The Persecuted Church

Good morning!

<if no one else is blessed by this it blessed me, maybe not in the way you would think>

Revelation 1:10-11

Prayer

This is week 2 of our “He Who Overcomes” series (7 weeks)

The book of Revelation is a letter written to 7 real churches made up of real people with real problems

a real courier who carried this letter down a real road to read these words to these real people b/c the real Jesus was victorious over sin and death when He died on a real cross

(Real people) But b/c God is God He is able to take these churches and their histories, their victories, and their tribulations and tell us more than we would think is possible

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Number 7: complete, perfection

The churches are symbols

together they represent the church everywhere and the church forever

During this series and over the next several weeks I’m going to get to know you and you’re going to get to know me

Hang out, fellowship, you’re going to decide how much you actually like me and if this was a mistake or not

As we get familiar with each other I want to ask you questions

Tough questions, thought-provoking questions; what aspects of our faith are strong and what aspects need work?

Check-up at the doctor’s office

Who are we going to be?

Will we be a church that falls apart in the face of adversity or will we be a church who overcomes?

Will we be who God has called us to be in this time, in this place?

Last week (week 1) we talked about the church in Ephesus

How the church in Ephesus began, all-star leadership team

Ephesus was doing all the right things (right doctrine, right theology; not confused) but they had lost their first love (God)

What happens if a church is built on anyone or anything other than Jesus? (Gone)

Today: no Ephesus, no Ephesian church

V. v.8

Angel: “messenger”; pastor (Jesus holds the stars in his hand)

Lampstand: the church (lamp stands shine the light of Jesus)

v.8

Jesus Christ is the First & Last, He has always been & always will be

This is the best news for us

Jesus is not a created being like you, me, plants, animals, or the angels

Anyone who says Jesus was created is talking about a different Jesus, that one doesn’t have any power

He was in the beginning with God the Father,

He was not an afterthought

The prophet Daniel receives this vision of Jesus in chapter 7

Daniel 7:13-14 – “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven!  He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.  Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.

God’s plan was always to dwell with His people

Before God made the world, before He made a garden, before God formed Adam out of the dirt, before Adam and Eve turned their back on their relationship with God, the plan was Jesus

And so what God - great, eternal, almighty, all-knowing, all-powerful God - did was step out of heaven to come on a rescue mission for the people He loves (that’s me and you)

He put on humanity, He lived a human life and He lived it better than anyone ever did

And when Jesus went to the cross at Calvary he bore the penalty for your sins, and when He said “Tetelestai - It Is Finished” that meant Paid in Full

Your sin debt that would cost you your life was paid by the God against whom you had sinned

He was killed, He was buried, and three days later He rose out of the grave and He is alive forevermore

He has the keys to Hell and death and those who put their faith and trust in Jesus and His finished work on the cross are promised eternal life w/ God and God always keeps His promises

That’s the Jesus we’re talking about here.Jesus tells John to write this letter to the church in Smyrna

What’s going on in Smyrna?

Well I’m glad you asked

Smyrna was a coastal town, had a seaport, was a center of commerce and trade

Historians note how beautiful Smyrna was (slide background is from Smyrna)

The Greek poet Homer (Iliad, Odyssey) was said to have been born there although that’s harder to say for certain

Sounds like a great place to live except for one thing: the church has really, really bad neighbors

v.9

Church is facing extreme persecution in this time (tribulation), it has affected the finances of the church & it’s members (poverty), and there is a group in their city that is spouting false teaching and competing for the hearts and minds of the lost

The church is enduring (works), Jesus continues by offering encouragement

v.10

You guys are about to go through some stuff, including jail time (the false teachers hold some position of power around them)

Don’t lose heart

Fact of the matter:

Wherever there is persecution of God’s people, God’s message flourishes

Like a fire that cannot be snuffed out; you can pour water it, you can smother it, and it’s gonna keep smoldering and if you give it any air at all (WHOOSH)

Think of the early church:

Early Christians faced extreme persecution from the Jewish authorities and from the Roman government

Last week we talked about how many of the disciples were murdered for their faith

We know about Stephen in the book of Acts, how he was stoned to death and Saul of Tarsus was leading a terrorist movement against the church until Jesus knocked him blind on the road to Damascus

Under this intense persecution the early church was dispersed from Jerusalem throughout the area

(Paraphrase Genesis 50:20) B/c what man intended for evil God meant for good

The church spread

VII. We see this today, too (3 examples, many more)

China:

Missionaries had been working in China for centuries (Lottie Moon, 1800s) but when the Chinese Communist Party gained control in 1949 Christian missionaries were expelled from the country and the church had to move underground

Over time this official position “softened” but the government still “recognizes” only 5 religions of which their state-sanctioned Protestant “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” is one.

