Letter to Smyrna: Faithful in Tribulation
Download MP3As Joel introduced me, earlier, my name's Phil Markham. I'm an elder here. Some of you may recognize me and you might not be able to figure out where from. About 2 months ago, I ran up when the fire alarm went off into the sanctuary before to try and catch y'all before you exited the church, to tell you that my 3 year old had, had pulled the, the fire alarm. That was the one that my wife Natalie carried out kicking and screaming about 10 minutes ago.
Speaker 1:I, I've been coming to this church for a while, I think since January 09. My wife, Natalie, is sitting down here. Actually, we're here from the start in Joel's living room. She'll she'll tell you that, she was actually, I think, one of the original worship leaders of Redeemer, and I think she's pretty she's pretty thankful that, we have other folks, to to sing and lead us in worship before all of you all. You know, we've we've heard the gospel I haven't even preached yet, and we've heard the gospel through, Rodney, through the words we've sung, and then through that testimony.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things I love about this church, the gospel, is that message, seeking to glorify Jesus, is is kind of, infused into everything we do. Natalie and I, live over here in Crestwood North, we have 3 kids. If you don't know Crestwood North, that's the place where there's more men with beards per capita than anywhere else, and I think probably more vinyl records than anywhere else in the US per capita. The accent is from a small county in Mississippi, you might have heard of it. It's called Australia.
Speaker 1:I grew up, I grew up in Sydney, came to the US, like I said in 09 and came to Redeemer, and, we don't have any, paperwork officially from Joel, but he does tell us that Natalie and I, were Redeemer's first, couple to meet here and get married. This morning, we're going to hear, God's words to another church, and their challenges are very different to, the challenges we face as a church. And they're going to seem sort of hard, I think, for us to relate to as we read the text, But, you know, Paul tells, a young Timothy, Timothy is a young pastor, and Paul writes to him in a second letter, 2nd Timothy, he says, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for proof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. So as we look at this text, and it seems sort of foreign and hard to relate to, let's be asking what the Lord has to teach us this morning. So let's come before our father now in prayer.
Speaker 1:Lord, you say at the end of each of these 7 letters to these 7 churches that those who have an ear to hear should listen to what you're saying. We take that seriously, Lord, we want to hear. We want to really hear and take to heart what you want to say to us today. Lord, would you speak to us where we find ourselves today, here in the buckle of the bible belt? Would you speak to those of us in college, those of us young professionals, those of us new parents, those of us looking for a job, those of us who are hurting, those of us who feel on top of the world, those of us who are struggling to keep the faith, those of us questioning your plan for their lives, would you speak to all of us today, father?
Speaker 1:Please take my words and use them for your glory. Throw away any of my words that are unhelpful. We thank you that you hear our prayer. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 1:Let's turn to this morning's text. We're looking at Revelation chapter 2 verses 8 to 11. The text is in your worship guides. This is the 2nd sermon in our Revelation series that we're doing this summer. Joel covered the first letter to the church at Ephesus.
Speaker 1:Let me adjust this a little bit. Is that better? It's the accent. It's like messing with it. So Joel opened with the first, letter, last week, and we looked at the the letter to Ephesus, and this is the second letter out of the 7 to the 7 churches.
Speaker 1:This is Jesus speaking. This is the apostle John exiled on the island of Patmos, writing it down. So follow along with me. 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're Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Speaker 1:Do not fear what you're 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.
Speaker 1:So last week, we heard about a pretty different church. Ephesus, kind of in the same region, of Asia, also a city in the Roman empire, was, doctrinally sound. Their podcasts, if you listened to them, if they had them, were doctrinally sound. The the worship songs that they wrote were doctrinally sound, but they forgot their first love. They forgot, that the gospel starts and ends with a love for Jesus.
Speaker 1:This church is different. This church, is one of the only 2 churches out of the 7 that Jesus actually has nothing negative to say to. In the other five letters, Jesus sort of starts off with some of the things that that he commends them for. And then in the second half of the letters, he he, rebukes them. This is one of the only 2 churches where there is no rebuke.
Speaker 1:And we see, pretty quickly that this is about suffering. Jesus says, I know your tribulation and poverty and the slander that is spoken against you. Now that word tribulation can, be translated, you know, suffering, basically, but it's a particular kind of suffering. It's suffering directly, that comes from, being a Christian. So it it's persecution for the Christian faith.
