Take your copy of the scriptures and turn to our sermon text this morning. The last book of our Bible is the book of Revelation. I’ll be reading verses, chapter 2, verse 8 to 11. Before we hear the word read, let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon it and preaching. Let’s pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we come now to you once more, and we are eager to hear your word. We come, Father, to sit at your feet and to be still and to listen. And we pray, Lord, help us to settle our souls and focus our hearts. Help us to receive from you that which you give, which is most important through this word. Because there you give us yourself, your grace, your blessing, your kingdom. And it’s for all of these that we yearn and long. Lord, change us by this, your word.

Open our eyes and our hearts, we pray, that we may truly accept by faith all that we hear, and that it may change our lives and our hearts, and that we would be transformed evermore into the image of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and all God’s people said together, Amen. Amen. Revelation 2, starting verse 8. Please give your full attention. This is the word of the true and the living God.

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 that they are Jews and are not, but are 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 10 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 for the reading of God’s word, may he truly add his blessing upon it at this time.

We heard in that last line of our New Testament reading, Philippians 1, verse 29, it says, for it has been granted to you, it’s been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. It’s been granted that you should not only believe, but to suffer for Christ’s sake.

There is a pernicious teaching for some decades now that would have you to believe, that would have Christians to believe, that they should not suffer in this life, but that they should embody and in bank account be prosperous and blessed and full of health and wealth if only they would give enough and only have enough faith.

Brothers and sisters, that is a lie from hell. Is it destruction and bondage? Is it an affront to the teaching of God’s word, his holy inspired word? This is proved out not only from the words of the Apostle Paul that we just heard, but from John’s gospel and elsewhere. John says in chapter 15, the gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples, if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. If they persecute me, they will persecute you also. And that has always been the case throughout history.

In AD 156, an 86-year-old man is led to the center of a stadium in Smyrna. He walks barefoot. He has no cloak. His executioners stack wood at his feet, and the crowd is screaming, pagans, Jews, Roman soldiers. And the procouncil of Smyrna watches from his tribunal, and he offers one last way out. Swear by Caesar, curse Christ, and you’ll walk free. And the old man lifts his face, and he speaks slowly, and he says those famous words you’ve probably all heard, 86 years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me? and the soldiers tie his arms behind his back, and the kindling catches fire.

This man provides the direct chain of eyewitness to Jesus. This old man knew the Apostle John. This old man sat at his feet in Ephesus when he was still young. He heard from the mouth of the beloved disciple the words of Jesus, the things that he had seen. And when John died, this man stood alone on the earth as the last living link between the apostles and the church going forward.

This man goes on to train a boy named Irenaeus, who becomes very important in the church later in life. And he goes on, before his execution, to face a heretic in Rome where he calls him the firstborn of Satan. And he goes on to defy the bishop of Rome himself over the date of Easter. When the Romans finally came for him, this old man, he chose not to run. Of course, this is Polycarp of Smyrna. Polycarp. Interesting, his name means much fruit, or one who bears much fruit. And this old man, Polycarp, certainly did bear much fruit.

But he, like all believers, faced persecutions, trials, and hardship. For that is the pattern of their Savior. Right? Suffering, then glory. In those groups that I mentioned earlier who want to skip the suffering and want to name and claim glory now, for them, I’m afraid, they just might find that they’ve forfeited any real glory altogether.

Jesus said, if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. And we find in our text today that because Christ, our King, conquered death, victory through suffering, because of that, no matter how bad things in this life are, even unto death, you who trust him and have given yourselves fully over to him, you will be victorious and untouched in the second death. Jesus said, if they hated you, they’ll… If they hated me, you will be hated. If they persecuted Christ, you will be persecuted as well.

