Well, if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Revelation chapter 2. We're going to continue our little series of Christ's letters to the churches in Asia Minor. So we're going to read Revelation chapter 2. We're not going to read the whole chapter. We're dealing with the last time we dealt with the church in Smyrna, or in Ephesus, and this morning we're going to look at the second one, the church in Smyrna. So we're going to pick up in chapter 2 in verse 8, and we're going to read verse 8 to 11. So Revelation 2, 8 to 11. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write the words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but a synagogue of Satan. 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. 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." So far the reading of God's word. Let's go to hymn and prayer before we begin. Father, we thank you again for being able to come together here as your people. We do pray now that you would bless the preaching of your Word. We do pray for your Holy Spirit. Father, we know that apart from your Spirit, apart from the Spirit working within me to proclaim the truth, and the Spirit in the hearers, in the hearts of the hearers to receive this truth, to see that this is your Word, this is your revelation to us. We pray that you'd help us to understand it. We pray ultimately that you would be glorified through the preaching, that you would receive all the glory, that sinners would be encouraged, that sinners would be strengthened in their walk here in this lower world, and that sinners would be Saved from and brought from darkness into your light and we pray that For your glory and for your own namesake in Christ's name alone. We pray amen Okay, so we're on the second the second letter of the churches, of the letters that Christ wrote specifically to the churches in Asia Minor. And just to set the context a little bit, it's been a couple weeks since we were looking at the church in Ephesus. John was initially exiled to the island of Patmos. Patmos was a little island in the Aegean Sea, about 50 miles off the coast of Ephesus. If you had the coastline over here, you had Ephesus, which was only 15 to 30 miles off the coast. Patmos was another 50 miles off of that coast, and John was sent there for preaching the word of Christ. That's where prisoners were sent. There was no possible way that once they were sent there that they would ever return back there. This was their end goal. This was where they were going to end up. They would be sent to Patmos. Their job was simply to crush rock. It was like a giant rock quarry. They would crush rock, hard labor, day and night. John was about 90 years old when he got exiled there. And we read in verse 11 of chapter 1, when Christ comes to him and visits him, he says, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. These are the seven churches in Asia Minor. That would be modern day Turkey. So he was exiled there for preaching Christ. And then the Lord gives him this vision, and he's to write it down, and the vision is the entire book of Revelation. That's what John receives. So he gets this vision, he's told to write down this entire book of Revelation. He is then to make seven copies of that book, the entire book of Revelation, and then embedded in this book of Revelation are seven individual letters. That's the letters to the seven churches. And then these seven letters are to be distributed to the seven pastors of the seven churches in Asia Minor. So they each get a copy of Revelation, but then they also get a personal individual letter to their specific congregation in whatever city they were in. Like I said, they're all located in old Asia Minor, that is today modern day Turkey. These were real churches. They weren't, there's no imagery going on here. They are real localized congregations of churches. They had real pastors. They had real struggles. They had regular church life just like we have today. These churches are no different than any church in our modern world today. And I think every one of these churches represents something that every church today, every true Christian church is going through. We'll all find ourselves in one of these categories, in one of these seven churches. Of the seven churches that received the letter from John, only two of them actually the ones that only receive commendation, a good word. There's only two of them. One of them is Smyrna, the one we're going to look at this morning. The other one is Philadelphia, only commendation. The five others are in real danger, they receive some commendation, but they also receive a lot of condemnation. None of those churches make it to the end. None of them thrive and actually are there to this day. Smyrna, as we'll find out, is the only one that did not receive condemnation. It received only a commendation and is still there today. It's in modern-day Izmir in Turkey today. There are still saints there. The church is still flourishing because of what Smyrna went through in the passage that we are going to read. Few of the seven churches are actually sound, and actually starting with Ephesus, the ones that receive a condemnation progressively get worse as we go further down the line. When we reach the last one, Laodicea, Christ warns them that if they continue in this lukewarmness, he will ultimately spew them out of his mouth and he will have nothing to do with them anymore. This morning we're going to look at Smyrna. A little bit of an introduction, a little bit of historical stuff to set the context, just so we understand what this church was going through. It is 25 miles north of Ephesus. It's still along the coastline, still along that Aegean Sea coastline. 