The Persecuted Church (Smyrna)

Again, welcome to Family Worship with the church body of Eastern Hills Baptist Church. Thanks for being with us on this Memorial Day weekend, a day set aside for remembering those who have given their lives in the defense of our nation. If you’re visiting with us for the first time today, whether you’re in the room or online, we’d like to drop you a note of thanks for being with us today. So if you could text the word “WELCOME” to 505-339-2004, we’d appreciate that. You’ll receive a text back with a link to our digital communication card. If you’re in the room and would rather fill out a physical card, you’ll find one in the back of the pew in front of you. You can fill that out during the service and either put it in the offering boxes by the doors on your way out, or when service is over, you can bring it down to me here at the front. I have a gift I’d like to give to you just to say thank you for being with the church family of Eastern Hills this morning. We hope and pray that you find this a warm and welcoming church, and that you grow closer to God as you join with Eastern Hills in worship this morning.

Announcements

Women’s Ministry will have an event on June 10 from 2-4 pm called Sisters 101 & Scavenger Hunt. It will be an opportunity for ladies to find out more about the Women’s Ministry and how you can get involved, as well has have a little fun together.

Last day for youth to sign up for camp.

Opening

This is our second week in our series through the messages to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, and we’re considering what these message mean for the church today, calling our series “Seven Words to the Church Today.” Last week, we opened the series by looking at the message to the church in Ephesus, the city and church that we have the most biblical testimony about, and we saw that the church at Ephesus was the “Loveless Church.” The church at Ephesus is representative of churches that get so into doctrine and being “right” that they forget to love one another and love their neighbors anymore, and thus don’t love God well either. If you missed last week’s message, I’d recommend going back to the website, YouTube, or Facebook to watch or listen to it, as I addressed several “general” things that are common to all (or almost all) of the messages. This morning, we will consider the message to the second church: the church at Smyrna.

Just as a reminder of the layout of these churches in Asia Minor, I’ve created this MAP to show us the path that the letter of Revelation would have taken as it was delivered from church to church. Smyrna, about 40 miles north of Ephesus, was the second stop. This message is the shortest message of the seven, comprising only 4 verses.

Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read our focal passage, Revelation 2:8-11, together:

Revelation 2:8–11 CSB

8 “Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna: Thus says the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life: 9 I know your affliction and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days. Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.

PRAYER (Praise Chapel in Albuquerque International District, Pastor Jorge Monroy; Memorial Day)

We all have moments in our lives when we need to give bad news to someone. I really don’t like having to do so, but it is sometimes a part of my role as pastor. There have been times when I’ve had to bring correction to someone because of sinful choices that they’ve made. When I was a youth pastor, there were times when I had to call parents and tell them about the things their students had done. Part of why I don’t like being the bearer of bad news is that I tend toward the “just-rip-the-band-aid-off” method of sharing, because usually if the news is bad, there’s no amount of sugar-coating that is going to somehow make it feel like “good news.” Better to lay it all out there and then try to help pick up the pieces, I guess. I know that that can make me come across as insensitive or lacking in compassion. I don’t mean it to, and I try to express compassion and care even as I share the bad news, but it’s still bad news. You ultimately still have to say it, so you’re not misunderstood.

The message to the church at Smyrna is a message of bad news, but not the same as the bad news message for Ephesus. The church at Ephesus received bad news because of their sin. The church at Smyrna is one of the two churches that received a message with no condemnation or cure in them. But just because they weren’t in sin doesn’t mean that they had zero problems.

The city of Smyrna itself is the only one of the seven cities of Revelation 2-3 that is still inhabited today, and it has been continually inhabited as a city since about the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Modern Izmir, Turkey, sits on the site of ancient Smyrna. Because of the fact that it has been continually inhabited, archaeological evidence in the city is comparatively scant, and what does remain is primarily from the 2nd century AD and on. However, we know that Smyrna had been around for hundreds of years even before the 3rd century BC, as it was razed by the Lydian king Alyattes in about 600 BC. For nearly 300 years thereafter, it was at most a loose collection of villages, until Alexander the Great issued an edict that it was to be rebuilt, which it was under Lysimachus (LIE-sim-a-cus) in about 290 BC.

