Sermon - Faithful Till Death: Lessons From Smyrna

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If you would like to turn your Scriptures, you can do so to the second chapter of the

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Revelation given to Saint John. It's the Revelation of Jesus Christ, but it was given to John.

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Second chapter, we will be beginning in verse 8. But before we open

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God's Word, let us ask Him one more time for His grace and mercy upon us as we look at His Word.

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Heavenly Father, now as You speak to us from Your Word, we ask that You would focus our hearts and our minds, meet the needs of Your people in that special way that only

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You can by Your living Word, by Your living Spirit. We thank You for this opportunity, this miraculous opportunity of being a part of the body of Christ.

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May His name be glorified in all we do. In Christ's name, amen. I want you to come with me to the latter half of the first century.

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Come with me to a city called Smyrna. Today, I believe it's called

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Izmir. It is pretty much straight across from Athens, across the

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Aegean Sea, on the western coast of Turkey. It is the only one of the churches to which the letters in the book of Revelation are written that still exists as a city today, more than just simply ruins.

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It is a modern city today. But in that day, it was a beautiful city.

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It was second only to Ephesus as far as trade and commerce was concerned, and yet they describe themselves as first in Asia.

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They had been rebuilt after being destroyed a number of hundreds of years earlier.

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And after that, the city had become very much dedicated to Rome, to the

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Roman Empire and the Roman system. When there was a war between Rome and Carthage in the years prior to the birth of Christ, Smyrna stood firm for Rome and had been rewarded frequently as Roman power had spread all around the

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Mediterranean. She had special privileges and therefore great architecture and great temples to Zeus and to others of the

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Greek and Roman gods. And so it was a major city, probably at this time around 200 ,000 people living in the city.

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And you may say that doesn't sound really big to us, but you need to realize that cities could only be a certain size in the ancient world.

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They didn't have electricity, they didn't have running sewers. The Romans did in some places, actually, it's amazing.

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Their technology, their aqueducts, things like that, they were an amazing people.

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But it just could only get so large. You could only transport so much food into a certain area.

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It's about 200 ,000 people. And so when we get into the second half of the first century, the

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Christian church is expanding. How the church at Smyrna was founded, we're not told.

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It's only about 35 miles north of Ephesus, so either

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Christians traveling the roads from Ephesus, where Paul spent so much time planting a sound church at the crossroads there in Ephesus, or by sea, because major seaport there in Smyrna, it was narrow enough that it could actually be closed in times of war to protect the harbor.

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But, very obviously, ships would travel from Ephesus up to Smyrna and along the coast there.

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So by some means, the gospel probably came from Ephesus there to Smyrna.

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We know that after the close of the New Testament, we see

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Smyrna again. We see Smyrna when Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch, is traveling to Rome to be martyred.

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He writes to the church at Smyrna and to their very famous bishop named

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Polycarp, a man whom himself, his martyrdom under the

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Romans becomes world famous. And so this church continues into the 2nd century and would have continued really up until that area was eventually conquered by Islam many hundreds of years later.

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Now we know, again, that the city had a very deep commitment to Rome, but it also had a very large

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Jewish population. A very large Jewish population. And we need to understand that in the 1st century, by that point in time, the

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Jews had worked out a very beneficial arrangement with the

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Roman Empire. And they were not forced, as everyone else was forced, to offer sacrifice and to worship the

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Roman gods. Their worship of one god was considered very, very strange.

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And of course, they would not eat with Gentiles, and so they were considered a very odd people.

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But they were also very, very good in business, in finance, and wherever they went, they were able to establish strong financial and political alliances.

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And so they had worked out a peaceful coexistence there in the

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Roman Empire. But as we know, as Christianity begins to go forth, what happens?

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At first there's confusion on the part of the Romans. These people, they talk about Moses, and they read the

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Jewish scriptures, so they're Jews. And then they would hear the arguments going back and forth between Christians and Jews, and the

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Jews are saying, no, they're not. And the Christians are saying, well, yes, actually, but we just believe in the

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Jewish Messiah that your own scriptures prophesy about, and we're the continuation of those promises.

