The Church of Smyrna — Brent Williamson

Christ's Message to the Suffering Church

I know about your suffering and your poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they really aren't because there's a synagogue of Satan. Don't be afraid, verse 10, of what you are about to suffer.

The devil will throw some of you into prison and put you to the test. You will be persecuted for 10 days. Remain faithful even when facing death, and I will give you the crown of life, verse 11. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Whoever is victorious will not be hurt by the second death. Lord, we thank you for being here with us today. It is a privilege and an honor just to experience the presence of God. We thank you for the worship, Father.

I pray that you would be, you were adored and reverenced. Father, now as we break forth the bread of life, I pray again that you would be adored and reverenced through the Word. And Father, I pray that no one would hear my message or my sermon, it would be from the Holy Spirit wrought from above.

And Father, I pray that you would truly speak to our hearts and help me to speak this Word faithfully. And I ask as always, Father, you keep me behind the cross, and I pray you would make this message truly a tragedy to the devil, and that the heavens would be opened upon this hour and this time that we can hear the voice of God.

As many, Father, today know the Word, but it's time that we know the voice of God through the Word, and help us to hear your voice this morning, in Jesus' name. And the church said, amen. So we have, just to be boring, can I be boring just for a minute?

Just to give you some history lesson. So I can, I gotta go down the, it's like a plane going down the road, you gotta say some things to get off the runway. But as Pastor Mark preached on the book of the church on Ephesus last week, the city of Smyrna was 35 miles north of Ephesus, in the Turkey.

Ephesus, obviously, is 35 miles south of Smyrna. Smyrna is still there today, in Turkey. Now it is called Ismar, and it's actually the third largest city in Turkey today, of approximately 500 ,000 people.

Back here, as we read in the scripture, Smyrna was approximately, the historians say, it was approximately 100 ,000 people in the city. And it was, and it still is, a wealthy city. It was a very wealthy city, very prosperous city.

It was a very beautiful scenery, where they had it, near a sea. And they had auditoriums, and beautiful statutes, and pillars, I mean, it was just, I looked up through some history books, and it was just a beautiful place.

As a matter of fact, back in the day, even back then, they called it the ornament of Asia. Just a beautiful place, by sight. And Jesus, in verse eight, describes, and he's always describing in each church, in a different way, he tells himself to each church in a different way.

In a peculiar way, but in a different way. Something, I believe, and expresses to them, to something how they're gonna understand. He's addressing it to them anyway. Because he says there, at the beginning of the letter, that he was dead, and alive.

And I think that expresses two things. I mean, we can have some debates on what it really expresses, but first, and obvious, that when he says, hey guys, to the church in Smyrna, I am the first and the last.

I am he, that you're suffering for. I am the one that was resurrected from the dead. I am the one that you're doing this for. So it's like a confirmation to them, immediately. Because we know a lot of times, mainly in the scriptures, when they wrote letters, they sign their name at the beginning, not the end, like we do, obviously.

So I am the one, he says, that was dead, and alive forevermore. And it also expresses in that fact that, hey, I understand that you're gonna be facing some death yourself, but look at me. I'm alive forevermore.

In the same context, some of you may be a martyr, but sometime here in the near future, you're gonna be alive with me. Expresses the second thing I see in scripture. It expresses that in 600 BC, that Smyrna was actually destroyed.

The entire city was destroyed. It was left desolate. It was a desert place in 600 BC. No one lived there any further than after that. And then to about 200 BC, then they came back into the city and began to rebuild it.

So here, Jesus says, knowing that they came from the dead to alive again in the city. Again, he says, hey, I'm alive, and I'm dead, now I'm alive. Again, expressing the same thing that the city went through themselves.

They were dead, and now they are alive. And he says, I understand, in verse nine. I understand what you're going through, but you have to remember, it's for me. It's for me. Jesus has no rebuke. There's only two churches that really has no condemnation or rebuke from Jesus.

One was Philadelphia, which we'll be hitting on that later on. I'm not even sure who's preaching on that. Yeah, I care. I'm preaching, okay. Shows what I know. So there's two churches, and Smyrna was one of them.

There's no rebuke whatsoever. The other five had rebuke and condemnation that Jesus was against them. But you know, as I was reading it this week, the thought came to my mind, and I said, you know, we always think about how there's no rebuke to the church of Smyrna, but when you read the persecution of what they went through, and then the suffering they went through, there is a rebuke, though.

