Church at Smyrna Rev, 2:8-11

We're going to be continuing on in our study of Revelation. We're in chapter 2, starting at verse 8, 8-11. Before we dive into it, though, I want to begin what I'll call a series of brief comments. The events of the last couple of months here have been obviously pivotal and momentous, although they're no surprise to God. And I think there's value in us just kind of getting a perspective from Scripture as to what's taking place. People have asked, well, is the loss of the Twin Towers or the plane crashing into the Pentagon, is that anything that's in Scripture? And the answer is not explicitly.

However, there are things happening, and we see them coming to the surface now, that we can say, yes, this generally fits in with Scripture. And we don't, as we cautioned some weeks ago, we don't want to be in a situation where we are locking into some current events and saying, see, this is it, this is it. And some have made that mistake. We don't want to go there. But what I do want to bring up, and like I say, I'd rather kind of spread it out over several weeks, is where there is a fit between what's going on and what we do see in Scripture.

What was read last week was Revelation 13, and this morning, as Bob read to us, Revelation 14. In Revelation 14, as he read this morning, it talks about the mark of the beast. Revelation 13 lays out the character of this coming one-world government. And one of the things that you have perhaps been seeing as this battle has been going on in the last, this next It's a few days away, will have been a month, but we've been doing the counterattack.

There's been all this appeal for a one-world government. Nancy and I were noticing as a representative from a Palestinian state was speaking, a lady, and as she was speaking, she says, we need to have a one-world rule of law. You see that call there? There is a clamoring for this, oh, we need to get somebody to get on top of this stuff, somebody to be on top of this internationally.

And so that clamoring is feeding into what we see laid out in Revelation 13 and 14. So there's a general confluence, a coming together of those trends, and you yourself can look for that. Again, we want to be careful that we don't go grabbing some current event and saying, this is it. And yet we can still clearly see that trend. It's very clearly laid out in Scripture. It's also something that's clearly visible in the current time. it's well to look at it. In the weeks ahead I'll look at other things that are of similar nature.

Let's turn to Revelation 2, 8-11. Last week we took a look at the church of Ephesus and the message to the church there. Now we'll be looking to the message to the church at Smyrna. Now the church at Smyrna got a message which is the shortest of the seven messages. And I think there's a reason for that, as we'll see here as we go through it.

But let me kind of give some background initially on the church. It was a harbor city, like Ephesus, that contended with Ephesus and Pergamum, which is the subsequent city we'll be looking at, for the honor of being called the foremost city of Asia. And Smyrna there was at different times called the Ornament of Asia, the Crown of Asia, and the Flower of Asia. Although I suspect the Smyrna Chamber of Commerce had something to do with those titles.

Now, something to take a look at. Smyrna is a little different from Ephesus. I showed you some pictures on the overhead transparency. There is no modern Ephesus. They were able to excavate it, dig it up, look at it. Smyrna is a little different spot. There is a modern city of Izmir. Notice the similarity in the pronunciation? There's a modern city of Izmir, which is just slightly to the south and west of the ancient site, and it is large enough that a lot of the ancient works have been disturbed or are now overlaying with something else.

Nonetheless, there are a few things that we can take a look at. Let me give you some views on that here. Here is one of the structures that's remaining. You can see the arch work. And you can kind of see some kind of streets going off to the side. So that's one example of some of the work that is remaining there.

There were streets and buildings that extended from this bay and went up kind of into the surrounding hills. And so people coming into the harbor could see these streets just coming right up from water level, right up into the hills. And it was just kind of an inviting, majestic sight when people would pull into the harbors.

Boy, I just can't wait to explore this city as I go into it. There were also fountains that flowed in the city. Now, you wonder, you know, how'd they do fountains in those days? They didn't have pumps. And what they would do is they would have some higher level of water, springs and that sort of thing coming up. They would have then conduits coming up underneath and then these fountains flowing. And then the fountains, rather than cycling back up like we do with the modern pumps, would then feed into some other water supply or irrigation system. But they had fountains flowing.

