Sermon Tone Analysis

Now—one of the most important things you need to know about Smyrna in order to fully understand this letter—is the fact that it was a city that was VERY loyal to Rome.

And this was widely known.

In fact, Cicero once said, “Smyrna is one of our most faithful and most ancient allies.”

And they were—I mean the Smyrna-ites were VERY proud to be a part of the Roman empire.

Patriotism ran high in those broad cobble-stoned streets!

To give you an idea how patriotic they were—in the Asian campaign against Mithradates in 88 B.C. things had gone badly with Rome—so badly that the soldiers of Rome were suffering from hunger and cold.

It is said that when the people of Smyrna heard this, they sent food—but these citizens also stripped off their own clothes to send them to the Roman soldiers.

Their reverence for Rome was so strong that in 195B.C.

Smyrna was the first city in the world to erect a temple to the “goddess Roma” a temple for the worship of the spirit of Rome.

It would be like Derwood building a temple to worship Uncle Sam right where MacDonalds sits!

And then in A. D. 26, when all the cities of Asia Minor were COMPETING for the privilege of erecting a temple to the godhead of the emperor Tiberius, Smyrna won!

It was selected for that honor, overcoming even her closest city and greatest rival, Ephesus.

At the end of the first century Smyrna had about 250,000 residents—and a large portion of them were Jews—Jews who were eager to do two things.

First—they wanted to please Rome because you see, Rome had exempted them from Caesar worship.

The only thing they were more eager to do—was give the Christians—or the “Nazarenes” a hard time.

They called them “Nazarenes” because they followed Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, in the beginning, emperor worship was nothing more than a spontaneous demonstration of gratitude to Rome—but toward the end of the first century, in the days of Domitian—remember him from last week?

Well, Domitian made Caesar worship compulsory.

It became LAW to worship the emperor—and if any city was to take this kind of law seriously it would be a city like Smyrna that had such a love affair with the Roman Empire.

So—understand—once a year—every person had to burn a pinch of incense and say three words, “Caesar is lord” out loud.

When they did this they received a certificate—a certificate that was required to get a job and make a living.

Okay, with that background in mind, lets look at the letter itself.

I want to hang our study on the answers to three questions.

(1) First, what was life like for the ADDRESSEES—the Christians the letter is written to?

Verse 9 tells us THREE THINGS about them.

a. First, it says they were undergoing severe AFFLICTION.

Now the word that we translate, “affliction” is the Greek word, “thlipsis” and it is a forceful word that means “pressure”—literal or figurative PRESSURE.

But—don’t think this refers to the ordinary pressures we all feel in day to day life.

No—the pressure spoken of here is INTENSE pressure—the kind that would be used to execute a man by making him lie down on the ground and then placing a great rock on him such that the weight of that rock gradually crushes the life out of him.

That’s the kind of PRESSURE or AFFLICTION the Christians in Symrna were enduring—the kind of pressure that makes you feel like you’re having the life crushed out of you.

I’ve told you before that my dad was raised on a farm in Mississippi and he told me once that when he was a boy on the farm they had a molasses mill.

He said that molasses is made out of cane juice—but first you have to get the juice out of the cane.

To do that, they would feed the stalks of cane through a grinder powered by a mule that would walk around the mill.

The grinder itself consisted of three or four heavy metal wheels about 12 inches in diameter.

These heavy wheels turned side by side and dad and his brothers would feed those stalks of cane between the metal wheels and the juice would be crushed or squeezed out.

Well, that is an illustration of what was happening to the members of this church.

They were having the life pressed out of them for one reason—because of their loyalty to Christ.

Herschel Hobbs says they were pressed between a rock and a hard place—the Jews—and the pagans.

In other words the members of this church were catching it from every side.

The pagans were giving them a hard time for their refusal to worship the emperor and the Jews were giving them a hard time because they worshiped Jesus as the Messiah—the Son of God.

It’s interesting to note that the word “Smyrna” means “myrrh” which was a fragrant spice—but to get the fragrance out—first this spice had to be crushed.