Speaker 1:So the city, the the city, this is Smyrna, is is a city in the Roman Empire. It was actually a really rich city. It it had a port, where they did a lot of trading. It was really, a strategically important city. You could actually close the harbor off in times of war.
Speaker 1:It was situated between the sea on one side and some foothills on the other. And if you were there in those days, you would have seen a lot of, temples to the to the pagan gods, to the Roman gods. And remember that, in Rome at this time, even the emperor, was himself, considered a god, and, if you didn't worship him as a god, you were persecuted. Now, the Jews, the Jewish, communities that lived in these cities, kinda had a pass with this. They, I think because of their ancient, religion, had kinda convinced the Roman authorities that, hey, we we can't, worship the Roman deities, but we are not a threat to, the Roman empire.
Speaker 1:So they kind of had a pass, and they actually, as you can see here in the letter, were slandering the Christians. And so it was probably because they were, it might have been religious animosity. Remember, at this time, most of the Christians were Jewish, and so it was kind of a fight between who were the who were the real Jews here, or it may have just been kind of expedient. So the Christians may have been a threat, to the Jews kind of losing their past with the Roman authorities, because if you looked at the Christians of those days, they actually kind of did look like a threat. They broke all of the class, distinctions in Roman society.
Speaker 1:One of the things that kept the peace and kept the order is everyone knew their place, but these Christians, when they would meet, they would have slaves and freemen together, rich and poor, men and women together. And so from the outside in those days, that looked really suspicious. And so maybe the Jews were, you know, just trying to protect their place, and so they were slandering the, Christians, to the Roman authorities saying, hey, these guys are a threat to the, to the to the empire. Now I kind of already referred to it a little bit there, but just a quick word against antisemitism. This you know, Jesus was obviously a Jew.
Speaker 1:Every time the apostles went into a city, they went to the synagogues first. So Christianity, you know, there's no place in Christianity for anti semitism. This was really just a result of the time, and the early Christians actually saw themselves as the true Jews. Okay? So, at this time, the Christians in this city had their property confiscated, sometimes they were locked up and beaten, and sometimes, they were killed.
Speaker 1:They didn't get the good jobs, you know, it hurt them financially. Actually mentions poverty, in the passage. This is kinda hard to relate to, isn't it? This kinda seems foreign, that the church in a city would would suffer this kind of thing. You know, and and as I've been preparing, the sermon, you know, that's one of the things that I've wrestled with.
Speaker 1:Right? We we are not in that situation. And so where what is the word to us, when we sit in a very different situation? And and really, when you think about it, the the church, if you look at the church across time and across all the places that Jesus' church has existed, we are actually kind of an exception. Most Christians that, have ever lived and do live are marginalised and poor and don't have a lot of power.
Speaker 1:And so we are kind of the odd man out. You know, if you think about it, in Birmingham, in the Bible Belt, today, we actually have as much, power, and influence that we can actually, if we want to, persecute those who don't share our values. Right? I remember a work colleague when I first started my company years ago. We both started the company about the same time.
Speaker 1:We both started families together and walked through new fatherhood together. And he he was renovating his house, so he had bought a house, it got a good, good, you know, lowballed this guy and got a good, price for the house. And, you know, as he had time at night, on the weekends, he would, work on the house and renovate it. He filled in the garage down the bottom and added square footage. You know, I kind of listened as he tried to work out how he was going to, reroute the AC and the plumbing and do the electrical.
Speaker 1:I kind of followed his progress over the years and was really excited for him. And then it kind of came time to sell it. So he was going to do a flip, and, he put it on the market, and, he got a lot of interest. A lot of people were calling his real estate agent wanting to see it. And he confessed to me that, one of the groups that wanted to see it was a gay couple, and he he told me he wasn't really comfortable, with selling the house to them.
Speaker 1:And I didn't really take what he was saying, you know, too seriously. I might have said something like, well, I mean, you know, you could bless them bless them by by selling the house to them, you know? There's Christian neighbors around. Man, that would be a cool opportunity for them to witness to this couple, and you could witness and share your faith as you sell the house. Anyway, as as time went on, the house sold, and and he told me later, he confided that he had instructed his real estate agent to basically not open any correspondence from this gay couple, these 2 men.