Smyrna had a couple of major “claims to fame” in the Roman Empire. It was the first city outside of Rome that had a temple to the goddess Roma (a deity that the Romans made up which personified Rome itself) in 195 BC, more than 60 years before the area was under the political and military control of Rome. So that was one “first” that they claimed.

The other was that Lysimachus didn’t merely rebuild Smyrna—he planned it. Smyrna had a good harbor, and an acropolis (hilltop) that could be seen from the water. He used the very best architecture and city planning he could for Smyrna, even creating the look of a street of gold going up to the acropolis, and the buildings on the acropolis themselves being organized to have the appearance of a crown from the water. The people of Smyrna saw their city as “first” in beauty as well.

Smyrna had a large Jewish population of some influence at the time of the writing of Revelation, but the city was massively pagan in practice, especially in the worship of the emperor, known as the “imperial cult.” The Christian church in Smyrna at this time would have been hard-pressed. Emperor worship was becoming more and more mandated, and very few other religious groups were afforded protections for their worship practice. The Jews had been granted imperial protections, and for some time prior, Christians were seen as a sect of Jews in imperial eyes. Then, around the time that John wrote Revelation, the Jews issued what was called the “Curse of the Minim,” which declared that Christians (even ethnically Jewish Christians) were no longer allowed to worship or gather in synagogues, were certainly not a part of the Jewish faith, and so were not entitled to the protections that the Jews had under Roman law.

It is to the church in this city that the risen Jesus writes. As I said last week, these messages would have had to be understood by the churches that received them in the first century, so Christ’s introduction of Himself had specific meaning for the church in Smyrna:

1: Christ (v. 8)

Remember that Jesus introduces Himself to each church using references to other Scripture that contained imagery that spoke specifically to the particular church He was writing to. To Smyrna, He writes:

Revelation 2:8 CSB

8 “Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna: Thus says the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life:

These references come from Jesus’ statements about Himself in the beginning of John’s vision, contained in chapter 1 of Revelation:

Revelation 1:17–18 CSB

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last, 18 and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Jesus’ introduction in His message to Smyrna: that He is the “First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life,” does two very important things: it reveals both His divinity and His humanity, and it offers the believers there hope in the midst of what they were facing.

Notice the declaration of Jesus’ divinity in His description: He is the First, before anything was, and He is the Last: He will still be Himself after the created universe that we know is wrapped up. We see a very similar designation for God the Father in chapters 1 and 21 of Revelation:

Revelation 1:8 CSB

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 21:6 CSB

6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.

Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet: the beginning and the end. Certainly these are parallel to “First and Last.” In fact, all three sets of terms are ascribed to Jesus in Revelation 22:

Revelation 22:13 CSB

13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Jesus is clearly identifying Himself as divine in His introduction to the church in Smyrna. But He is also demonstrating His humanity, because the eternal God, being eternal, cannot die or come back to life. But Jesus did in His humanity. He is the “one who was dead and came to life.”

The heart of the Gospel message is that Jesus willingly laid down His life to pay the price that we owe because of our sins, but that He also overcame death and rose again to eternal life. Peter wrote about it in his first letter:

1 Peter 3:18 CSB

18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

He did this so that we could be justified, given a clean standing before God, because our sin had been atoned for. But because of His divine nature, death could not hold Him. He is the author of life itself, and by the power of the Spirit of God, He rose from the grave, never to die again.

The city of Smyrna itself had been dead for 300 years, and now had been brought “back to life.” But even that life didn’t make the city eternal, even though the spot is still inhabited: very little is left of Smyrna itself. But Jesus died and came to life and lives forever.

This divine/human identification also would have been a message of great hope for the church of Smyrna. Although they lived in a place that thought it was “first” in many things, it wasn’t eternal. It hadn’t always been first at anything. Jesus was the actual first, and He would be around long after Smyrna had been built upon and lost to the changing of times.

