So if you would take your Bible, let's turn to 3rd John together I want to teach verses 5 through 6 tonight on a sermon that I have entitled Christian open your home and welcome others in Open your home and welcome others in I'd like to read the entire little letter the entire book of 3rd John and Just to put the whole letter before you, the whole context before you, and then we're going to zoom in on verses 5 and 6. So follow with me as I read from God's Word. The elder to the beloved Gaius whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health just as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers, and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God, for they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. I wrote something to the church, but the atrophies who loves to be first among them does not accept what we say. For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds, which he does unjustly accusing us with wicked words and not satisfied with this. He himself does not receive the brethren either. And he forbids those who desire to do so, and he puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God. The one who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. And we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink, but I hope to see you shortly and we will speak face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name. I remember when the Lord saved me in 2001, I was living in Los Angeles, California, and a family in our local church invited me into their home regularly. They sort of adopted me as a young college guy, sort of a home away from home. And they would have me over for meals and for fellowship and for conversations. sharing testimonies. They even did my laundry as a college guy. They showered love, sacrificial love upon me. I remember on one occasion there was a conference I had to attend far down in South LA and they allowed me to stay at their home and they opened their doors with gracious hospitality to me. I remember also while I was living in LA, serving in a church, that the pastor of the church not only invited me over for fellowship frequently, for conversation, for sharing testimonies, but there was a summer where I needed a place to live, and without even thinking twice, he and his wife said, come on in and live with us. I remember a roommate of mine, when I was living in Israel, When I when I when I returned and he returned a couple of years later, he was married and he would often invite me over as a as a single man in college and seminary. He would and he would have me over for meals and for lodging. Even when Elizabeth and I were newly married, they would they would have us over and love us and care for us, even provide us with needs that we had. I remember a mentor of mine. telling me on one occasion of a homeless man that he met on the street one time, had a gospel conversation with this person. And this person needed a place to stay. He needed food. He needed lodging. And so this mentor of mine allowed this man to come into his home with children in the home at that time. And he gave this man a shower, gave him meals, gave him a bed and certainly a great opportunity for proclaiming the gospel and gave him provisions as well. Why do I mention all of these brief stories? And we could all go on with many more such stories. Because these are examples of Christians who open their homes and they welcomed me in. Or there are stories of opening the home and welcoming others in. And they've left vivid memories on my mind. Vivid, vivid memories. Christlike love, Christ demonstrating love, the wonder, the beauty, the joy of Christian hospitality. These are memories that are etched in my brain. These are these are memories that I remember. I have fond memories of all of these occasions that I just shared with you. And one of the things that it did is these taught me and they modeled for me how I, as a servant of the Lord, should show hospitality. as a man of God to the people of God. Church family, maybe there's very few things that would distinguish us more as the people of God, as the duty and the discipline and the joy of hospitality. There is such a wonderful distinguishing mark in hospitality where you are showing Godlike love to other people in a way that the world really genuinely does not truly understand. We come to the book of third John and really in verses one to four, what we looked at the last couple of weeks was sort of a kind of a kind of a brief and general overview of this little pastoral epistle, pastoral postcard that John writes to a young man, a man named Gaius. And verses one to four talked about Gaius's godliness and his truthfulness and his love and his obedience and how he's walking in the truth. And yet now in verses five and six, it's like John is going to take the camera and he's going to zoom in on just one particular area. Of Christian. service and love in the life of Gaius. And that one area of commendation, that one area of encouragement, that one way that he's going to zoom in is to show us what hospitality is like. Church family, I believe that we need to understand hospitality for early Christians and especially for traveling teachers and preachers was very, very important in the early church. Now, as I was studying this week, I kept digging into the background of hospitality. What is hospitality? What did it look like when the New Testament was written? How are we to understand what the Bible means when it talks about hospitality? And I have a long introduction, and