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The Bible Breakdown
3 John 01: Faithful Footsteps
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
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 going to talk about probably one of the shorter and least known books of the entire Bible and my hope is, by the time we're done with it, you'll at least understand why it's here and also maybe have a new respect for one of the least read books in 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, to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook we podcast, and make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. We're doing an amazing job over there and the more we dig, the more we find, and I'm curious. I want you to let me know down in the comments below if you are watching this on YouTube. I want you to let me know if you were able to find 3 John without looking it up in the table of contents, because this is one of those that we don't really read very often, and it's because we don't really talk about it very much, and so my hope is is, by the time we are finished, this will be one of those that at least you'll kind of have an understanding for. And so what I want to do is we're going to jump into this, and so I want to kind of start off with reminding us of something we talked about back in an earlier part of the Bible, which was 1 John, and if you remember, the way we did this was we talked about the idea that John wrote three letters and we're going to get to this in just a moment but he wrote 1 John. He wrote well, you can't see that. So let me look at this a little different. He wrote 1 John and then he wrote 2 John and then he wrote 3 John, and the reason for this is because he had a different reason for this.
Speaker 1:Now we'll talk about the different things he wrote in just a moment, but if you remember, what we talked about before is 1 John was really written to the overall church at large, and by that, most likely, it was the seven churches that he later wrote to in the book of Revelation. Most likely he was kind of the presbyter, the person who was in charge of overseeing those seven churches, and he was likely writing to all of them. Then later he writes 2 John to a particular church. And you know I was saying that there were a little bit of controversy back and forth, because he he talks about to the, the elect lady, and that's either him talking to a particular church or a particular lady who oversaw a church. Therefore it was still to that church in general. And, if you remember, no matter whether you're a complementarian or egalitarian, that doesn't really matter in this because within the context of the early church, most of the early church meetings happened within a household, and so it was considered to be. The household was the ladies domain. Outside, the household was the male domain and they worked together in that, and so either way it could still work for you. And so first John was to the overall church, 2 John was to a particular church, and then today, 3 John is to a particular dude, a guy named Gaius or Gaius, however you want to do that. We're going to go Gaius for me, and it really is going to be an interesting take on how all of this works and so to kind of go ahead and give you that 1 John was for the whole church, 2 John was to a particular church and 3 John was to a particular person, and that is why, or one of the ways you can quickly tell the difference. So let's dive into more information about 3 John and about why we would call it fateful footsteps.
Speaker 1:First of all, as we had said, 3 John is the third of three letters written by John, and he did write more because this is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John. It was most likely one of the 12 apostles who was, according to him, the best friend of Jesus. He thought that they were best friends anyway and there's no reason to think they weren't. But then also he wrote the Book of Revelation, and whereas some people see that as a letter, some people see it as something different. It was a different genre, a different literary genre. That's why not everybody puts it in the scope of letters. So therefore there was 1, 2, and 3 John, the Gospel of John, and then the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Where did he write this? Most likely he wrote it at Ephesus. Where did he write this? Most likely he wrote it at Ephesus, because what history tells us is pretty much after everything kind of fell out in Jerusalem, with a lot of the different types of persecution that was happening and all of that, the church leaders just dispersed and started spreading the gospel. And it is very widely believed that John ended up settling in Ephesus and he spent the later years of his ministry there taking care of Mary and all of that. And can you imagine Remember we covered 1 and 2, timothy earlier and that Timothy was pastoring Ephesus? Can you imagine the pressure of a young pastor pastoring the Apostle John? So if there's no other reason why Paul needed to write to Timothy and tell him to not be afraid, it was because the apostle John is part of your congregation. Praise the Lord, right, okay, well then, when and to whom was he writing? So once again, it was written between 85 and 95 AD, so this would have been at the very end of John's life. Possibly he's not traveling anymore and so he's writing this to this guy named Gaius. And this guy named Gaius was part of a local church and some people think that he also may have served as a secretary, kind of someone who helped take care of things for the apostle John and he's writing to him for various reasons we're getting into that in a moment but he's writing to this guy named Gaius Now.
