8th February || Love in Action || Lydia Taylor

Hello, can people hear me? Hello, hello, hello everyone and

welcome. And today I'll be I'm Lydia, by

the way, And today I'll be continuing our series on the

letters of John. Now John was a disciple of Jesus

and over the last two weeks we've looked at 1 John and two

John, which were letters that he wrote to the early church.

And today I'll be speaking on Three John.

And now, although these are separate letters, they carry

common themes of love, truth, obedience, faithfulness.

But today I'm going to speak on the message of Three John.

And that real love is rooted in action.

And that was actually really cool that they did that grow

baby bit. And because that is real love in

action right there. So I'll pray before I begin.

Father God, I thank you for the privilege of speaking your word

today. And Lord, I ask that you would

speak through me to this church. Amen.

OK, imagine this. It's a quiet evening at home,

maybe a Saturday night, and you're watching Michael

Mcintyre's big show or in our house, the new series of

Gladiators. And there's a knock at your

door, and you open it to find a complete stranger, suitcase in

hand. And he says, I'm a Christian and

I'm here to serve Jesus. Can I come in?

What would you do? Would you let them in?

Would you trust them? Would you support them?

Today we'd probably reach for our phones, perhaps a little

nervously. Google their name, check their

social media, maybe even look for like a review.

But in the early church, back when 3 John was written, there

was no Internet, no background checks, no way to verify

credentials. All they had was a letter in

someone's hand or the word of another believer.

And the gospel, the good news of Jesus, either moved forward or

stalled based on one's simple decision.

Would somebody open the door? Would somebody open the door?

Consider the British beloved icon Paddington, where the Brown

family opens their doors to a bear from Peru, transforming not

only Paddington's life but also their own.

Or what about The Jungle Book Mowgli, where a human child is

taken in by a family of wolves and befriended by Balu the bear

and Bagheera the Panther. Jungle animals show hospitality

to someone very different from themselves, and their

willingness to welcome Mowgli leads to deep friendship and

adventures. These are just silly stories,

but they remind us that opening our doors sometimes to

strangers, can lead to unexpected blessings and new

adventures. And this is the world behind 3

John. The shortest book in the Bible,

the shortest book in the New Testament, but one that packs a

punch. It's a letter that shows us

something crucial, that real love isn't just something you

say. It's not something you do.

And today we're going to explore the difference between a love

that just talks and a love that's rooted in action, a love

that opens the door. So let's pick our passage.

First, we'll unpick, and then we'll apply.

So if you've got your Bibles, don't worry if you haven't,

it'll be behind me on the screen.

But if you have got your Bibles, we're going to turn to three.

John. It's right near the back of the

Bible. Or as I said, it'll be behind me

and I'll just read it now. And obviously it's written as a

letter. Greetings, this letter is from

John the Elder. I'm writing to Gaius, my friend,

whom I love in the truth. Dear friend, I hope all is well

with you and that you are healthy in body as you are

strong in spirit. Some of the traveling teachers

recently returned and made me very happy by telling me that

your faithfulness and that you are living in accordance with

the truth. I could have no greater joy than

to hear that my children are following the truth.

Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care

for the travelling teachers who pass through.

Even though they are strangers to you.

They have told the church here of your loving friendship.

Please continue providing for teachers in a manner that

pleases God, for they are travelling for the Lord and they

accept nothing from the people who are not believers.

So we ourselves should support them so that they can be

partners as they teach the truth.

I wrote to the church about this that Diotrophes, who loves to be

the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us.

When I come I will report of some of the things that he is

doing and the evil accusations he is making against us.

Not only does he refuse to welcome the travelling teachers,

he also tells us others not to help them and when they do, he

puts them out of the church. Dear friend, do not let this bad

example influence you. Follow only what is good.

Remember that those who do good prove that they're God's

children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius as the truth himself,

as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same

for him, and you know we speak the truth.

I have much more to say to you, but I don't want to write it

with pen and ink, for I hope I see you soon, and then we will

talk face to face. Peace be with you, your friend.

Your friends here send you their greetings.

Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends

there. Now, I won't go too much into

the background of this letter because Ben and Libby spoke

about this, but three John was written by the disciple John

late in the 1st century, likely written from Ephesus where John

had pastoral oversight. Now he refers to himself as the

Elder, and this emphasizes kind of spiritual authority and care

rather than some grand title. And at this time, John is

overseeing multiple house churches in Asia Minor because

that's how the early church started, wasn't it?

