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Mark Wheeler
III John
02/19/2023
“Servant; Selfish; Seeker”
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
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Welcome to worship, friends – let’s join in as Vern leads us in our Call to Worship – from Psalm 150
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And let’s immediately follow that with our Prelude of Praise and Worship –– Father, I Adore You (#4)
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Good morning Friends! Welcome worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem!
This Sunday is one of my favorites of the year – today’s the day we ordain and install new Deacons and Elders into office. It’s a day of celebration, and a day of devotion, a day of commitment, and day of dedication. This is a day when we believe we have heard God’s voice, and a day we faithfully follow His lead into an unknown future!
We welcome you into this day with us. As the Church of Jesus Christ at Lidgerwood Presbyterian, may we celebrate and devote and commit and dedicate our lives to God’s grace and mercy together!
Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!
Let’s take a second to welcome each other, those in the room and across the globe, to a moment of Sabbath in God’s presence and peace, and with others whom we love and with whom we grow together. Friends, may “The loving TRUTH of Christ be in you – and also in you!!”
Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
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Choir –! Thank you leading us in worship with this Sunday’s Choral Anthem – as we read today about “walking in the Truth”, lead us in worship with: “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”
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Listen in as Vern opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving
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8 Gloria Patri
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- what are some praises, thanksgivings, adorations we want to offer?
- Is there a person or a situation you want to lift to our Lord for His answers and grace?
12 We pray this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: [The Lord’s Prayer]
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Let’s prepare to receive a Word from our Majestic God by singing a song of Devotion and Praise – Bless the Lord, O My Soul – #36!!
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You are the Way, the Truth and the Life, O God, and we come to You this morning because we love You. As we open Your Word, shine Your Light brightly so we might clearly see the Way, follow the Truth, and live Life to Your fullest. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
III John gives us an intimate glimpse into the life of the early church. It is a delightful accompaniment to John’s 2nd letter, we read this last week, which was written to a Christian Church whom John calls a “chosen lady” about how to determine “absolute truth” in a world that thrives on a system of pluralism and tolerance.
The 3rd letter of John, probably the last thing he wrote – at least the last piece of his writings we have in our Bibles – was written to a Christian man about how to take care of the true teachers who were traveling about ministering the Word of God. There is therefore both a contrast and a connection in these last 2 letters from the pen of John.
Let’s look together at III John … —
16 1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
17 5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
18 9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.
19 11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
20 13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.
III John shows us something of the different kinds of hearts we church members might have. There is a man named Gaius, to whom this letter is written; another man named Diotrephes, and a 3rd individual named Demetrius. These 3 men are like 3 kinds of Christians found in the church, 3 kinds of hearts, in any era and in every generation. Like all the letters of the New Testament, this is a very up-to-date and relevant letter.
1st, there is the man named Gaius. This may be 1 of the 3 Gaiuses mentioned in the New Testament, Gaius was apparently a common name in New Testament times, as is John. In any case, John evidently knew this Gaius, and addresses the letter to him in a warm and friendly way. We can gather from the letter that Gaius was a genial, gracious, generous individual. 3 things that John says about him are important to notice. Gaius had a Servant-heart.
1st, he was strong of soul; that was what warmed John‘s heart:
The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. (III John 2)
That is a wonderful thing to say about someone, isn’t it? “I wish you could be as strong in body as you are in spirit.” It would be interesting to apply this test to people today. If our physical appearance reflected our spiritual state, what would we look like? Would we be robust – strong and virile? Or would we be a doddering weakling, barely able to move? Well, Gaius was the sort of man about whom the Apostle John could say, “I wish your physical life were as strong as your spiritual life.” I know any number of folks sitting here about whom I could say the same thing.
2nd, he was consistent in his actions:
It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. (III John 3)
He showed the truth in his life; what impressed John was not that he knew the truth, but that he followed the truth. He lived it. He had a consistent life. He did not preach T-bone steak and live chicken hot dogs. He walked in the truth.
And 3rd, he was generous in his giving:
Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. (III John 5-6)
One of the signs that a person has really been genuinely touched by God is when their checkbook loosens up. Their giving becomes generous, gracious, and cheerful, just as God gives. And this man is faithful (loyal) in his giving. This means that he is regular and systematic in his giving. He does not just give when his emotions are moved, but he plans his giving, and he carries it through, faithfully continuing with the work that he has promised.
