Perseverance & Pride 1 - Perseverance, Gaius

If you have not already, please turn in your Bible to the book of third John, the third epistle of the apostle John.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, having gone through these books, I will tell you that I wouldn't preach them one right after the other again. I remember years ago when Pastor Heinrich, he was challenging me to do some work in the Old Testament because I was a new pastor and he wanted to make sure I was doing Old Testament work. And so I started to work on Isaiah. I ended up changing gears, but he had said, if you're going to do Isaiah, just be warned that it's very repetitive. Now, that might sound negative to you, but Israel needed the repetition, didn't they?

They needed to hear those things over and over again. But, but the themes of the book, if you're going to just preach it through the whole book, they do get repetitive. So you have to find a way to make that, I don't know, new without changing the text. Because you don't want to bring anything new to the text. You want to preach the text.

Well, that's similar to this, that this truth love thing in John has been permeating all three of his letters. And so I have to today try to creatively make that sound like you need to still hear it every week, because you do need to hear it every week and the text is saying it. And so I will try to be faithful to the text. The unique thing about third John, different than the first two letters is three John. Well, depending on your view of the second letter, right.

To the elect lady, whether that lady is a person or a church. Well, this without question is to a person, is to an individual, but it will also pertain to the church because this person is at a church and John will mention the church. But this is a personal letter. It's something like Philemon. It's something like when Paul writes to Philemon.

It's personal though. It's broad in its application, very practical. In fact, I was going to tell that the second I heard the men were going to have a study. I thought, oh, I know exactly what they could study. Because this letter has four characters in it, not counting the side characters that are the, the, you know, the people in the audience in the church.

But these four characters are all like good character studies. They would be like when you like pastor through his series would go through the, the heroes of the faith, you could learn so much. And I am going to be sort of preaching it that way. So guys, if you want to have it in conversation, you can. But there John is going to speak personally to Gaius, he's going to warn about diotrophies, he's going to testify of Demetrius, and he's going to give us his own heart in the process.

And the core takeaways from this are very, very practical. There is truth. Theology is in play here, but also so is character, the character of the people involved. This proud person named Diotrephes next time is taking ownership of something that belongs to God. And that's the thing we can all do.

We can all think that we, God essentially hands us something by stewardship and we're supposed to manage it. But then it isn't too long before we think we own it becomes ours and we start dictating God's things and how they should go. This text is directly related to that, where Diotrephes thinks he owns the church, that he's the boss, instead of Jesus being the boss. There's very pointed comments from John and I might emphasize to you before we get rolling that it's John and John is not just a guy. You might get the impression that I've said before that John might be a softy, he might be a sweetheart, a tender person, he might be gentle because of all the love one another talk.

And boy, there's a lot of love one another talk. But John is also an apostle and as such he comes in this case his words are inspired scripture. He comes in the authority of Jesus Christ so that he's going to say things that are not just a leader, not just a pastor, not just a mentor. He's going to say things with apostolic authority that we need to take to heart. So John isn't just a guy.

He is one of Jesus right hand men and he's speaking in the full authority of Christ. Lots of lessons, a lot of takeaways from 3 John. What to be, what not to be. Some of the echoes of the previous books are here. Truth, love and the relation between those.

It's not as pointed as it is here. It's not as instructive. John isn't going to instruct about love as much as he did in the previous books, but for sure he's going to mention it. You're going to see the Word even today. He's going to talk about his love for Gaius.

So I suppose before we begin and before I pray, I maybe should challenge you. Maybe when I go to prayer and you go to prayer with me, if you're up for it. I can't make you do anything But I might challenge you to ask, between you and the Lord, if there's anything from these people we're going to be studying in particular Gaius today, that we can learn from, that we can apply to our personal lives. I don't often say that you're supposed to do that anyway, but there are things that Gaius is commended for that I have a feeling that some of us might think are other people's things to do instead of our thing to do, that Gaius is doing something that I think we're all supposed to be doing and we should all want the apostle John to commend us for doing. That'll make sense maybe, as I unpack it.

But pray, if you would, if you're up for it, if you. If you be careful not to make promises you can't keep. But you can pray to the Lord that if there are lessons for us individually in this room to take from this opening of Third John, that we would take it. Let's pray. Father, your word in this case is just crystal clear.

There are a few unknowns, there are a few practicals, historical things, as usual, grammatical things that we can get hung up on or have trouble with. But the actual purpose of this text and John's heart and your spirit's words, they're really clear. And there's a lot to be gleaned. And maybe, Father, it can be so simple sometimes that because it's simple, we don't think we need to digest it and spend time with it. It's really simple.

But it's necessary. This is necessary food for us. So would you feed us from your word? Would you help us see what your spirit intended when he used John to pen these words? Would you help us learn from examples and apply things to our lives so that we would be more like what's commended by John in this book in Jesus name, Amen.

