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Bro. Bill Nichols
This morning we're going to deal with the letter to the church at Smyrna, the suffering church. Before we begin, it's always a good thing to go to the Lord in prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.
Thank you for giving us this place to come together to worship you. Thank you for giving us your holy word, written in a way that we can understand it and read it. And what we can't understand, thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to lead us, and to help us to understand the message that you have in the word for us.
Thank you for all the things that you've given us. Continue to go with us as we go through the day. Protect us and keep us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, we spent a good bit of time last week on the first two items with regard to the church at Smyrna, the suffering church.
Here's how it began. And unto the angel of the church of Smyrna, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. The name means myrrh. Smyrna came from the word myrrh. The association with myrrh and with death, and with the ultimate victory over death, resurrection, is the theme of this letter.
And we talked about that last week. And we talked about all the occasions when myrrh was mentioned in the New Testament. At his birth, at his death, at his burial, but not at his resurrection. We spoke of the times in the Old Testament when myrrh was mentioned, associating it with death.
And we looked at an occasion in the Old Testament where men came bearing gifts to the king. And the gifts were gold and frankincense, but myrrh was missing. And we discussed why it was that myrrh was missing in that particular verse in Isaiah, or chapter in Isaiah.
And that's because that was a millennial kingdom event. That was after the Lord had resurrected. There was still death in the world, but it wasn't his death. His death and his resurrection had already been accomplished.
Then we talked about the second item on our list, the title of Jesus. And here the title is, unto the angel of the church at Smyrna, write these things, saith the first and the last, which is dead, which was dead and is alive.
Smyrna prided itself as the first city in Asia. A city that had been destroyed and had recovered to become great again. A city that had risen, as it were, from the dead. Jesus chose this title to remind the Christians in Smyrna that he was the first and the last.
It was he that was dead and now lives. It was he that they serve. He is the risen Lord. He is the Lord who is victorious over death. Death could not hold Jesus and it cannot hold his children. And that's where we finished last week.
The next item on our list of things, the seven things that all of these letters or most of these letters all have. I had to rephrase that because this letter doesn't have one of them, but it's not this one.
It's a commendation of things well done. So here's what it says in verse 9. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.
There are two words for poverty in the Greek. One is panea and it's the state of having nothing superficial. Most of us today would fall into that category or at least some of us would. We might say it's one who is living from paycheck to paycheck.
You've got enough money to meet your bills if you get paid this month. That's a kind of poverty. It means that you're destined to continue to work for a living. Really, Brother David and his business deals with exactly this kind of people.
Getting them from a position of being living from day to day. You can't earn enough, guys, living from day to day. You can't earn enough on your salaries living from day to day. You have to have a second income stream.
That's what Brother David's business is all about. You know that much better than I do. But we can all be said to be, in a sense, living from paycheck to paycheck. Or at least a lot of us could. There's another word for poverty.
Pocea. That's the word used here. It means the state of one who has nothing at all. It implies abject poverty. It implies being a beggar. Those of the Church of Smyrna are described as being in abject poverty.
With regard to things of the world. Yet rich. They are poor. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty. And then he finishes that up by saying, Thou art rich. How can you be both? How can you be rich and poor at the same time?
You can be rich in spirit and poor in the things of the world. That's what the people of Smyrna, the believers at Smyrna were. They were in abject poverty with regard to things of the world. And yet they were rich in the things of Christ.
The second part of this verse talks about them which say they are Jews and are not. Oh, they were Jews by birth. But though they were Jews by birth, they were not true Jews. They were spiritual pagans.
Romans 2, 28 talks about this. For he is not. This is Romans 2, 28 and 29. For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither that of circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly.
And circumcision is that of the heart in spirit, not in the letter. Whose praise is not of men, but God. These were born Jews, but spiritually they were pagans. They became allied with other pagans in putting Christians to death.
Just as Satan wanted them to. Satan is attempting to stamp out the Christian faith. With the rejection of its Messiah, Judaism became as much a tool of Satan as empire worship. Thus, these are identified by Jesus, the first and the last, which was dead and is alive, as what?
Not the synagogue of the Jews. Not his synagogue, but the synagogue of Satan. You can worship practically any religion you want to worship. And Satan will just be delighted. He doesn't care what you worship, as long as you don't worship the true God.
