3 John - Perseverance & Pride 4 - Benediction

If you have not already, please turn in your Bible to the book of Third John. As we close this book and we close the Epistles of John, we're closing a series on all three epistles. It's the first time I've ever preached, preached them, I've taught from them. I have preached individual books, but I've never preached through the entire set of three letters of John. I debated whether or not this should be a separate sermon because it's a. I was almost said it just now to make the point, but I almost slipped because I didn't want to say the word.

It's just a benediction. And that's kind of why I'm saying this right now, that I made it a separate sermon because there's no such thing as just a benediction. It is not to. When you see the greetings in the New Testament, you don't want to brush past them. You also don't want to go too far with them.

You can extrapolate too much from the text. I even feel like I'm. I need to keep myself in check even today. Actually, I'm going to do the same thing today that I some version of what I did in Second John that I want to go as far as the text goes and only make application that is acceptable from the passage. But it is very easy to take little small things and make giant things out of them when it's not good.

It's also to shrink down really important things as though they're unimportant. So we want to get out of the text what's in the text. That's what exegesis means to get out of the text. What. What's in it.

And we don't want to be guilty of. I said Jesus reading into the text more than is there putting our own thoughts, our own opinions into the text. In John's first letter, he was. Now I said the theme was, by the way, other teachers are going to have different emphasis. But I believe the theme of the first letter of John was genuine Christianity or what makes a genuine Christian, either or.

Because both are talked about in that letter. And so when you, if you, if you ever wonder if you are a Christian, like right now, if you, if you wonder like I was raised in church, but I'm not exactly sure where I stand. Well, go read First John. It's like an X ray. It will examine you.

And if you want to ask somebody or talk to somebody, let's say you work with somebody who says, oh yeah, I'm a Christian. I've been a Christian my whole life. Or you hear those kind of things and you wonder, what do I say to them? Because clearly their lifestyle is not appropriate or connected to Christianity. You can say, well, well, have you ever read First John?

Would you read that book? It's a short little book. You could read it in one sitting and tell me what you think, because it will examine you. It's like an X ray. It will tell you whether or not you're the real thing.

The second letter is shorter, and it's emphatically about walking in truth with love. That's. It's emphatic about the walk of truth to avoid deception and to do all of that while you're working on Christian love. And then lastly, I'm calling this series Perseverance and Pride. I haven't said it much in the series, but the idea here is that there are men that are commended in this little letter, the third letter of John, and then there's somebody who isn't.

And the issue and the difference between the two is those two are persevering in the faith. But this man, Diotrephes, is proud and resistant to authority and instruction. So there is a whole bunch of real practical, useful things to grab hold of in the letters of John. Like there's really relevant day, daily kind of use stuff in these three letters. Stuff's a technical term, the Greek word.

I'm just kidding. I say stuff all the time. The word stuff is used in the old King James, by the way. It's like used as a technical word, so don't think I'm too dumb, but I'm not using it like that. John will give instruction today like a father, a spiritual father.

And in fact, he's going to say something we'll talk about when I get there, but he's going to say something that he wanted to write more or he wanted he had more things to say to them. And I'm going to emphasize it there, but I'm going to just kind of whet your appetite right here that John is a spiritual father to this audience. In some sense, he definitely calls the other audiences his little children. And he's also an apostle. And if you remember, he was the close friend and beloved friend of Jesus.

And I say those things not because I think necessarily they should make the text any different to you, but I do think that when John says something, it comes from a real place of credibility. And you say, well, of course it's credible. It's scripture. No, I mean even more it can't be more credible than Scripture. But what I mean is there's more, I don't know, human or emotional weight to it.

The fact that John, this loving man is saying these things and the way he ends this letter, I want to think of it as a loving father, you know, not last wishes. I don't want to be morbid or anything, but you know, a final or a serious communication with his people before. Or his children before he sends them off to do the work of the Lord. So there's a lot in this little benediction, even this one, even this last third small letter that's only a few verses and with a couple of lines in it that we're going to look at this morning. This is.

There are things to take away. And I would like us to leave the letters of John with the sense that we know that we can test ourselves from the first letter, that we're allowed to do self examination and to put ourselves under the microscope of God's word, that we want to affirm and walk in truth while we love each other. And then that we want to avoid the kind of character that we saw in Diotrephes and commend or amplify or exemplify the kind of character in Gaius and Demetrius. There's just lots there. And as we close the letter and John is sending us on our way, you know, kicking us out of the nest like little birds, go and live these three letters.

You know, I want to take that with us because the benedictions, this section, the benediction itself is relatively simple to understand, but I want it to be the send off. I want it to be the send off on our mission to live these three letters. Let's pray. Father John has been extremely helpful for anybody that wants help in his letters. It's very clear that he cares about the people, his audience, whether it's the individuals here or the church or whoever's listening to him.

