To the Angel of the Church of Smyrna

The Second Church | Revelation 2:8-11 | Dave Gibson

Thank you so much for joining us this morning. I want to give a thank you to Steve Walker,

who kicked off our Seven Churches in Revelation series last week. I gave him the really most

difficult one because I asked him to introduce the Book of Revelation and then preach that first

church. And he graciously did it. And he said people complained he went too long. And I said,

sorry, Steve, I gave you 2 sermons in one and you did it in 1 1/2.

It's beautiful. Thank you. In your bulletin today as an outline. If you want to follow on that, you're

welcome to. And we're going to project some things on the screen as well for you to look at. I

want to read today the 2nd letter to the church at Smyrna.

Revelation 2:8, “And to the Angel of the church in Smyrna, right, the first and the last who was

dead has come to life, says this. (9) I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich.

And to blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

(10) Do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into

prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful until death

and I will give you the crown of life. (11) He who has an ear, let him

hear what the Spirit says to the churches he overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’

Let's pray together, friends. Where we begin by asking you today for your rich mercy and help

for Campus Crusade, or rather for CRU. Thank you so much for Billy, for Alexa, for the many,

many people who work with them. Thank you for the students who are serious about Christ,

serious about sharing Christ. We lift up to you their ministry. We pray that they would have

stamina and protection and diligence and courage and opportunities. And joy in the work, Father

use them in remarkable ways. Thank you so much for what they're doing. Thank you so much

for those who've come to faith. Give them your special grace and help on this retreat in a couple

of weeks. Now we need your help, Father, to think about this brief letter together. We pray your

Spirit will teach us. We ask for this help in Christ's name, Amen.

Many years ago, I couldn't get a forestry job, which was my degree, and so for one year I

worked as a sporting goods salesman. I helped to open up the very first Shields hardware in

Billings, Mt. Billings hardware has been around about 200 years, or Shields hardware and

sporting goods at the time. Today it's just sporting goods, I guess. Six months I worked there

without a day off, 14 hours a day to get this brand new store open and stocked, and then I was a

salesman for another six months. At the end of that year, I was the number two salesman in a

sales force of 15. I was feeling pretty good about myself. The only guy I was behind was a

veteran salesman who had a nasty habit of putting his name on charge slips that he hadn't

actually sold. So I go into my annual interview, my first annual interview in my entire life, thinking

I'm in pretty good shape here today. And my manager said these words, “I don't like to dwell on

people's good points because it gives them a big head. And then he spent 1/2 hour telling me

everything I had done wrong. I walked out of there and literally said on the way out to the store,

I'm going to find a job. I'm not going to work for this person. And I thought to myself, no good

deed will go unpunished. In a fallen world, there's a lot of good deeds that get punished. Like

the grandmother who stands on the sidewalk, a public sidewalk, quietly, silently praying in front

of an abortion clinic and ends up in jail. Like the man who pulls a guy out of the highway after

his motorcycle wreck so he doesn't get hit by a truck and he ends up getting sued. There's so

many ways to do good deeds in this world and you end up getting in trouble for it. I have a

friend, a short term mission trip leader for a missions organization. Took some people to Greece,

had a young man who was really out of line. He had to call him down. The young

man came home, wrote a 14 page letter to the mission board president and my friend got fired.

In a fallen world, a lot of times doing the right thing gets you in a lot of trouble. Jesus came to

this world, became a man, did the perfect thing, and for his troubles he got crucified. This is a

book and a passage about the question of how do we persevere when we do the right thing

and suffer for it? How do we stay faithful when being faithful means I'm really going to get in a

lot n of trouble?

The Lord writes to the Church of Smyrna and to the Church of the Treasure Valley and says it's

worth it to be faithful. It's worth it to persevere, even if you come to persecution, even if you get

Killed for it. There is incredible reward when you suffer for Christ and unimaginable reward if you

get killed for Christ, unimaginable reward. So here's the message. Here the church starts in

verse 8. The letter is 2, the Angel of the church in Smyrna. Now last week I think Steve pointed

out there's one revelation here. This is not revelations. This is 1 revelation, this whole book and

the revelation is this. It's God's revelation about Jesus. Chapter one verse one. God gave it to

Jesus.