You can imagine people pulling into the harbor. Here's these beautiful streets, these gorgeous fountains. Man, what a gorgeous place. Marvelous. There was a theater on one of the higher slopes, and the theater overlooked the city. Imagine that. It would be neat to go up to the theater and watch the theater, and then looking out over the city. Well, that's beautiful, too. So, gorgeous place.

They had a library, they had gymnasiums, they had special public baths, they had a stadium. So there was lots to add to Smyrna's cultural life. There was a broad harbour alongside Smyrna and they had an interesting thing. The harbour, in addition to what was a natural harbour, they had a further harbour that was dug in and they had a chain across it so it was kind of like where private special boats could come in.

And you can imagine today, we have similar kinds of things where yachts are allowed to come into this private special area. And boy, it made for just a really neat kind of cultural attraction. And there was a status symbol of being able to come into that chained-off area. And let me kind of give you kind of an oversight of how this looks here. Here's modern Izmir.

And this area around here, on this end, is where Old Smyrna is with the blue arrow pointing to it. The name Smyrna, by the way, means mirror. That's the same stuff, remember, the gifts that Jesus was given? Gold and frankincense and myrrh. That's that third item. That's the meaning of the name.

Chips would transfer their cargo from the waterfront there right to the marketplace, which is right down near the harbor. So that was another neat thing about it. They could just take their wares, take it right out to the marketplace, and there it was. I mean, it was just really well laid out that way. It was known for fine wine, for garments, perfumes, and goldsmithing. The goods brought into Smyrna came by sea and were brought up on land, and those from the land were also brought to the sea. So the sea traders going in and out of Smyrna had a really neat setup.

Now, as we talked about last week, many of the Greco-Roman deities were revered at Smyrna. The city had a temple to Zeus, the head of the Greek gods. It had a temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, fertility. It also had a temple to Nemesis, the goddesses who are said to have inspired the founders of Smyrna to build the city at its present site.

Let me give you a picture here. Here is the Agora, or marketplace, that was not too far from the harbor, and they could just bring things right in there and begin selling them. Now, the reason I show you this overhead at this point is Dionysius, the god of wine and joy, was honored by an annual festival, and they had a procession that they made sure went right through the marketplace, because after all, what was one of the things that they sold there? Wine. So it was just a very well thought out, set up a beautiful city.

Now, remember we talked previously about the gods of the Roman Empire, and there was a strong tradition of that at Smyrna. In 193 BC, almost three centuries before Revelation was written, Smyrna became the first city in Asia to build a temple to Rome. Rome had not yet become a major you know, dominating power. So very foresightful of these people. I said, let's build a temple to Rome. So this would get Rome's allegiance and loyalty to Rome. Rome would just love us. And so they bet well, so to speak.

In AD 23, this was during the time Christ was on the earth, the Emperor Tiberius chose Smyrna from among 11 cities. He noticed it was one of those things he had to make applications. And Smyrna said, hey, let's apply for this. He chose Smyrna among eleven cities to build a special local temple to honour the Emperor Augustus and Livia, who was Tiberius' mother. And so, anyway, here's the Emperor Tiberius, at least a bust of the Emperor. And this would enhance Smyrna's prestige with Rome.

And it also had some other advantages. And some of those advantages would be that the leading citizens of Smyrna would be assigned to be the local priests at this temple. So it's sort of a status symbol for them, see? Now, why am I bringing all this up? Well, we'll get there.

Now, while we don't know specifically how the Church of Smyrna was founded, in all probability it was founded by Paul during his third evangelistic journey, that was from AD 53 to 56, and we get this idea from Acts 19.10, and this is what it says there, we read, all who dwelt in Asia, this is in Asia, right, all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

So this would have included Smyrna, certainly, being a major city and a significant port town there. Now, along with that, you notice the mention of Jews and Greeks. Well, it turns out we have pretty good evidence that the Jews were dominant, prominent, in the city of Smyrna. This is one of the things that is found engraved on some of the things at Smyrna. Here's the Jewish menorah, right? And about the time of the writing of the book of Revelation and the decades thereafter, the Jewish community appears to have shown particular hostility to Christians. The Jews were prominent, but boy did they show their absolute hatred for the Christians. We also have public records from Smyrna that show that the Jews were noted as making major contributions to various city activities and buildings and structures and civic works. they were very influential, as evidenced by everything we have in writing. Now, that is background.