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And you can imagine the Roman magistrates are like, look, I'm not interested in you guys arguing with each other, and so they'll just drive them away.

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Well, eventually, it started to become understood on Rome's part that Christians and Jews were not the same thing.

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Somewhere around 5051, there was an expulsion of Christians and Jews from Rome, probably because Rome hadn't figured out exactly who's who yet.

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But eventually, they got the message, and eventually, we see in the book of Acts, obviously, we saw

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Jews taking oaths not to eat until they had killed Paul, and the opposition, and that they would raise up opposition against the apostles as they were doing their missionary work.

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Well, that continued on even into the later part of that first century.

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That's some of the background of this letter. It would be a really great study, honestly, to do the letters to the churches, but we're doing just one at the moment, and if you ever do, and maybe

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I will at some point, each of these letters harkens back to the vision that John has of the risen

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Jesus, and he draws from some of the descriptions of the exalted

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Lord in each one of these letters. And there's a long history of interpretation of these letters, too.

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Some people believe that they represent various ages in the history of the church and things like that.

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I personally think that each of these letters speaks to the church's experience all through the centuries since her founding, and contains truths that all of us, no matter where we are, need to understand.

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And so when we look at the letter to the church of Smyrna, it's very short, it's very short, it's not nearly as long as many of the other letters.

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But those of you who are members know, members of Apologia Church know, that you received a membership certificate, and one of the things it has on it is the phrase, be faithful until death.

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A couple years ago, some people decided to focus on that, and oh, it's our cult, be faithful to this church, and no, it's

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Jesus said that to the church of Smyrna, it's sort of in the Bible, you know. But it's in this letter, and it had a context.

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And I think when we look at that context, we will see that we can make application in our day as well, and I pray that the

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Lord will strengthen us as we consider our fellow believers who underwent persecution so long ago in the city of Smyrna.

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So beginning in verse 8, put my old man glasses on here, and to the angel or the messenger of the church that is in Smyrna, write, these things the first and the last says, who became dead and was made alive.

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I know your tribulation and your poverty, your poorness, but you are rich, and the blasphemy, the speech spoken against you by those calling themselves

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Jews, but are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

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Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, and you will be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days.

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Be faithful unto death, and I will give to you the crown of life.

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The one who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. The one overcoming will not be hurt by the second death.

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Imagine for a moment being in the church at Smyrna and hearing that a letter has arrived from the

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Apostle John, and it's going to be read in that morning's service. What can we understand from just the words as to what they've already experienced?

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Well, it seems to me that there has already been persecution taking place, and that the large

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Jewish population in Smyrna is very much a part of that persecution.

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Most speculate that the Jews were reporting on these

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Christians once it became clear, and we know in the history of Rome that in 64, you have

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Nero, you have the persecution of Christians there, and there was such a close relationship between Smyrna and Rome that it would not take very long.

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The leadership in Smyrna would want to imitate what was happening in Rome, and so they would want people to turn

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Christians in, to report on Christians. Now, I can't possibly imagine any situation since those days where neighbors would report on neighbors, can you?

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That could never happen. No one would ever contact government authorities to turn in their neighbors, would they?

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We know it happened all the time and happened many times since then, and every one of us can imagine situations in our own day when that could take place.

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And so it seems like there was persecution taking place, because notice what the

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Lord says after, again, drawing from the description of Himself in chapter 1, where He calls

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Himself the first and the last. Terminology that is used where?

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The book of Isaiah. In Isaiah, Yahweh identifies

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Himself as the first and the last. The same language where He uses the phrase,

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I am, in speaking to Israel. And now

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He uses the same language in speaking to the church. You will see in this letter and in all the letters, in fact, all through the book of Revelation, if you don't look up every single possible allusion and reference to the

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Old Testament, you're probably going to be missing something. It was like the

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Hebrew scriptures were the code book that the author is using to be able to communicate to the people of God.

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And what that means is they viewed themselves as the continuation, the true

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Israel. Notice when it talks about the Jews, it says, they claim to be, but they're not.

