The Persecuted Church
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Revelation 2:8-11
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.’
Let us pray.
In Psalm 116:15 we are told,
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
The Father is never pleased and never passive about the martyrdom of His saints. His love and His wrath is aroused every time the enemy kills His little ones.
If you are slow to grasp this, look at the Father’s finger print on the design of the mother bear.
Every outdoor’s men worst nightmare is to cross the path of bear cubs.
We know a mother bear is not far behind and her maternal instinct is wrath upon any creature that would dare draw near to her precious little ones.
Isn’t the mother bear a witness to us of how God’s wrath is being stored up for enemies who kill his precious ones?
Can you hear this wrath in Jesus’s voice as calls them a “synagogue of Satan,” and “fake Jews?”
One of the most well-known disciples of John, the writer of Revelation, is an early church father by the name of Polycarp.
Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna.
burned to death as an old man, in his late 80’s.
The fragrance of Christ filled his life…even unbelieving soldiers pleaded with him.
“Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”
~Polycarp in refusing to say: “Caesar is Lord.”
At his execution, the Roman authorities encouraged citizens to gather wood for his burning. It was said, that the unbelieving Jews gathered up more than 3x’s the amount of firewood needed to burn Polycarp at the stake.
These unbelieving Jews had rejected the offered Jewish Messiah in Jesus Christ and they had turned their backs on the Torah, God’s Law. They had become just as Christ declared, a “Synagogue of Satan.”
But Jesus also said in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church.
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Today, there is a still a church in Smyrna, there is still a lampstand in that place. Why? because “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” and the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.
By the way, with every martyr, God added more oil to the church’s lampstand.
The city is no longer called “smyrna,” but is now called Izmir, and is one of the largest cities in the country of “Turkey.” And in Izmir, their is still a Christian church.
The city of Ephesus, which we covered last Sunday, is no more.
When I think about the suffering saint being precious in God’s eyes, I wonder what their worship sounds like before His heavenly throne?
In America, the church can’t really relate to this experience. We fear this time of persecution. We fear it for ourselves and our littles ones, but we don’t really know what persecution is like.
We are like the kid walking through a neighborhood with her parents and coming up to the house with a tall fence and a loud barking dog behind the fence.
The dog can smell and hear the family approaching and his barks with all his might to sound the alarm that an intruder is coming near.
The bark of dog is scary to the little kid. She cries to her parents, “I don’t ever want to walk this path again. That dog is gonna get me.”
And her parents respond, “Honey, it’s okay! The dog can’t get you and he won’t hurt and we are here with you.
The american church is like the little child afraid of the barking dog behind the fence.
Worst, is that there are naughty older children, riding their bikes by, watching the scene with the parents trying to comfort their daughter, but the naughty childs yells out, “Here he comes! Here he comes! He’s gonna get us!”
And these naughty children capitolize on the inexperience and vulnerability of the young child.
We are not experiencing persecution in this country. We may experience it in the future, but we are not the persecuted church.
We should not fear persecution, but rather God’s judgment against us for our many compromises. More on that later in this series.
For now, if we want to understand persecution, let’s look at the church in Smrnya.
Many of them are slaves.
They are poor. Lots of women and children.
They are disenfranchised, they have very little cultural influence.
It reminds me of the plight of the African-American slave, who in this country had no rights, were in most forbidden to taught how to read and most had their families torn apart.
And yet, we have from history something called the “Negro Spiritual.”
These were songs that slaves taught one another and through the song, they learned the gospel. They learned to trust in God. They learned to depend upon God.
Consider these lyrics from the song, “There’s a Balm in Gilead”
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead, To heal the sin-sick soul.
Don't ever feel discouraged, for Jesus is your friend,
And if you lack for knowledge, he'll ne'er refuse to lend.
How does such songs sound when they rise before God’s throne coming from the downtrodden and afflicted souls?
They are precious in His sight, they are a delight to the Father’s ears.
The church in Smyrna was a persecuted church, but she was not a forgotten church and certainly not an unloved church.
Lets look at how Jesus assessed this persecuted church.
Christ’s assessment: “I know your tribulation and poverty (though you are rich).”
Christ’s warning: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer...”
Christ’s promise: “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.”
As I said earlier, we are not yet the persecuted church and so we shouldn’t fear the thought of persecution. This does not mean that persecution won’t come, it just means we are not in the time of persecution.
What we should fear more than anything is the judgment of God. Judgment because, unlike the church in Smyrna, we are more rich materially and in this world, than we are rich towards God.
To be rich in Christ is to trust in Him more than anything else.
As slaves and as the poor and disenfranchised, the church in Smyrna could only look to God.
They were completely surrendered to God.
Surrender to Christ. Resolve to love Him and trust in Him more than anything else in life. For His Grace will become your riches, and you will be able to endure until the end.
The you will be ready for the crown of life. And you will know what the church in Smyrna knew and which is this: 1 Peter 1:7
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.