And now in this letter to the Church of Smyrna, Jesus tells this struggling congregation something. He tells them that they will suffer great persecution, even unto death. And the one responsible for this persecution is Christ’s ancient foe, the serpent of old, the devil, Satan himself, who conducts his campaign against the Church of Smyrna through the agency of the synagogue and the civil government. And in our passage today, we see part of the historical outworking of the warning that Jesus gave his disciples in John 15. The inescapable persecution of God’s people at the hands of Satan. But Jesus still is the Lord of His church. And even when persecuted unto death, His people yet triumph. That is His word to them in this letter. And we’ll see this as a central theme throughout the letter to Smyrna. You’re called to suffer. You’re called to triumph.

And as we continue moving through this section that we’re at in the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, where Christ addresses these seven letters to seven congregations, historical congregations, scattered throughout that place in the world, Asia Minor.

And last week, remember, we saw the first of these letters to the Church of Ephesus. We saw there that Christ, it was emphasized, is the Lord of his church. And he addresses a number of issues facing each of these particular congregations. But though Jesus addresses these churches with those issues, he’s also speaking to his church throughout the entire church age, which is the present period in redemptive history, right? The time between the times, right? His first advent and his second coming, also known, as John refers to elsewhere, as the last days, the great tribulation. the time between the first and second comings of Christ. Jesus pronounced his blessing upon the churches which are faithful through their struggles while he threatens curses upon those who are not.

And the letters to the seven churches are part of a larger vision which begins in Revelation 1.12 as we work through. And there, recall, John opens with the description of the resurrected Christ. And in this vision, John describes seven golden lampstands. symbolizing Christ’s presence with his church, as well as the Holy Spirit’s empowerment of that congregation to serve as, what, light bearers to an unbelieving world of darkness. And so as we go through these letters to these churches, we have to see them as part of a larger vision, which begins with that description of Jesus Christ in full resurrected glory.

It is Jesus Who is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Almighty. He is the first and last. The one who was dead but is now alive forevermore. And it is Jesus who holds the keys in His hands of death and Hades. It is Jesus who walks among His churches.

He knows the precise circumstances they face. He knows their troubles and the evil that they must confront. And Jesus commends these churches for their faithful perseverance. But He also confronts their failings and their sins. To the Ephesians, he commended them for being faithful, for standing firm against false teachers and theological lies.

But also, this very thing led them to harden and to grow cold, letting the fire of love and joy and action for one another to die out and to flicker. And Jesus calls them to repent, return to that love they had, that fire of warmth and love for one another.

And also, before we go on to our letter, to our passage, it would be helpful to see a few things that all these letters have in common with one another as we work through them for the next number of weeks. Each of these letters is addressed to the angel of that particular congregation. Most likely this is a reference to actual angels, or messengers, what angel means, who are assigned to each of these churches. Secondly, each of these letters, in these letters, Christ identifies himself, how? By referring back to the description of the opening of this vision in Revelation 1, 12 to 20. And this ties the resurrected Christ to each of his churches.

Think about that for a second. In the letter to Ephesus, this reference points to what? Christ’s authority. In our passage today to the Church of Smyrna, it’s a reference to his power over death, which is, of course, especially, obviously relevant to a church facing persecution unto death.

The third common element, all the letters, is Christ’s knowledge, what’s going on in his churches, in each congregation. And that alone is a wonderful thing, brothers and sisters, is it not? Your Savior knows your struggles. He knows your pains and your tears. He knows your failings and your problems and your sins. Jesus knew about the doctrinal zeal of the Ephesians.

He knows that the Smyrna Christians are spiritually rich, but he also exhorts most of these congregations to take specific action to keep from losing his blessing and his presence. But to the Church of Smyrna, they’re only one of two churches which are not rebuked by Jesus in the letters.

Instead, they’re called, what? They’re called to suffer for Christ’s sake. They’re also called to triumph. The fourth thing we see common in these letters is that Jesus holds out a promise to them. And that promise ties back to the intro vision as well.

And it’s truly glorious. I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I die to behold. I am alive forevermore, he says. And I have the keys of death and Hades. So if the Ephesians repented, they will what? Eat from the tree of life. The Smyrnans are promised that they will be delivered from the persecution and the death that they’ll go through.

