Coworkers with the Truth – 3 John 5–8 (2026.06.21)
Introduction
Scripture
Turn to 3 John...
Find Revelation and go back two pages...
Promotion of Celebrate Freedom 250
July 4 is our nation's semiquincentennial.
We will celebrate next Sunday, June 28.
Where?
Nacogdoches Civic Center
When?
Doors open at 5:00.
Worship begins at 6:00.
Southern Baptist Convention
Few religious groups are as polarizing as the Southern Baptist Convention...
Let us focus on what that is and what that means for a few minutes...
We are a Southern Baptist church...
There was a big meeting in Orlando a couple weeks ago called the Southern Baptist Convention...
What is it?
Probably not what you think...
It is not really a denomination...
Not technically...
It is not really a permanent organization...
Although the SBC establishes and funds organizations.
It is not a bureaucracy that controls our church (or any church)...
It is not a group that interprets the Bible...
Technically, it is a meeting...
A two-day meeting that happens every June...
It is a meeting where representatives (messengers) from up to 47,000 independent and autonomous churches come together for encouragement and edification but primarily to decide how to spend the money those churches have voluntarily pooled together for the specific purpose of missions and theological education.
What is a Southern Baptist church?
A Southern Baptist Church is an independent church...
An independent church that has voluntarily associated with other independent churches to collectively support missions and ministry education in a cooperative manner.
But that is not what I've heard in the press!
You are probably correct.
But the press is often misleading and often wrong.
But I heard that the Southern Baptist Convention just banned women pastors!
Well, that is a good starting place to explain what the Southern Baptist Convention is and what it is not.
Women as Church Pastors
There are two important parts to the question about women pastors...
First, what does the Bible say about women being pastors, or ministers, or leaders...
Three years ago, I preached a detailed message walking through every major biblical passage that addresses this question.
I turned the sermon into an easy-to-read 20-page article and printed it for you.
It is in your worship guide as an insert today.
And there are some in the welcome areas.
The Bible answers this question with perfect clarity.
The short answer is that...
The Bible says a person or persons in a church who have the title or function of a pastor/elder/overseer are to be biblically qualified men.
Beyond the pastoral office, Scripture opens an enormous range of ministry, service, and leadership to both men and women.
At First Baptist Church of Nacogdoches, we have men and women serving as ministers.
We have men and women praying and testifying before the church on Sundays.
We have men and women serving on every decision-making committee in our church.
Frankly if we did not have women leading and serving, we would have to fold up shop around here.
Second, what did the Southern Baptist Convention do with respect to female pastors?
Well, if we are going to cooperate together to support missions and education, we have to agree on a few basic things...
Why?
We want to know that our money is being spent to support missions efforts that teach the Bible the same way we do when it comes to the basics.
We want to know that the graduate schools (seminaries) that we help pay for are training ministers to teach and preach the same way we do when it comes to the basics.
Imagine you are starting a new SFA Lumberjacks fan club...
You are collecting dues from 100 SFA fans in Nacogdoches.
But then a bunch of those Jacks fans become Bearkats, Sam Houston Bearkats!
That would ruin the whole club...
The Bearkat fans would start wanting the purple walls painted orange...
So the SFA fans would come together and pass a new rule...
NO SAM HOUSTON FANS IN THE CLUB!
Now, have they forbidden people from being Sam Houston fans? NO!
Have they changed their "theology"? NO!
They have just clarified that this is and has always been an SFA Lumberjacks fan club.
So, the Southern Baptist Convention voted this year (first of two years) to say that if your church has a woman as a pastor/elder/overseer, then you are out of the club.
The Southern Baptist Convention has done this in some form or another every year for five years.
First, this does not effect women serving in any other role or exercising women exercising any other kinds of leadership.
Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or trying to be divisive.
Second, the Southern Baptist Convention has not banned any church from doing anything.
The Southern Baptist Convention does not have that kind of authority.
Just like Walmart does not have authority over you.
Walmart has no authority over whether you prefer Jiffy Peanut Butter or Peter Pan Peanut Butter.
But if Walmart wanted to, they could stop selling Peter Pan...
Walmart does have that authority...
The Southern Baptist Convention has no authority to prevent it.
But the Convention DOES HAVE the right to determine which churches it recognizes as cooperating churches.
A church can have an aardvark as a pastor if they want.
You just cannot be in our club.
Third, the SBC has not changed its theology.
Going all the way back to the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention, this view has been the fundamental view.
The egalitarian position is the departure from historic Southern Baptist belief, not the historic position.
This is just the Lumberjacks Club saying what it did not have to say in the beginning...
