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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, 3rd John, only chapter 1, and today's title is Faithful
Footsteps.
Faithful Footsteps we're goingto talk about probably one of
the shorter and least knownbooks of the entire Bible and my
(00:20):
hope is, by the time we're donewith it, you'll at least
understand why it's here andalso maybe have a new respect
for one of the least read booksin the entire Bible.
So if you have your Bibles,want to open up with me to 3
John, while you're doing that,make sure you take just a moment
, if you're new around here, tolike, share and subscribe to the
YouTube channel and the podcast.
Make sure you leave us a fivestar review on the podcast and
(00:41):
make sure you're going to theBible breakdown discussion on
Facebook we podcast, and makesure you're going to the Bible
breakdown discussion on Facebook.
We're doing an amazing job overthere and the more we dig, the
more we find, and I'm curious.
I want you to let me know downin the comments below if you are
watching this on YouTube.
I want you to let me know ifyou were able to find 3 John
without looking it up in thetable of contents, because this
is one of those that we don'treally read very often, and it's
(01:03):
because we don't really talkabout it very much, and so my
hope is is, by the time we arefinished, this will be one of
those that at least you'll kindof have an understanding for.
And so what I want to do iswe're going to jump into this,
and so I want to kind of startoff with reminding us of
something we talked about backin an earlier part of the Bible,
which was 1 John, and if youremember, the way we did this
(01:26):
was we talked about the ideathat John wrote three letters
and we're going to get to thisin just a moment but he wrote 1
John.
He wrote well, you can't seethat.
So let me look at this a littledifferent.
He wrote 1 John and then hewrote 2 John and then he wrote 3
John, and the reason for thisis because he had a different
(01:50):
reason for this.
Now we'll talk about thedifferent things he wrote in
just a moment, but if youremember, what we talked about
before is 1 John was reallywritten to the overall church at
large, and by that, most likely, it was the seven churches that
he later wrote to in the bookof Revelation.
Most likely he was kind of thepresbyter, the person who was in
charge of overseeing thoseseven churches, and he was
(02:13):
likely writing to all of them.
Then later he writes 2 John toa particular church.
And you know I was saying thatthere were a little bit of
controversy back and forth,because he he talks about to the
, the elect lady, and that'seither him talking to a
particular church or aparticular lady who oversaw a
(02:35):
church.
Therefore it was still to thatchurch in general.
And, if you remember, no matterwhether you're a
complementarian or egalitarian,that doesn't really matter in
this because within the contextof the early church, most of the
early church meetings happenedwithin a household, and so it
was considered to be.
The household was the ladiesdomain.
(02:55):
Outside, the household was themale domain and they worked
together in that, and so eitherway it could still work for you.
And so first John was to theoverall church, 2 John was to a
particular church, and thentoday, 3 John is to a particular
dude, a guy named Gaius orGaius, however you want to do
that.
We're going to go Gaius for me,and it really is going to be an
(03:18):
interesting take on how all ofthis works and so to kind of go
ahead and give you that 1 Johnwas for the whole church, 2 John
was to a particular church and3 John was to a particular
person, and that is why, or oneof the ways you can quickly tell
the difference.
So let's dive into moreinformation about 3 John and
about why we would call itfateful footsteps.
(03:38):
First of all, as we had said, 3John is the third of three
letters written by John, and hedid write more because this is
the same John who wrote theGospel of John.
It was most likely one of the12 apostles who was, according
to him, the best friend of Jesus.
He thought that they were bestfriends anyway and there's no
(03:58):
reason to think they weren't.
But then also he wrote the Bookof Revelation, and whereas some
people see that as a letter,some people see it as something
different.
It was a different genre, adifferent literary genre.
That's why not everybody putsit in the scope of letters.
So therefore there was 1, 2,and 3 John, the Gospel of John,
and then the Revelation of JesusChrist.
(04:20):
Where did he write this?
Most likely he wrote it atEphesus.
Where did he write this?