In house churches, in houses? And he writes to address real

situations happening in local congregations.

Now, it's the shortest book in the New Testament, and it

functions as a personal letter to the church.

And we'll just walk through it. So if you want to follow it, he

starts by addressing specifically this man called

Gaius, who we learned from John in verse 3, is living in

accordance with the truth and leading others in the church to

do the same. Now, a bit of historical

background at this time, early church missionaries.

So people who were trying to spread the good news of Jesus

would actually depend on local believers to open their homes

and put them up. Inns were unsafe, immoral, and

expensive. And so to advance the gospel, it

was crucial that local believers would open their homes.

Churches met in homes. Hospitality was essential for

the spread of the gospel, the good news of Jesus.

Therefore, John is really trying to encourage believers through

this letter that supporting these missionaries was their way

of participating in God's mission and is super chuffed

with this guy called Gaius who has done such a good job at

this. And in verse 5, he says, dear

friend, you are being so faithful to God, you care for

these travelling teachers who pass through even though they're

strangers to you. And the word strangers tells us

that Gaius doesn't even know these guys.

He doesn't know the people he's letting in his home, but he's

loving them so that in verse 8, he can support them and partner

with them as they teach the truth.

And John continues to commend Gaius and encourage him to do

this. Now, if you see in verse 9, John

lets us in on something. There's a leadership conflict in

the church. So a bit of drama.

And when I was reading this, I was like, come on, John.

Because he doesn't mince his words here.

He's angry and he's got every right to be.

Because there's this other guy called Diotrophes.

I was calling him Diatrifus. It's not that diotrophes who he

starkly contrasts to gayest. So you've got gayest, great

faithful, obedient, opens his home and you've got Diotrophes.

And John tells us that although John has written to this church,

dietary fees is a leader who, quote verse 9, loves to be the

leader refuses to have anything to do with us.

So he's obviously ignored John's pastoral oversight.

And he goes on to say that when he does eventually come in

person, he will bring this up with dietary fees, Diotrophes

and report some of the evil accusations he's making against

him. Now, I don't like confrontation

and even reading this made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

But John is right not to shy away from this because it's a

hugely important issue. He continues to tell us that

Diotrophes refuses to welcome those who try and share the

gospel and he also tries to then stop anyone in church who tries

to welcome them and kicks them out of the church as well.

There's not great not doing a great job there.

And he says to us in verse 11 that the church should not

follow this behaviour and follow only what is good because those

that do good prove that they're God's children and those that do

evil prove they do not know God. He commends this other guy

called Demetrius again and then ends the letter in a way that I

love. And we actually spoke about it

in a small group. He says, I have so much more to

say to you, but I don't want to write it with pen and ink.

And my head goes straight to, oh, what else has he got on this

guy? But in reality, I think John's

actually just super keen to see them in person and address these

issues face to face. Then he ends with a loving final

greeting. So what does all this have to

say to us today? A letter written hundreds and

hundreds of years ago to the early church.

Well, I think what John managed to do in such a short letter was

illustrate 3 points about real love that I think speak to us

today and particularly to us as a church community about what

real love should look like. So firstly, from this passage,

John, I believe, argues that real love encourages.

In verse one to four, we see how John affirms Gaius personally

and spiritually in love. He builds him up, He encourages

the good work he does. He recognizes that it's not

easy, but he commends Gaius for being faithful nevertheless and

encourages him to continue serving and hosting in the

humbly, godly manner that he does.

So do we, as Chancellor of Vineyard, love and build each

other up in love? Do we encourage each other?

And I'm not just talking about flattery, but when we see

another believer who is faithful and obedient and serving humbly,

do we encourage them, come alongside them in prayer because

God, who is love, rejoices in faithfulness and obedience.

The good news of Jesus advances through faithfulness and

obedience. And encouragement is needed

because it strengthens the church.

It strengthens us. When people feel encouraged,

they feel like they can keep going.

They feel emboldened and supported, upheld in prayer.

They feel like they're not walking the Christian walk on

their own when encouraged, although it's hard, they're

reminded by another believer of who they're doing it for, and

they fix. They fix their eyes.

Then again on Jesus and the enemy wants nothing more than to

make us feel discouraged and give up on our faith.

John begins every letter. 1 John 2 John 3 John with

encouragement. Now a beautiful example from the

Bible of the importance of encouragement is Barnabas and

encouraging Paul, who used to be Saul and the early church.

So when Saul first became a believer, most Christians were

understandably afraid of him. He used to persecute Christians,

OK? They knew him as a man that

persecuted the church, not as a follower of Jesus.

