____ Reputation.

Just want to welcome you again. It is always my favorite part of sometimes having to stop all the good conversations that are happening. So hopefully you got to meet some new faces, say hi to some friends, and we're excited to dive into the word today.

We are going to be wrapping up our series through the letters from John and third John today. We are going to be reading all of 3 John, and then we are going to kind of break it down together.

To the elder, to my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth. Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth. I wrote to the church, but Diatrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true. I have much to write to you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends by name.

3 John

So every week we have our so what. Like, what is the big thing I am supposed to get out of all of this? And then now what do we do with that? And so the so what today is that actions speak louder than words. And then now what is live a life of love, which both of those sound so simple and can be like, okay, great. Just a few little phrases. Got it. But there is actually a lot to that that we are going to talk about today.

If I had a title for this message, it would be reputation. What we are hearing about today is these different reputations of several men and several people mentioned in 3 John. And that is what we are going to walk through today is this idea of what were their reputations and what was John trying to teach us about these people and how that can help us become more like Jesus.

I want you to think about, and you do not have to tell anyone this, but right now if someone were to say like what is your reputation, like what would be something that you have a reputation for? What are things that you would be like known for and people would say about you?

When I was thinking about this, I think of my mother. My mother has this reputation about her where everyone can always say, oh, Sandra can make friends with everybody everywhere she goes. And it is true. She can. Like we have to remind her sometimes, like when she sees people in the store. Okay, mom, just because you met them once fifteen years ago does not mean you always have to stop and remind them how you know them and say hello and all of those things. But she just loves people and she is great at making friends.

So growing up, whenever our family would go to weddings, we would always be seated at, I could not think of a better way to put it, but like the misfit table, like the table where it is like, okay, maybe here is all like the coworkers, but here is like the one neighbor and there are no other neighbors and they do not know anybody else at the wedding. And they would be at the table with my mother because everybody knew my mother would welcome them and she would talk to them and it would be fun. And this happened over and over again, even at one of like our cousins, a family wedding. It is like all the aunts, the uncles, grandparents, cousins, everybody is together. And then there is the Sawczak family with like the doctor that she interned with or something like that, that nobody else knows at the wedding.

She had this reputation. But you see, reputation starts to shape how we interact with the people around us. If somebody like that, you know, they have that reputation and you sit down next to them, what are you expecting? They are going to talk to you. They are going to be your friend. And if they do not talk to you and they are kind of rude and standoffish, what happens? You do not really trust the reputation. The reputation has now changed because they did not meet your expectations. Because actions speak louder than words.

Someone could tell you that it is the best restaurant in Madison and you could go there with the best expectations, but if the food is terrible, it is no longer going to have that reputation for you of being the best food in Madison. So what is your reputation?

The Reputation of Gaius

John is walking us through the reputation of these three different men. In verse one, he speaks of Gaius and he talks about him as being someone that is generous. In verse nine, he speaks of Diatrephes, who was this opponent of his, someone that he is like, do not be like him, right? He is the one that would have the bad reputation. And then in verse twelve, he speaks of Demetrius, who was this good and faithful man.

These were the reputations. And I think a huge theme for us to walk away with today is understanding that yes, actions do speak louder than words. And to think about for ourselves, do we just have the reputation of saying that, okay, we are a Christian? Do we call ourselves a follower of Jesus or is it something that we are actually known for being people that live fully submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ?

Philemon and 3 John are the only New Testament books that are addressed to individuals. So this is a really personal kind of letter. John is personally writing this to an individual. It is a short epistle, only fourteen verses, but it is fascinating. The snapshot of what these three personalities and their reputations can teach us.

What does this show us about love in action? I think there are a few things here that Gaius we can learn about him and this reputation that he had. We see that he was this balanced man. Twice in verse four, John mentions that Gaius is walking in the truth. This means he was building his life on the word of God, and he was maintaining following Jesus no matter what types of temptations or persecutions were coming his way.

We understand that as we follow Jesus on this side of eternity, that there are going to be trials. There is going to be tribulations. There is going to be temptations. There is going to be things that come up against us. We are never promised that life is going to be easy. So this is something that John is highlighting here of saying, I recognize it is not that you have had an easy life, but you have chosen to walk in the truth regardless of the circumstances around you.

Love in action equals hospitality. One of the first things that is pointed out here is what does it look like for us to actively love? It is hospitality. When he says, dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.

In the early days of the Christian movement of our faith, the churches were established not by just pastors and these individuals, but by everyday disciples and followers of Jesus. And so they would be traveling place to place, sharing the gospel, and they would rely on then the church leaders that were established to take them in and welcome them in and to feed them and get them ready for their next journey.

