back to indexBerean Community Church Bible Study 4/12/23
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All right, let's gather ourselves at the tables, 00:02:37.380 |
take a seat, and then we'll begin our Bible study time 00:02:46.300 |
All right, please bow with me for a word of prayer. 00:02:49.980 |
Heavenly Father, we want to really thank you for the week 00:02:56.460 |
in remembrance, in meditating and thinking about all 00:03:01.620 |
the events of history, but more so just to celebrate, God, 00:03:09.100 |
And I pray, Lord, that through the knowledge of the Son, 00:03:20.300 |
Lord God, we want to ask that as we walk week to week, 00:03:25.740 |
help us truly to be aware and conscientious about it 00:03:30.660 |
And then, Lord God, we thank you for opportunities 00:03:37.180 |
And I pray, God, that as a body, the collective faith 00:03:40.100 |
that we exercise and, God, the worship that we lift up to you 00:03:43.580 |
would be truly something desirable and pleasing 00:12:50.060 |
This weekend, for those of you who are thinking about church membership, 00:12:57.060 |
It's eight weeks long and starts 9 a.m. up in the-- 00:13:02.060 |
Actually, this time it's going to be in the youth group room. 00:13:06.060 |
Please make sure that if that was something you were interested in joining, 00:13:09.060 |
to sign up for it so that we can prepare enough binders. 00:13:13.060 |
You can sign up by going online to beroeancc.com, looking at events, 00:13:17.060 |
and then it has the link there, or you can just message Pastor Nathan directly. 00:13:22.060 |
Additionally, for all the members, on the 23rd, 00:13:25.060 |
we have our membership meeting plus service fair. 00:13:28.060 |
And that will be an opportunity for you to visit with our service team leaders, 00:13:32.060 |
connect with some of the people who are already serving, 00:13:34.060 |
and even if, let's say, you're not ready to jump on a team, 00:13:37.060 |
just find out what's happening within various ministries. 00:13:40.060 |
So please make sure you mark that on your calendar. 00:13:43.060 |
That day, there's going to be a fundraiser lunch 00:13:45.060 |
where the summer team is going to prepare a quick lunch for us, 00:13:50.060 |
and then immediately after at 1.30 is going to be the members meeting. 00:13:54.060 |
The last thing I want to emphasize is please do sign up for retreat early. 00:13:59.060 |
So we've made it so that the early bird special, so to speak, 00:14:04.060 |
is ending in April because we have to book and reserve all the rooms early on, 00:14:09.060 |
and because we're taking up so many of the rooms, we have to give them our head count. 00:14:14.060 |
So then once April ends, per person or per participant, 00:14:19.060 |
the price is going to go up $35, $40, which is quite a bit. 00:14:25.060 |
Make sure in August 11 through--I think it's 11 through 13, you take a look. 00:14:30.060 |
Make sure you're clear on those dates and register early. 00:14:33.060 |
All right, have the time of discussion, and we'll be back at 8 p.m. 00:57:37.060 |
>> Is there a way to make it show up on here? 00:58:43.060 |
So these slides, I guess, are on that computer, but not on this one. 00:58:51.060 |
>> No, that's, so usually it's already on here. 00:59:45.060 |
All right, if I can have your attention up here real quick. 00:59:49.060 |
Let me pray for us, and then we'll get, we'll wrap up 3rd John. 00:59:55.060 |
So that we can do a seven-week intense study on Philemon. 01:00:01.060 |
All right, so let me wrap up 3rd John for us. 01:00:06.060 |
Father, we're thankful that you've allowed us to just finish up these twin apostles, or twin epistles. 01:00:14.060 |
And we thank you, Lord God, for causing us to think of the importance of hospitality. 01:00:22.060 |
And we pray that tonight, as we just do a little wrap-up walk-through of this epistle, 01:00:33.060 |
And whatever it is that you want us to remember, would you etch into our minds tonight? 01:00:39.060 |
So would you help me to communicate clearly, effectively? 01:00:43.060 |
And would you leave an indelible impression on our minds through your word? 01:00:48.060 |
So we lift this time into your hands, and we pray this in Jesus' name. 01:00:53.060 |
All right, so I included a little bit of last week's, last couple of verses there. 01:01:04.060 |
Verse 13 and on, it's God's inerrant inspired word. 01:01:08.060 |
But I'm just going to focus up to verse 12 for now. 01:01:13.060 |
And then the first thing I did was just organize it and then look through just different categories. 01:01:24.060 |
I just titled it "Good Guys," so that my eyes would go there. 01:01:31.060 |
Now, the Gentiles technically are neutral, but I just put them as bad for now. 01:01:37.060 |
And then anything that is related to truth or anything that's related to God or of good, 01:01:44.060 |
And then everything that is green or anything evil, I highlighted in green. 01:01:50.060 |
And a lot of what Diotrephus' actions entailed, we can see as evil. 01:01:57.060 |
So I actually just kind of highlighted it like that. 01:02:01.060 |
