The Church at Smyrna

Lesson Transcript

Well, good morning to all. Good to see you in this way. You can turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 2:8-11, continuing our study in the book of Revelations, the letters to the seven churches, seven letters to seven different churches that were given to John. John was asked to write these to the church, to hand them to the angel of each one of the churches. Just a little bit of a review. The last time we looked at the first church we have here, the church at Ephesus.

Now, this church was a church we called it a good church, a busy church, a church that was very active in the community, and they could detect false doctrine. They recognized Satan trying to come in, and they rejected that and false teaching and so on. And there was nothing really that Jesus in that letter could say against the church as far as their service, their involvement, and their interaction, I believe, even with each other.

But if you remember, there was one thing that he said, "I have against you," and that is that you have left your first love. And that is just a real warning to us again. I just want to stress the fact. We, as plain people, Mennonites, we at Chippinsburg, may I say, bring it home real close. I consider us a really busy church. There's something going on almost every week that we can be involved in as far as some sort of ministry, some sort of work, or opportunity to just pour out our spiritual energy into.

There's a warning that goes with that, that Jesus left for this church at Ephesus. While they were busy doing good things, let's not forget the foremost, the most important part that he addressed. And he said it was that serious that if you don't repent, I'm going to take away your candlestick. Remember, each one of these seven churches had a candlestick. I like to think of that just as that little light shining in the community, a light of beauty and joy and purpose and all of that.

Let's remember to maintain I believe it was Elijah or somebody brought out this morning that relationship with Jesus. Paul says that, "Though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and have not love, it profits me nothing." Remember the story that Jesus gave of Mary and Martha. Martha was doing a good work. She was a good servant. She was preparing maybe a good Thanksgiving dinner. She was being hospitable. She was busy.

And her sister Mary was there at the feet of Jesus, taking in the word of Jesus. And Mary filed a complaint about her sister, "I need help. Don't you see my sister's doing nothing?" And Jesus rebuked her and said, "You know what? Your sister Mary has chosen the better part. That will not be taken away from her." And let's remember, all our good deeds, all our service, all of our energy that we put into the kingdom will possibly be taken away from us.

But that which Mary was gaining that day is not going to be taken away. She was gaining that love relationship with Jesus, taking in his word. And Jesus says that's going to go with us forever. Let's read verse 8 through 11, chapter 2, Revelation. "And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write these things, sayeth, 'The first and the last, which was dead and is alive: I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich.

And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried. And you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches.

He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." Just a short little letter here, probably one of the shortest ones to these churches. Verse 8, in the introduction, in the opening of this letter, notice what he repeats. He's the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. Now, if you back up to the first church at Ephesus, he said also in that introduction, introducing who he was, the author, who walks in the middle of the candlesticks, who walks throughout.

And just a reminder that Jesus Christ is very interested in the church, and that's where he's going, that's where he's walking, that's where he's involved. You might say, "Well, I don't have time for church. I don't like church. It's boring. It's people. It's whatever." Well, I'm sorry. That's where Jesus is. That's where Jesus is. And he told Peter, "Upon this rock I'm going to build my church, and that's going to be the most powerful thing on the face of the earth to ward off the gates of hell.

It's the church, the collected body, the believers, those that stick together for a cause. That's where Jesus is going to associate. You don't like church? You don't have time for church? You're going to miss out the greatest blessing." And you know what else? Jesus told us, or Paul tells us in Ephesians, I believe, about chapter 2 or so, he says that everything else has been put under his feet, everything, all things, but the church became his body right next to him and the fullness of his body.

So Jesus is very interested in the church. That's why he's writing these letters. A little bit of history of this city, Smyrna. This is about 35 miles north of Ephesus. If you look at the map, you'll see where these seven churches are laid out. This is probably the closest to the city of Ephesus we talked about. And it was a large port city, one of the finest seaports in the world at that time. And it was known for its architectural achievements, for its beauty and splendor. Beautiful city. You couldn't miss it.

It was known for its nice buildings and numerous temples and so on. Remember, Acts 19 tells us that all of Asia worshiped the great god, the goddess Diana. So there were temples here as well in this city. And from a distance, someone said Smyrna looked like a crown resting on the summit of a hill. So if you see the city from a distance, it looked like a crown sitting on the mountaintop. Beautiful. It was a very wealthy city. And Smyrna also, the name Smyrna, the word Smyrna simply means myrrh.

