1-3 John - 3rd John 1:1-8 Salutation and Missionary Support
3rd John 1:1-8 · JD McCulley · Dec 4, 2011
1, 2 & 3 John, No. 49
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492625450456

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, as you know, you've got a handout. I've crossed to the dark side. Holly Hills Bible Church has so impacted me. So you'll be getting a handout every week now. No, it's a good thing. Actually, I was just lazy. It's the real honest truth. At any rate, the nature of my handout is that it will cover most of what I say, and so unlike maybe some of the other handouts you get, it will be a little bit more exhaustive, and so I've shoved a little bit more content onto those PowerPoint slides for you. That way you can just go back and actually read through this and get pretty much the gist of what's going on. The things that will be missing is obviously the interaction that we have together.

Well, 3 John 1 through 8, we've titled it Salutation and Missionary Support. This is a really cool lesson for me to have a part in just because of the way the Lord's brought mission work into my own life and to our family and have quite a heart for this area of ministry. So I'm excited to be able to jump into that today.

We are going to cover eight verses and we're also going to do an overview, a quick overview and introduction into 3 John because it's a little different. slightly different than the previous two epistles that we read there. So, let's go into the overview of 3 John.

Start with the authorship. Just like 2 John, the writer called himself simply the Elder. We're going to see that he refers to himself in that same way. Seniority, presbyteros is the word there, and we won't cover it in great detail as we've already done. So, in the past with previous 2 John, But his authority is evident here, and he's not only an apostle, but he's recognizing, as all apostles do, that they have authority based on the eyewitness to the life of Christ. And so he's just claiming that same authorship here in this particular letter.

As far as the background goes, and if you feel that I'm rushing a little bit, you're exactly right. Normally I would take a little bit more time, maybe ask a few more questions, but with eight verses and a minimal amount of time with this group, Of course, I'm not sitting in the audience asking questions either.

So Third John is a personal letter written to a man named Gaius. And likely, Gaius belonged to the church somewhere in Roman Asia. Let's see here. We've got this area there. So we're looking at this western part. Ethesis is typically the region that the letter was mentioned it was delivered to. And probably Demetrius, we see in verse 12 that Roger will cover next week, he probably was the deliverer of this letter from John to this region. But the background there, being that John wrote to this region, he was urging Gaius to offer hospitality to Demetrius, probably the deliverer of the letter. who evidently was a traveling Christian evangelist. And so we introduce, what's really cool, a new topic in 1 John.

Not to say that the other topics are old and dusty, but they are very important and we've nailed them down. We've nailed them down over and over. This is a new topic. It's a new topic that hasn't been introduced quite in the same way. We actually see the negative side of it in 2 John, which we'll talk about. We don't see the positive side of hospitality towards traveling Christian teachers, or evangelists as we might call them. And so, we've got some new topics here, which is kind of cool. So, let's move on to the remaining aspects of background.

Apostle John apparently needed to appeal directly to this Christian believer, Gaius, in order to support Demetrius. Since the church was dominated by a man named Roger, Dioprophies. Who did not extend a welcome to traveling brethren. So there was a guy in the church who was not necessarily up with what John had to say. And that's why he had to write. He had to make sure that the other brethren within the church were aware of the Lord's feelings towards traveling believers who were coming and bearing testimony to what we'll find out is the name. Say it again. Dioptrophies. Does that sound good to you guys? I like that. Dioptrophies. I remember the first time, and this is going on record here, so whatever. I remember the first time I read, I was telling Les, Salome's name. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami.

Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami. Salami So this particular individual was interested in even excommunicating those who supported these traveling Christian believing teachers.

As far as a date goes, no independent data exists on which to base a date for writing of 3 John within the book itself, but it is simplest to suggest a date for all three epistles sometime in the early 60s of the Christian era. Any questions about the background there? Real quick run into it. Let's look at an outline I proposed here. This is not an outline that's typical, it's a little bit more of a personal perspective.

So, we're only covering verses 1 through 8 today, so I'm going to neglect the rest of the overview of outline here, but with regards to the first eight verses, basically we can say Gaius is a faithful Christian in comparison to Diotrephes, who is a conceited Christian, who bears selfish motives and is quite the handful when it comes to how he was treating his brother.

