Smyrna: The Suffering Church

Revelation chapter 2. We want to continue our study of the state of the church and deal with church number 2, the church at Smyrna. Many of you know who Corey Ten Boom was, that Dutch woman who saved Jews from the Gestapo. She recalled a childhood incident when she told her father these words: I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to die as a martyr. Her father said, When you have to go on a journey, when do I give you the money for the fare? Two weeks before? Oh, no, daddy, on the day that I'm leaving.

Precisely, said her father. Our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things too. When the time comes to die, you will find the strength you need just in time. In later years, Corey Tenbo was in prison at Ravensbruck, that infamous German prison camp where more than 50,000 women were killed. She wrote these words. It is necessary. When we prepare ourselves for the end time, also to be prepared to die for Jesus. I wonder tonight if you are prepared to die for Christ. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Indeed, they will. Be persecuted. Tonight, we're going to talk about the persecuted church, the church in Smyrna. The church that had no negatives leveled against it by God. There were only two churches of the seven that had no condemnation. Smyrna and Philadelphia. And this church was a pure church. Was a perfected church. The persecuted church does not have within its ranks. Nominal Christians. Those who profess Christianity but don't possess Christ. Why is that? Because the persecuted church is one who suffers for the sake of Christ, and those who have not committed their lives to Christ are not going to stay around to experience persecution.

They're going to deny Christ and they're going to live the comfortable life. And so, within this church here at Smyrna. There were people who were pure. There were holy people. That's why there was no condemnation level against them. A persecuted church is a purified church. I recall the words of John MacArthur after he had done a series of messages in his church. And they had visiting with them some pastors from Russia. And after the service was over, the pastor from Russia came up to Mr. MacArthur and said, I don't know how you pastor here in America.

And he said, Well, what do you mean? He says, Pastoring these people who are so involved in the world, how do you know who the true committed ones are versus the ones who are just nominal Christians? You see, in Russia, we know who's truly committed. They have to really stand for Christ or lose their life. You don't have that here in America. I pity you, Mr. MacArthur. Think about that. The Church of Smyrna provides for us the ultimate example on how we should live. Our lives. So, as we study this second church this evening, we want to cover four things with you.

First of all, the analyzation of the church, then the affirmation given to the church, the admonition to the church, and then lastly, the application given.

To the church, not only then, but to us. First of all, let's analyze the church. And look at three things: number one, the correspondent, number two, the church, and number three, the city.

It says in Revelation chapter 2, verse number 8: And to the angel of the church in Smyrna, write, the first and the last who was dead.

And has come to life, says this. Who is this correspondent? I am the very first, I am the last. I am the beginning, I am the end, I am the alpha and the omega. He lets his church know that he's in control. That's important to note, isn it? It's always good to know who's in control when adversity strikes. So, from the very outset of this letter, when this messenger receives the letter and goes back and reads it to his people, the very first thing they need to understand is that God is sovereign.

This church will need that encouragement. Let's move to point number two: the church. The church. We don't know much about how this church began. We don't have no idea on how big this church was or how small it was. We don't even know who started the church at Smyrna. It's not important how it got started. It's not important who pastored the church. What's important is how is this church doing now? That's important. And these people were growing. They were a pure church. They were a holy church. Now, there's something interesting.

This word Smyrna is a Greek word that's translated myr three times. In the New Testament, before God ever started a church in that city, a church that would suffer severe persecution. It be named Smyrna and for myrrh to release its fragrance. It needs to be crushed. And the more that that myrrh is crushed, the sweeter the fragrance it gives. And the more these people were crushed because of their faith, the sweeter their aroma as people would smell God in their lives. Point number three, the city.

It was called the most beautiful city in all of Asia Minor. It was called the crown of Asia, the beauty of Asia. Today it's the largest city in Asia. In Asia Minor, located on the western shore of Turkey. Today it's called Izmir. But isn it interesting that the Church of Ephesus is no longer around? Christ said, unless you repent, I will come to you and I will turn out your lamp. I will make it dark. And he did, because they did not repent. But this city and this church. Stands even to this very day because of their commitment to Christ.

It was a city with a great harbor. Where whole fleets could be sheltered from outside attacks. It had lavish temples, a famous stadium, and one of the largest public theaters in all of Asia Minor. And one author said this. Heathen culture and pagan religion thrived with almost unparalleled splendor in Smyrna. Zeus, Hermes, Apollo, Dionysus, Mercury, the city hosted a banquet of gods from which To select for worship. Even Christ could have been added to the menu, but only after each individual had paid the price of publicly professing Caesar as Lord and offering him sacrifice.

The Christians in Smyrna refused to pay the blasphemous price and paid for it dearly, some even with their lives. Let's move to point number two, main point number two, the affirmation.

Let's look and see how Christ affirms these people. Listen to what he says. Back to Revel chapter 2. He says, I know your tribulation. He affirms them because, number one, they've endured adversity.

