Love That Serves, Love That Hinders

Well, friends, we come to the conclusion of our series looking at the letters of John.

I trust that God has been encouraging you through these letters.

Uh, I would encourage you, if you haven't already, to maybe in one sitting read each of these letters because they are all interconnected.

And if we've seen a common denominator in these letters, it's that number one, this church is pretty jacked up.

This church is dealing with internal conflict and the ramifications from that conflict.

There are precious saints who are struggling with how do we deal with the fallout of these false teachers and others who have followed along with them, who have left our congregation and split it in a sense.

But then we also see this common denominator that truth and love go hand in hand.

Truth and unity go hand in hand.

You can't separate the two.

We can't say we're followers of Christ and be loving, but then lack truth, or say that we hold to truth, but we lack love.

John even says that that's one of the marks of a true Christian.

True Christians love one another.

They love Jesus by obeying Jesus.

In this third letter, we see again church conflict.

This one's even more interesting because John is dropping names, isn't he?

So we continue to see church conflict.

And just to give some context, so that you better appreciate this letter and what's going on in the three people, mainly two characters that we're going to look at this morning.

So, what we can put together from all three of John's letters is that John clearly sent a uh, let's call it a ministry a ministry team to this church community that Gaius is a part of, and they likely were carrying some of John's letters to these congregations.

And when these ministry team members of John's uh were sent, and when they arrived, they found Gaius faithfully remaining in the truth, holding to the truth, uh discipling others in the truth, and they brought a good report back to the apostle John saying, hey, Gaius is he's being faithful, he's representing the true gospel well, he's ministering uh to God's people.

And they could report back to John and say, yo, Gaius is that guy.

Like we can trust him, the Lord is using him.

However, they also ran into uh diatrophes.

And some scholars believe, and I think there's credible contextual clues here, that shows that John had written to the church another letter that might have been lost that we don't have today, but John had written to the church and Diatrophes refused to receive John's apostolic authority and his counsel and instruction.

So when John sends this this ministry team, Diatrophes refuses them and John's authority and counsel, and he shuts the door on John and the people that he sent.

And it doesn't stop there because Diatrophes was actively working against John and all those ministry partners who were connected to John.

So what I want us to focus on this morning from 3 John is this every church has people who partner with the gospel and people who get in its way.

Every church has people who partner with the gospel, are co-workers with the gospel, and people who get in the way of the gospel.

Let's just, what we're gonna do is we're gonna contrast two characters in this story, Gaius and Diatrophes, and look at these two models that John is holding out before us and why he commends one and calls out the other.

Starting with Gaius, who we see mainly through verses one through eight.

Now there are several Gaiuses in the scriptures.

I don't think uh they're all the same.

This Gaius is uh, you know, only in 3 John.

That's neither here nor there.

But keep in mind contextually that 1 and 2 John are our backdrop as we read 3 John.

That'll help you understand a little bit of what's going on here.

And what we see, as I just mentioned, John has sent out a group of traveling preachers, itinerant teachers, evangelists, missionaries.

But what we see through 1, 2nd, and 3 John is that there are two groups of traveling preachers.

There are the faithful proclaimers of the gospel, uh, those who are just being faithful missionaries, preaching the true gospel, the true Christ, and they are to be welcomed and honored and shown hospitality.

And Gaius is later commended for doing that very thing.

But then there's also a second group of traveling preachers, and they are the false teachers, the ones that John has warned us against in 1 and 2 John, to where John even uh makes it clear in 2 John 10 through 11 that showing hospitality to these traveling false teachers is for you to be complicit in the message that they're circulating.

So we have two traveling preachers, ministers, so to speak, going about in this Christian community that Gaius and uh Diatrophes are a part of, and John as an apostle is very fond of.

As we have seen, he refers to them often as his dearly beloved children, not because they're his physical offspring, because that's just how he affectionately uh describes them as those who are his brothers and sisters in Christ.

But notice in verses one through eight, we get a lot of detail about who Gaius is and the type of character and love that he showed to these believers.