Most likely he wrote it atEphesus, because what history
tells us is pretty much aftereverything kind of fell out in
Jerusalem, with a lot of thedifferent types of persecution
that was happening and all ofthat, the church leaders just
dispersed and started spreadingthe gospel.
And it is very widely believedthat John ended up settling in
(04:43):
Ephesus and he spent the lateryears of his ministry there
taking care of Mary and all ofthat.
And can you imagine Remember wecovered 1 and 2, timothy
earlier and that Timothy waspastoring Ephesus?
Can you imagine the pressure ofa young pastor pastoring the
Apostle John?
So if there's no other reasonwhy Paul needed to write to
(05:04):
Timothy and tell him to not beafraid, it was because the
apostle John is part of yourcongregation.
Praise the Lord, right, okay,well then, when and to whom was
he writing?
So once again, it was writtenbetween 85 and 95 AD, so this
would have been at the very endof John's life.
Possibly he's not travelinganymore and so he's writing this
to this guy named Gaius.
(05:24):
And this guy named Gaius waspart of a local church and some
people think that he also mayhave served as a secretary, kind
of someone who helped take careof things for the apostle John
and he's writing to him forvarious reasons we're getting
into that in a moment but he'swriting to this guy named Gaius
Now.
The big idea of 3 John is thatChristian life is marked by
(05:47):
truth, love and support offellow believers.
So he is writing about what theChristian life is marked by
about truth, but then alsohospitality.
The reason why this isimportant is because it shows us
how theology meets real lifecommunity challenges.
It emphasizes the support formissionary efforts and it
(06:09):
encourages believers to walkfaithfully in difficult
circumstances.
I love 3 John because it isjust a small snapshot into the
reality that helps us realizethat the early Christians, they
didn't live a life of justdealing with outside persecution
.
They dealt with the life likewe have now, that is, we have
(06:29):
people who don't agree with usas Christians, but you also have
issues you have to deal withinside the church, and it really
talks about what that lookslike, and so the overall idea of
what's going on is during thistime.
This is toward the end of John'slife, it's toward the end of
the first century, and so theRoman Empire was actually
thriving at this time under anemperor called Domitian, and
(06:51):
Domitian hated Christians.
This is one of the guys.
So there was persecution goingon under Nero, and then it got
exponentially worse underDomitian.
This is where you hear aboutthe stories of Christians being
taken into coliseums and eatenby lions and the Roman candles
and all these kinds of things,and so this is where a lot of
that started happening.
(07:12):
The church is now.
This is what's so interestingto me too.
The church is now transitioningfrom the apostolic age, that's
the 12 apostles primarilyspreading the gospel to the
second generation of leaders,what's called the early church
fathers spreading the gospel tothe second generation of leaders
, what's called the early churchfathers or the apostolic
fathers.
And John is likely the lastliving apostle and he is writing
as a spiritual father to thenext generation.
(07:33):
It is entirely possible that 3John may have been the last
letter that he wrote.
He may have written this afterhe wrote Revelation.
We don't really know for sure.
And so this is amazing mentalpicture of John, who is the last
living apostle.
He is already discipling otherpeople.
As a matter of fact, there's anearly church father called
Polycarp that we have writingsof his.
(07:54):
He sat at the feet of John andlearned about the gospel and
learned from John.
He is passing on as muchinformation as he can, and he
knows that they are getting intothe next generation, and so he
is passing it on as much as hepossibly can, and so you kind of
have this mental picture ofthis old man who is writing
these last letters.
Some interesting facts about 3John before we jump in is it is
(08:15):
the shortest book of the Bibleby word count only 219 Greek
words.
It is addressed to oneindividual, which makes it
deeply personal.
It gives a view of the earlychurch, of power struggles and
politics, and it is also one ofthe most practical books for
evaluating Christian character.
So very, very interesting.
(08:36):
And so what we're going to dois we're going to jump into 3
John, and once again, I want youto picture this as John is an
old man.
He's possibly bad in his health, he's, he's been through all
the things, he's seen all thestuff.
He just he.
