Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
NO GREATER JOY!
3 John 1:1-14, "The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true. I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name."
The greatest joy that we have as parents is to see our children prosper, live a healthy and happy life, and to give their lives in service to the Lord. I often think of what our Father in Heaven thinks of us when he looks upon our lives. Does Abba Father find his children in prosperity? Does God think that we are in good health? Does our Father see our soul prospering?
The disciple John, being the last surviving member of the original 12 disciples, most likely wrote this epistle after being released from the Isle of Patmos. It has been determined through various studies that John lived in and around the city of Ephesus after his release and did some limited traveling as an evangelist. During these years of ministry he had seen the conversion of Gaius (Caius in Roman).
Gaius was a faithful follower of Christ and John looked upon him as one of his own children and ,with great joy, John spoke of the prosperity of Gaius in the spiritual condition of his soul. Gaius had learned and heeded the words of the Lord when he said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”
John’s prayer was that Gaius’ life would be blessed and that his every need would be met as much as his spiritual needs were met.
I believe that our Father in Heaven looks upon his children with the same thought in his mind, “My children, I want you to be blessed.”
God wants you to prosper in this life. He does not want his children to be bankrupt, lacking the finances to pay their bills and to meet the needs of their families. God wants you to be healthy for a sickly body is not strong and is not as much a testimony to God’s keeping power and healing power. A sickly body is also limited in its ability to do the work of the Lord. Yes God wants you to live in prosperity. There is nothing wrong with prosperity as long as it does not become our focus in life.
Prosperity should be a by-product of serving the Lord and living according to his will, but prosperity in the things of this world should never become the thing that we seek after above our service to the Lord. Serving God is paramount! We cannot say that we serve God and seek his will first when we place him on a back burner, so to speak, while we turn up the heat in our quest for wealth and prosperity. That’s twisting the gospel and leads to idol worship of wealth. We cannot serve God and Mammon! God’s will must be first!
That’s the way it was for Gaius. Because his soul prospered and he was rich in the realm of spiritual matters, it was an easy thing for John to pray that his life would be blessed as much as his soul was.
So the question would arise for each of us, just how much is our soul prospering? If God were to provide our needs of the flesh in proportion to the condition of our soul, how much blessing would we have?
I see so many who live careless lives when it comes to spiritual matters. The vast multitude of people on this earth, live only for the desires of the flesh. They have little concern for the condition of their soul. Many of them even appear to be blessed in the things of this world, but what about that eternal soul? All of their wealth can disappear in a moment of crises! The health that their body enjoys is fleeting and can be utterly destroyed in a moment by the ravages of disease and death! What really matters is the condition of that soul! Wealth will disappear. The body of flesh is going back to the dust from which it came. But the soul will go on forever! Let’s make sure that the soul is in good health above all!
Do you remember the story of Job? Satan came before God and God began to brag about the faithfulness of Job. I want God to be able to point to me and say the same thing about me as he did Job. Gaius was faithful too and this was a source of pride for John.
My greatest source of pride in each of you is that I can go to the Father in Heaven in prayer for you and thank God for each of you, one by one, for your faithfulness to the House of God and the cause of Christ. There are times when I ask God to bless you because of your faithfulness and, there are other times, when I ask God to bless you in spite of your unfaithfulness.
Sometimes our own attitudes can get in the way of our prosperity, both in the church and in the ways of the flesh.
There was another man in this letter to Gaius that John named. His name was Diotrephes. I have seen a lot Christians with the same spirit as Diotrephes. It’s hard to have much joy when they are around and they certainly don’t make you want to brag about them.
Diotrephes had only one thing on his heart and mind, he wanted power, fame and recognition and he was willing to do anything to get it, even if it destroyed the Work of the Lord.
I have dealt with a number of people who wanted their own way regardless of what it did to the church. I have even dealt with some who didn’t care that the entire church died as long as “their ministry” could be done in the way that they wanted to do it. They had little or no regard for the feelings of anyone else. The “spirit of Diotrephes” or, let’s call it what it really is, “the spirit of the devil” and the “spirit of pride” entered their heart and they began to lift themselves up higher than they should have. They are stuck on themselves and they don’t think that anyone can match their “great spiritual standing”.
Let me tell you that the spirit of pride, like Diotrephes had, is a very dangerous spirit and can completely destroy a church unless it is removed or repented of.
Diotrephes’ soul was not prospering! In fact, he was in danger of losing his soul. He only wanted to be recognized as the leader. He wasn’t earning that right, he was demanding it. He wasn’t a servant of the people of God; he treated them as though they were his servants. God’s house is not like a corporate position where you can order people around and force them to do your bidding. God’s army is not commanded by Generals in the field who bark orders to everyone under them and then have the power to force their will if they desire to upon their soldiers in the field.