25 miles up from Ephesus, also a coastal port, right, and they had their own harbor. It was called the Crown of Asia. Remember, Ephesus was called the Light of Asia. Smyrna was called the Crown of Asia. We'll find out why. It was built between the harbor and the base of a mountain. Mount Pagus was the base of this mountain off the coast where Smyrna was situated, the city. It had a major highway coming into it called the Street of Gold. And that curved around the backside of that Mount Pagus like a necklace or a crown. And it came along the front and they had a temple on each side. They had the temple of the goddess of Smyrna and then the god of Zeus over here. So two false goddesses on each side of this ring or this crown going around Mount Pagus. Around the base of Mount Pagus, There were beautiful buildings and architecturally aesthetically pleasing buildings built around this mount in the form of a crown. We'll come back to that later on in the message this morning as well. Smyrna was extremely rich. they were proud, and we're not talking about the church in Smyrna, we're talking about the city of Smyrna itself, they were proud, they were arrogant, they had the largest public theater, one of the largest libraries, Pergamum had the largest library, of scrolls and parchments. And Smyrna also had the biggest stadium. They had a population of about 200,000 and in that time that was classified as a big city. And they were known for their fragrance they produced and that was myrrh. That's right in the name, Smyrna. Myrrh, as we know, is one of the gifts given to Jesus at the Incarnation, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And Smyrna produced this product, which was from the myrrh tree, and it was the resin, the sap that would get dried, crushed, beaten, and then eventually the oils were extracted from that to produce a fragrance called myrrh. And we'll get back to that a little bit later this morning. And then within all the richness, all the architecture, all the wealth that the city of Smyrna had, within that city there is a church, and that church is what we are looking at this morning, the church in Smyrna, or modern-day Izmir. It's speculated that Paul was more than likely the pastor who planted this church. He planted Ephesus. In Acts 19 we read that Paul pastored in Ephesus for three years. And we read in verse 10 of Acts 19, it says, so that all the residents of Asia Minor, that's Turkey today, heard the word of the Lord. All the residents of Asia Minor, all seven churches in Asia Minor would have had contact with Paul at one time or in another. And so it is speculated that Paul more than likely planted this church. The church in Smyrna, however, was not like any of the other seven churches. They were under the most hardest, most brutal, constant persecution. None of the other churches had persecution like the church in Smyrna. It crushed them, much like the myrrh they sold, to the point where they came out of the other end, out of the other end of this tribulation, this persecution, purified, made holy, and set apart for God, a church that is still in existence today. Like we said earlier, this is a church that received only commendation. All the other ones, including, except Philadelphia, the church in Philadelphia capitulated, they ended, they never made it, they folded, Christ blew out that lamp stand, and they gave in, they gave up, and gave in to the pagan world that was around them. Very pagan culture and society. Smyrna was no different. And we're going to see that. We'll start right in verse 8. We're going to go through these verses quite quickly. And we'll start at verse 8. And it says, so, and to the angel, that is the pastor, that is another word for messenger, and we could say to the pastor of the church in Smyrna, The words, the first and the last who died and came to life. There's a lot that can be said simply on the suffering, the persecution, the trials that the Church of Smyrna went through. There is no church that had to go through such a hard, hard time. So much suffering. Smyrna, the city itself, was devoted completely to Rome. They were all in to worshipping Caesar, worshipping Rome. They had an extreme loyalty, an extreme devotion to Rome. They loved nothing more than serving Rome. They loved nothing more than serving Caesar and the Roman government. They built temples to honor Rome. Everyone was called. In fact, you were not only called, you were commanded to worship and hail Caesar. It was illegal to be on the streets and not to hail Caesar. You would be instantly brought to the authorities, imprisoned or martyred. It was brutal. Persecution was relentless. And it would have been very easy for every one of these churches, especially Smyrna, to, in this kind of an environment, to simply side with the government, to simply side with Rome, and to obey Rome, and to live under Rome, and to hail Caesar as Lord. Because your life