Well—to me this illustrates the fact that the fragrance—or the “richness” of Smyrna’s powerful testimony—came out of the crushing pressure of its suffering.

b.

So—they were going through severe affliction—but as it says in verse 9, they were also enduring extreme POVERTY.

Now—there are two Greek words for poverty.

One is the word for a man who has to work for a living.

He has to work to eat and his income is so low that he barely makes it.

He has nothing extra.

He just gets by.

He buys day old bread and is dependent on charity for his clothing.

But that is not the Greek word for poverty that is used here.

No—this second word for poverty literally means BEGGARY.

It means absolute and utter destitution.

So people this poor were not getting by.

They were starving.

Many of them were homeless.

In fact, they had been deprived of the right to work and make a living.

None of the trade guilds would hire them—because they refused to worship caesar and insisted on following Jesus—so they didn’t have the required certificate.

So—understand, theses believers were DIRT poor—yet Jesus said to them, “You are RICH.”

You have a powerful testimony!

You are producing amazingly mature believers!

To me—this illustrates the fact that the best indicator or a church’s health—is the degree to which its members faithfully rely on Jesus for literally everything.

And—usually the only way we do that is if we have no-THING else to rely on.

As someone has put it, we don’t get it through our heads that Jesus is all we need until Jesus is all we have.

And this is a hard principle for many Christians to grasp.

Vance Havener writes,

It is not easy to preach on Smyrna now-a-days.

The average American congregation is in no mood to appreciate such a church.

In a day of quick prosperity, it is not easy to interest a well-fed, well-clothed, well-housed Sunday morning crowd in the ‘Smyrna brand’ of loyalty.

We are not interested in what it costs to be a Christian, but in what we GET by being one.

In a day of ‘Health, Wealth, and Happiness in Ten Easy Lessons or Money Refunded,’ for many, Christianity has become simply a better way to get rich or have a big time.

We would make a bellboy out of the Lord and a Santa Clause out of the Almighty.

Unfortunately Havener is right.

These days many believers have a warped sense of wealth.

They focus on the temporary treasures of this world instead of the eternal treasures of Heaven.

As J. Ralph Grant puts it,“The churches of the first century were marked by material poverty and spiritual power, while many of the churches of our day are marked by material wealth and spiritual weakness.”

Well—what about you?

How do you define true WEALTH?

How “RICH” are you as a disciple of Jesus?

How precious is Jesus and His kingdom to you? Do you find your own values reflected in this poem?

I counted dollars while God counted crosses.

I counted gain while He counted losses.

I counted my worth by the things gained in store, but He sized me up by the scars that I bore.

I coveted honors, and sought for degrees.

He wept as He counted the hours on my knees.

I never knew till one day by a grave, how vain are the things that we spend life to save.

I did not yet know, ‘til a Friend from above, said, rich is he who is rich in God’s love.”

So the believers were enduring AFFLICTION and POVERTY—but that’s not all.

c.

They were also facing SLANDER and RIDICULE.

And most of this came from the Jews—people who claimed to follow Jehovah but in reality were serving satan himself.

I mean, they did everything they could to make it hard on the Nazarenes.

Here are some examples of the slanderous gossip they spread:

Since Christians shared communion that they said was representative of the body and blood of Jesus, Jews spread the rumor that Christians were cannibals.

Because the Christians called their common meal “The AGAPE FEAST” or “the LOVE FEAST” the Jews that the Christians gathered for orgies of lust and immorality.

Due to the fact that Christianity did in fact often split families, when some members of them became Christians and some did not, the Jews accused the Nazarenes of breaking up homes and “tampering with family relationships.”

But the Jews weren’t the only ones slandering these Christians.

Loyal Roman citizens—the people of Symrna who worshiped Rome and its emperors—they did this as well.

For example, they accused the Christians of atheism because they denied the existence of the “gods” of Rome.

They also spread the rumor that Christians were incendiaries because they taught that the world would one day end in flames.