First, he starts out in verse two, just is well, real quick, let me just add this is a unique letter in John because it's more of a personal letter, isn't it?

So the first two are written primarily to a church congregation.

It's very likely that 3 John was also circulated among the churches gathered in uh Gaius' community.

But this is a personal letter written specifically addressing Gaius, who John sees as a beloved friend in verse one, to my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

Now, I don't know about you, but I I would I might be tempted if I received a letter like this from an apostle.

Like, yo, like, did y'all know?

Like me and John are like we're tight.

Like he named me.

But he refers to him twice as a dear friend, verse one, to my dear friend Gaius.

Verse two, dear friend, I pray that you are prospering.

And this is just a common greeting, right?

Just like if you write someone an email and you start out with the first couple of sentences of a greeting, he's like, hey man, I know you're physically healthy, but I pray that you continue to be spiritual, uh spiritually healthy.

And he says, For I was, verse three, I was very glad when fellow believers came and testified to your fidelity to the truth, how you are walking in the truth.

And then he praises them.

I have no greater joy than this to hear that my children are walking in truth.

So one thing we can know about guys is this brother was so faithfully following Jesus that the testimony of his his reputation as a Christ follower had spread beyond his little community all the way back to where John is.

And John is so encouraged that he actually wants to write back to Guys to encourage him, brother, I see your faithfulness, press on.

I see what you're doing.

I see in a community that that community that is fractured with false teaching and people questioning things, you are still standing firm in the truth.

Continue on with the Lord's help.

We all need encouragement like that.

I mean, we talked about this last week.

Like, let's just let us all find joy in a ministry of encouragement.

Gaius probably already believed and knew all of this, but to hear a ministry leader that he respected and honored tell him, like, brother, you are doing a good job following Jesus.

I like that had to just stir Gaius' heart a little bit.

But John gets very specific of the type of encouragement and love that he is commending in this brother Gaius, as we see through verses five through eight.

He says, You're you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers.

What I want us to look at real briefly is what can we learn from Gaius' example of love and faithfulness to his brothers and sisters who are advancing the gospel.

Let's start with looking at the objects of Gaius's love.

You see, there in verse five.

Notice in verse five that John commends Gaius for loving strangers who are his brothers and sisters in the faith.

Think about that for a second.

Gaius is showing intentional sacrificial hospitality to people he does not even know.

But he does know them.

Right?

They're strangers, but they are brothers and sisters in the faith.

He his act of hospitality, I would suggest, is even more significant when you consider or realize that these faithful missionaries who were coming into his community were complete strangers.

And you guys remember, we we'll get to this in a second, but we talked about uh hospitality last week.

But just I just want to note that like John is commending this brother for going to great lengths to show hospitality to a group of people he has no connection to other than they believe in the same Jesus.

This shows us all throughout the Bible, but this is just another example of the diversity and beauty in the household of God.

Like, even though Guys doesn't know these people on a relational level, he knows them on a spiritual level.

You're my brothers and sisters in Christ.

We believe in the same gospel.

That's what I love.

One of the many things I love about like church community is when people join a church, you inherit these brothers and sisters from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different cultures, different careers, different education levels, the whole gamut.

And what draws us all together, we believe a man came into the world who claimed to be God, died on the cross for our sins, and rose on the third day.

That is what unites us.

That is what can create in a church a gospel-revealing community, right?

Where apart from the gospel, many of us in this room would probably never spend time with each other.

And because Gaius was saved by that same gospel, he saw it a privilege to show hospitality to a band of tribe traveling missionaries who he didn't even know.

And he's commended for this love.

But notice the motivation of his love.

The motivation of him showing this practical love is the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He had no problem showing this type of hospitality because he was committed to helping the same gospel that saved his soul and the people he was a part of a church with, the church community he was a part of.

He wanted to be co-workers with these missionaries to help the gospel advance in his community.

That is a great example for every last one of us.

I know that the longer you've been a Christian, this is like the ABCs of the faith, right?

Like we all should love the gospel, we all should want to share the gospel, we all should want to see the gospel go forward.