There’s something for us to think about in this regard as well. I still think that America is the greatest nation on the face of the planet. But Jesus is better. In many ways, we might want America to be first, but Jesus already is. And Jesus will still be Lord when America no longer exists. Our ultimate hope can’t be in our country or our technology or our military or our politicians—the only One truly worthy of our placing our hope in is Jesus Himself. He is the First and the Last, God Almighty. Those are all good things, but Jesus is better.

And finally, the people of the church in Smyrna were under a constant threat to their lives. Jesus saying that He is the First and the Last says that He is in control, and reminding them that He was dead and came to life spoke directly into the threat the church faced every day, which is why He commended them:

2: Commendation (v. 9)

Given the fact that the message to the church in Smyrna is basically “bad news,” the depth of the commendation that they receive is powerful:

Revelation 2:9 CSB

9 I know your affliction and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Twice in this verse, Jesus says, “I know.” Jesus here doesn’t say, as He did with Ephesus, that He knows their works. He says that He knows their struggles. Jesus knows all about what His people are facing. As we saw last week from Revelation 1, He walks among the lampstands, which are the churches. And the struggle that He knew the Smyrnean church was facing was a cultural, social, and economic one.

He said that He knows their “affliction and poverty.” This is more than just “trouble and poorness.” The “affliction” is literally “tribulation:” an exceedingly difficult time full of pressure. Life in Smyrna had become extremely arduous for the church there. Politically, they had virtually no power. Socially, they had very few friends. Religiously, open worship had become illegal for them. Culturally, they found themselves pressured on both sides: the Roman authorities and emperor worship on one side, and the Jews on the other. The church was between a rock and hard place, and both sides were willing to squeeze.

That’s why they faced poverty. The word here is more than just being “poor.” It’s being unable to provide even the basic subsistence needs of life. Because of the pressures that they faced socially and culturally, they likely had lost the ability to work in order to earn a living. Several commentators suggested that perhaps their low standing in the community made them a target for things like destruction of property or governmental confiscation. It was truly a sacrifice to follow Jesus. It really cost them something.

And somehow, the Lord can say that, though they face this level of affliction and poverty, they are “rich.” He could say this because, though they were materially poor, they had everything spiritually, as James also wrote in chapter 2 of his epistle:

James 2:5 CSB

5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

We haven’t looked at Laodicea yet (the seventh message). But there’s an interesting contrast here that we should see: Whereas the church in Smyrna was economically poor, but rich spiritually; the church at Laodicea was economically wealthy, but bankrupt spiritually.

Revelation 3:17 CSB

17 For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

The Smyrneans are not given a condemnation. The Laodiceans are not given a commendation. So even though the church in Smyrna didn’t have anything going for it as far as our way of looking at things is concerned, it was their faithfulness through their difficulties that allowed them to shine.

Ultimately, we need to remember that it is better to be faithful than powerful. I suppose having both wouldn’t be bad either, but if you have to choose: go with faithful. This is how they could be defined as rich in the midst of their struggles.

Both of the issues the Smyrneans faced—their tribulation and their poverty—were likely caused at least in part by what the CSB translates as “slander,” which literally is the word from which we get our word “blasphemy.” Essentially, the church in Smyrna was being lied about, smeared, and verbally attacked. God’s true children were being spoken of falsely by those who were supposed to be His children, but who weren’t. The Lord’s declaration about who they really were is about as harsh of a criticism as He could make: He calls them a “synagogue of Satan.”

Satan literally means “accuser” or “adversary.” These were ethnic Jews who still did the things that Jewish people did, but who had gone so far from living as God’s people that they were actually tools of the enemy.

In Romans 2, Paul characterized what true Jewishness is: it’s defined by faithfulness to God on the inside, not the outside.

Romans 2:28–29 CSB

28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.

We are so often more concerned with how we appear on the outside to others than what we look like to God in the secret parts of our lives, that no one else knows but us and God. However, it’s the things that happen on the inside—the selfish desires we feed, the angry grudges we hold, the lies that we tell ourselves—that determine what comes out of us on the outside.