Now imagine how isolating that must have felt for Saul, Paul.

And it's quite confusing, isn't it?

New faith, new identity, and no one trusts you.

Acts 926 to 27 tells us that when Saul tried to join the

disciples in Jerusalem, they were all afraid of him.

But Barnabas steps in. Barnabas took Saul, brought him

to the disciples, and spoke on his behalf.

He told them how Saul had truly encountered the Lord, how he had

preached boldly in Damascus, and how God was already working

through him. And because of Barnabas

encouragement and his advocacy, Saul was accepted into the

Christian community. And that encouragement matters

deeply because Saul, later known as Paul, went on to ensure

imprisonment, beatings, rejection, exhaustion while

spreading the gospel across the Roman world.

Humanly speaking, his ministry might have stalled right at the

beginning without someone believing in him when others

wouldn't, without someone encouraging him.

And it's no accident that Barnabas means son of

encouragement. God used one believer's courage

to encourage another, and the ripple effect shaped the entire

New Testament church. So who are you encouraging?

Who are you commending for their faithfulness?

Who are you getting alongside and affirming?

Not flattery. Not because we want someone else

to say it back to us or recognize what we do, but

because. But to encourage each other.

Because real love encourages. Real love speaks life into each

other and encourages them to keep running the race.

Christ is set before us with endurance.

Secondly, real love sacrifices. Now in this passage we see

through Gaius a real example of someone who loves.

He opens his home and it costs him.

Hospitality is not easy, is it? In our culture today, opening up

our homes has quietly become harder.

Many people feel anxious about hosting, worried about their

homes not being good enough, the effort required, or the fear

that no one will come. Smaller living spaces, busier

schedules, and lives lived more online than around the table

have all made open our homes feel costly and a bit

inconvenient. And even after the pandemic,

habits have lingered a bit and inviting others around or in

sometimes feels a bit more less normal than it once did.

And I've really noticed that that the the culturally

accepted, the old fashioned off, off the cuff, cuff invite, sorry

to come over for coffee or a play date.

They're a rarity. It really has changed as and as

a result, something deeply human and deeply biblical has slowly

been fading. A simple and generous act of

welcoming others into our homes. Because opening up your homes

costs It. Costs your time, your energy,

your forethought, maybe your pride if it's not as clean or as

big or as perfect as you think it should be.

And Gaius was opening up his home to people he didn't even

know. And yet there's something about

welcoming people into your homes, Christians and not yet

Christians, that means something.

I grew up in a home where the back door was permanently open.

We lived next to the bus stop in the village where all the kids

got off. And as they got off, we would

have various kids just turn up in our house, friends of mine or

my many siblings, and they'd grab one of my mum's cakes, hang

out, out for a bit, and then they'd all disappear back to

their own homes. And I never really thought much

of it at the time. Some days it was quite annoying,

but looking back, it was precious.

Homes are safe spaces, they're your private place.

And it says so much when you invite people into them.

You're inviting them into a different level of relationship

and connection. And I know that my friends who I

invite over really appreciate, appreciate the invite.

You might meet at a coffee shop or out at a park or a pub, but

there is something that actually happens and barriers that come

down when you invite people around your house.

It's different and it may be costly and it may take some

courage, but if our homes can be places which we open and

sacrifice to love others, however that looks, then I think

that's super exciting. Now, going back to the beginning

of this talk where I said about how the growth of the early

church depended on people opening up their homes to

missionaries, we see a powerful example in Lydia.

And I didn't just choose her because she's got a great name.

I chose her because she's a brilliant example, unlike me of

of this. So in the book of Acts, in the

time of the early church, we're introduced to Lydia.

She's a successful businesswoman, really not like

me, and interestingly, a convert of Paul, who we mentioned

earlier. Now, after coming to faith, she

opened up her home to missionaries for people

spreading the good news of Jesus.

And her home became a place where the church gathered.

And this was not without cost for a woman in her position.

Hosting a group of foreign men would have caused could have

caused a scandal. Allowing meetings in her home

where a Jewish Messiah was worshipped rather than the

emperor or a traditional Pagan God could have damaged both her

reputation and her business. Yet Lydia opened her home again

and again for the work of the Lord.

She even welcomed Paul and Silas into her home in Philippi

immediately after their release from prison, when angry crowds

were still wanting them to be pushed out of the city no matter

the risk. Her home was consistently used

for the work of the Lord to love others.