But we need to be reminded of the fact that our lives as Christians should be devoted to the advancement of the gospel.

We shouldn't rely on someone else to do that, but to realize we all have a privileged role of being partners in the gospel for the gospel's advancements, which means we as Christians and as a church family should never get caught up in any small trivial things that have nothing to do with the advancement of the gospel.

There are so many Christians in churches who can get caught up in even good things, but that are not promoting the advancement of the gospel.

And John in this letter, we see he is dead set on if anything is opposing the advancement of the gospel, he has strong words for it.

And anything that does not have to do with advancing the gospel, we should lay it to the wayside.

So we should be careful as a church family with getting caught up in any trivial matters that have nothing to do with the promotion of the gospel that saves souls.

That is why we gather.

We want to uphold the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel.

We want to instruct one another in the gospel.

We want to remind one another of our union with Christ as found in the gospel.

And this brother Gaius is faithfully doing just that.

He is commended for showing such love.

But notice the practicality of his love.

He is showing hospitality, and we talked briefly about what that looked like.

So again, this is a because it's easy for us to read our Bible sometimes with Western eyes, and we think like, oh yeah, I mean, it's very easy.

If I travel to another, you know, community or another state, I can get an Airbnb, I can rent a hotel before I even get there.

But that wasn't necessarily the case back then.

It was very dangerous.

As a matter of fact, if showing did not, if someone did not show you hospitality to where you were traveling, you could literally die.

It was very unsafe.

Even uh ends did exist, but they were considered unsafe because all types of activity would take place there.

And so, especially in the Jewish community, uh the community of Christians, rather, if someone showed hospitality to another person, they were vouching for that person.

They were saying, as you are in my community, you will stay with me, I will feed you, I will house you, and I am co-signing to my whole community that you're good, you're with me.

I am your protection, so to speak.

And so Gaius is doing this not just for one person, but what clearly seems like a team of missionaries.

Now, I am growing in my hospitality by God's grace, but Gaius is far godly than some of us because some of us are like, we're quick to show hospitality, but we got we got a limit.

Like, I'll invite one person over, right?

Maybe two, if God is really working on my heart that week.

But Gaius is willing to show hospitality to a whole team of traveling missionaries.

And hospitality is a very important theme throughout the New Testament.

Because again, I I know I keep saying this a lot, but I think we tend to think of hospitality primarily as inviting someone over for dinner, but that's not how the early Christians would have seen hospitality.

It would have been an aspect of it, but they saw it as loving the stranger, going out of your way to show love and honor and support for someone you do not know.

And that is what John is commending this brother for doing.

This reminds me of some of you may have seen this movie, but it came out a few years ago.

I believe it won an Oscar.

It's called uh The Green Book.

It's based on a true story of an American classical jazz pianist named Don Shirley, who in 1962 went on an eight-week tour in the deep south to perform.

And obviously, knowing the historical context, that was very dangerous to do as an African-American musician to travel the deep south to put on concerts.

But he had uh hired a white Italian-American driver named Frank who would drive him around uh these cities that he was performing in.

And what guided him was a traveling guide called the Green Book, which was created by Victor Hugo Green.

And what it was was a book that would be updated every year that included all of the safe motels, restaurants, and gas stations to stop by in the era of Jim Crow.

And so essentially it was a guide for those who would be willing to show hospitality to strangers, those who would house you and vouch for you and keep you safe when you were in their community.

It's a good movie, I commend it to you.

But this reminds me similar to Jesus in Matthew 10, verses 40 through 42, when we talk about hospitality, when Jesus says to his disciples, the one who welcomes you welcomes me, and the one who welcomes me welcomes him who sent me.

Matthew 10:40–42

Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.

And anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he's righteous will receive a righteous person's reward.

And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.

That's a type of love, that's a type of intentional hospitality we want to model and mirror for the sake of the name, as John says.

So just notice John uh John commending this brother in verses five through eight.

And verse uh verse five, dear friend, you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers.

They have testified to your love before the church.