So there's that comparison there, and the idea here being this four part, A, B, C, and D. We'll see that Gaius lived spiritually and is committed for doing so. He lived truthfully. He walked truthfully. He served faithfully and he ministered generously. And I put this in this way because I like this particular outline because it's personalized. It doesn't say Gaius lived spiritually, but it encourages us to think these are the things that are involved in faithful Christianity in regards to this third John.

So, we'll cover the, you know, we have different ways of looking at this, simpler ways of looking at it, but we'll break it down in these four ways today. More so, we'll just go verse by verse through it. So, let's read 3 John 1 through 4. Roger, if you don't mind, just read us the first four verses there.

The Elder to the beloved Gaius, for my love and truth. Beloved, I pray that in all respect just as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when brethren came to you to your truth, that is how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this to hear my children walking in What we'll do is we'll just take the first four verses, work through those, and then we'll do the same thing with the last four verses. We'll read those and go through those individually. So rather than trying to remember what we read in eight verses. So here we've got the first four verses of the book.

I think there's 213 or 218 words in this letter. Not a very big letter. I read that there's a sentence in Ephesians that is longer than this book. That's true. Could some 200 words be really that important? It's a question that the original constructors of the scripture might have asked themselves. It's not even as long as some sentences. Should we throw it in there? I think so. I think it's got some very insightful observations for us as believers in light of Christian ministry and support. So I'm not going to harp on some of the things that we've covered in the past.

I mentioned that there in verse one, we've got the elder to the beloved. Is it Gaius or Gaius? Elder Presbyteros, the older one, the senior, and we cover this in 2 John verse 1. So this is not new information, and I'm not going to camp out on it, but it definitely, in the intro there that I gave you, has to do with the seniority and the witness to Christ's life, the authority that John brings to the letter.

It's a little different, this introduction, isn't it? It doesn't have a typical greeting. It kind of jumps straight into a personal address. It doesn't, you know, the grace and the peace and the salutation is a little different here, which is interesting.

The beloved, the elder to the beloved. So the adjective describes this man as being well beloved by his fellow saints, an outstanding member of the local church to which he belonged. He was well known and he was loved. And he had those that loved him. There was a relationship there. We might recognize that Gaius is a common Greco-Roman name. It's used four times in the scripture and other places. One place in particular, in 1 Corinthians, we recognize that Gaius has an abundance of wealth.

That would be the only way that you might be able to relate this particular man to that, only because he obviously has the ability to, as we'll see in the remaining verses, to offer hospitality and support. which not all believers would be able to do. They wouldn't necessarily be able to offer people into their home and support them in different ways. And so that would be the stretch that you might have to relate him. I would recognize this probably as a different person. He had another believer in the area of Ephesus that had some prominence, not because of his wealth alone, but more so because of his stand in the church and what John recognized him for. which is both personal and corporate within the church.

It's pretty cool. So, to be Gaius, and to be able to relate to this man, we're going to find out, is a good thing. It is a good thing. We won't read those verses, but there are others, like I said, that are mentioned in Acts and Romans, other men mentioned by this name. The remaining part of verse 1 says, Whom I love in truth. Yell to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. So this man is beloved by John and others. We'll see that in verse 3. But the apostle can say that he loves him in truth. Why? We've talked about this a lot. Truth is a big topic and theme to the first and second letters. What have we said about loving in truth? What are some of the things that we've observed?

What's that? Christ is his life. Christ is his life. Okay, Rogers brought out the personal side of truth and love. I've appreciated how there is a technical understanding of truth and love. We can define them, biblically speaking, but we can also personally identify them as a person through Christ. And so you might be able to say, based on some of the things that Rogers taught to us, whom I love in Christ. But specifically what is truth here? And we've addressed it. Truth's been on the line for John this whole time. So what is he specifically saying about the truth?

How to do it. Christ's deity. That's right. He stands for Christ's deity. That obviously is the context of truth and the truth that needs to be defended throughout 1 and 2 John. So we could say that he truly loves him. And he loves him in the truth that is the Christian truth. And that specifically being that Christ came in the flesh, God in man, fully God. And while there are those antichrists that have denied it, Gaius is not one of those men. I truly love this man. He stands for the truth of Christ's deity. And he is one that I am backing by my love for him as a brother.