To those that are comfortable and luxurious, comfortable in their Christian walk with God, there is a rebuke to them that read it. There is. The city was utterly filled with idols. Back then, the historians reported, full of Greek gods, full of pagan worship, and that was the central theme of it all back then.

I mean, Smyrna was just wicked. Again, just full of wicked idols. And there was a big pack of Jews, a large accompaniment of Jews living there back then as well. But it was a very prosperous city overall, very prosperous.

Smyrna's Prosperity and the Cost of Christian Faithfulness

Christianity was very despised. Why was that? Because simply because their belief of Christians, our belief as a Christian, the idol that they have. So they didn't want that around. They didn't want the Ten Commandments, and they knew the law of God, obviously.

Most of them did back then, especially the Jews. But they were hated. So Jesus wrote them. I honestly believe Jesus wrote, you know, we can ask the question, why did Jesus write them? Because I really believe he actually wrote them to encourage them.

Because when you read it, which we just read, you would think immediately to yourself, there's not much encouragement right here. I mean, he doesn't say, good job, guys, keep it up, you're doing it for me.

I mean, there was really no pat on the back, per se, as we read that text. But I really believe he wrote it. And I mean, because when I see this, and how he wrote it, I'm alive for it, and I'm dead forevermore.

I'm the first, and I'm the last. Again, he's just saying, hey, it's me. What an honor. The Smyrna Church can look and look at a letter. Jesus wrote us a letter. That's an encouragement in itself, that he's still with us, and he's still walking with us.

Wow, a letter again from Jesus, and he's pleased with our suffering. Boy, that's an encouragement, isn't it? Some of you, think about that. He's pleased with our suffering. And the right attitude, though.

So we find that Jesus acknowledges their suffering. He acknowledges their suffering. He acknowledges their tribulation of what they're going through, their severe hardship. But he didn't stop there. I mean, as you're reading this letter, imagine the Church of Smyrna reading this.

And he says, oh, he's acknowledging, he sees our tribulation, he sees our hardship. But he goes, whoa, wait a minute. There's more. Some of you will be thrown in prison. Some of you are gonna wear the martyr's crown.

There's more coming. Look at verse nine again. I know about your suffering and your poverty, but you're rich, I know the slander of those opposing you, et cetera, and he goes on in verse 10. Don't be afraid of what they're about to do to you.

About to do to you. There's more coming. The devil will throw some of you into prison and test you and persecute you and so forth and so on. So he acknowledges and he warns them that there's worse things coming than already what they're experiencing.

He's preparing them. I think it's a letter of encouragement. I think it's a letter of preparation too for what's coming in the future. And as I'm speaking this morning and what my prayer was, I'm gonna show some things of how this can relate to us.

What I really prayed for and want more than anything else, I wanted the text to minister to us more than anything else, okay? I just wanted this just to unpack into our spirits. I think that would do more than anything else that I could possibly say.

So he prepared them. So what were they going through back then? And what were they really going through, this tribulation, this suffering? I mean, Jesus mentions poverty. He says, I know your poverty.

Well, what's that mean? I know your poverty. Because they're in a wealthy, prosperous city. But he says, yet you're rich. But he acknowledged that they were in poverty. Why? Because the persecution was so heavy and so hot and so intense that they lost jobs.

They could hardly work because they were so despised back then. I mean, mainly, people looked at them as vile. And they couldn't work for the most part. And because they couldn't work, they had a lack of food.

They're hungry. You know, their jail system is not like ours. Our jail system, hey, it's like the rural Caribbean. I mean, our jail system, you get cable TV, three meals a day, a warm bed, right? And it's free.

It's free, so to speak. But their jail system was a little different. Their jail system, you had feces, rats, and hardly any food fed to you whatsoever. That was their jail system. The Bible says they were slandered.

They were slandered, blaspheming, made fun of continually. Again, looked down as vile and wicked people themselves. But wait, but wait, there's more coming. Jesus, isn't this enough? Have you ever asked yourself, Jesus, this is enough?

I can't take any more than already this. I've already got this. I can't take any more. This is enough, Jesus. And Jesus says, no, but wait, there's more. There's more? There's more. The more, so what was the more that was coming?

The more that was coming was very inhumane. I know this is gonna sound gross and grotesque, and some of you won't be able to stomach some of this stuff, what they actually did, but it's part of what they went through.

These people, to the brothers and sisters in Christ, for standing up for Christ, and let me say this too. Typically, people are not persecuted for being quiet. I should have more amens in that. The church ain't being persecuted for silence.