would go very easy at that point. As soon as you capitulate, as soon as you give in a little bit, you give that government a little bit of a lead, you fall under them, it would be a very comfortable, easy life. It would have been very easy for Smyrna to fall into this lifestyle. And to simply deny Christ. John actually tells us the opposite. He says, in this life you will have tribulation. And the reason we need to know why this church was going through such hardship, such tribulation, is because of what we read in verse 8, when it says, the words, this is Christ, who identifies himself here, the words of the first and the last. So he doesn't say this is Christ speaking, but he uses a title. And he says, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life. That is Christ's title that he is using for the church in Smyrna. this title, if you go back one chapter, go to chapter 1, and you go down to verse 17, and by the way, all seven of these churches, when they have Christ's title here, they're all found in chapter 1. All the seven titles are in there, and then he gives all seven churches a very specific title, and how he addresses that church. In verse 17 it says, then, when I saw him, I fell at his feet this is John speaking as though dead but he laid his right hand on me saying fear not and then here we have it I am the first and the last and if we keep going and the living one I died and behold I am alive forevermore that is the title that Christ has given us and is now using for the church in Smyrna he tells the church that I am the first and the last. I am the living one who has died and who has come to life. And what Christ is saying with these words, and again, it's not like, because Christ has so many titles, He's not throwing all His titles into a box and simply grabbing one and handing them out randomly to the churches. Christ is very specific in why He does this. What He's saying to that church in Smyrna, is that he is the first and last, not Rome, not Caesar. Christ is before Caesar. Rome is in time and in place. Christ is before Rome. Christ will be after Rome. Rome had a start. Christ never had a start. Rome will have an end. And Rome who is persecuting you constantly, will soon be done. I am the first and the last, and then the one who died and came to life." Christ is before Rome. Christ is after Rome. He is forevermore. He is greater than Rome. So he comforts this church because of what they're going through. They have a leader. They have one who is victorious, who has been before and who will certainly be after. He adds, who died and came to life. This also comes from chapter 1, verse 18. Christ tells His church in Smyrna, this church that is going through a perpetual onslaught of persecution, He tells them, I have already suffered. I have already suffered, I've died on that cross, I've risen. He took the sins of the elect. He was bore under the almighty wrath of God the Father. He underwent the scourgings already. He underwent the beatings prior to his crucifixion. He understands what Smyrna is going through, but then he relates to them and he says, I know what you're going through and I've already gone through that for you. Psalm 22. Well, we'll look at a little bit on this afternoon as well on 23, but a little bit on 22. He tells us, I am poured out like water. This is Christ speaking. My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried out like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death." This is Christ and His suffering and His own persecution. He underwent the deepest suffering, the deepest persecution, and He comforts Smyrna with that fact. that he's been there. He says, I've died and I've risen again. He says, I know your pain. I know what you're going through, but I've come to life. I came out on that other end. I've gone through that valley of the shadow of death and I've risen on the other end. And then, We have to imagine if we have a church like this, if we were a church like Smyrna, in the throes of persecution, all around us, in a society around us, and in a certain sense we are. We don't have this brutal, you know, onslaught of Rome and Caesar and having to hail Caesar, but we certainly do have to hail other things. There's a lot of stuff in our culture around us, a lot of things the world would want us to follow and come underneath their power and tyranny. And what we need to remember is that this church would have been assembled on a Sunday morning, and one Sunday morning in time and in history, and that pastor would have come to the front and he would have had a letter, an actual letter, what we're reading right now, and he would have read that to his congregation. you know, when he comes to the front, he would have told them, I have a letter from Christ Himself. And then they hear the words of Christ Himself telling this church that He had already gone through the greatest suffering, the greatest persecution. And Christ tells this church that suffering, I am the first and the last, the one who died and who came to life. That would be an encouragement for that church. to know that Christ is thinking about them, as small as they are, in this pagan culture, that He knows where they are at. In the Gospel of Matthew, He tells us, And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. And then the letter