This is what was likely happening with the Jews in Smyrna. They saw that many Jews, and many Gentiles, were converting to Christianity. And like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus’ ministry, they allowed their fear, their jealousy, and their pride fester in their hearts, which led them away from the God they claimed to serve. Jesus would condemn this:

Matthew 23:27–28 CSB

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. 28 In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Our goal should be the same as Paul’s: that we would just know Jesus, even in the midst of the suffering and struggles that we might face, even being as Paul put it, “conformed to His death.”

Philippians 3:10 CSB

10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

For a second, let’s think about our status as believers right now in the U.S. We have it really good in comparison to the church of Smyrna in John’s day. We are meeting here freely, without having to worry about the government coming in and stopping us or worse. We are streaming our time together across the Internet, allowing people from all over the world to hear the message of the Gospel proclaimed at Eastern Hills at any time. We can still receive a reduction in our income tax for giving to the church. The church doesn’t pay many types of tax. We could walk out of here today and tell people about Jesus, and we wouldn’t be doing anything illegal, so we could do that without fear.

But this is not necessarily a state that will always be.

In his commentary on Revelation published in 2013, Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary, wrote the following:

A word about the future of the church, specifically in America, is in order. Those of us in the West must be prepared for the jarring truth that, just as in Revelation 2:9 and Smyrna in the first century, those who oppose and reject Christianity are going to oppose and persecute us. Not only will they say we are wrong; they will say we are bigoted, dangerous, and evil. We will be slandered as anti-choice, anti-diversity, anti-gay, anti-inclusion, anti-tolerance. We can anticipate economic boycotts, governmental restrictions, and social ostracism. Eventually more severe persecution and even imprisonment will likely be our experience. Of course this is already true for followers of Christ around the world, and it is coming to America.

—Daniel Akin, Exalting Jesus in Revelation

Ten years ago, Dr. Akin wrote about what he expected we could be facing in the future. Well, the future has begun. We are accused of all of these things, as well as some others. The perspective of the church is no longer listened to, much less respected, in the public sphere. While we haven’t had to address some of the results that he suggests we will face, things that we might not have dreamed the church would ever face 20 years ago, we now could easily imagine having to deal with these, especially after seeing how quickly our cultural landscape can change given the last three years.

In a few years, unless God does a work and the church rises up, we might find ourselves identifying with the church in Smyrna even more than we already do. So what do we do? Dr. Akin continues:

What should be our response? Exactly what we see here in Revelation 2: Do not be afraid; expect it. Receive it from the hands of a sovereign God who is testing, pruning, and refining your faith. Remember James again: “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (Jas 1:2–3).

—Daniel Akin, Exalting Jesus In Revelation

This leads us to verse 10, and the challenge to the church at Smyrna:

3: Challenge (v. 10-11)

I wonder if some of the people in the church in Smyrna were contemplating running away, fleeing from the persecution that they were already experiencing. But rather than giving them that instruction, Jesus gives them three commands to follow in verse 10:

Revelation 2:10 CSB

10 Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days. Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Each of these imperative statements: “Don’t be afraid,” “Look,” and, “Be faithful,” were given to encourage the church in the depth of their struggles, by reminding them who is the First and the Last, the one who had died and come back to life.

A: Don’t be afraid.

The phrase, “do not be afraid,” or something similar to it, appears in Scripture about 365 times. You could look up a different “don’t be afraid” passage every day for a year without repeating them. The first command Jesus gives to the Smyrneans is “Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer.”

He’s ripping the band aid off. He’s just giving them the bad news. The suffering of the church at Smyrna is certain. It’s going to happen. So they are told first to not be afraid of it. Jesus is on the throne, and even though the suffering is going to come, they should resist the temptation to fall into fear.

