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Today’s hero is Gaius because he shows us the gift of Love
Essential Teachers notes:
One would be more than forgiven for saying ‘Gaius who?’, he’s not exactly a Moses, Jonah or Peter but he is a man with a legacy and we all hope to leave a positive legacy with our lives. This story works best if you have either a bible or the bible passages printed out for members of the group to read.
Main Passage : 3rd book of John.
Other passages : Acts 19+20, Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 1.
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Do you know what a legacy is? It’s the think people remember about you, they remember it when you have left them, they tell other people about it, it’s the part of a person that just can’t be forgotten.
Today we are going to discover somebody who had a legacy, that person’s name is Gaius.
There are no stories about things Gaius did, there are no words Gaius said recorded, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t part of the action. In order to discover his story we need to look at the bible like a hidden object game.
The first time we hear of Gaius a large crowd has grabbed him. I wonder if you can find the story
Acts 19:29 – 32
Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater. The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.
I wonder what this tells us about Gaius. We know he travelled with Paul, and Paul was always getting into trouble for telling people abut Jesus. I wonder if he was scared. When the official came he sent everyone home, Gaius was safe. but do you think being in the middle of an angry crowd made him turn away from Jesus?
If you want to know the answer just look into the next chapter, at verse 4, Gaius stuck with Paul.
But what happened after that. We hear Gaius’s name 3 more times in the bible. We discover that he settled with the church in Corinth and became one of the leaders there.
We find out what he did in Corinth from Romans 16:23. He was responsible for the travelling Christians who came into the city. He would welcome them and take them to the church to speak about how the church was moving across the world.
Then one day, the apostle John wrote him a letter, and we have that letter. It’s a very short letter, I wonder if you can find it in your bibles. It’s the third letter of John.
By this time Gaius was getting old. John writes the letter to say how pleased he is with Gaius and how important it is to walk in the truth with Jesus. But John also show’s us that Gaius was leaving a legacy.
I wonder what legacy was Gaius building. Would it be one of bravery for standing up to his faith, or hospitality to travellers, or perhaps he was a great speaker? Perhaps all that was true, but the people who visited him were travelling on to places and using a great word to describe Gaius. – perhaps you can find the answer in verse 6?
The travellers would tell the other churches of Gaius’ great love. What an amazing legacy to leave.
Today’s hero is Gaius because he shows us the gift of Love
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