*This sermon was preached at Gethsemane Baptist Church during Lord’s Day worship on April 21, 2024.
Introduction:
Bill was born August 17, 1761, into the Anglican home of Edmund and Elizabeth, in Northhamptonshire England. God converted Bill to faith in Christ in 1778 at the age of 17, and 3 years later he became a charter member of the Congregational Church in Hackleton. He started getting to know some well-known Baptists at the time, such as John Sutcliff, who taught him NT Greek. And Bill’s study of NT Greek led him to the conviction that baptism is reserved for only those who confess faith in Christ, and he was subsequently baptized by the then famous Baptist pastor John Ryland in the River Nene on October 5, 1783 (22 years old). Shortly thereafter he successfully and bi-vocationally pastored two Baptist churches, during which time he discovered profound skills in linguistics. He began to master Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch. But Bill soon found himself burdened with the “vastness of heathenism” and the “urgent duty which rested upon the Christian church to supply that need.” And so he began writing what some scholars have called “one of the greatest achievements of his career” – a small treatise entitled: “An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens in which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, are Considered.” One of the central arguments in the Enquiry he made was this: “Expect great things from God; Attempt great things for God.”
During this time, the theological debate among some Baptists was whether we should preach the gospel to those who may not be elect. And how would we know if they’re elect unless they show some sign that they’re elect, namely, repentance, remorse for sin, softness of heart toward spiritual things, and the like? And so, the argument went, let’s not take action in missions until we see God saving the nations first. So, the Enquiry addresses this hyper-Calvinistic, anti-missional sentiment among Baptists at the time by arguing that divine sovereignty in salvation ignites human responsibility in missions. How God sovereignly saves is by missions! And that reality also ignited a passion in Bill to take the gospel to the nations.
On October 2, 1792, a small band of Baptist pastors gathered in Kettering, England and together formed the Baptist Missionary Society. And their very first missionaries to be sent out to India with the support of the churches that made up this Baptist Missionary Society were John Thomas and William Carey. It seemed like an impossible task, sending missionaries to a country that had never heard the story of the kindness of Jesus in the salvation of sinners. One of the pastors, John Ryland, recorded the story of that meeting and said this:
Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine, which had never before been explored, we had no one to guide us; and while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.” But before he went down… he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each of us, at the mouth of the pit, to this effect—that “while we lived, we should never let go of the rope.”
And they never did. William Carey brought the gospel to India, and you can find churches there even today that draw their heritage from when Carey planted churches. But while Carey and Thomas brought the gospel to the nations, Andrew Fuller and the Baptist Missionary Society worked tirelessly to support them. Churches from all over Scotland, England, and Ireland invited Fuller to come speak about the Baptist Missionary Society and their efforts to raise up missionaries, send them out, and support their gospel labors. Carey’s faithfulness became the foundation of what came to be called “the greatest missionary movement in world history.” John Piper, in his short biography of Andrew Fuller and the Baptist Missionary Society, says this: [The Baptist Missionary Society was] just one of ten thousand things God did to unleash this great Christ-exalting, gospel-advancing, Church-expanding, evil-confronting, Satan-conquering, culture-transforming, soul-saving, hell-robbing, Christian-refreshing, truth-intensifying missionary movement.[1]
And Gethsemane Baptist Church has the opportunity to be a part of that. We’ve got some opportunities coming up this summer to hold the rope for those who are going out for the sake of the name. I think that’s exactly what 3 John is encouraging us to do as a church. The apostle John is writing to a pastor of another church that John likely discipled, and John’s church might have even planted Gaius’s church, but we don’t know that for sure. And in these first 8 verses, he simply encourages them to be faithful and walk in the truth, and to support faithful missionaries.
3 John 1-8 gives us two simple directives as a church:
- Walk in the Truth
- Support Faithful Workers
I. Walk in the Truth
John greets Gaius, whom we’re assuming is the pastor of a church, and says, “I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
So, these brothers, who are those who are going out for the sake of the name in v. 7, have come back to John’s church (where they are likely members) telling about how much Gaius and his church love Jesus. What does it mean to walk in the truth? When the brothers come back to Pastor John and they say “You’re going to love this: Pastor Gaius and his church are walking in the truth.” What does that mean? It means that their manner of life reflects an encounter with the Truth. It’s conduct that results from Truth literally residing, making it’s dwelling place, in that person. And because of 2 John 2, which says, “because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever,” I think John is simply talking about the manner of life that flows from a genuinely converted soul. The Spirit of Truth resides within them, and the result? Walking in truth – walking in faithfulness. And John says, “Nothing makes me happier than to hear that my fellow believers are simply being faithful.”
