Sep 24 2000

Smyrna: The Suffering Church

Rev 2:8

This last Wednesday, I had to run an errand into town, and since it was a beautiful day, and since gas isn't getting any cheaper, I thought I'd ride the motorcycle. Since what I had to get was a little too big to strap on the back of mine, I thought I'd take Barbara's, because hers has a luggage rack on it.
And since I wanted to be sure there was enough room, and since what I was buying couldn't get folded or bent, I got one of my old plastic milk crates, and strapped it on the luggage rack to carry things in.

Now, this was not just any old plastic milk crate, this is the milk crate I use as a paint rack when I'm spray painting something. So here I go off to town on this nice pretty red motorcycle, with this big, clunky, multi-colored, awful looking piece of plastic milk crate trash hanging off the back end, and you know what? I didn't care at all.

Back when I was twenty five years old, I wouldn't even have gone to town unless the motorcycle was clean, and shiny, and I was dressed the part, I mean, a man needs to have his priorities in order!
It was important to me back then what other people thought. Today, it's still important, but my values include a different set of people. I care what you folks here think, some of my neighbors, and various other folks, but aside from that, I guess I really don't care what the rest of the world thinks.

Maybe that's a little bit like what the Christians at Smyrna felt like: they didn't care what the rest of the world thought, they cared about being faithful to the Lord, and what the Lord thought about them.
Continuing with our study in Revelation, turn to chapter 2 and verse 8:

" And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."

Smyrna was not the greatest place to live if you were a Christian at the beginning of the second century.
Smyrna was the second largest city in the whole area, next to Ephesus, it dates back to about 1,000 years before Christ, it was destroyed during various wars, and then rebuilt by Alexander the Great about 290 years before Christ. The population of the city took great pride that their city had died and risen again, so look what Jesus tells the Christians there: "Somebody more important than the city has died and now lives again: Me. I was here before anyone else was, and I'll still be here after everybody else is gone, I am the first and the last."

Evolutionists hate to hear things like that. Everybody remember Carl Sagan, the famous evolutionist astronomer? He's dead now, he doesn't believe in evolution any more, but he once taught: "The cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, or ever will be." That's a good example that being intelligent and having wisdom are not necessarily the same thing.

Jesus says; "I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. And have the keys of hell and death." Not only is He alive, but He calls the shots about what happens to everyone else. The church at Smyrna needed to hear that, because they were pretty well up against it.

Smyrna at that time was the most beautiful city the Greeks ever built. Smyrna had what was called; "the golden street of the gods", huge impressive shrines and temples, glorious pagan temples of worship. And what did the Christians have? All the Christians had was individual homes to meet in, or else they went down into the catacombs under the city, tombs where people had their burial crypts, and they met and worshipped there.

In a culture where people had bragging rights about where they went to church, how would you like to invite your friends and neighbors to visit your church in a hole in the ground? Illuminated with little smokey oil lamps? With mice for ushers?

Maybe that's something good to remember anytime we get to thinking that this building is not real easy to heat some winter mornings. Those Christians in Smyrna were down in caves surrounded by dead men's bones, lit by torches, and probably with rats to keep them company. Helps us keep things in perspective.

Something else that didn't help; at that time emperor worship was compulsory, and Smyrna was the center of Caesar-worship for the whole eastern half of the Roman empire. Every citizen was obligated to go into the temple of the emperor, take a pinch of incense, burn it on the altar, and declare Caesar as lord.
And all the citizens of the city did except for one politically incorrect group, guess which one it was?
"Those traitorous, disloyal Christians have no temple, they meet in tombs and houses, and worship a loaf of bread, and a cup of wine. Such people are dangerous and a threat to the Empire."

Verse 9, Jesus tells them; "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty; (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." Jesus tells them that He knows their tribulation; the word tribulation here means "pressure." This word means a constant, continuous pressure, that never lets up. It has the idea of placing a boulder on a persons chest, and leaving it there until finally they just can't breathe anymore, it finally just squeezes the life out of them.