The message to the church at Smyrna is the shortest of the seven messages, just four verses, and one reason why, as we'll see, Smyrna is one of two churches that does not have any rebuke. It just isn't there. So that makes it shorter, for one thing. But let's take a look at these verses. Given all the beauty and abundance at Smyrna, we might be surprised to find out how the church was faring there.

Let's read Revelation 2, 8-11. To the angel of the church in Smyrna write, the first and the last who was dead and has come to life, says this, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the blasphemy by those who say 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 cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days. 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. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death."

Now let's take a deeper look into these brief but rich verses here. In verse 8 it says, and the first and the last who is dead has come to life, says this. This is one of the seven identities of Christ that we see largely pulled out of the first chapter of Revelation. It fits specifically the church at Smyrna and their circumstances, as we'll see in a bit here. The first and the last is a title from Isaiah, and a handout from about, I think, three weeks ago lists those, but I'll give them to you briefly here.

Isaiah 41.4 44.6 and 48.12. Those three verses use that phrase, the first and the last, or some very close, similar description for Christ.

It says, By this the Lord Jesus, who also claimed this same identity in Revelation 1.17, it means that He is claiming deity. In those Isaiah passages, It says, I am the Lord God and there is no one besides me.

I am the first and the last. See, this is deity. So for Christ to claim this is claiming deity, explicitly. And there is nothing, not even a time outside of Him. See, this is what this first and the last means. There is nothing outside of Him. It's the first letter and the last letter. I am the beginning and the end. See? There is nothing outside of Him in time. There's also nothing outside of him in power. He is indeed sovereign. He is the first and the last.

And we'll see shortly why the declaration of Christ's deity and sovereignty was a comforting and encouraging message to the believers at Smyrna. The identity of Christ claimed for himself that he was dead and has come to life. And this means several things for the believers at Smyrna. First, like nothing else, it provided a hope to the believers at Smyrna who were about to be warned that they would suffer persecution, and that unto death, as we'll explore further in the verses to come. But even more importantly was that the truth that the believers at Smyrna, like the believers here this morning, had come to recognize that they had been identified with Christ in death and resurrection.

From 1 Peter 1, 1 and 2, 2 Peter 3, 14 and 16, as well as Colossians 4.16, it is virtually certain that the believers at Smyrna had a good many, if not all, of Paul's letters. Especially by this time. And that means that they were exposed to these identification truths that we study here this morning. The idea that believers have been identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, and his ascension and seeding as well. Now, though Paul is unique in describing what we call identification truths, that we have been identified as believers with Christ in these five ways, Christ is giving to and through John the factual basis for these truths, isn't he? He's saying, I am the one who was dead. I was crucified, right? I was dead, and now I'm alive. He's giving him the factual and historical basis for that.

And this was particularly critical to the believers at Smyrna as they faced death. And it's critical for us here now, too, isn't it? Christ had passed into death, through death, and out of death. That's what he's telling them. Into, through, and out of. In that, was the reason he laid it out. He wanted the believers at Smyrna to know that they would do the same.

Yes, you're going to be suffering tribulation unto death, but I lived it out first. I'm here to tell you, Christ is saying, I'm alive to tell you that you, if you go through this tribulation unto death, will indeed pass into death, through death, and out of it. That is the hope that he wanted to leave with them. even in his identity that he laid out before him.

Isn't that neat? He doesn't just randomly pick parts of Revelation chapter 1 and say, I'll just scatter this here and there. It fits the particular thing that that church is either going through or going to go through. That's a neat thing. Now, verse 9, let's take a look at it. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich in the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. As he said to the churches of Ephesus, Christ tells the church at Smyrna that He knows, meaning that He sees and perceives intimately. He is aware. Of their tribulation, we should note that the Greek word is slipsis. It means pressure. It means a pressure that is crushing.

