Sermon Cloud

I want to take a minute before we discuss this letter to understand what was happening in the church of Smyrna.  Smyrna was a large and beautiful city in Asia.  It was exceptionally loyal to Rome and in ad 26 it had beat ten other cities for the right to build a temple to the emperor Tiberius. So we see that Smyrna was one of the focal points for emperor worship.  It also had a very large Jewish population.  Throughout the book of Acts often it was the Jewish population who was at the forefront of persecuting the church.  The Jews had a special privilege from Rome to practice their own religion, and at the beginning often Christianity was seen as a sect of Judaism and thus it was not persecuted.  However, by this time, the Jews were making it clear to everyone that Christianity was not a sect of Judaism and oftentimes the Jews would actually turn in the Christians because they considered their belief that Jesus was the Messiah to be blasphemy.  So, the church in Smyrna was undergoing persecution.  Many of them had lost their jobs in the trade guilds because they refused to attend the feasts and worship the idols over their particular trade.  Many of them had probably endured the plundering of their property through mob violence.  They were a poor people who had already endured many hardships including the slander of the Jewish community.  So, this is the audience I want you to be thinking about.  This was a group of extremely poor people, having suffered physically and economically for their faith, constantly being slandered and ridiculed by others.  This group, meeting in someone’s home, comes together to read this letter from Jesus, and this is what the letter says. 

Listen to the words of comfort.  The way Jesus introduces himself to this church is not with the massive vision of himself that he revealed to John but it is with his first words to John after he said “do not be afraid.”  Remember, John was suffering too, being exiled onto an island because of the Gospel.  Here Jesus comforts this church with the same words that he used to comfort John.  He begins by reminding them that he is in total control of everything.  “I am the first and the last.”  He is sovereign over all history.  Their suffering has not taken him by surprise, it has not snuck up on him; he is the first and the last.  He is more powerful and more permanent than anything or anyone who is against them.  He continues by telling them that he died and has come back to life.  He has conquered death!  He has died, but now he lives and speaks to them.  So, he shows his power by demonstrating that not even death could hold him.  This transcendent one is not like us.  He is the first and the last, he is utterly unique, totally in control, and has taken on flesh and died.  The first and the last has experienced death.  He knows what it feels like, and yet he did not stay dead, but he has conquered death.  The first and the last who has defeated the great enemy of death did not leave us hear alone to fend for ourselves.  He did not come down and in some show of might and power defeat death and then return to heaven to gloat.  We often think of the way Jesus knew his disciples and just how sweet that fellowship was.  Here we find that he knows his people now as well.  He is as near to them as he was to the disciples when he looked out and saw the boat in the sea and came walking to them.  The first and the last knows the tribulations and poverty of the church in Smyrna.  Thirty to forty people, poor, some of them probably homeless, hungry, and scared, have gathered together in someone’s home to worship Jesus and this week they actually have a letter from him written specifically to them.  As these 30 people huddle around in this room they hear that Jesus knows their tribulation and their poverty.  He sees them.  He knows there suffering.  He is aware of their struggles.  Feel the comfort that that they must have felt.  How overwhelmed they must have been to know that the God of all creation knows their suffering.  And then, as he says, “I know your poverty” they are nodding, thinking about the last time they actually ate.  Thinking about their children and how they are going to be able to provide for them.  They nod their head as they think about their own poverty and how difficult it has been.  They may even wonder if possibly God is displeased with them.  Is it their fault that they are poor, have they done something wrong?  Then they hear the God who owns the world say, “But you are rich.”  I say you are rich.  Do you hear that?  The God who owns the world says to this poor church, crowded together in this little room, persecuted and forsaken by their own families, fired from their jobs, the laughingstock of the community, God says to them, “You are rich.”  Jesus mentions three things about this church.  He knows her tribulation, her poverty, and the slander of the Jews that she has endured.  He knows these three things but he breaks them up because he wants the church to know that despite what everyone else says, despite even how they feel, they are wrong.  He wants the church to know that she is rich.  He says, “You are rich.”  That’s it.  I don’t know if you remember but the world was made with Jesus’ words.  He spoke and stars appeared.  It is no little thing to have him say, “you are rich.”  What is so amazing is that when he says it money doesn’t fall from heaven.  When he says it, their bank accounts don’t go full.  They don’t get new clothes.  What Jesus is saying here is an amazing truth.  He is saying you can be truly rich without having anything earthly.  He is telling us that there is more to wealth than stuff, more to riches than money.  In fact in a few weeks we are going to talk about another church that Jesus says something very different to them.  He says to the church of Laodicea “You say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”  

What a privilege for the Lord of all to tell this little church that they are rich.  Let’s find out why; let’s understand what it means to be truly rich.  He continues by letting them know that he hears all the lies that are being told about them.  He knows the truth.  This church has been slandered, they have been lied about, their former friends and family have been told terrible things about them and many have probably believed them.  You know how hard it is be lied about and slandered.  Sometimes you are so tired of hearing them that you almost begin to wonder if it is possible that the lies are true.  Especially because they have been lied about and slandered by people who claim to know and love and worship God.  But Jesus says, “I know.  I have heard and seen it all and the people who are slandering you, who claim to be my chosen people, who claim to know God, who claim to worship him each week as they gather together to read his word and pray, they are worshipping the devil and not me.  They are a synagogue of Satan himself, though they read the same scriptures as you.” 