Now he sees these new leadersrising up and he is trying to be
a spiritual father to as manyof them as possible, and this is
(08:57):
one of the ones that he israising up, possibly.
So, if you're ready, 3 John,verse 1, says this this is the
letter from John the elder.
So even he's admitting I'm anold man.
Now I'm writing to Gaius, mydear friend, whom I love in the
truth.
Dear friend, I hope all is wellwith you and that you are as
(09:18):
healthy in body as you arestrong in spirit.
Some of the traveling teachersrecently returned and made me
very happy by telling me aboutyour faithfulness and that you
are living according to thetruth.
I could have no greater joythan to hear that my children,
spiritual children, arefollowing the truth.
Now pause, so you can see also.
(09:39):
What is happening now is thatJohn is sending out these
different teachers to differentareas to teach the gospel and
then them come back to him.
So that's now what is happening.
John is not necessarily goingout as much himself, but he's
sending these traveling teachersto do this.
All right, verse five Dearfriend, you are being faithful
to God when you care for thetraveling teachers who pass
(10:00):
through, even though they arestrangers to you.
I wrote to the church aboutthis, so we ourselves should
support them so that we can bepartners as they teach the truth
.
I wrote to the church aboutthis, but Diotrephes, who loves
(10:28):
to be the leader, refuses tohave anything to do with us.
When I come, I will report someof the things he is doing and
the evil accusations he ismaking against us.
Not only does he refuse towelcome the traveling teachers,
but he also tells others not tohelp them.
When they do help, he puts themout of the church.
(10:49):
Dear friend, don't let this badexample influence you.
Follow only what is good.
Remember that those who do goodprove that they are God's
children, and those who do evilprove that they do not know God.
Everyone speaks highly ofDemetrius, as does the truth
itself.
We ourselves can say the samefor him, and you know we speak
(11:13):
the truth.
I have much more to say to you,but I don't want to write it
with pen and ink.
I hope to see you soon and thenwe will talk face to face.
Peace be with you.
Your friends here send youtheir greetings, and please give
my personal greetings to eachof our friends there.
Wow, so it's like this littlewindow into just some personal
(11:37):
situations that John is dealingwith, and here's a couple of
things I love about this book.
First of all, I think we canforget sometimes that these are
real people living in a realworld, dealing with real things.
Maybe you're not like me, butwhen I think of the Apostle John
, or I think of you know, peterPaul, these people, I just think
of these powerful men of Godwho were just walking around and
(11:58):
spreading the gospel andreaching new people and all
these things.
And of course that's true, butthat's not all that they're
doing.
They're spending years withpeople and slowly discipling
people and everybody's at adifferent growth rate in their
life now and then everybody youknow it takes a process of
walking toward freedom.
John is on that long journeywith a lot of these people.
(12:20):
You can see how he is talkingabout these different teachers
and how he's developing them.
He's like hey, I heard aboutthis Demetrius guy and he's
awesome.
Then I heard about this otherguy who's terrible at this.
He's just talking about thebusiness and the life of the
church and just doing life withother people and the thing that
he is celebrating is he iscelebrating when Gaius is not
(12:43):
distracted by all the churchpolitics and all the business
and he just continues doing whatis good, like stay in your lane
, gaius, and don't worry aboutthis other stuff, I'll deal with
this, other people will dealwith this.
You focus on doing good andremember the overall idea of 3
John is what we call fatefulfootsteps, and it's the idea of
(13:04):
staying fateful, to continuedoing or staying in the lane
that God has you in.
I think that is one of the mostpowerful things that we could
think about in our life, butforever.
And that is this of the mostpowerful things that we could
think about in our life, butforever.
And that is this, remember heis telling Gaius.
He's telling Gaius like hey,listen, there are some teachers,
man, they're just trying toteach, they're just trying to
spread the good news and to helppeople grow in their faith.
(13:27):
But there's this leader,diotrephes, if I can say his
name right, that he likes beingin charge, and so he's getting
over into this other lane andtelling them what they can and
can't do.
And John's saying that's notgood and I'm going to have to
fix that.
