Smyrna, the fearful church, Revelation 2, verses 8-11. And it's a letter that brings encouragement to those who are suffering in an incredible way. The very name Smyrna comes from the word myrrh. If you know anything about myrrh, it was what was given to the Lord at His birth. His body was anointed with myrrh, and myrrh was used by the high priest as he went into the presence of the Lord on the Day of Atonement. And I'm reminded of the Lord's life began with Myrrh and it ended with Myrrh. And in His present session as Har High Priest, that sweet savor is in the presence of the Father. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, the first and the last who was dead and has come to life, says this, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested. And you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, And I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death." The shortest of the seven letters to a church that is literally dying for its faith. Three times in this letter do you find reference to death. In verse 8, the Lord who was dead. In verse 10, be faithful unto death. And verse 11, you'll not be hurt by the second death. So this letter speaks of the death of Christ. It speaks of the death of the saints. And it speaks of the death of lost people. So here's a group of people over here, saints, who are going to die for their faith in the city of Smyrna. And then here are people over over here that are going to be suffering the second death, which is spiritual separation from God. What makes the difference between both these groups of people? The death of Christ. It is the death of Christ that makes the difference. And if you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the death that He died will take you from the second death to eternal life. And you will die as one of the saints. No rebuke in this letter. Just commendation for their faithfulness to the Lord. And yet the enemy is mentioned. The enemy of man's soul. Your enemy. My enemy. Two of the names of our enemy are given in this letter. Devil and Satan. Devil and Satan. Does anyone know what the name Devil means? It means slander. He is the one that will slander the character of people. And that is what these Christian people in Smyrna were facing. The word Satan means adversary. You see, he will come and attack the work of God. The old slanderer does not like what's happening at Tompkins Square. He does not like what's happening around the city in the churches. And he will seek to fight against it, and many times he will slander. Yes, Bill? yes and bell by the way there are a number of of different titles that the word of god gives to our arch enemy a number of those things that he is called in the bible and yet that term devil speaks of his one aspect of slandering the people of god and that is but one of the many things that he does do he's also called the angel of light isn't he he's called the roaring lion who will seek to destroy everyone in his path So there are many more titles for him. No, there are other things that are attributed to him. But just focus, Bell, on this idea that he's the slanderer. And you'll see why he's mentioned like that in this letter as we go through it. You'll discover what these believing people were facing there in the city of Smyrna. Let's just give you a little bit of background. You've noted as we study these seven letters to the seven churches, that there's something about the location of each one of these churches that is reflected in the letter. And the way that the Lord identifies Himself in the beginning of the book of Revelation sheds a lot of light on what's found in the letter. We found that last week when we studied the church that had lost its first love, the church of Ephesus. But Smyrna was one of the great centers of learning and piety in the Eastern Orthodox Church. By the way, it's the only one of the seven cities that are still in existence today. It's not called Smyrna. It has a different name there in Turkey. It's called Izmir. They say that nearly a third of the current population of this city are Christian people. Very interesting. Great trade city, just like Ephesus. It, like Ephesus, had an incredible harbor that lay right there on the edge of the city. There was a straight street that ran all the way through the city. And lining the streets there were various temples to the pagan gods. It's called the Golden Street. There was a temple to Sibyl, a temple to Apollo, a temple to Asclepius, a temple to Aphrodite, a temple to Zeus. Heathen worship was everywhere. And so think of this. Here is a suffering church in the midst of a very pagan, godless culture. Very wealthy city. famous stadium was found there in Smyrna. It claimed to possess the largest public theater in all of Asia Minor. It had famous monuments. There was a monument to the famous writer Homer. Any of you read Homer's Odyssey or the Iliad? Everybody has some haven't they? But here, that was supposedly his birthplace. And Smyrna celebrated it. It kind of reminds me again of New York City. theaters, stadiums, wealth, paganism. It was the center of what they called Caesar worship. You see, in that day, the very spirit of Rome was celebrated, for Rome had brought peace to the world. The Pax