Well, we learned about this guy named Gaius, and in advance. I don't know who he is. There's other Gaiuses, there's even others mentioned in the New Testament, but the chances are they're not the same. Gaius. It's a relatively common name in the first century.

But John opens his letter before he mentions Gaius by mentioning himself. He gives himself the title the Elder. To the beloved Gaius, whom I love. In truth, the Elder. There's a lot made of the word elder, and there should be a lot made of the word elder.

There's a lot to it. There's a whole bunch of things it might mean in terms of specificity. It might mean pastor because it can mean that. It could mean old man. I know in the.

We talk about, in the island cultures, you call somebody that and it's a compliment, right? If you call somebody old man, that's not an insult, that's a compliment. Or old woman or old lady. Those are compliments. Those are endearing in certain cultures, right?

And I don't mind if you call me old man. I just don't want to be old. But when John says the elder, he's, in my opinion, likely speaking to a combination of his spiritual fatherhood or age or maturity over these people, as well as his connection to them as their pastor, their father, in that sense. So I think all of that's in play here. I don't think this is him specifically saying the pastor to Gaius or that he's.

I'm an old man. And that's all it means, is just think of me as old old. I think John means John, and he comes with that, comes with his pastoral authority, with his apostolic authority, with his spiritual father authority. He's called the other audiences, the first one and the. And the other letters, little children.

And so I think that's what's going on here. And it really could be emphasizing his age, by the way, because in that culture, age came with respect. So it might be that he's saying something along the lines of, I'm the elder here, and everything I say to you in that church needs to be taken with the full weight of the respect of elders that God intends. And I don't mean pastor pastors there, I mean aged men, because the Bible is really clear about that, that young men are supposed to respect older men. So all of that could be in play.

Any one of those things can be in play. The question as to whether it's John is pretty well settled, some people might argue, because it doesn't say, he doesn't name himself. But the early. There are early manuscripts that John's name is in this letter. And so there's good enough reasons to think of it as John.

One thing John doesn't do here, which is interesting because I went and checked on Paul's letters to see when and when he didn't use the phrase apostle. And here John does not use the phrase apostle. Now, it could be because it's a personal letter. He's speaking to an individual. And it might be strange for him to tell an individual, I'm an apostle, and go, full apostolic authority.

But I don't know the reason he doesn't call himself an apostle except that personal Nature. But I'm making a note of it because you might think if it doesn't say apostle, then we don't have to take it with that level of weight or authority. Wrong. He is an apostle, whether he says it or not. And he is giving us the words of Christ or the words of the Holy Spirit.

And so I just want him. I'm just noting that. And when John says the elder, that's all he says in this personal letter. That elder could mean pastor, could mean a spiritual father, could mean old or wise person that you should listen to or respect, and it could mean all of those. And then lastly, it doesn't say he's an apostle.

I just want you to put that in your pocket. It's not that crucial. I just noting it because it intrigued me that it doesn't say apostle. Then we get the audience, we see it's Gaius to the beloved Gaius, whom I love. In truth, don't be that pert.

We've talked about this before. Pastor said it all those years. And I've said it all these years that if I say something funny and all you remember is the funny but not the lesson, I feel terrible. It doesn't make me happy when you say that was funny when you said that joke. I would rather hear you tell me.

I really appreciate what you said about the passage and I understand it more. So I'm not up here to be a comedian, but it is funny to me. And I'm saying it to you because maybe there's something you could do with it. It's a silly thing I'm going to say, but it might be something for you to think about because maybe saying words without thinking isn't valuable and saying them with thinking is valuable. And if my dumb funny thing makes you think of the words, then good.

Which is I find it funny that we. There's a couple of words that we use as Christians that we say differently in different context. It's the same word, like blessed. Blessed. And you say, what am I?

What are you talking about? Blessed. When do you use blessed? And when do you use blessed? Well, in these formal context, blessed are the meek.

We somehow. It's the same word. Are we just trying to sound fancy? He's beloved. Is he beloved or is he beloved?

Throw another syllable on there to make it sound more important. It's the same word. I just want you to think about it. Beloved means he's loved. And I also want you to know we're only in one part of one verse.

And he says the word Love twice. He's beloved. Beloved, however you want to remember how to say it. And his name is Gaius. I forget the meaning of that word.

I did look it up, but it's not that crucial. It's not a doctrinal issue. His name, and then it says, whom I love in truth. Some people might make the mistake. If you're new to Scripture and you hear I love in truth, you might be hearing John say, gaius, who I really love, honestly, I mean it.

I really love him. That's not what he's saying. He means he loves him in the sphere of biblical truth. That's what he means with I'm. You and I are both under the umbrella of the truth.

