The Church at Smyrna

Revelation 2:8-11

Before we read let us setup this city, Smyrna. It was an ancient city on the west coast of Asia Minor, situated at the head of the gulf into which the Hermus River flows. Smyrna was located 40 miles north of Ephesus.

1. The site of ancient Smyrna is the present-day Turkish city of Izmir.

2. Smyrna was famous for its beauty. Smyrna was considered the loveliest. It was called the ornament, the crown, and the flower of Asia. Because of the layout of its broad streets and the design of the city with its beautiful towers and buildings symmetrically placed, it appeared as a crown and was given the name Crown of Smyrna.

3. During the Graeco-Roman period, the city had a population over 100,000, including a Jewish presence. Some people in the Jewish community in certain cities of Asia Minor may have collaborated with Rome against a Christian minority.

4. Smyrna was an important seaport in Asia Minor because of its location on the edge of the trade route into Asia Minor. Throughout the Roman period, Smyrna excelled in medicine and science. It was home to guilds of basket-fishermen, tanners, silversmiths, and goldsmiths

5. Smyrna was under Roman control.

a. By the time Emperor Domitian was in power (81-96A.D.), emperor worship became compulsory for every Roman citizen on threat of death. So once each year every Roman citizen would burn incense to the godhead of Caesar, say out loud, "Caesar is Lord," and then receive a certificate of compliance.

6. Now what is interesting is that the Romans allowed the Jews to be exempt from this. They were allowed to observe their own religion, known as religio licita.  And since Jesus was a Jew and the first Christians were Jewish, they were lumped together and protected under this ruling. That is, until the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70A.D. After that point, the Jews made sure they distinguished themselves from the Christians and began slandering their practices and falsely accusing them before government officials.

The Christians in Smyrna. They lived under heavy oppression. They were paying a penalty for following Christ. And they were materially and financially poor.

As I stated earlier, the Jews began to give information to the Romans, that these Christians didn’t have their certificates.

Jesus tells them that He knew their works, their tribulation, their poverty, the blasphemy they endured from the Jews. Jesus even intensifies their struggles by telling them that some will be cast in prison and some will have trouble for 10 days. Most are not exactly sure what this means.

These folks were extremely persecuted, you had to have this certificate and if they were approached by Roman soldiers and didn’t have they were arrested and brought before some governmental leader and was told to deny Christ or else.

In some cases, the Jews if they knew someone wouldn’t have their certificate they would tell on them.

This was the blasphemy of the “so-called” Jews.

They were accusers of the brethren. (satan)

4. Because of this severe persecution, they had no opportunities to grow financially. Everything they done was secretive and no one was about to publicly support this church. They were poor!

a. However, Jesus said that they were rich. Nothing in their history tells us that they ever were financially rich. The richness Jesus was speaking of was in Him!

i. Metaphorically: absolutely, abounding (rich) in Christian virtues and eternal possessions.

We are privy to some famous writings of the history of this church. The preacher there was named Polycarp. Some of you may have heard of him, they made of movie about him in 2015. Here are some facts about him:

1. Polycarp likely lived during the time of some of the 12 apostles and then served as a church leader to the post-apostolic church through the first half of the second century. During his church service, he wrote a letter to the same Philippian church that Paul addressed; he even wrote in the same genre as the New Testament letters, using New Testament texts in the process.

2. It is likely that either John or Paul was a primary source of Polycarp’s thinking. The strong possibility for dependence on Paul is based on Polycarp’s usage of Paul’s writings in his letter to the Philippians and the fact that he was so familiar with a church that was planted by Paul. Early Christian tradition maintains that Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John.

3. Here is an excerpt of his writing to the church at Philippi: Polycarp, and the presbyters with him, to the Church of God sojourning at Philippi: Mercy to you, and peace from God Almighty, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, be multiplied. Chapter I.—Praise of the Philippians. I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because ye have followed the example of true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days long gone by, endureth even until now, and bringeth forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, [but] “whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave.” “In whom, though now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;”into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that “by grace ye are saved, not of works,” but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.

a. Sounds a lot like Paul’s writings!

4. He was a faithful minister of the Gospel.

5. He had little formal education, and was unpretentious, humble, and direct. Such traits are especially evident in the account of his martyrdom, which was written within a year of his death. It is not clear exactly why he was suddenly, at age 86, subject to arrest, but when he heard Roman officials were intent on arresting him, he decided to wait for them at home. Panic-stricken friends pleaded with him to flee, so to calm them, he finally agreed to withdraw to a small estate outside of town.

6. Roman soldiers eventually discovered Polycarp’s whereabouts and came to his door. When his friends urged him to run, Polycarp replied, “God’s will be done,” and he let the soldiers in.

He was escorted to the local proconsul, Statius Quadratus, who interrogated him in front of a crowd of curious onlookers. Polycarp seemed unfazed by the interrogation; he carried on a witty dialogue with Quadratus until Quadratus lost his temper and threatened Polycarp: he’d be thrown to wild beasts, he’d be burned at the stake, and so on. Polycarp just told Quadratus that while the proconsul’s fire lasts but a little while, the fires of judgment (“reserved for the ungodly,” he slyly added) cannot be quenched. Polycarp concluded, “But why do you delay? Come, do what you will.”

Soldiers then grabbed him to nail him to a stake, but Polycarp stopped them: “Leave me as I am. For he who grants me to endure the fire will enable me also to remain on the pyre unmoved, without the security you desire from nails.” He prayed aloud, the fire was lit, and his flesh was consumed. The chronicler of this martyrdom said it was “not as burning flesh but as bread baking or as gold and silver refined in a furnace.”

The account concluded by saying that Polycarp’s death was remembered by “everyone”—“he is even spoken of by the heathen in every place.”

7. In the book about his martyrdom, it is said that it was like and arch filled with wind inside the fire and it also states that he wasn’t dying and one of the guards stabbed him with a dagger to kill him.

8. The Christians at Smyrna wasn’t allowed to bury him, because the Romans did not want anything to show that he existed, no memorial of his faith in Christ!

This was the essence of the church at Smyrna, the persecution! The faithful all the way to the first death will be given the crown of eternal life and will not be hurt by the second death, eternal torment.

1. That ones that overcome! 1 John 5:4–5 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”

a. 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

b. John 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”

c. Matthew 10:22 “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

Remember what Jesus told the church at Ephesus, that if they didn’t repent he would remove their candlestick and He did, the river dried up and their is no church there now.

But, Smyrna is still there, under a different name, Izmir, but in the same places with a good amount of Bible believing Christian churches there.