John 16.33, the Lord tells His disciples, including John, He tells them, things that are recorded, that are relevant to the words we read in Smyrna.

John 16.33 says, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace.

In the world you have tribulation. Same word. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. The use of this word tribulation, by the way, does not refer to THE tribulation. Different meaning. The tribulation is something that they would explicitly not take a part in, and neither will we if we placed our trust in Christ the Savior. But he's meaning particularly the troubles, the difficulties, the pressure that is crushing that you're going through now. That's the words he's talking to.

Next in this passage, Christ tells them that he knows their poverty. Now there's something that we need to know here about the particular Greek word that's behind this that's translated poverty. So let's take a look at that. There are two Greek words in the New Testament that are used for poor, for being poor.

And he could have chosen either one of these. One of them, penia, means having the necessities of life but nothing more. Not well off, but you've got what you need. The next one, So chaos means utterly destitute. It means below the line of that first word there. In absolute poverty. Grinding, groveling poverty. That's what that second word is, and that's the word he used here, the second one. He says, I know your poverty, he doesn't say you're just living below the average. He says you are going through extreme, exceeding poverty.

Now, based on the description that we saw about Smyrna and the things that I showed you earlier, would you expect that people in Smyrna would have poverty? No. They were pretty well off, and as a matter of fact, the whole city was known for being just an ornament.

I mean, just beautiful. Here was this sharp contrast of these believers in Smyrna experiencing this grinding poverty. What a sharp contrast. Do you see that? Here they were, among all these people who were of Smyrna, relatively affluent. And here they were living in such grinding poverty that they weren't even at a level where they say, well, they don't have much, but they have everything they need. No, they were at a lower level than that. See the difference there? See the contrast?

Now, in reading these verses, we understand the Jews in the city of Smyrna were exerting intense pressure upon the believers in their businesses and in their daily lives. Now, we don't know, we aren't told exactly how that took place, but here are some, I'll call them reasonable guesses, and it may have been one or more of these things.

It might be refusing to give them jobs. Oh, you're a believer? Sorry, you don't get a job. I might have one, but I'll give it to somebody else because we don't hire believers. Or, it may be refusing to lend them money. They may say, I need a loan to get over this hump, or I need a loan in order to make this investment to do something in my business. No, we won't lend to believers. We won't make that loan. Refusing to sell them goods. Oh, we sell this to everybody, but not to you.

You see that? It may have been a Roman confiscation of goods. Here's the way the Roman tax system worked. The Roman tax authorities would give bids on an area. They'd have a district. And the Romans would go in and they would say, I can get this much money for Rome out of here. And whatever additional amounts they could get out of that area was the tax collector's own money. And they could make lots. Because there were no real restrictions on how much they could extract from people. And so one of the things that could easily be done if you were an influential person among the tax system is tax the believers a lot. Okay? Taxed them heavily. So then you'd have the authority of the Roman government to come in and just confiscate. See everything you have here? We want it. But I can't feed my family. Sorry. You see that? Things of that sort.

And it may even have been of some other things, but at least we get a sense of what might have been making these believers in such a destitute condition compared to all the rest of those at Smyrna. It's clear that they were paying a high price for their stand for Christ. And it was having a real-time, real-world cost.

Imagine not being able to feed your family or replace the basic things that were lost, worn, broken, stolen, or confiscated. Somebody took this basic thing that you need to cook. Sorry, you don't get one. Somebody took all your food reserves. Sorry, you don't get it. Can you see that?

Imagine that, that's the circumstance that they were under. Christ their Lord understood, that's what he's saying here, he understood the severe price that they were paying. He understood that they were doing without because of their stand for Christ. Because of the decision that they had made.