It's very clear that he wants us to walk in truth and to be people who exemplify truth, to be Christlike in our lives. These things are so clear. And then even today, as he closes this letter and as we look at the closing, I just ask Father that we might live those things, that maybe John's fruit could continue, that maybe even when we get in heaven we can talk to him and say we're thankful for what the Spirit used you to write. And it really did help us in our lives. But we can only say that, Father, if we're living it.

So please help Us live the letters of John as we close this book today. Help us take the truths with us in Jesus name. Amen. Well, you're in 3 John, verse 13. And I'll do what I normally do, which is break up the chunks or sentences.

The first One is verse 13. I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you in pen and ink. I had many things to write. I'm going to say again here what I said. I don't want to be repetitive, but I also were looking at the third letter after the second letter.

And in the second letter he says something similar here. I want to make sure we're clear that we don't think Scripture is insufficient. That's something that's very important because it's as though he's saying, I had more Bible to write you, but I didn't. That is not the case. You don't want to understand inspiration like that.

It's more like I love you and if we were together, we would talk for hours. But these are the things that the Spirit superintended that ended up to be scripture for Christians of all time. So he did have many things. And what I want to suggest here, and this is that fatherly kind of language I was talking about, is John is a man of wisdom who followed Christ, who walked with Christ. He's the only apostle that lived into his old age that we know of.

The rest of them were martyred. And in his life he's no doubt living the Christian life. He. He was with Christ and then he lived Christ. And so I want to just make sure that when he says, I had many things to write, we can't read between the lines of Scripture.

You don't want to add Scripture, right? You don't want to think, I know what John wrote or would have said to them. We don't want to say that. But here's what I can tell you. Whatever he was going to say to them, it was really, really good as a father, as a pastor, as a leader, as an apostle, as a friend of Christ.

So when we get to heaven, I'm going to ask, tell me, John, please, what were the other things you were going to write to the elect lady of chapter two or of the second letter and to get guide us, what were you going to write? He said you had many things to write and we weren't privy to the conversation. We didn't get to be there. So I want to know what were the kind of things you discussed when you talked to them later. So even Though it's not scripture, I am emphasizing to you, whatever he wanted to write, it would have been gold, because it's John.

And maybe you and I can say, well, if he had many things to write, but the things that did get recorded are precious. Maybe you and I can value the things that did get recorded as precious. He has lots of things to say, but these ones made the cut, as it were. The Holy Spirit kept these ones preserved in His Word, so they're valuable. So do you see?

Even there, there's a phrase, I had many things to write. We could just move past that and not really think about it. But if we pause just for a moment and say he had many things to say to them, no doubt all of it would be enriching and valuable and pastoral and loving. He would have helped those people if he had written more things. But these things were preserved for us.

These things were preserved for that audience, for Gaius and that church that was getting kind of beaten up by diotrephes, but it's also preserved for us. So when you see that, just be grateful. Be. Don't just be curious. I wonder what he said, because I'm curious.

That's okay. To a good holy curiosity. I wonder what he said. But remember to say, I do know some things, he said, and I want to take those with me. And then he says, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink.

This is interesting because he says, wish here and then hope in a second. So he says, I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink. The idea there is, I think, what he's saying, something along the lines of this things that I could have said to you, and I could have gone on and on in a writing, in a letter to you. And we do know that, for example, the letter, the Laodicean letter was a letter that was to be circulated, but it didn't make the cut as canonized scripture. Right.

So he didn't want to write. He'll tell us in a second why he didn't want to write. Okay, but I do want to say out of the gate that he's saying it is not preferable for those other things that don't land as inspired scripture. It's not preferable that those things would be given to you in writing. It'll be in a moment preferable that they would be given to you face to face.

So I'm going to emphasize it again in a moment there why that's important. And I'm going to reiterate things I said before, but I do want to make sure that we recognize that God is a person and we are persons, and persons are intended to communicate personally. And God puts people in our lives and puts us in a specific place and an environment and in a community and in a family and all the areas that we find ourselves in. All the things I always say are umbrellas that we find ourselves under. And I'm just, I want to, before I get to the next half of that idea of him hoping to be there, I just want to make sure that John sees it as preferable to be face to face with people.

And you have this over and over again in the Bible. And I'll emphasize it again. Let's just look at the last, the next phrase. And by the way, there's a typo in your, in your notes that made me laugh. John practices what he preachers.

There's not supposed to be an R in there. It's preachers. But it does sound like something I might say, a word I might make up. I'm saying from John 14 the first part, that John loves one another. Even though he's not saying that here, he's not saying love one another here.

I'm suggesting to you that John is practicing the kind of love that he has displayed through all of his letters, the love of truth, the love of the brethren. And he's doing that right here by saying in the first part of verse 14, but I hope to see you shortly and we shall speak face to face. So I'm asking you right now, let's say you have to talk to somebody about something uncomfortable and you think I could text them, I could just text them and maybe if I put enough smiley face emojis, they won't be mad. Or I'll email them, I'll send him a note. Or I'll have somebody else talk to him, right?