That's where it comes from, myrrh. And Smyrna was known, in fact, it had the exclusive rights to imports and exports of a spice called myrrh. We think of Hershey. We go to the city of Hershey. What do we think of? Candy, right? Even smells like candy. I mean, every corner of the street sort of has something that reminds you of candy. Well, that's the picture you got in ancient Smyrna. You come in there, it's myrrh, a spice taken from a plant which had many uses.

It was exported into Egypt, from what I read, to use for embalming of bodies. In some cases, it was used as a perfume. It was sort of a bittersweet kind of spice. And Smyrna had the monopoly of that, exclusive rights to import and export. So that is partly why the city was wealthy, had many jobs available rotating around this. We look at the wise men that celebrated the birth of Jesus and the spices they took. A really good chance the myrrh they took came from Smyrna.

Or when Jesus' body was anointed and prepared for burial with the spices, a really good chance it came from this city. Now, in this wealthy city, in this beautiful city with its temples and with its crowns and its wealth, was a little church, a small church. We get from the writing here, this was a small, poor, persecuted group of believers in the middle of all this opportunity. And Jesus has no rebuke to them this morning, nothing to correct them necessarily. He's just putting out a letter of encouragement.

He's putting out a letter of pleading with them to stay faithful. It's a very encouraging letter to me, very encouraging letter to stay faithful. And I think the subject here sort of connects well with our last part of the discussion in our Sunday school this morning, to just hang in there, resist the devil, stay strong in the middle of all this affliction that you're facing. In his introduction here in this letter, he says he's the first and the last.

That speaks again of the all authority from beginning to the end. Now, these folks in this wealthy, intimidating city, I'm sure they felt like nobodies. And they were looking up to these great men that were running this city, and they felt like I can only envision the writing here, the impoverishment, the persecution, and all that. We can just assume that they felt like they had no say-so in this city.

And Jesus just reminds them, "Remember, I'm the one that is the authority of the beginning and the end and all things." And he's the authority of the resurrection. He was dead and is alive. He told us that before. And that is exciting to me because it tells us that our Savior, on purpose, on purpose now, remember, he was not subject to death, but on purpose he died. Let's keep that in mind. I mean, we don't die on purpose, but Jesus did it on purpose.

And he just reminds the believers here, "I was dead, but I'm alive, and it's going to be life forevermore." Another thing he mentions here in verse 8, "I know thy works." Isn't that encouraging? "I know everything about you, little suffering church in this big city. I know your condition. I know your temptation. I know your trials. I know your enemy. I know your future, and I know your reward." Some of these are mentioned right here in this passage.

The first thing he brings out is their tribulation, their tribulation. What could that tribulation be? Well, he then mentions the ones that say they are Jews, and they are not. So there was a lot of tribulation coming, troubles coming, maybe spearheading the persecution came from the Jews. There were a number of Jews in this city. And I think it was right in this era that there was the emperor or the what's he called? I forget the name of the man ruling at this point in the empire and the kingdom.

But he made it mandatory that all people of this city would worship the emperor. Well, you know what this meant for God's people? It was say no. So the Jewish people got an exemption from this. The Jewish people had a lot of say-so and were somewhat respected by the authorities. So the Jews got a legal exemption from worshiping the emperor, but they were not friendly to Jesus' followers. And they would make it hard and sort of spearhead persecution for them and maybe even report them in some cases.

So the tribulation was coming from Jews, so-called Jews that weren't true Jews. And Jesus said they were the synagogue of Satan. From what I read in history, they would at times blame the Christians when they come together for the communions to do funny things like drink real blood and eat real flesh and so on. They'd blame them for, "Well, that didn't look good at all to the authorities." So that just encouraged more persecution and so on. The synagogue of Satan.

My mind just went back to what Paul says in Romans 2:28-29. Paul says, "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward and the flesh." This is under the new covenant. Paul is now speaking of a new covenant, and he's trying to get his readers to understand that in the old covenant, being a Jew meant having the bloodline of a Jew. It meant being circumcised physically, and there were other things that went with that. And now he's just changing that to a certain extent.

He's saying a Jew is not that kind of person, but a true Jew is one that is inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. So the new covenant, true Jew is one. Just like the Old Testament foreshadows, the whole way through it foreshadows. So when we think of an Old Testament Jew having to be circumcised, it pointed to a circumcision forward of the heart and of the spirit. Paul makes that clear.

Nothing to do with the fleshly circumcision or the physical circumcision, but it pointed forward. And for the New Testament, the new covenant believer, the only one door to go into becoming a child of the King, we must be circumcised in heart and spirit. That means our heart and our spirit must come under the rule. The carnality must be cut off. The flesh must be cut off. The human carnal nature must be cut away, or we will not enter in through the door of the new covenant Jew. Paul made it clear.