Church ain't being persecuted because she's quiet. So think, they weren't quiet in an atmosphere of wickedness, of vile people serving all this stuff, and they proclaimed, because Jesus would have scolded them for that.

Think about this. He would have scolded them if they were being quiet. So what they did, several things. They would pour tar all over them, all over their bodies, and put them into an area in a city where people could watch them at night burn.

You know, there was a movie out called The Paw, which showed some of that, and they called them Roman candles. So they would pour oil on them, or tar, and light them up, and they were used as a spectacle for everyone just to watch and to enjoy, like an arena.

Entertainment, that's what it was. It was entertainment for the crowd. They would put them into arenas, arenas packed full of thousands of people, thousands and tens of thousands. People would pack it out just to come to watch Christians be eaten alive by wild animals.

They would gather around and watch people making a choice, deny Christ, give to Caesar. If you don't deny Christ, if you don't give to Caesar right here, right now, I'm gonna cut your baby into pieces right now, and they wouldn't deny Christ, and they cut their babies in pieces right in front of the mom and dad.

If you don't deny Christ to the husband, if you don't deny him right here, right now, I'm gonna cut the breast off of your wife, and he wouldn't deny him, and they cut her breast off right in front of him.

This is all written in the Fox Book of Martyrs. This is all written in history. And during this period of time, frame of the first two or three centuries, the Fox's Book of Martyrs said there was about five million Christians slaughtered.

Five million. You know, we think that's a lot of people, but I think we're so blinded by being here in the United States, America, this blessed country, and our comfortable Christianity, that there's more Christians today being slaughtered than ever in history.

So think about that when I just said five million. A lot of you gasped at that, but think about what's going on today. Don't be a Christian in North Korea today. You won't be seen again if you start proclaiming Christ in their arenas.

Enduring Persecution Without Denying Christ

But this is what Hebrews 11 .35 stands for. Hebrews 11 .35, not accepting deliverance. I think that's one of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible, personally, I think so. Because when the book of Hebrews names evolved, they were hiding in caves, they were torn in pieces, they were torn in two, they were tortured, burned, and yada, yada, yada.

And it came down to verse 34, not accepting deliverance. So anytime that you feel like you're going through some trials and tribulations, I encourage you to read Hebrews 11. I do. But imagine someone, I'm a little sarcastic side note, but truthful, because I remember my pastor many years ago that my wife and I were attending his church and he gave a sermon illustration.

I don't know why I was just thinking about this the other day. This was like 22 years ago. Someone is a big church of 600 people and someone called and the secretary said, Pastor Curtis, I got someone on the phone right now.

They wanna know what you guys, what this church can offer our family. He said, give me that phone. He said, hello? Well, what can you offer our family? He said, ma 'am, I'll tell you what we can offer our family.

He said, that's Jesus. That was it. That was it, Jesus. But you know, people do that all the time now because of the buffet, of the different styles, different types of churches today. Got the lights, got the fog machines, got the children.

What can you, Jesus. I wanna go to a church that offers Jesus, that gets closer to him than anything else. That makes him, I don't want a church that gives me 10 of Jesus. I want a church that gives me 100 of Jesus.

Amen? So you imagine the church of Smyrna bringing in kind of, you know, the light of 2019. Of course, they didn't have phones back then. Someone calls up the book of, calls up the church of Smyrna and says, hey, what can you give us?

What can you give our family? I did, I thought about that. Oh, we'll, yeah, we'll give you a severe hardship serving Jesus. And we'll also give you a martyrdom for serving Jesus. Oh, nevermind, I'll go to the church down the road.

Wrong church, you know. I'm looking for something a little more comfortable. That's a little edgy on my end. But you know what, this is the church of Smyrna. This was it. And I know it's very strange for us to hear this stuff because it's really polar opposite of what the church we experience today, isn't it?

Polar opposite. Jesus said, you're poor materially, he told him. He said, yeah, I know you're poverty, but, but he said, you're rich. And obviously he means by that, you're rich spiritually. You're rich in my grace.

You're rich, your spiritual wealth is more important. John Bunyan said, the poor man that loves Christ is richer than the greatest man in the world, amen. I love that statement. See what they were doing, they were storing up treasures in heaven.

Man, when you read their accounts and what they went through, man, their bank accounts were full. There was no dollar bills up there or no pennies in the bank account. There was no bankruptcy in their bank accounts.