A lot of us live with stress in our various jobs, but I bet that compared with those Christians back there, we have a walk in the park. One reason we have it so much better is that we have jobs and homes, they had their jobs and homes taken away because of their faith.

That's why Jesus says; "I know thy poverty." The citizens of Smyrna had figured out the best way to get rid of troublemakers was to destroy them financially. This word "poverty," it means total, absolute, grinding poverty, having nothing. In this beautiful, wealthy city, those Christians were the poorest of the poor. Because they would not conform to society, they were boycotted, and denied the means to make a living.

The same thing happened in Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Anyone ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition? I wanted to talk about that in some detail this morning, but I'm afraid it would take too much time, maybe I can hit it briefly when we talk about the church at Sardis.

Anyway, one of the ploys used during the Inquisition, was to confiscate the possessions of anyone branded a heretic. People deprived of their homes and property cause a lot less trouble for the state.
That's what was happening to the believers there in Smyrna. Social, financial, and religious persecution.
One form that the religious persecution took was corruption. Jesus says; "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan."

Who is He referring to here? Apparently those same people that were trying to impose the Law of Moses on the churches at Galatia during the time of Paul's ministry were still around, and causing a lot of trouble at Smyrna. Years earlier, the Christians at Jerusalem, who as far as we know were all from a Jewish background, had come to a decision on that question.

Turn to Acts 15:24. Paul, Barnabas, Peter, James, and all the elders of the church came to an agreement and this is their judgement:
:24"Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
:25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
:26 Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
:27 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
:30 So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:
:31 Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation."

The Law, the Ten Commandments are a wonderful outline of God's righteousness and holiness, and any Christian that lives a life contrary to God's will as expressed by them ought to question their salvation.
But they are not requirements for salvation or for sanctification.

If anybody here feels like they really need some rules or regulations to live by, if that would really make you happy, go with verses 20 and 29 here in Acts; that's God's will for us on the rules bit. Abstain from fornication, abstain from eating things offered to idols, abstain from eating blood, or eating things which have died without having been bled, that still have the blood in the meat. That's it. That's all God requires as far as keeping rules or laws. But apparently there were some coming to Smyrna that were trying to get the Christians there back under Judaism and the Law.

Whether they were Gentiles that had converted to a legalistic form of Christianity, or Jews that professed to be Christian and were trying to subvert the believers, the bottom line is that Jesus condemns them, and encourages the believers.

In Verse 10 Jesus tells them; "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer." It's not "might suffer", "could suffer", "possibly suffer". It's "what you shall suffer." Plan on it, don't be afraid of it. He tells them "Behold, look here!" "The devil will cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried. And you will have tribulation ten days; be faithful unto death." Some of you are going to die, plan on it. Plan on it. Get it settled. Because if you overcome death, then you will not be hurt of the second death, because you will already possess eternal life.

As we read these few short words to this church in affliction, Christ gives us some principles to follow in times of suffering. Maybe some Christians in some churches are not having any problems with anything, but I suspect maybe He wants us to know how to think when times get rough.

I really liked that song from a couple years ago, "Don't worry; be happy." But Jesus doesn't tell us that. He says: "Don't fear what is going to happen, and it will." He also says "Be faithful unto death," and then He tells us how to do it.

First of all, we need to know that we belong to a Savior that transcends time. We are creatures that are stuck in time. The good times go by too fast, and the bad times last too long. Sometimes when we are in pain, or hurting, it seems like time crawls along forever. Jesus tells us; "I am the first and the last, I am the beginning and the end, I was there for you before it started, and I'll be there for you when it's over."
He is the one that created time, He brought time into existence, and He will terminate it when He is done with it. Time is only a temporary thing. That's hard for us to understand, but time is not a constant in the universe. Time changes with acceleration and speed.

In the last several years, successful experiments have been conducted that have sped time up, and slowed it down. Really. Not that that's any big deal, I did that in second grade: when I was late getting ready for school, and the bus was coming, time would speed up, then that afternoon, when I had to do math homework, time would slow way down. Jesus is the Lord of time. If you are having a trial, some problem, some burden, Jesus is at the beginning of it, and He'll be there at the end of it. He will be there all the way through it with you, because He is the First and the Last, He was dead, and now He is alive, whatever you are dealing with, He can get you through it.