The purpose was to show it to the bond servants of Jesus, and then Jesus gave the message to

God's actual Angel. Who gave it to the apostle John, who gave it to the Angel of the church,

which Steve pointed out last week was most likely the Bishop or the leader, the pastor of that

church, rather than, rather than a heavenly Angel. He gave it to the Angel of the church and

then they gave it to the seven churches, the bond servants of Jesus. And then the last step in

the chain is US. 2000 years later, we get the message also in the kindness of God. It's going all

the way down and is coming. Yes.

So this Angel gives it to the Church of Smyrna. What is or what was Smyrna? It was a Seaport

Village. Village is 100,000 people. Seaport city on the Aegean Sea. It was about 40 miles to the

north of Ephesus. Do we have that slide there, please? The map. We'll show it to

you if we have it. Yeah. Little small on my screen, maybe bigger on yours. 40 miles north of

Ephesus is this town called Smyrna. A couple of photos of the ruins there. There's still a huge

amount of ruins that have been unearthed. In this city where they were worshiping the emperor

and they were also worshiping a God named Cybele 100,000 people then 3 million people

today. The city still exists in modern day Turkey on the Aegean Sea. Look at that stunning,

stunning ruins of that city and what the Romans had built in that place. The city was large and

wealthy with a reputation for worshiping the emperor. In fact, they were so into the cult of

emperor worship that they got their own temple in 23. AD 23, the very second temple in the

entire province was right here in this town. Because they were so committed to the emperor

worship, they also worshiped a goddess called CYBELE. She was supposed to be the goddess

of renewal. She died every fall, and she was raised every spring. Be exhausting, wouldn't it die

every fall and raise every spring for millennia? Well, she doesn't exist, obviously. She's a

figment of Satan's imagination, as is the Jesus of Mormonism. He's a figment of Satan's

imagination, the half brother of Lucifer. He doesn't exist. There are so many gods, small G

goddesses small G, that are simply a figment of Satan's imagination. They do not exist.

But in AD95 there was a church in this town, the time when the Apostle Paul wrote his church.

There were believers here. How many were not sure, they may have been gathered in one

place in many houses, who knows? But they came together for fellowship, for worship, for

prayer, for evangelism, for teaching of the Word, for the Lord's Supper, for baptism, for outreach,

for care for one another. They were just pulling together as we do here in the Treasure Valley

and many, many other churches around the world to give honor to Christ. Who's the letter from

verse 8? It's from Jesus the 1st and. Who was dead and has come to life. So each one of these

letters that we're going to go through and as Steve did last week, explains something about

Jesus.

And here's what we're told about him today. This is just a snippet of what's true about him, but

here's what we learned about him from this letter. He's the eternal one, first and last, Alpha and

Omega, beginning and the end. He's the one who created it by speaking. Hebrew says he

sustains the world by speaking, he will bring culmination to this world. He will recreate the world.

He is the one who is the author and perfecter of our faith. He starts it and he completes it. He's

the eternal God who is always up to something, always accomplishing something. It says he

was dead. He was crucified, crucified for our sins. Sacrificial Lamb died, and the proof of his

death was that he was buried. You don't bury living people. And then he came to life. Three

days later he was resurrected and the proof of that is he was seen. At one time, by more than

500 people together in one crowd, he was seen. Over the course of 40 days, people physically

saw him in the broad daylight. He ate with him, he spoke to them, they touched him. He was

dead. But he has come to life, and over the course of 40 days many, many people saw him.

First Corinthians 15:12, “If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is worthless.” You are still

in your sins. Those also have fallen asleep in Christ. They have perished, if we hope, in Christ in

this life only. We are, of all men, most to be pitied. If we've invested in Christ and it's only for

time, what a waste. It's not for time, friends. It's for eternity. It is for time. It's also for eternity. My

life is immeasurably better in time because of knowing Christ, and it will be starkly better in

eternity because of knowing Christ. Because of the simple message that I had a sin problem, I

was separated from the God of the universe. I was incapable of fixing it. I was absolutely dead

in my trespasses and sins. But Jesus paid for it, and He gave me the chance to trust Him. I put

my trust in Him, that choice.