Roma, the peace of Rome. And everyone was indebted to Rome for this, for they could carry on their trade, and they could live in safety. They could travel the roads and not worry about bandits. They could be out on the sea and not worry about pirates. See, Rome brought that peace. Now, I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but there was peace globally when Christ came the first time. What do we know will be the quest of the Antichrist before Christ comes the second time? Global peace. Global peace. That's what it's all about. And it was the Rome that brought peace in the first century. What does the Lord say in Daniel is going to take place in the world before peace comes again and Christ returns? What's going to take place within the Roman Empire? Anybody know? His prophecies in Daniel. There's going to be a restructuring of the old Roman Empire This is recorded in the prophet Daniel. Now what have you and I seen in our lifetime? We are seeing the formation of the what? The European Union. The European Union is forming this incredible group of nations. Just like the Bible says. And there will be a quest for world peace before Christ returns. Very interesting parallels that are found. And so because of the peace of Rome, they began to celebrate the one who embodied what it meant to be Rome, and that was the emperor. And so they started to worship him. Initially it was not mandatory, but then in time it became mandatory. And every year you had to go and take a pinch of incense and burn it and say, Caesar is Lord. And if you said Caesar is Lord, then you got a certificate that would allow you to conduct your business for the rest of the year. And they didn't really mind what gods you worship, just as long as you said that Caesar is Lord. And now you'll understand a little bit more what Paul meant when he wrote in Romans the letter to the church at Rome, and made this incredible statement in chapter 10. If any man confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, And it was against the backdrop of everything that was taking place in that day with Caesar as Lord. But the Christians were saying, no, Caesar is not Lord. Jesus is Lord. And you would give your life in places because of your allegiance to Christ. A very famous man by the name of Polycarp, who was a personal disciple of John, who wrote the Gospel, who wrote the book of Revelation, who wrote the three letters that are found here in our Bible, this very famous man was Polycarp. He was the pastor of the church at Smyrna. And he was a faithful preacher. You can read about this man in early church history. But we do know this, that the Jewish community came to the authorities and began to slander Polycarp. And Polycarp refused to say Caesar is Lord. He refused to burn the incense. And so you know what they did? They took this man, Polycarp, and they tied him up. And they brought wood on the Sabbath day and piled it around his body and lit the flame. And they gave him an opportunity at the very last to recant and confess that Caesar is Lord. And this is what Polycarp said, he said, eighty and six years I've served Christ, and He has never done me wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me? I fear not the fire that burns for a season, and after a while is quenched. Why do you delay? Come, do your will. Light the fire. And as the fire lit up his body, he prayed this prayer. I thank you that you have graciously thought me worthy of this day and of this hour that I may receive a portion in the number of the martyrs in the cup of thy Christ. That's what was taking place in the city of Smyrna. It was more perilous to live in Smyrna than anywhere else in the Roman Empire because of this city's allegiance to Caesar. They were more aligned with Rome than any other city. They vied for the opportunity to build a temple to Tiberius. Wealthy, stadiums, theaters, and persecution. And it was to this persecuted church that the Lord came and gave these four little verses, seeking to minister to those who are giving their life for the Gospel of Christ. But I wonder what we can learn. We're not really suffering here in the United States, are we? The day may come that we suffer for the cause of Christ, but not here in America. But I want to remind you that all over the globe this hour, there are Christian people that are giving their life for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I read of the girl that gave her life because she passed out a Bible in China. It's happening everywhere. But there is timeless truth for you and I in this letter. You and I will face pressure. You and I might face poverty. And you and I might face the third thing that's mentioned here in the letter. And that is the personal attacks and slander that come from people. So how does God want us to respond when the pressure is great? When there is no money. And when the personal attacks are intense. First thing he wants us to remember is that the Lord is always present with us. Look at how he identifies himself. He calls himself the first and the last who was dead and has come to life. And he says this. And in this verse, both aspects of the nature of Christ are referred to. The very deity of the one who speaks is seen in this expression, the first and