The second principle for overcoming fear and keeping faithful is understanding that Jesus knows all our circumstances. He says; "I know your tribulation, the pressure that you are under, the sufferings that you have, because I suffered on the cross, I was under the weight of your sins, and the pressure of the sins of the whole world. And it was really heavy."

"Is there somebody that is giving you a bad time, calling you names, slandering your character, stealing your possessions, making you go without?" Jesus says: "I know what that was like." When John wrote his introduction to the churches in chapter one, he could honestly tell them "I am your brother in tribulation." Because he was exiled to a bare, rocky little island out in the Mediterranean Sea with probably nothing but the clothes on his back, he knew. He knew.

Jesus tells us; "I know what you are going through, and I also know something that you don't: you are rich." And you say "But I don't have anything? I can't do much? I'm ineffective? Nobody cares what I say or I do? I feel useless and helpless and poor?" Jesus says; "You're rich." The Lord's values are very different from ours, and from the worlds.

We are like people with a fortune in a bank in another country, and we can't write any checks on it.
Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up some day and find yourself in Iraq or Iran? It wouldn't matter how much money you had in the bank, it wouldn't do you any good there. That's kind of like we are here, in this life. We are laying up treasures in heaven for ourselves, but this place where we live right now won't recognize any of the checks we try and write on that account.

Next, Jesus once again points us to try and see time as He sees time. In verse 10, He tells them "You will have tribulation ten days."

Some commentators have made up lists of the different Roman emperors that breaks down the persecutions into ten different time periods, and it sorta works, but I'm not sure that's what the Lord is referring to here. There is nothing in the Bible I could find that really correlates to this very well. The only one that comes anywhere close is Daniel and his friends being tested for ten days eating beans, and then being approved; but I don't think that really fits here either. I suspect that it is a general principle of a trial that lasts longer than we would want, but really not too very long.

When you are up against it, --hurting, suffering-- a day is a long time; a week is forever; and ten days is more than you can imagine, but it's actually not all that long when you compare it to eternity. When we are up against it, it's really hard to see things from God's point of view, but I think that's what He wants here. The bad times might seem like they are lasting forever, but really it's something that we can manage. It's not actually that long, it just seems like it.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:16 "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Finally, the Lord promises that the believer who remains faithful will overcome anything that the world can throw at him, or her, even death. It is interesting that the Lord uses the reference here to the crown of life.

Smyrna back then was one of the places that got really caught up in Olympic type athletic games, and the prize for the winners back then was a crown. And it was a really big deal, the people that had won crowns were expected to show them off and flaunt them in the faces of other people, even people that were socially incorrect, like Christians. Jesus is reminding the believers here that we are in a different race. We aren't running for a crown that is temporal, or temporary, we are running for a crown that is eternal.

Finally, the last thing Jesus tells this church is that whoever overcomes, conquers, will not be hurt of the second death. The person at Smyrna who got to read this letter from John learned that first hand.
When John wrote this letter to the churches, the pastor at Smyrna was a student of John. His name was Polycarp. He pastored the church there at Smyrna until A.D. 156, when there was a real outbreak of persecution against Christians. Eleven Christians were tortured and thrown to the wild beasts in the arena.
Polycarp was promised liberty if he would renounce Christ and swear by Caesar. This is his answer:
"Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any harm; how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?" They tied him to a stake and piled brush and wood around it, and told him that if he did not change his mind and recant, he would be burned to death. His answer? "Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour and after a little is extinguished. But thou art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgement and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? Bring forth what thou wilt."

He took Jesus' words to heart. He was faithful unto death, and he didn't care what men could do to him.
He didn't care what anybody else thought, the only thing he cared about was what Jesus thought, and he believed what Jesus told him.

Do we get too many of our values and opinions from what the world around us thinks instead of what Jesus tells us? Sometimes we do.