In parenthetical statement, he says, but you are rich. And this is not a joke. This wasn't intended to be cruel. They were materially at the bottom. Spiritually, they were rich beyond measure. That's the contrast he was trying to encourage them with. Yes, I know, Christ says, that materially you're down here, or maybe I should put it on the floor. Spiritually, it's unfathomable how rich you are. That's what he's trying to encourage them with. No matter where your financial standing might be right now, if you have placed your faith and trust in Christ, you have been blessed beyond all earthly measure.

Get what I'm saying? And, and, that's not all. It is untouchable by anything in this world, or the things that you own, or the things that you do, or the things you don't do. Isn't that neat? It is untouchable. And that's the thing that the people at Smyrna could enjoy. Yes, the Romans and the Jews and all the other pagans may come and decimate everything you have. They may take it all.

But you are rich in a way that is untouchable by this world. And he was seeking to encourage them by that. Now, I would be mildly interested in today's prosperity teachers. Have you heard them? Seen them on the television? I'd be mildly interested to see what they say about this passage, but I won't waste my time, or yours.

Anyway, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians in Ephesians 1-3 that they have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Then he proceeds to write the longest sentence known in the Greek language. It's like he's telling them, you're blessed, and then he just blasts off. In English, it's broken down in shorter sentences so that we can understand it. But in the Greek, it continues on from 4 through verse 14 in Ephesians chapter 1.

It's like the fishing reel and the fish just took off. That's the way Paul's writing. He says, I just want to tell you about these blessings. He's taking off, you see? J.B. Stoney put it this way. He says, it's not so much in our gaining more things, or getting more blessings from God, but understanding the blessings that we have. You see the difference? It's a frequent saying in our culture, even beyond Christians, to say, God bless you.

But the reality is, spiritually, Ephesians 1.3 says, He can't bless you anymore. At least spiritually. He's given you every spiritual blessing. And so, You can imagine what Christ is getting them to understand here. He's starting to say, those at Smyrna, I want you to recognize how rich you are. How abundantly Christ has blessed you. What a neat, deep, rich thing you have. Recognize that.

And those at Smyrna are going to have to, because they certainly had nothing physical to claim or to bear. Now, Ephesians 2, 4-7. He goes on, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace we have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Do you get the impression there, reading verse 7, Our blessings in Christ are so vastly rich, as it shows there in Ephesians 2.7, it tells us that it will take eternity for Him to show us all that we now have.

After 10,000 years has gone by, you'll be going, A million years gone by? And I'm using years figuratively here, just a sense of time going by. After a million years, we will still be gasping in awe. Isn't that neat? Wow! That's what he's trying to get the folks at Smyrna to see. He says, yes, right now you're going through grinding poverty, but God will take eternity to show you all the ways that you've been blessed. He says, I can't even begin to describe it. Take a look at your handout.

It outlines in brief the riches believers have in Christ as revealed in Scripture, and I get the impression from Ephesians 2.7 that this is the tip of the iceberg at best. See all the blessings you have listed on your handout? I think it's just the tip of the iceberg. I think it's just a small sampling to give us a little bit of a sense of what the Lord has done to bless us already. This is still wonderful to know, even though I think it's just a partial blessing.

One thing I should note, or a couple things I should note. One is that I put this in a 10-point font on your handout. If you have a hard time reading that, there are some larger pages with some larger font. If you have difficulty reading it, you can pick one up in the lobby afterwards. It's on legal-sized paper, so you can identify it's hanging out of the rack there.

But the other thing is that this is a work of reduction. About 30 pages of this book by Schaeffer were boiled down by Hampton Keithley, and Hampton Keithley's writing included all the different verses. And then Nancy went and boiled that down to just the verse references. So anyway, you have a good portion of this book boiled down to the two sides of a sheet of paper that you have in front of you. Have fun reading it all.

I just think it's neat for us to get a sense of the immense blessings that we have in Christ that have been made clear here. Now, next, Christ acknowledges the outrageous ugliness and violence of the Jews of Smyrna when he acknowledges, and he says, and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Boy, those are biting words, aren't they? Those are hard words.

Now, these were Jews indeed by blood and by background, but there was nothing like the character that God intended of his chosen people. One of the things that becomes clear as you begin examining even the Old Testament law was this was not the character that God desired of the Jews.