Every person can simply put all their hope in Jesus Christ, so that when you stand before God

and he says, why should I forgive your sin? You say because Jesus already paid for it.

What else? Nothing. I've got no Plan B. Oh my, all my hopes right there. I got no Plan B. And

that's the exact thing that God is calling for us to do. And so he says to us, he was dead once

he's alive now he's alive for all time. Cybelle has to rise every spring.

Romans 6: 9. “Knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead is never to die again.”

Death no longer has Master over him. He's alive and he's with us. He's present. I read a book

about survival situations years ago in which it said most people die in a survival situation not

when the situation is the worst, but when their companion dies. That's when they give up, when

their companion dies. Our companion is here, He's alive forever. He's with us. There's no

reason to give up because he's still walking with us. He's still present with us, no matter how

ugly it gets. So it's to the church in Smyrna.

It's from Jesus himself. Here's what it's about, verse 9. It's about what I, Jesus know about you,

the church in Smyrna. Well, first of all, I know he says, I know your tribulations. The word means

pressure. You're always under pressure in the world when you've trusted Christ. There is no

reprieve. The world, the flesh and the devil hates you. They're out to get you. The pressure

never lets up until you see Christ. So the Christian faith in Rome at this time in the Roman

Empire had exploded. People had come to faith in senseless loads and the emperor worship

was way down. The attendance at the temple of the emperor was way down. The worship of

idols was way down. People weren't buying idols anymore. The idol makers were upset. There

was trouble because so many people had turned to faith in Christ. In fact, the emperor, when

this book was written, 1895, was a man named Domitian. He ruled from 81 to 96. Historians

think that he himself killed 40,000 Christians, personally now others have been killed before he

came to power, but he personally had killed 40. 1000 Christians and Jesus knew every last one

of them. He knows their tribulation, He knows our tribulation. He's with us, He's present. It is not

a good time to give up because the Savior is here.

RE: What, I know about you:

1. Tribulation

First Peter chapter 4:12. “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon

you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you. But to the degree that

you share the sufferings of Christ, keep rejoicing so that at the revelation of his glory you may

also rejoice and be overjoyed.” Friends, when you trust Christ, you've switched sides in a really

bitter battle. You've gone from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light. And Satan sees

that as a great betrayal and he hates you. And he's after you. He's after all of us who have

embraced Christ. And it's not a, it's not a paintball game where, yeah, you might get a Welt on

the side of your head or it's not a water balloon game. It's a fight. It's a battle, it's a bitter battle.

And Satan hates us because we have put our hope in Christ. Christ. One writer said you are

secure, but you're not safe. Bad things could happen in this world. I'm secure in Christ, but I'm

not safe. And the place to be the most secure is to be the closest to the shepherd.

2. Poverty

That's where it's best, he says. I know your poverty. Here's another thing I know about you. I

know your poverty. And the basic idea is they have lost income because they trusted Christ and

therefore people in their community turned against them. Maybe fired them, maybe wouldn't do

business with them, but they're losing money. Family support because of their faith in Christ. It

happens all the time. You turn to Christ and you can lose money because some people won't

deal with you. Some people will take advantage of you because your own ethics have changed.

You can no longer cut corners. You can no longer push the boundaries. You can no longer fail to

turn in the receipts. Everything changes.

Very famous incident in Moab, Utah about 40-45 years ago. A husband and wife. Their last

name was Tanner. They were severely involved in the Mormon church. One Sunday they got up

and the husband said to his wife, Darling. This is going to come as a shock to you, but I don't

believe this anymore, and she said I don't either. And they left. They came to faith in Christ, and

within two years, both of their businesses had failed. A thriving insurance business, a thriving

furniture business. Both of them failed in two years. I went to Morocco, sat in the House of a

man who had trusted Christ. He trusted Christ, his wife trusted Christ, his mother-in-law and his

sister-in-law. 4 Christians in a valley of 2000 Muslims. They would no longer do business with

him. He had to take his goats 30 miles to get them bred because nobody would do business

with him in his valley.