Their bank accounts were full. I mean, they had the rubies probably all around, double coated around their crowns when they got to heaven. But they were storing up, but they were rich, which is the most important thing for all of us, to be rich towards God.

And that's what Jesus was saying to them, don't see yourselves as poor, see yourselves as I see you. The world might see you as vile and wicked and abnormal and strange, but I see you wonderful. I shed my blood for you.

I died for you. I see you as rich towards me, amen. So Jesus mentions the Jews, the unbelieving Jews. Now there's several things, I mean, there's several debates in exactly what or who they were or who they were not.

But several things that we can bring out, the Jews obviously wanted to distance themselves from the church, because basically, I don't want anything to do with that. You know what I mean? Holy cow, if I started serving Jesus, I get to experience that, I'll just stick with the one true God.

And Samarna was kind of being cozy with the Jews, okay? Samarna also has some close ties into Rome. So by having some very close ties into Rome, because Rome, as we all know, Rome was a place that persecuted Christians heavily.

You don't want to be persecuted in Rome, you don't want to be, those people were wicked, what they did to Christians. But they had some close ties to them. So he mentions the Jews. And these Jews may have not, they may have been idol worshipers themselves.

So they were pretenders of being a Jew. These Jews, probably most of them didn't accept Jesus as the Messiah himself. So ultimately, they were pretenders, faking who they really said they were. And you will find those, and more and more as I'm seeing, and more and more as I, you know, as we go through each century, year by year, you find those who cause you and I the most problems are those within the church walls.

It's true. The most complaints, the most criticized I get, I don't know about you, 99 of the time is not from those with outside the walls, it's within. And I'm not speaking generally right here, so don't think, you know, don't be looking at each other.

You know, like Judah's situation, is it I? Is it I, Lord? But that's true. Pretending to be Christians and are not, because Jesus was tortured and killed, crucified by those who attended, quote, church regularly.

Yeah. So when you have such a vicious attack on this church, and especially in Smyrna, it was established as a synagogue of Satan. Well, yeah. The enemy was hell bent on bringing hell to him, right? He says, you know what?

Faithfulness, Polycarp, and the Witness of Church History

Be faithful. And I think, you know, be faithful unto death and I'll give you the crown of life. And that's, you know, the biggest word. And I told someone the other day that was going through some hardships and the Lord gave me a word for this particular person.

I walked up to him and I knew they're going through some major struggles. And I just, I said to him, I said, I think the Lord really wants you to hear this word. It's two words. He said, what's that? I said, be faithful.

Be faithful. Be faithful to the very end. Endure. Be faithful. I want that to sink in. Just be faithful. The church in Smyrna was faithful to the very end. And the apostle John that wrote the book of Revelation appointed, which leads me on to something else.

He appointed a man called Polycarp. He was a bishop. Matter of fact, he was known as the bishop. Keep tracking with me. He was the bishop of Smyrna. He was known as a very godly man. He was a man that was full of the scriptures.

He was the man that they called a gatekeeper that kept out the heresy from the church. He was like the guard for the church at that time that blocked on false doctrine from coming in. And he knew the scriptures very well.

Matter of fact, you can read. If you get online, you can get a history book. You can read. He actually wrote a letter, actually a long letter to the Philippian church. Obviously, we know that Paul wrote a book to the Philippians that when he was in jail, but Polycarp wrote a letter also as well.

And what I like about Polycarp, what for all of us, what intrigues me most about this because it was a continuation from the New Testament church past. I mean, it's still the New Testament. So as soon as the scriptures are done, we can read in history.

We have to get into history books to see a continuation, a track that things kept moving along and proceeding how they were already. You follow me? So we can read that stuff. I'm a big history buff. I like reading that kind of stuff.

I like knowing whether or not there were still healings and still deliverances and stuff like that. And there was, all through history, there was. And so important for the church and so important for the young people of the church.

They don't know church history at all because a lot of times what's going on today, I was sharing with someone last night and I said, we've got these people who are going to these progressive churches and they're just, they're babies.

When I was selling life insurance many years ago, the headquarters of the agency did not want established agents already. They wanted people who knew nothing about selling insurance. They didn't because they couldn't minister or they couldn't work with the agents because they knew too much.

But if we can get a bunch of newbies, I can mold them the way I want. And so we got a bunch of newbies coming up in the progressive church and saying, this is church. And they have no idea of the history of the church.

In the last 30, 50 years, the church that has done a U-turn in America, she went, whoop, like this. And when all you have to do is look at China right now and the underground church in China and the underground church in China is very similar to the book or to the church in Samarna.