So what does the church do?

They meet in houses; churches that exist outside the control of the state, whether or not these churches are tolerated depend largely on their size and the local authorities

Pastors and congregants may face jail time for their beliefs

All this persecution must surely mean that the church in China is dying

No; today its estimated that there are tens of millions of Christians in China

B/c what man intended for evil God meant for good

Iran:

The Islamic Republic of Iran (no surprises here, right?)

Christians have been present in Iran since the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9 – “….Parthians, Medes, and Elamites….”, all people groups from Persia)

1979 Islamist government took over, Christians were persecuted, especially those who would convert from Islam to Christianity (social outcasts, even death penalty)

And yet today, Islam is the fastest shrinking religion in Iran, many mosques are empty, and Christians continue to meet in house churches and the Christian church booms (Fastest growing)

Someone even remarked that there’s been no greater ambassador for christianity than the ayatollah

B/c what man intended for evil God meant for good

Nigeria (West Africa):

220M people (6th largest country in the world); half christian, half muslim

Even with such a large Christian population persecution is still rampant

Between 2019-2023 groups such as Boko Haram killed 17K Christians (8000+ in 2023 alone)

Over 3mil “internally displaced persons”, people who have had to flee their homes due to the hostility

Pastors and church leaders are targeted

And yet, b/c of their faith, b/c of the Christian church in Nigeria and other African countries, and b/c of shifting demographics across the world, within this century the continent of Africa (once referred to as the place where missionaries went to die) will be home to more christians than any other place in the world

And the African church will be sending missionaries to Europe and the United StatesThis gets me to the big point:

The American church has a serious problem

We’re comfortable, complacent

Satanic lullaby

Some of that I believe is due to the hyper-political time we live in

Everybody is online and everybody is all jacked up on rage, the fate of the republic hinges on every decision made by our elected officials

But I think it started long before that

It’s a road we started down and as we move further and further along that path it just led us to this point

Death spiral where we just keep hitting comfort, complacency, and laziness as we go down

I need you to know this: The condition of our political environment has no bearing on our responsibility as a church (REPEAT)

If by chance your candidate was the one who came out victorious Tuesday night then you need to know that this is not the time to kick back and take it easy (It’s all gonna be alright now)

We do not fight FOR victory, we fight FROM victory

Our guy didn’t triumph at the ballot box, he triumphed at the cross

He didn’t need our vote to make it happen, He did it on His own and He did it b/c He loved us

This idea of comfort is so apparent where we live

<conviction: football, good ol boys and girls, small town America>

We get comfortable! “These are my people, we all want the same thing"

Do we?

We want to live lives that glorify and honor God, is that what our friends and neighbors want?

I’m not saying they’re bad people, I’m saying there’s a good chance they’re lost or at least out of step with God’s will for their lives

Jesus says (Matt. 12) “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”

Just b/c we grew up with these folks, we may been in Sunday School with them in some circumstances, don’t take their salvation for granted

It’s a lie and a trickJesus tells his persecuted church DON’T FEAR, BE FAITHFUL

This is not a country club where come to socialize and we spend our hour together each week and go our separate ways

Think of it more like an army base: we come together to be better equipped to complete the mission of our great commission to GO, tell the world about our savior

This is not a cruise ship,

We’re not picking and choosing our destination, amenities package, menu items, we’re not lounging out on the deck while only a few people work

I can’t share Jesus with the people in your life

You (me included), WE must be willing to risk some relational capital, 

to push those chips into the center of the table b/c our friends and our families must know that God loved them enough to live and die for them

That life is more than work, its more than family, its more than the grind, accumulating wealth

We were made for eternity

v.11

Will we be a church who overcomes?

Will we be a church who is willing to risk our comfort to fulfill the great commission?

I’m not immune to this

I love to work, I have a very results-driven personality

But it’s really easy to not share Jesus (you know it and I know it)

We live great lives here in the US

We are not persecuted like our brothers and sisters across the globe are

Don’t lose heart when things get rough (and they will certainly get rougher)

The church is BUILT FOR PERSECUTION b/c the church is BUILT ON JESUS

Jesus is the only hope for the world

Through Him and Him alone we will be saved from the second death

Not by our works, good deeds, not b/c Grandma made sure we were baptized

Just Jesus

The church in smyrna is the only church of the 7 that did not receive a rebuke

They’re hanging tough

Will we be bold in this day?

<invite, call to repent: idleness, fear>

Prayer