The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

3 John 9-12

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

Introduction

A. Guess what we are going to finish up 3 John today. Wow that was quick

B. The Good The Bad The Ugly

C. It is common to hear those words together

D. John Fedko sometimes uses then to show sports highlights/lowlights

E. Various other news people use it.

F. Sometimes we get home an ask our wives what they want to hear first the good the bad or the ugly

G. Do you know who invented this phrase?

H. The Bible

I. 3 John mentions it

a. The Good (11-12)

b. The Bad (9)

c. The Ugly (10)

J. Lets take a look and see how this relates to our lives

I. The Good (11-12)

A. Explanation

1. Demetrius – We do not know that much about this guy

a) It possibly could be the Demetrius 19:24, However this is a little bit difficult because it does not mention his conversion in the Bible

2. More importantly is how he has been living

a) Demetrius has lived a life that caused him to be respected by everyone

b) Understand Demetrius was that pastor, he was probably and elder

c) He was obviously well known and well like,

3. This is the interesting part he was spoken well by the truth itself

a) He had to be living out how we as Christians are suppose to live

4. Look at Verse 11

5. John was thinking about Demetrius when he wrote that

6. We are to imitate what is good, Demetrius did what was good

7. John again state that those who do good know God those who don’t do good, do know God, simple formula

B. Application

1. What can we gain from all of this?

2. Demetrius was a common man

3. He was not some sort of paid professional pastor

4. However, he set a good example

5. And example that we need to imitate

6. I think we have wrongly placed pastor’s and missionaries on too high of a petal stool

7. Someone who has lived in a manner worthy of God, deserves the Petal stool, there should be no preference given to the occupation

8. We are all called to serve to Lord, not just the “paid professionals”

C. Illustration

1. If John would have written this book during our lifetime he would obviously not used Demetrius as an example. We could insert Mary Staley’s name in there. She Modeled the Good. She imitated what is good. Obviously, everyone spoke well of her. She kept working hard at imitating Christ. Her prayer request for the 2002 prayer clock, “That I would be a Godly witness to my neighbors”

2. When I first read that request, I was amazed this was coming from Mary. But that was Mary, constantly wanting to imitate Christ

3. Constantly wanting to become more like Jesus

4. That my friends are the good.

II. The Bad (9)

A. Explanation

1. Unfortunately now we have to talk about the Bad

2. Diotrephes

a) WE have to look at his character, granted we do not have a full blow explanation of his character but we will look as some of the things John mentions

b) Unlike today, Diotrephes was a common name, and we do not know much about this guy

c) What we do now is this was a very prideful guy

d) “Who loved to come first”

e) This guy controlled the Church, everyone knew that

f) More then likely Diotrephes had great leadership skills, that is how he always got to be in the spotlight

3. Now other then the fact that he loved to hog the spotlight what else do we know about Diotrephes

4. We know that he also wanted to make sure no one ruined his games

a) He had nothing to do with us

b) He was not accepting John – The apostle, authority

c) He plain rejected it.

B. Application

1. How can we apply this to our lives

2. We can become easily like Diotrephes

3. It is easy to get an attitude like Diotrephes

4. We do this not even meaning to act that way

5. WE do not want the district office of the Western PA looking over our shoulders at every decision we make

6. WE rather they leave us alone

7. However, they have authority over us just like John had authority over Diotrephes

8. You know what, that is a good thing, they keep us straight

9. Having a non denomination Church is not always a good thing

10. You have no one other then your church to make sure that you are following the right doctrines and teachings

11. These people are put their in authority to watch over us