And Jesus picks up here. He says, "Now, you folks are being harassed by some people that claim to be Jews." Now, I believe these in Revelation here had the bloodlines of the Jews, but they didn't have the circumcised spirit and heart. That's blasphemy, Jesus says. It's blasphemy. If we pretend that we're a child of the King and we're uncircumcised in spirit and heart, we're still of the outside. We haven't entered the door. Anything less, Jesus says, is blasphemy. The next thing he lists here is their poverty.

Now, why would these people be poor? I mean, after all, they live in a wealthy city with opportunity upon opportunity. But he says, "You're poor." So why do you think they might have been poor? Voluntarily. I was also thinking, so they didn't have a legal exemption from this emperor worship and false god worship. So they were aliens in this city. To certain respect, they were aliens. So you go and apply for a job. It might have been a good job.

I mean, working with myrrh, the spices or the plants or the process it went through, maybe at the dockyard or whatever, pretty innocent job. But I'm guessing if they went out there to apply for a job, someone is going to be there somewhere. Who is this guy? Oh, this is one of those that doesn't bow to emperor or the goddess of Diana, who Axe Tale tells us everybody needs to worship her. So yes, voluntarily, Radford, I like that, voluntarily.

They said, "Hey, we're not going to bow to this false god." That put them in a position where they probably couldn't really get a job. They weren't really legal there. So now they're poor. But I just love what Jesus adds there. He just puts that little thing in there in the letter that's so encouraging, "But you're rich. But you're rich. I know that you're poor, but you're rich." Let's examine this. What's going on? They're poor, but they're rich. What are true riches? What are true riches? Jesus once gave a story.

In fact, I think I'm not sure. Is this in Luke somewhere in the Gospels where Jesus began to give doctrinal and I can't say now what he was speaking on, but quite a number of things. And it says there was a crowd that followed him. He was speaking to his disciples. And I believe that was the time there was a crowd that they trampled each other. Does that make connection? Is there a time where Jesus said they were so many that they trotted each other down? That's a lot of people. They came to hear Jesus.

And I just read that recently, and I thought, "This man really had a lot of nerve with all these people." And in the midst, one of them sort of interrupted Jesus' sermon. And he said, "Remember, I have a brother. I want you to come and talk to my brother to divide the inheritance among us." Remember that account? I mean, if you had one shot at speaking to Jesus, is that the subject you would choose? One shot. Hey, we might say, "Ah, Jesus, I have a family member that has cancer.

Would you come and bring healing?" But he took his one shot. "We need help in our inheritance." And Jesus' just response was like, "Who made me a judge or a divider of goods?" And then he changed the subject. And if you remember how he changed, he switched the whole sermon topic. From there on, he gave several sermons or lessons on riches.

He said something like this right there to the crowd, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." Right on the heels of the request that we divide our inheritance, which was a fair, just thing to do, right? He wasn't trying to get unjust gain, I don't believe. He was just trying to be fair, and he wanted an honest judge to help them figure this out. And Jesus just makes that comment. He says, "You know, that is really not your true life.

It's really not your riches. It shouldn't be your focus, the things you possess." Then he gave the parable of the rich fool. Remember the rich fool, how he was this farmer, and all things went well, and he tore his barn part of the way and built a bigger and, "Take all my goods for myself so that I can live, eat, drink, and be married," whatever the list was he made. And Jesus turns around and says, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall these things be?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." The folks at Smyrna were rich, and yet they were poor. They were rich toward God. Brothers and sisters, let's keep our priorities straight. We don't live in Smyrna. We live in a land of opportunity. We live in a land of wealth, affluence. How does it affect us? Let's keep this in our forefront. What are true riches? Jesus says, "You're rich." Verse 10, Jesus turns around and he says an astounding thing.

He says, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer." Yesterday, when I was studying in this, that little part, that phrase there, verse 10, just really jumped out at me, "Fear not the things you're going to suffer." And then he goes on, and he doesn't tell them. It's going to go away. It'll all get better. Fear not. We use those comfort words today to comfort one another and say, "I think there's better days ahead.

Therefore, don't fear." I used to tell my children when there was a storm at night, and they were fearful the house was going to blow over, I would comfort them by saying, "Fear not. I think it's going to stand. I think we'll see this through." But Jesus tells them, "Fear not. It's just going to get worse. In fact, some of you are going to be taken to prison to be tried. Some of you are going to die. Fear not the things you shall suffer." Oh, I want to get a hold of that, brothers.