Speaker 1:And so just delay delay opening any emails, just long enough for some other offers to come in. And, anyway, the he ended up selling the house to a young family, and when he opened up the offer from the gay couple, it was it was like 20 or $30,000 more than the asking price. So he lost out on 20 or $30,000. And he kinda saw that as, you know, taking one for for Jesus. You know, he saw that as, you know, I stood up for my faith, and I I took, you know, I took one for the team.
Speaker 1:And, you know, that's that's just not what we're called to, right, as as believers. One of the key things we believe, as as a church, as a way for this church to bring glory to God is to seek the welfare of the city. So we seek the welfare of those who, share our values and those who don't share our values. Right? And so that, you know, being being in a really different situation within Christianity where we actually do have some political power, we do have, wealth.
Speaker 1:You know, we're called to seek the welfare of those who even don't share our values. So in where we are right now, we can get an ear. We can get the mayor's ear. The mayor will hold a prayer breakfast and invite pastors and listen to pastors. You'll turn on the the television, and, you know, you'll you'll hear the TV anchors talk about prayer and faith and and God, and this is kind of in the air that we breathe.
Speaker 1:This is very and this is this is a good thing. This is okay, but it's very different to the situation in Smyrna. You know, Jesus goes on to say, don't be afraid. Keep the faith. And one of the things I want us to to look at this morning is that even though it's a really different situation, actually, Jesus' call to us is the same.
Speaker 1:So even though we, we don't live under a pagan government, who's seeking to persecute us, we're still called to keep the faith, Don't be afraid and keep the faith. Jesus says, do not fear what you're 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. Out of all the the 7, letters to the 7 churches, this is the only one where Jesus kinda opens with talking about a specific threat of persecution.
Speaker 1:Why why is that? Well, I think it's probably because it's it's gonna be really severe persecution, and so he just gets straight to the point and tries to give them some words of encouragement. He says they're going to be thrown into prison. The 10 days there is probably just, symbolic for a finite period of time, so there's gonna be an end to it. It won't last forever.
Speaker 1:Jesus says some of you will be beaten and tortured, and some of you will even die, but keep the faith, do not be afraid. And he says, I'll give you the crown of life. The crown is something that the Christians there, in that city, would have understood they would have understood the symbology. There was a big athletic, stadium, there was an athletic culture there in the city, and there were athletic events that happened in the stadium. And, victors who persevered would get literally a crown, and so they would have understood these words, from Jesus to mean, persevere through the through the persecution to get the crown of victory.
Speaker 1:And again, this does kinda seem foreign to us, doesn't it? This idea of persevering through persecution for our faith. But, you know, Paul says to Timothy, in second Timothy chapter 3, he says, you, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecution, sufferings. What kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Speaker 1:So everyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted. That's us. Right? We wanna live a godly life. Right?
Speaker 1:So it says we're gonna be persecuted. So where's the persecution in Birmingham? You know, when I was, in Australia, I was involved in the youth ministry, and, it was a pretty big youth ministry. I wasn't the youth pastor, I was just one of the youth leaders, and about 80% of the kids were from, private schools, and they were they were kind of church private schools, pretty prestigious. They'd been they'd been founded a 100, a 150 years ago, these schools, and they'd been founded by denominations, Christian denominations, one of, you know, the major denominations in Australia, and it's with an Anglican shirt, so most of the kids who were at private schools were in Anglican private school.
Speaker 1:And, you know, when they'd been founded all that time ago, the the the heartbeat of the school had been Christian, it had been, you know, central to the school. And over time, it had kind of become very prestigious schools that offered a really good education, parents, wealthy parents would really send the kids there mostly for the good education. I went to one of these, so I know what I'm talking about. So you kinda had this and they were good schools, and if I had the money, I'd probably send my kids to these one of these schools if we lived in Australia. But, one of the things about these schools is you kinda you had a chapel service every week, so there was Christianity kind of around.
Speaker 1:The non Christian kids kinda knew they knew about Jesus a little bit. They had some of the the the language, if you will. And, you know, so it was it was a little bit it's kind of a microcosm of the South, I think, in some ways. So if you're a Christian at at this school, you know, it wouldn't kill your popularity, to be a Christian, you know, in the same way as it would at a public school. The other kids at the youth group were from a public school, and so they, you know, really were they really didn't have a lot to gain by being a Christian.