And then he's talking about how.
But Demetrius, man, he's goingto be awesome, like he's
encouraging.
I've heard good things abouthim.
I've heard good things aboutyou.
(13:48):
And, man, don't worry aboutthis other stuff.
You stay in your lane and dowhat God has called you to do
and where he has put you, andyou're going to be okay.
Can I tell you what a wonderfullesson that is for us.
I'm not saying at all that weshould turn a blind eye to
things and not do the rightthing when it is put in front of
(14:08):
us to do, but what I am sayingis so much anxiety comes when we
try to do something that weweren't fitted to do, like, if
you're a father, your number onecalling in life is, of course,
to love God, then it's to loveyour spouse, and then it's to
love and raise godly children.
Like there's other things, butthat's your primary lane right
(14:29):
there, boom, and there's otherones, but that's it.
You want to change the world.
Raise godly kids, becausethat's the people that's going
to take your spot one day andyou got to play the long game.
Same thing with if you're a mom, if you're a business leader.
You know, instead of worryingabout what's going on over in
another country I'm not sayingyou shouldn't intercede and pray
and if God puts something inyour path, you do something
about it.
But instead of all of that,what if you own your business
(14:53):
and you try to develop anenvironment that loves God,
loves people, teaches Christianprinciples and provides a place
for people to grow in theirfaith.
Well, pastor, how's thatchanging the world?
Well, ask the people that workfor you.
I bet they'll tell you it'schanging their life and it
starts to trickle out from there.
And so what John is encouragingGaius to do is basically saying
(15:14):
hey, man, don't worry about theworld, make a difference in the
lane God's put you in.
And if you do that andeverybody else does that, then
we'll be OK.
Now, once again, don't get thistwisted.
I'm not saying that weshouldn't intercede and pray,
and if God put something in yourpath, you do that.
But if it has not been put inyour path, then you trust God to
do that and you stay in yourlane.
(15:36):
And if enough people made thebiggest difference they could in
the lane that God had giventhem, in the fateful footsteps,
I wonder what our world wouldlook like.
I think maybe God would make ahuge difference, because what
would it look like for us if wespent our entire life climbing
the ladder of success, only tofind out that it was leaning up
(15:56):
against the wrong wall, torealize that we're doing so many
things that God never called usto do?
And so, therefore, I think,when we get to heaven.
God's not going to ask us howgood we did at something that we
weren't called to do.
Instead, he's going to ask uswhat did you do with your family
?
What did you do with your localcommunity?
What did you do with your localcommunity?
What did you do with yourspouse?
What did you do with yourchildren?
What did you do with what I putright in front of you?
(16:19):
Your harvest field is thepeople you work with.
It's who lives inside yourhouse, and I think if we get
those things in line, god willexpand our influence.
Or maybe he won't, but that'sour number one priority and
that's what Gaius is being toldby John, and that's one of the
most practical words of advicefrom an old John, the Apostle,
(16:39):
who's saying Look, I'm old, I'mover it.
Here's the bottom line, and Ithink if we could look at that,
it would be a powerful lessonfor all of us.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much for yourword.
Thank you that you are real andalive and you care for all of
us.
Lord, my prayer today is thatwe will accept the lane you've
put us in and, instead ofreaching out to areas that
(17:02):
you've not called us to.
We'll reach into the areas youhave, and that doesn't mean that
all that we're ever going to dois right there.
But it is for this season.
And so we will take joy inbeing in the lane you've put us
in and as you expand ourinfluence, we'll take those next
steps.
But for right now we'll lookaround and we'll say, god, how
(17:23):
have you uniquely positioned meright now to make a difference?
And then we'll do it with allof our heart.
In Jesus' name.
We pray Amen, amen.
Well, god's word says in 3 John4,.
It says I have no greater joythan to hear that my children
are walking in the truth.
My hope is that you will gainjoy from the truth of God's word
(17:46):
and how you are making thatdifference in the people that
are in your sphere of influence,in your lane today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for thenext part of the Bible Breakdown
podcast.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, 3rd John, only chapter 1, and today's title is Faithful
Footsteps.