NO BEARKATS!
Biblical?
You might be asking, "Is all of this doctrinally bounded cooperation biblical?"
I AM GLAD YOU ASKED!
It is biblical...
And it is important...
And it is relevant to what we are doing as a church...
Let us read 3 John 5–8 together...
Scripture
Background
If you count the number of Greek words, 3 John is the shortest book in the New Testament.
Written around AD 90 by the apostle John...
John wrote to a Christian named Gaius...
To commend him for supporting traveling gospel workers...
What we now call missionaries...
To warn him about the pride and opposition of Diotrephes...
And to commend a faithful Christian worker named Demetrius...
For our purposes, this brief letter gives us a window into how the early church supported those who traveled to spread the gospel.
How they supported missions and missionaries...
The Holy Spirit highlights several important truths here...
But we will focus especially on the truth found in verse 8...
3 John 5 | Dear friend, you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers. (CSB)
I wanted to begin our reading in verse 5 because I want you to see what category of people John is talking about...
Strangers...
That means these people were travelers...
We will learn in the next verses that these travelers were ministers.
And traveling ministers are often called missionaries today.
John is saying to Gaius that when he cares for these missionaries, that he is acting "faithfully."
3 John 6 | They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, (CSB)
John commends Gaius for caring for these missionaries.
He instructs the church to care for future missionaries "in a manner worthy of God."
Extraordinarily high standard...
We are to support gospel workers in a way that reflects the worth of the God they serve.
3 John 7 | since they set out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from pagans. (CSB)
Here we see confirmation that these travelers were missionaries...
For the sake of the name...
Accepting Nothing from pagans...
We are not to go to the world to ask them to fund the Lord's work.
3 John 8 | Therefore, we ought to support such people so that we can be coworkers with the truth. (CSB)
One of the most important verses in the Bible...
Key words and phrases...
Ought
Support
Such people
Coworkers
Christian Cowork in 3 John 8
I. The Obligation: "we ought"3 John 8 | Therefore, we OUGHT to support such people so that we can be coworkers with the truth. (CSB)
The Greek word for "ought" (ὀφείλω) refers to owing a debt that must be repaid.
This not the only place in the Bible where gospel sharing is viewed as paying a debt...
Romans 1.14 | I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. (CSB)
It is a verb of moral obligation.
We have a Christian OBLIGATION to support the work of those who share the gospel in places where we do not live.
He does not say it would be nice to do this...
He says we OUGHT to do it.
Why is this an OUGHT?
The Great Commission...
Matthew 28.19 | Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (CSB)
Matthew 28.20 | teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (CSB)
The final command...
Acts 1.8 | But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (CSB)
We could view these geographic regions as different aspects of the command...
Jerusalem
We are to share where we live and work...
Judea
We are to support the work of those who go throughout the country to share the gospel...
Samaria
We should support the work that shares the gospel across social, ethnic, national, and racial boundaries...
Ends of the Earth
We should support the work that shares the gospel to the nations...
Notice Jesus does not say to do one and then later do another one...
All four...
All at the same time...
My Life Purpose
We often hear people say, "I am trying to figure out my purpose in life..."
Well, here it is...
Your purpose is to spread the gospel...
And spread it in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth...
II. The Action: "support"3 John 8 | Therefore, we ought TO SUPPORT such people so that we can be coworkers with the truth.(CSB)
Greek translated SUPPORT (ὑπολαμβάνειν) means to get underneath something in order to raise it up.
How can we support missions?
Go
To Christians of all ages...
There is no more God honoring and noble vocation that to take the gospel where it might not otherwise be heard!
Give
Pray
Bless
When one of our missionaries comes to Nac, we should overwhelm them with tangible love
The Importance of Cooperative Missions
There is no way one person or even one church can fully fulfill the Acts 1.8 command to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
So, we link arms with other churches to do this together...
We cooperate together to...
Send...
Train...
Coordinate...
Support...
How does our church do this?
We are a part of the Southern Baptist cooperative effort.
We support that cooperative effort...
By sending missionaries...
By giving...
We will give $360,000 to the Cooperative Program in 2026.
We are one of the top 100 churches in America in Cooperative Program giving.
By the way...
We will have a Members Meeting in early August to talk about how we can make that support more valuable to international missions work.
Details coming...
I want to thank Dr. Reed for his leadership in this...
In the 1990s and early 2000s when most high-budget churches in America dramatically lowered their commitment to missions to focus solely on church growth...
Under Dr. Reed's leadership, FBC Nac was one of the very few churches that did not make that unfortunate compromise.