continues, in verse 9 and starts off with a very similar line to the letter addressed to the church in Ephesus and he says, I know, a different I know than the church that Ephesus got. Now Christ comes down and he says, I know I know your tribulation. He is intimately familiar with it. There is no condemnation in this letter, so Christ immediately goes to the commendation, the good word. God is seated on His throne, we're told that in Revelation. He is sovereign, not Rome. And so Christ reassures them with the words, I know your tribulation. I know your suffering. I know individually, specifically, what you as a church are going through. What every individual within the church is going through. He's familiar. He's intimately familiar with their suffering. He's intimately familiar with our suffering. It doesn't matter if we're not under the you know, having to conform allegiance to Rome or anything like that, whatever our small sufferings are, whatever the hardships we're going through personally as families, as churches, Christ is on the throne and He is intimately familiar with every little piece of suffering that we go through. He sees them. He sees the persecution. He's aware of it, and it's not out of control. God is sovereign. When we read about the suffering of this church, we have to understand that over top of that little church, there is a sovereign God who is, he knows they're in a pagan culture. He knows the influence of that pagan culture, and he is directing everything perfectly according to his plan, even the pagan stuff around this little church. It's not out of control. He says, It's going according to his decree. He says, I know your poverty, their poorness. They were not rich. Especially, for sure, regarding material possessions. In order to be rich, in order to be affluent in this city of Smyrna, you would have had to have allegiance with Rome. You would have had to hail Caesar as Lord. This church was not willing to capitulate and to do that in order to be rich. And so this church, this small group of believers, were impoverished. They knew poverty, and Christ takes note of that. They had little. But they, and you know, inside of a city that lacked nothing as far as material goods go. But the church was poor. Business, trade would have been difficult because of their having to align with Rome, having to align with Caesar. It would have been an uphill battle. They were on the, they were marginalized. They were on the fringes. And it would have been a constant struggle, but Christ knows. And then He tells them, and it's in brackets here with an exclamation mark, but he says, so he says, I know you're poverty, but you're rich. You have everything. You may not have the material goods, the beautiful architecture, all the business of selling myrrh and whatever riches this little city had or large city at that time. He says, you may not have all that stuff, but he says, but you're rich. You are poor temporally, but you're rich spiritually. You're poor in spirit, but you're rich in grace. And if we remember in Luke, it would be a parable, a parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We have the rich man We're told it was a man who feasted sumptuously every day. He was clothed in fine linen and purple. He had it all. He was a rich man. He had a beautiful home, the gates. And then we have a poor man, Lazarus, who was laid at his gates, who would get the scraps, most likely the garbage that the rich man would put by the gates for collection. This poor man, Lazarus, would get the scraps. And he had his open sores. The dogs would come and lick them. Later we're told in the parable that the rich man ends up in hell, desiring but a drop of water. One single drop. And the poor man, Lazarus, who is reclining at the bosom of Abraham, has everything. He's sitting in glory, possessing all the riches of Christ. That is the biggest contrast within this world, of richness and poorness. And Smyrna had it all. They had all the riches. And then Christ comes along and he says, but you are rich. This little poor church, impoverished, within this luxurious city, having nothing but having everything. What a contrast. Especially for us as well, if we're in Christ. whatever hardship we're going through, whatever tough times we have gone through, whatever lays ahead of us, we're all going to face tribulation. We're all going to face trials in this life. That is part and parcel of being in Christ. But we can be reminded of what Paul says that we as believers, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We have everything that we need to get through this life. Christ knows. He knows our tribulation. He knows our poverty. Christ then tells him that he also knows the slander, if you're following along, the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not. but our synagogue of Satan, a church of Satan. Within the city of Smyrna, there were Jews. Jews were God's people. They were supposed to be God's people. They were supposed to be His favored people, His special people. And inside the city, there were Jews who held a tight allegiance to Rome, to Caesar. They called themselves Jews. They weren't Jews. And they happily would turn in the Christians, would turn in the Christians who were not paying allegiance to Rome, who were not paying allegiance to Caesar, and