They've endured adversity. The word thalipsis is a word that means to be crushed. It's a word that means To have constant aggressive crushing upon your life. That's what these people experienced. This wasn't a fly-by kind of slander because they went to church on Sunday and they didn't go to work on Sunday. It wasn 't one of those things where they bowed to prayer in the workplace and people laughed at them. It wasn't anything like that. That's not persecution. I mean, that's nothing. These people, as one author stated, these words, these Christians.

Who refused to obey the emperor's decree were marked men. They were traitors against the government to be a Christian in the Roman Empire. During that bloody era, it was to live in jeopardy every day. The tortures inflicted on these men of faith were despicable. Some Christians were strapped on the rack, a wheel about two feet wide and eight feet tall. Their ankles chained to the floor and wrists tied to the wheel. Every time the believer was asked to deny the Lord and refused, the rack was tightened until he was ripped.

Limb from limb. Other Christians were thrown into boiling oil or mangled by hungry lions in the Colosseum. That's the crushing. That's the persecution. The Church of America has no idea of what that is. But you wait. One day, it'll happen. It'll come to America. Hasn't been here yet. But it will come because God is going to purge his church. Peter said in 1 Peter 4:1, if judgment is going to begin, let it begin where? In the household of God. That's where it needs to begin. Right there. But he commends them.

They endured adversity. Number two, they experienced poverty. It says, I know your tribulation and your po. Now, Samyrna was a rich city. It wasn 't a poor city. It wasn't a city that was in economic straits. It was a well-to-do city. Yet these people experienced poverty, and Christ would affirm them. People would steal from them. Because they were marked people. And when they were being persecuted at their weakest point, they would overtake them and rampage their houses and run through them and take what they wanted.

They were poor people, they had nothing. They experienced poverty, and Christ affirmed them because of that. And yet he says, but you are rich. What a paradox. I want to affirm the fact that you're poor. But yet, I want to let you know something. You're very, very rich. Look over in chapter 3 for a moment, verse number 17. Church of Laodicea, the direct opposite. They said they were rich. Because you say, I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

The church of Laodicea was the direct opposite. They weren't poor people, they were rich people, and they believed they were rich. They believe they had it all. And Christ says, You're poor, you're blind, you're naked, you have nothing.

Yet these people who had nothing were very rich. Amazing. Better to be poor and commended than to be rich and condemned. In the church of Smyrna, were a people in dire poverty, and Christ says, Yet you're rich.

What made them rich? What made them rich? What did they have that Laod didn't have? That Christ would say, you're rich. They were rich in love. They were rich in joy. They were rich in peace. They were rich in fellowship. They were rich in grace. They had. The unsearch rich of Christ. Paul in Romans 10:1 taught the church at Rome that God abounds in riches for all who call upon Him. Paul would say over in 2 Corinthians 8, verse number 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.

James would say in James 2, verse number 5: Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? These people had nothing materially, but they had everything spiritually. They had everything they wanted of God, and God had all of them. These people didn't lose their first love.

They didn't stray away from closeness to Christ. They knew what it meant to be attached to his bosom and then walk hand in hand with him and arm in arm with him and have sweet, joyous commun. Because it would be the affliction and persecution that would drive them closer to their God versus the church of Ephesus. Who lost their first love.

These people at Smyrna were rich in God's love, and He affirmed them. By number one, because they endured adversity.

They experienced poverty. And number three, they encountered blasphemy. He says, and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Wow, a synagogue of Satan. What is that? What does that mean? The Jews once went to the synagogue of God. And now the Lord God says that these people who say they are Jews, but they are not, are of the synagogue of Satan.

Most Jews rejected Christ as the Messiah. Therefore, their hearts were far from God. And the Messiah. They demonstrated their unbelief by slandering the believers in the city. Satan is a slanderer. He's the one who slanders people. Yet, there are Jews in this city who would slander other believing Jews because of their stand for Christ. And so in reality, Christ says they were doing the work of Satan.

Just because you have been circumcised on the outside, yet your heart has not been circumcised on the inside. You will be punished because I'm looking for a heart change. I'm looking for an inside transform of my people. That 's what I want. Remember what Christ said in John 8? You're not of my Father who is in heaven. You're not of your father Abraham. You are of what? Your father the devil. Why? Because he didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That's why. They weren't Jews inwardly. Their heart had not been transformed.

Oh, they had all the external ritual. They did what all the Jewish people did in the nation, but they weren't true believers, and Christ says.

Those who are Jews, who have not been transformed on the inside, are just as bad as those who succumb to emperor worship. They are just as pagan as the next person. And Christ calls them the synagogue of Satan. My people have a changed life because Christianity at times did split families. It brought a sword. They were slandered for being anti-. Because Christians worship without images, they were slandered as being atheists. Because Christians would not say that Caesar is Lord, they were slandered because they were politically disloyal.

