Explore the vibrant theological truths surrounding Pentecost as we dissect the significant roles of figures like Gaius and Diotrephes. Through the engaging narrative of Dr. McGee and testimonies from listeners like Peter, we uncover the inherent lessons about faith. This episode urges us to support those who uphold the truth and to evaluate our motives in serving others within the church.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
SPEAKER 01 :
Last time on Through the Bible, Dr. J. Vernon McGee introduced a man he called a rascal in the early church. Well, today as our study of 3 John brings us to verses 7 to 10, we’re going to learn who Diotrephes was and what we can learn from him. I’m Steve Schwetz. Glad that you hopped aboard the Bible bus with us. And we’ll get to our study in 3 John soon. But first, let’s listen to Dr. McGee’s concluding introduction on the meaning of the Holy Spirit coming into the world.
SPEAKER 02 :
I have called Pentecost the Bethlehem of the Holy Spirit. Now notice how the Lord Jesus put that. He says in the 16th chapter of the Gospel of John at verse 12, and I’d like to read that section to you. He says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. So we begin now a new period where the Holy Spirit is, as it were, taking over. And on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came. And on that day, he was given actually to the church as a gift. Listen to the way that Luke puts it in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. the 49th verse. He says, And behold, I send the promise of my Father unto you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. He says, Now I’m going to send the Holy Spirit, the one that he promised to send to them, and he’d be the gift of the church. And that was Peter’s actually first message, because you see, the Holy Spirit came there on the day of Pentecost, and that has never been repeated. And over in the second chapter of the book of Acts, listen to Simon Peter here as he mentions this, Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit now is a gift to the church that’s never repeated. The Holy Spirit’s been in the world, indwelling believers from that day right down to the present time. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all there are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And this, may I say, was something for these men that was just about as new as it is to many of us today. Now, he’s resident in the church He’s not resident today in a building or in a place, but he’s resident in believers. Even the carnal Corinthians, he could say to them, what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Well, friends, that was something that was brand new to these men. And so the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost to regenerate, to indwell, to seal, and to baptize, and to make it possible for Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER 01 :
Dr. McGee is delivering some great theological truths on how the Holy Spirit works. And we know the Holy Spirit works every time we receive a letter or email or phone call from you and hear how he takes something that we’re studying together and makes it alive in your life. This happens all over the world and right here at home. In fact, not long ago, we received a message from a brother on the Bible bus named Peter. He called us from Colorado. Here’s what he had to say.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love the Bible because it’s so well explained by Dr. McGee. I’ve been listening. I listen on the radio and on the net as well. The radio just seems to have more impact. Anyway, this is Peter from Colorado. And his closing comments today, I’m 75 and the aging process in life is surely taking its toll. So we have a couple of common aging issues. that you have to deal with daily, and it’s almost a chess match. But the point I’m getting at is I’m getting what I get for the life I’ve led. I’m 35 years without alcohol, but prior to that, I was in the Army for 20 years, and that doesn’t need much more explaining for a carnal individual. But it was almost encouraging to hear him talk about why, And in my personal assessment, when I say, why, Lord, is this happening? It’s poor Peter. So to absorb 2 Corinthians 12, 10 is difficult. It’s difficult not to say why when you just want to crawl in a corner and call it a day. And so I guess that’s why I listen to through the Bible. I’ve heard him say this probably five times now. In the previous four, I was in better health. And now I’m still grateful for the good health I’ve got. It’s just a daily challenge, and I understand why. So always a pleasure to hear you guys. It’s the best Bible teaching commentary that can be had in current history. It’s well explained, and I especially love when he says, in other words, or verses that can be difficult to understand. Great program. Just great. Thanks for your work. Hope you have a good day. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thanks for your call, Peter. I know so many can relate to that poor me thinking that you talked about. Let’s pray for one another as we come to our time in God’s Word. Lord, our brother Peter reminded us of 2 Corinthians 12, which says that when we’re weak, you are strong. So help us to rest in your power and not our own. And may we trust you in every hardship. In Jesus’ name, amen. Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of 3 John on Through the Bible.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now, friends, we are coming today to the third epistle of John, the third epistle of John. And we are going to pick up at verse 8. And I’ll tie the strings together by reading verse 7 and 8 here together. Because for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles, We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. Now, in 3 John, we have it divided here according to three individuals that are mentioned. These three individuals that are mentioned here are, first of all, Gaius. then Diotrephes, and then Demetrius. And we are going to see these three men. We’ve already looked at Gaius. He was an outstanding man of God. He was a friend of the apostle John, evidently a convert of John. And John calls him the well-beloved. Not only was he beloved of John, but he was beloved by the church. And he was beloved by that group of men that were out in that day witnessing for Christ in the Roman Empire. And it wasn’t easy. But when they got to the town where Gaius was and the church where he served, why, always Gaius opened his home and received them into his home, provided they