Speaker 1:The big idea of 3 John is that Christian life is marked by truth, love and support of fellow believers. So he is writing about what the Christian life is marked by about truth, but then also hospitality. The reason why this is important is because it shows us how theology meets real life community challenges. It emphasizes the support for missionary efforts and it encourages believers to walk faithfully in difficult circumstances. I love 3 John because it is just a small snapshot into the reality that helps us realize that the early Christians, they didn't live a life of just dealing with outside persecution. They dealt with the life like we have now, that is, we have people who don't agree with us as Christians, but you also have issues you have to deal with inside the church, and it really talks about what that looks like, and so the overall idea of what's going on is during this time.
Speaker 1:This is toward the end of John's life, it's toward the end of the first century, and so the Roman Empire was actually thriving at this time under an emperor called Domitian, and Domitian hated Christians. This is one of the guys. So there was persecution going on under Nero, and then it got exponentially worse under Domitian. This is where you hear about the stories of Christians being taken into coliseums and eaten by lions and the Roman candles and all these kinds of things, and so this is where a lot of that started happening.
Speaker 1:The church is now. This is what's so interesting to me too. The church is now transitioning from the apostolic age, that's the 12 apostles primarily spreading the gospel to the second generation of leaders, what's called the early church fathers spreading the gospel to the second generation of leaders, what's called the early church fathers or the apostolic fathers. And John is likely the last living apostle and he is writing as a spiritual father to the next generation. It is entirely possible that 3 John may have been the last letter that he wrote. He may have written this after he wrote Revelation. We don't really know for sure. And so this is amazing mental picture of John, who is the last living apostle. He is already discipling other people. As a matter of fact, there's an early church father called Polycarp that we have writings of his. He sat at the feet of John and learned about the gospel and learned from John. He is passing on as much information as he can, and he knows that they are getting into the next generation, and so he is passing it on as much as he possibly can, and so you kind of have this mental picture of this old man who is writing these last letters.
Speaker 1:Some interesting facts about 3 John before we jump in is it is the shortest book of the Bible by word count only 219 Greek words. It is addressed to one individual, which makes it deeply personal. It gives a view of the early church, of power struggles and politics, and it is also one of the most practical books for evaluating Christian character. So very, very interesting. And so what we're going to do is we're going to jump into 3 John, and once again, I want you to 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 the stuff. He just he. Now he sees these new leaders rising up and he is trying to be a spiritual father to as many of them as possible, and this is one of the ones that he is raising 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 an old man.
Speaker 1:Now I'm writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth. Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children, spiritual children, are following the truth. Now pause, so you can see also. What is happening now is that John is sending out these different teachers to different areas to teach the gospel and then them come back to him. So that's now what is happening. John is not necessarily going out as much himself, but he's sending these traveling teachers to do this.
Speaker 1:All right, verse five Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. I wrote to the church about this, so we ourselves should support them so that we can be partners as they teach the truth. I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us. When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, but he also tells others not to help them. When they do help, he puts them out of the church. Dear friend, don't let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God. Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, 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. I hope to see you soon and then we will talk face to face. Peace be with you. Your friends here send you their greetings, and please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there.
Speaker 1:Wow, so it's like this little window into just some personal situations that John is dealing with, and here's a couple of things I love about this book. First of all, I think we can forget sometimes that these are real people living in a real world, dealing with real things. Maybe you're not like me, but when I think of the Apostle John, or I think of you know, peter Paul, these people, I just think of these powerful men of God who were just walking around and spreading the gospel and reaching new people and all these things. And of course that's true, but that's not all that they're doing. They're spending years with people and slowly discipling people and everybody's at a different growth rate in their life now and then everybody you know it takes a process of walking toward freedom. John is on that long journey with a lot of these people. You can see how he is talking about these different teachers and how he's developing them. He's like hey, I heard about this Demetrius guy and he's awesome. Then I heard about this other guy who's terrible at this.