By the way...
On August 9, we are going to celebrate how Dr. Allen Reed has left a legacy of faithfulness for our church and community and for his family.
This will be one of the things we point to.
We give significantly to two special annual offerings...
Annual Offerings
Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
To support international missions...
Annie Armstrong Easter Offering
To support missions in North America...
We have a coming-soon plan to significantly increase our participation in those offerings.
We can do more, and we should do more, and we will do more...
But our church is one of the top missions supporting churches in the United States.
Church Tensions...
How do we measure the strength of a church?
The mark of a GOOD church is FAITHFULNESS.
Faithfulness to God’s Word...
The tension a church faces as it strives to be faithful is...
Will we COMPROMISE God’s Word and CONFORM to the culture...
Or will we stand firmly on God’s Word and remain FAITHFUL?
The mark of a GREAT church is GOSPEL GENEROSITY.
Generosity in giving and going so that the gospel advances beyond its own walls and community...
The tension a church faces as it strives to be great is...
Will we hold tightly to our resources and spend them primarily on ourselves...
Or will we invest them generously and kingdom-mindedly for the spread of the gospel?
For the glory of God, I want us to be a GREAT church!
That is why, during the darkest days of COVID, when no one knew what the future held...
We received a special offering...
And in a single day, you gave a quarter of a million dollars for us to give away to mission organizations that were struggling.
That is why, when we began the Rise and Shine campaign last year to update our own facilities...
We determined that the first fruits of that campaign would not be spent on ourselves...
They would be given to another gospel ministry serving our community.
That is why we are now exploring how we can invest in the revitalization of another church in our county...
A church with a heart to spread the gospel...
But perhaps without all the leadership and resources it needs to fulfill that mission.
Very few churches could do these things...
Very few churches would do these things...
Because a great church does not ask only...
“What do we need for ourselves?”
So far...
The Obligation: "we ought"
The Action: "support"
III. The Criterion: “Such People”
3 John 8 | Therefore, we ought to support SUCH PEOPLE so that we can be coworkers with the truth. (CSB)
John does not say, "Support people.'"
He says, "Support SUCH people."
There is a 'such' attached to the support.
John does not tell us to support everyone who calls himself a missionary.
Gospel generosity must be accompanied by gospel discernment.
Because when we support someone, we become a participant in that person’s work.
Support the truth, and you become a coworker with the truth.
Support error, and you become a participant in the spread of error.
That is why we need to read 3 John alongside 2 John.
Whom Should We Not Support?
Scripture
John is not forbidding ordinary kindness or common courtesy.
He is forbidding Christians from receiving, endorsing, and materially supporting teachers who deny the apostolic gospel.
Whether we are sending people or sending money...
We must be careful to only support missionaries and ministries that share...
Our high view of Scripture...
Our understanding of the gospel...
And our commitment to the mission Christ has given his church.
Generosity without discernment can finance error.
We are not called merely to be generous.
We are called to be generous with the truth.
SBC Doctrinal Boundaries...
Through our cooperation, Southern Baptists support almost seven thousand missionaries around the world and six seminaries that train pastors, ministers, and missionaries.
Missionary Counts
International Mission Board: 3,522
North American Mission Board: 3,200
Total: 6,821
That kind of cooperation requires theological boundaries.
We cannot ask thousands of churches to give sacrificially while refusing to tell them what those resources will support.
So, Southern Baptists have established doctrinal boundaries around our cooperative work.
Not because we believe every Southern Baptist must agree on every secondary issue...
Not because the Southern Baptist Convention has authority over the local church...
But because cooperation requires agreement about the things that matter most.
Doctrinal boundaries are not an obstacle to cooperation.
They are the basis of cooperation.
If there are no boundaries, there is no shared mission.
Many denominations abandoned or continually loosened their doctrinal boundaries.
They believed that greater doctrinal flexibility would produce greater unity and greater growth.
They were wrong.
For the most part, they have experienced...
Theological drift
Division
Radical numerical decline
Loss of a clear gospel witness
Once a denomination decides that doctrine is negotiable, it eventually discovers that almost everything is negotiable.
Every year, thousands of people who are NOT part of the Southern Baptists shout and complain about our doctrinal boundaries...
First, our boundaries and theological convictions have not changed in 181 years.
When we pass amendments to our constitution or change our statement of faith, that is about clarity not change.
In 1850, the Southern Baptists did not have to say...
Marriage must be between a man and a woman...
Pastors are men...
Secondly, why do those people care?
They can stay in their dying liberal churches and do whatever they want to do.
Just leave us alone!