I'll have somebody else talk to him. Or the most common option is I won't talk at all. I'll just hold it in and be bitter. Why do you think the New Testament tells us over and over again things like leave your gift at the altar and go be reconciled with your brother, or if you're offended, to go to your brother who's offended you, to seek reconciliation. I have a bunch of passages.

Many of them were in the previous sermon on that subject. Like when John says in this very letter a few verses ago that if I come, I will call to mind his deeds. So on the positive side, he's saying I have things I can't I can't. I want to talk to you directly, Gaius, and I want to encourage you directly. But if I get there, I'm also going to deal with the negative stuff too.

So John isn't saying, I only want to be face to face when it's convenient and we can have a barbecue together. He's also saying if there needs to be work on reconciliation or repentance or rebuke or correction, that's best to be done face to face. So he says it here. I'll call to mind his deeds when I come. And I think we all understand in the age we live in, it's getting easier and easier to avoid face to face contact with people.

In fact, you might even think that it's by design that the world is that way so that we can't look somebody in the eye who we love and have them see that we love them. No, you just read those words and it sounds like they just smacked you in the face. Whereas if you were present with them, there might be a tear, there might be a hand on her shoulder, there might be a I'm saying a hard thing right now, but I love you with all my heart. How different our world would be if that's how it communicated, instead of hiding in screen names and comment sections and social media. So I really do believe, isn't it funny that it's called social media, should be called antisocial media.

If I come, I'll call to mind his deeds. Paul tells Philemon to let his conduct be worthy of the Gospel, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, John wanted to see Philemon. Second Corinthians, I have told you before, and I and foretell as if I were present the second time, I want to be there with you. His, the desire, the ideal, the optimal way of communicating from one Christian to another is face to face, not through another person in gossip, not through hiding behind things. And then one of my favorites has always been that Galatians 4, verse where he says, I would.

I desire to be present with you. I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone. I think we all know what that means, that my tone in writing is looking like I'm really just upset and hurt and I'm marveling at your foolishness. But if I were there, you would know my heart for you. You would know that I love you, you would know I care.

And I'm doing this from a good place. So why does John say all of this? And what is the Lesson. Well, I want us to see first that the Spirit, through John, cares for Gaius and this church. That's the right.

First thing to see is that John had things to communicate with that person, Gaius and that church. He probably had written another letter. We saw that with Diotrephes. Right, I wrote to you, but Diotrephes wants the preeminence in the church. I wrote to the church, or I had planned to communicate to the church.

And now he's saying Diotrephes sort of hijacked that. So he had to write to Gaius. And he's saying, I have lots of things to talk to you about, and no doubt some of them would be good, but he would also talk to him about the difficulties and what needs to come next in the life of that church. Who is having divisiveness in the church. So I just.

I'm just suggesting to you that, I don't know, maybe, you know this. Sometimes it's hard to communicate with people. Did you know that? All the husbands and wives are like, duh, you know, but it is. It can be difficult to communicate.

But I think I'm saying to some degree, for Christians, there's got to be some element of an attempt at communication, at making fellowship. I'm going to emphasize that in a moment with the word peace. So he says, I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink, but I do hope to be with you. Right. Hope has the idea of earnest expectation, the idea that something will happen.

It's more positive, more certain in the Bible than it is in our lives. So John wanted to share good things. He was willing to address negative things. But he is definitely saying, I want to be there with you. I want to be in your presence.

I want to encourage you. I want to strengthen you. I know it's hard. Can you imagine if Gaius is a church person and the church has a troublemaker in the church like Diotrephy? That's got to be hard on Gaius, who loves the work of ministry, who loves supporting missions because it says he sent the people on their way, the brethren.

And then that pain. I can imagine John saying, I want to help. I want to be there to help. I want to be there to come alongside Gaius and the church and help them. And I think the best way to do that is to be face to face.

Now, I will say this one thing. So with all that, I want to make an application here. It's sort of an UN application. This is me asking you to apply something by not doing it. What this doesn't mean is get face to face and grumble and complain and whine and gossip.

I personally do not think there is any virtue inventing or listening to venting. I think if we are called to edify each other and we are called to build each other up, that you can't sit around with somebody tearing everything down and thinking you're doing the thing called edifying. So my challenge to you is that if there is negative things, that the only time you're talking about negative things is while planning the solution to the negative thing. If you get together with people and all you do is gripe about government and gripe about your husband and gripe about your school and gripe about your neighborhood, and then you depart. You did not have fellowship.

You did not edify. You did not strengthen. I'm telling you, John didn't want to get there to hear Gaius whine about diotrophies. When I get there, we're going to deal with diotrophies. So please, one application you don't make by the face to face emphasis in this passage and others is get face to face so that you can complain and gossip.

Or let's say, not that that's sinful. Complaining and gossip grumbling is sinful. How about if we go a little more neutral? How about don't get face to face and only talk about your interests or the world around you or your favorite sports team or your favorite restaurant so that all you do is talk about things that are not Kingdom related. That doesn't mean you can't talk about those things.

