Lessons from Smyrna: The Church of Living Martyrs - Revelation 2: 8-11

1:25Now, there are many different professions that. Live on call or require people to live on call. Some of you may be in such a profession, maybe it's in the medical profession. There are those who live on call, meaning that they can be called up at any moment to their job post, or maybe airline industry or other industries. There's many who live in a situation where you might be called into the office, called into the workplace at any given time if the need arises at any moment.

2:13Likewise, oftentimes the gospel calls upon us to suffer through a difficult situation, a situation not of our own choosing. We didn't choose a difficult situation to walk through. No, but because we are aligned with the gospel, the Christ of Scripture, we find ourselves confronted because of the gospel in a difficult situation, and we're called to suffer. Perhaps it's a situation of an obligation, a duty. Maybe it's a situation that involves you being identified. With Christ, and to walk away from the situation involves renouncing his name or offending the name of Christ, bringing shame upon it.

3:14But there are all kinds of reasons any given day that we may be called upon to sacrifice for the gospel. That is our Lord calling us to step into our situation, into our time, and in our place, and to endure the hardships that go along with the gospel. Some of those are little sacrifices. Some of them can be big sacrifices. But it's important that you begin to realize that we are all, as Christians, living on call. At any given moment, you can be called to suffer for the gospel. And perhaps you are suffering for the gospel right now.

4:01And because of the gospel itself, you find yourself in a difficult situation. Sometimes, as church history well attests, the call to suffer involves the death of a believer. Such is the case with the Church of Smyrna. The church Was facing imminent suffering. Suffering was a reality. Extreme suffering was not only just a possibility, it was a reality, and it was about to get even more fierce, and it would call upon some to die for their faith.

4:54At any moment, any one of them could have been called to die physically and publicly for the name of Christ. Imagine a church that lives in that kind of condition. This is the church that I call the Church of Living Martyrs. Church of Living Martyrs. Not going to be any animations this time around. There's the whole outline. Church of Living Martyrs. The letter isn't written to those who have already died, the martyrs. The church is written to what I call the living martyrs. Those who are living on call.

5:55That at any moment, any one of them. Could be singled out, called upon to die physically and publicly for their faith. Jesus made it very clear that in the world we would have tribulation in John 16:33. I'm going to talk about this church, living martyrs. They were alive, but they were facing martyrdom, not just as individuals, but as a church. Not everybody, but some. But it called upon all of them as a church to face the situation of martyrdom. I don't know what it would be like to pastor a church like that, where at any moment some of the members of your congregation could easily be dragged off, pulled away, and martyred.

6:55Sons, daughters, fathers, mothers. Imagine. I don't know how you pastor a situation like that. But I know I'd be calling upon everybody to serve the interests of those who had been martyred or whose martyrdom touched several other people's lives. Welcome to the Church of Living Martyrs. We want to spend the next couple of weeks looking at this church. Today we'll do a little more than just walk through the first few verses and get an idea of their historic setting, the historic situation. Next time, we'll draw out a little more, Lord willing, the implications and what the Spirit of God is saying to us today through this church and the text that we have about this church.

8:06But the church at Smyrna was probably founded on Paul's third missionary journey. You know, we spent some time looking at Paul's second and third journey. In Acts 19:10, Paul was in Ephesus, staying there, ministering for two years. Then we have this expression in Acts 19:10, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. So we've gone from Ephesus to that first city, Smyrna, who certainly in Asia certainly would have been impacted from the ministry in Ephesus. And so it's probably the church that was founded, probably a church that was founded on Paul's third minute. Missionary journey. Let me tell you a little bit about the city of Smyrna.

9:08Some believe that at the time of John, and the time this letter was written, this revelation was written, Smyrna was the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian. Now that's saying something. Let me give you a little bit of their history. Smyrna may have been settled as early as 3000 BC, so there's a civilization there. It has been there quite some time. But the first Greek settlement dates from about 1,000 B.C. And around 6,000 B.C., Smyrna was destroyed by the Lydians, and it was left in ruins for three centuries. So think about that, three centuries. Then Alexander the Great runs through and does his thing all over the continents.