I want you to understand, as if you and I were living back then, what hospitality looked like and how important it is. And then my goal tonight is to expound verses five and six of our little letter. I want to give you the meaning of these verses. And then next week, when we come together, I want to build on these foundations and really give a very practical sermon next week on how we can excel at Christian hospitality. But I want to study the background of hospitality with you for just the time being. And I've got sort of a couple of headings if you're taking notes or even want to just sit back and listen. But I want to talk about first the situation in the first century. What was life like in the first century? If you were living in the Roman Empire, you would know that the Roman Empire had established a great network of roads, of roads. And really, these roads and these sea routes made travel actually quite easy in the ancient world. By the time of the Emperor Diocletian in 300 AD, the Romans had built such a marvelous network of roads, get this, it was 53,000 miles. of roads that the Romans had constructed all through the Roman Empire. And these roads were primarily built for the military and for military purposes, but as a little footnote, notice the providence of God in getting the gospel all around Europe and all around the world at that time through these roads that were recently built. And over time, an extensive system of hotels and inns was also offered and hospitality continued to develop and so on as needs arose. Now, some of the hotels and some of the inns were fairly pleasant, but most of them were far from ideal. Most of them were no more than just sexually immoral places. Prostitutes would be there. Fights would often break out. There would be dangers, including robbers, and often people would be murdered there. One Greek grammarian and historian was writing in a dictionary about hospitality and the hotels and the inns of the ancient world, and he just said, the inns were abominable. The inns were abominable. So travelers then often wanted to stay with friends, or you could imagine, wanted to stay with friends of friends while they were traveling. They wanted to not, they wanted to avoid, I should say, these inns and these hotels. So that's the situation of the first century, a great road system. And there were hotels, there were inns, but they were not pleasant. They were not appealing, certainly for believers. Okay, so that's the situation. Well, what about the meaning of the word? We read in Romans 12 about how we should practice hospitality. We read in our own texts about how Gaius showed love for the brethren, especially when they were strangers. What does the word hospitality mean? We talk a lot about hospitality and showing hospitality. What does the word mean? Well, the word stranger in verse 5, at the very end, how Gaius showed faithful love toward the brethren, and especially at the end of verse 5, when they are strangers, that's the idea of hospitality. It's the idea of being a stranger. It's the idea of being a foreigner. When you talk about hospitality in the Greek word, the meaning of the word is alien. It's a stranger. It's a foreigner. It's like a guest. In the New Testament, the predominant sense of the word that we have, hospitality, is really the idea of being strange. Mark that. Strange. It could have the idea of having a guest into your home, but more than that, it's the idea of a stranger. Hospitality to strangers. That is, hear this, guests that you didn't previously know before. I mean, it's a lot different than maybe going next door and knocking on the neighbor's door and saying, Hey, come over for a night of hospitality. That's not a bad thing. That's not an evil thing, but, but the new Testament concept is different than that. It primarily focuses on somebody who was a stranger. You didn't know this person before. And that's why in the book of Acts, reading through the book of Acts all the time, Peter and Paul and the apostles are dependent upon Christians opening their home and giving lodging to traveling teachers and traveling preachers. That's why the book of Hebrews chapter 13 says that we are to be practicing hospitality For you will entertain angels without even knowing it. In the first century, hospitality was a decisive mark, not just of culture, but especially of the Christian church. Now, even in the Old Testament, let me just share with you a couple of things that you know, but let me remind you of how widespread hospitality was in the ancient world. Job said in Job 31 verse 32, that to practice hospitality is worthy of praise. We remember in Isaiah chapter 58, when God talks about hospitality, that is opening your home for the poor and those in need. God said that is far superior than the religious externals of fasting in Isaiah 58, six and seven. Genesis chapter 18 in the Sodom and Gomorrah account, Abraham is praised as an extraordinary host and is a very gracious servant. In the next chapter, Genesis 19, Lot is a very gracious host, even placing the security of the guests more and over his own daughters. You remember the story in Genesis chapter 19, Melchizedek. was a hose to practice hospitality in Genesis 14. Rebecca showed hospitality in Genesis 24. Rahab showed hospitality to the spies in Joshua 2. Manoah showed hospitality in Judges 13. Boaz showed hospitality to Ruth in Ruth chapter 2. The Shunammite woman showed hospitality to the prophet Elisha in second Samuel or second Kings four and on and on