So notice that they have even reported back to John his hospitality, which is actually very common in this day and age.

So if someone were to house you and show hospitality, it was customary that when you went back home, you pretty much gave a good Yelp review to that person.

To say, hey, so and so over in Bethlehem, they were kind and gracious and hospitable to me and my family.

But he goes on, you will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, since they set out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from pagans.

Therefore, we ought to support such people so that we can be co-workers with the truth.

Let me give a brief word on just missionary endeavors that we see going on here.

John is very clear that we as a church community play a role.

I love this phrase uh at the end of verse 8, to be so that we can be co-workers with the truth.

So many in this room will like the Lord might never put a desire on your heart to leave a city, a state you love, to go somewhere else for the sake of the advancing advancement of the gospel.

But as my man William Carey once said, talking to a group of friends about him going to serve as a missionary, he says, I will, speaking of a well, so to speak, I will go down, but remember that you must hold the ropes.

I think that's a very good picture of how we as a church family should view missions.

Not all of us will go, but every last one of us can hold the rope for those who do.

Whether that's through prayer, whether that's through financial support, we all play a role in the advancement of the gospel, especially when it's sending people out from among our congregation to take the gospel to places where it is not, or to go to strengthen churches or to plant churches.

Uh, I love this definition of uh church-centered missions.

You've heard us use that phrase.

I would encourage you if you haven't go back and listen to the cert the series we did on church-centered missions.

But here's how we would think of church-centered missions: it is when church churches sending qualified workers across linguistic, geographic, or cultural barriers to start or strengthen churches, especially where Christ has not been named.

That is what these group of people in 3 John were doing.

They were coming as missionaries to spread the gospel.

And John says, treat these people in a manner worthy of God.

Send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.

Why?

Verse 7, because they are going out to proclaim the gospel, and they are not accepting any support from non-believers, is essentially what he's saying there.

Therefore, because they're not taking such support, we as their church community, verse eight, we should, no, he says, we ought to support such people so that we can be co-workers with the truth.

This is why I love the phrase church-centered missions, because I think if a church understands the New Testament well and what a church is and what missions is, they recognize if someone from our church is going to proclaim the gospel to go be missionaries, it's not them individually just doing their own thing.

We're called to be missionaries and we're going to go do what we want.

It's our church, Redeemer Church, desires to see the gospel go to this country or this region.

And we have trained, assessed, and are commissioning and sending members of our family to go represent Redeemer to that place.

We, they are an extension of our church family.

And the church is always the origin, the means, and the ends of missions.

This is why, and even in 3 John, John is writing to Gaius, who's a part of a church community, giving him instructions on how to encourage his church community to send and support these missionaries well.

Now, and just to be clear to give a small disclaimer, the word, the term missionary is an extra-biblical word.

It's not uh, you know, like we have a definition in scripture of what a missionary is.

I wish we did because it would clean up a lot of confusion.

A lot of people tend to call everything missions.

I would say this every Christian is called to make disciples.

That's why I say every morning, we exist as Redeemer Church to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Not 20% of us are to make disciples, 100% of every uh member of a local church is called by God to make disciples.

But I would suggest a missionary is someone a church sends across a barrier to plant or strengthen churches.

And as I said, not every one of us goes, but every one of us can joyfully hold the rope for those who do.

So just a quick sidebar on missions and what a joy that is, brothers and sisters, to know.

So, number one, that God is not just working in our little corner of the universe here in Greensboro.

But if the Lord gave us the opportunity to support a missionary, a church plan, a church revitalization, to know that through your sacrificial, generous, cheerful giving, through your prayer, through your encouragement of those people who are going, we are co-workers with them in the advancement of the gospel.

Like that, I look at this church.

This is so humbling to just look at the sanctuary and to think back to when Redeemer was just like this prayerful idea.

And then when we started sitting down and asking some of you, would you be crazy enough to like go start a church from scratch?

And then to look at all the people in this room who are the product of other people's prayers and support and generosity.

We are co-workers in the truth.

So Gaius is commended for such behavior.

