These three 3 small letters of John often get overlooked—especially the last two. Yet, God’s Spirit inspired them and the Lord saw to it that they were included in the Bible for our benefit. They are a part of His authoritative Word to us and they have much to say to us in these early years of the 21st century. John was exiled to the Island of Patmos because of his commitment to the gospel. It was from there that he probably wrote the book of Revelation. Though the historical records are slim, there is evidence that John was released from Patmos and lived out his final years serving the church in Ephesus, which was one of the leading congregations in Asia. It is from there that he wrote these 3 letters that we will consider today and the next two Sunday mornings. As the first century was coming to a close, the Christian church was only six decades old. The very apostles of Jesus had planted and influenced those churches. The gospel had spread throughout the Roman Empire and thousands of people were being converted out of Judaism and paganism. Those new churches had experienced vibrant growth and seen God work in powerful ways, transforming the lives of people and establishing new communities of faith—spiritual families—everywhere the gospel went. But—and there’s always a “but,” isn’t there—those churches also faced many severe challenges. They had problems, which all churches inevitably do. Sometimes people get disillusioned when they discover problems in their churches. Brothers and sisters, we should we should guard against letting that happen to us. What I mean is that we need to develop a biblically informed, realistic view of the Christian life and church life.
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