This fear not when things are only getting worse. This fear not what you're going to suffer. I want to get a hold of that this morning. Do you? Fear not the things you're going to suffer. Putting in one of those meant when he said, "Some of you are going to go to prison. Satan's going to put you there," that meant something completely different than it means in our today's prison. If you hear those words, you're going to prison. These prisons back here, these ancient prisons, were not a picnic.

I mean, they had rats in them. And Jesus says that you will be put to prison to be tried. Today, people are put to prison as a holding place to keep everybody else safe. In these days, you were put to prison to be tried and the rats and the whatever else, the vomit, some old dark dungeon. And Jesus has the courage to tell them to not fear. When I was a kid, young person, I was in the field one day working, and here comes I was there with a pitchfork, and here comes a big old rat. I mean, a big rat.

And I had the pitchfork, and she didn't, so I chased her. And we went out through the field. And all of a sudden, this rat saw that she's going to be the loser. You know what she did? I never knew rats do this. But she stopped, and she stood up right toward me, and I saw her teeth, and she took one leap towards me. And guess what? I turned around and ran for all I had, and the rat was chasing me. Ever since that, rats just really creep me out. I'm scared of rats. Even if I have a pitchfork, they just scare me.

And Jesus says, "You're going to be put in this kind of a prison where you know there's rats, but fear not." And you know what else part of the trial of these prisons was? That you're going to be tested and tried while you're in prison, and out back, they have a den of lions or wild beasts waiting for you. And you might be threatened in the trial to be thrown into the beasts. That's what the trials meant in these kinds of prisons.

Or it could mean that if you don't convert or change your mind, you may just be burned at the stake. Takes us to the martyr's mirror. The martyr's mirror has a story in about the leader. They call him the bishop of this church named Polycarp. The bishop of this church was an old man. I don't know how old he was, but we take from his testimony that he served the Lord 86 years. So how old was he at this time? But according to the martyr's mirror, he had Polycarp, again, the bishop of this particular congregation.

He had a dream one night. His pillow caught fire, and he was woken just like that in somewhat of a fear or whatever. And he took from this dream that he's going to be burnt for his faith. And I think that was just days before he was tried. And according to the martyr's mirror, those that were chasing him down came to his house. And when he was made known who they were, he came downstairs, and he met them with cheerfulness and kindness. And he invited them into his house.

And he spread a table before them, and he fed them a good meal. And he said, "Now while you eat, just give me one hour to pray." And he went to another room. And while they eat his meal, he's there praying and just talking to God, giving him strength to face the hour, the test, the trial. And then he was taken from there, and he was tried and tested. And he stood strong. And then they threatened him with wild beasts. They said, "The wild beasts are ready and waiting." And he said, "Well, whatever it takes.

I'm not going to change my position." And they finally said they were actually impressed with his gentleness, his kindness, his Christlikeness, his old age, and so on. They could hardly get themselves to apprehend him. So they finally said, "All you need to do is say, 'Emperor is Lord,' and burn a little incense in front of him." Now, that sounds pretty innocent. Sounds pretty innocent, doesn't it? Just say, 'Emperor is Lord,' and burn a little incense in front of him.

But he said, "I will refuse." In fact, he said, "I've served this great Jesus for 86 years. He's protected me from evil all these years, and he has redeemed me. How could I sin against him? How could I deny him?" And then they threatened him with fire. And he's like, "So be it. Whatever you choose, I will not change my position." He stood firm on the faith. I believe Polycarp truly believed the words of Jesus when Jesus said, "You cannot serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve two masters." Now, we think that I'm thinking, how would that be today if all we had to do was name a certain thing and call it Lord? Oh, we don't need to go down and worship and do all the rituals in front of them, but just give that thing a name and burn a little incense and still worship the God of heaven at the same time. Jesus said it doesn't work, and Polycarp believed that.

It cost him his life. So they took him to the fire. They prepared the wood. And I think history tells us there was a nice bed, an area of wood, and shavings. They wanted to make a real hot fire. And then they led him there. And of course, this is an audience watching this. This was a popular man. He was a well-known man. So this brings an audience together to watch this man die. Can you imagine? As they prepared to lay him on the wood, now, he said, "You don't need to nail me to the wood.

Just tie my hands and my legs, my arms, I believe." He said, "The man Jesus that gives me strength to bear the pain will also give me strength to stay in the pain." So they put him on here. He just gives himself as a sacrifice to be offered. As he was there on the wood, he prayed to God. He thanked God that he was accounted worthy to suffer for his sake. He also thanked God that he was worthy to be numbered among the holy martyrs. And then the fire was lit, and it burned hot, but there was a certain wind.

