Text
: Revelation 2 : 1- 7
Title
: A Letter from Christ
to the Church in Smyrna
Date: 18/08/2013
The letters to the 7 churches graphically demonstrate
the conflict that God's people experience everywhere and at all times in the history of this fallen world. We
must never think that we are the only generation hat find it difficult to be Christians. Every century and every generation in the
history of the world, ever since the fall of Adam, and particularly the church age
( the last days - the Christian
era), has seen untold suffering. Christians
along with the rest of the world have suffered through wars, famine, disasters- and along with these
persecution, misrepresentations, false accusations because of their faith in Jesus. A
so called golden age of Christianity, following the 16th
Century Reformation whereby we have seen
the gospel spreading all over the world
has never been free from
suffering for the church . Wherever the gospel advances much blood is shed, for Satan and evil men
hate the gospel, because the
gospel exposes our sin before it frees us.
John says in his gospel: “People
loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For
everyone who does wicked things hates
the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed”
( John 3: 19,20) . The Western World, which since the end of World War II,
has seen unprecedented peace and
prosperity is now also the prime
exporter of every conceivable sexual sin. The aggressive
advent of the homosexual agenda, of abortion and child abuse, greed and the love of pleasure is fuelled mostly by
the prosperous Western world. The
Western world now hates the gospel and
we are beginning to see not only
intolerance against biblical
Christianity; we are seeing active
steps being taken to silence the
voice of the Christian
pastor and prophet.
The reason is quite apparent, and the Bible has an
answer for this. Satan, the fallen angel hates the light. And concerning the church,
the Lord Jesus has said: “You are the light of the world” (Matt
5:14). Satan takes active steps to
resist, oppose and destroy
the church. He does this through the world systems. In countries where there is freedom of religion, he deceives and undermines the
foundations of biblical
Christianity , so that what you often see as the church is not church at all. It is a synagogue of
Satan. In countries where Christianity is banned, he makes sure that Christians get killed. He works relentlessly to keep the world in darkness , and
Christians (who have the light) he
tirelessly works to oppress so that they lose their perspective and their joy
in Jesus. Every single conflict in this
world comes back to this same thing. A profound observation was once made when
somebody asked General Douglas McArthur
( a WWII general ) as to what the reason
for war and conflict was. He replied: "The problem is essentially
theological". War and every
source of conflict basically boils down
to this immense battle between light and darkness, between good and evil, and with reference to
the church Ephesians 6 makes it very
clear that this battle originates not with flesh and
blood but through the agency of the powers of this dark world and against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12). The church
faces persecution as a direct result of this. The light of the church (symbolised
by the golden lampstands - 1:12,13,20) destroys the work of the dark forces , and
therefore the dark forces work with all
their might to extinguish the light.
This will become graphically
apparent as we look into the vision of the seals in Revelation 6 - 8.
The great encouragement that comes to us through this Revelation to John is that
all these things that are happening to God's church are known to Him.
They are included in His sovereign
decree. They are part of His plan. Amazingly our sovereign God has decreed that His church should be
purified in these trials, and we see this revealed in chapters 2 & 3. The
language indicates this - words like
“patient endurance”, “false apostles”, “you have not grown weary” (Ephesus), “tribulation and poverty“, “slander”, "the devil is about to throw some
of you into prison, that you may be
tested" (Smyrna), "you
dwell where Satan has his throne", "Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” (Pergamum)
etc. The Lord knows all about this: what
has happened, what is happening and what will happen !
It is clear
that all these churches suffer
incredible ordeals. Observe also that the
churches shine with different degrees of spiritual purity and brilliance.
In Smyrna (as we shall see today)
the glory of Christ shines brightly, but Sardis has only a few
who did not soil their garments (3:4) . Philadelphia
is commended and receives an open door, while Laodicea is made up of
lukewarm members.
We observe that
Christ is concerned about the state of His churches. He is pleased when
they do well. He is not pleased when they compromise the truth. In His providence
He allows them to experience affliction, so that He may refine the church. Pure gold and refined metals only emerge when
they are tested in the heat of a furnace. So it is with the church. Every church
faces the furnace, and the Head of our church allows us to go through this to
purify us. The Bible teaches us a profound
theology of suffering. God
clearly works for the good of His church in the midst of this suffering.
SMYRNA (2:8-11)
This city is located approximately 55 kilometres north of Ephesus on the Aegan sea. She was a rival of Ephesus claiming to be
the first city of Asia in terms of beauty and size. Today this city is called "Izmir” and she is now the second
largest city in modern Turkey.
As far as the
church at Smyrna is concerned, she was probably founded by the apostle Paul during his 3rd missionary journey (AD 53 - 56). Whilst Paul was in Ephesus (Acts 19:1ff) he had daily
lectures in the hall of Tyrannus. We read in 19:10 :"This continued for 2 years, so that all the residents of Asia heard
the Word of the Lord, both Jews and
Greeks.” Now Smyrna wasn't far from
Ephesus, and the people of Ephesus
most certainly would have been included among the many in the province
of Asia who heard the Word of the Lord.