He is perfectly happy in confusion. So let's go to the criticism of the things at Smyrna that need attention. And what do you find? Nothing. There is no criticism written in this letter. It's one of only two churches which no criticism is made.
Do you remember the other one? If you read through, you'll find that no criticism is given to the church at Philadelphia. And those two are lacking in that one item. That would be a good thing, to not have any criticism.
For God to evaluate you and give you a report card and say, people think you're poor, but you're really rich in the things that matter. And I don't have a thing bad to say about you. Go on about your business.
Fear none of the things which you shall suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
That's the end of that message. Isn't that one you'd want? Well, the answer is I'm not sure that's the one I'd want. I would want the spiritual part, but I wouldn't want any part of the worldly part. But you know what?
We don't get that choice. And we will not be exempt from trials and tribulations. We may not have them to the extent that the believers in Smyrna did, but we'll have them. But we know that if we are faithful unto death, we'll be given a crown of life.
Now, I kind of lost track of where I was going because I was thinking of something else. It's interesting to note that there was not one indication that they would escape their suffering, only that they would be faithful through it.
There's not a single person, not a single commentary anywhere in the world that uses the Church of Smyrna as a proof text for his understanding that the Church will be removed from the world prior to the Tribulation.
Now, I'm not saying that those that believe in a pre-Tribulation rapture are not necessarily wrong, but they all go to the Church of Philadelphia as a proof text for the Church being taken out of the world before the Tribulation begins.
Why not use this church? It says you'll have the Tribulation. Are they not as good as the Philadelphia church? Are they missing something that the Philadelphia church had? I don't see anything that they're missing that the Philadelphia church had.
So I don't think that either the Church of Smyrna nor the Church of Philadelphia is a proof text for pre-Trib. I think I got it right. I know that Brother David was corrected last Monday on not pre-Millennial rapture, but pre-Tribulation rapture.
I want to make sure I got that one right, Brother David. And to laugh at you because you're not perfect. Raj is way too cautious. See, here's what I recognize. It's not what you say, it's what you mean.
It's not important what the Bible says, it's important what the Bible means. You can make it say what you want it to say, and that is a frightening thing. But you can't make it mean what it wants to mean.
Yes, sir? Laodicean? They say that the Church of Philadelphia extended from the time at the beginning all the way to the rapture. They're saying we're not in the Tribulation because the rapture had not occurred.
Well, they certainly are. They're members of the congregation is the way they look at it. They're members of the congregation. Go to First Baptist in Dallas, at Coors County. In that church there are people that would be described as Philadelphia believers and Laodicean believers and everything except Ephesus.
The church at Ephesus ended with the apostles. They clamped that one off at that time. The rest of them extend either through the Tribulation or through to the rapture. So you're saying that these churches are...
I'm not saying that. I'm saying what I understand that the commentators are saying. Yes. It is very difficult and what you've got to do is you've got to do as they say. You have to say there are real churches.
They have real existence. And all of these churches existed at the time of John. Every one of them was at the time of John. But some of them represent things in the future. And what they represent is ages of the church but also what they represent is people, groups within each church.
And so you've kind of got two different definitions. Ages and people within. And they've kind of flipped back and forth. And that's uncomfortable for me. That's why I answered you the way I answered you.
I think you cannot possibly defend it as being a definitive church age. This church was from here to here. And this one was from here to here. And I think the church at Pergamos was not really the imperial church that lasted up to the Roman Catholic Church.
And Thyatira is not really the Roman Catholic Church which is the way people have interpreted it. And Sardis is not really the Reformation church. And if you want to be one or the other, you want to be Thyatira rather than Sardis.
The Protestants have got the worst of the lot. And within each church there are members in every different... See, I like that understanding better. That in this church we have a large group of, I think, Philadelphia or Smyrna.
And not so many Laodiceans. Even those that are wrong are not Laodiceans. They're hot about what they believe. But you go to a bigger church and you'll get all kinds. Yes. Yeah. That was the Church of Rome.
Yeah. That is a better way, I think, of looking at how you forecast because they are real churches. They are real churches. They had real problems. They really existed. And I don't know of any of them that still is in existence today.
If any. If any. I don't think any are, but I wouldn't testify to that. But I just wanted to kind of lay that out up front that there are many texts that people use to prove a point. And that's because you can take it and you can twist it and you can turn it and you can make it prove anything.