would happily ship them off to the authorities for imprisonment and martyrdom. These were the Jews. And Christ takes note of that. He says, "...and the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan." They were forming alliances with the government. They were forming alliances with Rome and Caesar. They should have been busy as God's people opposing the government. They should have been busy opposing Rome and Caesar. And Christ comes here and He calls them a synagogue, a church, a group, a synagogue of Satan. Again, so we have the synagogue of God, of Christ within this church, but then there's a synagogue of Satan. There's two camps, a contrast again, two paths, a broad way and a narrow way. And there's no third alternative. There's the people of God and then there's the people of the world. You're in Christ or you're in Satan. Two synagogues. Jesus tells the Jews when they were persecuting Him in John 8, He says, He tells the Jews this, you're of your father the devil. You're of your father Satan. And your will, your desire, is to do your father's desires. You want to do Satan's business. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there's no truth in him. And when he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. has a synagogue, but Satan also has a synagogue. Satan has his own camp, his own congregation. And within this little church of Smyrna, there were those as well who were serving God But simply by being within the synagogue. They were not of God. They were not true believers. They called themselves Jews. They showed up at church. They looked well. But their heart was not with God. They were of the synagogue of Satan. They were within the church. They were outside of the church. And they thought that that was enough. That was enough to get them into glory. And for us, it's really a call to be on guard, to protect our hearts, to watch ourselves, to guard our hearts, to be deliberate in what we listen to, what we watch, what we think about, what we sing, and who we hang out with when we raise that, even the raising of our children to that next generation. Because the reality is the danger oftentimes is portrayed as being out there, outside of the church. And it is there. We live in an evil, pagan, dark world. But the danger can be, as we see here in the Church of Smyrna, it can be within the church as well. And that's a harder one to recognize, right? The world and its ideologies are out there. You can't miss it. You turn on the news, you look on the Internet, it is out there. It is wicked. It is in your faces. Fairly easy to spot. But when it's within the church, it can be crafty. Not as visible and out there. And these Jews, they were in the church. They were supposed to be God's people. They were supposed to be faithful. They were supposed to be trustworthy. But then Christ tells them, He says, do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold the devil, Satan, is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested for ten days. For ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life." In this encouragement, after the commendation. One thing to notice in this encouragement is that they are not promised a deliverance from the tribulation and the persecution that they were going through. They were in the throes of persecution, they were in the throes of being, trying to be conformed and under the persuasion of the Roman government and Caesar. But Christ does not promise them that they are going to come out in the here and now, in their lifetime, that they're actually going to come out of this persecution. But he knows them and he knows what they're going through. And because he's sovereign, this didn't catch him off guard. He knows exactly what is going on here. He's watching. He's watching this church. And in the middle of this, verse 10, we actually find out why this church is going through what this church is going through. It says that in the middle of verse 10, excuse me, that you may be tested and for 10 days that you may be tested. That is the reason we have suffering, that's the reason we have persecution. That's why as believers, when we're in the here and now, when we're between our justification, our being saved, and our being glorified, when we're taken up into glory, we are going to get tribulation. We are going to have suffering. But the reason is not because God is an angry God and He delights in giving us these hard times and watching us squirm down below, but it's because He was testing us Testing may not be the perfect right word for that, but it's more the refining. He's refining us. He's shaping us. He's molding us for their good. He's trying us. It's like when you have gold, you find a big chunk of gold and it's going to have other possible metals mixed in it, it's going to have other rocks and other stuff in it and it needs to be heated in a crucible to over 2000 degrees or something to melt that gold to a point where all the dross, all the junk can fall away and you get a refined pure gold. That's what Smyrna was going through. They were being refined. They were being tried. God was purifying them. God was putting them in that hot oven, persecuting them, refining them for His glory. They were growing in holiness. They were growing in sanctification. And that's what we all are going