the last. That is a title of deity. It's a great verse if you're dealing with Jehovah Witnesses or others that deny the deity of Christ and say the Bible doesn't state that He was the Son of God in essential deal. Take them to this expression found in the book of Revelation. I am the first and the last. It's used three three times in the prophet Isaiah to speak of none other than Yahweh, the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the great Almighty, the I Am. And with this expression, the first and the last, we go back to the burning bush of Moses. And I pointed out to you last week that when you study, or two weeks ago, when you study these seven letters, you've got to discover that there's really a history of the Old Testament tucked in every one of those letters. To the church at Ephesus, we saw the creation and the fall of man. You step into this second letter, the suffering, and you see the exodus referred to. The names of God. And as we move into the next letters, you'll see different periods of Israel's history in the Old Testament made reference to in these little letters. But the very deity of the Lord is seen here in Isaiah 41, 4. In Isaiah 44, 6. In Isaiah 48, 12. And what God wants to tell his people is, listen, I'm always there. I am with you. It doesn't matter what you're going through. And I have a covenant relationship with you right now. And I don't know if you're facing pressure, poverty or personal attack. But if you are, my friend, the Lord is with you. His humanity is referred to here when it says that he was the one who was dead. And is alive. A reference to the resurrection of Christ. None other than the Lord who has experienced the things that we've experienced. None other than the one who is the first and the last. He's with you. I want to draw a second timeless truth. And that is this. The Lord knows all your circumstances, past, present and future. Look at verse 9. The very first word is I. The next one is no. I know. You ever thought the Lord doesn't know what you're going through? I don't know if the Lord really knows what I'm going through. It doesn't seem as though He acts as quickly as I'd like for Him to act. Yet He wants us to know that He does know all of our circumstances. And He mentions three words in verse 9 I want to point out to you. In the New American Standard, He knows your tribulation. He knows your poverty. And He knows the blasphemy. I know about your pressure. I know about your poverty. And I know about the personal attacks that you're going through. This word for tribulation in the New American Standard, the Greek word literally means to be crushed by pressure. It was used of a man who was tortured. Can you imagine taking a huge stone and placing it somewhere on a man's body and the pressure of that stone is bearing down on that human frame? That is what some of these believers were facing in the city of Smyrna. And then they would move the stone and it would crush another part of the body until the life was gone. That's incredible, literal pressure that they were facing. But you know, there's all kinds of pressure in there. Feel any pressure at work? You feel any worry or anxiety? How about material circumstances you find yourself in? Are you in need of things that you don't have? And you know what that pressure is? How about health and the pressure of health? How about opposition that comes your way from people and antagonism and persecution? And Robert, just for you, family life. All of us face pressure. And it is as if the load is just going to bear down on us and we just don't know if we're going to be able to hold up underneath it. That's when we need to realize that the Lord knows these things. He knows the pressure. The mental pressure. the physical pressure, the emotional pressure that God's people are under. God knows that. You need to remind yourself of that. But you know, God also knows your financial situation. These Christian people were facing financial stress and strain like none other. The Greek language has two words for poverty. One word for poverty means you just don't have an abundance, but you have just the sustenance that you need to make it through life. A lot of us can identify with that. We're called the working poor. We have enough to go from week to week, but we don't have a whole lot of abundance. That's not the word that's used here. The word that's used here means a man has nothing. He is totally destitute. And these Christian people in the city of Smyrna had literally nothing. It had been confiscated from them because of their testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews would write about the Christians in the first century, and he says, listen, you folks have had your homes pillaged because you're Christians, and everything's taken away. Very few of us will ever know this type of poverty, but this was what the church of Smyrna was going through. My friends, God does know your financial situation. And we need to get to the place in our lives where, like Paul, we can say, I've learned to abound, and I've learned to suffer and eat. Paul says, I've had abundance and I've had hunger. And yet he would say, my God will supply all your need according to his riches and glory. God is very much aware of the