and on we could go. To show hospitality is to host someone and to welcome them into your home, even if you didn't previously know them. The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 16 in verse 23, Paul is greeting the church at Rome. And at the very end of Romans, Paul says, Gaius, who is a host to me and to the whole church, he greets you. I think this is a different Gaius, not the same one that John is writing to. It's a different guy who evidently opened up his home and allowed Paul, the traveling missionary, to come into his home and write the book of Romans. One of the New Testament qualifications for an elder. For a pastor is to be hospitable. In fact, Titus chapter one in verse eight says elders must be hospitable. And this is a command given to all Christians. Take your Bible. You're in third John. Just turn a little bit to the left to the book of first Peter chapter four. I want to show you what the Bible says in first Peter chapter four. The Bible tells us to keep fervent in our love for one another. That's chapter four, verse eight. For love covers a multitude of sins. Now, first Peter four and verse nine, be hospitable to one another without complaint. If we were going to do a little bit of lexical work and dig deep into the Greek meaning of the word, it's this. Let strangers come into your home and do it without complaining. Now, the context is traveling preachers, traveling Christians who are spreading the gospel. You're showing brotherly love to other believers, even though you may not know them formally. We are to receive the brethren. We are to invite them in. We are to give them lodging as needed. That happened to Peter in Acts chapter 10. But the New Testament idea of Christian love, I think, is connected to the topic of hospitality. They go together. A Christian love is expressed according to Jesus in hospitality. I want you to take your Bible and go to Matthew chapter 25, still by way of introduction. In Matthew 25, Jesus is on Tuesday of the Passion Week. He will be crucified in a few days. And in Matthew 25, he's on the Mount of Olives and he's given sort of an end time sermon. And the very end of that sermon, he's talking about the coming judgment, the sheep and the goat judgment. You know it well. And in Matthew 25, and let's just begin in verse 34, the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You say that that's wonderful. Jesus says, come and inherit the kingdom. Next verse, verse 35, for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me and the righteous will answer him, Lord. When did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And Jesus will answer and say to them, truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. So true Christian love, as you're fleshing out and living out the Christian life, is in one of the ways shown by hospitality to strangers, welcoming them in. Jesus said, to the degree that you do it to others, you do it to me, even The expression of love in Romans chapter 12, which we read earlier, how the apostle Paul is writing to the believers. And he said, let love be hip without hypocrisy. And then he said, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, outdo one another in honor. And then at the very end, contribute to the needs of the saints and pursue hospitality. If we were to be faithful to the Greek, it would be aggressively pursue hospitality. And that's the idea of Romans chapter 12. The first Peter chapter eight talks about showing hospitality without complaint. And the context of doing that talks about the power of love to cover sins. In other words, one of the, of the, of the ways that the power of love is so wonderfully shown in the covering of sins is worked out in hospitality toward one another. Not just those that we know and like and enjoy, and they're like us. but even those that are a bit different. Hospitality, that is the love of strangers, is inseparable from brotherly love, according to Hebrews chapter 13. Now the duty of hospitality is to be shown to all Christians, and it is to be done by all Christians. Romans chapter 12 puts the pursuit of hospitality right there with all of the duties of saints toward one another. Now, if you have your Bible, turn to Romans 12. I want to show you this. I know I just commented a moment ago on Romans 12 and verse 13 on practicing hospitality, but I want to show you a little word play that Paul is doing and it helps with the meaning. In verse 13 of Romans 12, at the very end of the verse, Paul says we are to be practicing hospitality. Do you see it there? And then the next verse, verse 14, bless those who what? You have persecuted in your Bible. The Greek word means they are aggressively pursuing you. That's the idea, aggressively pursuing you. It's the exact same Greek word here in verse 14 for the persecutors as it is for practicing hospitality. The same way that a persecutor might be aggressively pursuing us. Well, Paul is making a little wordplay here. We ought to be aggressively pursuing hospitality toward believers. And I love this. In the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, all barriers are removed, right? All barriers are removed. There's no impartiality. There's no favoritism. We welcome, we receive any and we receive all believers. It doesn't matter somebody's background, somebody's look, somebody's color, somebody's socioeconomic status. We receive any and all believers. You say, Jeff, I get it. I get it. Maybe there were a couple of things that you didn't know before there in that little