In the year of our Lord, 155, Roman soldiers demanded that the pastor named Polycarp renounce the Lord and pledge total loyalty to the Roman Emperor. This is how that pastor responded. Polycarp said, 86 years have I served my Christ and he has done me no wrong. Can I revile my king who saved me?" One of the Roman soldiers responded, then you will be burned today at the stake. Polycarp looked that soldier in the eye and said these words, you try to frighten me with fire that burns for an hour, but you forget the fire of hell that never goes out. One hour later, this pastor's body lay in ashes, but his soul was with his Lord in heaven. Remember that name Polycarp, because we're going to come back to it this morning. Open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. Today we continue our series on the seven churches of Revelation. A couple weeks ago we looked at the very first church, the church of Ephesus, and we saw that the church of Ephesus was a very, very good church, but it was a cold-hearted church. A church that did the right things, but had left their first love. Today we go to the second church in our journey, the Church of Smyrna, and I'm calling this the Church Under Siege. As I said a couple weeks ago, we are approaching this study from a practical and personal aspect. There are those that take this and do it from a prophetical aspect, but we're looking at it from a personal, a practical aspect in these lessons from the Word of God. You see, there were actually seven churches, all of these churches we're talking about existed in the first century, and every single church has lessons that we can learn. Follow as I read Revelation chapter 2, beginning in verse 8. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things says the first and the last, who was dead and came to life, I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of these things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation 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 shall not be hurt by the second death. In review, I want you to understand how these letters are set up. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago when we looked at the church of Ephesus, but as we come to the church in Smyrna, verse eight says, and to the angel of the church in Smyrna, I want to remind you that this letter was written by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was written to the angel of the church. Angel literally means the messenger of the church, and I interpret this as the pastor teacher of the local church there in Smyrna. And it says it's from the first and the last who was dead and came to life. Clearly that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the first and the last. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Our Christ is from eternity past. till eternity future. So it is written by the Lord Jesus Christ, the first and the last, who was dead and came to life. Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross of Calvary. He was dead on that cross. And three days later, he conquered death in the grave. He arose and he is the writer, the author of this letter to the church in Smyrna. And so now let's go to our outline, the church under siege, and we begin with a look at, first of all, the church itself, the church. It says, and to the angel of the church in Smyrna. What do we know about this church? Well, first of all, it was in a hostile city. The church in Smyrna was in a hostile city. Smyrna was a beautiful city. Smyrna was located 35 miles north of Ephesus that we looked at a couple weeks ago. And Smyrna is also located on the Gulf of the Aegean Sea. And so it was a seashore community, a beautiful place, and it has been called the Crown City. That's what it was called at that time, the Crown City. And the reason it was called the Crown City is that Smyrna has hills surrounding the city that make it look like a crown around the city. So it was a beautiful city right on the sea, there were hills around the city and it looked like a crown, so it was called the Crown City. Smyrna was a beautiful city, Smyrna was also a very prosperous city. Being on the Aegean Sea, it had a busy harbor. Boats would come in and out of that harbor with produce, with goods. One of the things that Smyrna is known for is producing myrrh. Now, when we think about myrrh, what do we think about? There's a specific time in history we think about myrrh. Yeah, Christmas time, when the wise men came to the Christ child and they brought gifts, gold, frankincense, and what? Myrrh. Well, much of the myrrh that was produced in the Middle East was produced right there in Smyrna. And there was a certain tree, and they took this substance from the tree, and they would make out of this tree the bark and the wood from the tree. They would make myrrh, which would be used as a perfume for those who were living, and it would be used as an embalming fragrance for the dead. In other words, when people died, that was part of their system to help keep the smell of death away. They would anoint the body with myrrh just as the ladies came to anoint the body of Jesus with myrrh before he arose from the dead. And so it was a prosperous city because of the harbor, because of the production of myrrh, the economy in Smyrna was thriving. But we also have to realize that Smyrna was a very, very pagan city. In that city there were five large temples, beautiful temples. They were dedicated to the worship of five major false gods. Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Sybil and Asclepius. These five gods were major gods there to the pagans in that city. And along with those five temples, there were several other temples, smaller temples dedicated to the worship of lesser gods. There were literally thousands and thousands of gods that were worshipped by those who lived in Smyrna. Both the pagan Gentiles and many in the Jewish community hated the church. They hated the Christians, and we'll see more about that as we look at the passage before us. But it was a very, very pagan city, and yet in the midst of this hostile city, it was an honorable congregation. a very honorable congregation. As we will see, Smyrna would face terrible persecution and terrible suffering, and they face that persecution for the cause of Jesus Christ. And of the seven churches of Revelation, Smyrna is one of only two that we will see no rebuke, no condemnation given from the Lord toward them. Everything we see is positive or it's encouraging to the church in Smyrna. This church was founded by Paul during his ministry in Ephesus to the church at Ephesus in the first century. And it was later pastored by a man named Polycarp. Polycarp, the one we just talked about. The man who was burned at the stake for his faith pastored this church in the early days of the church of Smyrna. That's the church. Now let's see what the Lord has to say about the commendation. What's good about this church, verse nine. It says, I know your works. I know your works. He said this, three commendations. First of all, you have served powerfully. You, you believers, you Christians in the church at Smyrna, in a hostile world, in a hostile culture, you have served powerfully. It says, I know your works. Works literally means, in this setting, the way they conducted their daily life, their daily business. The Lord Jesus says every day you go about your business, the business of the gospel, the business of loving one another in church, you do it properly. I know your works, I know the way you conduct yourselves day after day after day in a hostile environment. You see, Smyrna was all about the gospel. Smyrna was all about the gospel, even though the gospel meant, as we'll see, some deep persecution. That's what they were about under Paul, who founded the church, under Timothy, who came later, under John, who preached there. The gospel was preached faithfully. The death and the burial and resurrection of Christ and the need for repentance and faith was preached faithfully there in Smyrna. And the gospel was more important than life itself. to these people. The church was all about the gospel and the church cared for one another. As they went through persecution, they were there for each other. They labored, they worked together, they had true agape for one another in a very difficult, difficult time. And so the Lord says, I know your works. You have served powerfully through your works. But then he commends them on this, you have also suffered painfully. I know your works and the Lord says, but I haven't forgotten about your tribulation. I know your trials, I know your tribulation. The word tribulation means to be under extreme pressure. To be under extreme, extreme pressure. And the picture that would be brought out at this time in the history about this kind of pressure, this tribulation, would be the stone wheels that were used at that time to crush the wheat. And as those heavy stone wheels came across the wheat, it would crush the wheat and it would separate the kernel, which was good, from the shaft. And the idea here is this persecution, this tribulation is like that heavy wheel that's come upon you, but it's doing something good, it's separating the wheat from the shaft. And you are going to be a purer church. You're going to be stronger believers because of this persecution upon you. You might ask, Pastor, where did the tribulation come from? Where did this persecution come from? Basically, there were three sources. of persecution. The first was from Rome itself. Rome itself. Smyrna was the city center of emperor worship. Along with worshiping those pagan gods that I mentioned a few moments ago, there was also emperor worship. People were to, once a year, to come and bow down before the emperor and declare their allegiance to him and to worship the emperor. And so once a year they had to come, they had to worship the emperor and those Christians who refused to worship any other God but the true God and his son Jesus Christ would be branded as rebels and they would face persecution. It was either worship Domitian the emperor or worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and they chose to bow and worship Christ. And so, great persecution came from Rome itself, from the government. But they also were persecuted by their pagan fellow citizens, those who didn't believe in Jehovah God, those who didn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, because much of Smyrna's social life revolved around idol worship. I mean, that's what they would do. They'd gather together all the time in worshiping Apollo and Zeus and these false gods, but how they would do it, they would gather together and the alcohol would flow and there'd be perverted sexual things take place and all kinds of stuff would take place. And that was the atmosphere of not only worship, but of the social life of those who lived in Smyrna. And Christians couldn't participate and so they were outcasts in their own town in which they lived. And then this might surprise you, but they also suffered from some of the Jewish population. The unbelieving Jews were used as a tool of Satan to persecute the church. Even though they worshiped the same God, they had rejected his son, Jesus Christ, and