So far...
The Obligation: "we ought"
The Action: "support"
The Criterion: “Such People”
IV. The Result: "coworkers with the truth"3 John 8 | Therefore, we ought to support such people so that we can be COWORKERS WITH THE TRUTH. (CSB)
Here is the word the whole sermon has been climbing toward...
Coworkers
Not fans.
Not donors.
Not admirers.
Coworkers!
The Greek word is συνεργοί.
σύν means "together with..."
ἔργον means "work..."
A coworker is someone who joins another person in the work.
An English word from the same word-family is SYNERGY.
Synergy is the combined effect produced by cooperative work...
With the modern use of "synergy" we recognize that cooperative work produces a sum-is-greater-than-the-parts effect.
What does "COWORKERS" teach us?
First, it points to the biblical expectation, importance, and value of cooperative work.
The idea of churches joining together to send missionaries, train ministers, plant churches, and spread the gospel is not merely a Southern Baptist invention.
It has a clear biblical foundation.
Churches cooperating for the advancement of the gospel is a good, wise, and biblical way to do mission work.
We can accomplish more together than any one of our churches could accomplish alone.
Second, it points to our real participation in the work of our missionaries.
Illustration: One Team, One Victory
On a college football team, you have many players with many roles...
Offense, defense, and special Teams...
Starters and backups...
Practice squad...
But if on the last play of the game, a Lumberjack defensive lineman bats a screen pass up in the air, catches it, and runs it back for a touchdown to win the game by five points...
Only one player...
Only one player touched the ball...
Only one player crossed the goal line...
But, EVERY PLAYER CELEBRATES!
The coaches celebrate...
The fans celebrate...
The financial supporters celebrate...
Why?
Because in a real sense it was the collective and cooperative work of every one that made that victory happen.
I am a missionary!
Stories...
Last night, a frightened woman was found injured and abandoned in a New Orleans alley.
A missionary cared for her physical needs...
Told her that Jesus had not forgotten her...
Shared the gospel with her...
Helped her find a safe place to live...
And introduced her to a community that would love and support her.
We were not physically standing in that alley...
But through our giving, we helped place a gospel worker there.
We were coworkers with the truth.
Last week, a missionary sat in a darkened room with twenty new believers in a country hostile to Christianity.
They spoke quietly...
They kept the curtains closed...
They studied the book of Philippians...
They prayed for courage to remain faithful...
We were not sitting in that room...
But we helped train and send the missionary who opened the Scriptures.
We were coworkers with the truth.
Somewhere this morning, a missionary entered a village in Pakistan where the name of Jesus is barely known.
He sat beneath a tree...
Opened his Bible...
And told a family about the God who created them and the Savior who died for them.
We may never see that village...
But our prayers and gifts helped carry the truth there.
We were coworkers with the truth.
Somewhere today, a church planter is setting up chairs in a rented school cafeteria.
There is no sanctuary...
No permanent building...
No large staff...
Just a handful of believers who want their community to hear the gospel.
When that church gathers...
When the gospel is preached...
When someone is baptized...
Our cooperative giving helped make it possible.
We were coworkers with the truth.
Somewhere this week, a seminary professor will stand before a room filled with future pastors and missionaries.
He will teach them how to interpret God’s Word faithfully...
How to defend the gospel courageously...
And how to shepherd God’s people humbly.
We may never sit in that classroom...
But because we support the work of theological education...
We are coworkers with the truth.
Somewhere in our own county, a struggling church is praying for new life.
Its congregation still loves Jesus...
Its people still care about their community...
But they need encouragement...
Leadership...
Resources...
And a partner willing to stand beside them.
When we invest in that church...
We are not competing with them.
We are not rescuing them so that we can receive the credit.
We are joining them so that the gospel can flourish in another place.
We are coworkers with the truth.
I have never done any of those things...
I did not carry those balls over the goal line...
But I am a part of the team!
Conclusion
In a moment, we will come to the Lord’s table.
At the table, we look back to the cross...
To the body of Christ given for us...
And the blood of Christ shed for us.
We also look around at our church family...
One body...
One gospel...
One mission.
But we must also look out...
Because there are still people around the world who do not know what this bread and cup mean.
They do not know that Christ died for sinners...
That the tomb is empty...
And that Jesus saves.
The gospel we celebrate at this table...
Is the gospel we must carry to the nations.
At the Lord’s table, we celebrate the gospel that reached us.
Through missions, we help carry that gospel to those it has not yet reached.
So today...
Let us receive the gospel with gratitude...
Support its advance with generosity...
And become coworkers with the truth.