through. It's not just Smyrna. We're all in this in different stages, different levels. but we're all in the same situation. It was for their good. But he tells them not to fear, because His grace was going to be sufficient to get them through that trial. He would never leave them hanging. And so his comfort is not to fear. He had this. He is the one that died and came to life. He's the one that had gone before them. He was their leader. He was victorious. And he would be waiting for them at the very end. The trial will not destroy them. He says then that the trial, he says that you may be tested, that you may be purified for 10 days. For 10 days is not literal. Revelation is not literal. Verse 10 is not literal, and being tested for 10 days is not literal. I think if Christ came in your suffering, and told you that you were only going to suffer for ten days i think the suffering would be uh... from a human standpoint a lot more easy to bear up under because you know within ten days it's going to be over you can look forward to the days you can count the days day ten it's going to be over and we're going to be fine he doesn't do that here he's not telling them for ten literal days the church would have been happy with ten literal days uh... but he says be faithful unto death 10 is a number of fullness, it is a number of completeness, and it's going to be the perfect amount of time. It's not going to be too long, and it's not going to be too short. It's not going to be perpetual. It is not going to keep on going and going and going. The tribulation will end one day, and then glory awaits, and He is encouraging them with that. He's telling them to hang in there. The time you're perfecting, you're being tried under the fire is producing results that have to be according to God's decree. He's going to try them. He is going to turn up the heat. of persecution to the point where they are glorified, not to perfection. They were not, Smyrna was not going to come out of this perfectly, a hundred percent glorified and living in perfection in this lower world, but he was perfecting them to the point of their death and then full glory with God in perfection at that point. So he tells them, to bear up, to hold on, and to not not fear. Be faithful unto death. That was their calling, be faithful unto death. No promise of deliverance, but if they are faithful to the end, if they are faithful to death, they will receive the crown of life. The crown of life, like we mentioned in the beginning, in the city outside of the church, in the city of Smyrna, had a ring or a crown of these beautifully designed architecturally aesthetic buildings in the shape of a crown or a ring around Mount Pagus. And Christ refers to this ring, because they were familiar with it, they knew this ring of architecture, and so he refers back to this ring and he's telling them that, you know, the city, the city outside has all the All the wealth and all the luxury and all the beautiful architecture, but it's nothing, nothing compared to what you guys are going to get. This little church, if you continually plod on, if you are faithful to the end, you're going to get more than this ring of beautiful buildings. You're going to get a ring of a crown of life, an everlasting crown of life. What a contrast. They would have been familiar with that. And he tells them, and ourselves included, that if we're gonna put our hope, our trust in this life, in the, like if our hope terminates in material things, if our hope terminates in the stuff of this world, you're not gonna make it, you're not gonna last to the end, you're never, your perspective, your eternal perspective is completely off. And he's reminding them that. And this church understood that. This church receives no condemnation. Of all the seven churches, we looked at the church in Ephesus last time. They had the best of the best. They had the best pastors. Paul was there. Apollos was there. John preached there, Timothy preached there. They had the best of the best. Theologically, it would have been the church to go to. They had everything in order. I think we would have sent anyone happily to that church, but they capitulated. They never made it to the end. And so of the seven, Smyrna, it doesn't talk too much of their theology. It's a different angle, but it talks of their tribulation. It talks of the hard times they are having to go through and to just remain faithful. This would have been the church to go to. They made it. That church is still there today. And it's such a contrast. And he's just telling, don't walk away from Christ. Don't give in to the stuff of the world. There's hope in Christ beyond this life. Paul. In Romans 8, he says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time in the here and now are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. The sufferings in this present life are not to be compared to future glory. We need to endure. they needed to endure, not perfection, but a deliberate striving for holiness in this broken, messed up world that they lived in and in a broken, messed up world that we find ourselves in. Because, as the author to the Hebrew says, without holiness no one will see God. Without holiness you're never going to see God. That doesn't mean you need justification and holiness and then you'll see God. What