Also, love and truth are inseparable. Love and truth are inseparable. Good observation. We've talked about loving and truth, or truthing in love, and that's one of the biggest takeaways that I've personally gained from working not only as a student in this class, but as a teacher in this class, is the love and truth combo that exists together. and not having truth at the expense of love, and love at the expense of truth, but seeing them coexisting as one, and ultimately in the person of Christ.

They cannot be divided. Thoughts? You know, before I think about that, in leaving the field this morning, with the fact that he came as a man is an inconceivable concept to our mind. in the form of a man. That is a miracle. God named every single star and recognizes the minutest of instruction in the DNA cell. He's a God of wonders. He's a God of wisdom.

The psalmist constantly causes us to think about how grand and incomprehensible this eternal God is that we serve. And yet, in order for us to relate to Him, He chooses to come in the most humblest of means and make Himself known to us and identify his own stance of thinking. We call it his word, his truth. He identifies his wisdom to us so that we can sit here and we can study it. I mean, who is God that he should be mindful of us? But yet he is. And he's given us his word. He's shown us himself through his deity, through his incarnation. And that was what was on the line for these believers.

It's a good thinking there. Good thought. Pat, you had a question? It just says, in truth, and I'm just curious what... And then it has a footnote that says, in the truth, in the comments, as far as... Do you want to read the whole verse for us there? It just says, you know, whom I love in truth. Whom I love in truth? In truth. And then you can jame.

I just wonder what other versions said it. Because if I look in the comments, whatever that is, newer version or something. That's not true. Which seems like it's really a little more specific to say not true. The most very true. This is New American Standard. I try to stick with New American Standard, English Standard Version occasionally. NASB is going to be a little bit more word for word. New King James doesn't usually vary a whole lot, but I can't jump into the Greek specifically on the two different translations. I don't know. I don't even know. I didn't even brought out the NIV. Anybody got any NIV?

There we go. I've used the word sphere, that's actually one of the terms that I use to describe this is that John is saying that he loves Gaius in the sphere of truth. And that's kind of a more accurate Greek way of saying it. Without getting too caught up on the in or the. But there is no article then. There is no article, so in truth is more of a technical rendering of the Greek language.

The quality. The quality of it. Thank you. Does that answer your question? Yeah. Okay, perfect. Verse one. Verse two. Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health. That means that you're supposed to get all the money that you want, just as your soul prospers. Health, wealth, and prosperity. Here we have the word prosper, equivalent to our English expression of getting along well. What are some other ways that we might say this today?

Have a good day. Have a good day. Be well. Be well. I use the word be well. I don't say get along well, but the idea of being well. When we say be well, do we mean that we hope that you go make a lot of money today? It could include the potential of making money on transactions that you have involved in your week until I see you next Sunday. Maybe so. But that's not my intention. My intention is to encompass a larger state of well-being with my well-wishing.

And that's what he's saying here. I think that the term prosper, as he's communicating here, doesn't necessarily mean material prosperity, but prosperity in general. That he does well and that there's a relationship here to that prosperity and his good health. The Apostle wants things to go well for Gaius and for him to be in good health. Why? Why would you ever wish somebody such a thing if you love them?

It's kind of a rhetorical question, right? I mean, this is personal. This letter is different. It's got a little bit more of a striking, just in-depth look at, or not necessarily in-depth, but a little bit more of a colorful look at John's feeling for a particular person and how he wishes that person in light of his Christian walk, as we'll see. Yeah, I'm looking at this old King James, and it says, Yeah, it is. When it says there, it commutes it. It passes the test, so to speak. Okay.

So we're reading from the King James. Do you want to read the full verse, too, again for us? For the truth, say, which dwelleth in us, Notice how I handled that? I used the collective wisdom of the group. I did good. Thanks Jack. It's a good reminder of 2 John. Okay, so verse 2.

Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper, be in good health, just as your soul prospers. The Apostle wants things to go well for him, and we also talked about the soul prospering. The soul being the psuche. Is that a correct pronunciation? And I've copy pasted this. I think it was Alfred that said this. The soul is the principle of individuality, the seat of personal impressions.