Look at this passage here from Exodus. You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. So what are they doing here? they're wronging or oppressing, right? And I have some subsequent references there in other parts of the law given clearly to the Jews. Each one of them saying you're not to oppress, you're to provide for them, you're to treat them well, all that kind of thing.

That is not apparently what was happening there in Smyrna. The Jews were ignoring their own law in order to oppress the Christians. Now, while I'm saying this, we should not interpret these as being some sort of an anti-Semitic statement. This isn't against Jews as a blanket statement. It's saying those here in Smyrna may be descended from Abraham. They may have the right genetics physically. They've got the wrong genetics spiritually. They've got the wrong picture. They don't have an understanding.

And this isn't something that Christ left untouched. He spoke against those who would just stand by all their rules and regulations and would fall short of God's full perspective of what he intended. Christ himself was Jewish. John was Jewish. Most of the authors of scripture are Jewish. There's only a couple exceptions. I even have a little bit of Jewish blood in me, so I'm not being anti-Semitic. This was about those who in the name of Judaism had turned the words of God into justification for everything contrary to God's word.

And you know, people do that today. In fact, they'll do it by the millions. They'll say, oh yeah, I believe the Bible is God's word. But they'll turn around and live quite contrary to it. And the Jews were just another example of that. This is about those who refused to see that the scriptures given through the Jews spoke of Christ himself. This is about those who turn to the Jewish synagogue religion.

Remember that from a handout we had before? There are three satanic strategies that come out in these letters. The last one, and I don't expect you to read this other than that you might recognize it from the handout last week. It was the third of these, the Jewish synagogue religion. that was really prominent here in putting its worst foot forward, so to speak.

And he's just simply pointing this out. Now, John 8, 33 and 34, in that passage, same author as here in the book of Revelation, in that passage, it attributes this Jewish system to Satan. So this is just repeating a message that had already been brought out in John's Gospel. This isn't any surprise. So this church at Smyrna was bearing this heavy load from a third of these strategies, this Jewish synagogue religion.

The truth is, though, that any of us here and now that are in any way being encouraged to fall back under the law, any of us that are being forced or encouraged to fall into a system of man-made rules and ordinances and told, yeah, if you follow all these rules and ordinances, If you come to this right, you know, we've got the right church, or we've got the right this or right that, any of that is really falling under the same system. If you're being chastised for not knuckling under some, you know, set of rules that some church has come up with, that's the same system. Okay? It doesn't have to be Jewish. The intent is basically, you've got some law there, and you're being, you know, held to it. The same system can oppress. even if not to the same degree.

Now, as we look at what the Lord says next, this is almost hard to comprehend. Look at it with me. Do not fear which you are about to suffer. Isn't that an amazing statement? Do not fear which you are about to suffer. You see, He just got through telling them that they were going to undergo fierce tribulation, crushing pressure. He just got through telling them that they knew that they were going through terrible, grinding poverty right now. He just got through lifting the veil on the blasphemous character of those who were the source of their intense troubles, the Jews. And now he opens this next verse with the ominous phrase, don't fear what you're about to suffer.

Let's just kind of give it some current context. Suppose you're at home, everything's fine. And somebody knocks on the door. It's somebody you know, somebody who's fairly reliable. And they just kind of, out of the blue, say, hey, don't worry about what's going to happen next. Wouldn't that kind of shock you? And that means, you know, can you see, when they were first reading this, can you see how this hit them? You mean it's going to get worse? We're already in grinding poverty. We can hardly feed our families. Anything that we have has been confiscated. Every day we try to get work and we can't get work. We're starving.

You're telling me not to be afraid because it's going to get worse? Something else is going to happen? This isn't for the other shoe to drop. This is for a studded boot to fall out of the sky. They are really likely hit by this. So here's this ominous phrase that's introduced. But it doesn't leave them in suspense. Let's look at the next thing. The Greek word for fear that he tells them. The Greek word for fear is phobou, and it sounds similar to phobia.