Do we worry about trying to live up to what the world expects of us, or do we try and live the way Jesus tells us to? Sometimes we forget that what seems so important today, is going to seem so unimportant tomorrow.

Which brings me back to riding the motorcycle to town with the milk crate on it; it looked terrible. I didn't care. It didn't use to be that way. Let me tell you a story about motorcycles and appearances, and worldly
opinions. Remember when bell bottoms were in style? This story happened back when bell bottoms were in style.

Nowadays, about half the motorcycles you see look like road race bikes, streamline fairings, you ride all tucked in, little tight clip on handlebars real snug up front, all the hot dogs have got one. Back in the mid seventies, that hadn't happened yet. But I wanted one. At the time I was riding a Suzuki 500. Back then it was the basis for a fairly good race bike, and I had worked in a bike shop long enough to know how to make one.

So I bought a regular road race fairing, built some rear-set footpegs, got some clip-on handlebars, a little work here and there, and pretty soon, I was the only guy in Albany, Georgia with a street legal café racer.
I was cool. Every other biker in town looked at me when I went by. I liked that. That was nice.
It was so nice, that I wasn't even bashful to ride my Suzuki to the Harley shop.

Now everybody knows, if you ride a two stroke motorcycle to the Harley shop, they look at you weird when you come in, like maybe your Momma dressed you funny or something. But, since back then the Suzuki two strokes were hammering the Harley's and everything else in sight, and I had a bike that looked almost like one of those race bikes, I thought I'd go by the Harley shop on the way home from work. Let `em get a look a what a real go-fast street bike looked like.

There was something I needed to buy, can't remember what it was, but I knew that I looked enough like the real deal that I could ride my Suzuki to the Harley shop, and I'd be cool. What I didn't realize, as I rode into the parking lot at the Harley shop, was that my bell bottom pants were about to do me in.
When I had started the bike up, and put my foot onto the footpeg, the kickstarter had slid up the inside of that bell bottom, and was up inside my pant leg about a foot. And as I came to a stop, and leaned the bike to the right to put the sidestand down on the left, I couldn't get my foot off the footpeg, the kickstarter was up my pant leg, and there was no place to go.

Pride truly goeth before a fall. The guys in the Harley shop were impressed, they'd never seen anybody do that before. I went home and took all the race stuff off so that nobody would ever know who I was.
Today? Things are different, just tie an old milk crate on the back and head to town, it doesn't make a bit of difference, I couldn't care less. My priorities have changed. My circumstances have changed. It doesn't matter very much now what other people think, like it used to.

Those believers in Smyrna... their priorities had changed. They probably wouldn't care too much about if we need a new carpet, because they worshipped in a cave. They wouldn't care if your car was made back in the eighties, because the government had taken away their carts and their donkeys. They wouldn't understand why we get so upset about not having new clothes to wear, because they were fortunate to get away from the mobs with just the clothes on their back. They would be puzzled about how we complain about our jobs, because they were denied the opportunity to work. Mostly they would wonder why we sometimes lay out of church, and not take it serious, because they were willing to die for the name of Jesus.

Jesus had no rebuke for that church, and their candlestick still burns bright. Today the city is called Izmar, it's a city of about 200,000 people, and a third of them are professing Christians.

I wonder how many of them would be Christians today if those believers back then had not been faithful?
I believe that their faithfulness back then has a lot to do with the Christian testimony there now.

I believe that if we are faithful now, it will have an effect that we might never see, but that Jesus knows about, and already has plans to use. That's because He knows the end from the beginning, and we don't. He wouldn't leave us here and tell us to be faithful if there wasn't some good reason for it.

He wouldn't have left those believers in Smyrna back then in the midst of all the tribulation and trouble if there wasn't some good reason for it, and there was. 75,000 Christians in a Turkish town is a pretty good testimony, and since they are probably surrounded by Muslims, I bet Jesus has them there for a pretty good reason.

God knows what He's doing, doesn't He? Remember that when you are up against it. He knows what you are feeling, He knows what you are going through, He has plans for the future, and a you're part of them. Be faithful.