Revelation 2:8-11
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Revelation chapter 2.
Imagine with me for just a moment that you caught word of a church undergoing tremendous tribulation in a persecuted country
and you could write just one paragraph to them in a letter.
The people of this church,
have been slandered,
they have been thrust into poverty because of their faith,
and they face the constant threat of potential martyrdom.
What would you say?
Would you express condolences?
Would you try to empathize?
Would you try to fix things
or maybe come up with plans to get them out of the country?
What truths would you point them to?
Better yet…,
What do you think Jesus would say to such a church?
In Revelation 2, we have what Jesus did say to such a church.
We turn our attention this morning to the second letter that Jesus articulated
for John to write and send to one of the churches in Asia enduring the ongoing tribulation of the Christian Life.
This time, its a letter to the church in Smyrna,
and its one of only two letters of the seven, that includes no word of rebuke.
In this letter Jesus only encourages the a church enduring tribulation.
He writes to fan into flame their faithfulness.
But as much as Jesus sends this letter to Smyrna,
he has sent this message to all churches who faithfully endure various tribulations.
Lets read and pray for understanding.
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.
9 “ ‘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. 10 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. 11 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.’
Lets Pray
In the latter portion of the book of Isaiah.
God inspires Isaiah to write comforting prophecies that his people could read while in Babylonian captivity.
During that captivity,
Jews were exiled from their home land, persecuted, and forced to worship Babylonian gods at threat of their lives.
The second half of Isaiah was written to a people longing for deliverance.
And Through the writings of Isaiah, God provided comfort.
Listen to his word
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.
Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
Again in chapter 48:
“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.
My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.
“Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
Just as God revealed himself to the captive Israelites as the first and the last.
Jesus now reveals himself to the persecuted Christians of Smyrna as the first and the last.
Jesus introduces himself as the True King who controls history from beginning to end.
He is the one who conquered not only Babylon in Israelite history,
but more recently he is the one who conquered the ultimate enemy - death itself.
Jesus is the one who died and now lives.
The people of Smyrna were being persecuted by an evil empire
They were facing possible death.
yet Jesus introduces himself as the sovereign king over all empires for all time and the ruler over death.
The introduction of this letter and the body of this letter represent the tension of the whole book of Revelation.
The tension between our present and ongoing tribulation, and the our inclusion in the eternal kingdom of God.
We spoke about this tension back in verse 9 of chapter 1.
John introduces himself as a partner in the tribulation and the kingdom.
He is, himself, writing from an island of exile because of his faith, but he praises Jesus who has set him free.
This is the already-not-yet dichotomy of the whole book.
Already we are kingdom citizens,
but not yet are we free from the tribulation of a this hostile world.
The church in Smyrna was walking in this exact tension.
See the context begin to unfold in verse 9.
“ ‘I know your tribulation
The first thing that jumps out at you is the same language we saw in Jesus’ first letter to the Ephesians.
Jesus knows their tribulation.
The pain they are enduring is not lost on him.
He isn’t unaware of the difficulties that his people are facing.
He knows their particular tribulation
And he knows what its like at an experiential level.
He knows what it feels like to be tested, tempted, and persecuted even unto death.
He knows what it is to be a child of heaven while living and dying as an enemy on Earth.
Jesus is writing to commend them and encourage them to keep being faithful.
Relationship with Jesus had changed how the church in Smyrna related to the world in every way.
What I want to us to meditate upon particularly this morning are the four kinds of tribulations that Smyrna was enduring and how relationship with Jesus changed their relationship with each form of tribulation.
Lets take their situation phrase by phrase:
“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich)
#1 Jesus Changes Our Relationship with Wealth
#1 Jesus Changes Our Relationship with Wealth
The world around us measures their lives based upon their successful accumulation of wealth and their avoidance of poverty.
Relationship with Jesus, however, very well may cost us the financial gain that the rest of the world is living for.
This is certainly so for the Christians in Smyrna.
Due to discrimination against Christians,
it appears that many had lost their jobs,
Some had lost their ability to trade in business because of their commitment to Christ excluded themselves from networks of commerce.
Because the early christians refused to participate in the idol worship, and the Julius Cesar worship in Rome, it ostracized them from some of the most lucrative business
Christianity slowly forced them into poverty.
Now by God’s grace, this is pretty distant from our experience here in America, but we do need to wrestle with this very Christian reality...
Following Jesus does not always mean financial blessing,
it often comes at financial cost.
Jesus himself warned of this when people offered to follow him in his own earthly ministry.
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
This is important for us to hear because we are such a product of our American consumeristic society.
I am included in this and I need to remind myself of this regularly.
Sometimes faithfulness can mean making the less financially lucrative decision.
Sometimes, faithfulness is costly.,
But only in a worldly sense.
When Jesus acknowledges their poverty, he quickly adds a parenthetical statement,
(but you are rich!)
This is the tension between tribulation and kingdom.
Their tribulation is financial poverty.… but in the same moment of their financial poverty, they are enjoying spiritual riches.