And then the red words are like significant words, like "therefore"s are important, 01:02:06.060 |
"so that's" are important, "for this reasons" are important whenever you see them in the Scripture. 01:02:13.060 |
And there's only one command in the whole chapter that's important. 01:02:22.060 |
That's a command, but I don't think that's as significant to the context. 01:02:26.060 |
So the "imitate" is the only main command in this whole chapter, in this whole letter. 01:02:35.060 |
And because that's important, I just highlighted it, let it stand out. 01:02:40.060 |
And I'm looking at the imitation of good and then the non-imitation of evil. 01:02:48.060 |
And there's evidences of this, and there's consequences of this, so I just put those in yellow. 01:02:53.060 |
So that's how I kind of just organize it visually. 01:02:57.060 |
And then the first thing I will hone in on is actually the "imitate" part. 01:03:02.060 |
So here's the main command and the main imperative of 3 John. 01:03:06.060 |
It's verse 11, and it's kind of a two-fold command. 01:03:15.060 |
So John writes, "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but do imitate what is good." 01:03:32.060 |
So you want to make sure you're imitating the right thing and not imitating the wrong thing. 01:03:39.060 |
And the consequences are pretty severe here, right? 01:03:41.060 |
Because he's saying, "The one who imitates good, who does good, is of God. 01:03:48.060 |
The one who does not imitate good, but imitates evil, who does evil, has not seen God." 01:03:56.060 |
If I were to say, "Raise your hand if you want to be categorized in the first category," 01:04:03.060 |
If I said, "How many of you guys don't want to be categorized as you've never seen God?" 01:04:10.060 |
So this command "imitate" is a very--it's like a hinge command. 01:04:18.060 |
And here are some questions that come to my mind. 01:04:22.060 |
Is John speaking of evil and good generally or specifically? 01:04:30.060 |
Is he talking about feed the hungry, tithe to the church? 01:04:36.060 |
If you see an empty toilet paper roll in the bathroom at church, go ahead and refill it. 01:04:42.060 |
If the trash is full, don't put stuff on top of it. 01:04:52.060 |
Good in general, is that what he's saying or is this very specific? 01:04:57.060 |
It's a very important inductive question I will apply to this verse. 01:05:01.060 |
The second thing is, is this imitation natural or is it supernatural? 01:05:23.060 |
So is an imitation of God something a non-Christian can do? 01:05:30.060 |
Is an imitation of Satan something a Christian actually is possible of doing? 01:05:38.060 |
So is this a command or is this a description of a symptom of someone who's in line with the will of God, 01:05:51.060 |
And similarly, are these things either prescriptive, meaning do this, or are these descriptive? 01:06:00.060 |
Because you actually have both elements in this verse. 01:06:08.060 |
The one who doesn't imitate is of the devil or who hasn't seen God, or the one who does imitate is of God. 01:06:15.060 |
So these are some pretty severe ramifications depending on how you imitate or don't. 01:06:27.060 |
There's people that have gone out for the sake of the name, and we should support them. 01:06:35.060 |
I pray that your soul is getting along well, you're doing good, and you're helping them, 01:06:40.060 |
because they went out for the sake of the name, receiving no help from the Gentiles. 01:06:43.060 |
And so we want to be fellow workers of the truth, so great job. 01:06:52.060 |
So that is highlighted and brought to the front for me because it's very important, because this is a dude. 01:06:58.060 |
John never calls him evil, he never calls him a non-Christian, but I feel like it's implied. 01:07:08.060 |
So don't be like diatrephas, because that man hasn't seen God. 01:07:13.060 |
Do not be like that is the implied context, is what I would glean. 01:07:23.060 |
There's the good, and there's the not so good. 01:07:34.060 |
Good does stuff for the kingdom and for the name. 01:07:43.060 |
If something is good, we're going to support, we're going to be fellow workers. 01:07:48.060 |
But if something is evil, we're going to call that stuff out. 01:07:57.060 |
And when you've got two stories being told, a lot of times it's confusing to know which to discern. 01:08:13.060 |
So I make this little chart so my mind can track the logic and the flow of the arguments that are here. 01:08:32.060 |
So first, John actually straight up judges this man's motivations. 01:08:45.060 |
And in return, he doesn't accept what we say. 01:08:56.060 |
And that's how church divisions start, right? 01:08:58.060 |
So he's going to come and call attention to diatrephas' deeds. 01:09:03.060 |
And what are the things that diatrephas has done? 01:09:17.060 |
He forbids and then puts them out of the church. 01:09:19.060 |
Have you guys already kind of processed this in your own discussion? 01:09:24.060 |
Now, diatrephas, he rejects authoritative truth. 01:09:39.060 |
And the fruit of this rejection of the apostle's authority is slander, failure to be hospitable, 01:09:52.060 |