Those are some of the things that people slandered them about. They encountered blasphemy. Well, this is the main point number three: the admonition.

Let's look at that for a moment. How does Christ admonish them? Let's say you came to me and said, Pastor, my family has dis me. They hate me. They don't want to stand by me. They have kicked me out of my house because I've given my life to Christ. I have lost my job. I have no place to live. Things are so bad. Excuse me. I don know what to do. I don't know where to go. I need some words of encouragement. I need you to help me. What would you say to that person? This is what Christ says.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison. That you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death. That's all you got? That's all you got. That's my word of encouragement. That's my admonition. That's supposed to give me hope. Be fearless. Be faithful. Be on your way. Go home. Those are my words of counsel. Be fearless. Be faithful. Well, wait a minute. How about praying for me? How about putting your arm around me and loving me?

How about give me some kind of support? No, no, no, no This is what's going to happen. You're going to suffer 10 days at the hands of the devil. Well, gee, I think I'll find another church to go to. I'm not sure I want that kind of encouragement. This is Christ's admonition. This is how he encourages them. This is how he keeps them going. He doesn't seek to alleviate their pain. He doesn't seek to eliminate their pain. Is that not what we want? We want the pain to go away. But this is what the church of Smyrna needed to hear, and this is what we need to hear.

Because if you understand this, you're on your way to sweet, sweet fellowship with the Lord. Let me explain it to you.

Don't be afraid. And then he tells them that they're going to suffer. Doesn't tell them how they're going to suffer. He doesn't tell them why they're going to suffer. He just tells them they're going to suffer. He says the devil is about to cast some of you into prison. Wow. Now you've got to like how the Lord's in control here. Because the Lord controls the devil. The devil can't do anything unless he has permission from God. God controls it all. He just tells them that the devil is about to cast some of you into prison.

Why? That they might be tested. They might be tested. That's why you should never compare yourself with anybody else. Compare yourself to Christ, to his standard. You will realize you always fall short. For Christ says, You follow me as I followed my God, my Father in heaven.

You be faithful to the end as I was faithful all the way to the end. That's how I want you to be. And if you are, you'll receive the crown which is life. It symbolizes their victory. As Christ him was victorious. So, what's the application? It tells us, verse number 11: he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.

Two things by way of applic. Number one, are you hearing? Are you hearing? If you want to overcome the second death, listen up.

What's the second death? Revelation 20, 14 and 15 tells us that the second death is the final separation of the unbeliever from God forever.

That's a second death. You see the t-shirt? Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. If you have been born again, born twice, born physically, born spiritually, you only die once. But if you haven't been born again, you've only been born once, you will die twice. You will die physically, and you will die spiritually. And you will face the second death.

And that is in the lake of fire that's reserved for Satan and his angels. Christ says, Are you hearing?

And then he says, by way of implication, are you hurting? Are you hurting? Are you facing adversity? Are you facing poverty? Are you facing blasphemy? Remember what your parents said to you when you hurt? They ask, show me where it hurts. Tell me where it hurts. God never asked that question because he always knows right where you hurt. He's omniscient. He knows. He's the God of all comfort, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 1, 3 and 4. Are you hurting? The message to the church of Smyrna is for you to be fearless, to be faithful to your God, even until death, if need be.

History tells us about how the leadership of the church responded to the church of Smyrna, the letters sent to them. Poly would have been a young man when this letter was written and read to the church, but it must have had a profound effect on him. Because 60 years later, he died a martyr's death as the leader of the church at Smyrna. And William Barclay records. The tradition surrounding Polycarp's death with these words. So the crowds came flocking with faggots from the workshops and from the baths.

And the Jews, even though they were breaking the Sabbath law by carrying such burdens, were foremost in bringing wood for the fire. They were going to bind him to the stake. Leave me as I am, he said, for he who gives me power to endure the fire will grant me to remain in the flames unmoved. Even without the security you will give by the nails. So they left him loosely bound in the flames. And Polycarp prayed this great prayer: O Lord God Almighty, Father of thy beloved and blessed child, Jesus Christ, through whom we have received full knowledge of thee.

God of angels and powers, and of all creation, and of the whole family of the righteous who live before thee. I bless thee. That thou hast granted unto me this day and this hour, that I may share among the number of the martyrs in the cup of thy Christ. For the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and of body, in the immortality of the Holy Spirit. And may I today be received among them before thee as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, as thou, the God without falsehood and of truth, hast prepared beforehand and shown forth and fulfilled.

For this reason, I also praise Thee for all things. I bless thee. I glorify Thee through the eternal and heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ. Thy beloved child, through whom be glory to thee with him and the Holy Spirit, both now and for the ages that are to come. Amen. And he was burned to death. I ask you, are you ready to die for Christ? Paul said, for to me to live is Christ, and to die. Is game.