I don't want you to think you can't talk about things that you enjoy music and other things. But I want to make sure we're clear that John is saying, I have lots of things to tell you. None of them were Yelp reviews of a restaurant. I promise I have lots of things to tell you. None of them were about the team and their chances in the playoff.

When John said, I have many things to write to you, he meant things related to Kingdom building, things related to edification, related to sanctification. If you and I are going to talk, you're going to leave a stronger Christian. That was sort of John's idea, I think. So I'm saying to you, get face to face with Christians, but don't get face to face to wine. In fact, I don't know if it's on the back table, but there's a visitation ministry kind of being born right now.

And if you'd like to be a part of it. This would be a great opportunity to try that, to get with people for encouragement, to sit down next to somebody and say how can we strengthen each other for the work of ministry? I wanted to write to you. I was going to text you but I decided to have lunch with you instead. And now that we're at lunch, what are we going to talk about?

How can I encourage you? How can I strengthen you? So are you a face to face person and do you do the right things when you're face to face with other persons? I think John has given us really good example here of what it should look like. Not just commiserating, not just talking about our common woes.

That's another thing. As you get older, does everybody talk about how their body's breaking down? Oh yeah, your feet, my hands. Oh, your hands. My back.

Oh, your back. My. We just get around and just. We're falling apart. All we talk about is how the tent is falling apart.

How about we talk about getting the new tent? How about we talk about the future when all of that will be gone? How about we talk about the power of the gospel that can fix sciatica. So work on being an encouragement instead of being a grumbler if you are one. We need we.

I don't know if you know this, but it's hard enough to live out there without getting around the people who could encourage me and then them not encourage me. It's hard enough out there to function in the world. This past week I won't embarrass them, they're in the room. But I got a text while I was doing yard work. It was right in the middle yard work and I was sweating out there.

You shouldn't do yard work on a hundred degree day like I did. But anyway, I was out there and I was working and I got a text from someone who took a little video clip of my granddaughter Joanna in the nursery seeing me on the TV in there, right? So I'm right now in the nursery on the tv. Sorry everybody, but Joanna saw it and got excited and I now have video of that that she saw grandpa on the thing. You know, we had a funny thing in the family that is she going to think this now for every TV that whoever's on the TV is actually in the next room?

Like you know, some movie stars in the next room or whatever. I say that to you because in the moment I got that text, I wasn't just sweating and yard work. I was also heavy hearted over a couple of things. I was also, you know, trying to be faithful, trying to overcome and trying to think the right things about some things. So when that moment came, I couldn't help but realize God has been so good to me.

He's been so good to my family. I'm so thankful for that moment. I'm thankful not only for that moment, but another dear church member saw it as valuable and wanted to encourage me with it. Right. They didn't just.

Didn't just send it because it was cute. They knew that it would be valuable to me. So that's a simple little thing. And yes, it was done via text, but I just want you to see the intention of encouragement or something positive in that. Something good in that.

All right, let me ask you this. If somebody gets a message from you this week, maybe even a message about getting together, if they get a message from you about getting together, are they excited or are they thinking, yeah, all right, can we do that later in the week, Please? Just take, take a page from John's book. He loved these people. They definitely had challenges at that church.

He definitely was going to address those challenges. But he also wants to encourage, no doubt. He wants. He wants to high five Demetrius for his faithfulness and his testimony. He wants to tell Gaius thank you for continuing, supporting the work of ministry, supporting these things, and we need to continue.

So there's, see, you see what I'm talking about with the benediction, with the close of a letter and the person that John is and the value I think that we can glean from it. I hope there's something there for you. Let's move on to the more official sort of greeting benediction part, which is peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.

I'll handle each one of these short pieces. The first one is peace to you.

I was trying to figure out what is a meaningful way to communicate what I'm about to say without sounding like a harsh master, like somebody that's being tough. I have a sermon coming up in a couple of weeks on, is it next week or the week after? I don't remember. The next two sermons are topical, but one of them is essentially signs that you're immature. And I, when I found the outline years ago and I borrowed, stole the outline to make my own sermon outline.

And I. My thought was, don't go into the pulpit and just be negative. So I was thinking, I'm going to switch all of these to the positive side. So, for example, if you're quick to anger, you're probably not mature. That's one of them, right?

So how do I say that positively? And as I started to do that, I thought, no, I'm allowed to just say what I'm supposed to say from the pulpit. I don't have to soften this for everybody. So here I am, not softening something for you, but I do want you to know I'm aware of it, that I don't want to bully you, I don't want to use the pulpit to smash you, but I do want to say something. If you are ever in contention with brothers and sisters, you cannot say what John just said.

Peace. You can't say peace to you while I'm at war with you. So do you know what that means for us? We're all supposed to be peacemakers, all of us seeking peace, fighting for peace to the best of our ability. The way Paul says, endeavoring for unity, energy.

So John is saying peace to you. Now, here's the question, because I think about these things, maybe you do too. What would that mean for Diotrephes? He's writing to Gaius. Peace to you, Gaius, and the brethren.