He shows what love looks like when it's centered not on himself, but on others and on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But in that same church was another man who loved something as well.

And sadly, it was himself.

That brings us to the second character we're going to contrast here, which is Diatrophes.

And we'll see in verses nine through the end of the chapter, his example.

So if you look down at verse nine, so we have all this loving commendation to a dear friend Gaius and the faithful example he's been to the Christians in his community and the encouragement he's been to John.

But now in verse nine, we get to Diatrophes.

He says, I wrote something to the church, but Diatrophes, who loves to have first place among them, does not receive our authority.

That's one of the reasons why I and many scholars believe that there's another letter that we don't have in the Bible, but that John wrote, and when Diatrophes received it, he rejected John's authority and his counsel.

But picking up in verse 10, this is why if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words, and he's not satisfied with that.

He not only refuses to welcome fellow believers, but even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.

The one who does good is of God, the one who does evil has not seen God.

And then he just throws in like a sidebar, another commendation, right?

Verse 12.

Everyone speaks well of Demetrius, even the truth itself, and we also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.

Just as a word of encouragement, friends, let's, with God's help, live our lives in a way that if God chose to rise up another apostle and write a letter, that we would be the ones commended, not the ones who get the exclamation mark.

Don't be like this dude, right?

Don't be like Cameron.

Oof.

I can't even say his name.

Diatrophes.

When you get named in the Bible, you would hope that it's for good.

But let's look at our boy Diatrophys.

We know very little about him.

He only shows up here in 3 John.

He's mentioned nowhere else in the Bible.

We don't even know his exact role in this church.

It does seem very clear that he has some real influence and authority.

So it's likely that he possibly was one of the elders in this community.

Maybe he uh was even housing one of the churches that was gathering, likely in his house.

Uh he clearly has some measure of leadership, influence, and authority.

But what we do know for certain is that the word of God holds him up as an example of what not to be and do.

That we know for sure.

And we don't know the specifics of what caused this animosity between Diatrophes and the Apostle John.

But I would assume if you're going against the authority and leadership of an inspired apostle that the Lord has chosen, you're probably the one who's in error.

But we don't have the specific details of why is Diatrophes opposed to John?

Was it a personal conflict?

Was it a disagreement on theology or ecclesiology?

We don't know.

But if I had to make an educated guess, I would assume, and this is just Cam speculations, I think it's most likely that maybe Diatrophes sided with the false teachers who had gone out from the community and were saying, yes, believe in Jesus, but Jesus wasn't really God in the flesh.

Maybe he had sided with the false teachers, and that was creating the tension between him and John.

We don't know for certain, but the reason I think that's pretty plausible is because what we notice in uh John's letter here is that Diatrophes was treating the theologically sound missionaries who were committed to the true gospel.

He was treating them the way John was treating the false teachers in 1st and 2 John.

So when these false teachers were perverting the gospel, which is no gospel at all, John was had very strong words instead, oppose them, don't even show hospitality to them.

That's how he treated them.

Well, that's exactly how Diatrophes is treating the faithful missionaries who had the true gospel.

So I just think contextually, maybe he had sided with these false teachers.

And as I said earlier, so John, it seems clearly from the context, had written a earlier letter to this church community that we no longer have.

And Diatrophes, who held some kind of influence in Gaius' community, refused to receive John's apostolic authority, to receive his counsel and instruction, and instead rejected the apostles' words and turned away the ministry team that John had sent.

And not only that, it gets worse, not only did he turn away this team, but he kicked out of the church those who endorsed those teachers, which just shows some issues there with his uh understanding of his authority.

But let's let's use now Diatrophes as an example, starting with let's look at his behavior according to John.

He was a malicious gossiper about John.

So you know the gossip is bad if it has spread to the point where it's now reported back to John, who's not even in that community.

So that's how bad Diatrophes was gossiping maliciously about the Apostle John.

And you know, we've we've, you know, some of you, I'm sure, have been a part of church communities where maybe some things like this happen.