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But they're not. So He describes Himself as the first and the last, the one who became dead and then became alive, the crucified one, the resurrected one.

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That gives you a lot of authority to speak to the church. And He says,

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I know your tribulation. I know your tribulation.

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Isn't the greatest temptation that the enemy presents to the suffering church, isn't the greatest temptation?

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God has forgotten you. God has forgotten you. I think of the fact that we have brothers and sisters this very day sitting in prison cells around the world alone in North Korea, in China, in some

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Islamic countries. And the greatest disappointment, the greatest discouragement would be,

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I'm alone. I've been forgotten. And so over and over and over again we find in Scripture, God says to His suffering people, you are not forgotten.

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I know your tribulation. I know your poverty.

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Probably what has been going on is that because of the persecution, because of the joining of the

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Jews together with the Romans to hound these believers, they've lost so much of what they once had in this world.

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They can't do the business that they once did. They can't engage in the commerce that they once did.

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And so they're undergoing tribulation. We read in the book of Hebrews that the people had joyfully experienced the loss of their physical possessions.

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Why? Because they were taken because they were Christians. But that's unjust, yes.

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That's unfair, it is. And there is a day of judgment coming.

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But this was the experience of the Christian people. There was the hatred of the world, and Jesus said, the world will hate you because it hates me.

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And Jesus says to them, I know your tribulation. If I'm the first and the last, if I'm the one who died and is risen again,

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I know your tribulation. I know it better than anyone else does. There's nothing

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I don't see. I know your suffering and I know your poverty. But then he says, but you are rich.

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But you are rich. That is the great contradiction of the

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Christian life, is it not? Those who try to take our lives are the ones who have no life.

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Those who want to take our possessions truly have no possessions.

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They can't know what it means to be rich. They can't know what it means to live, to have life, because they're in rebellion against the very source of life.

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I know your tribulation. I know your poverty. But you are rich. Just a reminder, in the midst of suffering, we have that which the world can never take from us and cannot begin to understand.

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And if our hearts are focused upon that which the world cannot take from us, that is why we can have joy in the midst of the suffering and the degradation and the persecution.

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But only if we love the things that the world cannot take from us.

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You are rich. You have grace. You have forgiveness. You have eternal life.

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You have peace with God and peace with one another. You now know your transcendent meaning.

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And you know that this present suffering is nothing to be compared to the eternal weight of glory prepared for you.

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Those persecuting you have nothing. They have emptiness.

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You are rich. It says, I know the blasphemies of the ones calling themselves

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Jews. Now I'm sure they were in the external sense.

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But it was a basic understanding, as the Apostle Paul had expressed it.

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Who's the true circumcision? There is a false circumcision, then there's the true circumcision.

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There's the true people of God. There are those who are of the faith of Abraham. And so he says,

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I know that you are under attack by those who call themselves

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Jews. And you can imagine why they would be so angry. I mean, this small cult is taking our scriptures and causing us no end of difficulty.

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We have had to fight for our rights. I can imagine that there were some angry words that these people would express toward Christ's church.

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They would blaspheme them. I'm sure the things they said about Jesus are reflected in later rabbinic writings that questioned his parentage and who he really was and what he really said.

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I know they're blasphemies. They're not truly Jews, but they are a synagogue of Satan.

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A synagogue of Satan. A gathering place of the one who, what does the devil do?

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He speaks against God's people. Remember back in Job, what does

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Satan do when he appears before God? He's accusing, he's speaking against others.

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They are a synagogue of Satan. They are not what they claim to be. They claim to be defending the one true

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God, but instead they are serving one who blasphemes the people of God.

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So our Lord knows it does not matter what our experience is.

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Jesus says, I know your tribulation. You will never be truly alone as a follower of Christ in this world.

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It may feel that way, but you have Jesus' promise that he knows your tribulation.

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As a result, he says, do not fear what you are about to suffer.

