"1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord. Thank you for joining us today, we're glad to have you here. We are grateful for those of you who have been sharing the ministry website with all of your family and friends. Your faithfulness to share God's Word with others continues to bring about tremendous results. May He continue to use this ministry mightily
to effect change in even more lives. There have always been those in the church who love the preeminence, who are proud and selfish and self-centered,
who seek power, fame and fortune, and the places of
prestige.
2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. 5 Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; 6 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. 7 For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. 9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. 10 For this reason,
if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly
accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself
does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church. 11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. 13 I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; 14 but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face. 15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
The first murderer in the Bible, was Cain, who had produced a grandson, who was also a murderer. The first murderer was the result of envy. This one was the result of pride. Interestingly enough, Lamech was the seventh in the line from Adam. Lamech was one of those ungodly people who did ungodly deeds in an
ungodly way, who spoke harsh things against God. We could say that Lamech was a hard
sinner, and he flaunted his sin against God. He viewed himself as above
God.
Genesis 4:19 tells us "Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah." Here we see that he had already broken God’s commandment by being a polygamist.
Then, in verses 23 and 24, " Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, Listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech, give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; and a boy for striking me; if Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold." Lamech is the first bully in the Bible. This is an illustration of blasphemous arrogance.
Another such man, was a man by the name of Nimrod. We find him in Genesis chapter 10. In verses 9-10, it says "He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." His, is a story of desperate rebellion against God by one who wanted to be preeminent. In the Hebrew, it says "and he began to be a tyrant in the land. He was a terrible subjugator, defiant before the face of Jehovah." Nimrod appears to be the first of the dictators in the Middle East, not Saddam Hussein, Nimrod was the first one who brought together an organized rebellion against God. It can all be traced back to Nimrod.
In the ninth chapter of Judges, we meet another one by the name of Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, named after Baal, and went to Shechem. He had these tremendous aspirations to become king. He sought both power and prominence and preeminence so that he gathered
together all of his brothers to support him in his effort to be king,
and then killed them all. So that he might eliminate any potential claimant to his throne. Eventually, he did ascend to that power that he wanted, but God dealt with him in rather a bizarre way. While he was trying to smash down the tower, his army was attacking an enemy at Thebez, from the top of the tower a woman dropped a millstone, and she apparently had tremendous aim, because it hit him on his head, split his skull wide open.
And as long as we’re thinking about these kinds of people, in Daniel chapter 4, we find another such man who sought the preeminence by the name of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar sought to exalt himself, and so God turned him into a maniac, and left him grazing like an animal for seven years. Because that's how long it took for him to come to his senses!
There are a number of others and we haven't even gotten to the New Testament, where we find men like Harod.
It all reminds me of Jesus' word in Matthew 19, when He said " But many who are first will be last; and the last, first."
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for these great principles and truths, for this critical reminder that the church is to be what You want it to be. May we humbly be Your faithful servants, godly and loyal to the truth. May we be those who are selfless and sacrificial, so that You truly might be exalted and glorified in Your church. Thank Your grace that keep us humble. We pray that no man would be glorified in Christ's, that Christ alone would be glorified.
In His precious name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: Walking In Love - Part 2
Open with me your Bibles to III John. We are looking at the final verses of this marvelous little epistle, verses 9 through 15. It is my hope to finish up our study of III John today, but we will wait and see what the Lord has in store for us. Often, He takes us off into a different direction.
I again invite you to follow along with me as I read to the entire chapter,
to refresh our minds with the text, as we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit is saying to each of
us. Again, I have no idea just how far we will get in our study, so we'll
leave that up to the Lord. So, listen for the voice of our Lord. III John 1:9-15.
"The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in 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 brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of 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. I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. For this reason,
if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly
accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself
does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name."
The man who seems to dominate this section of this epistle is a man named Diotrephes. He would certainly never end up in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Rather, he belongs in the hall of infamy with all the rest of those people which we had been discussing earlier. This man named Diotrephes, loved to have the power, the preeminence, and the prestige. He did not submit to apostolic authority. Rather than being a prosperous soul, he was a destitute soul.
Throughout church history, some people have wanted to be first. Here is a man who’s competing with Christ. In fact, he’s like a New Testament Absalom, who was so power hungry that he would murder his own father to take the throne. Diotrephes problem was apparently not his theology, if it had not been, John would have condemned him for it. His problem was his personal ambition and pride that led him to oppose even the apostle John. Though Diotrephes may have had the truth, the only person he seemed to love was himself!
Diotrephes was so proud that in seeking his place of preeminence, busy replacing Christ in the church, by rejecting those who were serving Christ. This is an old story, that frequently comes to new life. In fact, we see this all the time. They come out of the seminary, and they go into a church, prepared to serve Christ and then they run into a Diotrephes and the next thing you know, they're gone.
Here is a man in the church who, because he loves to be first, sees everybody as a threat to his power. He was forbidding anyone to receive the traveling preachers, who he saw as a threat. We saw last time that John writes to one, beloved Gaius, whom he loves in truth, and wishes
him well, and tells him about what good reports he hears from the
brethren who came to him to tell him of Gaius.
Then, here is verse 9, there is a rather startling change. "I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say." Therein lies the explanation for the majority of the problems in the church throughout history. I’ve seen a number of pastors and church leaders throughout the years, seeking to lord their position over the flock. They wanted everyone to look up to them, not to Jesus Christ. It seemed to threaten them if people learned from others. They would often slander their opponents. Quite frankly, it was very unbecoming of a church leader!