It has a side in contact with both the material and spiritual element of humanity. and is thus the mediating organ between body and spirit. It was the inner heart-life of Gaius that John said was in a prosperous condition. It's that soul in between the spiritual and the material, so long as it will exist, the material side of it, is what I mean. But John hoped that Gaius' temporal well-being might match his spiritual well-being. Why do you think that, why would you think, and you're just going to have to guess a little bit because we haven't gotten to the remaining verses which we need to scoot along into, but why do you think John is concerned about the prosperity of this man in not only his material condition, not necessarily financially alone, but just his well-being being matched up to his spiritual well-being? Why do you think he's relating these two?

I think the vertical position being in place, then the horizontal, as you work in the world, falls in place as well, because you're established where you are. Okay. It's interesting here that the word prosper, and this verse really kind of hinges on that concept of prosperity.

And we talked about it being more than just the financial side of it, but being spiritual and being general in well-being. If Gaius was well off in his spiritual condition, which he is, John is wishing that his physical condition would match it. Why? The work of the ministry.

I think that's pretty in line with where I was at. If Gaius is seeking to give in hospitality to those that are visiting him and needing support, then wishing John such a thing in the Lord as an apostle would be a really accurate way of looking at it, I think. I hope that you're able to be well, so that you're able to do the things that you're doing so well. Because they're important, and I love you for it.

And he goes on in the next verse to say, what did I do here? Did I, oh I did, I clicked the wrong button. Here we go. He goes on in the next verse to talk more about how Gaius' attitude and those things that he was doing were commendable. He says, For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you were walking in truth. came and testified. So this idea of came, or the word came is a present participle in the Greek and speaks of a continuous action. And so you had those brethrens or Christian workers who were leaving Ephesus and reporting back to John, those continuously they were doing this, they came continuously and they came and they testified, they spoke witness to what Gaius was doing. And so John receives these reports, he recognizes the work that Gaius has done in the church, that he's prospering, and he wishes him well for it. And he hopes that he entrusts that prosperity in his spiritual well-being to being equivalent to that in his physical well-being. So that he can do the things that he's doing. Does that always happen?

I think we all recognize those believers within the church who just have a desire to serve others. When believers come into town, they're the first to put their house up. Come on in. My house is an open door for you. When there's a need financially, they've received abundance of wealth and they give financially. They're just those types of people and I know those types of people. I was on the receiving end of those types of people. You may be those types of people. Gaius was. And John committed him for it.

And he was very glad to hear that not only was he doing things, as we're going to see what he did, but that he was walking in truth. I think that's really, really important here, is that not only was Gaius supporting these believers as they came, we'll talk more about that in a minute, but there was something underlying all of it that was far deeper and far bigger and far more commendable than just your quote-unquote Christian service to other believers thought.

You touched on it and I'd just sort of like to maybe read the verse At the end of it, it just says that you might prosper and you have good health, but then it uses a comparative here, just as prospers the soul of you. It sort of focuses on his soul being prospered, and he wants his health and his prosperity to be like that. That's right. this reason, for I was glad." And he's describing, I guess, the soul. The condition of his soul. That's right. Did you guys get that?

There's a comparison between the prosperity, physical prosperity, and spiritual prosperity. And then John goes on into this verse to really hark and bring to light the nature of Gaius' walk with the Lord and why he was prosperous. If you walk in truth, Is your soul prospering? You want to prosper in your soul? Walk in truth like Gaius did.

What does that mean? I think we have groups today that think that they can manufacture that in order to produce physical prosperity. So even the walking in truth is not something that we can manufacture. It's just fellowship with the Lord and the consequences are, they come out in other ways even though you can't really be focused on those things. I appreciate what you're saying there because there are groups, the health, wealth and prosperity, where you do certain things and you will receive certain things, right?

Okay. Is that what this verse is teaching? we're looking at today. Is that what it's teaching? It's not. And one of the things that I like to do is focus where the repetition is. What's the word that we've already said a number of times so far? Truth. At least twice. Truth. Okay. And continuous action. Continuous actions. Walking. Continuously walking. Walking in the truth.