It is clear, too, that he gave cheerfully, because John says he gave “in a manner worthy of God.” He does not want us to give because we feel we have to or because somebody is taking a special offering. Or because we feel that if we do not give, we will be looked down on by other Christians. Gaius gives because he delights in giving.
We will come back to verses 7 and 8 in a moment, but 1st let us look at this man Diotrephes:
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. (III John 9-11)
This is the 1st example in the New Testament church of a church boss – someone who tries to run the church. If Gaius was the Servant heart, Diotrephes represents the Selfish heart. He may have been an elder or a deacon or perhaps a pastor, it is difficult to tell. But it was someone who thought it was his job to tell everyone else in the church what to do and how to do it!
Now the early church apparently had some kind of a membership roll, and if Diotrephes did not like somebody, he would scratch his name off the list, and put him out of the church. And John objects to that. John indicates here that Diotrephes was guilty of 4 particular wrong attitudes and actions.
For one thing, John says that this man was guilty of slandering the apostle, “gossiping maliciously about us.” He refused the authority of the Apostle John.
We know from other letters that the apostles had a unique role in the history of the church. They were to lay the foundations of the church, and were given the authority to settle all questions within the church. It is this apostolic word that is passed along to us in the New Testament, which is why the New Testament is so authoritative to Christians. That is why the New Testament is trustworthy as a collection of documents which tell us the truth! So here was a man who not only disregarded the authority of the Apostle John, but he even spoke against him. He said slanderous, evil things against the apostle.
2nd-ly, he says that Diotrephes is refusing to welcome the brothers who came. When these traveling ministers who went about from place to place, speaking the truth of God, came to this congregation Diotrephes would have nothing to do with them. He turned them aside and refused to allow them to speak in the church.
A 3rd thing is that he also puts people out of the church who would have taken these men in. He indulges in what we would call “guilty by association.” He not only objected to the men who came, but he objected to those who would have received them. This has been one of the curses of the church ever since. Because of this tendency to refuse fellowship to someone who likes someone you do not like, big divisions have come into the church, doing injury and harm beyond recall.
But of those 3 offenses, none was as severe as the thing John puts 1st. The most serious problem Diotrephes had was that he put himself first. He loved to be Number One, which is a dead give-away that he was acting in the flesh. This is always the philosophy of the flesh – me first, I’m most important, my-way-or-the-highway! In doing that, he was robbing the Lord Jesus of His prerogative. It is He who has the right to pre-eminence; He should be first, but here is a man who put himself first, and that is the really serious thing. That’s what Adam and Eve did! That’s what Cain did! That’s what Joseph’s brothers did! That’s what King Herod did!
Unfortunately, there are plenty of people like Diotrephes in the churches today, and they are always characterized by this attitude. They want to be first. They want the glory. They rob God of His due, stealing that which alone belongs to the Almighty.
Just this past week I met with a friend who pastors a church in another part of Washington, who currently has a whole group of Diotrepheses in his church. I read somewhere a number of years ago that one of the great leaders from the Southern Baptist Convention once wrote an editorial in their denominational magazine about Diotrephes. Later, the editor reported that 25 deacons wrote to cancel their subscriptions, feeling personally attacked.
Now let us look at John‘s counsel in this situation. Notice that he does not advise Gaius to organize a split away from the church. Rather, he says, Do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. (III John 11)
In other words, do not follow these people who want the preeminence. If you see somebody who is always jockeying for position in Christian relationships, always wanting to be in the public eye, do not follow him. He is following his own way and not the way of God.
There is, finally, a 3rd person mentioned here, Demetrius, and all we know of him is what John says:
Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone – and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true. (III John 12)
He is speaking here as a disciple with the gift of discernment. If Gaius has the Servant heart and Diotrephes has the Selfish heart, Demetrius has a Seeker heart. Evidently, he was the postal carrier of this letter to Gaius, and was probably one of those missionaries who traveled from place to place.
Now, I saved verses 7 and 8 until now to comment on Demetrius, because they describe the kind of man he was:
It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth. (III John 7-8)
These words describe the 1st group of traveling missionaries. As they went from place to place they would enjoy the hospitality of the various churches. They labored as evangelists in that area, reaching out into places where the church had not yet gone, being supported and strengthened by these various churches.