The accountants, statisticians, have a saying that says if you torture the data long enough, it will testify to anything. And I think we tortured the scripture to make it testify to what we want it to testify to.
That's just me, and you can kind of keep that in context of Luke 1711. Listen, think about it, and then test it to see if it's true. We'll get back to that several times before we get through. We're not really to the kickoff point for the rapture, but it will come.
If it hasn't already. And if it has already, then we're further along in the tribulation than we'd like to believe. Also worth noting, it is a primary goal of Satan to undermine the church. And he does that by bringing tribulation upon its leaders, testing on its leaders.
Now, at first I had the primary goal of Satan, but that's not his primary goal. What's Satan's primary goal? That is a goal, it is a primary goal, but it is not the primary goal. What is the primary goal of Satan?
And I'll give you a hint. He is going to be unsuccessful in doing it. He wants to be God himself. That's his primary goal. He wants to be God. That's his primary goal. But he has a lot of ways of advancing that cause.
One primary goal is to undermine the church by bringing testing or tribulation upon its leaders. I pick two. In the New Testament, Satan sought unsuccessfully to destroy Peter's faith. Jesus warned him in Luke 22, 31.
He says, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen the brethren.
So what's Satan's goal? Satan's goal is to destroy Peter by tempting him. And God says, I'll give you strength to resist him. I prayed for you, that your faith fail not. Do you think his faith is going to fail after the Lord prays for him?
And when thou art converted, when you are changed, when you now are no longer in the hands of Satan, strengthen the brethren. He's got a job to do. Yeah, and it would be really easy to understand that Peter could never be understood as being led to sin.
He was not lukewarm about anything. He was hot about everything. He was hot when he was right, and he was hot when he was wrong, but he was hot all the time. And I think that is a good trait. It is a good trait to believe what you believe and believe it with intensity, but be willing to check it to see if what you're believing is true.
And when he's checking it, when you find that you're in error, be just as hot. And that's what he wants. Well, as with Peter, Jesus also foretold that Satan would attack the believer at Smyrna, but also that they would successfully endure his attack on them.
Paul also survived Satan's onslaught. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, it says, Jesus is now talking to Paul. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee. He has just asked that the thorn in his flesh be removed, and he's just asked it for the third time.
You hear the pastor say, well, you just didn't ask it with enough intensity, with enough of faith. You haven't asked it enough times. Keep asking and he'll do it. Well, not this time. He said, Paul, quit praying for the thorn to be removed.
It's not going to be removed. My strength, my grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, then, Paul says, I will rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul assailed Paul and Peter and all the believers at the church of Smyrna.
And yet he was destined to fail because God never allows his children to be tested beyond their means to resist. In 1 Corinthians, I had to look this up this morning, 1 Corinthians 10, 13. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as common to man.
But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dear beloved, flee from idolatry.
Don't worship just any old thing you want to. Worship God. And how do you worship God? You worship Jesus. Because we can't get to God. All we can get to is Jesus. Any comments? Okay, let's go to verse 10.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Now, I know it doesn't say the great tribulation, but it is a great tribulation.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Now, ten days is an interesting number. You can't imagine the number of commentators who have different ideas of what ten days mean. We see ten days as symbolically representing everything from ten periods of persecution under the Romans.
And they'll go so far as to label the ten really big persecutors of the Christians. And I don't know why they picked the ones they picked. Some of them are pretty obvious, but some of them are a little more strange.
They all wind up at the very end with Diocletius, the greatest of them all, in terms of tribulation of the saints. But in every one other tribulation occurred, there's 250 years worth of it. So some say that ten days really means 250 years.
And some of them say, well, it's ten periods. The 250 years counts the ten really great oppressors plus everybody in between. You understand what I said? There's more than ten emperors from the time John wrote this until Diocletian.
There's more than ten. But they only list ten, and then they say those ten plus all the ones in between is 250 years. And some say it's only those in the ten years. And some of them say, well, it's just ten periods.
And some of them say, well, it's just Diocletian who himself reigned for ten years. I'm sorry? Here's what I said. There is no scriptural reason to interpret the ten days as anything other than ten actual days.
