A Letter To A Lady And Her Kids.

SERMON OUTLINE:

• Question #1: Who was "the elder"?

• Question #2: Who was "the chosen lady"?

• Question #3: What was the situation?

• Question #4: What is the Big Idea of this letter?

• Question #5: What is the message of 2 John?

• (5a). Knowing the truth but not practicing it (vs 1-6)

• (5b). Knowing the truth but not Defending it (vs 7-8 & 10-11)

• (5c). Going Beyond the truth yet not advancing (vs 9)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• A city executive was lost in the countryside,

• And his Sat-nav was not finding any satellite connection to help him.

• As he is driving down a narrow country lane,

• He sees a country bumpkin sitting on the fence chewing on a piece of straw.

• So, he stops his BMW next to him and asks,

• “Which way to the motorway?”

• The country bumpkin replies:

• “Motorway, I don’t know much about motorways, sorry I can’t help you!”

• So, he then asks him,

• “Which way to civilisation, the nearest city?”

• The country bumpkin replies:

• “Civilisation, the city, I don’t know much about all that!”

• The city executive says to him, “You don’t know, much do you?”

• The country bumpkin replies, “No! But I aint lost!”

• TRANSITION: As we start looking at 2 John,

• Like the country bumpkin there is a number of things we don’t know,

• But as we will shortly see. like hm there is an important truth we do know,

LET’S START BY ASKING THIS LETTER A FEW QUESTIONS:

Question #1: Who was "the elder" (vs 1a)?

Answer:

• The short answer is we don’t know!

• We can guess but nobody knows 100% who wrote the letter.

• That of course has not stopped people guessing,

• Whoever 'the elder' was we know two things:

• He was probably senior in years.

• He probably held a high office or was a leader in a local Church.

Ill:

• I say that because of that description, “the elder”

• The Greek word translated into English as 'elder' is 'pres-bu-teros' from which:

• We get the word 'presbytery', or 'presbyterian' from.

• Originally: It simply meant 'an old man',

• And it later came to mean, 'a person of high office' in the church.

• TRANSITION: Many people believe 'the elder' was the Apostle John:

• He was senior in years.

• John was viewed as a key leader of the early Church,

• More importantly,

• This letter has his fingerprints all over it,

• By that I mean you can recognise his language, style & teaching.

• When you compare it to the previous letter and the next one.

• They bear lots of similarities.

• More important than our guess work,

• The readers of the letter knew exactly who was writing to them!

• They were not confused by this simple description.

• The letter was originally for them and they knew exactly who this elder was.

Why the authors name was not specifically noted is a mystery, there are a few ideas:

• (a). Possibly the letter:

• Came in a bundle of letters addressed to the church,

• Making a more specific greeting unnecessary.

• (b). Another reason might be names were omitted:

• To protect the writer and reader from persecution,

• Should the letter fall into the wrong hands.

• (c). Most likely, the anonymous yet affectionate description used:

• Was itself, sufficient identification for the reader.

• ill: A modern church leader might sign a letter to his congregation, "Your Pastor".

Note: A bit of irony in the letter.

• There are only two names identified for us on the postcard:

• God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

• (These are found in verses 3, 7, 9.)

• And yet throughout the postcard there are lots of 'people' references, but no names:

• Verse 1: A lady mentioned.

• Verse 1: An elder mentioned.

• Verse 13: Her sisters mentioned.

• Verse 13: Her sisters kids mentioned.

• Verse 1: Her own kids mentioned.

• Lots of people, but ironically never any of their names!!!

• Question 1: Who was "the elder"?

• Answer: Possibly John the apostle.

Question #2: Who was "the chosen lady" (vs 1b)?

• Yes, you guessed it, someone else we have no idea who she was!

• The receiver of the letter is also unidentified.

• She has the mysterious description ‘The chosen lady’

As with ‘the elder’ people have also been guessing/researching who she was.

• (a). Some commentators have interpreted this name to be a reference to a local church,

• And interpret the expression "her children", as the members of that church.