many of these Jews hated these rabble-rousers, these so-called Christians who had risen up in their city. And they would accuse the church of immorality, and here's the reason, because they greeted one another with a holy kiss. They would say you're immoral, even though there's all kinds of things a lot worse than that going on, they would say those Christians are immoral, they greet one another with a holy kiss. They accused them of cannibalism because they misunderstood the Lord's table, and they believed they were eating flesh and drinking blood. instead of that which was symbolic of that. And they, of course, accused them of heresy because they said Jesus was Messiah and Lord. And so the Lord commends them. He says, I know it's been tough. I know tribulation has come. I know that that you have faced difficult times, but you're hanging in there. And he commends them for that. You have suffered painfully. And then he commends them for this. You have survived poverty. I know your works in tribulation and poverty. The word poverty here means to be totally and absolutely destitute. Totally and absolutely destitute. It doesn't mean that, well, you know, I wish I had more money so I could buy a new house or a new car. It's not talking about that. It's talking about those who had to rely on other people to live. These Christians, many of them had no money to eat, they had no money to put clothes upon their families back, they were destitute. And again you might ask, well pastor why were these Christians so poor? Well one of the reasons was that many of the believers in the church in Smyrna were slaves. They were slaves. They owned absolutely nothing. They worked for a master who owned everything, so they had nothing. They were slaves. Others, who were not slaves but were free, were denied jobs, were denied promotions because of their faith in Jesus Christ. And then others, just out of spite, And because of the hate that the Romans and the pagans and some Jews had toward them, others had their homes and possessions destroyed by the haters, by those that disagreed with them, that didn't like them. And so here's the interesting thing. Even though the church in Smyrna was facing persecution and poverty, the Lord says, you are rich. Look at verse nine, I know your works, tribulation and poverty. And as a side note, the Lord says, but you are rich. You are rich. I know the blasphemy of those who say they're Jews and are not. And we talked about those unbelieving Jews who are part of the synagogue of Satan who would attack them. But he says this, although you are persecuted, although you are in extreme poverty, you are rich. Now, my friends, how were they rich? How could somebody that was persecuted and living in poverty be rich? What were they rich in? Grace. They were rich in the Lord. They were rich in Jesus Christ and His amazing grace. And remember that the next time you have a tough day. Remember that the next time it seems like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and not getting through. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if He is your Lord and Savior, even though it seems that everything is going the wrong way and everything is going against you, you are rich, you are rich indeed in Christ. You are rich in His grace. For as we sang earlier, your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. Do we believe that? The church in Smyrna did. God's grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was enough for them. And it should be enough for us. And the Lord commended them because they stood strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ through persecution, through poverty. And so the Lord then gives them a command in verse 10. The first part of the command is this, do not fear. Do not fear. Verse 10, do not fear any of those things. What? The tribulation, the poverty, Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. It wasn't over yet, folks, which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days. The Lord says to this faithful, faithful church, do not fear. Yes, you are suffering greatly. Yes, it isn't over yet, but do not be afraid. Why? Because you're on the winning side. Folks, if we know we're gonna win in the end, it makes it a lot more, it makes it easier. to go through the tough times. John 16, 33, the Lord said this, in the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. In Hebrews 13 and verse five, the Bible says, when we face these times of trial and tribulation, I will never leave you or forsake you. Yes, what does it say in verse 10? You will be thrown into prison. Some of you will be thrown into prison and much worse. Why? To be tested and refined. But I will never leave you. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the fourth man in the fire. He's the fourth man in the fire. You've got Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego in the fire. And they look out and they see a fourth man in the fire. And that fourth man is Jesus Christ. He was the fourth man in the fire. He was the fourth man with Smyrna. And although some would be thrown into prison, some would be beaten, yea, some would even lose their lives, He would never leave them or forsake them. And my friends, He's the fourth man in our fires. He's the fourth man when we go. through tribulation. And one of the encouraging words in why they shouldn't fear is found in verse 10. It says, you will have tribulation 10 days. The Lord said, I know the persecution is intense. I know you don't know how you're gonna make it through, but wait a minute, it will be brief. He will be brief in scope and