We can stretch it. We can twist it. We can make it be what we want it to be. We can make it be ten named emperors. We can make it be Diocletian. We can make it be ten days to be ten years. Or it can be ten days.
The Word says it's ten days, and there's no reason to create confusion where it's not necessary. In fact, I think that is one of Satan's greatest weapons, is to create confusion where there's no reason for it.
If you just say ten days, you've got to, yes ma 'am. I think that you're 100 right. I think if he wanted to mean something else, he would have said, he said the stars that I hold in my hand, these are not really stars.
What these really are, these are the leaders of the churches. And the candlesticks are the churches. You're right. He goes, he explains what the symbolism is. Well, I'm convinced that he would. The only thing that I might say is, and I'm not even saying this, we just might not have discovered it yet.
We may need to read it three more times. And that never hurts. It never hurts to read it again. So, I don't know. I have no reason to believe it's anything other than ten days. I think that if he meant for it to be other than ten days, he would have told us.
What we do know for certain is that Satan's major assault on the church of Smyrna would be intense, but it would be brief. But what do you mean brief? If I am tested, from the time Paul received his salvation, he was blinded and I think from that point on, he suffered this thorn in his flesh.
Brother Otis thinks it is the blindness. I don't think that that's it, but whatever it is, it's what it is. From some time on, he had that affliction all of his life until he was dead. Well, is that a long period or a small period?
Well, let me describe how Paul described his affliction. This is 2 Corinthians 4 .17. And go there. I want you to read this. I want you to just believe me. 2 Corinthians 4 .19. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Did I say 19? That would be 17. Yes. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment. Now, this is Paul talking. He's the one that prayed three times that the thorn be removed, isn't he? And God said no.
Now he's toward the end of his life. This is not 1 Corinthians. It's not even the missing letter to the Corinthians. This is 2 Corinthians. And he says our light affliction, which is but for a moment.
Now, he might have said, but for a moment, and it's going to last from the time it occurred until the time I die. Say again. The reason I had to do that, I thought you said, that is a long time. But you're right.
It is a moment compared to what? Compared to the eternal weight of glory. Just a flicker of time. If the affliction that you have lasts all the way until you die, it is just for a moment. And what kind of affliction is it?
Compared to the glory you're going to get, it's light. Two great words. Light affliction for a moment. I think that's a wonderful verse. Yes. Jesus' suffering was far more intense. And I don't know whether I want to say longer or not.
It depends upon how you view it. His time on the cross was not very long. But the time for which He paid for your sins and my sins, that's eternal. So in some sense, His affliction was changed forever.
And in some sense, His affliction was only for a time. I don't know how I want to even look at that one. And how long did He keep that? So you would be of the camp that said His affliction was eternal.
So He does come back all in all, and so sometime later... I could be in any camp. That's correct. It sounds good to me. I could be in that camp too. I tend to believe that He is for eternity paying for our sins.
That's right. And so that means that this infinity is added on to the other infinity. And you can do that mathematically too. So maybe the answer is in math. Well, the other item here is the crown. The crown is the reward of genuine saving faith.
And what is the crown? It's your eternal life. Perseverance proves the genuineness of the faith as they endure the suffering. If you endure, then you have genuine faith. If you fall away, you never had to start with.
The Scripture teaches that true Christians will persevere. James 1 .12 says, Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
If you endure the temptation, you will receive the crown of life. And you will have had genuine faith. You won't get the genuine faith because you endure the temptation. You'll endure the temptation because you have the genuine faith.
So you can't get it backward. That truth was understood by the authors of the Westminster Confession. These are the ground rules of the Presbyterian Church. And here's what they wrote. They whom God hath accepted in His Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.
What that's saying is if you're called and you're sanctified, you cannot fall away. But you will certainly persevere and you will be eternally saved. There's no saving for a while. There's no falling back.
And then we come to the key phrase in every one of these letters. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now the Spirit has something to say to every one of these churches.
Which church are we talking about now? The last time we went through this study, I made this comment which I would like to amend today. Here's what I said. This is why we don't ever take what Mr. Nichols says as true.
Because here's what I want to back off on. This letter to the Christians in Smyrna may apply least of all to the modern Western Christians. To this point, we simply don't face the kind of persecution that the Christians in Smyrna experienced.