hindrance of expressions of love, and then it seems like this man's unilaterally just 01:10:03.060 |
My question is, how in the world does this man ever become a church leader if he's a 01:10:08.060 |
If he's not a church leader, he's pretty bold. 01:10:11.060 |
He's like, "I don't have any authority in the church, but get out." 01:10:24.060 |
So church leadership, here's an exhortation to church leaders. 01:10:30.060 |
Paul's exhortation to Timothy reads, "Pay close attention to yourself." 01:10:40.060 |
So those two things, life and doctrine, life and doctrine. 01:10:42.060 |
"Persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself 01:10:48.060 |
So the exhortation that Paul gives to his protege Timothy is, "Pay very careful attention, 01:10:55.060 |
scrutinize your life, scrutinize your teaching." 01:10:58.060 |
Titus, he says something similar, but he's describing an elder and an overseer. 01:11:04.060 |
He says, "The elder, the overseer, he's one who holds fast the faithful word, which is 01:11:10.180 |
in accordance with the teaching, so that he can do two things, exhort in sound doctrine 01:11:20.500 |
All church leaders should be able to be beyond reproach in character and teach the truth. 01:11:30.540 |
Sometimes with sound truth, you have to exhort. 01:11:33.260 |
Sometimes in sound truth, you've got to bash the incorrect. 01:11:42.900 |
Was his problem more doctrinal or more behavioral? 01:12:11.620 |
His problem, first and foremost, is a moral character one. 01:12:26.900 |
But then the question is, how in the world did this man become a leader and a prominent 01:12:34.860 |
And this is what church leadership really ought to look like in terms of character. 01:12:41.020 |
For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, 01:12:48.340 |
not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving 01:12:55.620 |
what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled. 01:13:11.380 |
Diatrephes, the first quality that's mentioned about him is what? 01:13:20.620 |
If his pride is hurt, oh, he's going to unleash war. 01:13:23.940 |
If his ego is brushed against, he's going to start kicking people out of the church. 01:13:37.380 |
And I guarantee you he's going to do everything he can to protect his ego. 01:13:43.980 |
And this is one of the first qualities there is for a church leader not to be self-willed. 01:13:51.140 |
First Peter 5, 2-3, Peter's exhorting the pastors and the elders, and he says, "Shepherd 01:13:58.380 |
the flock of God among you, exercising oversight." 01:14:02.660 |
So, there is some degree of responsibility and authority, right? 01:14:08.380 |
But not because you're forced to, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to 01:14:15.260 |
Not self-willed, but according to the will of God. 01:14:21.980 |
Nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples 01:14:37.360 |
Are there Diatrepheses, do you think, in churches around us? 01:14:51.260 |
Because people in church leadership are often put there because they're gifted, not because 01:15:02.900 |
When someone is very good organizationally, when someone is very good at spinning a tale, 01:15:08.740 |
when someone is very good at teaching, when someone has exceptional leadership qualities, 01:15:14.980 |
before you test their character, you're tempted to just elevate them. 01:15:20.340 |
But you know what Paul says in terms of even the leaders in the church? 01:15:25.700 |
Don't put a new convert in there, because what happens to the new convert? 01:15:29.580 |
They fall into the same temptation as the devil. 01:15:31.620 |
They get poofy in the head, they think they're God's gift to Christendom, and next thing 01:15:38.980 |
So is it easy or is it difficult to test whether someone is self-willed or not? 01:15:49.940 |
It's very hard, because you're going to give everybody a benefit of the doubt. 01:15:56.460 |
But it's very difficult really to catch someone who has a desire to exalt himself. 01:16:14.220 |
That's why another one of the qualifications of church leadership is temperance. 01:16:19.180 |
You don't need temperance when people love you. 01:16:24.980 |
And a lot of times, true colors get exposed when there's opposition. 01:16:34.020 |
So one of the things that we're looking at here in 3 John is you have a guy that was 01:16:40.580 |
put in place too quickly, is my guess, who is now in it for his glory, his own namesake, 01:16:50.540 |
his own ego, and not the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. 01:17:03.020 |
You know what Diotrephes' people are going to probably say? 01:17:14.060 |
How dare Apostle John come at us and our leader and say all of this stuff? 01:17:27.360 |
If you guys notice, all five translations, the wording is all different. 01:17:36.940 |
Just look at it and you'll be like, "Oh, all the words are very different." 01:17:40.620 |
There is an evil, sinister deception going on in the things that are coming out of Diotrephes' 01:17:51.660 |
So all this to say is if you ever desire to become an elder and overseer, you desire a 01:18:04.880 |