Still today, we still have that. But there was this command that in scripture that we also still have to practice hospitality. And do you know in the Greek that that word actually translates best to a love for strangers? I think sometimes when I think of hospitality, I think of being in someone is home and welcoming me in, right?

I think of though when I think of what is true hospitality, when do I really feel welcome in someone is home? It is typically the places where I walk in and I know where they keep their glasses for a cup of water, right? It is the places that I know, okay, is this shoes on or shoes off type of household? That is when I feel really welcomed and I know I am at home.

So that though is all about a physical space. I wonder what could hospitality look like if we become those type of people where we, our presence, can make them feel safe, can make them feel at home. That is the type of hospitality that Jesus Christ displayed when he was here walking on earth with people. You think about the different interactions that he had. You think about the people that he encountered. He made them feel safe. He made them feel seen. He made them feel known. We can have the privilege of doing that today. Can people find a home in your presence? Can strangers find a home in your presence?

Because the next thing when I think of hospitality is I usually think of having my friends over, hosting my family. But if we think of it as the love for strangers, that changes things a little bit. It means are we willing to welcome people into our lives that maybe before that moment we have never had an encounter with them? And it might take some effort getting to know them and it might take some work to learn how to love them and make them feel safe and at home.

That is the reputation that Gaius had. That is the reputation Jesus had when I think of the woman at the well that everybody else would have dismissed then. And he welcomed her, even though he did not welcome her to some physical place. It was his presence in that moment. I think of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, who everybody else would have wanted nothing to do with at that time and would have said, bad reputation, stay away from him. And Jesus went to his home and welcomed him into relationship with him. And his life was forever changed.

Love and action is hospitality and love and action is also faithfulness. We see that Gaius was a faithful man. He was consistent. There was no double talk. There was no one place I am this person, another place I am that person. He was faithful. There was no turning it on or off.

I think so often it can be easy for us to feel like we have to be two different people depending on how we are surrounded by, but Gaius was faithful in all places. Are you faithful? Because Jesus was faithful. The gospel tells us Jesus came to be the light of the world and that light that is everlasting. It is not an on and off type of thing.

And so if we are going to be people that carry this light into all of the world, we need to be people that are not turning that light on and off. We are going to be people that we are willing to trust even when we do not understand and to walk freely and faithfully in the light with the light on all the time, not turning it off because the world needs the hope of Jesus.

Every day, I need the hope of Jesus. I need to encounter his presence. And people need us to be the carriers of that presence and that light through our faithfulness. So how can you continue to be faithful when life is circumstances are not? Because there are going to be days when they are not.

And the world around you is not going to be faithful. Your job is not always going to be faithful. Your finances, your relationships, even the closest of friends are going to fail you from time to time. But Jesus is faithful through it all. And that is the only relationship that we can have that confidence in, to be faithful.

The Reputation of Diatrephes

The next kind of person that we start to see the reputation of is Diatrephes, a divisive man. That was his reputation. He is the bad reputation. And he was divisive. It says, I wrote to the church, but Diatrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. I just love this so much in the way John is writing. I relate to the humanity there. The way he is saying, like the way he is calling him out in these moments he is like, he is the one that loves to be first and I just, I feel that.

I am like those people where you know, and he is calling out. He is like, we are he is going to have nothing to do with us so then John is like here is what I am going to do. If I come, I am going to call attention to what he is doing. I am going to call attention to him gossiping maliciously about us. He is not satisfied in that. He refuses to welcome the brothers. So remember, welcoming the other people, traveling and sharing the gospel. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. So this is super divisive. Not only is he like, I am not going to do these things, but I am going to stop anyone that wants to do these things.

So according to John, here are some of the reputations that this man has: He is full of himself. He wants to be first. He is rebellious. He does not want to submit to any sort of authority, spiritual or anything like that. And he says he wants nothing to do with us. And I think of that being so fascinating because sometimes, you know, it is like we might have a hard time submitting to authority. Like John was someone, the author who is talking here, he was with Jesus, right? And he is not willing to submit to someone that was face to face with Jesus. That is wild.

It says he was a gossip. He is not hospitable. He refuses to welcome people. He is an abuser of power. Not only is he not going to welcome them, but he is going to keep everybody else from doing those things.

So what we are learning here in this moment of what not to do, how not to live, because this is not the reputation of Jesus, and he is the one that we want to imitate. We want to imitate good, not evil.

He was one of the first church leaders. And I want to talk about this for a minute here today. In other letters of John, John is addressing these different false teachers within the church. But here, he does not really call him out as a false teacher. And it causes me to wonder, could it be that on paper, his theology might have actually lined up with John is? Could it be that he talked the talk, right? He talked the talk, but he just was not living it.