And then finally, the last thing common here that we see in all these to kind of keep in mind is that each of these letters ends with an exhortation from the Lord of His church. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And we must remember, brothers and sisters, that this exhortation is not only to those seven congregations, but it applies to us as well when we hear our Lord’s word to His church. Well, what’s going on in this place? this place where this congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ is.

What of Smyrna? Well, we got a little taste of it in the place, in the setting a minute ago regarding that old faithful martyr Polycarp. But the city is Smyrna. Today it’s in Turkey. It’s called Izmir. In the middle of the first century AD, it was one of the richest, one of the three richest cities in the Roman province of Asia. It had a harbor. It had marble. It had Mount Pagos crowned with temples. It had what was known as the Street of Gold, crossing the city from east to west, lined with shrines to the Greek gods, Apollo, Zeus, and others. Smyrna is known to be the first city to build a temple dedicated to the goddess Roma. Not a general, not a Roman god, but to the abstract idea of the city itself made divine.

And in 26 AD, Smyrna won the right of erecting a second temple. This time to the emperor, Emperor Tiberius, while he was still living, they boasted of being the first city that promoted worship of the emperor. And this is one of the first steps on that road to full-blown emperor worship that we see develop later. The imperial cult, emperor worship. is a reality that John will describe, that the beast against that, the supreme agent of Satan, works.

Ancient writers describe Smyrna as among the most beautiful cities because of their temples. And they say things like, those temples to Zeus and to Sybil, the pagan goddess, made the city’s skyline look like a crown. And that’s why there’s this reference in the writings of history.

We read, the crown of Smyrna. The city was also well known for the groves of trees from which myrrh is made. We know myrrh from the birth narratives of Christ and the embalming and the burial preparation of Christ. Smyrna had also one of the largest Jewish populations in Asia Minor.

It had a prosperous synagogue. And they had the synagogue, it had a special status recognized by Rome, and that is that the Jews were exempt from the imperial cult. They were authorized, yes they had to make a sacrifice to the emperor, but they could do it in the Temple of Jerusalem instead of the city’s temples. And it was a unique arrangement in the empire, and it was an arrangement that Christians initially benefited from. As long as the Romans saw Christians as a sect of the Jews, they shared this exemption.

But when the synagogue began to expel the Christians and be hostile towards them at the end of the first century, that legal status evaporated. And these Jews openly encouraged the Roman government to crack down on the Christians, and many were put to death, including, as we saw, Polycarp.

But turning to our text, our Lord’s letter to this church in this area, Smyrna, In this letter, Jesus warns the church about the persecution that they will face at the hands of Satan. And here’s the key and the core of the message. But even though this church is called to suffer, It’s also called to triumph.

Suffer and triumph. And remember that as we go through this text. This may be the most significant truth and difficult one for us, brothers and sisters, that we have in a comfortable world, having been raised in the atmosphere and environment that denies all bad things, put them out, denies them, denies aging, denies sickness, denies brokenness. This is a challenge of faith. And I know that. And I struggle with that as well.

But we must believe. And by the power of the Holy Spirit and the faith that he provides, we can and will believe. And it’s really a wonderful calling, right? Call to suffer and call to triumph. It’s glorious. It’s Jesus who commands John to write this letter to the angel of the church. So again, who is it that’s calling this to be done?

These are the words of him who is the first and the last, who died and came to life. And so when Jesus speaks, he speaks of himself as the first and the last, there are echoes, right? We can hear those echoes from the prophecy of Isaiah when Yahweh is addressed. In Isaiah 46, Yahweh declares in almost identical words, this is what the Lord says, Yahweh, Israel’s King and Redeemer, Yahweh Almighty, I am the first and I am the last, apart from me there is no God. It’s clear then that Jesus speaks and the authority that he speaks to address the church in Smyrna is identical to Yahweh’s authority in addressing Israel. God’s word is plain here.