were walking in light, which means they were walking in the doctrine of the apostles, and that they were walking in love, that is, love for the brethren. In other words, the doctrine and the conduct had to go together. Now, the very interesting thing is that this man would receive them. These were men who went out at great sacrifice, by the way. They didn’t receive a salary. They didn’t receive any remuneration. They went out trusting the Lord and homes were open to them. And some places they were given a support, other places they were not. And they would not take anything from the Gentiles, that is, the unbelievers in that day. Now, John encourages, he says, we therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. In other words, you’d be a partner. With these men, if you opened your home to them, if you supported them and helped them on their way. Now, there’s quite a similarity between 2nd and 3rd John, as we’ve seen. But there is a great contrast. There is a canyon and a chasm that really divides them. In the 2nd epistle, he warns this elect lady. not to receive into her home, though she is generous and apparently wealthy, not to receive apostates, no matter how mealy-mouthed they are, no matter how they are able to use the vocabulary of the apostles, yet they did not believe in the deity of Christ. They did not believe in the inspiration of the scriptures. And she’s warned not to receive them because if she does, she’s a partner with them in their evil deeds. But if you receive the others, now this might cause somebody just to shut their home and not receive these men at all. That is, their home would be shut up to all that would come in order to make sure. But John says, wait just a minute. if they’re men that are walking in love and if they’re men that have the life of God within them. And I think you can tell when they are speaking by the Holy Spirit. And I’m sure there was better discernment in the early church than there is in the church today. confident of that. We may know more Bible than they did, but we certainly do not have the spiritual discernment that they did. Now, when they are distinguished as being men of God doing God’s work, then they should be supported. In other words, you are to receive them, he says, that you might be fellow helpers to the truth. That is, to the fact that they help them along and they become partners with them in getting out the Word of God. This is the thing that John is saying here. Now, this is Gaius, and he’s such a wonderful fellow, one of those wonderful saints in the early church. Now, you could wish that all of them were like that in the early church, but I’m sorry to have to report They all weren’t like that. Now we come to a brother, and his name is Diotrephes. And it said of him, verse 9, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content with that, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.” Now, may I say that we are introduced to another type of individual from Gaius. And the thing that marks him actually is that he loved to have the preeminence. I think that Gaius is one that we can say of him that he is a real man of God and one that we can call him a real believer. But now Diotrephes, he is the dictator. Now, John wrote the Pentateuch of the New Testament as Moses wrote the Pentateuch of the Old Testament. John wrote the Gospel, Revelation, and three epistles. That makes five. He wrote a Pentateuch. And actually, as we have indicated, many expositors feel that John wrote his epistles last, and I rather concur in that. And if that’s true, then this is his swan song. And it was written toward the close of the first century. And there had come many wonderful believers into the church. And to tell the truth, there were literally thousands, in fact, several million that had been brought into the truth. Now, we want to know how they got along. How did they live? Were they all paragons of virtue? Were they all outstanding men of God? All wonderful, great men? How did they get along? Were they worthy followers of Christ? In turn, were they worthy examples? Now, of the millions who turned to Christ in the first centuries, how did the average believer turn out? Well, there were some like Gaius, real men of God, men of courage, men who stood for the things of God, men that were outstanding. Now, here comes another man by the name of Diotrephes. He loved to have the preeminence. The thing that is said about him is this, that Diotrephes even opposed the apostle John when John wrote to the church. to receive certain man. And the next man that we see is an outstanding preacher of the gospel, one of those unknown saints of God. There are many of them like that today, named Demetrius. We’re going to see him next time. But here, this man Diotrephes wouldn’t receive him. And he’s one of these fellas that, well, he wouldn’t even open his home, as we have said before, and for the benefit of new listeners, the way that they entertain these traveling evangelists in that day, there were no Hilton hotels. There were no motels like Ramada Inn or Holiday Inn. There were miserable little inns here and there, but not in every place. And they were generally dirty and filled with fleas. And so these private homes were open and Christians practice hospitality. You’ll find that Peter mentions it in 1 Peter 4, 9, he speaks of this thing, and it is something that was practiced. He says in 1 Peter 4, 9, use hospitality one to another without grudging. And Paul talked about it in 1 Timothy 5, 9, Romans 12, 13, Titus 1, 8. I remember as a boy in the little town I lived in, there was no hotel or motel, and the preachers that came there were entertained in the homes. Now, Diotrephes opposed this. I don’t know whether he was a local preacher or a layman, but he resisted all of these that John had recommended. And the reason is he loved to have the preeminence. His motto was to rule or ruin. His motto was he was going to have his own way. And it didn’t make any difference what the result might be. And John had urged them, you ought to receive them. They’re fellow helpers of the truth. And may I say to you, I think there’s a real compulsion on a child of God today to support those who are giving out the Word of God. You’ve got a preacher that’s doing that. You should support him. Therefore, here in the early church, they did. But here is this man, Diotrephes. He is the man that is filled with airs, we say today. He puts on airs. He is pretentious. He’s vainglorious. He struts around as a peacock. He has an overweening ambition. He’s vainglorious. He’s puffed up. He’s inflated