And John heard from others, and I'm just going to jump back in here, He had heard from others how Gaius was a man of truth. He was a man who loved in the truth. He didn't exchange one for the other. He wasn't just a very, very loving kind of guy. He stood in the truth. He walked in the truth, standing and walking there. We recognize many similar things, that his lifestyle was consistent with the truth. And this is a guy you looked at, and you're like, yeah, he knows what he's saying. He's walking in it. And the prosperity of that walk is coming out in his physical well-being, at least at this point, in his health and his ability to do the things that he's doing. Question?

Yeah, I've been thinking a lot lately about Ephesians 5.8, where it says that you are light, and you should walk as children of light. It's making me think that he's walking in the truth, but he's walking in consistency with who he is in Christ. He is. Let's think about that for a minute. If Gaius is a child that is walking in the light, would we agree that he is? Yeah. Okay.

What are some of the things that he's doing? One approach might be to say, let's look at all that he does in these first eight verses, and let's mimic it. Let's do it. I've used the term, let's bootstrap it. Let's figure out who we can support, and just support him. Let's all link in our pockets and do it.

But what's interesting here is that being a child, walking in the light, brings about certain consistent responses from all of us. In other words, when we walk in the light, we don't necessarily look all that different. Yes, our continuing person is each of us has a unique continuing person. I'm not saying that we don't have different gifts. I'm just saying that there are outward expressions.

We talked about God's love and how it looked on the outside several weeks ago. I compare God's love to the world's type of love. Walking in the truth and supporting those, as we're going to be looking at. Are there other mission organizations out there that are non-Christian that do this? Or do they walk in truth? They don't. That's the difference. So being a child that's walking in the light looks a certain way in Christianity. It looks a certain way in the New Testament. It looks a certain way post-resurrection, ascension, and now seeding.

Question? Could you go so far as to say that God's glory is being manifested through him? Absolutely. Is grace and hospitality and giving part of God's character? So we get a little finite glimpse of Gaius' walking in the light, walking in truth, and seeing God's character in similar terms to those that are sharing his word.

Does that align with what you were trying to bring out? When you think of people, I think we all have people that we know. Hal comes to mind. He walked in truth, and you knew it. It came out of him. Not because of him trying to do that, it was his relationship that he had with the Lord. What you put in comes right back out. And Hal was one of those men, I didn't know in person, but I've heard the testimony about him.

He put a lot of God's Word in his heart, and so God's glory in a finite perspective, you know, came out. And I say finite just because I want to reserve the infinite glory of God for God alone. But being in Christ is something special. And that's what Gaius was. He was in Christ. He was walking in the truth, and he brought about certain responses to believers that had come through the city.

Those are all good thoughts. Let's move on to verse 4. I have no greater joy than this. I have no greater joy than this? Seriously? This guy, John, was not what this other guy was doing. He says, I have no greater joy. John's source of joy came from a place of seeing others and spiritual dependence on the truth. He couldn't imagine anything making him happier.

I can honestly say my children, my physical children, while very young and managing only what they know, when I see them depending on Christ, it is the most joyful thing that I could ever imagine. Now, does John feel that way about the believers that he in some way had metaphorically speaking, a family relationship, too, through the Christian message.

Have you ever hoped about this? Have you guys ever taught somebody, maybe even led somebody to the Lord, and seen them start to walk, walk in truth? And you're just like, oh! God, to be used that way, to be a tool, a personal tool, a tool nonetheless, to help lead that person to the source, is an amazing experience. See, people's eyeballs go off. I always use that term, because when you see somebody just click on something, it's like, oh, cool, I got to be a part of that.

And John got to be a part of some of these things. And it resulted not only in who I did, it resulted in who I trusted. And I want to see Christ's life in me. And Gaius was doing that. Or should I say that he was trusting and he was experiencing that. who's experiencing Christ's life through them.

And John said, there's no greater joy. I couldn't imagine anything making me more happy than to hear about this report that I'm getting from fellow brethren who have come all the way from, you know, Western Asia, or Asia Minor, what is Western Turkey today, traveling all the way down to see me, possibly in Jerusalem, and telling me about this stuff. How many days did it take to get to him?

You can just imagine it, waiting to hear. I'm walking and I'm not. I got to wait. I got to wait. You know, we wait for mail. Last Saturday, I checked in on twice yesterday. I'm waiting on something. The baby's here. Can you please go check the mail again? Maybe that's how John felt, except for exceedingly so. Because the joy that he received when he found testimony to what these guys were involved with excited him. My children. We don't know for sure if Gaius was John's child physically. Not likely.

