The sermon, titled 'An Introduction to 3 John' by David Green, provides an overview of the third epistle of John. It emphasizes the practical nature of John's letters and their relevance beyond the more commonly studied books of the New Testament. John, referred to as 'the elder,' addresses the letter to Gaius, a beloved and consistent Christian known for his hospitality and truthfulness. The sermon contrasts Gaius with Diotrephes, a church leader criticized for his ambition and disruptive behavior, and with Demetrius, who is praised for his good reputation. The sermon also highlights the importance of hospitality within the church context and the role of Christian missionaries. The epistle serves as a reminder of the potential for spiritual abuse within church leadership and the need for discernment and support for those who promote truth and hospitality.

Today we're at 3rd John, since we just finished 2nd John last week, Or last time that we were on schedule I guess I should say. Maybe I'll just say we finished second John last year. And so this year today, today we're gonna, we're gonna pick up another little epistle that John wrote, the epistle of 3rd John. Go ahead and take your copy of God's Word And let's go to 3rd John. We'll go ahead and read the entire, the entirety of the, of the, of the chapter here.

Of the chapter here. Beginning verse 1. The elder to the beloved gayess, 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 rejoice greatly when brothers came and bore witness to your truth, that is how you are walking in truth.

I have no greater joy than this to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever work you do for the brothers and are doing this though they are strangers. They bore witness 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 receiving 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 Deotrophes, who loves to be first among them, does not welcome what we say. For this reason, if I come, I will bring to remembrance his deeds, which he does unjustly disparaging us with wicked words and not satisfied with this. He himself does not welcome the brothers either. He forbids those who want 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 witness from everyone and from the truth itself and we add our witness and you know that our witness is true. I had many things to write to you but I am not not willing to write them to you with pen and ink.

I hope to see you shortly. We will speak face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name." And so this is the letter that John wrote as we start this new series.

We've seen as we've gone through first John and second John and now we begin third John we see I hope that these these letters these short letters they're they're not very large at all and in fact second John and third John could have fit on one side of a papyrus. You might think of them as being like almost postcard style letters. They're so small, but yet they're jam-packed, very practical letters. Certainly, sometimes they get ignored or forgotten about in the greater scheme of things. Sometimes some of the brethren need to remember that there's more to the New Testament than the Gospels, Romans, and Ephesians.

There's more in there And these letters are very practical, but when I say that they are practical, the reality is that all doctrine is practical. Belief, Belief determines practice. You can say all day long, this is what I believe. This is what I believe. And you can say I've got this specific set of beliefs.

You can say, well I'm a Christian, I'm a church member, I hold to this particular creed or confession, But as we watch and we see and we do, we put in action those things. Your life, your day-to-day activities, that means a lot more than what you say. As James put it, faith without works is dead. And so, so it is. Well, this letter, just like the last one, was written by John and that's why it's called 3rd John and here again He addresses himself as the elder, the elder, simply calling himself as the elder.

You want to make sure that you pay attention to some of these things. This is just the introduction. Next week when we get back into it I may ask some questions at the beginning kind of make sure that we're all on the same page make sure that everybody's paying attention here. The Elder was a title that John used apparently later in life. He was an apostle, John, but remember he wasn't the only apostle who used this title.

Peter referred to himself in the same way in 1st Peter chapter 5. 1st Peter chapter 5 and verse 1. One. Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder, witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed. And we've looked at elders before, sometimes in the New Testament elder refers to someone who is an older individual, like an elder woman or an elder man, someone who is older in age, but also very commonly an elder is someone who is a pastor.

And the terms are interchangeable in the New Testament. An elder is a pastor, is an overseer, or a bishop, depending on which translation you use. And so in the context here, this could mean either way. The elder apostle, He was an older man at this point. Because of his age, he may have been referring to himself as being the older, but also he may have been referring to himself as a pastor.

No one other than the Apostle John was ever suggested to be the author of this book. There was no controversy that ever arose that I could find as to who wrote 3rd John just like it was in 2nd John. No, no controversy ever that I could find. Sometimes there are controversies that come up, But note this one was always accepted as being John. There are so many similarities between 1st John, 2nd John, and 3rd John, and even the Gospel of John that everyone pretty much accepted that this was written by John.

The date of the writing and where was it written? Well this one was written about the same time as 1st John. So some commentators say between 8080 and 81, others say 1897 to 98, and others will just say it's kind of unknown as to when it was written. Pretty late in early the first century but still kind of unknown. The writers of the New Testament, they didn't put a date at the top of their letters, like we do often.

But the letter was probably pinned in Ephesus. It was written to the beloved Gaius. We see that at the beginning in verse 1, the elder to the beloved Gaius, who John says I love in the truth. Now, Gaius is a common name in the New Testament. We don't find that name very often in our day, but There are several times the name is mentioned.

Paul wrote about Gaius in Romans chapter 16. If you go over there, Romans chapter 16 and verse 23. Romans 16 and verse 23. Romans 16 and verse 23, Gayus host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasure, greets you, and Cortus, the brother.