Faithful Footsteps we're goingto talk about probably one of
the shorter and least knownbooks of the entire Bible and my
(00:20):
hope is, by the time we're donewith it, you'll at least
understand why it's here andalso maybe have a new respect
for one of the least read booksin the entire Bible.
So if you have your Bibles,want to open up with me to 3
John, while you're doing that,make sure you take just a moment
, if you're new around here, tolike, share and subscribe to the
YouTube channel and the podcast.
Make sure you leave us a fivestar review on the podcast and
(00:41):
make sure you're going to theBible breakdown discussion on
Facebook we podcast, and makesure you're going to the Bible
breakdown discussion on Facebook.
We're doing an amazing job overthere and the more we dig, the
more we find, and I'm curious.
I want you to let me know downin the comments below if you are
watching this on YouTube.
I want you to let me know ifyou were able to find 3 John
without looking it up in thetable of contents, because this
is one of those that we don'treally read very often, and it's
(01:03):
because we don't really talkabout it very much, and so my
hope is is, by the time we arefinished, this will be one of
those that at least you'll kindof have an understanding for.
And so what I want to do iswe're going to jump into this,
and so I want to kind of startoff with reminding us of
something we talked about backin an earlier part of the Bible,
which was 1 John, and if youremember, the way we did this
(01:26):
was we talked about the ideathat John wrote three letters
and we're going to get to thisin just a moment but he wrote 1
John.
He wrote well, you can't seethat.
So let me look at this a littledifferent.
He wrote 1 John and then hewrote 2 John and then he wrote 3
John, and the reason for thisis because he had a different
(01:50):
reason for this.
Now we'll talk about thedifferent things he wrote in
just a moment, but if youremember, what we talked about
before is 1 John was reallywritten to the overall church at
large, and by that, most likely, it was the seven churches that
he later wrote to in the bookof Revelation.
Most likely he was kind of thepresbyter, the person who was in
charge of overseeing thoseseven churches, and he was
(02:13):
likely writing to all of them.
Then later he writes 2 John toa particular church.
And you know I was saying thatthere were a little bit of
controversy back and forth,because he he talks about to the
, the elect lady, and that'seither him talking to a
particular church or aparticular lady who oversaw a
(02:35):
church.
Therefore it was still to thatchurch in general.
And, if you remember, no matterwhether you're a
complementarian or egalitarian,that doesn't really matter in
this because within the contextof the early church, most of the
early church meetings happenedwithin a household, and so it
was considered to be.
The household was the ladiesdomain.
(02:55):
Outside, the household was themale domain and they worked
together in that, and so eitherway it could still work for you.
And so first John was to theoverall church, 2 John was to a
particular church, and thentoday, 3 John is to a particular
dude, a guy named Gaius orGaius, however you want to do
that.
We're going to go Gaius for me,and it really is going to be an
(03:18):
interesting take on how all ofthis works and so to kind of go
ahead and give you that 1 Johnwas for the whole church, 2 John
was to a particular church and3 John was to a particular
person, and that is why, or oneof the ways you can quickly tell
the difference.
So let's dive into moreinformation about 3 John and
about why we would call itfateful footsteps.
(03:38):
First of all, as we had said, 3John is the third of three
letters written by John, and hedid write more because this is
the same John who wrote theGospel of John.
It was most likely one of the12 apostles who was, according
to him, the best friend of Jesus.
He thought that they were bestfriends anyway and there's no
(03:58):
reason to think they weren't.
But then also he wrote the Bookof Revelation, and whereas some
people see that as a letter,some people see it as something
different.
It was a different genre, adifferent literary genre.
That's why not everybody putsit in the scope of letters.
So therefore there was 1, 2,and 3 John, the Gospel of John,
and then the Revelation of JesusChrist.
(04:20):
Where did he write this?
Most likely he wrote it atEphesus.
Where did he write this?