pressure that you're in. God is very much aware of the financial situation that you are in. But God is also very well aware of the personal attacks that you're facing. This word for blasphemy literally means slander. Remember, that's one of the titles of the devil. He is the slanderer. And the devil himself was getting these Jewish people, who were antagonistic to the message of the cross, to slander some of their other Jewish people that had put their faith in the Messiah, and Gentile people that had put their faith in the Messiah. And life was very difficult in the city of Smyrna. It's not easy when people slander, when they seek to attack your character. You know, sometimes people can say things about you that are not true and that's slander. You know, sometimes they can say things about you that are true, but they don't need to be spreading it around for that's slander too. Probably all of us have faced the incredible affliction that comes from slander. And so many times the people that are slandering are seeking to destroy the ministry that God has for your life. They want to just cut the knees out from underneath you. And where does this energy come from? Well, it comes from none other than the enemy of man's soul. He wants to cut you down in the battle. He wants to cripple you in the race. He doesn't want you to run for Christ. So if he can slander you, That's his activity. You look at him, and in the book of Genesis, the devil meets man the first time, and he's slandering God to man. And when you meet the devil the second time, he meets Job, and he's slandering Job to God. And when you meet him the third time in the Bible, and he's slandering none other than the God-man. That's his work. He will oppose anything that God wants you to do. But there's another point I find here. How do we respond to the pressure and the poverty and the personal attacks? He comes along to these people and he says in verse 10, Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Do you realize that fear cripples God's people? When you are intimidated, it will literally kill your faith. The devil will point out everything in your life that you've said and done and failed to do. And He'll tell you, you have no right to serve Christ. The race is over. Stop! Lay down! Quit! Give up! Yet the call of the Scripture is, don't look behind, but look in front. And as you look in front, you'll see none other than Christ. And you'll run with patience, not the race behind you, but the race what? Set before you. Well, if folks only knew what I did 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, or last month, boy, if I just came up to the forefront of everyone's attention, I'd be destroyed forever. So you know what God's people do? They just sit down in fear and intimidation, and they do nothing for Christ. The devil has you exactly where he wants you. God wants us to remain faithful to Him, even if it means death. How many times does a righteous man fall and get up again? Seven times. Just keep getting up, my friend. How many times does God forgive? You lose track by the time you kept track of them, right? In a day. Thank God He's a God of grace. And a God of mercy. And a God of kindness. Thank God that He's the God that doesn't look on our iniquities. But he looks on his son. Oh listen, it's time for God's people to just take those hands that are hanging low, like Hebrews says, and just lift them up to be used by God again. It's time to take those wobbly knees and firm them up and start walking again. In our repentance and our ministry for Christ, we need to remain faithful to death itself. And you have the ability to do that because of your wholehearted trust in the Lord. But what happens if your situation goes from bad to worse? Oh, he addresses that here in this section. He says, listen, you're going to suffer, verse 10, the devil casts some of you into prison. And then you're going to be tested. And he says some of you are going to die. It might get worse before it gets better. But don't focus on that. Focus on the fact that you like Christ someday are going to conquer death. Interesting he makes reference to 10 days of tribulation and we don't really know exactly what he's referencing there but we do know that expression 10 days is a short amount of time. You're going to suffer just a short amount of time and you know even if you look at life itself whatever we go through in this life it's going to be over pretty quickly. My life is well past half over. I just blinked and I'm 50 years old. Some of you are older, don't look at me that way. It passes quickly, doesn't it? We look at some of these kids here. You know, I'm glad that, I really don't want to go relive my life, I really don't. I know sometimes we say that we wish we could go undo some of the crazy decisions we made and the stupid things we did and said. We'll never have that chance. I can't go undue yesterday, but my friends, I can walk with God tomorrow. I can walk with God today. These ten days could be a reference to the ten periods of persecution under the Roman emperors. There were ten major empire-wide persecutions that Christian people faced in the few hundred years of the church's history. Do you realize that Christian people by Nero were literally