God’s army is an all volunteer army and his “commanders” are on the same level as every other soldier in his army. We are all serving God together and no one, not me as your Pastor, not any Evangelist who may come through, not any other minister in any position has the right, nor the power to order you to do anything.
What is my job as your Pastor? I am a shepherd under the Lord to help feed, guide, lead and teach God’s people but not to read them the riot act when they fail or to order them around like a boss! I must lead through love and by example and, if I am to lead them, I must earn the right to lead through serving them faithfully over a period of time.
Understand this – you can’t lead anyone who isn’t voluntarily willing to follow!
John makes a statement concerning Diotrephes that I find enlightening. He said this, “…who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church…”
Those deluded “Christians” who are in danger of not being true Christians at all, refuse to accept the will of God even when it is placed before them. They are so deceived by their own desire to be in control that they are not willing to believe that they could be wrong and so they begin to tear the Body of Christ apart.
They don’t have any regard for the traditional ways of living for Jesus. They consider the old ways as something of the past. That’s not to say that some things will change and must change because of the changing times but there are some things in living for God that must never change.
We cannot do away with living a holy, sanctified life. We cannot do away with assembling ourselves together. We cannot begin to think that any age group or any person, or any family is more important to God than another. We cannot forsake everything that has come to us through our Christian heritage just because it seems old fashioned and doesn’t relate to everyone. God’s house is a house for all of God’s people and not just for a selected group. We must minister to the entire Body of Christ and not just to those who agree with us.
The “spirit of Diotrephes” is willing only to minister to those who agree with him and make him look good. He will only lift those up who lift him up. His whole philosophy of ministry is, “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, but if you don’t do what I say and lift me up as your great leader, I’ll squash you like a bug and run you out of the church because we don’t need you anyway.” That spirit has been instrumental in running people out of not only our church but every church in the country.
John said that he would deal with Diotrephes when he came and I want you to know that our Father in Heaven will deal with everyone who has that same spirit when he comes too. I can just imagine that the meeting that John had with Diotrephes was not a pleasant one. I know from experience that it isn’t fun to deal with a know-it-all, controlling spirit of pride. I would imagine that John had to finally tell Diotrephes to leave the church so that peace could return because I don’t see where Diotrephes ever repented.
I wonder how many times Diotrephes nearly destroyed a church? Everywhere he went he left amid turmoil and trouble. Everywhere he was forced to leave it was as though everyone turned against him and yet he never realized that it was his own spirit that brought the trouble to him. He wasn’t willing to change. He wasn’t willing to listen. He had reached his peak of ministry and would go no farther in Christ until that spirit was dealt with first. His only thought was, “why am I always the bad guy? Why do people always blame me? Is it me? Yes, it was him but he wasn’t really wanting to know the truth and so he continued on to the next church where the same thing was bound to happen again unless his heart was to be changed through repentance of that spirit of pride and arrogance.
John names one other man in the church where Gaius was. That man was Demetrius.
“…Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true…”
Demetrius was the quiet man who was always in the background while Diotrephes was doing his thing. Demetrius was faithful and true to God. He never seemed to desire a place of prominence. He was simply a faithful servant to the Body of Christ, often forgotten in background as he quietly and faithfully fulfilled his work of ministry.
There is one thing about Demetrius that we must see though. John was lifting him up as a shining example of what a true servant of the Lord should be. Demetrius may well have taken the place of Diotrephes after John came, but the scriptures don’t say so.
It has been my experience and I have seen it happen many times after this same fashion. When God finally moves a Diotrephes, he always has a Demetrius waiting in the wings to step up to the plate and continue the work of the Lord.
Demetrius had earned his place through service and humility. It wasn’t his own voice that lifted him to prominence, it was the Spirit of the Lord and the blessings of John the Disciple that elevated him and the people would gladly follow him.
Like John says in his letter to Gaius, there is much more that we could say about this matter but I will end with this:
Peter said in 1 Peter 5:6, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"
God knows those who are faithful and he see the heart of pride in those who would lift themselves up. We must be humble before the Lord and be open to what the Spirit is saying. We cannot minister in the House of God with a closed mind toward what the will of God is for the church. We cannot force our way into leadership, but we must earn that right through service to our fellowman.
When the time is right, and when our spirit and heart is right, then and only then will God lift us to the place where we can really work in his Kingdom.
Jesus is coming soon and we don’t have time for playing games with God’s people. Let’s all humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand. Let’s allow God to be in control. I believe that has to happen before God will bless the church and let our church and our individual lives prosper. We will prosper only as our soul prospers.
God’s greatest joy, and our greatest joy, will come in seeing souls won to the Lord and seeing our children living for God and seeing our Lord come again to receive us into Glory. Our greatest joy, and Jesus’ greatest joy will come when we have lived according to the truth of God’s Word and been obedient to his will to the end.