Spiritually, his convert, or metaphorically. But the last uses of this word is probably metaphorical. It's probably the most common one in the New Testament. And in this case, he could have been a disciple of John or simply a younger believer. But nonetheless, John was related to the ministry that Gaius had been impacted from. And it excited him greatly. I can imagine it being something like when Byrne gives a call from Hassan, that Hassan has stood around. And maybe he's gone through a very tough and difficult transition and challenge. But he's swapped in the truth. No greater joy than that.

That'd be an analogous scenario. ordering their behavior in the sphere of truth. I like that. Here's my sphere. I'm organizing it in the sphere of truth. I've got latitude within it because I've got grace as a New Testament believer. I've got the grace of deciding how to behave and walk in the truth based on my circumstances in relation to the true Word of God and how Christ's life lives through the United States. And Gates was doing that. He wasn't following some rigorous law. He was walking in truth. He was in the sphere, in the realm of truth. His behavior was aligned with what they all knew to be true. Slip in verses 5-8. Craig, you mind reading just 5-8 there?

Yeah. 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.

My time is short. Forgive me for summarizing. And these are really, really dear verses to me. Let's look at verse 5. Acting faithfully. They have acts of faith. Literally, I think a more specific way of saying this is that, beloved, you have acts of faith. You have done works of faith. And whatever you accomplish, it goes on. Whatever you've done, whatever you've brought about, It's been faithful. Those have been faithful works, faithful things.

Are we talking about outward expressions of walking in the truth now? Walking in the truth is not only aligning our faith on the word of God and abiding in the person of Christ, but by doing that, there are works that come out of that, works that he has already prepared for us that we've walked into.

And here he's saying that you're acting faithfully. Your work of faith in whatever you accomplish for these brethren, for these fellow believers, it's a faithful thing. It's faithful to the things that I've taught you. It's faithful to the truth that I've given you. It is consistent with walking in the spirit of truth. Beloved, you're acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren.

Whatever you do for those brethren, those brothers, those fellow believers, And here specifically, based on the remaining verses that we have today, likely these were evangelists that were coming into this church, needing a place to stay, needing a place to share what they had been learning from the apostles.

This very letter, likely. In other words, this letter was the result of someone having done this work of faith. You see what I'm saying? me more so through my personal journey. I'm more identified with the idea of sharing a message that's not my own, but being responsible for communicating it clearly. And these brethren were in that role, in this case, carrying letters from the apostle, actually.

What about strangers here, especially when there are strangers? Just to summarize that and not to break down the brief there, But what I've studied is that the strangers here are more likely related to brethren who are unknown to this particular church. In other words, all of those Christians from another church.

We don't know them. We shouldn't have howled at them like a horse. We don't know if they're the right flavor. Maybe that's how we feel today. The point here was, when you've extended this type of attitude towards the strangers, those that are strange to us and that we've not met them before, the leaders that are new to us, these are faithful acts, these are faithful works. What we're recognizing here is that Gaius was a cheerful giver, and faithfully welcomed other leaders and offered his Christian hospitality, whether he knew them, or whether he didn't know them.

So I want to read Hebrews 13.2 for you. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. So in that case, would strangers in that context include unbelieving strangers, potentially? So then it would definitely include believing strangers as well, right? So we have other areas where showing hospitality to those that we don't fully know is a biblical and Christian act, if you will. But it's an act that's done out of a foundation of walking in the truth. It means the term abiding, identifying, yielding, or however you want to use the term. And as a result, he's opening up his home to these folks. Verse 6.

And they have testified, who's they? Big brethren, strangers, whoever it was that was being sent from John to Gaius, to the church that Gaius was a part of. So they'll be either unknown stranger believers, or they would be known believers. And they have testified, those folks that John has sent to him, or rather they have come back in report of what Gaius has been doing and the church has been involved with, 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. So we see these folks as his missionaries.

That's the term we often use today. It's the closest relationship that we can get. Believers that are traveling, sharing the message of the Lord. We're obviously establishing a church at this particular point in time, but now that that is established, the closest relationship that we have, we don't have people reporting from an apostle giving us the letter. And what we have is those that are, it could be a traveling preacher. We use that, we might have that analogy in today's society, but whatever the case, it's a believer that's going to another body of believers and bringing the message.