It's a continuation right now as I'm talking. They're being persecuted, suffered tribulations and on and on, being killed and their buildings are being destroyed. So in order to know truth, we got to know the scriptures, number one.

We got to know the text, amen. That's number one. And number two, we got to know church history. By those two, you should know whether or not the church is doing right. So again, the Apostle John, I got off sidetrack.

I do that sometimes. So Apostle John appointed Polycarp. Polycarp, he was from, he was born A .D. 69 and he died A .D. 155. So Polycarp, long story short, this is the same timeframe that we're talking about here.

The emperor called for Polycarp. He was 86 years old. And he goes like, so these guards come to Polycarp and they were here to take you to the emperor. And so Polycarp says, okay, because Polycarp knew what this was about, obviously.

He knew that Christians were being slaughtered and being destroyed. And he knew his life was over. So these guards came to take him. I'm not sure exactly how many there was. And he says to them with humility and the love of Christ, someone that was going to take him away and kill him, he offered them food.

He said, you want a meal before we go? While you talk about the love of God. And they said, sure. He said, plus, he said, that'll give me some time to pray. He said, can you guys give me at least one hour to pray while you're eating this meal?

They said, sure. So it's kind of like Brent when he gets up and preaches when he says he's going to end the sermon and he doesn't, he keeps going on for another hour. You know, it's kind of like that's what Polycarp did.

He prayed an extra hour longer. What did he ask for? So I borrow that from him. But the men that heard him upstairs praying, they said in the history books that he prayed with such fervor and passion and tears like they've never heard anybody pray before.

They actually repented listening to him pray being downstairs. God got all over them by listening to that man, that godly man pray. But they still had a duty to do. Even though they repented, they still brought him before the emperor.

They were still employed. And so they did. And they brought him before. And then the emperor says, I want you to burn incense to Caesar right now. And if you deny Christ and you burn incense to Caesar, we'll let you walk away.

And someone wrote notes. It was in the audience, so to speak. Listening to the whole procession. And I can't go into exactly, but basically, Olycarp said, and he looked at the emperor and he said, I am 86 years old.

I've served the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully for all these years. And dare not I deny him right now. And they took him away and they whisked him away. And he said, you know what? Because what they used to do with the stakes, they would nail you to a stake.

He said, you know what, guys? You don't need to nail me to a stake. You can tie my hands to keep me up. But he said, I'm not gonna resist. You can just tie me to the stake. And the tradition says they lit it on fire.

And I read many reports just try to back this up. And every report, every report, and every report all said the same thing, that the fire did a mushroom all around him. It wouldn't touch him. God was keeping him safe for a moment.

So after this went on for a little bit and the mushroom went around him, this blaze of fire, the guard walked up to him and basically said, forget this, and took a spear and shoved it into him and killed him.

Polycarp was a very famous martyr back in Smyrna. You can read a ton of history about him being faithful to the very end, being faithful to the very end. So Smyrna was known for myrrh, myrrh. And myrrh is used back then and they made perfume.

And in order for myrrh to work in perfume, had to be, they got it to us as a spice. They have to crush it into small little pieces. And so Smyrna was known for myrrh to get a fragrance. And we look at 2 Corinthians chapter two, 2 Corinthians chapter two, verse two, 14 through 16.

Listen to what he says. Paul says, but thank God that he has made us his captives and continues to lead us along Christ's triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like a, what?

Sweet perfume. Now the translations, it talks about fragrance. We are the fragrance of Christ. But in order to be a fragrance, in order to have a good scent for Christ, we have to be crushed, unfortunately.

For the prophet says, it pleased, didn't displease, it pleased the father to crush his son. And it created perfume and a fragrance for all the world. So when God crushes us, it's not to be mean or harsh.

He wants us to be a fragrance that others can smell and see the life of Christ in you and I. Follow me? It kind of puts in perspective what it says in first Peter chapter two, Kirsten. First Peter chapter two, 221, it says, for God called you to good, even if it means, what?

Suffering. Just as Christ suffered for you, he is your example and you must follow his steps. Wait a minute, I came to this Christian thing, I don't want, that's not why I came into this. The Bible says, those that live godly, it's a promise by God.

Those that live godly shall suffer persecution. And actually it's a question, why if you're not suffering persecution, are you not living godly? Examine yourself. I'm just going by the text, amen? This ain't preacher talking, this is just the text.