background. But I want to show you how frequent this was in the early church. There is a book called the Didache. It's about the size of our Philippians, and it's not in our Bible. It was an early church document. In fact, it's one of the earliest church documents outside of the Bible that's all about how to do church. It's a great document. You can read it in 15 minutes, called the Didache, written about the time of the apostle John. Here's what the Didache says in this book. When you show hospitality, you are to receive the brethren as the Lord himself. That is, you are to receive the brethren as if you were receiving God himself. In the early church manual, they talked about They talked about taking communion. They talked about baptism. They talked about preaching. They talked about Christian love. They talked about guarding from false teachers what we would expect. And yet there was a section given to the book. When you show hospitality, treat them with such lavish love as if you were receiving God himself into your home. One of the most prominent features in the picture of the early church, which is so rich in good works, was hospitality. One of the early books outside of the Bible is a book called First Clement, written by a man named Clement to the Corinthians. And at the very beginning of his letter to the Corinthians, he talked about the importance of showing hospitality to fellow believers. He wrote in the early second century A.D., just after John the Apostle died. In the 2nd and 3rd century, there was a man by the name of Tertullian who urged and he admonished Christians to show hospitality. There was a man in the 2nd century named Melito in the city of Sardis. He wrote a whole book, here's the title, Concerning Hospitality. And the whole book is a commentary on the phrase from Romans 12 verse 13 on pursuing hospitality. John Chrysostom, one of my heroes. There's not a whole lot of sermons that we have from him, but probably the greatest preacher in the early church after the apostles died. John Chrysostom in the fourth century was a preacher, a bishop in the church in the city of Constantinople, modern day Turkey. He would often warn church members about simply turning hospitality over to the apartments and over to the hospitals and over to the hospices. He would say, if a stranger is fed and housed from common funds, how does that benefit you as a believer? He preached in another sermon on hospitality in the 300s. And here's what John Chrysostom said. This is good and convicting. He said, open your home, take them in. Whoever receives a profit shall receive a profits reward. These are the qualities that ought to be in those who welcome strangers. We ought to be ready. We ought to be cheerful. And we ought to have great liberality. For strangers feel abashed or ashamed, and unless their host shows real joy, they feel slighted and they go away ashamed. And their being received in this way makes it worse than not to have received them at all. Therefore, he said to his church, put aside a room in your house to which Jesus may come and he may say, this is Christ's room. This is set apart for him. Even if it is a very simple lodging, he will not disdain it. And then the preacher said this, you have a place set apart for your wagon, don't you? But none for Christ who is wandering by. Ouch. modern day terms, you got a place for your car, don't you? But what about somebody who's traveling through? All that showing in the early church, the importance of hospitality books were written. Preachers preached on this all the time. Early church fathers who were writing after the new Testament was completed would often write letters to the churches and they would exhort them. They would encourage them. They would admonish them to excel in Christian hospitality. All of that is an introduction to the topic of hospitality. Hospitality is essential, you and I know that, but it's foreign to our culture. I suppose there might be parties and get-togethers and so on, and people may come together, and in various communities there might be these groups and this sort of camaraderie, I understand that, but true Christian fellowship, the real heart of Christian fellowship and hospitality is foreign to our individualistic culture. You and I understand that. It reminds me of a story of when I read about some missionaries, American missionaries who went to Okinawa, Japan to minister on the American military base there. They were stationed there on this military base and they were there for many, many years, a number of decades. And after they served the Lord in Japan at this military base, they finally came home when their work there was through and they were writing their first impressions when they came back to the States. They said this people in our neighborhood came home at night and they pulled into their garage and then they closed the garage door and then they disappear inside. And many of us, they said, see, our homes is our own little refuge, our own little oasis, our own little fortress of solitude. It's a very private place. It's a very individualized place for recluse people. Well, maybe that missionary had a sober impression of American culture coming back from Japan. We do live in a very individualized society. Now, church family, what I want to do is I want to turn our attention to 3 John. And I want you to see with me the glowing commendation of this guy, Gaius. I want you and I to cast our eyes upon verses five and six of third John, and we're going to see the apostle John