Helping or Hindering the Gospel Witness

Date: 30 March 2025, 9.30 am

Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: 3 John 1-15

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TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Blessed Sunday to everyone.

If you are here for the first time or you have not been around for some time, an especially warm welcome to you. So glad that you are with us this morning.

I pray that you will find our service meaningful. That you will experience the grace of God in a fresh way today.

2 John was written to a church congregation while today’s passage was written to an individual, Gaius.

In 2 John, it was to encourage the congregation not to show hospitality to false teachers while 3 John is concerned to encourage Gaius to continue to show hospitality to true, faithful Christian missionaries and evangelists.

And hospitality is placed in the context not just of being a kind and attentive host but in the context of Gospel witness. Hospitality impacts the credibility and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Acts 9:36 Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. 37 In those days she became ill and died … All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them … 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

Since 3 John will give us an account of 3 men, I would like to share in my introduction and conclusion, the testimony of 2 women who have played their part in the advancement of God’s kingdom.

Acts 9 begins with Saul, described as breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest for letters to the synagogue in Damascus so that he may go and persecute Christians.

In such challenging context, Acts 9 introduces a disciple named Dorcas. Known for her good works and acts of love for the poor especially the widows.

She was much loved and so when Dorcas was gravely ill, the disciples in Joppa send for Peter who was in the nearby town of Lydda.

When Peter arrived at the home, Dorcas’ had just died and displayed before Peter, were tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was alive. Tangible evidence of Dorcas’ loving service.

The life of Dorcas reminds us that every Christian is gifted by God to display hospitality in personal ways. And these personal ways, need not be spectacular ways.

Dorcas made clothing to give to widows and people in need. We too can share what we have with others, even if we don’t have much to give.

Amazingly God even use her illness, death and His bringing her back to life to showcase His power and His glory.

And v42 tells us God used the life of Dorcas to bring many to believe in Him.

Through Dorcas’ act of hospitality to the vulnerable, Dorcas became a credible Gospel witness.

Today, let’s us be encouraged through 3 John, that we too can seek to help the witness of the Gospel by our personal contributions of hospitality in our daily lives.

Gaius – walking in the truth

Last Sunday as we went through 2 John, we understood that Truth and Love are not contrasting nor competing values. For disciples of Christ, truth and love are 2 sides of the same coin. Truth and Love are allies and they unite.

And so, John the Elder, continues this combination of truth and love and commends Gaius for being a genuine believer - Gaius is walking in the truth.

3 Jn 1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

The truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is being lived out in the testimony of Gaius.

That church is a healthy Christian. A well-balanced Christian. He has high regard for the Gospel truth and he is a highly functioning believer in Gospel living.

Gaius is attested to be living out the Gospel truth because it has been testified by those who have experienced his hospitality and returned to report about it to John the Elder (v3).

And because we have John’s Gospel in the background, we know that Gaius is following, he is imitating, none other than Jesus Christ his Lord and Saviour.

Jn 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

To walk in love and truth is to be like our Lord Jesus who is full of grace and truth.

I would like to highlight something in v2 for our consideration.

It’s normal in our greetings to say ‘I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health’. It’s like we send a text message or email and write, ‘I pray that this message finds you well.’

But what is interesting is that John says ‘as it goes well with your soul.’

This means, the reference point is Gaius spiritual health. John the Elder is saying, I pray that you are as physically healthy as your spiritual health.

Now, I’m not sure if I would want such a greeting said to me.

If the measure of my physical health was to be pegged to my spiritual health, I’m not sure if I’ll be standing before you now. Maybe I’ll be in hospital instead!

Friends, today, if your physical health was a barometer of your spiritual health, would you be an Olympic athlete or a comatose patient in ICU?

The commendation for Gaius, is that his spiritual health is top grade and the desire is that his physical health catch up.

And Scripture tells us, the secret of good spiritual health is when we are walking in the truth. That means, we know the Gospel, we stick to the Gospel and we live out the Gospel daily.

To the Elder, we are told, his greatest joy is when his spiritual children are walking in the truth.

Is that our greatest joy for our children whether biological or spiritual?

How we celebrate and what we celebrate, I submit are indicators of where we find our greatest joy.

Yes we should celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries, graduations. But if walking in the truth brings us the greatest joy, then I submit, commemorating together Easter and Christmas and our baptisms, should be up there as well.

Is Sunday the highlight of the week for your family? Is it a holy day that you have set aside to worship God who has given you life?

Should we not come with every thankful hearts that God is building up the family here in Henderson? And that we can’t wait every Sunday to fellowship with our brothers and sisters-in-Christ.

Why? Because when we gather, we have the privilege to hear testimonies of what the Lord is doing in our lives, how He is enabling us to be more Christ-like, how He is empowering us to shine brighter for Him.

3 Jn 5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

Let’s continue our journey through 3 John.

