Mary Fairchild
“The Message to Smyrna”–Pastor Jim Mooberry
If we follow the outline of the future events of the book of Revelation that the Lord Jesus gave us himself in chapter 1:19—“Write therefore the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things.” A close study of the book will reveal that chapters 2 and 3 represent the THINGS THAT ARE or the CHURCH AGE (the days that we live in) and these messages are representative of the Church Age. There are a number of significant differences to these letters/messages—there are four of them:
- THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE of each message to each church—these are actual historical churches and the circumstances that the correction that the Lord gives were pertinent to that church in that day.
- THE TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE—these churches are typical of churches that will exist all through the Church Age. There will always be a Church like Ephesus, Smyrna…
- THE PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE—these messages foreshadow periods of time in the church’s history from the apostolic age to the Rapture and the Tribulation.
- THE PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE—that is that for you and I as Christians, the conditions that are in these churches are often the conditions that we can find in our own life at one time or another. So the correction to the church is also an admonition from the Lord to ourselves as well if we find ourselves in this spiritual condition.
The church at Ephesus was a church that in doctrine and practice was wonderful—there was not a more orthodox church in all of these messages, but their problem was they had left their first love. Their passion for Jesus Christ had cooled and so the Lord admonishes them and says to them remember the earlier days and repent—change your mind and do the works that you did at the beginning.
The church in Smyrna—the city of Smyrna was 35 miles northwest of Ephesus and it was considered the most beautiful city in all of Asia. It was an Aegean Sea port—a thriving, wealthy city because it was on the trade route between Rome and India and so everything seemed to come through either Smyrna or Ephesus. Alexander the Great was involved in planning the city himself in the third century before Christ. It was called the “Lovely City,” the “Crown of Ionia,” and the “Ornament of Asia.” It was beautiful they said that there was a gentle breeze that would blow through the city and so that it always smelled fresh. It was also a city of the arts—it held games every year in a magnificent stadium. They had a massive library there. It was the headquarters for musicians and they had one of the largest theaters in all of Asia. It was also A CITY OF PAGAN RELIGION. It’s temples—their architecture where masterpieces, in fact, on one end of the main street they called the “street of gold” there was the TEMPLE TO ZEUS and on the other end of the main street there was the TEMPLE TO SYBIL—the mother of the gods. And in between there were all kinds of pagan temples.
This city was so loyal to Rome that when there was a competition between the cities in the eastern part of the empire they won it. And the competition was for the privilege for erecting a temple to the DEIFICATION OF CAESAR. So they had their temple to Tiberius Caesar or EMPEROR WORSHIP. They also had a number of influential Jews there—they would give large donations to the beautification of the city and they were very political and very powerful.
SMYRNA WAS ALSO THE LOCATION OF SEVERE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS. The days of this church—this church foreshadows a period of time in the church’s history after the apostolic time when there would be a great persecution—probably the most bitter and most persecution the church has ever been through in a period of about two hundred years. Satan unleashed a violent attack on the church to try to obliterate it because he could see from the faithful preaching of the gospel that this was going to be a real threat to his “godless empire.” And so he pulled out all the stops. History shows that he failed though—the more he persecuted the church, the more it grew. Satan learned a valuable lesson during these centuries, he learned that persecution alone will not stamp out the church. And so he moved to a much more effective strategy at the close of this period and in the next period and that was he BEGAN ENDORSING THE CHURCH and INDULGING THE CHURCH and that in itself weakened the church much more than persecution ever could.