duration. I don't know that it literally means there's only 10 more 24-hour days, but the idea was this. It's not going to be long, and there'll be relief. It's not going to be long, and it'll be over. And so do not fear, but instead do be faithful. Do be faithful. Verse 10 says, do not fear. And then near the end of the verse, it says, but be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. Stay faithful and here's the kicker. Stay faithful even if it means death. Now, nobody wants to hear that. It's hard for us as Americans to even get our minds around that. It's not hard if you are living in some of the places that we'll see on the film tonight. But for us to get our mind around that, if I come to church next week and worship the Lord, I could be put to death. Praise God, we don't have to deal with that, but someday we may. And so the Lord Jesus says, be faithful unto death. He's saying this, if you die for the gospel's sake. He's not saying just be a martyr for some crazy religion, fly into towers in New York City and be a martyr. That's not the type of martyrdom Jesus is talking about. That martyrdom, as we all know, is wicked and sinful. This is a martyrdom, be faithful unto death. You're not looking for it. Be faithful unto death to the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the name of Jesus, and I will give you a crown of life." What more encouragement could the Lord give to these faithful people in Smyrna than that? Some of you would be in prison. Some may even die. but be faithful unto death, and I will reward you. I will give you the crown of life. What does that mean? I believe it's twofold. If you die in Christ, if you die for the sake of the gospel, you're gonna receive, through grace, eternity in heaven. You'll be with me for all eternity, all believers have that promise. But I think it goes one step further when it says, I will give you the crown of life, the Stephanos in the Greek, it's the victor's crown. It's the crown that was presented to the gold medal winners, as we would say today, the first place finishers in the early Olympic Games in Greece. It was a crown that would be placed upon the victor's head as they won the event, and they were hailed as the greatest athlete in Greece. And I believe what this is saying is those who are faithful unto death will receive the martyr's crown, the crown of life in heaven that is to be taken not in a boastful way, but to be taken and thrown at the feet of Jesus. as we worship Him in glory. The faithful martyrs of Smyrna could look forward to not much on earth. They weren't looking forward to their vacation at Myrtle Beach. They weren't looking forward to a trip to see their grandkids. They weren't looking forward to Disney World. The world offered none of that. They were looking forward to their Lord. Eternity in heaven. To be hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant to receive that crown. To cast at Jesus' feet. That's what they lived for. That's what they looked forward to. And so Jesus himself says, do not fear, do be faithful. And verse 11, do look forward. Do look forward. How do you look forward in a time when there's no hope, humanly speaking? You look forward by God's grace. And so do not fear. Do be faithful and keep your eyes ahead. Look forward. Verse 11, he who hasn't here, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. Whatever happens, listen to the voice of God. Whatever happens, don't turn back, don't give up. Whatever happens, you have no need of death and of judgment. You have no fear to worry that you will receive the fire of hell, the judgment fires of the lake of fire. You will not be hurt by the second death because you will be. in the presence of your Lord, whatever happens, your future is bright because your future is with Jesus Christ. Let me say something, let me be very transparent with you right now. Doing these three things, these three commands, following those, do not fear, do be faithful, do look forward, was not easy for these people. They're just like you and me. It was not easy for them. They're being persecuted. What they wanted to hear is that a bomb's about to drop on all your persecutors, and they're gonna be dead, and you're gonna be alive, and you can go on with your life, and you can have a good time, and you can enjoy your life. That's not what the Lord told them. He said, persecution's gonna come. It's gonna continue. Some will be in jail. Some may even die. It'll be a brief time. And that brevity could be because the dogs backed off, called back, or it could be because they were no longer on earth, they were in heaven, because they gave their lives for the cause of Christ. But these people were like you and me. It would have been awfully hard to be encouraged by those words. Let me say this, I think it would be impossible, humanly speaking, to be encouraged by those words and just say, okay, God, great, let him beat me, let him throw me in jail, let him kill my wife and kids while I look on. It would be impossible for any human being to just say, okay, I'll not fear, I'll be faithful, I'll look forward. It's impossible. It wasn't possible for them. It is impossible for us without God's amazing grace. You hear the stories. of those who gave their lives for the cause of Jesus Christ in days gone by, and you marvel, and you say, how could anybody be brave enough, courageous enough to do that? They're not, but by God's grace. And I really believe that we have no concept in our feeble minds of how amazing God's grace really is. We sing about it, it's probably the most loved hymn, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, but