Speaker 1:It would hurt their popularity, much more likely in the classroom to have a teacher kind of poke fun at their faith, and I noticed I noticed something interesting about these kids. These kids from the public schools, were much more grounded, in their faith. These kids weren't gonna go off to college and kinda have their faith torn apart by, you know, a freshman, you know, philosophy 101 professor. And I think in a little ways, the difference between the these private school kids and the public school kids in this youth group back in Australia is a little bit like a microcosm of the difference between, say, a Birmingham and, like, a New York City. Okay?
Speaker 1:So in New York City, it's probably going to be it's probably going to cost you to be vocal about your faith. You'll probably lose some friends, you may you may be more likely to miss out on promotions, you may be more likely to have a lawsuit against you if you're a business owner. And I think, we would agree that, as we look around the US, things are kind of going that way. For the South, it might be a little bit more like that, in the years ahead. So, you know, where is the persecution in Birmingham?
Speaker 1:That's maybe where it will start to come, where, you know, if you're involved in the wedding industry, you might have a lawsuit against you because you're not comfortable covering or servicing a gay wedding. You we may lose churches may lose tax breaks. You know, this church might get labelled, you know, a church that speaks hate speech because we say Jesus is the only way to God, which is just repeating what Jesus said. So that may be on the horizon for us, and so I think that, is is is why we wanna listen to this letter. One of the things I think we kinda see here is that the quickest way to kinda kill nominalism, the kinda default Christianity I'm Christian because my parents were, is persecution.
Speaker 1:That's the quickest way to kill nominalism. You know, Jesus kinda talks about that in the parable of the sower. In chapter Matthew chapter 13, he says, the seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy, but since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes is not in control of the persecution we face, is not in control of the persecution we face. Okay?
Speaker 1:They, I'm sure, wouldn't have chosen the persecution that they faced, and we also aren't in control of whatever persecution we may face as a church. And Jesus' call, I want us to see, to the church of Smyrna is actually the same call he makes to us, be faithful to death and I will give you the crown of life. You know, in in Acts 5, you see the apostles, so early on in the church, as the gospel was spreading, you see the the apostles go to, into Jerusalem and and preach the gospel. And you see them brought before the Sanhedrin, and beaten and put in jail. And, anyway, they get they get released after they're beaten, and where do they go?
Speaker 1:They run straight back to the temple courts, and and preach the gospel. And they they counted it worthy. It says in the text, in acts 5, they count it worthy. They they rejoiced because they were counted worthy of suffering disgrace for Jesus. That to me, that sounds kinda like a super Christian.
Speaker 1:Like, how do we it just seems hard to relate to. How do we do that? How do how do you get released from from, a beating and being in prison and rejoice, and then go back and preach the gospel again. Well, you know, one of the things is that they actually knew Jesus. So they were apostles.
Speaker 1:And we know that all the apostles, except for John, the one that's writing this letter, actually died martyrs' deaths. And so, you know, when I was I grew up in a non Christian family, and, when I, came to Christ, and I was, you know, thinking about hearing the gospel and thinking about, Christianity, I remember thinking that, wow, all of the apostles died martyrs' deaths, except for John, and they would have known if it was a lie. So, you know, a terrorist that goes and blows himself up, for his faith is a little bit different. These guys actually would have known it was a lie. If Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, they would have known it was a lie.
Speaker 1:And that was one of the things, realizing that, it was one of the things that that, you know, made me think, okay, there's something to this Christian faith. But, you know, how do we have faith like this? They knew Jesus. Right? They've got an unfair advantage.
Speaker 1:How do we have faith, like that? Well, look at the beginning of the letter. So Jesus says look at look at what he calls himself. He says, I'm the first and the last So he's reminding us that all things were created through him and for him. He's gonna exist forever.
Speaker 1:And he reminds us that he's the one that's already defeated death. So so he all things are created through him and he's the one that's defeated death already. And he also says, 'I know your tribulation and your poverty.' You know, sometimes Natalie and I have, 3 kids at home and sometimes the the the youngest one is 10 months old, and sometimes, you know, I'm, I'm doing the dishes and Natalie's changing her diaper and the oldest 2 will be beating each other up, just, you know, just doing something in the other room and we'll hear, like, screaming, like 2 cats fighting, and we don't really know what's going on. There's there's some kind of injustice happening, and we we don't have the the ability to know what's going on. That's not Jesus.