We are both you in the truth, and I am in the truth, and I love you as we are in the truth together. So that idea is very much clear here, and it's going to. You're going to see it in the next chunks of the phrases that are here. So I'll emphasize before I move on, I said it before already, that the first letter, if you want to know the meaning or the thesis or the main point of first John, that little letter is genuineness of Christianity, or a genuine Christian. It's essentially the diagnostic test to see if you're the real thing or not.

The second letter, the emphasis, is walking in truth and love, and that the two are inseparable. You cannot separate truth from love. If you have truth alone and no love, then all you are is a theologian. You're not serving the Lord correctly. And if you have love and no truth, all you are is a childish baby who doesn't know how to handle meat.

So the idea is you marry the two, truth and love. And now, even though that's not the main emphasis of this letter, I do want you to see that John's consistent. That John is consistent because he's saying to the beloved Gaius, this is my brother, my family. This is somebody I care about. This is somebody I. I have a familial relationship with, somebody that's my friend, somebody that is my spiritual brother.

And then he says he loves him. And the way he loves him is in truth, he doesn't love him over their common things. They have incompatibility over their favorite sport, over their favorite food. He doesn't love him in baseball, he loves him in truth. The thing, the thing that you and I are supposed to have in common above anything else, is truth.

But I also want you to see that love is connected to truth here, that the best way you can Love somebody is in the truth. The best way you can love somebody is for you to walk in the truth. The best gift you can be for somebody is a truth walking loving person. You can't do anything better for someone than to be a truth walking loving brother or sister. So somebody that walks in and he calls him beloved twice, you'll see in the next.

First look at verse two. Beloved, I pray that. And by the way, I didn't emphasize, I forgot these Y o U s, you know, I emphasize all the way usually that they're plural, these are singular. So these are to Gaius. And that's significant because usually we apply the text to us.

The Y o u s are me. Well here the y ou's are Gaius. And we want to stick to that because things I'm going to say about Gaius are very much, some of them limited to Gaius. Other things are not. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers.

What a providential thing that is. Given the health issues of some of us here today. It isn't just the two guys that were up here. There's lots of folks going through health issues right now. So here's John praying for Gaius and he's praying that he would prosper in all things.

Is that what the name it and claim it prosperity gospel people think it means? In other words, if you didn't know this, people like Joel Osteen and worse, those people say things that this verse is saying God wants guaranteed prosperity for you. And this is a verse that proves it. He, he, John wouldn't pray prosperity for Gaius if everybody wasn't supposed to have prosperity. And of course by prosperity they mean give them lots of money so that you can get blessed by God.

That's what they mean by prosperity. So is that what John is saying? No, you know what John is saying. Anybody with sense and studying the scripture understands that there are health issues, there are physical issues in life, there are difficulties in life. In fact, some of them might not even be sickness related like limitations of health.

The idea might mean food, that you don't have enough food to survive. So what I have done, I think I have connected. This is me talking house in my app. I'm interpreting this and applying something for you to take with you. What I think John is doing here is essentially making a prayer out of seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

And what I mean by that is when have you ever prayed for someone else to seek his kingdom and his righteousness? I Know we know that we take that as a challenge for ourselves. I know I'm being challenged, me as a Christian. When I hear Jesus say that in Matthew, when I hear it, I understand it as a personal challenge from the Lord to me that I need to seek his kingdom and his righteousness. But what I'm suggesting to you is Gaius is trying to seek his kingdom and his righteousness.

He is trying to do God's things. He's putting truth first. This is Gaius priority. We'll get into that in a moment. But what I want you to see is that John, the apostle, who loves him, he's his beloved friend and brother, who loves him in the truth.

John is praying that Gaius would prosper in the sense that the other things that will be added to you when you seek his kingdom and his righteousness would be added so that you can continue to seek his kingdom and his righteousness. He says, I want you to prosper as your soul prospers. So this is me, this is PJ saying, I want the other things in your life to be dealt to you by God in such a way that as you have been prospering invisibly, spiritually in your soul, as you have been prospering as a Christian, as a spiritual man, as a man of character who's walking in truth, I want the physical to match the spiritual so that you can keep doing the spiritual. That's what I want. I want you to feel good enough to do all kinds of ministry.

I want you to have enough in your life to do all kinds of ministry. Your soul has been prospering, and I want your body to be able to provide for the prosperity of the soul or other people's souls. And we'll see in a moment. He's going to say in a minute, truth. He's going to emphasize it again, and he's going to talk about missions.

So beloved, he maybe what I should say, what he's not saying, and it'll help. He's not just saying, hope you're doing all right. Hope everything's going good with you. How's your week going? There's nothing wrong with saying any of those things.

I wish you would say those things to people. But what I do want you to see is when John is praying, for Gaius especially, we're going to see this church has trouble. It's got a diotrophies in it, and that's got to be discouraging and difficult and everything else. And there could be persecution. So, yes, when he says in health, he could mean not sickness, but he could also mean just to survive.