As v9-10 will tell us, Gaius act of hospitality is not given in a calm and encouraging atmosphere.

Gaius must be some sort of leader and definitely is a person of means. For he has the space at home to host visiting missionaries or evangelist and to also provide for them on their onward journey.

But we know that there is opposition in the form of Diotrephes. He must have some leadership in the local church as well, for he is able to stop people from providing hospitality and to also chase them out of the assembly.

So, the church that Gaius was attending was in some sort of conflict and in spite of that, Gaius is commended in v5, for he has been faithful in his efforts.

Hospitality was a big thing in those days because there were not many inns. Also, inns were notorious for the abundance of alcohol and prostitution and so not a conducive place to stay.

In spite of opposition from Diotrephes, Gaius has been faithfully providing hospitality even to Christian workers who are not personally known to him.

Not only that, his generosity is also seen in how he provides for their onward journey.

And he providing it to the degree that it is as if, Gaius was serving God Himself. He provided what would be considered worthy in God’s sight.

As God is generous, so too is Gaius.

Hospitality is the support side of ministry. It’s not in the forefront. Yet, God saw it fit that the life testimony of Gaius should be preserved for us.

And I submit it is because God is looking for faithfulness in His children. That is what God commends Gaius in v5 – it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers.

Remember the parable of the talents? To the one given the 5 talents and the one given the 2 talents, because they were good stewards, their commendation was:

Mt 25:21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

In God’s scheme of things, He has called us to be faithful to what He has purposed for us. For Gaius it was to be hospitable towards itinerant ministry workers.

For Dorcas was to be hospitable towards the vulnerable in the faith community in Joppa.

Today, in what areas of has God called you and I to be faithful in so that we might make beautiful our Gospel witness?

For some of us, it is to be a faithful and loving and caring spouse.

May I say, when you sacrificially live out your marriage vows, your marriage will shine forth the relationship that is between Christ and the Church.

Eph 5:31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

For some of us, it is faithfulness in parenting or grandparenting. May I say, that is passing on the legacy of faith, you are living the 21st century version of 2 Tim 1:5.

2 Tim 1:5 speaks of the legacy of faith of pastor Timonthy, it started with his grandmother Lois and then his mother Eunice.

2 Tim 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well

For some of us, it is to do our secular jobs as unto the Lord.

Eph 6:5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

We work knowing that God is our ultimate employer. We seek thus to be faithfully hospitable to our employers because we desire a godly testimony before them.

John the Elder goes on to give us 3 reasons why Gaius should continue to faithfully be hospitable to itinerant ministry workers.

Firstly, in v7a it is because they have left everything they had for the name of Jesus. They have sacrifice home for the Gospel witness.

Secondly, in v7b, they have not taken support from the Gentiles. They are intending to give the Gospel to the non-believers not take from them. Thus, it is us, fellow believers who should be supporting the ministry of Gospel witness.

Finally, v8, by our hospitality God sees us as fellow workers for the truth. Those who are sent and those who are sending are one team. Co-workers in God’s harvest field.

In Hermon, with regards to Gospel witness, in the strict sense of ministry outside of Hermon, we have 2 key ministries. One is Community Services and the other is Overseas Missions.

Based on last years budget, we have allocated 14% to both these ministries combined.

As we faithfully give God’s tithes and our offering, they go towards enabling Gospel witness.

So as each of us give, we are co-workers in God’s sight.

On certain Sunday’s I get to participate in the service by standing at the back. And I have witnessed the eagerness of our children to put their offering into the offering box.

Church, because of 3 John, let’s pray that such eagerness will always be in all our hearts. For we know we are co-workers in Gospel witness.

Diotrephes – do not imitate his evilness

If we think church conflict is a modern phenomenon, 3 John tells us, humans have not changed. Conflicts were already present in the infant church in the 1st century.

3 Jn 9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. 11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.

So in the faith community that Gaius was part of, there was also Diotrephes. On one hand, Gaius’ testimony is that he is walking in the truth, Diotrephes, on the other hand, is the opposite.

John the Elder warns, if you follow Diotrephes, you are imitating evil.

As hard as it is, John the Elder is teaching Gaius and the congregation that to walk in the truth is to call out falsehood.

As last week’s sermon mentioned, we want our doctors and our politicians to say the truth because that is the loving thing to do.

So to call out falsehood about an influential church leader is also to be loving to the faith community.

3 falsehoods that Diotrephes has committed.

Firstly he has put himself first and thereby not acknowledged the apostolic authority of John the Elder. Diotrephes wants to be the sole authority, he cannot subject himself to anyone.

That is simply the oldest sin, pride. And pride was the downfall of Satan.

Secondly, because he wants to be in absolute control, he needs to discredit John the Elder and those who have been sent by John.

And so he spreads wicked nonsense. Another translation is malicious gossip. He slanders John and his camp.

Finally, not only does he refuse to extend hospitality, he persecutes those who want to give hospitality to the genuine missionaries.