Speaker 1:Right? We we see he knows what's going on. He's not too busy up in heaven. And he sees what's going on. He says I know you're suffering, but he doesn't swoop in and save them.
Speaker 1:So, you know, when I was originally preparing, the sermon, I was reading the text, and I was feeling bad for these Christians, which by the way I don't think we should pity Christians in these kind of situations, I think they would, tell us not to, even Christians today. But as I was preparing it, I thought, gosh, wouldn't it be cool if it said, don't fear the first death? That's what I want, I don't wanna fear the first death. Come and save me, I'll handle the beatings if I know you're gonna come save me. But he says, don't fear the second death.
Speaker 1:Okay? So he's not gonna save these Christians from the first death. A couple of, months ago, Natalie and I, sat down and watched a movie called Lion, and it's about a 5 year old Indian boy who gets separated from his family. His name's Saru, and he gets separated from his family in India, and, ends up all the way across the country, like a 1000 miles from where he grew up, in a place called Calcutta, and there's this scene in this huge train station at night, so this cavernous train station in Calcutta, and Saru has found these other boys and girls about his age, and they are kind of curling up, to sleep together, and you see these men come to try and capture them, kidnap them for who knows what, and Saru takes off and starts running through the tunnels, and you see him start to run towards a policeman, and the policeman just looks at him, doesn't do anything, and and then they the man just chases Saru right past the policeman. And so the policeman either is paid off or just doesn't care.
Speaker 1:Is is that what Jesus is like here? He knows what's going on, but doesn't care. You know, Jesus says to Paul, who Saul at the time, on the Damascus road, he says, why are you persecuting me? Remember when Saul was persecuting the church? He says, why are you persecuting me?
Speaker 1:So Jesus actually says, when Christians are persecuted, it's as if he's getting persecuted. So he identifies himself with the persecuted Christians. If you think about it, Jesus doesn't just know suffering and poverty in an intellectual way, because he's god. He knows it experientially. Right?
Speaker 1:Because of the incarnation, Jesus became human, and he lost he he had his family betray him, his family disown him, he had friends betray him, He had a friend die, you see Lazarus die. And of course Jesus knew pain, right, with the cross and all the suffering he did on the cross. So he actually knows their suffering, not just intellectually, but experientially. So whatever the reason is that Jesus allows the church to suffer, and that's that's one of those kind of sovereignty of God questions that's hard to know the answer to. Whatever the reason is, it's not because he doesn't care, and it's not because he can't relate to the suffering, and, you know, he is with us.
Speaker 1:Jesus knows when the church is persecuted, because he's with the church, and he knows what it is to suffer because, he's defeated death and he's he's died. One of the disciples of the letter, of this of of John, who write writes this letter, is a bishop called Polycarp, and Polycarp, lived about a 160 AD, and it's said that he actually was, discipled by John, the the apostle who wrote this letter. And being the bishop, he had a prominent place, in Smyrna, and legend has it that he was martyred there, that the Jews, told the Roman authorities that he was a threat, that he wouldn't worship the Roman emperor. And this is how the story goes. The Jewish mob, said to the Romans, this is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of the gods, who teaches many neither to offer sacrifice nor to worship the emperor.
Speaker 1:And then the Romans said to, Polycarp, they said, sacrifice to Caesar or be burned. And this is Polycarp's kind of famous reply, he says, 80 6 years I have served Christ, and he has never done me wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me? And it was a Sabbath day, and yet the Jews broke their Sabbath to gather firewood for the fire to burn Polycarp, and Polycarp says, It is well. I fear not the fire that burns for a season and after a while is quenched.
Speaker 1:Why do you delay? Come, do your will. Oh, to have faith like Polycarp. Dear lord, help us use the influence we have in this city at this moment, in time to seek its welfare for your glory. As persecution for our faith comes, and you tell us it will, help us to be brave and faithful.
Speaker 1:We can be faithful because you were faithful, Lord Jesus. No matter what you have in store for us, help us say with Polycarp, it is well. Amen.