I know your poverty, Jesus said. But then here's the amazing thing, he says. But I also, but you

are also rich. Spiritually, you have immeasurable wealth. The wealth that we have as Christians

friends makes Elon Musk look like a six year old with a lemonade stand. There's a list in your

bulletin. There's a list in your bulletin. I better not read it all because you're not supposed to read

lists in sermons, but obviously I do a lot.

3. Your Wealth

Here's a partial list of spiritual wealth. I put 32 on there because that's how many would

fit on the page in my computer.

Our heavenly Father, our Savior, the indwelling Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, eternal life,

abundant life, incessant shepherding by God in a fallen world. Restoration of relationship with

God. God's book accurately recorded. Fellow believers, hope, Love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, control. It's a partial list. It doesn't

even come close to our wealth. We have astounding wealth. God is so generous to us

#3 He knows their past sufferings at the hands of this group called the Synagogue of Satan.

They claim to be Jews. They weren't Jews. They were a gathering of Satan worshippers who

were persecuting the church. And Jesus knew that they were being persecuted by the

Synagogue of Satan. So the word Satan means adversary. It means he's the one who's always

against us. His other name, the name Devil, means slanderer or accuser.

Later in Revelation, he is called abaddon, which is the Hebrew word for destruction, and he's

called apollyon, which is the Greek word for destruction. He hates us, he accuses us, he lies to

us, he deceives us. He's always after us, and his goal in our life is destruction.

He wants to destroy our lives, our reputations, our marriages, our families, our business,

everything about us. He wants to destroy our faith. I once in a while, in a restaurant, see this

cage fighting happen, and I am a huge opponent of cage fighting. But in any case, I look up

there and this man has another man down. He's holding him by the neck, and he's just pounding

his head. I mean, there is no mercy. It's just boom, boom, boom, boom. And finally the referee

drags him off.

4. Your coming suffering

That's how Satan is with us. If he gets us down, he will just pound on our head. His goal

in our lives is destruction.He says I know you're coming suffering. You are going to suffer more.

Jesus said to the church in Smyrna. You are going to have a huge challenge, a huge struggle,

and suffering is coming for all of us as well. If you read this book here, it doesn't get better and

prettier. Every day, in every way, everything is getting better and better. That's a humanist

manifesto statement, and it's. False. It's not getting better and better.

Jesus says John 16:33. “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace, in

the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.”

Just let me promise you, Jesus, that tribulation is the order of the day, but you need to be a

courageous person. (10) “What I Jesus am commanding you, number one, do not fear. The

most given command in the Bible about 70 times we're told not to fear. Why are we told that?

Because there's a lot to fear. There is a lot to fear in the desert. You have to worry about heat

stroke and dehydration and Gila monsters and Black Widow. And sand Vipers. And black

rattlers and diamondback rattlers and all manner of cacti and poisonous spiders. There's a lot to

fear in the desert.

In this world, there's a lot to fear. There's people who hate Christ and therefore hate you.There's

drunk people, there's angry people. There's the world, the flesh and the devil. There's fear that

we could make a personal horrible mistake. There's a huge amount of fear, lawsuits, physical

attacks, car wrecks, cyber attacks. There's a huge amount of fear. If you want to be given to

fear, but 70 times he said don't fear.

Jesus is alive. He's with us. Do not fear, He loves us, He knows about us, He's all powerful, He's

present. Matthew 10:28, “ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the

soul. Rather fear him who is able to cast the soul and the body into hell. Here's what he knows

about us, that these people are about to suffer. He says to the people in Smyrna. The devil is

going to put some of you in prison for exactly 10 days and then you're going to be killed.