The Apostle John says three things of them. He says 1st that they have gone out; they have left things behind. They gave up their income and their work, and went out to obey this higher calling. Not everyone goes – that was true in the early church as it is today. There were some, such as Gaius, who were to stay to help support these men. But there were others to whom the Holy Spirit said, “Come, I’ve called you to a special task.” Their motive is given here, too: “for the sake of the Name.” — the name of Jesus.
Back in Old Testament times, the Jews treated the name of God in a unique way. The name of God, Yahweh, or
21 Jehovah, which appears throughout the Old Testament, was called the “Ineffable Tetragrammaton.” That’s just a big word that means “the un-speakable 4-letter name”. So whenever they came to these 4 Hebrew letters for God they did not dare speak them, so holy was the name; even when the scribe wrote them, he would change the pen and continue with another one. Scribes also changed their clothes before they would write the sacred name, so reverently did they regard the name of God. In the famous passage of Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), those of you reading through the Bible this year should have been in this verse last Thursday! – the name occurs three times, which would have required three changes of clothes and six pens to write. When Jewish Bible readers come to this name, instead of actually saying the name, they simply say the Hebrew word for “lord”. If we were to look up, for instance, Dt 6:4, we would see in most of our English translations the word “lord” in all-caps [Lord]. That’s because “lord” is what the rabbi would say, “YHWH” is what was actually written down.
In the New Testament, then, the name is that of Jesus. The Apostle Paul says, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-10a, 11 RSV)
Concern for Christ’s name is the underlying motive for all missionary work. It is not the need of people that calls us out to different places in the world to preach the Gospel. Need is abundant everywhere. Everyone without Christ is in need. And sometimes the most pathetic cases are not those who have physical needs, but those who have everything materially, but who are utterly wretched in their inner spirit. Maybe our neighbors or our children, or even ourselves. Are we more like Gaius? Or more like Diotrephes?
Now notice the part that the people who stay home are to have: We ought to support such men, that we may be fellow workers with the truth. (III John 8)
Ray Stedman, one of my new-found favorite Bible teachers of about 65 years ago, asks, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, after you got to glory, God wrote ‘FWT’ after your name, in addition to whatever other degrees you may have. Fellow Worker in the Truth. What a degree to have!”
John closes his letter with almost the same personal words he closed II John:
I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name. (III John 13-14)
Again, Stedman says, “What an intimate little letter. It seems as though it came not only from John, but from the Lord himself. I like to read this letter as if it is reflecting what the Lord Jesus is saying to His own church. He is really saying to us, ‘There is much that I’d write to you about.’ He has written a whole book here, and He has much more to tell us about, but He says, ‘I’d rather not write with pen and ink. But I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.’”
What kind of church member are you? Gaius? Diotrephes? Demetrius? What is your heart? Servant? Selfish? Seeker? When we do get to see Him face to face, will He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?
Lord Jesus, we thank You that Your name has lost none of its ancient power to attract and bring us to Yourself. We pray that You will strengthen our hearts and encourage us to honor Your name here on earth until we see You face to face. Lead us into our 2nd hundred years of ministry in NE Spokane. Prepare us for everything You would have us do and be. Confirm Your direction with joy and hope. In Jesus’ authority. Amen.
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I invite Donna Stone, elder overseeing the ministries of Spiritual Nurture in Worship and Christian Discipleship in study and education, to come forward and help us celebrate and devote and commit and dedicate ourselves to God’s walk in Truth as she calls our newly elected Deacons and Elders to come to the front for their ordination and installation!
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Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.
– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
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34 Expedition Song #44 – Great Is the Lord!
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We continue with this benediction: May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
And as we do that: “May the Lord bless you and protect you;
may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”
37 Announcements
- Ash Wednesday – from 10am to 4pm, personal prayer, devotion, ashes
- Thursday Bible Study –very Thursday at 10am, here and on Zoom
- Cantata Choir Rehearsal –very Thursday at 6pm
Resources:
Stedman, Ray; Third John: A Tale of Three Men; sermon preached June 23, 1968, at Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, CA (Discovery Publishing, 1995).
Wheeler, Mark; “Servant; Selfish; or Seeker”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 07/16/2006.
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