he's getting at is if you don't have holiness, if you don't have the fruits of your justification in your life. You're never going to see God because if there's no fruits then there's never been a justification. You need justification and the way you know you have justification, the assurance of justification is the fact that you will have fruits. The fruits will be joined to that. If there's no fruit then we would have to wonder if there ever was a point of justification to begin with. So that's why he says in Hebrews that without holiness no one will see God. Without fruits you're not gonna see God. The letter concludes much like all the other letters, but here as well, just to remind ourselves like we did in Ephesus, the attention focuses not necessarily to the church now, directly to the church of Smyrna, but he focuses now to everyone to be paying attention. In verse 11 it says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, that is every one of us, that is every church in the world today or that has ever been. We are all to pay attention. We need to be deliberate in our listening. I think we're all guilty of not listening at times, we can be in conversations with people and we're talking to them, we're listening to them, but then we hear another conversation on the left or the right and we're kind of paying attention to that so we're not fully devoted to the conversation we're having and then when we actually do turn back to the person we initially had our conversation with, we have this kind of a glazed look on our eyes and we're kind of wondering where we even were. We can't do that with this letter. It says, He who has an ear to hear. Christ is saying, if you have ears, which we do, pay attention. Don't let this come in and go out. We use the term, water off a duck's back. Don't let it just slide off and you continue on your way. Pay attention to what He is saying. We need to take Him at His word. We need to listen to it. We need to act. We need to be deliberate. And then we have the final promise given. So he says, pay attention, hear what the Spirit says, and then here's what he says. Here's what we need to pay attention to. Certainly the first part of the letter, but especially the second part of the letter. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. the conquering here is not some heroic or valiant attempt that we go out fully armed and we're going to conquer the world and we're going to do things for Jesus. This is not the conquering that he has in mind here. Christ, as we said before, Christ has conquered. Christ is victorious. He's gone before us. He's completed that. But it's the idea of faithfulness. We see it a little bit earlier on in verse 10. He says, you will have tribulation. for those 10 days. And what are we to do in that tribulation? It's to be faithful unto death. So that is from now till our end. That's the only time we have left. Now till our end. Be faithful unto death. That is the conquering that we have here. The one who conquers. Or we could say the one who is faithful. The one who bears fruit. The one who is holy. Our mandate is simply to be faithful to the end. And if, by God's grace, we are faithful to the end, then we are promised what he says here, that we'll not be hurt by the second death. So what does that look like? Like we said in the beginning, Paul more than likely planted the church in Smyrna. And history tells us that at the time that this letter was written to the church in Smyrna, Polycarp was a friend, a disciple actually, of John, who was exiled to the island of Patmos. So Polycarp was actually the pastor of the church in Smyrna. Some of you may know that name. familiar with it. Polycarp at the age of 86 was burned at the stake in the city of Smyrna. William Hendrickson in his book More Than Conquerors writes the following about Polycarp. Speaking of Polycarp, he says, he had been asked to say, Caesar is Lord, but he refused. Brought to the stadium, the procouncil urged him, saying, Swear, and I will set thee at liberty. Reproach Christ. And Polycarp answered, Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me any injury. How can I blaspheme my King and Savior? And when the procouncil again pressed him, the old man, this is Pauli Karp, answered and said, Thou art vainly urgent that I should swear by the fortune of Caesar and pretend as not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian. A little later, the proconsul answered, he says, I have wild beasts at hand, to these I will cast thee, except thou repent. I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, seeing that thou despises the wild beasts, if thou will not repent. But Polycarp, Said, Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little it is extinguished. But art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment, and of eternal judgment reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? Bring forth what thou wilt." Soon afterwards, Hendricks continues, he says, the people began gathering wood The Jews especially, these were the Jews that were supposed to be God's people. These were the Jews that it talks about in the letter. The Jews that say they are Jews but are of the synagogue of Satan. These Jews especially, according to the custom, eagerly assisting them. And thus Polycarp was burned at the