So this Gayus, who was host to me and the whole church as he wrote this letter to, as he wrote this letter there, he says, he says, he says he's host to me and to the whole church, he greets you. Now this was probably the same man to whom John writes, but we can't be for sure. Now there are other references to Gaius in the New Testament. So for instance, in Acts chapter 9, you don't have to turn to all these, but in Acts 19 and verse 29 it tells us, in the city was filled with confusion, they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristocrus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia. Chapter 20 and verse 4, he was accompanied by Soprador of Berea the son of Peres and by Aristarchus and and and Secodonus of the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.

And over in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 14, if the name Gaius sounds familiar to you, well you may remember, maybe you do, maybe you don't, from our studies of the church at Corinth. Remember when Paul wrote to that carnal church of Corinth and he told them, he said, I thank God I baptized none of you except for Crispus and Gaius. And so there were individuals named Gaius. Which Gaius this was that John's referring to, we're not sure, but it's probably the one in Romans chapter 16 verse 23, very likely, but we can't be sure. If someone comes along and says, well, I think it was maybe this other one, we may not know.

We can't know this side of heaven. But one thing's for sure, John wrote to him and he speaks highly of him. He says, he says, I love you in the truth. The beloved Gaius is the way that he wrote to him. In fact, he gives us some characteristics of this Gaius.

He was worthy of the affection of John. And then not only that, he was a consistent Christian walking in the truth. We find that in verses three and four and he was given to hospitality. We read of that in verses five and six. But this letter also focuses on some other people besides Gaius, doesn't it?

There's a man by the name of Deotrophes that he writes about in this letter. Deotrophes was, is mentioned in verse 9, I wrote something to the church but the deontrophes who loves to be first among them. The King James says, who loves to have the preeminence, does not welcome what we say. Now apparently this Deotrophes was a leader in the church, whether he was the pastor there or a deacon or maybe he was some self-appointed bully, we don't know. But he was somebody who loved to be first.

He loved to have control over everything. He was ambitious. He was bigoted. He was assumed, he was assuming to be an overlord of the saints. And John says, when I come, if I come, I'm going to rebuke him.

I'm going to rebuke him. He was going to get a rebuke from the Apostle if John comes. Brother Milburn Cockrell called Deotrophes in his New Testament survey, Brother Milburn Cockrell called Deotrophes the first hardshell Baptist because he opposed missionaries and broke fellowship with those who dared to support them. It was a terrible situation that was going on in that church, whoever Deoctrophes was. It's the other day I saw on Facebook something about Spiritual Abuse Awareness Month.

I never heard of such a thing. Sometimes I think social media makes up dates and months and that sort of thing, but this is what the Post said. It said, Spiritual abuse month exists because too many people were harmed in the name of God and then told it was their fault. Spiritual abuse isn't church hurt. It is control, fear, shame, silencing, and spiritualized harm often protected by religious authority." End quote.

I'm not advocating for a new date on the calendar, a new something that we need to celebrate or commemorate or anything like that. But when I see something like that, I think there are two wrong reactions. One is to dismiss it outright and say that it never happens. And the other is to believe that every action by a church is abuse. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

3rd John stands as a testimony that abuse can happen by church, in a church, by those in authority, and even in the first century there were bullies in churches that were causing trouble. Now some of us even in this room have scars and are dealing with the aftermath and trauma of abuse that have happened in churches. The Apostle John writes to address what was happening in his time here. It is good for us to pay attention to what he wrote in dealing with this deotrophies and how we can deal with such in our day. Surely the Holy Spirit has something for us in this letter even as he had something for them in that first century.

Not only was there Gaius, not only was there Deotrophes, but there's also Demetrius. Demetrius is the other individual that we find here in this passage. He's found in verse 12, Demetrius has received a good witness from everyone, from the truth itself, and we add our witness, and you know that our witness is true. So Demetrius is contrasted then from Deontrophes. Demetrius is a model churchman of excellent reputation.

And so we'll look at Gaius, we'll look at Deotrophes, we'll look at Demetrius, a model churchman of excellent reputation. But in this text we also find Christian missionaries or evangelists. And these are found in verse 7. He says, for they went out for the sake of the name, receiving nothing from the Gentiles. And then in verses 8 through 12, we find verses 8 through 11, He speaks some more of them in the context of the things that were going on there.

These were apparently men who had been sent out from what I gather, from perhaps Ephesus. But this is how John had caught word of what was going on within this other church. As we read through this text and as we study it, very similarly to what we looked at in second John. Second John was written, remember it was written to the elect lady and her children. We saw the importance of hospitality in the home, dealing with that individual lady and her children.

In this one we see how hospitality is in the church, the truth, and how we deal and navigate with these things, how it can be broken when one is out of order. Barring again from an outline used by MacArthur, this is how I plan to divide the book in this series. The first part is the commendation regarding Christian hospitality, verses 1 through 8. And then the condemnation regarding violating Christian hospitality, verses 9 through 11. And then verses 12 through 14 is the conclusion regarding Christian hospitality.

Lord willing this is how we'll look at this book, this letter, and along the way And along the way we'll see how the Holy Spirit used this apostle, John, in the late years of his life to address the issues that were happening there in that place and at that time and how these individuals all played a part and how these all apply to our lives as we go through this time that we live. May God end the blessing to the preaching of His Word. Do we have any questions? All right.