This is the first century. They don't have antibiotics or 91 1. So there's everything to keep you from being able to do the work of ministry in the first century. I haven't even mentioned persecution. So I think John is praying something like this.

Gaius already know you're doing God's things. You're already seeking his kingdom and his righteousness. I already know that. But I'm also going to pray the other part of Matthew that your needs would be met, that you would be okay, that you would be healthy, that you would have whatever God wants you to have in order for your soul to prosper, for your physical to prosper like your soul. And then I'm going to go on further and say in order for you to do the work of ministry.

Because Gaius was busy. He wasn't just living his life. He was doing the things that will challenge us here in a bit. So I challenge you pray this week for somebody else to seek the kingdom and his righteousness. But be careful, don't pray it if you're not seeking his kingdom and his righteousness.

I would challenge you, though. I think we need to pray in that way. I pray that you would seek God's kingdom, that you would pursue God's glory, that you pursue ministry and service and do the things for him, that you're able to do and whatever God gives you physically, that the physical would fuel the spiritual, the physical would empower the. The spiritual. Always remember that story.

We heard a state rep from our association from Chicago years ago at a conference. And he told the story of going to visit a lady in the convalescent care. She had been there forever. You know, she'd been bedridden, she can't move, she was disabled, couldn't. Paralyzed completely.

And he's thinking, what am I going to say to her? How can I encourage her when she's, you know, laid up and can't do anything? And he says that when she. When he got there, the lady said to him, pastor, I've been praying for you. So he's out there, you know, jet skiing or whatever he's doing, and she's in a bed praying for him, right?

Then he said, pastor. She said, pastor, you won't believe what happened today. I wiggled my toe. So he was humbled by that. The pastor was humbled by that because he had his health and she didn't.

But she was praying for him. And some of you know that. I've even asked some of you in here who have gone through terrible things. Right in the middle of you going through terrible things, I've asked you to pray for me. And you might think that's selfish, but it isn't.

The reason I'm asking hurting people to pray for me is I know they're close to God when they're hurting, and he. He has their ear. I want you to prosper. Now he's praying for him that he prospers. He's praying, just like his soul is prospering, that his body would be okay.

And then he says, for because I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in truth. The truth. I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth. Back to what I said about the elder. See, elder children.

You see the relationship, spiritual children, that idea, something, something there. I rejoiced greatly. He already said that in the second letter. He also rejoiced in the second letter. What did he rejoice over in the second letter?

Same thing. So if John is rejoicing you and I say, what would make somebody rejoice? What would make somebody who has been suffered, been exiled, been boiled in oil, been persecuted? I mean, yes, he's the only one of the only apostles that died of natural causes, but it was, after all that persecution. So what makes that guy joyful?

It's relief, right? It's an upgrade in neighborhood and house. And this. This house has a pool. And now he's got the.

The electric vehicle instead of the gas vehicle. So he's got that going for him. And now he's. He's. He's got his student loans paid off.

So he's doing good there, right? So what is prosperity or the kind of thing, according to John, that he would rejoice over in the life of Gaius? Well, he says it so clearly. I rejoice because brethren came and testified. Later, when I get to diotrophes, I'm going to talk about testimony.

The idea, the legal aspect of testimony, that if the Bible uses the word testify, you need to think of a courtroom, right? So these brethren came, said something about Gaius. What did they say about Gaius? Man, that guy's got great personality. He can tell stories.

Man, that guy, he's been really busy in his life and in his church. He's been very busy. No, the thing that they heard about Gaius or that John heard from the brethren about Gaius, is that the truth that is in you? Again, he's already said, I love you, in the truth, I love you in the truth. Truth is what we have in common.

Truth and love connected. I love you in the truth. And now he's saying, I rejoice. I celebrated. I. I had a praise service all by myself because our mutual friends came to me.

And what they told me about you is that the truth is in you to the point where you walk in truth. You remember back in the first letter that nobody can walk in truth and hate God or hate their brother. Well, Gaius is living it. He's walking in the truth. He's living the truth.

And when John the Apostle, his elder, his leader, his spiritual father, hears that he's walking in truth. Old John does cartwheels. He just is excited and rejoicing. There's nothing better for John. You can't do John a bigger favor as a friend of his than walk in truth.

It's best for his soul. And earlier, when Hebrews 13:17 was read, did you notice when it talks about obeying those that rule over you and all that, and then it says right there to do so so that they might have joy and not grief. You remember that part where it says, listen to your leaders, your pastors, and do what they say because it's good for your soul, but it's also good for their soul when it's done right. Well, here's John living it. John saying, my soul has joy.

I am content. I'm so happy to hear. So already we've heard this word truth repeated over and over again. We've heard the word truth multiple times. You can count them.

I said that to the. Was that faith Lynn? Who? Did that count? Yes, yes.

Yeah. I had told the kids to count all the times I say truth and love in one of the sermons. And I have it. It's in my office right now. She marked down on one side of the paper, love and one side truth.