Likewise, we should not be afraid of what might be coming our way, church. Remember who our God is! Even if suffering comes, He is sovereign and can and will bring His good purposes out of it. Cling to Psalm 46:1-3 and Hebrews 13:6:

Psalm 46:1–3 CSB

1 God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. 2 Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas, 3 though its water roars and foams and the mountains quake with its turmoil. Selah

Hebrews 13:6 CSB

6 Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

If we are in Christ, then we have the assurance that we are in the loving hands of God Almighty, and so we have no need to be afraid when persecution comes our way because of our testimony of trust in the Gospel. Jesus even said in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:11–12 CSB

11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

But this doesn’t mean that we should be unprepared for the persecutions that would come. The second command in verse 10 calls the Smyrnean church to be aware of and prepared for what they would face.

B: Look.

Jesus prepares His people for the difficulty they would face by telling them clearly what would happen. He tells them to “Look”:

Revelation 2:10 (CSB)

10 Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days.

Probably the prison part is literal, and while the ten days could be literally ten days, it’s probably more likely to be a “sizeable but manageable and finite” period of time. There would be a time of intense persecution in Smyrna, but it would not be permanent.

But this promise of imprisonment isn’t our idea of imprisonment. Rome didn’t keep prisoners the way we do. If someone was imprisoned, it ordinarily resulted in one of three fairly quick outcomes, depending on the severity of the crime: 1) a fine; 2) exile; or 3) execution. In the case of the situation for the Christians in Smyrna, being thrown into prison was a death sentence. Keeping prisoners for extended periods of time was uncommon because it cost the government resources to keep them alive. Christian prisoners were usually crucified, burned, thrown into the arena against wild animals, or beheaded.

Jesus wasn’t saying that they would be in jail for ten days and then get out. Jesus was saying that there was going to be a coming time when the persecution against the church would flare up, and “some” of the believers would be killed after being thrown into prison. This trial would be a “test” of the church’s faith:

This “test” would be the work of the devil to break the church. The same Greek word is translated as “tempt” in James 1:13-14:

James 1:13–14 CSB

13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

God will never put you in a position where you have no choice but to sin. Your previous sinful choices might put you in that position, but God will not. He does not tempt us to sin. Instead, He always provides a means of escape from sin if we will take it, even if that means is just as simple as saying “no.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 CSB

13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

So this test in Revelation 2:10 is the work of the devil. But God can use even the devil’s attempts to tempt us in order to refine our faith and make us more like Jesus, as we look to Him as our standard:

Hebrews 12:1–3 CSB

1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

Which brings us to our last command:

C: Be faithful.

This faithfulness is clinging to Jesus no matter what comes your way. It’s relying on Him in the middle of your struggles. He tells the church:

Revelation 2:10 (CSB)

10 Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Now that we understand the ramifications of the promise of the coming persecution, we can more completely grasp the seriousness of the command to “be faithful to the point of death.” This is exactly what Jesus meant—that they would remain faithful to Him all the way to laying down their lives for His purposes and glory.

This is actually the call to every Christian of every age, because Jesus defined what it meant to follow Him:

Mark 8:34 CSB

34 Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

The cross was an instrument of abuse, torture, and death. If we are going to truly follow after Jesus, we must surrender our rights to our own lives—we must die to ourselves—because He is Savior and Lord. It is in this dying to ourselves, trusting in His blood and His promises to save us, that we find ourselves victorious over death.

But then comes the message of hope! In an incredible reversal promised to the church at Smyrna, they are promised that if they keep His command to be faithful to the point of death, then even if they die, they will be given the “crown of life.” Jesus, the One who was dead and came back to life, will also snatch victorious life out of the maw of death in His followers:

James 1:12 CSB

12 Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

This crown is not a royal crown, a diadem. It is a victor’s crown, the stephanos crown: worn by the winner of an athletic contest to show His victory.

We cannot give up, and we cannot surrender. Even though the culture wants to force us into a silent corner, or to smash us into its sinful mold, we are called to be faithful—clinging to Jesus for our strength, our protection, our provision, and our deliverance. At this point, we have the blessing where we are of generally not facing actual death for standing on the truth. We may face assassination of our reputations in the world, but we cannot give up. We may have to deal with the death of certain relationships, but we cannot deny Jesus. We may need to adjust to the demise of some of our former priorities, but we cannot fail the test of faithfulness.