And it has to be your character, and it has to be your soundness of doctrine, your teaching, 01:18:14.520 |
Now that's a scary task for those who are already in church leadership. 01:18:19.560 |
And that, for you guys, for church leaders, you do need to lift the leaders up in prayer 01:18:26.760 |
so that we don't fall into the same temptations as Diotrephes. 01:18:42.600 |
That happens when we're not scrutinizing our own lives and our teaching carefully. 01:18:53.800 |
The rest of it, I'm just gonna do a little rehash, review. 01:18:57.600 |
Second and third John end almost exactly the same. 01:19:19.560 |
In third John, at the end, there is an imperative, another command, but that's not as significant 01:19:24.400 |
as the imitate one, so I didn't put that in there. 01:19:28.920 |
Before I give you the discussion questions, here are some announcements. 01:19:34.200 |
Over there in the corner, there are gonna be... 01:19:39.920 |
So go look through it if you've lost a sweater or a water bottle or sunglasses or something. 01:19:48.680 |
And if you guys are in the old cafe, you guys are all on the other side, every week the 01:19:56.980 |
And so there's been a request for you to look at the diagram that's on the wall and to put 01:20:02.440 |
the room back together according to the diagram. 01:20:07.440 |
For logistics of the Bible study next week, we're actually starting Philemon. 01:20:13.000 |
If you have a calendar on you, it actually says just verses one and two. 01:20:17.320 |
The pastor, Mark, has called an audible and he says, "I wanna actually do verses one and 01:20:24.800 |
But verse three, it just says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord 01:20:28.440 |
So you're not gonna get too much inductive out of that 'cause it's in like five of the 01:20:32.080 |
So verses one through three, what you wanna do is look for the main points of emphasis 01:20:36.920 |
as you look through all 25 verses, come up with a general summary, and then try to outline 01:20:43.600 |
These questions, I'm gonna copy and paste and put on the Facebook along with a template 01:20:47.880 |
of all of Philemon and then the three verses. 01:20:56.720 |
And I'm gonna explain a little bit why these are the questions that I would like you guys 01:21:02.580 |
If you are a Christian, how are you doing objectively in being a fellow worker of the 01:21:15.080 |
And are you faithful to it or are you saying later, not now? 01:21:23.200 |
No, but there's almost a strong exhortation, how are you gonna be a fellow worker of the 01:21:32.280 |
Those are the questions that I want you to ask for that. 01:21:35.880 |
Number two, if a diatrophase was in our context and was being called out in a similar fashion, 01:21:46.700 |
what are things you would need to be sober about? 01:21:54.700 |
What are things to avoid so that you actually don't obstruct the work that's happening or 01:22:04.960 |
So my guess is in that church, there was some drama, right? 01:22:12.000 |
This apostle of love, but previously he used to be called the son of thunder, came in and 01:22:21.840 |
But that probably had some messiness involved. 01:22:26.340 |
So what would that look like for you if you were a bystander? 01:22:31.260 |
The third one is reflecting on the study of the twin epistles, the second and third John, 01:22:37.000 |
what are some truths you feel the need to apply to your life? 01:22:39.320 |
And as way of review, just remember second John is, don't show hospitality. 01:22:46.320 |
Third John was, do show hospitality and don't be a diatrophase. 01:22:52.920 |
But then that's tricky, 'cause you have to discern in what context do I support, in what 01:23:02.420 |
And so as you reflect through the last five weeks or so of our Bible study, hopefully 01:23:08.160 |
number three is a very beneficial exercise as you answer that question. 01:23:13.520 |
Okay, let me wrap us up in prayer and then we'll go back to our discussion groups. 01:23:23.280 |
Father, second and third John have been just fruitful studies for us. 01:23:29.320 |
And on the surface, it almost seems to have a contradictory thrust. 01:23:35.320 |
The Lord, I pray that you would give us wisdom to discern the proper contexts in which to 01:23:41.360 |
be hospitable and in which context to be an abstainer from evil. 01:23:48.120 |
Lord, we need your wisdom, not just for these chapters of Scripture, but we need your wisdom 01:23:56.200 |
also to know how to live day to day in obedience to the Word of God, obedience to the Spirit 01:24:06.280 |
Lord, your Word has said that solid food is for the mature who because of practice and 01:24:12.560 |
training have learned to develop a skill of discernment. 01:24:16.840 |
We pray that our church people will grow to be a discerning people because we fed hungrily 01:24:24.800 |
So would your Word bear fruit in each of our individual lives and in our church as a whole 01:24:36.400 |
We love you, Lord, and we thank you for our time together and pray this in Jesus' name. 01:24:41.840 |
So go back to your discussion and please do share about these things.