One of the most
famous church fathers was Polycarp of
Smyrna (AD 69 – 155). Church history
says that he was discipled by the
apostle John, who also ordained him to
the pastorate in Smyrna. He was
martyred as an old man. To this
church the Lord Jesus directs words of
sympathy and assurance and words
of exhortation and promise.
1. WORDS OF
SYMPATHY AND ASSURANCE
The Lord Jesus who identifies Himself here as “the
first and the last (Alpha and Omega) who died
and came to life” says to this church: “‘I know your
tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who
say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear
what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you
into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have
tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who
conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’ (Rev. 2:9-11)
Please
note: The Lord Jesus intimately knows[1] their tribulation and poverty. Christians in were often discriminated against and deprived of
jobs. They belonged to a lower caste. Becoming a Christian, from an earthly
point of view was a real sacrifice. It often meant hunger, poverty, imprisonment and death.
Jesus knows that ! He reminds them
however of the reality. They are rich- spiritually rich! Their reward is in heaven (Matt 5:12).They are
storing up for themselves treasures in
heaven (Matt 6:20). For this reason they must not begin to pity themselves.
The apostle
Paul had to remind the Corinthian Christians of this : "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though He was
rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might
become rich." (2Cor. 8:9) . What
perspective and what comfort that their Lord knows all this and has taken care
of their future rewards.
Now consider
for a moment the source of their afflictions and poverty! John refers to
the slander “of those who say that they
are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” It appears to be the local community of Jews. They claimed to be
God's people racially (descended from Abraham), but not really. Paul in his
letter to the Romans (Rom.2:28,29) makes it very clear: "for no man is a Jew who is
one outwardly… but a man is one inwardly, and circumcision is a
matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not
by the letter." These Jews resisted Christ, and they were deliberately blaspheming God as they
persecuted His church under the guise of doing Him service (Jn. 16:2). Thus
John was able to say that they were of the
“synagogue of Satan”. Satan
is now introduced as the prime mover
behind the slander (which caused tribulation and poverty). It is
significant that Satan’s name means "accuser“
or “slanderer". That is precisely what they did! They followed in their
father’s footsteps (v. 9b).
2. WORDS OF
EXHORTATION & WORDS OF PROMISE
If we find
ourselves in such discouraging circumstances, a word of encouragement and
perspective is what is needed, and the Lord Jesus is more
than willing to give it to the
Smyrneans.
Satan is the cause
of the suffering of the Christians, but we learn that behind and above stands the
eternal, sovereign God who permits these
things to happen for a season, and who brings glory for Himself out of this
suffering of the saints, just as He brought glory out of the cross.
Jesus, from His
exalted position in heaven knows ahead of time what must be and He tells
His flock: “Do not fear what you are about to
suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you
may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful
unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
The Lord Jesus exhorts
the Christians at Smyrna not to fear. He exhorts
them to be faithful even to the point of
death. Is that not a tall order? Not if we take into consideration that the history of God’s faithfulness proves Him to be trustworthy. He is not in
the habit of forsaking His people in their difficulties , and just as He was with His people when they suffered in Egypt ; just as He was present with Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego in the
fire (Daniel) , and just as He was with Daniel in the Lion's den, and just as He was with David in his many trials , so the Lord Jesus is with the church at Smyrna , and so He is with His
church today. "Never will I leave you ; never will I forsake you" is His promise to Moses ( Deut. 31:6) and
Joshua (1:5) and also to N.T. saints (
Hebrews 13:5). We shall only persevere to the end by the grace of God. In our
own strength we would never withstand
persecution.
The Lord
Jesus tells His people that this
is for the purpose of testing. Once again we learn that even though Satan does this , God uses such testing to purify His church.
The Lord Jesus says
that this persecution will be very limited - 10 days - painful yes ; but nevertheless a very limited time. The
fact that it is expressed by days and not by months or years , should encourage
the church at Smyrna. The Scripture speaks in a number of places of such short
seasons of suffering , which serve as an encouragement to endurance ( Is 26:20
; 54:8 ; Mt 24:22 ; 2 Cor 4:17 ; 1 Pet
1:6)
The Lord Jesus
ends with a word of promise : "Be faithful unto death and I will give you the
crown of life". This refers to
the crown of eternal life, which all who belong to the Lamb , and all whose
names are written in the book of life, shall receive. An added admonition and
promise follows : "He who overcomes
will not be hurt at all by the second death." Polycarp and Antipas of
Smyrna might have died the first death (
which we all must die i.e. the separation between body and soul). The Lord Jesus does not promise His people that they
will not get hurt in this process - but they certainly will not be hurt in the
second death which is eternal separation between the soul and the Saviour
God.
What is the Spirit saying?
Jesus knows all
about the church’s
trials. He knows that we have
been slandered and misrepresented by
those who say that they are Christians but are not. He is telling us: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer.
Satan is testing you, but those who belong to Christ will survive the fire of testing.” Thank God that He is in
charge ! Be faithful unto death, and don’t be afraid of that death. Fear God! He has the power to keep your soul for heaven. He also has the
power to cast the soul that has
not trusted Him in Christ into eternal
hell – the second death. Be faithful
unto death and receive the promise - the crown of eternal life. Amen
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