Doesn't it put you in an awkward position, like as a member of this church community, when you know a leader is doing this and you're like, what do we do about this?

Do we say something?

Like what how what this this should not be happening?

But we see a second uh aspect of his negative example of his behavior and conduct is refusal to welcome and show hospitality to missionaries.

He refuses the team that John is sending who are there for the intentions of advancing the gospel.

Diatrophies is like, not on my watch.

And he opposes them.

Therefore, he's opposing John and he's opposing the Lord and the gospel.

Third, he's preventing other members of this Christian community from showing hospitality to these missionaries.

Now you can understand why John's language gets a little strong in verse 10, where he says, This is why if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words.

Essentially, he's saying, when I get there, I will talk to him face to face.

This deserves confrontation because, again, it involves the advancement of the gospel.

But right after that, in verse 10, he says, and he is not satisfied with that.

He's not satisfied with maliciously gossiping about me.

He not only refuses to welcome fellow believers, think about that.

Why would you not welcome fellow believers?

So again, what were some of the tests in 1 and 2 John of an authentic faith?

You love Jesus by obeying him, you believe right things about Jesus, and you love the people Jesus loves.

So if you claim to love Jesus and to have Jesus as your Savior, but you're rejecting fellow believers, that's not loving those whom Jesus loves.

So he says he not only refuses to welcome fellow believers, but even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

So not only is he personally diatrophies as a leader in this church opposing these missionaries, he's also saying, and if any of you in this church want to support them and show hospitality to them, you're kicked out of the church.

So talk about an abuse of authority.

Which, to my fourth, fourth point, he is kicking out the church, those who essentially disagree with him.

So if you don't agree with my leadership, my authority, who I think is in and who is out, well then you're out too.

And the fifth example of negative conduct we see is that he was prideful and loved authority.

John says he loved to be first.

That's just a way of saying he loved to be in charge, he loved to have authority and influence.

And everyone in the church could see it.

Another way to put it is he loved his position and the authority and influence that came with it more than he loved the gospel and the people whom Jesus purchased on the cross.

We and that's not just conducive to churches.

That's in any sphere of life, anywhere where leadership and authority and influence can be found.

There will always be those who are the bad actors who love their position more than the people they're supposed to serve and lead and protect.

C.S.

Lewis once said, pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.

Now we can't speak to Diatrophis' heart.

We're not him.

We don't know what was going on in the inner workings of his heart, why he was responding and living the way that he was.

But what we do know is that scripture lays him down as a clear example of what not to do and who not to be.

And Diatrophus's love of being first directly clashes with all of Jesus' teaching about leadership, doesn't it?

When Jesus said, Many who are first will be last, and the last shall be first, Diatrophes is doing the exact opposite.

When Jesus said, You know the rulers of the Gentiles, they lord it over people, is not to be like that with my disciples.

Well, Diatrophes was doing the exact opposite.

He was behaving like a pagan Gentile ruler, abusing his authority and not being a servant of Christ.

Now again, we don't know for sure was Diatrophes a pastor in this church.

It seems very likely he was, but even if he wasn't, the words of 1 Peter chapter 5 come to mind.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

When Peter says, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ.

Now keep in mind Peter was an elder in the church in Jerusalem, but he also was an apostle.

If anybody could be tempted as a man to abuse their authority and influence over others, it would be someone like this.

I was handpicked by Jesus, I'm an apostle, I'm an elder in the church in Jerusalem, and with that, this is what Peter says.

He says, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder.

He's identifying himself with these elders he's writing to, and a witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed.

Shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not out of greed for money, but eagerly, not lording, or some translations domineering, so not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

I love that word Peter uses, uh, not lording it over those entrusted to you.

Seems like Diatrophes had this posture of, this is my church.

These are my sheep.

I can say who's in and who's out.

And Peter, in God's word, says, these are people whom Jesus purchased with his own blood that he is entrusting to you to shepherd for their spiritual good.

Brothers and sisters, authority is a good and dangerous gift.

I know in our culture we have a default posture of like we're opposed to authority, which I don't think is very godly.