In Rome at the time, they had a practice of taking a Christian, putting in prison. Saying at the

end of 10 days you're going to deny Christ or you're going to be killed. You've got 10 days

to think about it. Am I going to trust Christ to the very end or am I going to turn back and

Keep my life? You're going to be put in prison for 10 days. You're going to be told to abandon

Christ. And at the end what you need to do is simply say no, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the

living God. If I'm going to lose my life, so be it. Kathy and I visited Tunisia many years ago and

in the modern day city of Tunis, Tunisia, which used to be called Carthage, there is an

amphitheater where they would kill Christians.

And in 203 AD they took these two young women, a woman named Perpetua and a woman

named Felicitous. Perpetua was a noble woman, an educated woman. Her father was a

high-ranking official. She was married. She had an infant son. And her servant was a woman

named Felicitous. Who was also married, who also had an infant son. And these two women

trusted Christ. And the officials came to them, said denounce Christ, and they both said no, they

put him in prison. To await their execution, erpetua's dad came into the prison and begged her

to denounce Christ, and she said no. They put them into the arena with a wild heifer, and this

wild cow attacked them and they survived it. And then they sent the gladiators in to kill them,

which they did in front of this massive crowd. And many people in the crowd trusted Christ. And

if you look up the names Perpetua and Felicitas, their pictures are all over ancient Christian art.

To women who said no, I'm with Christ. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Send in

the gladiators. They knew that Christ was for them. Do not fear those who can only kill the body.

So they trusted Him. The question is, would I do it? Would you do it? I think I would. I pray

I would. I believe I would. I believe if someone came on this stage right now and said, Dave, you

deny Christ in front of these people, I'm going to blow your brains out. I believe I would say

“Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

What would you say? Would you practice it with me? Right now, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of

the living God.” I think I'm going to rehearse that.

That's Matthew 16:16. That's what Peter said. Jesus said, “who do you say that I am?” Peter

said. “You're the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That's what we believe. That's what we

believe today in this calm, happy time with no gunman in here. But it's also what we believe. If

it's not a calm, happy time, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

For their faithful witness to the identity of Christ, they were going to be killed. The Greek word

martous means witness. It means simply telling what you know about Jesus. But so many

people who witnessed were killed that martous became the word for martyr. It really means

witness. But now it's the word for martyr. And so many people kept their witness that they

became martyrs. He says be faithful unto death. Keep your perspective.

Fear those who can only kill the body. AD150 There was the pastor of the church in Smyrna. His

name was Polly Karp. He is believed to be the last living person who was discipled by the

Apostle John. When John died on Patmos, Polycarp was about 26 years old. Last living person

who had known a disciple. And he was pastoring the church in Smyrna and they came and

arrested him. And they said you're going to have to deny Christ. And before they took him to jail,

he said, give me some chance to pray. And he got on his knees and he prayed in front of his

captors for two hours. They took him to jail, said to him, deny Christ. He said, “I won't do it.”

They put him in the arena and said we're going to let out the animals. Deny Christ, He said, “I

won't do it.” In fact, his statement is very, very powerful. It's recorded from history, “86 years I

have served him. He has done me no wrong. How can I? Blasphemy my King and my Savior, I

won't do it.” So they said, all right, we're going to burn you. That's even worse, we're going to

burn you. Put a stake in the ground, brought him up to it, and stacked wood around him. They

got ready to tie up and he said no need to tie me up. He said “It will be a privilege for me to

stand here and die for my savior.”

According to tradition, they lit the fire. He just stood there like Shadrach, Meshach

and Abednego. Nothing happened and they sent a soldier in to run him through. Polycarp, the

leader of this church who got this letter died in that same way and when it came to the end he

said Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I'm staying with that. He lost his life for his

faith. First Corinthians 4:1, it says “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and

“stewards of the mysteries of God.” Required of a steward that one be found faithful. Not smart,

not beautiful, not accomplished, not famous, not rich, not powerful, faithful, just day in, day out,

doing what Jesus called me to do. It's required of us that we be faithful to Him all the way to the

end.

Here's the command. Overcome your trials and suffering. As Steve said last week, it's the word

Nicol. It means to conquer, to carry off a victory, to come out victorious. It's where the Nike shoe

company gets their name from Nike. If you wear our shoes, you're going to win every time is

basically the message. It's not true. There's a lot of people wearing Nikes who get second place

or don't even place but that's where it comes from.