Could it be that John would have maybe even preached or taught the same things that this man was saying from his pulpit and his spaces, but at the end of the day, the issue was not, from what it seems here in the text, what he was saying, but how he was living? Because actions speak louder than words. Reputation is based more on actions than it is on just our words. And those reputations lead to expectations. And when those expectations are not met, the reputation changes.

So this man starts out as he is a church leader and he is someone that is teaching the things and possibly even teaching the same way that John is teaching. And on paper, it would all make sense. But reality, something is not lining up. And John is saying, this man has a reputation of one that you do not want to follow. You do not want to be like, because he was not living a life of love.

Have you ever heard, or maybe you have been in the spot where you said, well, on paper, it made sense. But in reality, it just does not line up? Whether that is a relationship, a job, fill in the blank. There are so many times where things you are like, on paper, we are reading the same thing, but it is just not lining up because actions speak louder than words.

And as a follower of Jesus and disciples of Jesus, we need to do more than just be able to recite good teaching and good theology. We need to know God and we need to live as Jesus lived when he was here on earth. This is the beauty of Christianity. This is the greatest gift that we have. Jesus did not come to be a far-off God, a far-off king or ruler. But he came to be up close and personal and he still wants to encounter us in that type of way today.

You see this man in the church. He rose to this position of power in the church, but clearly he did not know God because if he knew God, he would not be acting in a way that did not line up with the heart of God. He was not living it out. So in this case, John is saying he is just as evil as the false teachers. There is not really room for this lukewarm back and forth, but hot or cold, you are in or you are out. That light is either going to stay on or it is going to be off.

And what is scary about this with this man is that this is probably harder to discern because he was in a position of power. It is harder to discern when someone holds that. So here are the things though that you can see that probably led to some of that. It could be things of him having a critical spirit towards anybody that disagreed with him. It could have started with him starting to think that he could do things better than anybody else. It could have started with just small rebellious attitude towards leaders or authority. It could have started with him just focusing on a small group of friends and not wanting to meet new faces. It could have started with just these minor things that on its own you would not say, oh, that is bad, right? That is not Jesus. But when it came to it, he was not living a life of love. He was not generous. He was not hospitable. He was not faithful.

The Reputation of Demetrius

The next and final person that we see is a reputable man. That is the reputation. He is someone that is faithful. He is a reputable man. And we know very little about this man. It is found in verse twelve through thirteen.

Here is a man with a good reputation. In biblical terms, he is a man above reproach. He is a good man. He is above reproach. Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him and you know that our testimony is true.

So there is not a lot here but we know he is above reproach. He has good character. He is strong and I do not think John would just say this after he would go in and kind of put all those digs on the other guy there. I do not think he is just coming up with this. It feels like he probably knew people that knew him and it was not just his words, but that his actions, he was living in a way that was pleasing to God.

Living It Out

The thing that I want to focus on, though, as we start to wrap up today, is just that simple truth: we become who we follow. And if we all followed Jesus, what would that actually look like in our everyday lives? But the other question that I want to ask today, as we talk about that we are the people that get to represent Jesus, we are the people that get to be the light of the world, his hands and his feet. If people were to follow your life today, what would the reputation be? Where would that lead them?

If people were to follow you, not your teaching, not your words, not the things that you say on paper, this is what I believe, but if they were to follow your everyday life, what would the church look like? And not just this church, but the church at large. What would the church look like if we followed your examples?

If we even look at how the church started and how we are to live, we have to continue to carry that responsibility of all of us going and making disciples, of all of us feeling the responsibility to be generous, hospitable, faithful people, because that was God is plan. From the very beginning, we were his plan of seeing his kingdom come down to earth.

So if people were to follow your life, would we all be generous or stingy? Would we be gossips or would we speak highly and assume the best in people? Would we be gracious or would we hold grudges? Would we be hospitable even with strangers? Or would we hold tight to our relationships and keep closed circles? Would we be faithful? Or look like different people depending on where you saw us, what time of day, what location?

If we want to live a life of love just as Christ loved us, we must continue to ask ourselves these questions. And some of the hard questions that even dig deeper, if we see, like, how do you become somebody who you are seen as a church leader, but you are living this other life? I think that we have to ask ourselves even deeper questions.

If you are taking notes today, I would encourage you, write some of these things down of asking like, Lord, are there any ways in my life that I am desiring to be first or put myself first too much? Is there any, even the slightest divisive spirit in me? Asking the Lord to show you, are there any ways that I have been gossiping or speaking poorly? Are my words harmful to other people? To ask the Lord the scary questions of am I living a dangerously generous life right now? With my finances, with my forgiveness, with my relationships, with my hospitality?