and how he is commending the man Gaius. And what I want to do is I want to call you, Christian, I want to call you to practice hospitality as we would learn how to do it from Gaius's example right here in the text. We can learn how to do hospitality, even from Gaius's example right here, so that we will grow in Christ, so that we will grow in our love for one another, so that we will excel at our Christian community, and so that the truth of the Lord Jesus may advance. Now, hold up. I understand tonight, much of what I may say, there may be a lot of objections or questions or thoughts swimming through your mind. What about me? What about where I live? What about my condition? What about my financial condition? On and on we go with these. I want to address all of those specifically next week in more of the practical outworking of it. But we want to be obedient to God. We want to be hospitable to one another. How do we do it? How do we show Christian hospitality? What do we need if we are going to be obedient to God as he commands us in Romans 12 and he commands us in 1 Peter 4 and Jesus says it in Matthew 25 and we see it right here in 3 John. How do we do hospitality? What does it look like? And in your outline tonight, I want you to do this. I want you to see that hospitality necessitates four ingredients. And the ingredients are key words. And they come right from the text here. I trust that it will be helpful for us as we continue our study through 3 John. Hospitality, number one, necessitates faithfulness. Number two, hospitality necessitates focus. Number three, hospitality necessitates sacrifice. And then fourth, hospitality necessitates Christ likeness, faithfulness, focus, sacrifice, and Christ likeness. May the Lord help us that we would study God's word together, that the spirit of God would comfort you. Listen carefully in that you were once a stranger. If anybody showed hospitality, it's God almighty. to you and to me. We just sang about it in that final hymn tonight, how sweet and awesome or awful is the place. And it was all about this idea of us being strangers to God and how God, by his initiative and by his grace, he welcomed us into this banqueting feast. God is the greatest one who shows hospitality to us as believers. And for that, we give him praise. So may we learn then to respond in showing hospitality one to another. So number one, the first ingredient that is necessitated in hospitality, number one, hospitality necessitates faithfulness, faithfulness. In our text, 3 John 5, notice what John writes to Gaius. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers. John has been commending Gaius for his wonderful way of life. He's been committed to the truth. He's been walking in the truth. He's been a godly example. He's beloved in the truth. And yet now John is going to talk about one particular way that Gaius is commendable. And it's an important theme in the book, and it's hospitality and helping Christians in need. It's helping to advance the gospel. That's what 3 John is going to teach us. We want to be advancing the gospel. Notice in verse 5, with a very affectionate term, John says to Gaius, Beloved, you are acting faithfully. Literally, you're doing a very faithful thing. You're doing a very good thing. You're living your life in a way that is faithful. It's a way of life for this guy, Gaius. He's a godly example. He's a generous host. He's a godly fellow. That Gaius would welcome strangers into his home that is further witness, verse 4, that he would be walking in the truth. He loves the God of truth. He loves the gospel of truth, and he wants to advance the truth. And he does so by acting faithfully and opening folks into his home. He's showing faithfulness to the truth of the gospel. As the gospel has transformed you and the truth is changing you and transforming you and sanctifying you as a man or a woman of God, you understand, first of all, that God received you, that God had mercy upon you who were once a stranger. You can faithfully show this kind of hospitality to others. You know, notice in verse five, John could have just said, Hey, beloved Gaius, you're showing hospitality. He could have said that, but he said, you're acting faithfully in whatever you're accomplishing for the brethren. And especially when they are strangers, you're acting faithfully, you're doing a faithful thing. Your hospitality is a faithful thing. Church family, if I could just say this by way of application tonight, To faithfully walk in the truth. To faithfully walk in the truth includes the joy filled duty of practicing hospitality. It includes the duty of practicing hospitality. Oh, may God help us that verse five, as it were, would be descriptive of us, that it could be said of us here at Christ Fellowship, you're acting faithfully in whatever you're doing for the brethren. And especially when they're strangers, you're acting in a faithful way. May God help that to be true of us. But hospitality not only necessitates that we be walking faithfully in the truth, but second of all, a second ingredient is that hospitality necessitates focus. Focus. I came across an article in my study from 1986. It was in a scholarly journal written about hospitality in the Mediterranean world. It's actually fascinating. Here's what he said. Hospitality might be defined as the process of which an outsider status is changed from being a stranger to a guest. Did you hear that? That's a great definition in this author. He said, hospitality is defined as the process by which an