In chapter 2:10, the Lord tells them that they’re going to be tested and they’re going to have tribulation for ten days. In keeping with the prophetic idea, many Bible commentators have made the notice that this would coincide perhaps with the ten major persecutions that the church went through during these two centuries. All historians recognize that there were ten of them—Nero began it…. Paul was beheaded under Nero, Peter was crucified. Domitian, the emperor during the church of Smyrna, …John is exiled at Patmos. Traygen had Ignatius burned at the stake. Markus Orilious,… Justin Martyr was executed under him. Severous Maximinus, Decious, Valrenian, Arellian, and Diocletian. (phonetic writing). The persecutions ended in 305 AD. Diocletian is considered the worst emperor in Roman history and he was also the greatest antagonist against Christianity that there was. He has made a frontal attack at the Scriptures—he instituted burning of the Scriptures ceremonies in cities throughout his empire. But the period as a whole was a brutal period for the Church. Thousands of Christians were led into the amphitheaters and were given to the wild beasts to be torn to pieces. Others were crucified. Some were covered with animal skins and thrown to wild dogs…. others covered with tar or pitch and then lit aflame to be torches at events of the emperor. Some were burned alive. The estimates are from between two-three million Christians lost or gave their lives for the Lord during these two centuries. But the result was that in spite of this bitter persecution, the Church prospered perhaps as it never has in its history as far as spreading the gospel. In fact it was during this time that the slogan came about “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
The following are a couple of quotes of the people who lived during that time—the writer of the epistle to Diogenetus said, “Christians are scattered throughout all the cities of the world though subject to day by day punishment they increase the more in number. Do you not see that the more them that are punished, the greater becomes the number of the rest?” Justin Martyr in 150 AD wrote, “There is not one single race of men, Barbarians or Greek, nomads, vagrants, or herdsmen living in tents among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus Christ. So in spite of this persecution the gospel spread like it has never spread since. Now this is a typical church in the midst of persecution that Jesus Christ is addressing in his second message—the Church in Smyrna.
When Jesus addresses these churches he always reaches back to the vision in chapter one and he pulls out one of his attributes to remind the church of and in each case it is particularly suited for the circumstances of that church. His title here is that He “is the first and the last,” the “alpha and the omega,” the eternal one who was dead and has come to life literally who became dead—the crucifixion, and came to life—the resurrection. So with regard to time he is the eternal one, with regard to life he is the resurrected one. That would be a strong encouragement to these brothers and sisters who are undergoing this persecution—many of them were facing martyrdom. Jesus was saying to them “I am the one who has been from the beginning to the end–I—will still be here at the end, I have been dead, I have been raised, I have gone before you—fear not.” That takes on a lot more weight when it comes from Jesus Christ. He had gone through death and he was victorious and they could anticipate ultimate victory too because they were in the hands of the living eternal one. We really shouldn’t fear death as Christians. The Lord says “child it’s just a doorway… I have been there, I have been victorious and so will you.”
In verse 9 He gives this church accommodation—although one of the shortest in all of these letters, what really sets it apart and makes it special is that he gives them no condemnation at all. In all but two of the letters they have a condemnation as well—something Jesus saw that he did not like, but in this church he saw nothing that he did not like because they were persecuted, but they were pure and they were precious. He says “I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich… and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are the synagogue of Satan.” He assures the believers in Smyrna that he’s fully aware of their circumstances. He says three things:
- He knew about their tribulation—they were under intense persecution and oppression.
- He singles out one of the major distresses in this oppression—their poverty (so poor to have to beg for a living).
In addition to physical persecution, they were under severe financial persecution. Two reason for the poverty—one was a societal one and one was a state one. As far as society went, once you became a Christian often your business was boycotted. Employers would lay off Christian workers.. and so they lost their livelihood. It the state was persecuting you—would more likely than not seize your property… Hebrews 10—when that writer is speaking about what happened to this group of people when they became Christians he said, “You showed empathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property knowing that you have for yourselves the better possession and an abiding one. Similar today with the law we have in our country—if someone is involved supposedly with a drug crime they can cease all of their assets… This is true of most of the church is in the second and third century.
3. He also knows the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not but are the synagogue of Satan—the persecution of the church came from two sources primarily from the pagan sources, but also from Jewish leadership that instigated much of the early persecution. When he says blasphemy that means speaking against God. In Smyrna there were ones that were singled out as guilty of blaspheming God and they were the Jews—the very nation of God. In their intense hatred of Christians their jealousy, their slanders they were in fact blaspheming the very work of God.