It’s interesting how these two things coincide in this text. John loves to see Christians walking in the truth, and that itself is evidence that John is walking in the truth. The Christian life is fundamentally others-oriented. Conversion shifts the focus away from self and to God and others. That’s why I sometimes say to guys, “If you love reading theology, you love reading biblical theology, you like sitting around and discussing reformed theology, Calvinism, supralapsarianism vs. infralapsarianism, but you can’t be bothered to get up 15 minutes early to pick up an elderly lady and take her to church, I’m not sure you’re a Christian.” We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren, John says. He says in the same chapter, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (I John 3:18). The Christian life is fundamentally others-oriented. Self-centeredness is why evangelism doesn’t happen on an individual level; but on the church level, I think this is why so many churches become apathetic to missions – they become a church that exists solely for themselves. And John and Gaius and the brothers here give us a different pattern.
Friends, do you want to know the secret to being a really “successful” church when it comes to missions? Do you want to know the secret to becoming a church that, to use Carey’s words, “holds the rope well?” Because I’ve got it: Walk in the truth.
Plant 80 church in 20 years? Nope.
Raise up $1M dollars for the IMB? Nope.
Send out 1,000 missionaries through a missions program we start at our church? Nope.
Start a short-term missions ministry? Nope.
Here’s how we become a “successful” church that supports missionaries well: Preach the Word, help one another follow Jesus, pray for one another and for other churches and the spread of the gospel, gather regularly, take the Lord’s Supper together, confess our sins, evangelize our children and those around us, and rest in Christ and his righteousness.
I believe that the more we do that, the more effective we will become as a missions-minded church. Simply walk in the truth; be faithful. And God will do more with ordinary faithfulness than all the fancy gimmicks we could ever come up with.
Nothing makes me happier as a pastor than to see you simply being faithful as Christians. I know exactly what John is talking about here. If we don’t ever send out members of our church to plant another church, if we don’t ever raise up missionaries from within our church that we send overseas, if we never start a Baptist Missionary Society that changes the course of human history, and we simply gather together each week to sit under the ministry of the Word, prayer, and the ordinances, we simply link arms as we walk to heaven by faith together, I’ll have no greater joy.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. I’m saying the ordinary faithful things he’s called us to do are the great things we attempt for God. Prayer is an ordinary thing, but it accomplishes great things. Likewise, planting a church on foreign soil is a great thing, but it’s a fairly normal and ordinary thing to do since churches have been doing that for 2,000 years.
The very best thing we can do as a church to be a missions-minded church is faithfulness in what God has called us to do: Gather together regularly, not forsaking the assembly of the saints as is the habit of some, as Hebrews says, preaching the Word, praying the Word, hearing the Word, singing the Word, and seeing the Word in the ordinances.
So, walk in the truth. And simply walking in the truth as a church ordinarily results in sending and supporting faithful workers.
II. Support Faithful Workers
Look at vv. 5-8…
Here’s what it looks like to “hold the rope” for faithful missionaries. Notice a couple of things:[2]
First, a desire for missions and to support missionaries is normal for a healthy church. It’s a faithful thing to support those who go out for the sake of the name. Show me a faithful church, and I’ll show a church that wants to support missionaries.
Second, churches associating together for the sake of sending and supporting missionaries well is encouraged. These missionaries who visited Gaius’s church came back to John’s church reporting how faithful and loving they were. And now Gaius’s church is receiving a letter from John’s church for their edification. It reminds me of what the London Baptist Confession says about how churches should relate to one another:
Every church and all its members are obligated to pray continually for the good and prosperity of all churches of Christ in every place. They must also—at every opportunity within the limits of their stations and callings—exercise their gifts and graces to benefit every church. Also, when churches are raised up by the providence of God, insofar as they enjoy opportunity and favorable circumstances for it, they should have fellowship among themselves for their peace, growth in love, and mutual edification.