outsider status is changed from being a stranger to now a guest. It's not something that a person provides only for family or friends, but for strangers. They need hospitality or they will be treated as a threat to the community if they're traveling through a city. So the author said this in the ancient Mediterranean world, letters of recommendation were important. Maybe today it's an email or a text or a phone call, but in the ancient world, there was a letter of recommendation and it would be important in the matter of hospitality. The function was to help divest the stranger of his strangeness and to refuse to accept those recommended was to dishonor the one who commended them. And in the Mediterranean culture of the first century, the one dishonored had to bear the shame that was heaped upon him if his commendation was refused. In other words, people would give letters of recommendation to the church. So you're not just letting anybody into your house, but you're receiving letters of recommendation about a traveling teacher or a traveling preacher or a family or something. And you're hearing from another. They're a believing family. You need to welcome them. They need a place to stay. You need to welcome them into your home. It reminds me of a couple of years ago when Mike Stockwell and Robert Gray, you know, these open air preachers that have been here, they called and they said, There are some people that that are passing through and they need a place to stay. Can you help? And so we we sent a note out to our church family and there were those that came immediately and said, we've heard the letter of recommendation, as it were. Of course, we'll open up our home and we'll welcome fellow believers who are traveling through anything we can do to serve and to help and to be a blessing to traveling teachers. In other words, in the ancient world, you couldn't really refuse the offer of a traveling preacher or a traveling Christian coming your way and needing a place to stay. You really couldn't say no, or the person that sent you the letter would be greatly shamed and humiliated. Well, that's exactly what happens in verse 5. Gaius is going to receive the brethren. But he's going to have great focus in how he does it. Look at verse five again. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers. Not only showing hospitality for brethren, believers in your church that you know, but even for strangers that were previously unknown to you. You open up your home for them. There's evidently some teachers, some Christians that are traveling through and Gaius doesn't know them. Gaius didn't know them before, and yet he's going to receive them into his home. He's going to welcome them into his home. He's going to host them and care for them. And he's going to focus on serving the brethren. You say, why is this second ingredient focus? It's very cool in our contemporary evangelical reform day. to talk almost predominantly about evangelism, oftentimes, as a way of opening your home and welcoming neighbors in. You know, let neighbors into your home and invite the lost over and let that be a platform for gospel proclamation. I'm not here to diminish that at all. I'm not here to say that's a bad thing to do. By all means, do it. But the focus in the New Testament by far, is to be zoomed in, not just as an evangelistic platform for the lost, but primarily, the focus is to be for the believers in the local congregation and for traveling missionaries who are passing through. It's not an either-or, it's a both-and. Now the first focus that we see here in verse five, Gaius is showing hospitality. See it right here for the brethren. You are receiving the brethren. He's hosting fellow Christians, fellow believers. He's warned in second John about not showing hospitality to false teachers, right? Those who don't embrace the truth. But now John says, Gaius, you're doing well that you're receiving the brethren. church family, there should be among you and among me, there should be a focus where we say, you know what, if I can invite neighbors in, praise the Lord, I want to do that. If I can have lost coworkers into my home and use that as a platform to share the gospel, praise God, do that. But there should be an emphasis right here as we learn from Gaius that he receives the brethren. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and end of verse five, even strangers, even those that you and I might not know previously, even those that we might not be all that well acquainted with. But if, but if there's a, as it were a letter of recommendation from somebody else, Hey, this person's traveling through and they need a place to stay. That's the idea of hosting a stranger. Hospitality is an act of faith. Hospitality is an act of faith. It's a, it's an act of trust. It is showing true Christian agape love. It is an expression of faith in God. When you welcome even strangers into your home, foreigners into your home, those that were previously unknown to you, but now you welcome them in with joy and with gladness and with delight. All that to say church family, there's a focus. There's a particular concern for believers. It's like this mindset. How can I serve believers? How can I invite believers in? Is there a need? Are there other missionaries? Are there traveling teachers? Are there those that are sound in the faith that are in need? Are there those that need provision? More on that in a couple of weeks when we talk about missions. Of course, we can welcome neighbors. Of course, we can