All these little orange marks every time I said in the sermon, love or truth? And so I have a whole page full of them. First of all, that helped me because I thought to myself, well, I got the point across because she said 100 of these, you know. But I'm saying it to you here. Do you see the word truth popping up again over and over and over?

And it's not your truth, it's the truth. It's the truth of Scripture. It's the truth of God's word. It's the truth of Jesus Christ. It's the truth, truth, Capital T, truth.

So that when you're seeing it pop up here, it's not saying we're in agreement over our opinions that we've arrived at democratically. That's not what it's saying. It's saying the truth is what Jesus said. It is Jesus coming, Jesus living, Jesus dying and raising that truth, the truth of the gospel that we hold dear. That truth that's got John out there being persecuted and throwing his life on the line.

That truth, that is a truth worth dying for. When the brethren came to tell me, they said, it's in you. The truth is in you. You're not just carrying it on you with your Bible. It's in you.

When Gaius talks, truth comes out. And then John says, my ultimate joy is to hear that my children walk in truth. Nothing makes John happier. Nothing makes a persecuted, suffering old probably falling apart. Pastor like John happier than that his children that he tried to lead in the truth would walk in truth.

And I think the parents in the room who have Christian children understand that that's something. Parents who have children that serve the Lord understand how wonderful it is when your children serve the Lord. And I might even say to those who struggle with that, whose children are not serving the Lord, or don't ob the Lord. Maybe. Maybe it's a lesson not for you to change or to.

There's nothing you need to correct in yourself, but to think of the value as you pray for your children to walk in the Lord, that maybe we can find something to pray for that our children would walk in the Lord. Of course, definitely. Children, young people and the youth among us. But it is something to think about. Don't just be resentful or sad if your family doesn't walk with the Lord, maybe pray for it.

John is praying for Gaius that his soul would prosper like. Or his body would prosper like his soul. And he's saying about Gaius, I have no greater joy than to hear that you're walking in truth. I think it's safe to say that John had been praying the whole time that he would walk in truth. And now I'm saying to us, maybe we need to pray for each other and our young people and people to walk in truth.

Our families, our children, our grandchildren. What is the definition of success to you? Like, if you. We always talk about that onion, you know, where you peel away the layers. Because an onion is all layers, right?

An onion doesn't have a seed or something. It's all layers. It has seeds. But you know what I mean, you peel it away. It doesn't have a peel and then fruit, it's all peel and you take away the layers.

And we always ask if you took away all the layers for you in your life, what would be the most important thing? What would be the definition of success? If you could only have one thing. If God could start taking away things like health and money and status and reputation and fun and coffee. Yeah, I put coffee on that list.

If God starts taking away things, how much would he take away? Before you say, that's enough. If you take this one next thing away, I'm going to quit. I'm not serving you anymore. Because I'm suggesting that you could take away anything from John and he would be a happy dude if his children walked in truth, you could take away everything, but please let my children walk in truth, you could take away my health, my life, my money, my status, my reputation, my home, my car, take anything.

But if those people who I you have given me care over, stewardship over. And I say that first to physical family, your own biological children or adopted children, that if God would give you that your children would walk in truth. And then now you spiritual leaders who have taken on either fatherhood or motherhood spiritually, of people around you, and you might be someone's spiritual mom who didn't have a spiritual mom, and you see them and pray for them, and God takes away everything. But you can say, they're walking in truth. And I would challenge you to pray that way.

And I'll also challenge you because we have a room with people in it whose children don't walk in truth, whose families don't walk in truth. Don't forget to pray for them. Don't forget to pray for people whose families whose children are not walking in truth. Some of you in this room have some children that are and they're in the room and some that aren't. Well, so it's.

I think familyhood is not a word we use, but familyhood is all over the Bible. God is a father, isn't he? Doesn't he say abba, Father, Jesus tells us this is how you pray. What are the first two words when you pray? It's not our master, our king, our Lord, our God, the Almighty.

How's that? When Jesus says, this is how you pray, how do we start it? Our Father. So I don't know. There's just something touching and meaningful to me here.

When John is saying, nothing brings me more joy than my children walking in truth, man. And I can tell you as a dad and a granddad, whoo.

I said not long ago, and I think I Meant it that I am so grateful. It hurts. Like, I think I feel a physical effect of gratitude. Like, it's so much gratitude I have for my awesome family. Verse 5.

He calls him beloved again. So again he's calling him that. But let's not skip over the fact, like, do you call your wife dear? Do you mean it when you call her that? Honey?

Do you call her honey and really mean that? She's sweet like honey. Well, if you call somebody beloved, you better mean it. Beloved, who I hate. You can't hate somebody that you call beloved.

He calls Gaius beloved. You do faithfully, whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness. There it is again. Already testified now you have borne witness of your love before the church. There's the church.