wrapped in ropes, covered with tar and put in his gardens to be lit as candles in the night because they would not confess that Caesar was Lord but say Jesus is Lord. Do you realize that Christian people were sewn up in the skins of wild animals and thrown to the dogs in the arenas of Rome and the crowds looked on as they fought the wild beast. Do you realize that Christian people were stretched on the rack? If you know anything about that, they would tie your hands and your feet and they would slowly, slowly stretch your body till literally they pulled you limb from limb. None of us have faced that. And yet it was the very blood of the martyrs that became the seed And they were willing to face death. I don't know what persecution is going to come to the United States Christians. But I think we're soft. We're soft. In that day, they were rich spiritually and poor materially. In this day, we're rich materially and poor spiritually. That's true. So we might as well serve Christ. That's right. We're all going to die. It's worth serving Him, isn't it? Giving your life for Him. You know, I look back on this little church in Smyrna. We wrap it up here. Not all the splendor and the darkness of pagan Rome could quench that smallest light that was kindled and nourished by God in that city. They were going to face trial. Trials come our way because of our own sin many times. Trials come our way to prevent us from sin. Paul said, Listen, I've got put this thorn in my flesh lest I be a little proud. Trials come our way to teach us things. The Lord demonstrated what it meant to obey through the things he suffered. You will be put through the ringer, my friends, so that you can manifest obedience to God. He wants to test you. And the same test you failed last year and for the past 10 years, you're going to face tomorrow and into the future. Sometimes I wish we wouldn't face those tests. Do you know why God puts you through the same test that you flunked years ago? I'll tell you why, because he wants you to pass the test. And once you pass that test, there'll be another one. But you're going to face that trial again and again. But sometimes those trials are for the furtherance of the gospels you see in the life of the apostle Paul. Number four, in the midst of extreme want, remember the true wealth that's yours. He said, you're poor, but really you're rich. A reward awaits the believer. The crown of life awaits the believer. This laurel that they put on the runners at the end of the race got to the finish line first. They had laurels they wore on the festive season, laurels they wore at weddings. They had on coins from Smyrna famous people wearing laurel crowns who were loyal to Rome and they circulated their figures on their coins. But for the believer, and I don't have the time to develop these, I wish I could, the incorruptible crown is going to be given God's people if you had self-control in running the race. If you were willing to say no to your flesh and no to the body and no to the lust, God says there's a crown for you. He says there's a crown of rejoicing if you're a gospel preacher, if you're a gospel witnesser, if you're giving out the gospel, if you're seeking to bring people to Christ, it's going to be called the crown of rejoicing that's given to you. And you know who's going to be the crown of rejoicing? It's the people you've led to Christ. They're going to be in the presence of God someday, and you're going to rejoice with them. The crown of righteousness for those who love is appearing. Are you looking for the coming of Christ? Longing to see Him face to face? There's a crown. It's called the crown of righteousness. The crown of glory that's given to faithful shepherds in 1 Peter. And then the crown of life. And finally, as we close, the fifth point I want to draw to your attention from this text. This text says, hear the Spirit. Every one of these letters is going to end with the expression here, the Spirit. What does he mean by that? He says, immerse yourself in Scripture. The way to beat the pressure, the way to beat the poverty, and the way to beat the personal attacks is to immerse your mind in the Word of God. Take those references, copy them down, and you'll discover that Paul, James, Peter, and John all write about the suffering and the trial that you're going to face in your life. May God find our response to the pressure, to the poverty, and the personal attacks, a biblical response. Trusting Him, resting in Him, knowing He knows, and He's with us. Be faithful, my friend, even if it means death. Be faithful, but not fearful, for fear will cripple you. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Your people have not changed through the ages. Lord, You know that we are in this city and it has its great theaters and its great stadiums its great wealth. There might not be temples, Lord, erected to all the gods, but Lord, there are temples. There's temples to Buddha, temples to Hare Krishna, temples to untrue gods all over this city. Father, all we ask is that You would so work in our hearts that Your people would be obedient and faithful to what You've called us to in this city. Give us wisdom as a congregation, Lord, to know what You have for us. lead us, guide us. I pray in Jesus' name.