But what about Diotrephes? I think John wants peace with Diotrephes because he says, when I come, I'm going to call to mind his deeds. What do you think he expects to happen after the calling to mind of his deeds? He's praying for repentance. He wants Diotrophies to change, to understand.

He's been seeking preeminence. So I think the end goal. I just talked about this this weekend, that when my kids were little and they would play like cops and robbers, there was a rule that they couldn't kill anybody. You know, you can't shoot anybody. You can't.

No, you have to arrest them and. And then, if possible, make the criminal into a Christian. Now, I know that's sort of a funny way of playing cops and robbers, but I didn't want my kids to think death was okay to toy with and play with. But I also wanted my kids to think there are bad guys and then there are bad guys. There aren't any good guys.

And God takes a bad guy and changes a heart and moves them toward good. So Diotrephes needs to repent. I. I don't think John is thinking about throwing lightning bolts at Diotrephes. He named him. He's going to go there and he's going to deal with them.

But I do think if you were to sit down with John, say John what do you hope happens with Diotrephy? There would be no vengeance in his voice at all. He'd be saying, I hope he repents. These are the. John would say something like this.

Those are the best Christians when they actually repent because they understand what they were. Like Paul when he was persecuting Christians, right? So when John says peace to you, I think he means it. When he says to Gaius, peace to you, I think he means I want peace in that church. I want comprehensive peace.

I want there to be no conflict, no war. So both application, the interpretation is, I think John wants peace at that church with Gaius and those people. And I include diotrophes in that. And now I'm saying for us, would you send a note like that to a friend and say peace to you when really you like being at war with them? I really do think we should love peace and desire peace and fight for peace.

But I am pointing it out here. You can't give a benediction or a blessing and say you love somebody and you want peace with them while you're badmouthing them or thinking low of them or holding grudges against them or not granting forgiveness. So seek peace and then say peace to you and mean it. I want you to be free from danger. I want you to be free from conflict.

Even though there's conflict in the church, I want that conflict to be dealt with. I want you, Gaius, to be able to do what God has called you to do without resistance, without fighting, without war. This is why Paul will tell us in Timothy to pray for those who rule over us. Why? So that we could live a quiet and peaceable life.

Why? So we can do the ministry right. So the idea is I want peace. And then the result of peace is not just happiness. The result of peace is an environment where we can spread the word of Christ and see the gospel go out into all the world without resistance.

That's why you pray for peace. You don't pray for peace just so things would be easier on us to live apart from God. You pray for peace so that the things we do for God can have less resistance and less conflict and less difficulty for believers. Peace is needed. This wasn't just a mere pleasantry for John to this person in that church.

Then he says, our friends greet you. This is an interesting choice of words because maybe I don't know because I didn't spend a ton of time, but I don't. It's interesting. The word that John uses for friends here is actually the word brother. It's where you get phileo, right?

It's the word for brother. So it's closer than an acquaintance. But it's not all the way like blood relative, brother. So it could be translated brothers or something like that. But.

But he says, our brothers, the beloved. Something like that. Our beloved friends, or whatever, they greet you. And I'll always emphasize it, because we need to emphasize it, that when you're interpreting scripture, every jot and tittle is inspired. We all understand that, right?

So a greeting is not. I always say the same one. I'm sorry, you're sick of hearing me say it. But like when we say dear, so and so, but then the letter is bashing so and so. Then take off the word dear.

May be better to just put their name in it, but don't call them dear and then tear them apart, you know? So we do that. We have pleasantries. We get to the end of a letter where we might have told half truths. What do we sign it?

Sincerely. Really? You're sincere. Are you sure you told the whole truth? Are you sure you told what you really felt?

So in the Bible, those things are not mere pleasantries. They're not mere formalities that the Holy Spirit does not waste ink. He's not going to just throw, our friends greet you in there and have us go, that's nice. Move on. No, every word of that is important.

First, our friends, that we're friendly, that we're brothers, that we love each other. And John is saying, ours, the ones who are with us. So that means John, the missionary team, maybe the apostles, all the people who are with me, John the author, are all greeting you. And then a greet. The way you use greet is think of an embrace.

Not just say hi, but if you and I were in each other's presence, it would be an embrace. It would be a firm, loving handshake and maybe a kiss on the cheek if you were doing it biblically, the biblical kiss on the cheek, not the one that Mickey did on me that time. And I'm still haunted by. Karen remembered it the last time she was here, by the way. It was funny.

An embrace comes with genuine love. An embrace is saying there's nothing between us. An embrace is saying we are together wholeheartedly with each other. We are allies, we are friends, we're teammates, we're fellow soldiers, we're brothers, we're sisters, we're close. So greet isn't merely hello.

A good hello means a lot, right? A good hello can mean a lot. A good dear, so and so. Can mean a lot. Sincerely can mean a lot.