Did you hear me say earlier this is a personal letter? But it also very much applies to the body that Gaius is a part of, and then us by application. So it isn't only personal. He's saying that your love for the church is evident because everybody's bearing witness of your church relationship. So I want to.

I want to emphasize that because we live in America and America is so very individualistic, so very personal, that it misses the body, it misses the corporate nature, Christianity, that we need each other, and God put us with each other. He says you do faithfully. You do with faith what you are doing for the brethren and for strangers. You have faith when you do what you're doing. It doesn't say you do obligatorily.

It doesn't say you do because you have to or because it's what you were raised to do. No, you've done something by faith, with faithfulness, with integrity, with a desire to please the Lord regularly, consistently, functionally. You're active in the things of God faithfully. Because sometimes, maybe you don't ever equate that. But faithfulness has to do with being consistent in your walk, being busy.

Faithfulness isn't. You can't say you're faithful if you do something one time, right? I'm faithful in evangelism. I did it back in 2011. Now, Faithful has the idea of ongoing.

So he's ongoing. Then he does this. What he does, he loves. You'll see in a moment how he loves them. He sends them on their way, ready for ministry.

What he does for brethren and for strangers. Some people think this is a hospitality issue with strangers because that the love of strangers idea of phileo zanos is strangers. Xenophobia means you're afraid of strangers. It could mean that But I think in its context, it's not just being hospitable in general. I think it has the idea of ministry, hospitality.

Like when the itinerant preachers would come in the first century, and maybe they weren't from your church, but they were itinerant. They were going around sharing the gospel and spreading the word. And they would come into the church and they would come and they would have a good test. They would come with a good reputation. So imagine the apostle John walks into the doors of our church.

Or we can we have the example of Mike, who was just here not long ago, right? Mike walks through the door of the church and we try to be hospitable to him. We try to give him everything he needs to teach us and to edify us and to equip us, and then he leaves. The goal would be that Mike would leave and say, man, that was a good trip. That was a good visit.

He did say that. Thankfully, he said that. Meaning we, you, all Gaiuses, sent him on his way better than when he came, right? So that idea, he says, Gaius is doing that first of all for the Christians that we know of, right? Our known Christians are identified Christians that are either in our church or in our community, the ones we know, but then also the ones that come in and the ones we get to know, the missionaries or the itinerant preachers or something like that.

So everybody that comes across Gaius path better because they came across Gaius path. Everybody that came in contact with Gaius was better for it. And it says how he did it, too. He's going to tell us in a moment, but I do want you to catch again, they bore witness. These people were willing to put their reputations on the line to say how credible Gaius character was.

They were saying out loud, they were telling everybody, hey, man, this guy Gaius over at church, whatever, at the, I don't know, Ephesus Baptist Church or wherever he was at, that guy Gaius, man, he's the real deal. So a missionary would go from one church to another church and say, man, Gaia said that you guys, he's a good guy and you need to be praying for Gaius and thinking of guys like him. So you do faithfully. Whatever you do for brethren and for strangers, you're doing it with faith. You're doing it according to God's word.

And then it says, they bore witness. Those people who you did good things for, the brethren and the strangers, they all bear witness. They all tell everybody in front of the church, Gaius is the real deal. Gaius is God's. Kind of guy.

Gaius cares about the right things. God is a truth. Gaius is a truth based God, loving missionary, loving man and leader in his church. By the way, we didn't even say he's a pastor or anything. This is just a member of the church as far as we know.

And then interesting stuff comes next. Maybe I got to hurry because we're running out of time. You send them forward. This is the brethren and the strangers. Got it.

The people who come through, preaching, teaching, people who come through in ministry. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you do well because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. What is John talking about? So follow me here. First century, the Gospel has just been.

Will happen to Jesus, just died and rose. We're within decades of Jesus resurrection. The Gospel is being spread by the power of the Holy Spirit. Read the book of Acts and you can see that happen, right? The spread of the gospel.

And in that gospel spread there are good teachers and there are bad teachers. And Gaius is the kind of guy that supported good teachers. And some of those good teachers would come through as itinerant preachers. And they would come and they would minister and they would share. Sometimes they would even bring copies of a Bible letter, right?

Like hey, I'm here from Corinth and I've got the letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. And you guys, you can have a copy of it so that you can teach this to your church here, right? So you just get that idea of that first century dynamic happening. And then John is saying, Gaius, when people would stop off at you with you as a person now probably the church too. But Gaius is the one who's commended, not the church.

Gaius, you send them on their journey in a. In a matter manner that is self evident that it's from God. If you do that, if it's obvious you are doing it in the Lord. If it's obvious you're doing it according to his word. That's what when it says in a manner worthy.

The word worthy is axios in Greek. It's where we get axiom. As a matter of fact, you're doing something that is in an obvious act of worship and service to the Lord. It's obvious. It's evident.