Most likely he wrote it atEphesus, because what history
tells us is pretty much aftereverything kind of fell out in
Jerusalem, with a lot of thedifferent types of persecution
that was happening and all ofthat, the church leaders just
dispersed and started spreadingthe gospel.
And it is very widely believedthat John ended up settling in
(04:43):
Ephesus and he spent the lateryears of his ministry there
taking care of Mary and all ofthat.
And can you imagine Remember wecovered 1 and 2, timothy
earlier and that Timothy waspastoring Ephesus?
Can you imagine the pressure ofa young pastor pastoring the
Apostle John?
So if there's no other reasonwhy Paul needed to write to
(05:04):
Timothy and tell him to not beafraid, it was because the
apostle John is part of yourcongregation.
Praise the Lord, right, okay,well then, when and to whom was
he writing?
So once again, it was writtenbetween 85 and 95 AD, so this
would have been at the very endof John's life.
Possibly he's not travelinganymore and so he's writing this
to this guy named Gaius.
(05:24):
And this guy named Gaius waspart of a local church and some
people think that he also mayhave served as a secretary, kind
of someone who helped take careof things for the apostle John
and he's writing to him forvarious reasons we're getting
into that in a moment but he'swriting to this guy named Gaius
Now.
The big idea of 3 John is thatChristian life is marked by
(05:47):
truth, love and support offellow believers.
So he is writing about what theChristian life is marked by
about truth, but then alsohospitality.
The reason why this isimportant is because it shows us
how theology meets real lifecommunity challenges.
It emphasizes the support formissionary efforts and it
(06:09):
encourages believers to walkfaithfully in difficult
circumstances.
I love 3 John because it isjust a small snapshot into the
reality that helps us realizethat the early Christians, they
didn't live a life of justdealing with outside persecution
.
They dealt with the life likewe have now, that is, we have
(06:29):
people who don't agree with usas Christians, but you also have
issues you have to deal withinside the church, and it really
talks about what that lookslike, and so the overall idea of
what's going on is during thistime.
This is toward the end of John'slife, it's toward the end of
the first century, and so theRoman Empire was actually
thriving at this time under anemperor called Domitian, and
(06:51):
Domitian hated Christians.
This is one of the guys.
So there was persecution goingon under Nero, and then it got
exponentially worse underDomitian.
This is where you hear aboutthe stories of Christians being
taken into coliseums and eatenby lions and the Roman candles
and all these kinds of things,and so this is where a lot of
that started happening.
(07:12):
The church is now.
This is what's so interestingto me too.
The church is now transitioningfrom the apostolic age, that's
the 12 apostles primarilyspreading the gospel to the
second generation of leaders,what's called the early church
fathers spreading the gospel tothe second generation of leaders
, what's called the early churchfathers or the apostolic
fathers.
And John is likely the lastliving apostle and he is writing
as a spiritual father to thenext generation.
(07:33):
It is entirely possible that 3John may have been the last
letter that he wrote.
He may have written this afterhe wrote Revelation.
We don't really know for sure.
And so this is amazing mentalpicture of John, who is the last
living apostle.
He is already discipling otherpeople.
As a matter of fact, there's anearly church father called
Polycarp that we have writingsof his.
(07:54):
He sat at the feet of John andlearned about the gospel and
learned from John.
He is passing on as muchinformation as he can, and he
knows that they are getting intothe next generation, and so he
is passing it on as much as hepossibly can, and so you kind of
have this mental picture ofthis old man who is writing
these last letters.
Some interesting facts about 3John before we jump in is it is
(08:15):
the shortest book of the Bibleby word count only 219 Greek
words.
It is addressed to oneindividual, which makes it
deeply personal.
It gives a view of the earlychurch, of power struggles and
politics, and it is also one ofthe most practical books for
evaluating Christian character.
So very, very interesting.
(08:36):
And so what we're going to dois we're going to jump into 3
John, and once again, I want youto picture this as John is an
old man.
He's possibly bad in his health, he's, he's been through all
the things, he's seen all thestuff.
He just he.