stake. That's what we read about in this last verse, the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. That is what conquering is, that is what being faithful to the end means. Polycarp will not be hurt by the second death. So what is the second death? We're told in Revelation chapter 21, it says in verse 8, but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. So the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. That is final judgment. Our first death, will be when we die physically. We're going to be put in a coffin. The lid will go shut and we'll be dropped six feet below the ground. That is our first death. But if we're faithful, if we're saved, if we're justified, if we've led a holy life, walking in holiness, if we're faithful to the end, we will not be hurt by that second death, that lake that burns with fire and sulfur. which is the second, which is the final judgment. Polycarp will not be in that, he will be in the judgment, but he will not be in that second death. He's going to glory, and it's for every one of us. That's the encouragement. If we're faithful to the end, then we will be spared that final judgment of being thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20 tells us, then I saw a great white throne in him, who was seated on it and from his presence earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them and I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done that's that's the final judgment the books The books will be opened, our lives will be laid bare, every secret sin will come to the surface, up to the top, and we will be judged, and then we'll be the second death. Christ is essentially telling this church in Smyrna, and ourselves included, to make the best use of time. Time is short, it's linear, it has a determined end, and The big question is really going to be, if we boil it down, what did we do with our life? What did we do with that short span that was given to us? You know, because those books are going to be open. It's all going to be revealed. We're going to be exposed. But if we overcome, if we remain faithful to the end, pursuing Christ, following and walking in holiness, then we're going to be guaranteed the crown of life. We're going to be guaranteed an escape of that second death, and we will enter glory. And then just briefly, lastly, to wrap it up, Christ, as he says here, he never promised an escape. We pray to be alleviated from distress. We should pray for that. If we have sickness, we ought to pray for that if we're going through a hard time. But we need to know, we need to be grounded and solid in the fact that the suffering we go through is... Christ knows it. He's given that suffering. He's sovereign. He controls the suffering, the tribulation that He puts on our path to purify us, to make us more holy. And so, what we mentioned in the beginning regarding Smyrna, and they had this production of myrrh. It's right in the name, Smyrna. This fragrance. And that fragrance, like I said, came from the myrrh tree, it was the resin, it was the sap that was collected, it was dried, it was then crushed, it was beaten to a point where the oils could finally be extracted. The oils could not come out of it unless it was crushed, unless it was beaten, unless it was bruised. And that's what Smyrna was going through. They were being crushed. They were being beaten. They were being bruised. And finally that fragrance, that aroma of living holy before God would come to the nostrils of God. Today in modern day Turkey, like we said, Smyrna is still there. Izmir is still there. There are still pockets of believers in Izmir today because this church remained faithful, because of the one who ultimately conquered, who went before them, who promised them that they would be victorious if they would remain faithful, and that was Christ. He was the one, ultimately, like we read in Psalm 22, a little bit briefly, He was the one who was beaten. He was the one that was persecuted. He was the one that was scourged. He had the crown of thorns. pressed into his skull, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. and finally finished off with a crucifixion. That's the reason Smyrna made it. That's the reason Polycarp made it. And that's the reason for us as believers that we're going to make it to the end. That's our hope because of the one who has gone before us. Christ has conquered. And that's our hope. That's what we get to rely on. That's our comfort. And I'll just end with that one verse again. 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. Okay, let's go to God in prayer. Father, we thank you again for your word. We thank you for this letter to the church in Smyrna. We thank you for the reminder that our suffering, our tribulation, our hard times that we go through currently or have gone through or will go through is all perfectly decreed. It is sovereignly being directed. It is being purposed. We are being refined. We are being tried under the fire to produce a fragrance, to produce holiness for your glory. I pray, Father, that you would help us to see that, to understand it. That we would see that we are not alone, that we have you as our victorious one who has gone ahead of us. And we pray that we would rest and that we would trust in you alone. And we pray this in Christ's name alone. Amen.