Christ’s authority over his church is the same as God’s authority because it is God’s authority. Notice also that Jesus speaks as the one who died and came to life. Who died and came to life. It was Jesus who dies on the cross for the sins of his people and who was raised to life for our justification. And who by virtue of his humiliation has now been exalted to the status of King of King and Lord of Lords. Remember in Revelation 118 John already quoted the risen Christ as declaring himself, I am the living one, I was dead and behold I’m alive forevermore and I hold the keys of death and Hades.

And so to the church of Smyrna Jesus restates this glorious promise to his people who are under wicked persecution, his people under the constant threat of imprisonment and death, throughout Revelation, we’ll see repeated, this repeated thread, this deception where Satan tries to mimic and imitate Christ’s power for the purpose to elicit worship for himself.

This blasphemous lie shows up in a few ways. One is the false unholy trinity, right? If you’re familiar with the book, we’ll get into it when we get there. But Satan imitates the truth and he deceives so that he’ll be worshiped. And we see that false trinity made up of Satan and the beast and the false prophet. These three are imitating the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And in the letter to Smyrna that we’re looking at, Jesus says that he is the living one. He’s the one who holds the keys of death And Hades, if you hold the keys to something, you control it. It’s under your control. The living one who holds the keys. It’s a powerful proclamation that Christ alone is the Lord of life and death.

But as we go forward, and we’ll look at it when we get there, in chapter 13 of Revelation, what happens? Satan claims this for himself, and he tries to mimic this. And in Revelation 13, we find the beast, the supreme agent of Satan. And it says this, one of the heads of the beast seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed, and the whole world was astonished and followed the beast. John sees the healing of this fatal wound as showing a pattern of satanic deception that comes up again and again and again throughout this present age. Satan will repeatedly try to mimic Christ’s power to receive worship for himself, and this has always been the goal of Satan. And if we read on in Revelation, we see that the dragon, Satan, exercises all authority over the first beast on his behalf.

And may the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast. He deceived the inhabitants of earth, and he orders them to set up an image in his honor for the beast who was wounded by the sword and all that lived.

And we have to remember, it’s Jesus, in spite of the lies and the imitation. It’s Christ who will throw Satan and the beast and all of his henchmen into the lake of fire on the day of judgment. All those who are in Christ will what? Will never taste the second death. So those Christians in Smyrna who face death at the hands of the devil need to know this.

They need to know that Christ and Christ alone holds in His hands the keys, the authority over death. in Hades. His promise is not the imitation. It’s the genuine article. It’s true. As in each of the seven letters, Jesus tells them, dismernance, that he is entirely aware of their struggles. I know your affliction. I know of your poverty. Yet you are rich, he says.

I know of the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but they are a synagogue of Satan. Because Christians in this church refuse to do what the Jews did in making peace, making this alliance, making this compromise with emperor worship.

These Christians are now suffering economically, materially, and they’re living in poverty. By refusing to acknowledge Caesar as Lord, Christians are likely prohibited from entering the city’s marketplaces, from conducting normal business. Worse yet, they are charged with slander. which shows that the Jews were not, that they were reporting the Christians to the authorities, who would then arrest them, and they would ironically be referred to as, by the Romans, atheists. Early Christians were called atheists.

Why? Because they denied the emperor was divine. Satan is a liar. He’s a liar from the beginning, and he lives to slander God’s people. He is the father of lies. Zechariah, we read that because we read of Satan approaching the angel of the Lord, who is Christ, to make false accusations, remember it said, against God’s people. And after rebuking the devil for his lies and slander, the Lord’s response is what?

He removes, he orders the removal of the filthy garments from his servant Joshua. And he replaces them with pure, clean garments. In the same way he defended his servant Joshua, Jesus will do the same for those suffering in Smyrna. As Lord of life, Jesus will ensure that his people will not taste the second death and that he will clothe his people with the robes of his perfect righteousness. But the consequences in time from declaring that Christ is Lord in the face of a devil-driven beast, the one controlling the government, were very serious. Our passage describes the Smyrna’s consequences.