Now he sees these new leadersrising up and he is trying to be
a spiritual father to as manyof them as possible, and this is
(08:57):
one of the ones that he israising up, possibly.
So, if you're ready, 3 John,verse 1, says this this is the
letter from John the elder.
So even he's admitting I'm anold man.
Now I'm writing to Gaius, mydear friend, whom I love in the
truth.
Dear friend, I hope all is wellwith you and that you are as
(09:18):
healthy in body as you arestrong in spirit.
Some of the traveling teachersrecently returned and made me
very happy by telling me aboutyour faithfulness and that you
are living according to thetruth.
I could have no greater joythan to hear that my children,
spiritual children, arefollowing the truth.
Now pause, so you can see also.
(09:39):
What is happening now is thatJohn is sending out these
different teachers to differentareas to teach the gospel and
then them come back to him.
So that's now what is happening.
John is not necessarily goingout as much himself, but he's
sending these traveling teachersto do this.
All right, verse five Dearfriend, you are being faithful
to God when you care for thetraveling teachers who pass
(10:00):
through, even though they arestrangers to you.
I wrote to the church aboutthis, so we ourselves should
support them so that we can bepartners as they teach the truth
.
I wrote to the church aboutthis, but Diotrephes, who loves
(10:28):
to be the leader, refuses tohave anything to do with us.
When I come, I will report someof the things he is doing and
the evil accusations he ismaking against us.
Not only does he refuse towelcome the traveling teachers,
but he also tells others not tohelp them.
When they do help, he puts themout of the church.
(10:49):
Dear friend, don't let this badexample influence you.
Follow only what is good.
Remember that those who do goodprove that they are God's
children, and those who do evilprove that they do not know God.
Everyone speaks highly ofDemetrius, as does the truth
itself.
We ourselves can say the samefor him, and you know we speak
(11:13):
the truth.
I have much more to say to you,but I don't want to write it
with pen and ink.
I hope to see you soon and thenwe will talk face to face.
Peace be with you.
Your friends here send youtheir greetings, and please give
my personal greetings to eachof our friends there.
Wow, so it's like this littlewindow into just some personal
(11:37):
situations that John is dealingwith, and here's a couple of
things I love about this book.
First of all, I think we canforget sometimes that these are
real people living in a realworld, dealing with real things.
Maybe you're not like me, butwhen I think of the Apostle John
, or I think of you know, peterPaul, these people, I just think
of these powerful men of Godwho were just walking around and
(11:58):
spreading the gospel andreaching new people and all
these things.
And of course that's true, butthat's not all that they're
doing.
They're spending years withpeople and slowly discipling
people and everybody's at adifferent growth rate in their
life now and then everybody youknow it takes a process of
walking toward freedom.
John is on that long journeywith a lot of these people.
(12:20):
You can see how he is talkingabout these different teachers
and how he's developing them.
He's like hey, I heard aboutthis Demetrius guy and he's
awesome.
Then I heard about this otherguy who's terrible at this.
He's just talking about thebusiness and the life of the
church and just doing life withother people and the thing that
he is celebrating is he iscelebrating when Gaius is not
(12:43):
distracted by all the churchpolitics and all the business
and he just continues doing whatis good, like stay in your lane
, gaius, and don't worry aboutthis other stuff, I'll deal with
this, other people will dealwith this.
You focus on doing good andremember the overall idea of 3
John is what we call fatefulfootsteps, and it's the idea of
(13:04):
staying fateful, to continuedoing or staying in the lane
that God has you in.
I think that is one of the mostpowerful things that we could
think about in our life, butforever.
And that is this of the mostpowerful things that we could
think about in our life, butforever.
And that is this, remember heis telling Gaius.
He's telling Gaius like hey,listen, there are some teachers,
man, they're just trying toteach, they're just trying to
spread the good news and to helppeople grow in their faith.
(13:27):
But there's this leader,diotrephes, if I can say his
name right, that he likes beingin charge, and so he's getting
over into this other lane andtelling them what they can and
can't do.
And John's saying that's notgood and I'm going to have to
fix that.