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I don't know if any of you saw the meme. I saw it just yesterday. There's two guys in one of these, you know, when you go to these theme parks, they take pictures of you right as it starts getting hairy, you know, right as the bottom falls out or you're heading downhill and your life flashes before your eyes or whatever.

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And there's this guy on the left side of the picture, and he's just thrilled.

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He's, he's, the guy on the right is really questioning his life choices at this particular point in time.

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He's not looking happy about where he is. And somebody put on it, the really happy joyous guy, the

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Puritans reading about the suffering of the Christian life. And then the guy who ain't looking very happy at all, modern evangelicals worried they may be, they may lose some of their comforts in life.

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There is an element of truth to that. There is an element of truth.

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Remember the verse we're memorizing? It has been granted to you not only to believe in him, but also to suffer.

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Oh, suffer? Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

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Lord, you're the first and the last. You know all of time.

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You know the future. I don't know how an open theist deals with this, but do not fear what you're about to suffer.

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I know your tribulation, and I'm, the very next phrase says the devil is going to cast some of you into prison, and you will be tested.

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But isn't it obvious? All this is under Jesus' control. He's not going,

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I hate to tell you, I've looked in the future and there's nothing I can do about this. There's some bad stuff heading your way.

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Because it says right there, in order that you may be tested.

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There's a purpose. A purpose for this persecution.

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Some of you are going to be cast into prison. And there's a reason for it.

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In order that you might be tested. That means

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Jesus is in control. Remember my favorite sermon illustration?

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Stole it from my dad? I asked him once about it, and he said, I don't know, son.

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I probably did get it from somebody else. But Colossians 3 .3,

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you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

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You can't get to that ring without going through my hands. And if you've died with Christ, your life is hidden with Christ in God.

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So when Jesus says, do not fear what you're about to suffer, the only way

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I can suffer in there is if it's my Father's will, my Savior's will, that I suffer and be tested.

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And we know that that is to purify us. So that our faith might have the purity of fine gold.

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Without that suffering, there's so much that gets in the way in our thinking, in our speech, impurities that only suffering removes.

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Only through suffering do we gain the ability to see and to lose the love of the things of this world.

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And so Jesus is in charge. He says, do not fear. The devil is going to cast some of you into prison in order that you might be tested.

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Yeah, that's a testing. No two ways about it, that's a testing. And you will have tribulation ten days.

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Now isn't that, isn't that odd? Oh, okay. Ten days in prison. It's probably not what it's referring to.

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Because we know, as I mentioned before,

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Polycarp, the bishop of this church, many, many decades later is a martyr. There were many martyrs.

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It lasted more than ten days. Well, is this wrong then? No. Remember, whenever you get a number or anything in Revelation, check out if it's found anywhere in the

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Hebrew Scriptures. There is a place of testing of ten days.

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Anybody remember where it was? Daniel. Daniel chapter one, remember?

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And Daniel said, give us Hebrews vegetables and water and have your men eat the king's food, which was sacrificed to idols and everything else.

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And then after ten days, test us. And when they did, they were much more alert and healthy looking than those that had eaten the king's food.

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There was a testing that took place. And I think what you've got here is that's supposed to hearken their minds back to Daniel and realize, well, the testing that God's people underwent at that time glorified

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God and God was with them. And the testing we're going to undergo is going to glorify

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God and God will be with us because we are still the people of God. The same

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God that brought Daniel through is the same

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God we have. And he's now revealed himself as Father, Son, and Spirit.

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I think there is an emphasis in the continuity of the people of God and what that's based on, their faithfulness.

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Their worship of God found in this ten days. The point is, it is a limited time, it is a known time, it is a purposeful time, but it could be a long time.

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And I know ten days would seem like an eternity to any one of us, but what if it's ten months, what if it's ten years?

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There have been faithful followers of Christ who have survived that kind of lengthy persecution, that kind of lengthy imprisonment, and they will all tell you only, only, only by the presence of the

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Spirit of God. Don't let any one of you sit here and go, oh,

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I would stand firm. I've got it. Every one of us should be very quick to say, only by the grace of God, only by the grace of God could

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I withstand. You'll have tribulation, ten days.