10:02And then, after about three centuries of being laid waste, two of Alexander the Great's successors rebuilt the city sometime around 290 BC. So Smyrna itself was a city that had died and was resurrected. I think that'll play in to this situation. But in John's time, it was a thriving city. City, probably about a hundred thousand people, and it continued to thrive until the seventh century in the Arab raids. Smyrna exists today as the city of Izmir in modern Turkey with about 2.5 million people.

10:51But in John's time, Smyrna was a distinguished city of science and medicine. And like Ephesus, it was granted the privilege of being a self-governing city. It also claimed to be the birthplace of the poet Homer. Those of you who know the Iliad, Odyssey, the works there. So it was a culturally significant city. But one of the main distinguishing features about Smyrna was its beauty. It was located on the Gulf of the Aegean Sea. It was a harbor city, beautiful harbor. It was an important commercial center, so it had a huge economic advantage.

11:51And even though Smyrna didn't surpass Ephesus in its political or economic importance, it was Considered to be the most beautiful city in all of Asia. It was the first, for all you people who love architecture and engineering, it was the first, or one of the first, may have been the first, to have what we call today a city planning department. How many of you all work with city planning departments in one shape or form? You know, they want to make development make sense and in some cities pretty.

12:37That's the architect side. The engineers, they just want to make it work. You know, the architects, they want to make it work, but they want to make it pretty. But the city, you can think about the, you know, so they had civil engineering, they had land planners, they had landscape architects, they had building architects, they had all of this in an organized manner to lay out a city, to build a city that would preserve its natural beauty or complement its natural beauty. And so they had a beautiful harbor, they had architecturally magnificent buildings and gates, they had a gymnasium, they had a theater, a stadium, and the streets were very well planned out. They were laid out in a very logical and Beautiful way.

13:32Many of them were lined with groves of trees. Very beautiful city. Its most famous street was called the Street of Gold. It started out at the seaside and it sloped or it curved around the slopes of the Mount Mountain there or large hill called Pagos and it went back and forth. It curved around the slopes all the way up to the top of Mount Pagos. Today there is a castle up there called the Velvet Castle. Beautiful city laid out. And on this street of gold, there were several temples located on this street of gold. On the one end, there was the temple of Sybil or Sybili, C-Y-B-E-L-E, pronounced different ways. She was a mother goddess, and she was seen as the deity of the city, the goddess of the city, or a goddess of the national identity.

14:54She's really only there, pretty much in that region. On the other end, there was the temple to Zeus. He was the king of the Greek gods. And along the way, there were a lot of other temples. There was the temple to Apollo, the Greek god of archery, truth, and prophecy. Then there was Eclepius. Clepius, how many of you know who Eclepius is? God of medicine. We get that little snake, right? Some connect this symbol we even use today to Eclepius. He's the Greek god of medicine. There is Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, lust, pleasure, all these and others. So you've got the street of gold, you've got all these magnificent temples.

15:55But it's the buildings at the top of Mount Pagos that caught the eye. They were architecturally impressive buildings that graced the top of the mountain, and they formed somewhat of a crown. A crown. One poet compared Smyrna to the statue of the mother goddess Sybil, with her feet on the sea and her head rising into the heavens, and her crown. Was all these beautiful buildings. In fact, if you see images of her, there is her head, her crown is a bunch of beautiful buildings. And so, what the worship of civil, or civili was, was basically a worship of the city, a way to worship the state, a way to convince people to sacrifice for the greater good of the state, the interest of the state, and those who actually ran the state.