Am I living that dangerously generous life? What is your reputation? Who do people expect you to be when you walk in the room? And do you meet it or not?

I love how John closes with saying, I have much to write to you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

I just love this ending. John was a disciple of Jesus, and he is discipling us here, and he is showing, like, my desire is to be face to face. My desire is to address you and what you are walking through by name. And a disciple is someone becoming like their teacher. He is acting like his teacher, Jesus, who his desire even in this moment here today is to have an encounter with you that is so up close and so personal and face to face. He does know you by name and he wants to continue to walk with you in that way.

Do you know Jesus like that? Are you allowing him to come speak to you like that? Are you allowing him to come and even pull up the minor things that might not feel like a big deal? Are you allowing him to uproot that so there is not even a hint of it in your life?

Here is what I love though, is that Jesus came to make it possible for your reputation to change. So maybe as you are sitting with those questions, maybe you are like, I am not feeling so great right now. Because if I actually think about like, if someone would have followed me even last week, I do not want the church to look like that. You are probably not alone, right? We all are there. There are places in our lives that we are like, if somebody imitated that, that is not good.

That would be in the bad reputation portion of this message. But Jesus came so that we can change that. So that we do not have to be the same.

Zacchaeus

I mentioned Zacchaeus earlier, but I wanted to close by reading the story of Zacchaeus found in Luke 19.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people around saw this and they began to mutter. They were saying, he has gone to be the guest of a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.

Luke 19

You see, Jesus welcomed him regardless of what his reputation was in that moment. His reputation was not good. His reputation was stealing and cheating and not living a life of love. Yet Jesus had an encounter with him and it changed him face to face in a type of way that all of a sudden he goes from being stingy to generous, right? He goes from being wealthy in possessions to now being wealthy in his hospitality of saying, Jesus, come to my house.

And then he goes to the spot where he is now trusting Jesus so much that he is like, if there is anything else that I have done, show me. Like show me now. I want it gone if I have cheated anybody else. Can you imagine what would happen if we started to pray like that and talk to Jesus like that? And say, God, if there is anything else, show me and I am going to change it? What would the church look like then if people were following us as we follow Jesus in that type of way?

Who you were yesterday, the reputation that you had, who you were even walking into this room, the reputation you had, it does not have to be who you are walking down those steps to go to your car today. But what changes that is an encounter with Jesus face to face.

If people were to follow your life, what kind of reputation would they see? And do you meet the expectations? Because actions speak louder than words.

An Encounter with Jesus

And so I want to invite you to stand today. We're going to close and the worship team is going to play. I just want to invite you into an encounter with Jesus, meeting him face to face.

If you are here today and maybe you don't have a relationship with Jesus and you have not made that decision to follow him, I want to give you the opportunity to do that. Scripture tells us that if we believe in our hearts, if we confess with our mouths his death and resurrection, that we can enter into a relationship with Jesus. If you're here and you want to say yes to that relationship and pray that prayer. saying I'm committed to following you, Jesus, and I want you to come and change my life. would you just raise your hand so I know who to pray for today.

I'm going to invite everyone here because we were not created to do life alone. Please repeat this after me.

Jesus, I believe you're the son of God. I believe in your death and resurrection. I say yes to relationship with you. I invite you to come and change my life. I'm committing to follow you all of my days. Amen.

The next thing I want to invite us to do is, if you're here today and you're like, if I'm being honest, there are probably little things in my life, places that I wouldn't be proud if people followed that, and I don't love the reputation. I just want to invite the Lord to come and change that reputation. With your eyes closed, I'm going to invite you to place your hands out in front of you as a way of saying, Lord, I'm surrendering to you. Please repeat this prayer after me.

Lord, show me any ways I'm not living a life of love. Show me how I can't let go of my past and help me to live a life of love. God, I say yes to your ways. I trust you.

I'm going to open up this time for you to continue to pray, and I'll come up and close us in a moment. If you did say yes to relationship with Jesus, know that you are entering into the greatest relationship of all time. Someone that will be faithful to you, someone that wants to come and continue in these moments to speak to you, to show how much he loves you, to see you and value you. When he looked at Zacchaeus and said, "Not only are you saved, but you are a son of Abraham". that's a son of promise, a child of great inheritance.

If you're here and there are things that you need God to come in and reveal to you and help you change, we're going to go into this song and I want you to really pray and ask the Lord to show you what those things are. If you don't know how, ask him to come and give you that strategy. And if nothing else, just his presence is what can change you. So just worship him if the words aren't coming. Trust that he's changing you in that process.

Lord, we open up this time to you. Would you come, Holy Spirit? Would you speak? Would you change us in ways that only you can, God? We ask this in your name. You are welcome here, Holy Spirit.

Amen.