In our text, we have a picture of this man named Diotrephes, who, contrary to the call for loving hospitality, is doing
everything he can to prevent the servants of the gospel from having any
reception in the church. Because of his spiritual pride, he sees them as a threat to his power. He was ungracious and inhospitable. Quite the contrast of Gaius, who, in the last eight verses is seen knowing truth, walking in truth, loving the brethren,
entertaining strangers who are faithful ministers of the gospel.
Diotrephes is seen loving himself, refusing to allow anyone to come in
who might somehow receive the accolades he feels that he deserves, the love, the affection, the
response of the congregation which he wants all for himself. Again, the conflict is not doctrinal; it’s not theological; it’s not a spiritual issue. It is the personal issue of spiritual pride and loving ones self. Diotrephes had managed to move himself into the position of power and literally rejected a letter from the apostle John. He probably never even read it, he may have just destroyed it, that’s why John tells Gaius, who’s in that church, that he wrote it.
We do not know exactly what happened to this letter, that was written earlier to this church. It is lost. We know that this was not a circumstantial situation, or even an environmental situation, Diotrephes' problem is clearly identified, he loved to be first. He is not humble; he is not selfless; he is not compassionate or loving. He is driven by his personal ambition.
Look at verse 10, John says " For this reason,
if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly
accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself
does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church."
Clearly, Diotrephes did not value people and relationships. Rather, he used
people to build power. Apparently, if you didn’t go along with
him, he would force you out of the church, no doubt under the guise
of keeping the church pure. This was church politics at the worst!
This is exactly how the world operates. The way to move up in this world is to build relationships with people in powerful
positions. You do favors for them so that they owe you something in return. You play
one person against another, you climb over and step on the backs of others, all in an attempt to put yourself in a
powerful position.
Jesus Himself had something to say about this type of behavior, in Mark chapter 10, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
It is so hard to deal with people like this in the church, especially in a small congregation. John is saying. "I will not forget. I will bring up the subject of Diotrephes’ conduct to the church because it is an issue for church discipline." There is only one way to deal with people like that in the church, you must take away their power. It is astonishing to me that so many churches today, seem so reluctant to do that, to remove a spiritual tyrant from power. If you do not take the power away fro men like that, eventually they will destroy the church, until you finally do what should have done in the first place! You have to take disciplinary action.
All the verbs that John uses indicates that this man worked his way into a position of power in the church by deceiving people. John indicts him on four accounts, first, "unjustly accusing us with wicked words." This is very characteristic of these kinds of people. They falsely accuse others, that's how they gain trust. They never gain trust by their virtue. They never gain trust by their character. They get the trust of the people by maliciously destroying the people’s trust in everyone else.
Then John says "And not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either." They seek to destroy anybody and everybody who comes in. John says "He does not receive the brethren." He not only slandered John, he deliberately defied John by refusing to welcome the faithful brethren who came to preach for the sake of the name of the Lord. They don’t want anybody to get too close, because somebody might figure out what’s really going on. Again, how like the world!
Then he goes a step further, "And he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church." Not only does he not receive the brethren, he forbids others to do so. He's like the king of the mountain! Protecting his power base. You know, this may well have been what happened to Gaius. Why would John need to tell Gaius about what Diotrephes was doing in the church if Gaius was still there?
Diotrephes slandered John, he gave a cold-shoulder to the traveling preachers, he excommunicated the faithful from the church, you know, it all starts with arrogance. Arrogance produces pride and ambition, which leads to false accusation. The Bible warns us about those who are power hungry. It is really sad, that in the name of love and church unity, this is allowed to be perpetuated.
So John says in verse 11, "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God." Don’t follow the pattern of Diotrephes. The person who does good is of God; the person who does evil is not of God. We cannot be sure if Diotrephes was even a genuine believer or not, all we know is that he was in the role of church leadership. There are many churches today, ruled by those claim to be spiritual leaders but in reality are not even Christians. They live to exalt themselves, not God. They give no evidence of divine birth. The point here is, we must be careful in choosing who we follow. Look for the fruit of the Spirit in his character.
In verse 12, "Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true." Demetrius is one of those, mentioned in verse 7, who has gone out for the sake of the Name. He is one of those we ought to support, in verse 8. Those who are walking with God will agree about the godly character of a godly man. I'm certain, that Diotrephes, would not have testified about Demetrius' character or deeds. John says, "the truth itself" bore witness to Demetrius’ good character. That is to say, that Demetrius’ life was consistent with the character, qualities and moral standards of God’s Word. He was a humble servant of God.
If you will remember, in the Old Testament, a witness had to be affirmed by two or three. So, John says "He has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true." You can measure him by the truth and we continue to bear witness. The truth needs to be spread and if it’s going to be spread, the church has
to support the preachers of the truth and the missionaries. We have to
embrace them when they’re faithful to the truth.
Verses 13-14, "I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face." This come very close to the closing of II John. It the same thing he said to the chosen lady and her children.
And then he closes his letter with "Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name."
John and Gaius must have had mutual friends, he adds great the friends by name. I love that, it adds intimacy. John is closing out his last letter by affirming how important friendship is.
In Closing..
The beloved Apostle John, was the last living apostle, he had that amazing life, he lived into his 90s. He personally walked with our Lord Jesus Christ, he had many friendships, which he still knew by their names. Most of what we learn in life is learned by imitating others. It’s natural for us to look up to other people as our role model, the beloved Apostle John was certainly one such role model. He loved the Lord, he loved the truth and he loved others. Not only did he believe the truth of the Gospel, but he lived out what he believed.
You might misunderstand what someone says, but there’s no misunderstanding how they act and how they live. The beloved Apostle John has provided us with both by which we can pattern our lives.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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