Authority is a good thing.

If there are bad actors, bad examples of authority, that's what they are.

They are perversions of the good thing.

We don't throw out the good thing because someone has perverted it.

But authority is a good and dangerous gift entrusted to all of us, and we are to use it, steward it for the glory of God, and for the flourishing of all of those underneath our authority, especially in the case of a church leaderslash a pastor.

This brother is doing great damage to a community of faith simply because of his own selfish, prideful, self-centered desires.

And verse 10, and John is clear that when he arrives, this is so severe to him that he wants to address this brother to his face.

So this is not a small manner, is it?

We see this cause a ripple effect in churches all throughout history.

When anyone, not just a leader, when anyone is abusing their authority and influence, or when someone goes against the gospel.

And I know there's a tension sometimes of, well, should we confront people like what John's talking about?

Well, I think what we learned from John in all three of these letters is John had strong words when someone was misrepresenting or opposing the gospel.

So, friends, if if we have unity in the gospel, then praise God we have unity.

But if there's someone who professes the name of Christ and is opposing the gospel, well, then we should we should defend the gospel.

That doesn't mean we, you know, pull out our Bibles like a sword and we're attacking people, but we want to preserve the truth.

And there are more ways than one to attack the gospel, isn't there?

There's the most obvious, like what we see in these letters, where there are people who are uh perverting the gospel, twisting the gospel, adding to the gospel.

That is a very serious thing because if you add or twist the gospel, well then you're changing the message of salvation, which could literally lead people into spiritual darkness.

But then there are also those we see in the New Testament who oppose the gospel by professing I am a Christian, I'm saved by Jesus, but they don't love Jesus in obedience.

These are the people who live in sin and try to hide their sin.

And they say, I'm a Christian, but I want my sin too.

Well, it's like, well, that goes against walking in a manner worthy of the gospel.

So scripture commands us to be imitators of God, right?

In Ephesians 5.

We are commanded to be imitators of Christ.

We're commanded to bear the fruits of the Spirit, and and no one is perfect.

But friends, be careful who you imitate.

So John gives us really three examples, two of some positive brothers.

My man Demetrius gets a little sidebar there in verse uh 11 and 12, or verse 12, I mean.

But then we get this negative example of diatrophies of don't be like this brother.

Now, does that mean as Christians, we only because what what I love about Gaius' example of love, uh, one of the things is he, as I said, he loves strangers, those he doesn't know, which means Gaius is not picking and choosing who he favors.

Gaius is like, sure, John, I'll house some missionaries for you, but when they get here, why don't I like interview some of them or maybe like I'll have a cookout with the church and I'll see which ones I vibe with, and then I'll show hospitality to those missionaries.

No, he just extends hospitality to everyone, which is challenging, right?

Because I mean, uh, I remember I watched a video recently where someone said, you know, why do we, why do we even just like deal with church?

Why don't we all just stay home, just listen to stuff, listen to podcasts, read our Bibles?

Like, why do we get into this mess of joining churches and doing life with each other?

It's it's messy, people are complicated, they let you down, they sin against you, and things like that.

Well, friends, we do it because Jesus said it's his bride.

Jesus said we're a family.

Y'all got blood relatives.

Aren't they a challenge sometimes?

Some of you are like, when are they not a challenge, right?

That is the beauty of the love that we have in the household of God, though, is we love each other even when we're not lovable.

We love each other even when we provoke one another.

I like I love the stories of let's say one Christian being sinned against or maybe just let down by another member of their church, and the person who is on the receiving end of the herd is very uncomfortable just sitting with that.

They're like, I feel this angst about reconciling.

Like I'm not comfortable with being at odds with my brother or sister in Christ.

So I want to do something about that.

That's the beauty of this mess we call church.

We will disappoint each other, we will sin against each other, but may it never be said that we ever stop loving each other.

Love doesn't mean we're always at peace.

Love doesn't mean we are always um just happy go lucky, skipping through the backfield over here, just singing songs, right?

But it does mean that we always love as God loves us.

So, friends, be careful who you imitate.