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I know there are all sorts of people running around making lots of money, telling Christians that it's never

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God's will that they would suffer. Sorry. The first and the last says, it is my will.

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Testing is a good thing. Tribulation will be used by me to purify my people.

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And having said that, what does he say? Be faithful until death, and I will give to you the crown of life, the crown of life.

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Be faithful until death. You see, the temptation for us when we face persecution, trial, difficulty, that can be from outside sources.

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It can be sickness. It can be bodily weakness. It can be people in your family.

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It can be so many things that God uses to test us, to test our faith, to purify our faith.

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And unless it is our regular desire that we have a pure faith, we will not long endure the testing.

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What is the most precious possession to you? If you were to be asked, and think of it this way, the best way for you to know what your heart is set on is what do you think about in the quiet times?

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What do you think about? What do you daydream about? What has captured your heart?

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Is it having a pure faith, like purified gold, refined in the fire?

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I think we all know that if we really pray for that, God's going to bring things into our lives that will tear that selfishness out of our hearts.

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They'll reveal to us how much love for the world is still within us.

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Oh, but I want the crown of life. There is no life to be found in the things of this world.

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Aren't they blessings from God? Exactly. They belong to Him. And they're blessings.

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But you never want to have the blessings of God function in your life as a mechanism of keeping you from having a purified faith.

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So often, that's how they function. Be faithful until death.

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What if I'm facing something long term? Be faithful until death. What if I've cried out to the

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Lord over and over again? Be faithful until death. But I don't know when that's going to come.

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Be faithful until death. In other words, there's no end point.

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Not in this life. The Savior is saying to His people, no matter what kind of testing

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I put you through, be faithful until death. Not be faithful until you reach just that certain point.

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I can't take any more than die to self.

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I've been crucified. My life's done.

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Be faithful until death. And only those who are faithful until death will receive from the risen

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Lord Himself, the first and the last, the one who died is risen again, the

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Stephanon crown. That's where Stephen comes from, for those of you who are wondering.

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The crown of life comes from His hand.

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And no one can get in His way when He chooses to give to His people the crown of life.

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The ones who think they have life, who think they have power and are persecuting Christ's people, they don't actually have life.

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Those who would compete in the games, they would be given a Stephanos, a crown, laurel leaves for their victory in the games.

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But here's the risen one saying, you want the crown of life? Can only come from my hand.

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And I give it to those who are faithful until death. Faithful until death.

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The one having ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

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That's why I think it continues to be relevant in each age. We can learn from each one of these letters.

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But we have to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. I think it's a way of saying you need to be looking into the scriptures, that which is given to us by the

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Spirit. Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

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The one overcoming, this is a very common term here, because the church has to overcome.

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The one overcoming will never be harmed, will never be hurt by the second death.

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That second death, that spiritual death that leads, as we see at the end of the book, to that eternal state of suffering.

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The one who overcomes will never be hurt by the second death.

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The vast majority of the people around us live glibly without giving a second thought to the second death.

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How many people today, they are so distracted by the things of the world? Talk about the most effective way of keeping people's minds from considering all the signs that God gives to us, that we are mortal beings, that our lives will not continue.

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Think about how we hide ourselves from any semblance of death. Why are modern men so hardened to the

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Gospel? Think about it. Until modern times, everyone by the time they were just 10 years old had seen death.

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They had seen dead bodies. It was all around people.

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The days of the Reformation, why do you think the Gospel of Justification trumpeted forth with such power?

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The plague had been there. And was still there. And people were still dying of it.

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You saw dead bodies all the time. But today, oh, today we insulate our children.

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Used to have multiple generations of a family living together. Now it rarely happens.

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I was, I think I was an adult before I actually saw a dead body.

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I'm sure I went to a funeral sometime or another, but there must have been closed casket. We live in a very unusual time.

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And the result of that is that we read in scripture, it's better to spend a day in the house of mourning than a day in the house of feasting.

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And we don't even understand that. What do you mean, mourning? We don't mourn.