So Diotrephes is in active opposition to the Elder and Gaius.

Since I’ve mentioned Dorcas in Acts 9, for those who are familiar, it seems Diotrephes is of the same flavour as Saul before his conversion.

Since we have gone through 1 John, we know that if we do not accept the truth that is aligned with the apostolic truth taught by John the Elder and if we do not love our siblings-in Christ, it means we are not children of God.

So all the signs seem to point in that direction for Diotrephes. He may profess to be a believer but is showing that he is actually not.

However, it is interesting that John the Elder does not label him a false teacher nor the antichrist. Also, there is no mentioned of kicking him out of the fellowship, just a strong warning not to imitate him.

Hermon is in the season of nominating our leaders for Session. Our guiding principle for Elders whom we nominate comes from 1 Tim 3.

1 Tim 3:2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

In the light of 3 John, we see how necessary it is for leaders to be humble and not prideful and how they are to be hospitable as well.

The church’s mission is Gospel witness. And the right leaders will help the Gospel witness while the wrong leaders will hinder.

Not only do they help or hinder the Gospel witness, 3 John cautions us, they will also help or hinder Gospel discipleship. For the sheep will imitate the shepherd and so it is necessary that good and not evil are imitated.

Demetrius – has a good testimony

A pastor once said, if we were to stand trial for being a Christian, would there be sufficient evidence to convict us?

If we are on trial for being a Christian and they look at the evidence, what would they find?

Imagine, they take out our calendar and look at how we spend our time. They log on to our bank account and look at how we spend our money.

If they listened to our conversations for 1 week, and give us a psychological test to discern our interests and passions.

Would there be sufficient evidence to show that we are a believer? That God is our Lord and our Saviour?

For you and I, after all the investigations, it would be terrible right, if instead, insufficient evidence was found to convict us as believers. It would be devasting would it not, if the verdict was - same as the world!

If Demetrius was put on the stand, Scripture tells us, he will be totally convicted that he is a disciple of Jesus Christ.

John the Elder says, there will be 3 evidence of convictions.

3 Jn 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

Firstly, everyone will testify that he is a believer who is walking in the truth. Here, everyone would mean those in the faith who knows Demetrius.

Secondly, the truth itself will testify that he is a believer. Meaning that when you read the Scriptures of who is a disciple of God, you will picture Demetrius.

Finally, John the Elder and his fellow leaders also testify that he is walking in the truth.

What wonderful commendation. And may I submit that this is a principle that holds true today.

None of us can say unilaterally that we are a believer, that we are a disciple of Jesus Christ.

It has to be testified by the community of faith and by us conforming to the truth of Scripture.

We are not arbiters of the truth. No, God has so decreed that the inward testimony of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives must be attested to by His Word and His Family.

May I add that Demetrius looks like a mature believer who has been chosen by John the Elder to deliver this letter to Gaius.

He was walking into a church conflict and likely seen thus as a discerning believer, sent to help apply John’s letter into the context of the church.

Demetrius must also have been a servant hearted leader who was willing to risk personal danger to carry this letter.

What if Diotrephes threw out Gaius and so Demetrius would not be able to receive any hospitality?

Would you and I be willing if God so determines that we play the role of Demetrius? Would we be willing to go into situations of conflict so that we can mediate and cause Gospel witness to shine again?

Shall we desire to be that reliable and trusted friend who can be counted on for discernment in a crisis?

If the Lord calls for any of us to be a Demetrius, may He grant us the desire to be obedient to that responsibility.

Conclusion

I began the sermon with the testimony of Dorcas of Joppa. May I now close with Lydia of Thyatira.

Acts 16:14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

Lydia’s testimony is found in Acts 16. After her conversion and baptism, she insisted that Paul and his friends come to stay at her home, if they judged her to be “faithful to the Lord’.

The story of Lydia in the Bible is a wonderful example of God’s providence and His care for believers.

God rerouted Paul and friends and also ensured that Lydia would be in the right place at the right time to encounter Paul and hear the good news of Jesus.

And, as Lydia heard the gospel, we also see the immediate bond that a new believer has with other believers in Christ—Lydia showed hospitality to those who brought the good news, and she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

Christian hospitality in support of Gospel witnessing is a natural outcome of salvation.

John the Elder ends his letter with an upbeat note.

3 Jn 15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.

Into this confusing and conflicting church situation, the Elder says that peace is to be desired and to be expected.

This is the first assurance God gives for whatever situation we find ourselves in. John 16:33 reminds us again Jesus has overcome the world and He gives peace.

Jn 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The second assurance is that God has provided us friends. True friends who walk in the truth both near us and those far away.

Those near us are our partners of presence and those far away are our partners in prayer.

Hermonites, through Christian hospitality, may we be partners that are both present and praying with our brethren in Horeb. So that our combined ministry here in Henderson will be a credible Gospel witness.