Finally, just like with Ephesus, along with the challenge the church is promised a reward if they overcome or “conquer.”

Revelation 2:11 CSB

11 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.

I promised last week that we would address the formula of the ending of these messages. Each has the statement of “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” Essentially, this is Jesus saying: “Every one of my followers, pay attention.” Every one who reads the message is called to ask if they or their church fits this particular situation, and whether they or their church needs to listen and perhaps repent.

Then each message contains the phrase, “The one who conquers,” followed by the promise. As each message has a prescription for the church about what to do, each church is given the opportunity to be identified with the victory promised. But we must remember that every victory over sin and death and shame and the evil one has already been accomplished by Jesus—we don’t manufacture these cosmic levels of victory on our own. So ultimately, the “one who conquers” is the one who is identified with Jesus’ victory. The one who conquers is the true believer in Christ.

And very quickly, the promise to the conqueror to close the message to the Smyrnean church is that the one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.

The “second death” is readily defined in the latter part of the book of Revelation, where it is shown to be the lake of fire, reserved for the devil, his angels, and those who are not victorious through Jesus:

Revelation 20:14–15 CSB

14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

If we belong to Jesus by faith, then we will be delivered from this second death. Christians—those who conquer—will never be harmed by the second death because we will never face it. Certainly (with the exception of those who are still alive when Jesus returns), we will experience the first death (our natural physical one), but if we belong to Jesus, we will not have to face the lake of fire, because we have been forgiven.

But if you have never trusted Jesus, never surrendered your life to Him in faith, then the second death awaits you. Turn to Jesus. Surrender to Him. Trust His work to save you.

Closing

I want to leave us with a quick telling of an example of the fulfillment of this prophecy in Smyrna. In the year 156, a friend of John the Apostle (who wrote Revelation) was the bishop (lead pastor) in Smyrna. His name was Polycarp. The record we have of his death is the oldest record of a Christian being killed for their faith outside the New Testament.

The persecution of the Christians in Smyrna was intense, and Polycarp was sent to a farm outside of town for his own safety. However, his location was found out, and soldiers went to the house one evening. Polycarp made sure the soldiers were given food and drink, and he requested that they give him time to pray. After two hours of praying, he finished and was put in a carriage, where officials attempted to get Polycarp to denounce Christ and say that Caesar is Lord. They appealed to his reason, to his fear, to his age. When he would not comply, they made him walk the rest of the way to the arena. In the arena, over and over he was threatened if he would not deny Jesus, but his response was, “Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

When the crowd finally moved the proconsul to burn Polycarp at the stake, just before being set ablaze, this follower of Jesus prayed, “Lord God Almighty, Father of thy beloved and blessed Servant Jesus Christ, through whom we have received full knowledge of thee, ‘the God of angels and powers and all creation’ and of the whole race of the righteous who live in thy presence: I bless thee, because thou hast deemed me worthy of this day and hour, to take my part in the number of the martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, for ‘resurrection to eternal life’ of soul and body in the immortality of the Holy Spirit; among whom may I be received in thy presence this day as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as thou hast prepared and revealed beforehand and fulfilled, thou that art the true God without any falsehood. For this and for everything I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify thee, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved Servant, through whom be glory to thee with him and Holy Spirit both now and unto the ages to come. Amen.”

May we face tribulation and persecution with the same stalwart spirit.

This morning, there are those here or listening online who have never trusted in Jesus, never believed the Gospel. He is the only hope for eternal life, the only escape from the second death as we just read in Scripture. Surrender to Jesus this morning, giving your life up to Him as Lord and Savior.

The life of the disciple isn’t one that’s meant to be lived alone. We belong to each other and we need each other. If you would like to take the next step of joining with this church family in formal membership, please come and share that with me.

Prayer of repentance and faith.

Offering

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Num 21)

Pastor’s Study tonight

Prayer Meeting

Instructions for guests

Benediction

1 Peter 1:6–7 CSB

6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.