Imitate Christ, imitate the Lord, do not be a diatrophis.

What do I mean by that?

Well, people like Gaius in Diatrophes will always be in our churches.

Uh, if the Lord chooses to keep adding to Redeemer's membership numerically, we're gonna have normal church problems that every other church across the globe has.

Every church is gonna have a Gaius, every church at some point is gonna have a diatrophis.

People like Gaius, they love the Lord, they love his word, they love his people, they joyfully serve, they build others up, they encourage, they open their homes, they disciple others, they trust their pastors, they share the gospel, they support missionaries in the advancement of the gospel, and they don't see this as some unique service, they just see this as the Christian life.

May the Lord bless us with many Gaiuses.

And Gaius, I don't know what the female version of that would be, but the spirit of Gaius in our congregation, right?

But then, unfortunately, because we live in a fallen, broken world and sin remains in every last one of our hearts, there will be people like Diatrophies, people who resist their pastors, they treat the church like it belongs to them, they criticize, they gossip maliciously, they pick fights over things that have absolutely nothing to do with the gospel.

How dare you change that carpet color?

How dare you sing that song?

Why is that drum set on the stage?

They push people out of the church, they see their pastors as their employees and the church as a democracy.

Churches don't split because people like Diatrophies show up, but they split because sometimes faithful saints don't stand up to the diatrophies in their church.

We all play a role in a congregation to preserve.

Uh, this is how I summarize what is the what is the role and authority of members in a local church?

Not according to Cam, but according to what I believe we see in the New Testament.

This is why I get PTSD when I hear stories of people share about like my church has all these committees and things like that.

And again, I'm not saying committees are inherently evil, but you won't find support for them in the Bible.

I think they can be a little dangerous because you're giving members and other leaders in your church a measure of authority that the Bible doesn't give them.

That's why you get people splitting a church over, well, you know, this guy, this deacon bought a printer and the finance committee didn't say he could buy that printer.

And it's like, what are we talking about?

But we got to recognize as members, according to the word of God, I believe uh the Bible, this is how we summarize our church governance here at Redeemer.

For those of you who might be a little bit newer, uh, we are Christ ruled.

Jesus Christ is a senior pastor of every church.

We are elder-led and we are congregational in our governance.

Now, what does that mean that we're congregational?

Well, I believe the Bible is very clear that members have the biblical authority to appoint their elders and deacons to preserve their doctrine.

What do we believe to be the Christian faith?

And to exercise the keys of the kingdom, as Jesus says, in matters of church membership.

So receiving into the church family new members and to exercising church discipline when you might have to remove someone from membership because their profession no longer matches their living.

I would encourage us to understand what is our role as a church.

Because this church, we don't get the rest of the story of what transpired afterwards, but I would hope that Gaius and maybe some other faithful leaders help disciple and instruct their congregations to understand how do we respond to a diatrophis?

How do we support well in a manner that's worthy of God, these missionaries who are going out from our midst to take the gospel to the nations.

But friends, let's just be honest here as well.

There's a little diatrophis in every one of us, isn't it?

Some of you like, not me.

There is a diatrophis in every last one of us because there is sin in every last one of us.

Some of us can be tempted to elevate our preferences as if they are law.

John knew this better than anyone.

Let's keep in mind that John is the same John who years earlier in Mark 10 was the man who once asked for first place with Jesus.

He's the one who said to Jesus, Can I have a measure of authority sitting at your right hand?

And what changed?

You know, and Jesus warned him, right?

The man who who once wanted first place is now the man warning against someone who wants first place in the church.

Well, what changed in John?

Well, he watched Jesus, the only one who legitimately deserved first place in anything, and instead took the last place.

And in that same gospel of Mark, it says, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

We will kill our pride by seeing that Jesus already has first place, and he gave that up for you and me.

And we have the privilege of being servants in his church, helping others follow Jesus as well.

So I pray that these letters have encouraged you, and I would just close by saying this, brothers and sisters, be a guy, not a diatrophies.

Amen.

Let's pray.