And he says overcome, be faithful to the end. And if you're faithful to the end, there's something

in it for you. There's a promise for you. There's an advertising slogan that is called WIIFY.

What's in it for you? And so whenever they're selling a product, they're trying to say here's

what's in it for you is a toothpaste commercial. This guy's brushing his teeth. He's got these

gorgeous, beautiful white, shiny teeth. And then he goes and gets in a red convertible sports car

with a beautiful woman and he drives away as if I just use this toothpaste, I get white teeth.

A girl in a sports car, you know?

Quite a bargain for 5 bucks worth of toothpaste. What's in it for you? Well, here is what's in it

for us.. Verse 10. Here's what I, Jesus promised you. “I will give you the crown of life if you are

faithful unto death.” If you stay there the whole 10 days and at the end of the 10 days you say

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, “I will give you the crown of Life.” I will give you

eternal life, abundant eternal life. You will have a life for eternity that you cannot imagine.

He's promising that to us. He who overcomes. Here's the promise. He who overcomes will not

be hurt by the second death. This is a figure of speech called light Oates. It is a double negation

or it is saying the opposite of something to mean the other thing. Here's how we do it. This is not

the best weather today. Or we say I didn't hate the food. Or we say that's not a bad idea. That's

not rocket science. We say a negative thing to mean the opposite thing. So here's what he's

saying to us. We will not ever in any way be hurt by the second death. We won't suffer eternal

separation from God. There's no way we can be hurt by the second death.

First death is physical death, my soul separated from my body. Second death. Eternal death,

spiritual death, my soul separated from God. It's not going to touch us because we have said to

the very end, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Here's what the Spirit of Jesus is

saying to the churches and saying to the church, Faith Community Bible Church and saying to

the Church of the Treasure Valley.

Friends, if you're married, you may have had this happen to you one time where you're having

this discussion with your spouse and your spouse is frustrated and they come up to you and

they put a hand on each side of your head, like one hand on each ear, and they pull your face

right up to you. They say, listen to me. Listen to me.

Now, if that's ever happened to you, what should you do? You should listen. You shouldn't say,

hey, I gotta go check, I gotta go check the oven or I gotta go check my sports scores.

Listen to me. The Holy Spirit of God has put a hand on each side of our heads. He's pulled us

up to his face and said, listen to me. Pay attention. If you have ears to hear, listen to this.

Biblical hearing always has 2 steps. It's recording what was said. And then it's obeying it if you

only heard in your mind what you were supposed to do and didn't do it. Biblically, you didn't hear

my kids were little. I'd say clean your room and 2 hours later it wasn't clean. I'd come down and

say clean your room and my son would say I know dad, I know. And I would say I know that you

know, I'm telling you to do.

There's a difference. Biblical hearing. The Spirit of God pulled us straight up and said, I want

you to be people who are faithful unto death. Barclay, an ancient writer, wrote it this way. “In this

life it may be that the Christian's loyalty will bring him also a crown of thorns, but in the life to

come it will surely bring him a crown of glory.” Faithfulness to Jesus in this life might get you a

crown of thorns, but in the next life it gets you a crown, a crown of glory, a crown of life. It gives

you eternal joy. It is amazing.

Isaac Watts wrote a hymn called, “Am I A Soldier of the Cross.”

Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and

sailed through bloody seas?

God's calling us to faithfulness to the end, at the very end to say

“Jesus is the Christ. the son of the living God?

Is Christ the Son of the living God? I'm still with him. Pray with me please friends.

My father, I feel like in my life I've really had a pretty easy time in terms of persecution.

I've had a few raised eyebrows, but that's about it. Lord, we don't know where it's going though.

What we do know, each one of us in our hearts knows that we want to come to the very end and

say Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. To that end, will you give us your courage and

your grace and your conviction and in any way that we get a crown of thorns for following you,

May we count it all joy. We need your help. We entrust ourselves to you in Christ's name, Amen.