They live in poverty. This also comes up again in Revelation 13. The dragon, we’re told, forced everyone to receive a mark. Why? So that no one could buy or sell unless they had the mark. We’ll get in more of that later. But their faithfulness to Christ prohibited them, excluded them. It was a target for them.

In a place like Smyrna, their faithfulness, so infected and influenced by the beast, surely caused them to suffer, in many ways, surely materially. And so the description of the poverty facing this congregation, we see. But the greater truth remains, that since the Smyrna Christians have Christ through faith, they are truly rich. And Christ reminds them of this, but you are rich.

The Jews slander them, the Romans arrest them and put them to death. In reality, but these poor Christians possess riches far greater than any temporal wealth could ever amount to. And why is that? It’s because God’s people will receive the crown of life and the luxuriant robes of Christ’s righteousness, his perfection for them.

And that reference there that we see in verse 8 to the synagogue of Satan is a reference to those Jews who have made peace with paganism, who openly persecuted God’s people by turning them over to those same pagan authorities with which they’ve made peace. And although these Jews may have been ethnic descendants of Abraham, they not only rejected the basis of that covenant, which is faith in Christ, God’s promised redeemer, they sought to team up with those who hated everything about the Abrahamic covenant. These are not just misguided Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah. They were secularized, who saw no problem confessing allegiance to Yahweh and to Caesar together at the same time. And so to comfort these Christians in this situation, facing this persecution, Jesus gives them the promise.

In verse 10, 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 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” In our reflex, being people in a fallen world, knowing the ravages of death and these things, our reflex is to hear this as a downer, as a bummer, not an encouragement. but you have to take it together. Jesus not only tells them that their suffering will be, that they will suffer, but it will be limited to 10 days, but he also tells them that the faithful unto death will receive the crown of life.

And again, there are several things here that we shouldn’t overlook. We’ve seen in the book of Revelation, and we’ll unfold this more as we go, it’s a long book, but in this book, numbers have symbolic meaning. Ten is a number of completeness as well. But for today, we know this.

The Roman practice was that they would lock people up, but only for a short time before executing them. They didn’t want people lingering around in jails. They would lock them up and then shortly after they would execute them. And this likely explains the connection between the short imprisonment of ten days and the reward which follows, the crown of life. We know that in the ancient world, when a triumphant athlete won his contest, he received what? A crown, a laurel wreath. But Jesus says to his people, having endured a ten-day trial, they will receive the crown of victory.

There’s a lot of forecasting here. Again, it’s a long book. We don’t have four hours. But it’s all here, and we have to take it a piece of time. But you would benefit, and I always encourage you to do this, to be reading and rereading whatever book your pastor is preaching through. This will supercharge your benefit from the preaching and deepen your grasp of God’s Word, which is a wonderful blessing that we all should strive to do. But the crown of life for those who endure. At the end of this same book, in chapter 20, Revelation 20, verse 4, listen to what it says.

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and have not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.”

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection. Those Christian Smyrns, or anywhere who are faithfully enduring, The 10 days of persecution for them who are put to a martyr’s death are rewarded with what? They come to life, they reign with Christ for a thousand years. That’s a glorious thing, think about that. Suffer for 10 days and live for a thousand years, which is eternity. And notice how tender, don’t miss the tenderness here, the care and the comfort of Christ for his people. He gives them this promise of victory for those who lay down their lives because of their faith in him.

They desperately needed to hear this. We desperately need to hear this. Unalways. And like the smirning Christians, we need to hear, no matter what Satan does to us, if he forces us to live in poverty, if he turns the government against us, if he causes other faiths to slander us, even if he takes our lives, he cannot win.

Because Christ our King conquered death. Victory through suffering. And because of that, no matter how bad things are into this life, even unto death, you who know, trust in Him, have given yourself fully over to Christ, you will be victorious and untouched in the second death. You, Christian, can live fearlessly despite any and all that befalls you. For if you are His, truly, you will receive the crown of life. Death cannot truly hurt you.