17:05But another distinguishing feature of Smyrna was its loyalty to Rome. It was fiercely loyal to Rome. Its citizens built a temple in sometime around 195 BC in which Rome itself was to be worshipped. And you can see how this fits within their culture. They themselves worship mother goddess, who basically is the mother state, or certainly depicts the mother state. The same is true with Rome. They worshiped Rome itself. At one point in their history, just to give you an example of their loyalty, when the Roman general Sulla's poorly clothed army was facing a bitter winter, It is recorded that the citizens of Smyrna, when they got the news, began taking off their clothes in order to send them to the army. That was an expression of their loyalty. As a reward, Rome gave Smyrna or honored Smyrna by choosing it above all other applicants as the site of a new temple dedicated to Emperor Tiberius. It's around 26 AD, so Christ is on the earth during this time.

18:38So a new temple. Now, we can think about that as when think about like a presidential library. When you have a presidential library, we have one here, right? To George Bush. A lot of applicants wanted to have the honor of hosting a presidential library. Well, imagine that on steroids. And you get the competition there would have been to have a temple dedicated to Emperor Tiberius. Smyrna got the temple. According to Cicero, Smyrna was the most faithful and most ancient ally of Rome.

19:28That was the distinction. Feature. And this is going to play in. They wanted to keep this status of being loyal to Rome. It was under Emperor Domitian and his reign that it became a capital offense to refuse to offer the yearly sacrifice to the Emperor. Emperors were worshipped. Well, here, during Dominician's reign, toward the end of the first century, it became the death penalty if you refused to offer the sacrifice to the emperor. And really, the sacrifice wasn't much. Incense, and you basically say, Caesar is Lord. That's it. Not that big of a deal to most of the people, except the Christians. And what would happen is once a person offered the sacrifice, he or she would receive a certificate that indicated, well, you're in compliance with the authorities, you're a loyal subject, and so there are certain privileges that go along with that. You've got your card, you're a non-toxic. Person. If you didn't have a card, you were toxic.

21:06But if you did, you were a loyal citizen and you had all the rights and privileges of commerce and everything that went along with it. We can see some of that similar dynamics today if you look around. But those who refused faced execution. And it's only the Christians that refused, or really refused in any substance, because those in compliance with Christ could not say, Caesar is Lord. And it's in this context that Jesus commissions this letter to be written to Smyrna.

22:10Look back at verse 8. And to the angel of Smyrna, to the angel of the church in Smyrna, write, the first and the last who was dead and has come to life, says this. Notice how Jesus characterizes himself here. The first and the last. These words imply beginning, end, purpose, control, direction for everything in between. I've already looked at this. He's already referred to himself just above as the first and the last. So he brings that self-description back into view as he is addressing the situation of this church living in the face of martyrdom. Jesus is the author, and he is the finisher.

23:22And what this tells us, think about that. If the one who authored life, creation, and all, and he's also the one who has the last word, that ought to just put you at ease right there, no matter what you're facing. Or certainly get you to listen, right? Well, Jesus holds the power over all the nations as the first and the last. He brings forth all generations, he controls. The material world. He guides all historic and future events, even the rise of evil governments and their evil ways.

24:12As the first, Jesus knows what is coming and has told us all about it and what we need to know. And as the last, he gets the final word. He is the first and the last. Look what also he says: who was dead. Literally, who became a dead. Literally, who became a corpse. I have become dead. He faced hostility, rejection, due to his doing the will of his father. He was in compliance with his father, and this brought him into conflict with the world around him. So he has faced hostility and rejection to the extreme point of death.

25:12He knows what it's like to physically die. He knows what it's like to be rejected. He knows what it's like to be persecuted for righteousness' sake. Become a dead. Become a corpse. Look back at what he also says. The first and the last who is dead and who has come to life. The one who became a corpse also became a alive. He became alive. He recovered from being a corpse. He knows what it's like to come alive again. He has passed through death. And now he is in a unique situation to speak to those who are facing death as he had done. It's like I'm the first and the last. I'll get the final word.

