formal man one if he would if someone came in needing hospitality he'd probably want that minister to have letters of commendation from another highfalutin elder, right? And maybe if Diotrephes sent out a minister of the gospel, maybe he wanted to give him a seal of his signet ring, you know, to say, hey, this man is from me, Diotrephes, and he's good, so accept him in your home. But that's not the case. These guys were kind of unknowns who were just out there, which was good.

John liked this. So Geis seeks a commendation from John. He had that now in this letter. And then so John, and we'll see this in a couple of weeks, but he writes to Dietrich to set him straight. But then Diotrephes had the gall, I call it the pharisaic, like a pharisee hubris to challenge John and take on this great apostle. Imagine doing that. Imagine thinking you know more than the original apostle John who was called out by Jesus Christ personally and put into the ministry. you know, come I'll make you fishers and men. And you're going to go up against that guy? So John's very humble, but then he has to put this guy in his place. You know, he has to pull out his apostolic authority. And we'll see that in a couple weeks here.

Note that in verse 6 up there, that people and I mentioned this before but a lot of people were coming to John and testifying of Gaius's faithfulness so that he had a he had a reputation among everybody of being a faithful hospitable man and then he would he would not like the chosen lady he would He wouldn't host the false teachers. He would interview these guys and make sure they were teaching the truth and then he would host them. But he would kick them out or wouldn't have anything to do with false teachers. So I thought of some parallels to this Third John theme.

I thought of the Good Samaritan story or Jesus washing his disciples' feet. or when Christ talks about in Matthew 25 the judgment of the sheep and goats at the end of the age or the entry into the kingdom Christ says for when I was hungry and you gave me something to eat when I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink I was a stranger there's our word stranger and you invited me in and you know Gaius was one of, Gaius would have been one of the ones who gave Christ something to eat and gave him water when he was thirsty from that story in Matthew 25 there. The itinerant preacher, and I think I've established this previously but The man at the bottom of this letter, Demetrius, is the itinerary preacher in question. So it could be that Diotrephes had it in for Demetrius because he was this traveling preacher and he kicked him out, but Gaius hosted him. So the one that Diotrephes is rebuking Gaius 4 is probably Demetrius. Not sure, but that makes the most sense. So in 7 and 8 now, John, 3 John 7 and 8, For they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. So this going out in the sake of the name, let's look at that a little. The name commentates all things wrapped up in the rank, authority, interests, commands, excellences, deeds of a person. All that is wrapped up into those things is the name.

And that's according to Strong. So when it says for the sake of the name or Jesus's name, Strong says it's equivalent to defending, spreading, strengthening the authority of Christ. Isn't that what you're doing? Going out in the name of Christ, defending him, spreading his gospel, strengthening the authority of Christ. And the use of that phrase, the name, is all over scripture. Tons and tons of references. So we won't look at, we'll just look at that and just trust me on that one for this morning. Many, many. And even in the Old Testament, right?

So when John says accepting these traveling preachers were accepting nothing from the Gentiles, that's a good thing. They would depend on fellow believers, like-minded believers for their support. And they would take nothing from the people who they were proclaiming the gospel to. They wanted to make the gospel free of charge. And we learned in the 10 a.m. study in 2 Corinthians that Paul did the exact same thing where he says in 2 Corinthians 11 7, did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel to you free of charge. In fact, I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you.

And when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to none. for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied so he anything lacking he would depend on the believers from Macedonia to give him financial support so he could minister to the yet unsaved Corinthians and then when they became saved help me out there Roger when they became saved He then asked them, he said, it's fine if you want to contribute to the poor, right, in Jerusalem, but only after they were saved and they were believers. So that's the principle. Yes, that's right. Yeah, great. So, yeah, same, same, John mentions the same principle as what we had in the second Corinthians.

And that's what that phrase, accepting nothing from the Gentiles, which by John means the unbelievers, you know, not taking any of their money because, you know, they don't, it's, God can't use an unbeliever's money in the ministry of the gospel. It doesn't make sense logically. That's one good reason for not, you know, I'm thankful at Holly Hills we don't really have a collection because then you get people that you don't really know whether they're a believer or not giving you money. Oh yeah, right. Which is not a good thing. That's a good point. I never thought about that in that way.

That's, yeah, because someone could be visiting and you don't know their spiritual condition and yeah, they should come and if they identify I kind of like it sometimes. People ask me, Roger, how do I give in this church? How do I do it? And I point out there's a place at the back of the church you can do that.

Yeah. And then really they should, and we have a lot of materials on biblical giving right so what mind frame you are to be in when you biblically give and you know for your motivation and things like that and it should always be a free heartedness yeah yeah that's good that's good so therefore these wandering preachers who are of the truth or in the truth and one of us deserve our support, is how we could, an application we could have for today. I don't know, there's not a heck of a lot of wandering creatures anymore. There could be. Well, you know, I was kind of thinking it's a different paradigm, if that's the right word. Yeah.

You know, today we have, we have communication, we have good communication by mail, email, you know, chat, you know, Instagram, texting, you know, we can communicate pretty easily. Those days, they actually had to go physically many times to different places to communicate. So it was a different situation. So they needed places to stay along the way and people to be able to do that.

Yeah, and McGee said, you know, back then in that first century, you know, they had inns. like hotels. He said these inns were just, just dilapidated, just terrible places, dirty. You think of where the, you know, the Christmas story and the birth of Christ, you know, just not good places to stay, dangerous, eh? And then he said, McGee said, full of vice, you know, if you think about that. So when people could stay in a home, a private home, that's much better.

And that's sort of what we're talking about here in 3rd John. So here's my final thought, borrowed from Roger. This is from... Not the thought, but the... The format. Yes, the format. The idea. Not the idea. I stole from you. And this is really nice how this, uh, Bevere says it back in 1887. These guys are, really say things well.

So he says, the witness born to Gaius's truth and his walk in the truth must be noticed and how blessed and wonderful the association with poor, wandering, despised teachers are preachers. They had gone out for the name. An aged servant of Christ once said that of all employments, to go out across a country with the love of God in the heart and a Bible in the pocket was the most blessed. Not merely gone out to preach, but gone out for the name, that name that carries everything with it and with with which we can bless with adoration, notwithstanding that so many seducers have gone out too, and guys receive them, thus cooperating with the truth. It would be often said, you must not encourage these kinds of people, and that this thing could become abused. It may be abused, like every good thing, but that is only a further proof that there is such a thing as being employed, the highest of employments, as a wandering preacher of the truth of God. Gaius manifests the divine life in recognizing and receiving such men. The Lord had sent them forth. And that's from that old Christian Friends magazine. that you can find online.

So I'll close in prayer here. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for and we thank you for his faithfulness and we have a lot to learn from his hospitality and his enlarged heart and when to properly support saints but to keep our antennas up for ministers or missionaries who are who deny your deity and deny that you came in the flesh and deny the cross, that you died on the cross for our sins. And if they deny that, we should not have any association with those people, but take in people who know the truth. And we thank you for this and pray in Jesus' name. Amen.