That’s what we see happening here in these verses – healthy associationalism.
Third, faithful missionaries are connected to a local church. After receiving support from Gaius’s church, they returned to the church who sent them and made a report. A missionary wanting financial support who is not a member of a local church is not a healthy thing at all. Faithful missionaries are connected to a local church.
Fourth, support should be abundant. Look at what John says: “You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.” We see that they relied on Gaius’s and John’s churches for support, accepting nothing from the Gentiles, that is, the people to whom they were sent. The churches take responsibility for these missionaries, and they supply them in a manner worthy of God.
Faithful missionaries are worth supporting sacrificially not because of the results they produce, but because of the God who calls and sends them. It’s as if we’re supplying Jesus himself for a journey – what need would we not try to meet for him? It’s a principle already established by Paul in I Cor. 9: Those who go out for the sake of the name have a right to the church’s finances.
Fifth, notice that by supporting faithful workers for the truth, we become “fellow workers for the truth.”
This is where the rubber meets the road for us as a church. Like I said before, God may be calling some of you in this room to become a missionary. He’s laid it on your heart to sell everything you have, go to the field, plant the seeds of the gospel in faithfulness, and die, leaving all the results to him. And praise God for that, and if you want to become a missionary, you just come to talk to me any time.
But most of us are not called to be the next William Carey. Most of us are going to work a job, be a member of a local church, raise a family, evangelize those around us, and render ordinary faithfulness as worship to God for the rest of our lives. And what this passage tells us is this: that’s okay! This tells us that by being a faithful church member, we can be involved with missions even though most of us will never become a missionary.
But notice, most importantly, that they’re going out for the sake of the name. What a contrast between these brothers and Gaius, and Diotrephes in the following verses: “Who likes to put himself first…” and later, “refuses to welcome the brothers.” But those who go out for the sake of the name, and those who support them, have Peter’s words driving their ministry to lost: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Non-Christian, that’s why we’re so glad you’re here this morning. There is nowhere else you can look for salvation. Nothing else can satisfy God’s demands except Christ and Christ alone. He lived the life sinners should’ve lived and he died and rose again so that anyone who trusts in him will be saved. O sinner, call on his name and you will be saved. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Church, there’s a profound sense in which we support people like these because Jesus came to save people like us. Listen, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, which means he came to seek and to save you, Christian. And he ordinarily does that by sending someone to proclaim the truth. Someone told you good news that though you were lost, though you were blind, though you were enemy of God, there is grace in the Lord Jesus! Grace to cover your sins and reconcile you to God.
Hopefully someone came to you and said, “Salvation is by works!” It’s all by obedience! If you just obey everything God commands, you can earn your way to heaven! Salvation awaits you if you just render to God by way of obedience your perfect works. But you can’t. There’s not an ounce of obedience you can ever present to God that could ever be unstained by sin enough, unstained by selfishness enough, unstained by self-righteousness enough to ever be the grounds of your acceptance before God. Your obedience stands as your prosecution, and not as your acquittal. You can’t obey perfectly enough. And hopefully someone then said to you, “Oh, but there was One who did.” There was one who rendered a perfect obedience to God, and by his perfect conformity to God’s standards, and by dying on the cross, which satisfied God’s just demands for the sinner’s lack of conformity, he achieved a perfect redemption for sinners for all who will believe. And now your obedience stands as your prosecution; Jesus’ obedience stands as your acquittal. Salvation is by works, but it’s salvation by Christ’s works, and not our own.
Whether it was your parents, another family member, a preacher, some stranger who cared for your soul, Jesus likely sent someone to every one of you so that he might seek you, save you, and on the grounds of his perfect righteousness unite you to himself by faith, and become your Prophet, Priest, and King. Someone went out for the sake of his name, so that by his name you might be saved. Knowing that, how can that not produce in us a desire to want to be a part of spreading the fame of Christ’s name across the whole earth?
The gospel tells to hold the rope for those who go down, to support those who go out for the sake of the name, because Someone went out for the sake of the name for us, and he shed his precious blood for us.
[1] Piper, Andrew Fuller: I Will Go Down if You Will Hold the Rope, 2.
[2] Some of these insights I owe to Andy Johnson’s helpful book entitled Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global.
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