But here I want to just give it the weight it deserves. Because John chose the words, the spirit inspired him and they're powerful words to say. Our friends greet you. You there. At that church where Gaius is and Diotrephes is and Demetrius is.

You there where. Who have clear desires to do the right thing, but genuine resistance from a proud man who's causing trouble. You there. I want you to know you're not alone. Our friends here and brothers here with me in the mission field are with you there.

We love you there. So hang in there and keep doing the work of the ministry. Hang in there and persevere. So there's something to that. There's a lot in our friends greet you.

I don't want to read too much between the lines, but I definitely want to make sure we don't see it as shallow. There's no shallow. These are the words of the Holy Spirit here and he's saying, our friends greet you. I always think of my dad every. Even when my kids were all three adults, my dad would end almost every phone conversation with the same thing.

He would say it every time. He would say, give them babies a hug for me. He said that from the time I had one infant to the time I had three adults, we would get ready to hang up the phone. Alright, pop, I'm gonna let you go. We'll talk soon, okay?

Give them babies a hug for me. Now, I didn't always give them babies a hug for dad. And I know them babies is probably not proper grammar. We are from Missouri. My family is after all.

But it always meant a lot to me that dad thought that about his grandkids. It always meant a lot to me. It always meant that my dad loved my kids. And I can tell you my kids love my dad. And there was something quaint, but also heartening.

Heartening. It strengthened me like I love my dad and my dad loves me and he loves my kids. We're a family. There was something familial and strengthening about that. Give them babies a hug for me.

You all know that I'll joke with you sometimes, but I don't really mean it as a joke. That if you say to me, say hi to Jamie for me, I'll almost always tell you no. Nope, I'm not saying I do her. Now why do I do that? Is it because I'm a jerk?

No, it's because I don't want to say I will to you and then not do it and lie. I Don't want to say, okay, yeah, I will. I'll tell her you said hi and then not say it. So that not only did I lie by not delivering on what I said I was going to do, she didn't get the hello from you. So I will almost always say, no, I'm not going to tell her.

I'll try to remember to tell her. I'll try to remember. And if I do, you'll know it. You know, you'll find out. But I'm saying that to you because I actually think those things are important.

I think it's important to that closeness, that friendship, that if somebody's missed and you tell them, hey, I just want you to know you're missed. I want you to know I saw that you weren't there. I want you to know I hope you're doing okay. People who haven't been here in a while, like Wendy and people who are struggling and can't get to church, Valerie and others who I know are probably watching right now, I want them to know they're. They're missed.

There's something. There's a connection. Like I could say that whoever's online right now, the church here at Sovereign Grace greets you in the building. And I hope you understand that, that, that's what we mean. I think there's something like that going there where John is saying, we're out here in the mission field.

Things are probably not going great in the mission field. Persecution and every other thing. But man, this group of believers here with me, we're saying, we love you, and if we were there, we would embrace and have a wonderful fellowship. So that's the way Christians are supposed to be. We're supposed to have that kind of relationship.

Now I'll tell you, I'm. You hear me up here talking and you think, if you don't know me well, that I sound like a person who likes affection. No, no. You all know that I just learned how to hug in the last 10 years. I'm not that guy.

I am affectionate, but I'm not a display of affectionate guy. I don't want to show it. I want to tell you I love you. And then at about a distance of 10ft. Now, I'm saying that to you because I don't want you to think because some of you might be like me.

We are non touchy people, my family. If you watched me right now touch Pearl, you would see what I was talking about. We're non tactile now. I still bother them. I Still grab them.

I still like poor Judah. I wrestle them all the time. I'm saying this to you because you might think if we're that way, that we're not warm, we're not always hugging. We don't hang on each other, we're not displaying affection. You might think, well, you're a hypocrite there.

No. I feel every bit of all of that in my heart. Very much. I very much love God's people. This introvert loves God's people.

I love strengthening each other. I love that note I got this week, that. That touching note of somebody caring enough to send a sweet note to their pastor. So even if you're not the most affectionate kind of person, a huggy kind of person, a touchy kind of person, please don't miss, at least miss the heart of what's being said here. Connection, caring, affection, even if it isn't displayed.

And then you, the rest of you crazy people that love hugging and everything. I'm trying. Be patient with me, okay? I'm learning how to do it. I do.

I will tell you, though, that I'm glad. I'm learning how to do it as well. I'm glad. It's. I feel a little bit bad for having neglected it all those years.

I think I told you the story. I blame my brother now for me being a hugger, because we were in my dad's front yard, and it was me and my brother and my dad, and out of nowhere, we're adults at this time. We were in our 30s, 20s, late 20s, early 30s. My brother just piped up with. The three of us were just standing there.

It wasn't about the conversation or anything. We were talking about other things. My brother says, why don't we hug? And the three of us are looking at each other like I don't even know what the question means. What are you talking about?

My brother says we're supposed to hug. We're a family. So to his credit, he challenged us. And from that day forward, we all hugged every time we saw each other. Every time.