Lydia wasn't the one preaching, she wasn't the one out

evangelising, but she was absolutely working for the Lord.

She opened her home. She opened her door.

So are we using the homes that God has so generously blessed us

with for the work of the Lord, to love others and to serve

others? Now, if you don't have a home to

offer out because you live with parents or you rent A room,

you're not off the hook. Real love gives generously for

the sake of the gospel and can cost our time, our resources,

and our comfort. You don't need a home to give

those things generously for the sake of the gospel.

Are you treating your friend to a cookie from the school canteen

even though it means you go without?

Or offering to walk home with a friend in the rain, even though

you know you could have got a lift home another way.

Or perhaps you could still invite your friend over to your

family home even though you may secretly be worrying that your

mum and dad may do something really embarrassing.

There are still ways to be hospitable and love generously

without owning your own space. Real love tends to cost us it's

sacrifice. And finally my last point.

John teaches us that real love discerns and imitates what is

good. Now diotrophies back to the guy

that you know loves loves himself.

Diotrophies shows us what real love is not.

His leadership is driven by pride rather than service.

He seeks self importance. He tries to control others.

He creates division instead of unity.

His action reveal a love turned inward, more concerned with

power than people. And in sharp contrast, you've

got Demetrius and Gaius over here, models of what real love

looks like, faithfulness to the truth, generosity towards God's

servants, and a reputation shaped by consistent godly

character. Demetrius was known by John not

because he demanded recognition, but because his life simply

aligns with the truth and that's affirmed by others and that is

why John gives his pointed instruction.

Dear friend, do not let this bad example influence you.

Follow only what is good. The call for us today is 1 of

discernment. We must reject pride driven

leadership both in others but also in ourselves, and

intentionally follow and copy and imitate examples of humble

cry shaped love. Real love doesn't grasp for

recognition. It gladly serves, it gladly

loves, and it walks in the truth so that others can meet and know

the love of Jesus. And you may be thinking, whoa,

I'm not like diotrophies, but I do think there is a tendency,

isn't there? Let's be honest of the human

condition that when we do serve or we do something nice for each

other, we would like a little bit of recognition, a little pat

on the back. And yet Philippians 2 verse 3

Philippians 2:3

says don't try and impress others.

Be humble, thinking of yourself, thinking of others, sorry, as

better than yourselves. And there's a bit of a worldly,

unworldly view that one. Now Gaius is a fantastic example

of a humble, humble servant. But let's not be silly.

Jesus is the best example. And it's to him we need to look

to, it's to him we need to ask for help with this.

And it's to him we need to imitate and follow the example

of in Philippians 2 verse 5 to 8.

Philippians 2:5–8

It says very clearly in your relationship with one another

have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature

God did not consider equality with God something to be used to

his own advantage. Rather he made himself nothing

by taking the nature of a servant being made in human

likeness and being found in an appearance as a man, he humbled

himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

And the more we follow his example, the more we will become

like him, loving and serving others generously with a pure

and godly heart. And as we come to the end of

this message, let's remember that 3 John isn't just a letter

about ancient church politics or hospitality in the 1st century.

It's a living, breathing challenge to us today.

Real love is more than words. It's action.

It's opening our doors, It's opening our lives.

It's opening our hearts, even when it costs us something.

It's encouraging each other so that we don't get discouraged or

burnt out. It's supporting those serving,

those choosing to imitate what is good, not what is easy.

So as we head into ministry time, I invite you to reflect on

these questions. And I should have put them up on

the board, but I didn't. Who might God be asking you to

welcome to encourage or support even when it feels inconvenient

or stretches you out of your comfort zone?

Where in your life can you practice hospitality, not just

in your home, but with your time, attention, money, or

resources? What does it look like for you

personally to put love into action in your family, your

workplace, or your community this week?

And are there places where you found yourself seeking

recognition like diotrophies rather than quietly serving like

Gaius and you just need that little heart shift?

I'll just pray and then we'll go into a time of ministry where

you can just receive from Godfather God.

I pray that you would give us the courage to open our doors,

the humility to serve without seeking recognition, and the

wisdom to imitate what is good so that our love would not just

be words, but a living testimony to the gospel and something that

glorifies and brings praise to your name.

We'll just go into a time of ministry now.

If you have children, I know that the kids team would be very

encouraged if you could collect your kids ASAP as they've been

faithfully serving down there, but then come back up and grab

someone to pray with you. Don't leave here without being

prayed for if that's something you want.

But yeah, let's just go into a time of ministry now where you

can receive from the Lord.