Letter to Smyrna- To live Christ, to die gain

Introduction

If the Lord Jesus wrote a letter to your church, what would he say?

What would he commend you for? What might he rebuke you for?

In the second and third chapters of Revelation the Lord Jesus tells John to write a letter to each of the seven churches in Asia minor. Five of the letters contain some serious warnings to the churches and a strong call to repentance. However, two of the letters have no rebuke but only commendation. These are Smyrna and Phillidelphia.

The letter which we will look at this morning is the one to the church in Smyrna.

As we look at this letter we must remember that we are reading someone elses mail.

The church at Smyrna was a real church and they faced real problems. As we go through the letter we see they were suffering persecution. Yet the Lord encouraged them to persevere to the end.

Here we find great encouragement for ourselves. As individuals we may suffer persecution for our faith in Christ and unless things change in our nation the church as a whole may suffer persecution.

Here in this letter we have the word of the Lord to those who are persecuted.

I. The Salutation

II. The Lord knows their suffering

III. They were called to be faithful

IV. Individuals must obey