26:11I know what you're facing by experience. I have gone through what you're about to go through. And now I want to say a few things to you. The first and the last who is dead and has come to life says this. Literally, he is saying this. So we want to listen. So as we step into this event this morning, this communication from the Lord Jesus Christ to this church of living martyrs, I want us to look at what Christ says to this church. And the next time we'll look at this. Look a little bit more on how these apply to us today.

27:06So, first of all, Jesus communicates three things. He communicates three things. First of all, he communicates what he knows about this church. What he knows about this church. It's good to know that Jesus knows what's going on. He's engaged. He walks among the lampstands. He sees. He sees the whole church. He sees the parts. He knows what's going on in their situation. He is very much intimately acquainted. And so he communicates what he knows. He communicates what he knows about this church. You'll see a few things here. Number one, he knows their current situation. Look at what he says. I know who you are. I know the pressures you are facing.

27:57Verse 9: I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. He says, I know all about you. I know they're intimately acquainted with you and your situation. You are, I know your tribulation. Literally, the idea of tribulation is: I know the extreme pressure you are under, I know the oppression. That you're facing. I know the affliction, the tribulation. I know your tribulation. I know what you're going through. I know your unique situation. He knows this about everybody in the church. He knows about this as a church in its context, and he knows about the individuals. I know the pressures you're facing.

28:55He also knows their poverty. I know your affliction that you're facing, the tribulation you are facing, and your poverty. And the word for poverty there is abject poverty. Your absolute destitution. It's that word for being completely destitute. I know your complete destitution. I know your extreme poverty. And this poverty is probably brought about because of the name of Christ. They're not esteemed in society. They're toxic citizens, cut off as a result, and all of the pressures. And these hostile governments had a way of confiscating, taking. Reducing people to nothing, sanctions against them, and all that to reduce them to destitution in an effort to get them to comply. And that's probably what their poverty is. It's not just that they were poor folks, there may have been some of that. But it was a very wealthy city, it was a very beautiful city.

30:23These were probably brought about to their extreme poverty because of the name of Christ. They had already been faithful and were being faithful. And yet, Jesus, you see this parenthetical thought there, but you are rich. You are wealthy. You're not what you perceive yourself to be. You are wealthy. He doesn't say this. He didn't say this about Ephesus. You are rich. So they must have really been rich. The one who knows all things, sees all things, can say, You are rich.

31:12I don't think he'd tell them that unless it were true. I don't think these are just empty words aimed to encourage someone and not be true. No, they're true words. You are rich. Your status is rich. You are wealthy. In what sense? Well, they're certainly rich in faith. Rich in faith. Rich in faith. And rich in favor. Rich. It's interesting that there are no criticisms of this church. We look at the other churches, there's criticisms except for here and in Philadelphia. There is no criticism. They're not tolerating errant doctrines. They haven't left their first love. In fact, their first love is all they've got left.

32:07They're rich in faith. They've lost everything. Christ is all in all. They have been faithful. They have been living sacrifices. They're rich in faith. Christ doesn't find anything to criticize them about. He commends them. They're not just rich in faith, they're rich in favor, in his favor. He's like, You don't know. You don't know how rich you are. God's favor is everything. This is a church that pleased him. Listen, this is what suffering does. It kind of weeds out all of this junk.

33:00They didn't have time to tolerate false doctrines. They weren't looking for ways to be friends with the world. They had one love, Christ, Christ alone. And everything else was gone. This is the church of living martyrs on call. Rich. And he knows the end of the story. He's the first and the last. He says, You are rich. I know what's in store. I know what's ahead. So the first thing he communicates to them, I know who you are. I know what you're going through. And I know you're wealthy. Second thing he communicates to them about what he knows about this church is he knows who their enemies are. He says, I know, not only do I know who you are, I know who your enemies are, and I know what they are doing.