My brother, now, he's like, obnoxiously hugging like you. You're not going anywhere. You're not getting past me, you know? So these are things that I have had to learn. But I am telling you, I'm grateful for having learned them.

This shy, introverted, not touchy person is grateful to be learning these things. They're good for everybody. And if you're that still a little hands off, I just want you to know I see you, too. And as long as you're working on the heart issues, so our friends greet you. Now here comes an imperative.

This next part is a command. Greet the friends by name.

Now, I have to tell you, I had a reflex and I kept it in check because it's a bias. You know that very often people will look at two churches and compare the two and consider one more successful than the other if there are lots more people at it, right? Big churches make little churches feel little. Years ago, I'll never forget it. We had one of our vacation Bible schools in the summer, and the kids came here and they were telling our people, our leaders who are volunteering their time, how great that VBS was over there.

I mean, it was like parachuting and everything else. Maybe not parachuting, but like there. That church really had a big vacation Bible school, and our people were feeling intimidated by that. And I told the person who was telling me that, you know what that church doesn't have? It doesn't have you.

You love those kids. You're here serving those kids. So I know which one of those I want. As a parent, I know what I want. I don't need a helicopter.

I want somebody to care for my kids. So I'm saying that to you because you can feel intimidated by the size of a church. And because of that, this pastor might in his head, have to keep thoughts in check, like, big churches aren't good. Now, it is possible that big churches can be bad, but it can also be possible that small churches can be bad, too. In fact, the small church in this very text has diotrophies at it.

So we should never think of it as a badge of honor that our church is small. But we also want to make sure that we know that the size of the church, though not an imperative. Everybody in this church was known by name. I think that's important. That same.

I told a story in Sunday school about my father in law. And I asked him the question I mentioned in Sunday school. But now I remember I was with my father in law and someone else. And I don't remember who this someone else was, but I remember that they both went to the same church. And they'd been both been going to the same church for years and had never met.

I introduced the two of them to each other, and it was in that moment that I knew the second person went to my father in law's church. But it's a giant church that had thousands of people and they had never met. Now, that would be natural, right? That's you would expect that in a giant church, you wouldn't expect everybody to know each other. But I do want to say, even though I don't think this text is an imperative about church size, it certainly isn't.

There are some people that think. In fact, one of my professors thinks that the Corinthian church was only about 100 people. Roughly about 100 people, given the geography and those things, you know, that had a hundred people. Whether that's right or wrong, I don't know. But I know there are good churches.

I know when I was doing a biblical counseling study at the Walnut Creek Church, it was giant. But, man, it was faithful. Their pastor was solid, their people were solid, they had good organizational leadership. And it was a giant church. John MacArthur's church.

Man, if you ever go to a shepherd's conference, you'll see how they run things. Really wonderful volunteers, people that have the right heart, teachers that have the right heart. So big is not necessarily bad. No more than small is necessarily good. But I do want to note that there is something.

Something. I don't know exactly how to apply it, but I know there's something to be said by John saying, by name. Greet the brethren there by name. He already named three diotrophes, Gaius and Demetrius. So I don't know that that means we have to know everybody's name.

Are you good with names? Are you the kind of person that remembers names? There's people who've known me 30 years and still put a Y on the end of my name. My name's never had a Y on it. I think those things are important, that if you greet somebody by name, their name is who they are and you care about the person.

I tried over the years to remember not only every adult's name, but every kid's name in the church. And I haven't always succeeded at that, but I always try to. Because there's something, isn't there, about the name. I don't mean I almost sang the song, there's something about that name. But there's something about someone remembering our name, right, where somebody acknowledges, I'm a person, I'm here in front of you.

And in this case, imagine. Now imagine this. Imagine Gaius taking the imperative and walking up to, say, Demetrius, and putting his hand on Demetrius shoulder says John. And the missionary team says, hello. They're thinking of us right now.

You see what I'm talking about? That connection, that closeness, like when we get notes from our missionaries or when we talk to our brothers around the world. Every Once in a while. You don't know this because I don't usually forward them to the whole church. But if, let's say someone sends like Zach and Grace, if you didn't hear the baby was born, I have a really awesome picture of him in my phone.

But that note goes out to the church. I don't always tell you this, but sometimes our missionaries get our church emails too. Will send me the note because they're just hitting reply and then I will forward that note to the people. But like we got a note from Pastor Wilson in Africa praising the Lord for Zach and Grace's baby. Just think about that.

Yes, I wish we could be in person. But isn't it neat to get a note from Africa from a missionary for somebody who's out there serving the Lord, who loves our church family enough to see that when somebody's going through that and having a child and something to celebrate. Same when there's prayer, like he's done the same thing for Valerie and others. I'll send out a prayer note and I'll get a note from Africa that he's praying, his people are praying. I think it's so precious and that's obviously there's a divide there where he can't come here and say, I want to let me pray for Zach and Grace in person.