invite the lost in and use that as a platform for the gospel. But especially here, our focus should be on God's people. It should be on your local church. It should be on your church family and on Christian missionaries. That leads to a third ingredient. Not only does hospitality necessitate number one faithfulness, number two focus, but number three. Sacrifice. Maybe every lady who has worked hard at preparing a meal and cleaning the home could amen that it is work. It is work. And we're not here to minimize that at all. But to say this. One of the key words in the book of Third John is the word love. Not so much the Philadelphia word love, that's a biblical concept, but the Third John idea of love is agape love. And if you and I were to define agape love, this kind of love, it's this, a sacrificial self-giving of oneself to another. Now, let me show you how this love is and how it's connected with sacrifice, because I want to show you exactly what John writes in verse five and six. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers and they, that is the traveling believers, they have testified, it could have said, to your hospitality. Man, he made great meals. He had a really comfortable bed. He provided for all of our needs. No, they, they, these traveling believers, verse six, are testifying of what? Of your love, of your agape love. This is a commitment and sacrifice love. If we're gonna love like this, it requires commitment and sacrifice. By the way, somebody might say, Jeff, this is just a lot. You're asking a lot of us. Hold on. Let me remind you of the sacrifice of Jesus. for you." John 15 verse 13, greater love has no one than this, than one lay down his life for his friends. Galatians 2 and verse 20, Jesus Christ, the son of God, loved me and what did he do? He gave himself up for me. I think of 1 John chapter 3 and verse 16, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us. Ephesians chapter five and verse two, maybe in the most explicit way, Christ also loved you. And he gave himself up for us and offering and a sacrifice to God. This kind of a got a love is a sacrificial love. It hurts sometimes. It's costly. Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes Jesus knew that all too well. And all these scriptures clearly show that this kind of agape love, this kind of sacrificial love is intertwined with the idea of commitment and the idea of sacrifice. So you've got believers. They're traveling through. Gaius welcomes them in. The believers are there. And then they move on and they go to the church and they get to the church and they say, let me testify. And let me tell of the great love of Gaius. Let me tell you about this guy. Let me tell you what he did. Let me tell you how he served. Let me tell you how he has ministered. They are testifying of Gaius' love in serving them. So hear this, in showing hospitality, Gaius showed great sacrificial love. So in showing hospitality, you demonstrate sacrificial. love for the brethren. Consider Jesus who came to you and he received you to himself. Sacrificial life. Consider the spirit of God who comes to you and sovereignly in dwells you permanently. That's sacrificial keeping committed love. Consider your hope of heaven dwelling with the Lord Jesus Christ, beholding him face to face. What sacrificial love was it that bought you and purchased you and redeemed you so that you could have that great hope? It's amazing the way that the Holy Spirit guided John to write right here in verse six, they've testified not just of your hospitality, They've testified of your love and in showing this kind of hospitality, you show genuine agape sacrificial love. To show hospitality is love. It is agape love. It is a committed sacrificial giving to others. It's a, it's a very God-like and a Christ-like. way to love, which actually leads us to our fourth and final ingredient. What is the fourth ingredient? Well, not just the first ingredient, faithfulness and focus and sacrifice, but fourth, hospitality necessitates Christ likeness, Christ likeness. I have such a joy reflecting on it this week. To show hospitality, is a very God-like thing to do. It's just a God-like thing to do. It's a very Christ-like thing to do. When you were once a stranger, When you were once an enemy of God, we could build on this how much more tonight, right? When we were ungodly, when we were dead in our sins, when we were running away from God, John 1 and John 3, when we were hating God, when we would run away from the light, when we wanted nothing to do with God, but we wanted to be our own God and we were suppressing the truth. What happened? God bought you and he called you and he invited you. And he welcomed you and he summoned you and he calls you by name. Once a stranger, we're going to see it and sing it in a minute. Now seated at your table. Jesus. Thank you. What a great gospel, what a great God, that God would receive us, that God would embrace us, that God would welcome us, that God would host us. Even in heaven, the Bible tells us that Jesus will gird himself and he will serve us even in the kingdom to come. What a great Savior. So to show hospitality is a very God-like, a very Christ-like thing to do. Think with me, even of the language right here at the end of verse 6. What have the believers done in 3 John verse 6? They have testified of your love, Gaius, before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. A manner worthy of God? What do you mean send them on their way? in a manner worthy of God. Well, that's going