34:07I know who you are and what you are facing, and I know your enemies, and I know what they are up to. I'm very much aware of it. Look back in verse 9. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and I know the blasphemy. By those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. I know. I know who they say they are the Jews, a meeting place, an assembly of Satan. They are not Jews. These are unbelieving Jews.

34:54We'll work through this more in an interpretive issue in our Sunday school class. Some have seen this as that this statement here that they are Jews has caused some to question whether they are really Jews. Yeah, they're really Jews according to being physical descendants of Abraham, but they are not spiritual descendants of Abraham. They're not anything like Abraham. They have physically descended from him, but they are certainly do not have the faith of Abraham. And so in this sense, they are not.

35:31But like they had done so in many other places, these Jews, this assembly, the synagogue itself became an assembly place of Satan to carry out what he wanted them to do. And so he says, I know the blasphemy. And that is slanderous speech. It's not that they're reviling God, they are, but really it's more directed at the church. Slanderous speech. Abusive speech aimed at turning public opinion against the Christians. This is the blasphemy that is coming out of this synagogue, this meeting place, this assembly place of Satan.

36:18Perhaps there were some bitter feelings there. Perhaps some of the Jews themselves had been converting to Christianity in the area, and this inflamed and infuriated the Jews living there all the more. But the purpose, they sought to poison the minds of state and public opinion against the Christians. So though they may have been Jews nationally, they were enemies of God spiritually. And they allied themselves, they united with the Gentiles for the sole purpose of wiping out Christianity in Smyrna, using the state to bring it about. So he says, I know who you are. I know who your enemies are. And the third thing says, I know what is about to happen to you. And why?

37:12Look back at verse 10. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of y'all into prison. I'll come back to the word y'all in a minute. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days. Y'all. He's always been referring to the church as in the singular, church. I know what you are facing. And now he says, what's going to happen to you is that the church is about to take some of y'all and put you into prison so that y'all will be tested. So that you as a church will be tested.

38:03Y'all are going to be tested. And the idea of testing is that this is something instigated by Satan to absolutely destroy their faith, to destroy the assembly. This is not to make them stronger. This is to reduce them to nothing. This kind of testing, trial. And you will have tribulation for ten days. You're going to have tribulation. A lot of people have read a lot into that ten days. Ten epics of ten waves of persecution. Some have interpreted it as seven ages of the church. Interesting.

38:45And no, I think we just take it at face value, ten days. Ten days, it's limited, relatively brief. Trials come, trials go. You all are going to have trials. Y'all are going to be tested on a satanic, in a satanic, severe way. And even though only some are going to actually face execution, the whole church is involved. Like I said, mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, children. And the church is going to have to survive this as a gathering, as an ecclesia. We're going to suffer this hardship together.

39:40We are going to be called upon. Some may be called to die for the faith. Others may be called to make sacrifices for the families left behind. But one way or the other, as a church, we are all facing this suffering. He says, I know who you are, what you're facing. I know your enemies. I know what they're up to. And I know what's about to happen to you. So that's the first thing he does. Jesus communicates what he knows about this church. And then the second, he communicates what he expects them to do in the face of all this. Second thing he communicates, communicates what he expects of them.

40:33Verse 10, do not fear what you are 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 unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He gives them three commands: stop fearing, expect suffering, produce faithfulness. Stop fearing. Do not fear. Literally, stop fearing. And Jesus had already said this to his disciples: do not be fearing those who can only destroy the body.

41:19But fear him who can, after the body is destroyed, cast you into hell. Fear the one who is the first and the last. Stop fearing. And stop fearing suffering in general. Stop being afraid of being called to do hard things because of the gospel. Don't be afraid of that. Don't be afraid of a future that involves you making sacrifices for the gospel. We're probably not going to be called upon to the extreme that this church was. Maybe some. Maybe in time. We usually are dealing with much smaller sacrifices, and yet we easily cower at far less sacrifices.