But that does not mean that it doesn't happen in other parts of the world, nor does it mean that it cannot happen here. That's what I said last time. What do you think about that? Sounds pretty good? After what I said?
This letter to the Christians in Smyrna may apply least of all to the modern Western Christians. To this point, we simply don't face the kind of persecution the Christians in Smyrna experienced. I think you can still say that.
But that does not mean that it does not happen in other parts of the world, today, that's still true, nor does it mean that it cannot happen here. Now, I don't really have anything that I want to erase.
But there is something I would like to add to it. And what would that be? Do you think we're as far away from Christians being persecuted in this country today as we were four years ago when this was done?
And so, some of that persecution is beginning to occur in modern Western churches. Yes, sir.
Have you ever seen that with society and gender or whatever else?
We just haven't, to this point, seen the pastor march to the guillotine and be beheaded. We haven't seen that yet. But we have, as you said, seen a killer come in and ask for, do you believe? And if you say yes, they shoot you.
The second one said yes in light of knowing what was going to happen. The first one had to guess at what would happen, didn't he? No, that hadn't happened. And the last time we went through it, it was not a hate crime.
At the last time, Christianity was not considered a hate crime in either Canada or in Britain, where now they're voting on it. That's one of the things that are up for discussion right now is to not all of Christianity, but some aspects of Christianity.
Things taught by Christians, some of them being defined as hate crimes, as hate speech. We haven't had that yet either. So all I know is, it looks to me as if we're getting closer and closer. One last thing, item 7 in our list of things, and remember, it's only the sixth one in this church.
Which one's left out? The criticism, the problems. Yes, ma 'am. The seventh thing is the promise to the other overcomers. And here's what he says. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
The first death is only physical. The second death is spiritual and eternal. Jude, in speaking of false teachers, said this about them, starting with verse 11. Woe unto them, false teachers, for they have gone the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the Gansaea of Gor.
These are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit wither without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
What does it mean, twice dead? Physical death awaits them, and spiritual death awaits them. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wondering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever come, forevermore.
That's their lot, but that's not the lot of the overcomers within the church at Smyrna. What's their lot? He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. They'll have a first death. They'll have persecutions.
They'll have persecutions in this life. They'll have no persecutions in the next life. They will not experience a second death. They will not experience anything other than joy with the Lord. Well, that ties up what I want to say about the church at Smyrna.
Yes, sir. We were just over an email or something tracing there's some denomination, some cults right now that say that there's no second death or there's no hell. The spirit just ceases. Yeah, you're not in heaven, but you just cease to be.
Well, that verse right there just proved it. And that word hurt means hurt, to damage or to injure. So if you're going to be hurt, damaged, or injured of or because of the second death,.
It doesn't sound like you're ceasing to be. You'd have to throw that phrase out, wouldn't you? Maybe 2014. Are we talking in Jude or in Revelation?
Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Yep, lake of fire. No cease to be there. Yep. And what happens to them when they're there? It defines the second death as we would know it.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire, which apparently damages, injures, and hurts you. Apparently.
Unless you don't believe this. Well, I have an idea. If you don't believe it, it hurts you just as bad. But it doesn't hurt you right now. You think you've bypassed it. Absolutely. I wish I'd had that one in my lesson today.
But see, you gave it, so it's there. Can I bring up one more thing? Yes, sir. Yes. Okay, what you're saying is there's no such thing as being poor if you are spiritually rich. It doesn't have anything to do with how much money you have, how big your house is, how many cars you own.
It has to do with only whether you're spiritually rich or not. So you'd say there is no rich other than spiritual rich. So if you were translating that verse, you'd say people say you're poor. People say you're beggarly.
People say you're living paycheck to paycheck. But I say you are rich. I like that. Absolutely. I like that way better. See, I should have called you. We should have conferenced before we did this. But the good thing is we can conference while it's going on.
And that is right.
We are rich when we're in Christ, no matter what else is around us. You have everything. You have everything you could possibly need or even want beyond what you can even imagine. So yes, I would say you're rich in all ways.
Anything else? We're kind of running close to the time, so let's... Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for all the gifts that you've given us. Thank you for allowing us to understand that regardless of what people think about us, we are rich beyond compare.
When we have Christ, we have everything. And when we have not Christ, we have nothing. Just an illusion. Reality is, if you're with Christ, you are rich. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.