Preparing them in some sort of way with some body of truth. And those folks have testified for their love before the church. Testify to your love before the church. So Gaius' hospitality, or his love, had reached the church where John now was prostrating Jerusalem. So he'd heard about this hospitality. And he heard, if you go there, you've got to get treated well.

Please, you'll do well if you send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. Please do this. Do this in such a way that they have adequate provisions and that they have what they need when they're ready to meet. Send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

Nothing less than such generosity would be worthy of God who expressed his supreme generosity in giving his son. That was Jack's point earlier. Our generosity towards other believers comes out of the very nature of God's generosity by identifying, by becoming man and showing himself to us. That generosity is the same generosity that motivates us to give.

Hospitality towards those believers that are traveling and sharing Specifically, I would like to think it was more in our context, specifically gospel. The traveling preacher concept has lost a lot in our day of past revival. We send people to teach, where we'll pack up and go teach at places. He was just in California, if I remember correctly. The hospitality that he would receive would apply to these verses. The hospitality that we receive when we have a traveling teacher, this would be where our walk would have a certain expression or setting.

When they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. The name. That of Jesus, which was now exalted above every name, in Philippians 2, 9-11, that same term is used, the name. To go out on behalf of that name was a supreme honor. You see that in Acts 5, 41, that there's even those that are suffering for going out and being sent out in that name.

These are the guys that went out in the name, and even in the Old Testament, that's an expression, speaking of all that God is in His glory, But here, in Philippians, like I said, it's actually referring to all of Christ's attributes, which are more identifiable to us only because He is man, God the Son. While He does not have a different set of attributes than God the Father or God the Spirit, we can identify with Him in ways that we can't identify with God the Father, part of the same, simply because He was man. understand more clearly who he was. Is that making sense? And so in this context, John's not bringing the Old Testament name of Yahweh into bear on these missionaries or ambassadors.

He's bringing the name of Jesus. And with the name of Jesus comes a message, a message that will cause everything about, every time he confesses and so forth. So the word is used in a sense of reputation, of what a person is in character and stands for. And we know what Jesus stands for.

And that was what was at stake in 1st and 2nd John, wasn't it? Jesus' name, his character was at stake. Because they were saying that he did not come in name. He did not have the flesh. So the name, as a term, was at stake. And there were those that stood by the name.

And they went out in sync of it, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. This being the pagan world of that time, naturally it was inappropriate for those who did so to seek support from those who did not believe in and honor that name. The whole idea of commercialization was not a part of their support. They weren't looking to have some believers to support them because they were identified with the name. That's not easy when you're raising support. If somebody wants to give you money, it's a challenge. But those guys, at least the folks here, did not We're directed not to accept that.

Verse 8, therefore we ought to support such men so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. This therefore we ought is an intensive way, literally, as for us, in contradistinction to the pagans, we ought to have a moral obligation to support these folks. To support such men, the fact that faithful Christian evangelists sought no help from the unsaved meant that Christians were under a special obligation to the system. You have a special obligation to assist your fellow brothers in the ministry by sending the needed help or showing the hospitality to such men in the way that Gaius did, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. The thought is of partnership with what the truth accomplishes in people's hearts and lives. It was a noble objective to Gaius to follow.

And notice the emphasis on truth in comparison to 2 John 10 through 11. Remember what 2 John 10-11 said? We've got five minutes. Let's see if we can read that real quick. This is the opposite. We got into a big discussion about it last week. And it was good. It was helpful, especially for me. I get a lot out of those. 2 John 10-11. Let's read.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching and not receive it into your house, and not give him a greeting. For the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. That's the opposite of what this is saying. Here, you're offering your hope to them. You're participating in their deeds. You're identifying with their message.