42:16Stop fearing what you're about to suffer. Stop fearing the future. Stop fearing because of the situation you're going through. Second thing he says to them: expect suffering. Not only stop fearing suffering, but expect it's coming. Behold, the devil's about to cast some of you into prison. So he tells them, yes, you have a slanderous enemy who wishes to destroy you. Stop fearing. Expect it. It's going to come. John 16, 33. Jesus again reminds you, he said, In this world you will have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world.

43:09Produce faithfulness. Produce faithfulness. Stop fearing. Expect suffering. And produce faithfulness. Look back. Be faithful unto death. This is what I want you to be doing. Be producing faithfulness. Faithfulness, be producing expressions of faithfulness. Be bringing about a community that nurtures faithfulness. Faithfulness to the hardships that are brought about because of the gospel. Be faithful. Be producing faithfulness. Be nurturing it. Be working together. Be building up faithfulness. Encouraging faithfulness unto death. To the far extreme point of death.

44:13Be producing faithfulness. Be encouraging faithfulness, even if it takes you all the way to the point of physical death. And it certainly includes everything in between. That's what he wants them to be doing. Yes, suffering is coming. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Church history certainly indicates that they did this. I have a very lengthy excerpt that I want to share with you. About the pastor there, Polycarp. I don't want to just briefly mention what he did. I want to take you through the epic journey of the first, really the oldest written account of Christian martyr outside of the New Testament. But looking at the clock, I'm not going to do that today. I don't want to shorten a good memory of this faithful pastor.

45:39But it's clear that the promise that Jesus holds out, be faithful unto death, verse 10. Look at what he promises: be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. So he communicates what he knows about the church, he communicates what he expects them to do, and he communicates what he promises to them who obey. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Think about the context of the city. A city that had been dead and was rebuilt. A city that its very top hill is crowned with glorious architecture. It's the victor's wreath.

46:26It's not a crown, it's more like a A crown, like a royal diadem-type crown. It's a crown like the victor's wreath that you would expect at the games. A crown. Life is something that Jesus, who is the first and the last, gives. He has the final word. He says, Be faithful as far as death, and I will give you the crown of life. Eternal life is the crown. The crown is not something in addition to eternal life. Well, here's eternal life. Now you're going to get this other status in there. No, eternal life is the crown.

47:10Everyone else, all your persecutors, are not going to be crowned with life. They will be gone. The victor's wreath. The victor's wreath. So, as I think about our situation, just looking at their situation, we're all to live on call. We are to produce faithfulness all the way up to the point of death. And at any time in your day, you will be called upon. In fact, that is the life of the Christian. Take up your cross and follow me. If you don't take up your cross, you cannot follow me.

48:00That's the very fundamental element of being a Christian. We live on call to die daily. And it's in that manner we exalt Christ to the highest. I'm going to hit pause there. We'll have to come back next week. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this church. We thank you that what they faced, what they were the extreme to which they were to go as a church body in ministering to one another, in facing the incredible challenges of being in one of the most dangerous places.

48:56And yet, Father, you were so well pleased with them. They didn't have time to get caught up in errant doctrines. They didn't have time to develop luxurious living and weird lifestyles and excuse fleshly indulgent and become lukewarm, Father, because they were occupied with greater things. They were occupied with laying down their lives daily, being truly living sacrifices. Father, help us to reckon ourselves, that this is what you want from us, that we too live on call, call to lay down our lives. Maybe it's in the way we forgive, maybe it's in the things we say, things we don't say, maybe it's whatever it may be, Father, you call us daily to lay down our lives for your glory in the service of others. So, Father, we thank you for the reminder of these truths. Help us, Father, as we face our times that we remember the cross, have the image of your Son who did all these things, first and last, the one who became a corpse, the one who's resurrected. Father, help us to keep our eyes on him and so derive the strength for what you have for us. And we thank you that you have given us of your spirit to not only cleanse us, but to bring us in compliance with your son. We thank you for all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

50:39If you would please stand.