his grace and salvation, it's not of us, it's of him and his grace for living and his grace for facing persecution and heartache and trials without his amazing grace. Those believers in Smyrna, the church in Smyrna, could not have stayed faithful, could not have survived. And let me say this, without God's amazing grace, neither can we. It's all of His grace. Salvation, sanctification, staying faithful in persecution. Let me end with the courage The courage, this is an application, now the courage comes from God's grace. But I want us to understand a couple things here. First of all, suffering is inevitable. I wish I could stand up and say, you know, you who are suffering today, pray this prayer and it'll all be over. Just have enough faith and it'll all be over. There's a place for prayer. There's a place for faith in the sufferings we endure. Obviously there is, but I wish I could just say, just pray this prayer, say these words, have a positive attitude and you won't suffer again. I can't say that, because the Bible doesn't say that. In fact, the Bible says all true disciples of Jesus Christ will experience tough times. 2 Timothy 2.2 says, Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We're in a warfare. It's tough. Endure hardness as a good soldier. 2 Timothy 3.12 says, All who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer some persecution. But here's the thing. Persecution should not deter us. It should not stop us. That great theologian John Wayne once said these words. Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyhow. Write that down. You know, courage is not the absence of fear. I think he nailed it. It's being scared to death, but still doing what you need to do. Being scared to death, but saddling up anyhow. Folks, today Christians around the world are suffering for the cause of Jesus Christ. If you come back tonight, you will see from the Dispatches movie, the courage of believers in Afghanistan, in the United Arab Emirates. We'll be taken right there. We'll see how the gospel has not been chained. It's going forth, but under great persecution. Folks, suffering is inevitable. It is in the Middle East for believers. It was in the days of Smyrna. It is in America and it will get worse. Suffering is inevitable, but number two, grace is incredible. Grace is incredible. God gives grace sufficient for the hour. As I said a moment ago, His amazing grace saves us, for by grace are you saved through faith, and His amazing grace keeps us. We are kept by the power of His grace and His mercy. And folks, grace of God, the grace of God is the only thing that can get us through the pain and heartache of this life. It doesn't help to turn to alcohol. It doesn't help to turn to drugs. It doesn't help to turn to gambling. It doesn't help to turn to immorality. When the stress, that pressure we talked about, those stones that are beating out the grain, the wheat from the shaft, when that stone comes upon us, it's purifying us. It's not to kill us. It's not to destroy us. And we need to run to Christ, not a substitute for Him. When I was a kid, We had one of these plastic blow-up clowns that had the sand in the bottom of it. How many know what I'm talking about? It had the heavy sand in the bottom, and it was about three feet tall. When I was a little kid, my parents would blow that clown up, and I'd be down there, and that clown would be there, and I'd go like this and go, pow! And that clown would bounce down, and you know what it did? It bounced right up. And when I was a little kid, I was about the same size. It bounced up and smacked me in the face. And then I'd go again. Pow! Same thing. Boom, boom. Pow! Boom, boom. Pow! Boom, boom. That clown would go down and come back up. He'd go down and come back up. He'd go down and come back up over and over again. My friend Smyrna, the church at Smyrna was like that clown. Knocked down by Rome. Knocked down by the pagans. Knocked down by unbelieving Jews. And yet over and over and over again, it would bounce back up. And folks, that's how we ought to be. As God's children, as the church at Crosslanes, Crosslanes Bible Church, we can get knocked down, let's bounce back up. Why? Because of the grace of God. who will never leave us or forsake us. I love that old hymn, How Firm a Foundation, and here are the words to one of the verses. Fear not, I am with thee. Oh, be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by my gracious, there's his grace, my gracious, omnipotent hand. Like Smyrna, When the trials come, when persecution comes, when tribulation comes, may God find you and me. May God find Cross Lane's Bible Church faithful, faithful. Would you bow in prayer? Heavenly Father, when I look at what's written about the church in Smyrna, it humbles me. Because except for the grace of God, I have no earthly idea how I would ever get through that kind of suffering, that kind of persecution. And yet you're the same God today that was there with that church in the first century. 20 centuries later and you are still faithful. You are still gracious. and you still protect and watch over your children. You give us grace not only to be saved, but you give us grace to live and grace to die if needed. And so we're thankful for your amazing grace. I pray if there's anyone here today that does not know Christ as Savior, that's where it all begins. I pray that before they leave this auditorium, they bow the knee Cry out to Jesus and be saved. And for those of us who know you, Lord, may we live faithful lives like the wonderful example we've seen today in the church at Smyrna. In Jesus' name, amen.