And in so doing, you're showing the Christian hospitality that Gaius was showing with the foundation of walking in the truth, walking in the light, being a child of the light, which we've said before. So, as I think through 3 John 1-8, what we have here is a very personal letter written to a man who had a foundation of walking in Christ. And John was exceedingly happy about this. It gave him great joy to hear that Jairus was walking in the truth and that there were those there that were walking in the truth. He could think of nothing that made him happier. And what he was doing was he was those traveling pastors, however you want to refer to them, those that bore the message of the gospel and the original church truth, he said, when you extend your love, in the same way that Christ extends his love to you by giving his son, when you extend that kind of hospitality, there is There's great joy that comes from the fellow believers, amongst other things, when they see that kind of joy taking place, or see that kind of hospitality taking place. What's the results of all this? What do you get from giving your money to Christian missionaries? What do you get from opening your home? Is there anything in these verses that say about giving something? No. No. It's not. It's not the point. It's not about what you give. And it's not about what you give under law, it's about what you give under grace.

And I've got three minutes here, and I just wanted to kind of bring home some of the experience of this. Les and I were called into mission work in 2005-ish. Up in Canada we had to sell a home, sell our cars, relocate, get grace support through the church. all those things, and we learn a lot of different things, practical things about how you do it in this century, and how you try to communicate without marketing. There's just a lot of challenges in raising support.

And then, how about the church supporting you when you're leaving? Is the church in support of you? Did they see the opportunity? Did they send you? Did you send yourself? Did you jump in on going with a parachurch? Did you jump on going with a fellowship? Did you jump on going with another church?

There's all these things that are related to Christians that are going out and sharing the truth. What we do know, and we won't have to break all those things down, but what I did learn from that experience is that God has given himself in such a way, through his Son, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there are those men and women, and we should identify ourselves with the same attitudes, that give in abundance to make it possible for those that desire to go and share the message.

Because not everybody desires to up and move and leap. We came back, but we had the support, and I use the term partnership. Fellow workers. I love that term. We should be fellow workers with our missionaries. We should be partners with our missionaries. We should take great interest in what's going on in their lives. Not out of law, but because we are concerned for their well-being. And we're concerned that what they're doing is a calling that God has laid on their hearts, and they've been sent. and they are doing the work of the Lord, and by doing this, by supporting them financially, by supporting them with our home, whatever other generous ways that we might be able to, we give them laptops and all the library books in the world, a laptop, all kinds of things, by doing that, you are partaking in the ministry that they are involved with in Uganda. You get to be a fellow worker with them.

That was one of the things that I really tried to bring home, with our support team, the church that supported us. It wasn't necessarily one specific church, although we had that. It was a group, it was a body of believers that was even larger than just my church. But I considered them my support team. That's a term that is not biblical, but fellow workers is. And that's why I ended up communicating to them. You are a fellow worker. You are involved here. You are my partner here. You're with me.

Yeah, you're not sitting there, you know, sharing the gospel and getting the odd look back. You've never heard this before, which is the kinds of experiences I was having. I'd write back and say, you know, such and such is not, they're not hearing today.

Six months later, they're here. Things have changed. They've come to know the Lord. And what joy should be brought back to the fellow workers that were involved with the missionary is that I was involved with that by virtue of the fact that I had been given, and I decided to get out of that. So those are some of the thoughts that I had with regards to 3 John 1 through 8 and the Christian Especially in this season. We have folks out there that are stranded in different areas. Not stranded in the sense that they don't have anyone, but they can feel lonely. I know. I can feel kind of like, uh, is anybody with me? Is anybody supporting what I've got going on here, what the Lord's doing? And yes, they have the Lord.

But here we see that fellow workers and the truth is something that is important for us And think about it, pray about how you might be able to recognize your own involvement in some of these areas. That's right. Father, I just thank you so much again for your message of Third John and how gangster is a man that we can identify with as being one who walked in the truth, who was concerned about his abiding in you, trusting of you, studying of you, and sharing it and supporting those who share it. I thank you that we have missionaries today, those that we support in this church. I think specifically we all have different ones in mind.

But Lord, I just pray for their prosperity from a biblical perspective. That they might experience the prosperity of the church just as Gaius was able to extend to Demetrius. And Lord, that our missionaries might find that walking in the truth and sharing your message provides a joy in their heart that is motivated by the same grace that granted us your son. They might experience your grace in ways that are far beyond, far greater than the way the world might seem to explain it. Sharing your message and seeing that message click is the most wonderful thing. I pray that you would be diligent in understanding it Diligent in communicating, diligent in supporting others, all motivated by the grace and intimacy we have with each other. Jesus, have your prayer.