Letters from God: to the Church in Smyrna
8 “To the angel of the
church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died
and came to life again. 9 I
know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the
slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of
Satan. 10 Do not be
afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of
you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten
days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you
life as your victor’s crown.
11 Whoever has ears, let
them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will
not be hurt at all by the second death.
What would you do if we, as a church,
got a letter directly from God? How would it impact the way we do things? Would
it change the way you looked at life? Would you do things any differently? Two
weeks ago, we began looking at the letters to the seven churches in Asia from
the book of Revelation.
We started with the clarification
that the angel mentioned wasn’t necessarily a supernatural being. The word we see here “angel” is also rightly
translated “messenger.” Which would make sense that the message was given to
the messenger to transmit to the church.
And as we will see, Christ’s
identification as “first and last, who died and came to life” is going to be
important for the Christians of Smyrna. Before I get to that, let’s talk a
little about Smyrna. Smyrna was a proud and beautiful, wealthy city with an
impressive port that could be closed off in case of enemy attack.
They called it the “first city of
Asia in size and beauty.” They had a strong alliance with Rome, and they
benefited greatly from this relationship. But the Christians of Smyrna did not
benefit from any of these circumstances. They were not wealthy; they were poor.
Likewise, the alliance with Rome was not helpful to the Christians there during
this time period. The Roman Emperor was in the midst of a empire-wide
persecution of Christians. Just for accepting Christ, your very life was at
stake. The Roman Emperor demanded full allegiance to Rome, even to the point of
the deification of the emperor. They were required to confess “Caesar is Lord,”
and if they didn’t, they would be executed.
So maybe you see where this is going.
You have a minority Christian community, and because they refuse to confess
Caesar as Lord, they are at best not allowed to work and at worst imprisoned
and killed. So they have no way to earn money. So the Christians in Smyrna are
extremely poor. But how does the Bible describe them? Though they were
afflicted and impoverished, the Bible says they are rich. I want to let that
soak in a little.
Though they have little to no money
or property or possessions, they are accounted as rich. Now, I hear the United
Methodist Christians in Lusaka described as poor. All the time. People tell me,
“we can’t do (this and that) because the people are so poor.” I would like to
counter that; the only reason you are poor is if you do not have a strong faith
in Christ. Now, if you don’t know your Bible, if you are tossed to and fro by
every new wave of so-called prophecy, if you know of Jesus but you don’t know Him personally, then you are poor. But
if you know Jesus, if your faith is strong, then you are not poor, and you can
accomplish all things through Christ who strengthens you. You don’t need some
rich person in the West to do things for you. You only need Christ. This
relates to James 2:5. “God has chosen
those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith” [1] Those who are spiritually rich, even
though they are materially poor, have a spiritual wealth that nobody can
take away.
So we see the message to Smyrna contrasting between the wealthy Roman city and the poor Christians living there. It was said that the city was crowned “with porticoes and pictures, or even with gold in excess of what they needed,” but the Christians in Smyrna were promised the crown of life (v. 10). Listen to how James put it in James 1:12: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”
So this is a strong message to
persecuted Christians. It can be very comfortable to be a Christian here in
Zambia. When I meet someone for the first time, one of the first things someone
asks is “where do you go to church?” Laws are very friendly to church-goers.
It’s very nice to have such a Christian-friendly country, but I’ve noticed
something. In my years in church in the United States and here in Zambia, I’ve
noticed that here, where laws are Christian-friendly, it’s almost too easy to
be a Christian. I wouldn’t wish persecution on anyone, but when it is so easy,
people often do not invest as much. For our Christian brothers and sisters in
Syria, they are all in. They have invested their lives. They could live or die
today because of their faith. There is no question about their faith. But here,
it’s a matter of preference. We can take it or leave it. Eh, whatever.
But Jesus is promising a crown of
life to those who persevere. Now I want to get back to Jesus’ description of
himself as the First and Last, as victorious over death. He chose those terms
on purpose, to remind these persecuted suffering Christians that as he was
victorious over death, so they, too, can face martyrdom knowing that
faithfulness is rewarded with eternal life.[2] He is not calling them to do anything he
himself has not already done. And he reminds them that after all things happen,
he is there. The First and Last. The enduring Rock. The Keystone. The Sure
Foundation.
But their poverty and Roman
persecution weren’t the only things that were so troubling. We read that there
were some who called themselves Jews who the Bible reveals are really a
synagogue of Satan. There are many theories about who these people were – were
they the same type of Jews who persecuted Paul? Were they Gentiles who had
converted to Judaism, perhaps in order to avoid Roman persecution?
Or were they the Jews that Paul
denounces in Romans 2:28-29 For he is not
a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the
flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from
God.
Whoever they are, it is clear that
they are saying they are one thing, but they are behaving in a different way.
You could say the same of people who call themselves Christians, show up for
Church on Sunday, but they don’t behave any differently than non-Christians.
These particular people were slandering Christians, literally blaspheming
against them. They were probably even focusing persecution on Christians.
So in the face of all this, God has a command. In today’s culture, today’s evangelists would make you think he would say, “It’s going to be over soon. 2016 is your year of overcoming. It’s your year of prosperity and victory.” But he doesn’t say that. He says “More is coming. It’s going to get worse. But do not fear what you’re about to suffer.”
Our culture is full of false prophets
who have built themselves a financial kingdom on the backs of such prophecies.
But the Bible continually says, “In this life you will have trouble.” But it
also says that those who stand firm, those who stay the course, those who
persevere will be given a crown of life. It also promises that God will neither
leave nor forsake his people. So Whoever
has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who
is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
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