Now I would suggest to you, this is me talking now. This is PJ applying here that the way you know something is self evidently of God is if you have chapters and verses for it, okay? In other words, the things that are worthy of God are the things that he says in his word. So that I'm saying that the text isn't, but I am that Gaius was truth based. So all that he was doing for brothers and strangers that were going around telling everybody how great of a guy he was, how good of a servant he was, how helpful of a Christian he was, all of those people would have been able to say chapters and verses.

He was doing what God said in these passages. He was doing what God commanded at this time. He was doing what Jesus commanded at this time. So they'd be able to identify his behavior as self evident that he's doing God's things because it was based on God's work. So you can always know you are living self evidently worthy of the gospel when you're doing the Bible.

When you're living the Bible. Well, you are living worthy of the gospel. That's the idea. Evident, obvious. And then verse seven, oh man.

Verse seven is a controversial verse. Not for everybody, just for me, because I've been in fights over verse seven. Not physical fights. That'd be sad because some of the people I've argued with have been female and I don't want to get beat up by a lady. Verse 7.

Because they went forth for his namesake. The people that you ministered to, Gaius, who came through and left you, they left because of you. They left for his namesake. They left in the gospel. They left to spread the word.

They left to plant churches, they left to do missions. Right when they left you, they took nothing from the Gentiles. What does that mean? It could mean, and I say very carefully, could people that were not Jews. It could mean that that is the main meaning of the word, is non Jews.

So maybe John is writing to only Jews. Gaius isn't particularly a Jewish name, but it could mean Jews. But that's probably not what it means. In fact, if you have an niv, shame on you. I'm just kidding.

There are translations that translate it pagans. And that is probably the right idea. The right idea here is when we sent, say I'm Gaius or you're Gaius, and we sent missionaries out of here on their way, they didn't have to take any help or service or funds or resources from pagans because we took care of them. They didn't have to go outside of the Christian church to get taken care of. Now the reason that's controversial is I happen to think that that means we should not be fundraising from outside the church.

I believe that I'm not the only one that believes That's a common belief. Meaning I think Christians only should support Christian ministry. Let me ask you, do people think they can earn their way to heaven? Is that a common thing for human beings to think they can be self righteous and good people and earn their way to heaven? What could be more helpful to somebody thinking they're going to earn their way to heaven than giving a nice big donation to a church?

I mean, I get. Pastor's done this too. He's had versions of this story, so have I. Or somebody asked for change for the offering. Hey, can you change a 20?

You know what that means, right? That they're not giving a whole 20. I've also had people go the other way and say, I get $50 at church today. They bragged. So PJ, I think what he's saying is they didn't have to get help from anybody outside of the Christian community.

That's what I think he's saying to the preachers and missionaries, that they were fully supported by people outside of the missionaries, outside of the, inside the church and not taking support from outside the church. By the way, how did Ananias and Sapphira do with their don? So I don't think we should give people a reason to think they're right with God and they're donating. So that's just me though. You don't have to agree with that.

But I am telling you, if you ever hear me say I don't want to do fundraisers, I don't want to do a fireworks booth, I don't want to have a link on our church website for donations, if you ever hear me say those things. That's why, because I don't want to violate this principle, if indeed it is a principle, and I think it is, that Christians support Christians. But I do want you to see Gaius did it. He took care of them. So they didn't have to go outside.

These people didn't have to. The traveling people didn't have to get money from pagans to do the work of the Lord. They were taken care of. And it's a, it's a really interesting thought, but whatever it says, they didn't have to take resources. That's the idea.

That is a meaning. That's not PJ's meaning. That's the meaning. Now we, verse 8. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for truth.

In other words, the kind of people that Gaius has approved of, supported. And that's what that means, by the way. Like if Gaius, as a leader of the church where he was took in missionaries, meaning received them and let them come in and preach and be supported by his church, that group of people. I say his church again, it sounds like I'm saying he's the pastor. There's nothing to indicate he is.

But anyway, this church, this guy, at least this representative of this group of Christians here, supports people. He's saying we need to be like that and receive those kinds of people, the kinds of people who are out there doing the work of the Lord. And we need. Essentially what he's saying is be like Gaius. You remember that ad campaign?

Was it be like Mike? There's a Michael Jordan ad. Was that Michael Jordan? Am I right about that? Be like Mike.

Yeah. Well, be like Gaius. You could dare to be a Daniel or you could. What's a G word for Gaius? You could be great like Gaius or something.

In fact, you could say Gaius wasn't a grifter. He wasn't a person taking advantage of people. He was a person supporting people. And John is saying, we all should be doing that. We all ought to think like Gaius thinks we all ought to promote truth promoters.

That's what Gaius is doing. Gaius cares most about the truth being spread. Gaius cares about the gospel being spread. And so when people are genuinely involved in gospel ministry, he is a supporter. Now, this is the part where I asked you earlier to pray, because we often say there are.