like a balloon. This is the thing that characterized him. He was one that you had to receive him with a flourish of trumpets. He came in in a blaze of glory. That was this fellow here. That’s Diotrephes. Now, I’m wondering, as I’m saying all of this, I’m wondering if you recognize this fellow here. Because if you want to know the truth, there are many of them in the churches today. You see, the thing that’s brought against this man, actually, John will bring five charges against him. He was guilty of five charges. In other words, number one, he must occupy the leading place in the church. He actually refused to receive John. Number three, he made malicious statements against the apostles. And four, he refused to entertain the missionaries, the ones that were traveling through the country. And the reason, obviously, is he is the one who wanted to do the speaking and the teaching. And five, he excommunicated those who did entertain the missionaries. In other words, he wanted to be the first exalted ruler of the church. And here is a man that is self-opinionated, self-exalted. Instead of being self-effacing, he’s a self-made man. I’m sure that’s what he claimed to be. Instead of having the Holy Spirit make him over, he was self-sufficient. And I think he had self-admiration also. He was self-will. He was satisfied. He had self-confidence. And he felt like that he was the one that could do all of the teaching and do all of the preaching. And he didn’t need them to come through. Now, may I say that in many churches today, there are men like that who want to run the church. And if you ask me, and I’m no longer a pastor, I’m out now, and I’m not looking for a church. And I can say exactly today what I think and what I know to be true. And I’m not speaking now of any theory whatsoever. But I happened over the years to have met men. All of them put up a very pious front, but they tried to run the church. I’ve had them like that in churches I’ve served. And thank the Lord, I never had much trouble with those fellas. But sometimes it’s a little click. And they’ll do anything in order to rule. They’ll rule or ruin. And I have watched them wreck church after church today. When that little group or that individual, like Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence, Now, I’m going to say something that may be very harsh. There are many men, I’m sure they may mean well, but they enjoy leading in the church. They enjoy being up before a group of people. And for the most part, the ones I’ve met are almost Bible ignoramuses. They know very little about the Word of God, but they love to talk. And actually, their talk sometimes caused me to bow my head in shame when I’m sitting on the platform. Some of the things that they say are totally unscriptural, totally beside the point, dead as a doornail. And they wonder why their church is losing members. They wonder why today people are not coming. Well, friends, it’s very evident why. There are a great many men who ought to keep quiet in church. Remember Paul said in Thessalonians, study to be quiet. Well, we today are trying to teach young people to talk. We ought to teach a lot of them to keep quiet because we’ve got a group of older ones today that talk too much. And my friend, we ought not to talk in church unless we’ve got something to say and have something from God to say. And this idea of wanting to be up front. Well, let me go all the way today. I don’t know how many listeners I’m going to lose today talking about diatrophies, but I’ve met diatrophies and Mrs. Diatrophies. There are certain ones that ought not to be singing. There are certain people ought not to sing solos in the church. They don’t bring any glory to God. And they pick sometimes songs that absolutely hurt the service rather than help the service. My friend, may I say to you today, because I may be talking to some of you like that, you ought to search your heart before God, before you stand up in the church and begin to talk. And especially today, these soloists that like to make a little talk before they sing a song. And I’ve always discovered that the song they’re going to sing, the message they bring before it is just about as phony as anything possibly can be, because they’re going to tell you why they’re going to sing that song. Why not just sing the song? If it’s got a message, then that’s all the message that a soloist needs to give. Oh, may I say to you, I say this because I’m deeply concerned. I watched out here in Hollywood. I watched them make one scene. And friends, when I left, because I got tired of watching it, they’d already done it 15 times. And they were still working at it. And I thought when I left, oh, if God’s people today in the church would work as hard To do anything that is going to be done in the service to bring glory to the name of Christ. It deserves the best you’ve got, my friend. And this idea of loving to have the preeminence. Really, why are you presiding? Why are you leading? Why do you sing? Do you love to have the preeminence? Are you doing this for the glory of God? And this can refer to the ministers too, by the way. All of us need to search our own heart. I told you that John would step on our toes. All of us, friends. All of us need to search our heart. Why are we doing this? Are we doing it for the glory of God? Now, I’m going to leave off right there. It’s a good place to leave off because we’re going to come to a wonderful brother next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 01 :
Our study in 3 John ends next time, and then we head back to the Old Testament book of Nahum. To download Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for our entire five-year journey through God’s Word, use our app or go to ttb.org and click on Briefing the Bible. Or if you’d like to receive an abbreviated paperback copy by mail, call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number. And maybe leave your story on our voicemail line, too. You know we’d love to hear it. And when you’re in touch, please tell us how you catch the Bible bus. Is it by app, online, YouTube, your favorite Christian radio station? However you hop on board, it really does help us to know. I’m Steve Schwetz and grateful for your company and partnership as we make our way through the Bible.
SPEAKER 04 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, ride the Bible bus for five years and you’ll be amazed at what God teaches you from his word about what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It’s a blessing that keeps on going. That’s what we believe at Through the Bible.