He died and came to life, as will you. He was persecuted, even unto death, and rose again. And that same power, rose him from the dead, is at work in us, Scripture says. He sympathizes with us in all things. He went through tribulation and slander, was rich but became poor.

Do not fear, this one says, our King. Do not fear, be faithful. Being faithful is conquering. and the faithful who conquer are the elect of God.” They will make it through the judgment because all of God’s people will do so. And because all of God’s wrath, His just judgment and wrath, what has been exhausted in the person of Christ in your place for you. None remains for those who are in Christ. We will and do suffer persecutions and face persecutions and suffer, but we will, by the work and promise of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, persevere unto life ever after, to reign in glory with our mighty King, the Conqueror, Jesus the Lord.

And when you think about it, and you’re honest in your own heart, and you think you are not enough, you’re too weak, too unworthy, too broken, too blackened by your own sin, and when you think, I can’t triumph and conquer. I can barely conquer my alarm clock, let alone my anger, or my impatience, or my lust, or my sloth, or whatever it might be.

You’re right, brothers and sisters. We are weak in and of ourselves and all the rest. But what is required for us, we have to remember, is also promised to us. And we must, brothers and sisters, begin taking seriously the means of grace, communion with God, committing to prayer and meditation and word and to sacrament. Maybe we are so spiritually weak because we don’t resolve in our hearts to take these things seriously. But we must take them seriously. And we can. And we can look away from ourselves and away from our failings and our weakness and our worry and look in faith to the one who gives us these words, the one who calls us to suffer. For he has also called us to triumph. Look away from yourselves.

Look to Christ, mighty Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. Look to this one who died and came to life, the living Christ, your glorious Christ, the one who loves you and saved you and made you to be a kingdom of priests to what? To serve God.

Hear Him, brothers and sisters. Listen and believe and have faith and trust this righteous one. who, despite anything that He brings into our lives, will never, ever leave or forsake you. Be refreshed in the gospel, brothers and sisters. Be filled with the truth and live for Him. And hear His words. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To His glory. Amen. Let’s pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we do praise You. We thank You for Your mercy towards us. We thank You that You have not left us with encouragement and promise and truth that we can cling to as we rest ourselves in you and in your strength and your provision and your sovereignty and your providential outworking of all the things of your creation. Lord, we thank you that we can know. Do we believe? Then we are assured. Lord, help us to trust in you. Help our unbelief. Increase our faith, we pray. Help us to take seriously the things that you tell us.

Help us to put aside the trivial trinkets of this life and give our attention to our relationship with you and our communion with you as we seek our Savior and we seek to be transformed by your work in us through the Spirit. Lord, we pray that you would bless this congregation, protect us, we pray. Lord, lead us to where you would have us, grow us to where you would want us, deepen us, Lord, as people, that we would truly be lightbearers in a dead and dying world in such need of the truth and the light of the gospel. We do pray, Lord, that you would work in us that our lives would match the profession of our mouths.

And that we would truly be a peculiar people in this world. And even that be a witness. What people would see and wonder, what is with these people? And we could tell them. of life in Christ, the healing of our disease of sin, the promise of a home in heaven.

Lord, we thank you and praise you. Pray that you would comfort those of us with particular severe needs. Lord, you know each one. Help us to know as we suffer through them that if we, as we pray for relief and comfort Help us, Lord, to be settled in our hearts, that regardless of the comfort or the relief that you bring or that you withhold, help us to be satiated. in the knowledge that you are a good God, and that we can trust in you, and that through you, by the work of your Spirit, we can make it through, Lord, and even by the Spirit working in us, we can rejoice in the suffering. Lord, we are so weak and we need your help. Pray that you would be with us for the remainder of this service. Bless us as we seek to glorify you and to receive from you as you continue to change us and conform us evermore into the image of our glorious Savior. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.