Dear Chosen Lady...walk This Way! Series

TEXT: 2nd John 1-13

TITLE: Dear Chosen Lady…”Walk THIS Way”

SERIES: Letters from John

TOPIC: Walking in truth

OCCASION: Hessville Christian Church, November 28, 2010

PROP.: John’s main purpose for writing this letter is to make sure we walk: In Truth, In Love and In Obedience.

INTRODUCTION: Good morning! We are continuing in a sermon series through the postcards of John. Last week, we studied third John and this week we are studying 2nd John.

Now that may seem like it’s reverse order, but if you remember last week, I told you that the #’s of the books…you know, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd…was added later and the letters of John were ordered in rank of size. And I also told you, that we studied 3rd and 2nd John first because they really set the table for what John will write in 1st John.

So our text is all 13 verses of 2nd John. REALLY QUICK, I want to recap 3rd John for you. 3rd John is a letter that was addressed to one of John’s friends by the name of GAIUS. Gaius was a man noted for his generosity and faithfulness to the church because he would welcome the traveling preachers into his home and take care of them.

On the other hand, John writes Gaius to warn him about DIOTROPHES. Remember him? He was a member of the same church that Gaius attended and was even apparently a leader in that church.

But Diotrophes was full of himself. He didn’t want John or other traveling preachers coming into the church. He wanted to rule the church - not lead the church…rule. And in John’s letter to Gaius, he mentions in verse 9 “I wrote to the church, but Diotrophes, who loves to be first will not welcome us.” And what I believe happened is John wrote a letter to the church and Diotrophes wouldn’t let it be read by the church. He maybe even destroyed it!

So, John wrote two letters at the same time. He wrote 3rd John to Gaius. And he wrote a second letter to be read by the church…that second letter to the church is our text this morning.

2nd John 1-13

1 The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, (let’s stop right there. Remember, John is the last eye witness alive of Jesus’ entire earthly ministry! The other apostles have died martyrs death. By the time John writes this letter he is about 80 years old! And so he refers to himself as “the old man”. The grandfather figure, the overseer of several churches throughout Asia minor. And John addresses this particular letter to the chosen lady and her children. Who is he referring?

Well there are a couple of ideas about this. It’s possible, that John is addressing this letter to a kind generous lady. But honestly, that’s highly unlikely.

The more reasonable and likely possibility is that John is addressing a church. Well isn’t that odd that John refers to the church as a lady? Not really! The church is known as the bride of Christ! And what’s cool is the word ‘lady’ there in verse 1 is the feminine of the word LORD. So it could almost be read as: To Mrs. Lord…Jesus’ bride. And so to be thought of as THE CHOSEN ONE of God shows how special the church is to God. How much she means to Him! And John says, “and to her children…” obviously, to those who make up the church. To you and to me! Let’s continue reading…)

1 To the lady chosen by God and to her Children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

(if you are doing your under-lining, you are noticing that we see our key words over and over again. Love. Truth. Jesus. And this is sort of John’s standard greeting in his letter. But if you’re not careful, you’ll miss it! In fact, what will help you is this: Remember last week, we answered the question WHAT IS TRUTH? And I told you that truth is that which is certain and reliable. Jesus Himself calls himself TRUTH. If you missed the video last week with the red balloon, I may show it to you again when we come to 1st John in a few weeks. We will see. But what John is doing is showing what they all have in common…and what they have is a COMMON TRUTH…and a COMMON LOVE.

His name is Jesus Christ! Let’s keep reading…verse 4)