They are actively enjoying the promises of God in a way that far surpasses the enjoyment of the stuff and the financial security the world offers.
They are living Jesus’ words.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Living this kind of life is a rich life, a spiritually rich life.
#1 Jesus Changes Our Relationship to Wealth
#1 Jesus Changes Our Relationship to Wealth
9 “ ‘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.
While some live for wealth...
others live for the approval of the world.
These believers get neither.
They are being slandered by the Jews of the city.
Their slander likely goes beyond name calling and gossip.
The Jews of the city who have rejected Jesus, are probably quick to tell the Roman authorities about how the Christians refuse to worship Caesar.
This isn’t just situation where you can say sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.
The Jews are likely using their words to get the Christian’s imprisoned, like when the Jews made up lies about Jesus when they presented him to Pilate.
They are a group of people who are truly against Christ and Christians
#2 Jesus Changes Our Relationship With the World
#2 Jesus Changes Our Relationship With the World
Walking faithfully with Jesus will cost us financially, but it will also cost us relationally.
People will be against you often because of your faith in Christ.
Jesus promises this on multiple occasions:
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
If you are a people pleaser, you are going to find the Christian life particularly difficult.
Paul says this directly.
10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Being a servant of Christ and being a pleaser of people do not go together.
Our relationship to the world has changed.
We are different from the world
and therefore we are often hated for it.
At the same time, we no longer have to find our sense of self-worth, satisfaction, or joy from the approval of others.
As Christians we don’t have to live in constant need for the affirmation of others...,
We have the affirmation of the only one who truly matters.
We are truly known and truly loved by the God of heaven.
And as we find our identity with Jesus,
we find ourselves receiving the same kind of treatment Jesus received in his earthly ministry.
Our relationship with the world has changed.
The world slanders us and they do so at the guidance of Satan.
Interestingly the Jews here are not described as the people of God.
They are not given special status.
Rather they are described as being in partnership with Satan himself for the destruction of Christians.
****This is a side note, but we have to be careful when we talk about Israel today being God’s people.
The geo-political nation of the 21st century with its boundaries and government and military is not the same as Biblical definition of God’s people.
In fact, the Bible makes really clear that physical descent from Abraham does not make you a “true Jew”…
Faith in the Messiah,
the Jewish Savior promised in the Jewish Scriptures,
is what makes you a true Jew,
a true member of the people of God.
Romans speaks about this at length.
28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
In revelation thus far,
it is the church made up of Jew and gentile who are described as the people of God,
It is the church that is described as a kingdom of priests in Revelation chapter 1.
It is to the church in Smyrna that Jesus speaks because they have trusted Jesus as Lord.
The Jews were a part of God’s plan no doubt,
and they received much undeserved favor, and so much of God’s revelation, but without Jesus they are a synagogue of satan.
Jesus alone saves.
No matter the race, background, religious practice, or morality…,
everyone needs saving faith in Jesus.
Faith in Jesus saves us,
not belonging to any particular church, or any particular group,
only faith in Jesus sets us apart from the rest of the world.
Our relationship with wealth has Changed.
Our relationship with the world has changed.
and that can mean we endure varying degrees of suffering for our faith.
It is our exclusivity that enrages the world around us.
but without our exclusivity, their is no salvation.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus continues.
10 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...
#3 Jesus Changes Our Relationship With Suffering
#3 Jesus Changes Our Relationship With Suffering
Jesus speaks to this church already enduring tribulation,
and he writes to prepare them for a heightening of that persecution,
Its about to intensify.
Some members in the church at smyrna are about to be thrown into prison.
Now, we need to pay careful attention to how this is being communicated.
Jesus is the first and the last.
He has the power to stop this, but he doesn’t
The devil is working against God’s people,
but God is doing something in the tribulation.
He is accomplishing something.
Notice that the suffering is limited to ten days.
God sets the boundaries for their suffering,
God controls the limit,
the suffering is not like a runaway train that God is frantically trying to stop, but struggling to do so.
The suffering itself is carrying out the plan of God.
Its doing something beyond what we understand.
Since most of the numbers in Revelation are symbolic numbers,
its likely that this number 10 is a symbolic number designed to simply communicate a short but defined period of time.
Many commentators recognize this as an allusion to the 10 days of testing described in the book of Daniel.
When Daniel was in Babylonian captivity he was commanded to eat the meat sacrificed to idols,
but he insisted that he would only eat vegetables and that God would strengthen him.
Daniel’s Babylonian overseer agreed to a period of 10 days of testing where Daniel was allowed to abstain from the King’s feasts.
12 “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.
13 Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”
14 So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food.
Just as God used Daniel’s 10 days of testing to showcase the glory of the true God who sustains his people…
It seems that God will do similarly with the church at Smyrna.
Their 10 days of testing and imprisonment would serve the purposes of God.
They would show case how God cares, for strengthens, and sustains his people.
Consider the example of how the people glorified god through persecution in the book of Hebrews.