He's in Africa. But there's something to this idea of closeness where when John says greet them by name, there's family, Paul names, names, doesn't he? Of people who are faithful. Now I know obviously that's a scary thing because people can be left out. But I do want you to just take that with you.

Greet them by name. That means get to know people. That means if you had received John's letter and you were the guy us that you would be able to walk up to your fellow church people and know them by name and be able to tell them, John sends his encouragement. He loves you. John probably remembers your name if he was there.

Do you remember when Pastor Biak was here from India? Forget who it was. He was asking somebody else who it was that gave him walnuts from the, that had dropped out here in the orchard because they don't have. There's no orchards. You're not going to go get a walnut orchard in India, especially Calcutta.

It's just non stop city, you know. And so to him it was super special that he got walnuts directly out of an orchard. Right. But somebody had given them to him and he was like, it was a big deal to him that he was sharing it with people. They gave me walnuts, you know, they were so grateful for it.

But there's something again, think about that. Think about our brother in India ministering to deaf Indians, right? He's there sharing the gospel with the deaf. He's there being, trying to be faithful, by the way and facing some persecution and some challenges, right? But we're in it together because we now know Pastor Biak and though he couldn't remember the walnut people's name, he remembered us.

There's, there's something about that, that our brother on the other side of the world right now is serving Christ and he knows we are trying to as well. And we're supposed to find strength in that, supposed to greet each other by name. Yeah, there's something, something to that. Again, I don't think there's some imperative for church size that you have to. The church can only be as big that you know everybody's name.

I don't think that's what it's saying. But I do think there's something about knowing the people in your midst and knowing where they're at in their life and how to support each other. So as we close the book of third John and the letters of John, I'm just going to leave you with the simple thing that I said in the beginning. I had a friend, I still have a friend. I've just talked to him in a while who said that he believed that John the apostle was like tough and hard nosed and a straight talker.

And I said, no, I think John is tender and sweet and kind and loving. Well, I now know that we're both right. It is not either or that John is both of those things. So that John is very loving. He's very sweet.

My little children, he uses that kind of language, right? Whom I love. In truth, no greater joy than to find that you can just feel the love and the family in John. Right, the tenderness. But he also says things like if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

He also says, I'm writing that you not sin in the second chapter of the first letter. Or whoever says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. That's strong language. That sounds like a guy that's a straight talker that says it like it is. So John is that he warns of deception.

He warns about idolatry. He closes that first letter with beware of idols. But he also says to press forward and to persevere. Look to yourselves that we do not lose the things we worked for, but that we may receive full reward. So all of that is in John.

John is the love one another guy. I mean, I don't think John would have a tattoo, but if he did, it might be love one another. He is the love one another guy. But he's also, don't fall for deception. Don't believe Antichrist.

Don't believe anybody that comes to you and says that Jesus didn't come in the flesh. He's also a strong leader in the sense that he's warning the people. So I imagine that John would be one of the most neat guys to be around. And if you were trying to be faithful, you would find him extremely encouraging. And if you were compromising the faith, you would find him extremely challenging.

You'd find him putting you on your heels a little bit. You know, his preaching would bring conviction, it would bring challenge. But just like good parenting, like when you parent your children in theory. Now, kids, you believe this or not, okay? But I challenge you to believe me when pastor says this.

Your parents do not want to discipline you. They don't. They would prefer that you just did what you were supposed to and that you never had to be disciplined. That's what they want. So because they love you when you don't do what God wants, they have to have some discipline.

They have to help you get straight. They have to set you straight. That's their job as parents, to set you straight. And kids, as hard as it might be, oh, it's good for you when they do that. Do you grown up kids feel that sometimes when you're challenged by the Lord, when you're convicted in your sin, when you're battling to stay on the right path of truth, do you sense that from the Lord, that he is essentially saying what I just said to you as parents?

I don't want to spank you. Just do what I tell you to do. You'll be okay. And then when we fail and we trip up and we sin and we fall off the path and he'll spank us, he'll swat us, get us a little back on the path. And we were supposed to say, lord, I needed that.

I needed that. It hurt. I didn't love it. It wasn't pleasant, but you gave it to me anyway. John is like that.

He's a good father. Don't you dare get off the path. Don't deny Christ. Don't say you're walking with the Lord when you're not. Don't be a liar, don't be a hypocrite.

But he's also saying, hold on tight, walk close, love one another and love the Lord. Keep the commandments. Be sure that you're right with the Lord at all times. Stand firm in your faith. Really appreciate John after these letters.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the letters of John and his other writings, but in this series we've been looking at the letters. There's lots to glean and I trust that we've been careful to only use the text in a proper way. And if not, then I would trust, Father, your spirit would help us and teach us with what is the proper way. But also, Father, the lessons.

There's just so many lessons from John. Maybe even these next couple of weeks we might just read through the letters again to be refreshed. But above all, Father, we're thankful that in Christ we can be everything, that we're challenged to be here, that we can love each other, we can walk in truth, we can be the real thing, and we can avoid the pitfalls of pride. Help us do that, please. In Jesus name, amen.