Some of the accusations that were brought against Christians especially during the second and third century—the church was accused of at least six things:
- Cannibalism—because they celebrated the Lord’s supper and said this is my body… The rumor got out that somehow they were cannibalizing…
- Immorality—because they had feasts called “love feasts.” They interpreted them as orgies.
- Atheism—because they didn’t worship idols, they didn’t worship something tangible—so they really couldn’t worship God at all as far as the pagan was concerned.
- Insurrectionism—because they would not worship the emperor which was a political statement as well as a religious statement. They would not burn incense to the emperor and they lost their lives…
- Arson—because they would talk about the end of the world coming in flames of fire—that’s how Nero got away with blaming Christians for the fire in Rome. He said they just want the world to come to an end so they’ve already started Rome on fire…
- Anti-family—because Christianity would split families and families would disavow people when they became Christians. This still goes on today.
Whether Catholicism, or Lutheranism or any kind of established situation where people don’t really know the Lord they just know something of a denomination or some other faith and then you become a Christian—well Christianity is just dividing our family…
Today France is a very dark society—even though supposedly France is 75% Roman Catholic, the real religion of the country is spiritism and the occult. They identify people like us evangelicals as a cult and a sect…. With the murder situation over in Switzerland where all those people were killed or committed suicide—they will link that to the evangelical church. In Romania, when a missionary was there—the orthodox religion, the eastern orthodox priest was telling everybody that the Americans were coming to steal their babies—nothing but lies. But Satan continues to do that to create fear so that people won’t hear the Word of God. Jesus Christ makes two statements concerning the Jews at Smyrna, he says first of all they are not true Jews at all. They don’t have a right relationship with God—they are physically Jews but not spiritually.
Jesus made that very statement himself in John 8 when some Jewish leaders were not accepting Him they were slandering Him and he says you know you’re not of your father Abraham at all you’re of your father the devil and they just became incensed. But he says being a Jew physically is not the same as being a true Jew who is also spiritually a believer like Abraham. Then secondly he basically said that their synagogues were satanic. There are two important lessons there—first of all don’t ever forget that the devils’ greatest work is in religion. People want to look for him in the gutter but you should look for him in the pulpit, that’s his greatest work. And satanic religion wears many coats and in this particular case it was wearing the coat of Judaism. The more like true Christianity it is the more dangerous it is to the church. 2 Corinthians 11:14: “Satan can appear as an angle of light and so can his disciples.” They can appear as though they’re religious, they have something to offer, they have wisdom, yet in fact, it is purely satanic. Secondly, his work is always against God. From without the church he has attacked the church, he’s attacked the Scriptures. From within the church he tries to attack the church through compromise, misinterpretation, factions—when a church goes through a difficult time when there are factions developing you can count on it that the origin is something demonic. We don’t tend to think of it that way because we think in terms of these manifestations of somebody being possessed and falling down—that doesn’t mean that it’s not satanic.
Jesus says “do not fear.” They already saw it coming and the basis for this is that this is all part of his will for them and therefore he will supply their needs. Philippians 4:19 talks about meeting all of our needs in Jesus Christ—when you need courage if you are relying upon the Lord for it, He will give it to you. When you need grace He will give it to you. When we are called one day to be courageous for Jesus Christ if we are looking to Him for that strength he will give it. He says don’t worry… he says it’s going to test your faith. Satan had one purpose, he wanted to test their faith to see if imprisonment would make them turn away from God. But God had another purpose and that was in refining them and being a testimony for Jesus Christ.
Four reasons that Christians suffer and God permits it:
- DISCIPLINE—sometimes we suffer because we are out of alignment and God needs to correct us to train us in the way in which we should
go. Hebrews 12:7, 10. - PREVENTIVE—2 Corinthians 12:7. Paul had a thorn in his flesh in order that he might not become proud because of the visions he had seen. This kept him dependent and humble. Sometimes God gives us a trial and perhaps this trial can last all of your life—it can be a handicap.. it’s meant to draw you closer to Jesus Christ to keep you from becoming self-sufficient and proud.