to prepare us for our mission study in a couple of weeks. What does it mean to send missionaries on their way in a manner worthy of God? And the next couple of verses are amazing verses that talk about sending missionaries and joining together in the advancement of the truth. But what do you mean to send them in a manner worthy of God? I think it just means that you are to imitate God in showing hospitality who himself is merciful. He himself is kind. He himself is gracious. Show hospitality one to another and send them on their way just like God would have done. You know, in the early church, I mentioned earlier that work the Didache, the earliest Christian manual outside the Bible of how church should be done. Didache is a Greek word that means teaching. It was the teaching of the early church on how to do church. In the early part of the Didache, it said this, treat those who come to you in the same manner as you would treat God himself. Treat all who show you hospitality as if you were doing it to the Lord himself. Be kind, be generous, be merciful to them as if you were welcoming God and do it in a way that would be representing how God has shown hospitality. Hospitality necessitates Christ likeness, you know, over and over. and over church family. You can read the Old Testament and you'll, you'll, you'll hear God saying to Israel, you were once a stranger in the land of Egypt. Don't, don't show injustice to strangers. Don't be unjust toward the orphan and the widow and the poor and the needy and so on. Why? Because you were strangers in the land of Israel, God said, but I delivered you out of Egypt, God said. Well, the Lord Jesus in a similar way came to you You were an outcast, a stranger, a wayfaring wanderer, a hopeless vagabond, as it were, a stranger to grace, a stranger to life, a stranger to love, a stranger to heaven, a stranger to mercy, a stranger to God's grace. And yet God in the person and work of Jesus Christ came to you. He drew near to you and he welcomes you to himself. And he says, come and feast at my table. Come and feast at my table. In fact, the prophet Isaiah spells it out. The kingdom of God is pictured in the book of Isaiah as a banqueting table. Come and feast with this God. He invites you to Him. He is preparing a feast for His people. You and I might hear this topic of hospitality and say, you know, I'm I'm busy and I've got all these things going on in life. Can I really do it? Church family, it's not a matter of can we? We must. It's a matter of obedience to our Savior. He calls all believers to practice hospitality one to another. But maybe in our course of our time of study tonight, you thought to yourself, yeah, but What about where I live? What about my condition? What about my financial security? What about this or that? What about my family? What about my busyness? What about on and on we could go. Next week, what I want to do is I want to preach on the definition of hospitality. I want to preach on the benefits of hospitality. I want to preach on the objections to hospitality. And then I want to give a pastoral plea. next week to our church family to pursue. It's the language of Paul and Thessalonians. It's not to say you're not doing it. It's to say, excel still more, excel still more. Church leadership right now is reading a book by a man named Alexander Strauch. He's an elder in Littleton, Colorado in a church. solid man, a great Bible teacher. He was the man who trained me in the Grace Advance program when we were in L.A. training to come here. And our leadership is reading this book with a couple of men that are perhaps developing as leaders and overseers in the local church. Alexander Strauch writes this in his book on leadership. Hospitality, therefore, is a concrete down-to-earth test of our fervent love for God and our fervent love for His people. In other words, what Strauch would say is, wow, believers, we love one another. Good. We say that we love one another. Good. Strauch would put his arm around you and he would say, my brother or my sister, prove it. And one of the ways that we demonstrate true love toward one another is in the opening of our home to the brethren and even to those who are strangers. But next week we'll come together and see how we can excel still more at this. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the grace that you have given to us in the word of God tonight. Lord, we can talk about hospitality and it is good to talk about hospitality. And yet, oh, God, we would be foolish if we try to talk about all these commands to do hospitality and do hospitality and do hospitality. If we forgot that you, oh, God, came to us and you, you have welcomed us into your home and into your family, all of grace. If anybody was ever a stranger, we certainly qualify dead in our sin, children of wrath, headed for destruction, whose father of ours was the devil. Oh, thank you, oh God, for welcoming us. Thank you for calling us. Thank you for your mercy upon us. Thank you for your abundant love toward us. Thank you for your hospitality to us. Oh, Father, as we go from here tonight, May we all week long be thinking and praying and considering, oh God, how can I not just be a hearer of the word, but a doer of it? Prepare us, oh God, even next week as we come together and look at the word yet again. May we be a church. May we be a family of believers that excels by the grace of God in this joy and this duty of Christian hospitality. In the name of Jesus, we pray who loved us and gave himself up for us. Amen.