Speaker 1:He's just talking about the business and the life of the church and just doing life with other people and the thing that he is celebrating is he is celebrating when Gaius is not distracted by all the church politics and all the business and he just continues doing what is good, like stay in your lane, gaius, and don't worry about this other stuff, I'll deal with this, other people will deal with this. You focus on doing good and remember the overall idea of 3 John is what we call fateful footsteps, and it's the idea of staying fateful, to continue doing or staying in the lane that God has you in. I think that is one of the most powerful things that we could think about in our life, but forever. And that is this of the most powerful things that we could think about in our life, but forever. And that is this, remember he is telling Gaius. He's telling Gaius like hey, listen, there are some teachers, man, they're just trying to teach, they're just trying to spread the good news and to help people grow in their faith. But there's this leader, diotrephes, if I can say his name right, that he likes being in charge, and so he's getting over into this other lane and telling them what they can and can't do.
Speaker 1:And John's saying that's not good and I'm going to have to fix that. And then he's talking about how. But Demetrius, man, he's going to be awesome, like he's encouraging. I've heard good things about him. I've heard good things about you. And, man, don't worry about this other stuff. You stay in your lane and do what God has called you to do and where he has put you, and you're going to be okay. Can I tell you what a wonderful lesson that is for us.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying at all that we should turn a blind eye to things and not do the right thing when it is put in front of us to do, but what I am saying is so much anxiety comes when we try to do something that we weren't fitted to do, like, if you're a father, your number one calling in life is, of course, to love God, then it's to love your spouse, and then it's to love and raise godly children. Like there's other things, but that's your primary lane right there, boom, and there's other ones, but that's it. You want to change the world. Raise godly kids, because that's the people that's going to take your spot one day and you got to play the long game. Same thing with if you're a mom, if you're a business leader. You know, instead of worrying about what's going on over in another country I'm not saying you shouldn't intercede and pray and if God puts something in your path, you do something about it. But instead of all of that, what if you own your business and you try to develop an environment that loves God, loves people, teaches Christian principles and provides a place for people to grow in their faith. Well, pastor, how's that changing the world? Well, ask the people that work for you. I bet they'll tell you it's changing their life and it starts to trickle out from there.
Speaker 1:And so what John is encouraging Gaius to do is basically saying hey, man, don't worry about the world, make a difference in the lane God's put you in. And if you do that and everybody else does that, then we'll be OK. Now, once again, don't get this twisted. I'm not saying that we shouldn't intercede and pray, and if God put something in your path, you do that. But if it has not been put in your path, then you trust God to do that and you stay in your lane. And if enough people made the biggest difference they could in the lane that God had given them, in the fateful footsteps, I wonder what our world would look like. I think maybe God would make a huge difference, because what would it look like for us if we spent our entire life climbing the ladder of success, only to find out that it was leaning up against the wrong wall, to realize that we're doing so many things that God never called us to do? And so, therefore, I think, when we get to heaven.
Speaker 1:God's not going to ask us how good we did at something that we weren't called to do. Instead, he's going to ask us what did you do with your family? What did you do with your local community? What did you do with your local community? What did you do with your spouse? What did you do with your children? What did you do with what I put right in front of you? Your harvest field is the people you work with. It's who lives inside your house, and I think if we get those things in line, god will expand our influence. Or maybe he won't, but that's our number one priority and that's what Gaius is being told by John, and that's one of the most practical words of advice from an old John, the Apostle, who's saying Look, I'm old, I'm over it. Here's the bottom line, and I think if we could look at that, it would be a powerful lesson for all of us.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for your word. Thank you that you are real and alive and you care for all of us. Lord, my prayer today is that we will accept the lane you've put us in and, instead of reaching out to areas that you've not called us to. We'll reach into the areas you have, and that doesn't mean that all that we're ever going to do is right there. But it is for this season. And so we will take joy in being in the lane you've put us in and as you expand our influence, we'll take those next steps.
Speaker 1:But for right now we'll look around and we'll say, god, how have you uniquely positioned me right now to make a difference? And then we'll do it with all of our heart. In Jesus' name. We pray Amen, amen. Well, god's word says in 3 John 4,. It says I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. My hope is that you will gain joy from the truth of God's word and how you are making that difference in the people that are in your sphere of influence, in your lane today. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for the next part of the Bible Breakdown podcast.