- EDUCATIVE—Romans 5:3-5. We are learning about the Lord Jesus Christ—learning about our resources in Him through what we suffer. Hebrews 5:8 says Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered as a man he learned to be obedient to God through his sufferings.
- A TESTIMONY TO JESUS CHRIST—Acts 9:16. When you are going through a trial sometimes you have to realize that that trial of course is intended to have some benefit to you, but it also my be intended for someone else—somebody who is watching. In the case of these Christians at times it may mean the ultimate testimony of giving your life for Jesus Christ.
All of these are given by a loving God who wants you to go through these things to make us more like Jesus Christ. He says their testing will be short, some will give their ultimate testimony in death though because n verse 10 he says be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. Jesus always rewards faithfulness. Whether it’s you being faithful to him at school, at your job, to share your testimony with someone whom you know God has brought into your path… Sometimes we are asked to be faithful till death, and he says to them “if you are faithful till death I will give you the crown of life.” This is the victors crown—the steffanos (?)was awarded publicly and it was one that was highly honored publicly. There are five crowns that are mentioned in the Bible, but on the day of rewards—that day before the Lord, when we are all there it seems to me that there will be a specific victor’s crown for those who have born a testimony until death and it will be awarded publicly. Think for a moment of the names that will be called to receive that crown in that public event—Stephen, Paul, Peter, James, Polycarp the bishop of Smyrna who fifty years later was asked to give his life for Christ and he was burned to death, William Tyndale who was strangled and then burned in 1536 for his faith, Deitrick Bonnhoffer who was hanged in 1945, Jim Elliot, T. Edward McCully, Peter Flemming, Roger Yudarian, all killed by Auca Indians in 1956 when they were in South America and many women as well… what a day, we’ll all be there and Jesus will reveal the real winners in his eyes—so he tells them to be faithful to death…
In closing he gives them one final promise as he does all the churches—this message is not just to Smyrna, but to all the churches he says. He says that the one who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. Who is the one who overcomes… it’s the one who puts his faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:5).
Death in the Bible is always separation. Physical death—the separation of the body from the soul. Spiritual death—the separation of our soul from the Spirit of God and we are born that way separated from him. Only brought together and reconnected through the new birth in Jesus Christ. Eternal death—that is the second death where men and women will be judged who have not accepted Christ as their Saviour and they will be separated from God and all that he is for all eternity from all the life and all the light and all the joy will be none of their portion. In the book of Revelation Jesus gives us perhaps more insight and information on this than in any other book of the Bible. Chapter 20: 14, 15 he says death in Hades when thrown into the lake of fire—this is the second death, it’s the lake of fire and if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life he was thrown into the lake of fire. The Book of Life—the Lamb’s Book…
The saints in Smyrna really are typical of the poor and suffering believer in the world—in a world that is so success oriented, if you’re really going to stand for Jesus Christ there’s a great possibility that you will never really become rich, you will never really become enriched with all the world’s property even though we have so much more than most do. The world doesn’t understand believers. The world persecutes believers. The world is in the hands of the evil one and they don’t even see him. And he motivates them to do things like cast us into jail. But what Jesus says is “I know your hurts and I know your trials and I am there… I am the eternal one, the living one. Stay faithful. Hang in there.”
The person who is born once will die twice. The person who is born twice will only die once. If you are only born once—that’s physical birth and you are never reborn in Jesus Christ then you will die physically and you will die eternally. But if you are born twice you have been born again in the Spirit having been forgiven for all of your sins by faith in Jesus Christ then at most you will only die once physical death and even then there will be a generation the Scriptures say that will not even see physical death because the rapture will occur and Christ will come back for us and we will go to be with Him.
Can you say for certain that you have been born twice? If you have not the message of the Bible then is “Come to Christ. Come to the one who loved you so much he died for you. Come to the one who has been dead but has now been raised and is alive forevermore.”
WORKS CITED
- Revelation and Church History
- Church Age
- THE RICH CHURCH, POOR CHURCH: REVELATION 2:8-11; The Faithful Word #JMREV4. Pastor Jim Mooberry.