The one history book tells us it was a strong wind in one direction and blew the flames away from his body, and he suffered no harm. I believe the martyr's mirror tells us that there was like a whirlwind, and the flames just did not attach to his body. And then the one soldier, the one man there, was commanded to take a sword and to pierce him, and that was his death. And the blood gushed out in the flames.

And I believe Polycarp, the leader of this church, was one of 13 that gave their life that same year for the sake of Jesus. A small church, 13 members in one year. So Jesus forewarned them of this here in this letter. He said, "Some of you are going to be tried in prison, but fear not. Fear not." In closing, I just want to look at three things that are lifted out here, why they shouldn't fear. Ten days, short time. What do the ten days mean here? This is going to last ten days. Is it ten literal days?

Is it ten years? Is it ten? Whatever Jesus means by that, one thing we can take away from it: ten days, it's a short time, and it has an end. It's going to be over. It comes, and it goes. It's going to get worse, but it's going to end. Therefore, fear none of these things. The second thing, why they were not to fear, was he says, "If you go through this and you remain faithful unto death, I'm going to give you a victory's crown." There again, Smyrna was known for their crowns.

Someone said they had a crown on some of the buildings. As you would enter into the city, there was this crown put right in the edge of some of their beautiful buildings on the top of them. They had a crown. On the one side of the coin was a crown, and the other side of the coin was, I think it said something like, "Smyrna first in Asia." So crown and first and all of that. And when you were a part of the city there, you would wear a crown when there's a particular victory or game won.

You would wear a crown when you'd go to the festivities, and the emperors wore crowns. So they were known for their crowns here, but these poor Christians that were persecuted had no crowns at this time. When I think of what Jesus promises to them, and this is for us too, a crown symbolizes what does a crown symbolize? Royalty. Royalty. Royalty. It symbolizes, I thought also of power. It symbolizes victory. It symbolizes maybe a number of things. But I like to think of the crown of victory.

And this victory is over death. He just got done telling them, "If they remain faithful unto death, I'm going to give you a crown of victory that this death is over and life is the victory. Therefore, fear none of these things. You shall suffer." When we think today of wearing a crown of life, when we would see a person coming wearing a crown that was representing royalty, life, power, and so on, it would speak of, "It's never going to come close to me. It's over. It's history. It's gone. No more.

No more." The third thing he leaves is, "You shall not be hurt of the second death. Therefore, fear not." So one, we have it's going to be a short time. Number two, fear not because you're going to wear, even though you're going to be tried and you're going to die, whether it's going to be with beasts or the fire or sword, you're going to wear a crown of life. Death is over. Second death is not going to touch you. The first death was given to Satan, to the world, to Adam and Eve, and the garden.

When I think of the garden, God was there, told Adam and Eve, "Now don't eat of this tree. The day you will eat, you will die." And then it seems like God sort of walked away. And Adam and Eve and the devil did their things, the serpent, because it later says that God came walking and wondered what they did. What does all that mean? They made their choice. And the first death has power over us all. The first death, that's why Jean Deem just died. That's why Polycarp died. That's why Billy is dying.

And it's why you and I are going to die. But Jesus, after the fall in the garden, he went out of the way to somehow keep Satan from taking charge of the second death. He put preachers there. He put Noah there. He put Noah's Ark there. He put Abraham there. He put Moses there. He put all the prophets there. He put the Word of God in our hands. He gave the Holy Spirit. He gave preachers and teachers of today to warn and to prepare a people. He gave his Son.

And Jesus, heaven, all of heaven was disrupted to somehow stand in the way of Satan gaining the second death over humanity. It's still up for grabs. The first death is not up for grabs. That's a done deal. We're all going to die. It's a done deal. We don't have a choice in that death. But folks, this morning, every one of us sitting here, the second death is still up for grabs. It's still up for grabs. Satan is trying his best. Jesus said he's going to throw some of you into prison. He's going to try you.

We read this morning in Peter that he goes about as a roaring lion to devour, to destroy, to cause to be hurt of the second death. But Jesus tells this church, "If you remain faithful to me, you will not be hurt of the second death." Just a little bit of a glimpse into this second death. Revelation 20:10 says, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." That's the second death.

"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." That's Revelation 20:15, the second death. Someone said, "Those who are born twice will die only once." Those born only once will die twice. Jesus said that it is not his will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. How strong was this will? This will was so strong that Jesus left all the glories behind, and he came here. On this earth, he became a man.

That is how strong his will is, that he was willing to give everything, his life, his blood, his broken body so that you and I do not have to taste of the second death. Let's stay faithful to him.