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Get over it. We don't talk about death. So we think we're going to live forever.

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So why should I need a crown of life? I'm going to live forever already. No, you're not. Well, when

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I die, that's just it. You know better than that. You know better than that.

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How are you going to get a crown of life? It's only one way. They're only given out by one person.

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And he only gives them to his people. Be faithful unto death. I do not know what the future brings in the short term.

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I know with the certainty of the empty tomb that Jesus Christ will receive from his

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Father the nations as his inheritance. The triune

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God has promised that the name of Christ, his law, will be desired by the nations.

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And they will flock to his holy mountain. But I know that between now and that time, the scripture tells us it's

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God's purpose that his people be tested and even experience tribulation and persecution.

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How do you fit those two things together? Well, I believe in sola scriptura.

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Scripture is the sole and fallible rule of faith of the church. This is a divine word from God.

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He's preserved it. He draws our hearts out to it. He has used this word to expose things in your heart and mine, has he not, over and over again.

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But I also believe in tota scriptura, all of scripture. I can't pick and choose.

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I have to believe everything that it teaches me. So there were faithful believers in Christ in Smyrna.

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And the sovereign King Jesus, knowing what they were facing, did not say, here's how you get out of it.

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That's what we want. Instead he says, here is how you go through it to the reward.

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There is no outside way to get to the crown of life. The crown of life comes to those who go through the path of suffering, just like Jesus did.

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We follow our Lord on that path. And he strengthens us.

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And he gives to us the crown of life. And he says, you need to understand, the one who overcomes, the second death cannot hurt you.

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Do you believe that? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have confessed his name, repented of your sin, if you have embraced him as your

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Lord and your master, the second death has no power over you. It cannot hurt you. How much does that mean to you?

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I understand for younger people it may not have the same attraction as those of us who have now seen a lot of death.

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There was a time in my life when every other weekend you're going to a wedding. You had already figured out the best places to get the best prices on wedding gifts.

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But there eventually comes a time when it's not weddings you're going to, because after the weddings come all the showers for all the kids, and the graduation stuff.

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Eventually, you wake up one day and you realize you're going to a lot of funerals.

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Going to a lot of funerals. And the Lord's designed these bodies, because we're in a fallen state, that unless we are just absolute idiots, they give us all sorts of warning signs.

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Warning, eternity ahead. Eternity ahead.

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And we spend billions to go, shh, don't tell me that.

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The one who overcomes, the second death won't hurt you. Can't touch you.

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You're in Christ, in God. Safest place in the world.

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You want a safe space? There's a safe space. But that safe space is not safe from persecution. And it's not a safe space from tribulation.

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It's a safe space from the second death. And as long as we understand that, that's how we can have joy in the midst of tribulation.

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But we have to get that down now. That's not something you hear once this afternoon and then forget about it.

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Take the time to read these letters. Think about how in your own life the

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Lord will be calling you to be faithful unto death. What is that going to look like?

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And then in prayer, admit your weakness and recognize the only strength that will ever stand is the strength that the

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Spirit of God brings. And what does He do? He uses the means of grace. He uses the word of God memorized.

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He uses the gathering of the saints. He uses the Lord's Supper. There are so many things, so many things we've been given that we should be thankful for.

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But that one phrase, you've all got it on your membership certificates, except those of you that have been around so long that didn't have it on back then.

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Be faithful until death. Do you believe your

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Lord knows what that day is for you? Is that enough for you?

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Do you need to know? Can you trust Him? Serious questions.

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The word of God gives us serious answers to those serious questions.

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Be faithful unto death. Let's pray. Lord, in the quietness of this moment, for each one of us, by your

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Spirit, let those words echo in our hearts. Be faithful until death.

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Help us to understand what that means. Help us to understand that means we cannot love the things of this world if we're going to be faithful unto death.

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Help us to understand that means we need to have our faith purified. We have to learn to trust that when you bring the suffering, there is a reason and there is a purpose.

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Lord, make us embrace it. Desire it more than anything else. Pray these things in Christ's name.