And then he's talking about how.
But Demetrius, man, he's goingto be awesome, like he's
encouraging.
I've heard good things abouthim.
I've heard good things aboutyou.
(13:48):
And, man, don't worry aboutthis other stuff.
You stay in your lane and dowhat God has called you to do
and where he has put you, andyou're going to be okay.
Can I tell you what a wonderfullesson that is for us.
I'm not saying at all that weshould turn a blind eye to
things and not do the rightthing when it is put in front of
(14:08):
us to do, but what I am sayingis so much anxiety comes when we
try to do something that weweren't fitted to do, like, if
you're a father, your number onecalling in life is, of course,
to love God, then it's to loveyour spouse, and then it's to
love and raise godly children.
Like there's other things, butthat's your primary lane right
(14:29):
there, boom, and there's otherones, but that's it.
You want to change the world.
Raise godly kids, becausethat's the people that's going
to take your spot one day andyou got to play the long game.
Same thing with if you're a mom, if you're a business leader.
You know, instead of worryingabout what's going on over in
another country I'm not sayingyou shouldn't intercede and pray
and if God puts something inyour path, you do something
about it.
But instead of all of that,what if you own your business
(14:53):
and you try to develop anenvironment that loves God,
loves people, teaches Christianprinciples and provides a place
for people to grow in theirfaith.
Well, pastor, how's thatchanging the world?
Well, ask the people that workfor you.
I bet they'll tell you it'schanging their life and it
starts to trickle out from there.
And so what John is encouragingGaius to do is basically saying
(15:14):
hey, man, don't worry about theworld, make a difference in the
lane God's put you in.
And if you do that andeverybody else does that, then
we'll be OK.
Now, once again, don't get thistwisted.
I'm not saying that weshouldn't intercede and pray,
and if God put something in yourpath, you do that.
But if it has not been put inyour path, then you trust God to
do that and you stay in yourlane.
(15:36):
And if enough people made thebiggest difference they could in
the lane that God had giventhem, in the fateful footsteps,
I wonder what our world wouldlook like.
I think maybe God would make ahuge difference, because what
would it look like for us if wespent our entire life climbing
the ladder of success, only tofind out that it was leaning up
(15:56):
against the wrong wall, torealize that we're doing so many
things that God never called usto do?
And so, therefore, I think,when we get to heaven.
God's not going to ask us howgood we did at something that we
weren't called to do.
Instead, he's going to ask uswhat did you do with your family
?
What did you do with your localcommunity?
What did you do with your localcommunity?
What did you do with yourspouse?
What did you do with yourchildren?
What did you do with what I putright in front of you?
(16:19):
Your harvest field is thepeople you work with.
It's who lives inside yourhouse, and I think if we get
those things in line, god willexpand our influence.
Or maybe he won't, but that'sour number one priority and
that's what Gaius is being toldby John, and that's one of the
most practical words of advicefrom an old John, the Apostle,
(16:39):
who's saying Look, I'm old, I'mover it.
Here's the bottom line, and Ithink if we could look at that,
it would be a powerful lessonfor all of us.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much for yourword.
Thank you that you are real andalive and you care for all of
us.
Lord, my prayer today is thatwe will accept the lane you've
put us in and, instead ofreaching out to areas that
(17:02):
you've not called us to.
We'll reach into the areas youhave, and that doesn't mean that
all that we're ever going to dois right there.
But it is for this season.
And so we will take joy inbeing in the lane you've put us
in and as you expand ourinfluence, we'll take those next
steps.
But for right now we'll lookaround and we'll say, god, how
(17:23):
have you uniquely positioned meright now to make a difference?
And then we'll do it with allof our heart.
In Jesus' name.
We pray Amen, amen.
Well, god's word says in 3 John4,.
It says I have no greater joythan to hear that my children
are walking in the truth.
My hope is that you will gainjoy from the truth of God's word
(17:46):
and how you are making thatdifference in the people that
are in your sphere of influence,in your lane today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for thenext part of the Bible Breakdown
podcast.
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