I imagine that this is the kind of testing and the kind of purpose that Jesus was accomplishing in Smyrna.
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
Our relationship with suffering has changed.
We recognize that God is sovereign over it.
We recognize that God is present in it.
We recognize that God is stewarding it for his purposes.
And we recognize that any amount of suffering is only for a short time relative to the eternity we have been promised.
While the rest of he world sees no redeeming value in the suffering of this world…, we know that our God uses it while he shapes his people for eternity.
but Its not just our relationship to suffering in general that has changed.
Its our relationship to death itself.
#4 Jesus Changes Our Relationship With Death
#4 Jesus Changes Our Relationship With Death
10 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.
11 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.’
While the whole world does everything they can to avoid death for as long as possible...,
For the Christian, physical death, is the door way into the eternal presence of God.
For the Christian, the physical death, is not something we have to fear.
Our Savior showed his power and authority over death by rising from the dead.
and he has promised us eternal life.
Death is the end of our earthly tribulation,
and the beginning of our heavenly existence.
Therefore, death is not something we Christians have to live our lives fearing.
Jesus wants to remind these believers in Smyrna of this because it appears that some of them will actually die because of their faith in Jesus.
They will embrace what the world is trying to avoid
only because they believe with their whole heart
that the crown of life will be given to them in the end.
That kind of sacrifice feels unfathomable for us,
but to the first century christians, this was their reality.
Jesus is not telling them how to escape it.
He is not expressing his condolences because of it.
He is commanding them not to fear death
He is encouraging them to be faithful unto death,
and he is guaranteeing them their eternal life.
The apostle Paul resembled well this very different relationship to death then most of the world today.
Listen to how he talks about his imprisonment and possible death.
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,
13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,
26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
Let me ask you a question:
What do you fear most?
poverty?
rejection?
suffering?
death?
Jesus teaches us that our relationship to all those things changes now and forever because of our relationship to him.
We are rich in him.
We are loved and affirmed in him.
Our suffering is endured and redeemed in him.
Death is defeated in him.
Jesus changes everything and the church in smyrna was only going to be faithful to endure the earthly tribulation if they could keep their eyes on the heavenly kingdom.
I want to conclude with an interesting story from church history that you just almost have to tell when your preaching this letter to the church at smyrna.
The year was A.D. 154, almost sixty years after John’s letter from Jesus was delivered to the church in Smyrna.
A man by the name of Polycarp was the pastor of the church in smyrna.
He was a disciple of John and he would have been around 27 years old when the church in Smyrna received the letter from John.
Since tradition holds that Polycarp was consecrated as the leader of Smyrna by John himself, it is quite possible that Polycarp actually was the one who read aloud the book of Revelation when it arrived from the apostle to that church.
It is very possible Polycarp was one of the messengers whom Jesus held in his righthand.
But now sixty years later, polycarp finds himself imprisoned for his fatih.
The roman proconsul is recorded as urging his prisoner saying:
“Take the Oath, and I shall release you. Curse Christ.” - Proconsul
To which Polycarp famously answered:
“Eighty and six years have I served [Christ], and He never did me any wrong: how then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” - Polycarp
the proconsul said
“I have wild beasts. I shall throw you to them, if you do not change your mind.” -Proconsul
Polycrarp responded:
“Call them. For repentance from the better to the worse is not permitted us; but it is noble to change from what is evil to what is righteous.” - Polycarp
Again he said, “I shall have you consumed with fire, if you despise the wild beasts, unless you change your mind.” - Proconsul
“The fire you threaten burns but an hour and is quenched after a little; for you do not know the fire of the coming judgement and everlasting punishment that is laid up for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Come, do what you will.” - Polycarp
The bishop of Smyrna obeyed Christ’s teaching in his letter to Smyrna all those years earlier.
His relationship to wealth,
and the world,
and to suffering,
and to death had been so changed over his many years of following Jesus...,
that he joyfully was faithful unto death and he received the crown of life.
Stories like that can have two effects on us:
They can inspire us, and they can discourage us.
They can inspires us to take our faith more serious.
They can discourage us because we feel that the shallowness of our own faith could never endure such tribulation.
Circle back to the command Jesus gives the church in Smyrna
“Do not fear.”
What is the grounds of that statement?
Are we not to fear because of the confidence we have in ourselves to endure tribuluation?
Or are we not to fear because Jesus is the first and the last, and he is the one who died and came to life.
Jesus commands you not to fear such things, not because of self-confidence, but because of Christ-confidence.
He who died for you and rose again for you.
He knows you, is with you, and will sustain you until the end.
How do we pray in response to a text like this?
We pray that Jesus would continue to change our relationship
with wealth,
with the world,
with suffering,
and with death…, we pray he would change our relationship with these things through our always strengthening faith in HIM not in ourselves.
We are conquerers only through our faith in he who conquered fully and finally…, not in ourselves.
Lets pray and lets look to Jesus our conqueror.