Modern Comfort Compared With the Suffering of Smyrna

Question for you and me. Suffering for us. You know, our suffering, honestly, let's think about our suffering today. Our suffering today really entails, you know, we say something on social media and they get unhappy and they block us.

Or they unfollow us, unfriend us. And then we call the pastor, pastor, my feelings are so hurt, they block me. I'm going through such tribulation and trials. That's true. Because I've heard Christians complain that someone, how dare they block me?

Really? Yeah, really. He says, you know, or you know, someone, our suffering also entails, you know, someone, you know, we see someone in the store and they kind of like, you know, they hide their face or we see them turn their back and they won't talk to us anymore.

You know, that's kind of our suffering. I didn't do anything. How can they talk? Why are they avoiding me in the store like that? I was just in a family function, what did I do? And we get all tiffied about it, upset.

We hear people gossip about us, telling false things. Christians claiming to be Christian telling others about stuff, about us. That's not true. Well, so they did to Jesus. And he goes on to say, he talks about this 10 days and I'm not too far from being done, 10 days.

And basically what it boils down to, it can talk about dates and seasons and times, but basically all the theologians just about agreed that the 10 days that Jesus was referring to, he's like, hey, you're gonna go through this for 10 days.

It was a metaphor for a very short period of time. In other words, you can make it. Paul said, Paul talked about, if you look at what you're gonna experience, the glory of what you're gonna experience, this what we're going through can't even be compared to, he said, right?

If we can get a true revelation of who he is. I guess he says, if you wanna look at it that way, Jesus says, you're not gonna experience the second death. And he's basically saying, all that you've done, this is your reward.

You're not gonna go to hell. That's what he says. And you're gonna be with me. Because Jesus for the Smyrna church was all sufficient. That's how they got through this. He was all sufficient. That's how they did it.

Exactly how they did it. They sold him for who he was. That's how a friend of mine, who just came back from China, was a full-time, his wife were full-time missionaries. And China right now, they're undercover as teachers, witnessing, sharing the gospel over there.

They've been there for full-time, eight years. And he came back to Indiana the other day, and they take a three-week break. But when he came back, the persecution is so intense now with the church there.

Police, those of us that are on the news, we've heard about it. They're taking pastors away, leaders away, church members away, and they're hiding them. They don't know where they're taking them to. So my friend Chris has no, had no contact with the secret police of China until he was on a plane and he got back home.

And the friends of China called him and let him know, the secret police have been looking for you and your wife. Because they said, they're hearing that you're talking about making the other people disciples of Christ.

And then all of a sudden I'm reading the comments, you know, this is social media. And some people said, don't go, don't go back. Why would you want to go back there? Dear God, don't go back there. You're done if you go back there.

They're looking for you. And immediately my mind switches to Paul and what the prophet told Paul. He said, the person who wears this belt is bound to go to Jerusalem, will suffer, will suffer great persecution.

And the disciples tried to sway Paul from not going to Jerusalem because he knew this was going to be a tragedy for him. He says, I've got to go because this is the will of God for my life. If I'm in the will of God for my life, I should be the happiest of all.

And that's what Chris said on social media to everyone that was trying to talk him out from going. He said, this is the will of God for me, for me and my wife. We know this is the center of it all. And that's, if that is the center of the will of God, that is the safest place that I could be.

Scary to the flesh. And Friday he gets on, he got onto a plane flying back from his three week vacation. Not knowing what beckons. Not knowing what's going to happen while we sit here comfortable. He's safe right now.

He reported back he's safe. But it still depicts that things of Samarna is still going on today in other countries. Still going on. So how does this relate to us? I've shared some things already. And it's not hard, but it's going to sound hard, but when they went through all of this, they didn't complain.

Living Boldly Without Complaint or Compromise

They didn't complain. They didn't complain. I want that to sink in. Because they did complain, Jesus would have scolded them for it. Because if we can't resist the temptation to miss church on a Sunday or a midweek service, because we don't feel like it, how in God's name are we going to face persecution when it really comes?

We are not called to search out persecution. But don't get me wrong, that's not the job of Christians, right? We're not called to search it out, but we're also called not to avoid it either. I'd rather be known, and I hope you would too, I'd rather be known as a radical for Christ than an indifferent disciple for Christ.

Amen? I hope that's your prayer. And in 1 John 1, verse one, we proclaim to you, John says, this is also the apostle John again, we proclaim to you that the one who existed from the beginning, who we have heard and seen, we saw him with our own eyes, touched him with our own hands, and he is the word of life.