That's what our term arrived from. It's in the present middle imperative tense. Now, what do I mean by that? The present middle means it's right now. Middle means it's acting back on itself. Which means, don't make yourselves afraid. And it's imperative, which means you must not make yourselves afraid. An interesting way for him to put that. Do not make yourselves afraid of what is about to happen.

Christ can only say these words, he's qualified to say this, he can only say these words because of who he is, and what he has just gotten through reminding them that he has done. He's qualified to tell them this. He overcame death. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. We've already talked about what it means when it says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So I won't work that over. But the application of these verses to the persecution and poverty and suffering and grinding of one's life, however, takes it to a new depth. Are we hearing here at Holly Hills what the Spirit is saying to the churches? That's a question I think we need to ask personally, corporately. Are we hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches?

Do we understand that these hard things are part of the Lord's constantly loving us that he told us about in Revelation 1.5?

Then he writes, he who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. We have talked about what it means to overcome, which is to have been saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is this second death? It turns out that John uses the phrase four times in Revelation, this being the first. In Revelation 20, 14, and 21, 8, both explain that the second death is the lake of fire, which is hell. He is telling them, and is telling us, that the death, which is our spiritual separation from this body, will come once.

He will be entirely spared from the flames of hell. They've been told, of course, that they will not just escape from the flames of hell, but will share eternity with the Lord, and we'll see this as an encouraging reminder to them of that fact. Now I want to check back on something here. It says, Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." Now, it says, do not fear what you're about to suffer, and then it gives this, you know, it casts you into prison, and you'll have tribulation ten days. Now, people have come up with different ideas of what are those ten days. Some have said, well, the ten days are the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

I'm scratching my head, and I'm thinking, huh? So it doesn't make much sense to me. Those are Jewish observances, which to a great many of these would have little significance. Some have said the ten days, well, that refers to the ten persecutions that the Christians were under under the Roman Empire.

Some have put it to that. But that seems a little odd, first of all, because this is the middle of the second one. So they've already been through Parton. Why is he telling you you're going to go through ten when you've already been through one and a half? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

Plus, why call them days? Some have said the ten days refers to a long period of time. Others said it refers to a short period of time, just symbolically. But after looking at it and studying it carefully, I've come to the conclusion that ten days means ten days. Yeah, ten days.

Now, we don't have specific historical record that says, OK, the church at Smyrna went through something in 10 days. We don't have that. But I think considering a lot of records of that kind of thing would get lost. And also, they didn't particularly want to spend a lot of time recording things that happened to Christians. Christians are kind of an irritant at that point in time. And why bother spending a lot of time recording it? There was some particular period of time, and we may not know the specific details of it, but let me tell you, the church at Smyrna knew exactly what that meant. Especially as they went through it. They could look back at this and say, oh yeah, we know what that was. We know exactly what we experienced. See that?

And he says, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. I see this as being different from just a promise to those who are saved. This is a reward. And so with that, I'd like to take a brief introduction to something that's actually more extensive than what we can cover this morning, but at least get this there.

There are five places where scripture talks about crowns. There is a victor's crown, okay? 1 Corinthians 9, 25 there. A soul winner's crown. How about that? A rapture lover's crown. This is a crown for those who are looking for the Lord's coming. There is a reward for that. There is an elder's crown for service, 1 Peter 5. And lastly, a martyr's crown.

These are the crowns that are listed in Scripture because of the fact that Ephesians 2.7 says it will take eternity for Him to show us everything. My guess is, and it's only speculation, that this is only a partial list, that there may well be others, and if there aren't, then that's fine too. I'm sure none of us will be disappointed. But then there's also, in three general senses, three rewards that are listed there. A solid foundation reward, this has to do with standing on what's firm and solid and certain, laid out in scripture. A voluntary service reward, and last an inheritance reward. Again, those may be a partial listing of all the things that the Lord can reward people with.