There are goers and there are senders. Have you heard us say that before in missions? And it's okay to say that. We've said it. I've said it.

People who go and people who send those that go. Right. But I want to make sure we're clear here that we're all going. We're all supposed to be going and making disciples, not just missionaries. And I'm using Gaius as an example of somebody who, yes, he was supporting missions work, but it's really clear that Gaius was also doing missions work where he lived.

So I say that often that sometimes we think of missions as over there. Like, that's Pastor Wilson is a missionary. John Vatron, that's a missionary. And then we miss the fact that we are doing here what they are doing there. Sometimes I don't know that we remember that, that we are supposed to be right here, missionaries.

And Gaius was living it. So, yes, he was supporting it, he was admiring it to the point where people saw his character as that guy cares about the spread of truth. But Gaius was walking in the truth himself. So I'm going to suggest to you that Gaius wasn't hoping other people would do all the truth telling. How do I support the truth tellers?

Because it's scary for me to tell the truth now. Gaius was telling the truth, living the truth to the point where anybody that came in contact with him would say, that's a truth guy. So, yes, there were people coming and going as missionaries, people being sent, very likely as missionaries. But Gaius himself was doing missions work himself. So that's the challenge I would have for you, that we're not just senders, we need to also be goers.

All of us. We are in our town right now. I've said this about people leaving California. I understand it, by the way. It's tempting.

Do you know how fun it would be for me as a Californian to be back east and be a pastor? They would think of me like a unicorn. Hey, he escaped. He escaped. And look at this guy.

And he's going to tell us how not to become like California. But I'm a missionary here. This is my town. I was born in this town. I love this town.

I want people in this town to know the truth. I want our church at Sovereign Grace Modesto to be like the Thessalonica Church. But that's a place where the word of God is. That's what I want. So it's okay to want to support others.

It's okay to want to go, and it's okay to want to not deal with California's mess. I feel you. I promise you, I feel you. That poor homeschoolers and business owners and everybody else in California, it's rough to be here. Taxes, money, like it's crazy.

I got it. Just so you know, I'm not ignorant of all those things. I have to pay the same bills you do. But I am telling you, don't just think of yourself as a ministry supporter. Be in ministry yourself.

Find places for you to do truth telling. Find places for you to be involved in the work of the spread of truth. That's at work, that's with your family, that's with your neighbors, that's with your community. We are and do plan on having outreaches very soon at our church in the community. Take part in those when they come.

In our day, Christianity is essentially seen as a glorified self help program. I think we all understand that that's been happening for a long time, that Christianity as a faith, as a religion has been seen as. You go to Christianity to find fulfillment or happiness. You go to find meaning and purpose. You go to get some tools so that you can have a happy life.

If you were to ask Gaius, what is Christian ministry about, he is not going to be talking about maybe the young married class, which that's fine to have a young married class. I always love them. We've had those and I've led those. He's going to first say, your church needs to preach the truth. It needs to be anchored in truth.

And the people in the church need to be supporting truth. They need to be sharing it, they need to be supporting it. They need to be in the business of truth themselves. And I, if I could say it without it saying, saying too much. I don't want to say too much.

This is not one thing a church does. It's the thing a church does is make disciples by sharing the truth. All those other things, men's ministries, ladies ministries, youth ministries, outreaches, those are all supposed to be having the goal of amplifying, disseminating, imparting truth. I always love. We've had it happen over the years.

Some of the moments that have happened in our, like, men's breakfast, which is fun, when we're going to have those again, where people will bring their friends or families or grandkids or whatever, and you will actually see during the devotional time. Remember when Jim used to do his devotions? You will see people hear things for the first time because they're visiting a men's breakfast. They haven't been to a church service, but they came to a men's breakfast. And you use that as an opportunity for Jim at that time, Jim Sauer and whoever does it next, to impart some sort sort of wisdom on men and young men and to watch that happen.

Or the ladies when they have their tea and all the ladies come. And then people get to hang around Pat and get to know our sweet people at our church who love them. It's an opportunity, and you should be thinking of it as a truth opportunity, not just a happiness opportunity, not just a fellowship opportunity. But we're all supposed to be in this together of spreading the truth. So be like Gaius, be a truth lover who walks in it and be somebody who supports the spread of truth at your church first and then in missions and everywhere else in the world when you can remember you're in the truth business.

You're not just in the truth getting business. You're in the truth giving business. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the truth and thank you that you've given it to us. We think of Jesus being the truth and nothing could be more truth oriented than sharing the word of Christ, then going around in our communities and our world and spreading the word and then supporting those who do.

We'd ask Father that first we would share it, but then also our church would be faithful in going as well and sharing it. So please help us do that because we want people to know the truth. I'd like to thank Father that we would be not only just like Gaius, but like John too. And love, rejoice when people walk in truth. Would you help us love it?

And that might even make us share it more. In Jesus name, amen.