But this crown of life is this martyr's crown in Revelation 2.10. I believe it is not something basic to salvation, but is instead a special reward above for those who go through martyrdom. Be faithful until death. I don't see this necessarily as a promise that they would be going through death, but be faithful even if it's up to that point. Even if that is the price, he says, be faithful unto death and you will receive the crown of life.

Now, it turns out that while the Church of Smyrna was promised these ten days of persecution upcoming, Persecution continued to be a tradition at Smyrna. The Jews made sure of it. The Romans made sure of it. And we have a particular record there. I'd like to just kind of give some brief reference to this kind of tradition of martyrdom and persecution at Smyrna.

One instance, here's about 15 years after this was written, this book, in about 110 AD. Ignatius was one of the elders from Antioch who was kept in Smyrna for a time. before being transferred on to final Roman execution. And while he was visiting the church in Smyrna, he visited local Christians there, or they visited with him, including Polycarp, who was a leader there. Before his death, Ignatius wrote to the Christians at Smyrna, commending them for their tenacious faith.

See that? So here's 15 years later, Apparently this letter had its effect, this message to the churches there at Church of Smyrna. It had its effect. They still maintain this tenacity, this be faithful unto death. Further on, then there's the account of Polycarp some decades later. Polycarp was one of the elders at Smyrna. He was one with whom Ignatius, whom I mentioned before, visited. He was a personal disciple of John the Apostle. who wrote this book of Revelation here, and Polycarp was martyred, and we have a written account of how that took place. Let me give you some brief summary of it.

When the Christians refused to burn incense to the emperor of Rome as a god, they were accused of treason, and they were sentenced to die. They had to go through this process, burn the incense and say the right words, and then they would get the certificate that would last for a time, the Christians who refused didn't get the certificate. And if they were caught without it, they'd say, whoop, you got a problem. And the consequence was death.

Polycarp was an elder of the church there at Smyrna. And he was martyred for this very crime. When the soldiers that sent for Polycarp came to get him, because somebody said, hey, Polycarp doesn't have one of these certificates. When they came to get him, Polycarp said to the other Christians around him, oh, be sure that you show hospitality to these men.

Isn't that neat? I just am amazed. Here is the character of the Lord in this man. He wasn't saying, oh my heavens, they're here to take me and getting all worried. He says, be sure that you show hospitality to these men. The Roman proconsul then, once the soldiers brought him, commanded Polycarp to swear allegiance to Caesar, saying, Swear, and I will set you at liberty. Reproach Christ. Listen now to Polycarp's reply. Eighty and six years I have now served Christ, and he has never done me the least wrong. How then can I blaspheme my Savior?

Further efforts to make him deny the Lord failed, and Polycarp was condemned to be burned at the stake. When the day came for him to be burned alive, those responsible for the burning wanted to nail him to the stake, as they would do, like this. But Polycarp protested, and this is what he said, Let me alone as I am, for he who has given me strength to endure the fire will also enable me, without your securing me by nails, to stand without moving in the pile. He was not nailed to the stake, they did tie his hands behind his back, but of course you and I know the rope would burn. The Jews joined the heathen in crying out for his death. He died on Saturday, February 23rd, 155 AD. Crowds of Jews, those of the synagogue of Satan, broke the Sabbath law by carrying wood for his fire. It was the Jews who piled the wood up.

And now we can see why these words of Christ, written through John, would be such an encouragement to those about to be martyred right now here at Smyrna. And for decades, these words that we just read here this morning struck home in their hearts. What a tremendous encouragement. I want to read it for us again, one last time, just so we get a sense of it, just with all that as background here.

To the angel of the church in Smyrna writes, the first and the last who was dead and has come to life, says this, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the blasphemy by those who say 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 cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. 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. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.

Lord, none of us here, to my knowledge, have been threatened to this extent. And yet, Lord, there is no promise that it might not happen someday. And yet, regardless, Lord, there are truths that we can bring home to our own lives as to what is valuable. There are truths here as to what Christ accomplished and what we, we who have been identified with Him, will be benefited by and blessed by as well. We give you thanks for the encouraging words here, Lord, in the midst of this grinding poverty and tribulation that are laid out by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.