Jesus is letting the church know that he sees things as they really are and not as they seem.  He sees them as rich though they seem poor.  He sees the Jews who are persecuting them as following Satan though they claim to be following God.  Things are not as they seem.  He is calling out to the church and saying, “I know you are confused, I know you are struggling because things seem so crazy, so backward, but they aren’t; they only seem that way.  I know the truth.”  This church is suffering, and one of the things that makes suffering so difficult for the believer is that we know that God is in control.  You can see why it is hard for those who believe that God is in total control to accept the fact that they are worshiping him and still suffering, while others are totally disregarding him and being successful.  And what’s sweet about this letter is he confirms that the church is right about him being in total control.  They are right that he is sovereign over everything, but, things are not the way they seem.  You can imagine the church is feeling comforted.  They are thinking, our God knows, our God sees, our God says that we are rich.  Imagine how excited they must be at this point.  Imagine what they must be thinking.  He is about to come and show everyone the truth.  He is going to come and judge our enemies and save us.  He has heard our cries and he is answering them.  Our suffering is over.  Praise God our suffering is over!  I would bet that is what they are thinking is about to happen.

Then Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.”  They are waiting to see what he is going to do.  They are saying, no, we won’t be afraid anymore, our God has heard our prayers.  Listen to what Jesus says, because I am sure it came as quite a shock to them just as any of us, who have endured suffering find ourselves shocked that we have been chosen to go through this.  Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.”  Can you just hear the shuffling going on, the moaning, the whispers, “What did he just say?”  Jesus goes on to tell them that the Devil is going to throw some of them in prison and they will be tested.  He makes an allusion to Daniel when he says they will be tested for ten days.  He is not speaking of a real ten days but of a short definable period of time where they will be tested.  In Daniel 1, Daniel refuses to eat the king’s food and compromise like everyone else.  He goes through a ten day testing period where he eats only vegetables and water and then they evaluate him.  The ten days is an allusion to a similar time of testing. 

Jesus comes to this church and tells them he has seen their suffering and he comforts them and tells them not to be afraid even though they are going to suffer more.  As I was reading this, some things jumped off the page at me.  They are suffering.  Jesus tells them that he hears them, he knows it, and yet they continue suffering.  Not only this, but I love the fact that Jesus knows about their coming suffering even before they do.  He knows that they are about to suffer.  It is not catching him by surprise, he is aware of it, he is in control of it and he will bring it to an end.  It is not indefinite.  It has an end.  I want this to change our view of suffering.  When we suffer and call out to God and then our suffering gets worse, what do we feel?  We feel alone, like God has not heard our prayers, like he is not in control, like he does not understand.  God gives this church and us a peak into the truth.  The truth is that he knows our suffering, and if it gets worse, it is not because he is unaware, but instead because he has a plan for our suffering for our good and for his glory.  I know this sounds crazy.  It is so hard to understand and we will talk more about it, but right now, we need to see that God knows our suffering, that even when it gets worse he has not abandoned us and he will bring it to a conclusion.  Because of these things, we do not need to be afraid. 

Not only does he call the church up in that little room to not be afraid, he calls them to be faithful even to the point of death.  Imagine that room.  You come and you are suffering, and you hear that your God sees, that he knows your poverty and says you are rich.  You hear these things.  And then you hear that when you leave it’s going to get worse.  Some of you will go to prison, some of you will very well die, and there are only 30 of you.  Some of you means you, or your family, or your best friend.  Amidst this news your savior says, “Be faithful unto death.”  As you finish the letter, you hear the promises of your savior.  “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.  The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”  Imagine them on their faces before God and what are they begging him.  What do they need for him to do?  They are begging him to make his promises real to them.  They are begging him to help them see what he sees.  “Please God help us to see that though we feel so poor we are really rich.  Help us to see that though the thought of death and prison hurts us, we will not be hurt by the second death.  And greatest of all, help us to see you Jesus, as more precious than anything else in the world.  Help us to see you as more precious even then life.” 

You see that is what Jesus is calling them to do when he says be faithful unto death.  He is saying, be faithful even if it means that you lose your life.  So he is saying be faithful even in the most extreme circumstances for certainly death is the most extreme circumstance.  He is saying be faithful unto the end.  Never give up.  Until the last moment, be faithful.  That is what he is calling his people to.  What does it mean to be faithful?  It means to treasure Jesus above all things.  Cling to Jesus; love him, value him, rest in him, do not be afraid.  Know that if you have Jesus you are rich.  Feel rich because you have him even though tonight you sleep outside.  Feel loved because he loves you even though your own family hates you and spreads lies about you.  Feel safe because he is near though you find yourself thrown in prison and awaiting death.  Do not be afraid. 

Do you hear what Jesus is asking?  Do you hear how extreme it is?  Do you hear what he is saying?  How can he say these things?  How can he in his right mind ask these poor people to value him above their own lives?  The only answer and the answer that is going to flood this whole book, is because Jesus is worth it.  Again and again in this book you are going to hear the phrase “Worthy is the lamb”  Worthy because he is more precious than life.  As the Psalmist says, “Your steadfast love is better than life.”  Jesus is better than life.  He is more valuable than money, he is more precious than freedom, he is safer than your home, he is more dependable than a job.  He is better because the best things in the world were made with a word from his mouth and certainly the speaker is better than what he spoke into existence.  He is better because he is before all things and when they are all gone he will remain.  He is better because his love for us is truer, deeper, more lasting, more forgiving, more understanding, more sensitive, more unique, than any love we have ever or will ever find anywhere else.  He is better because though he didn’t have to, he left heaven and came to earth and died.  Go back to that first line and let it blow you away.  I am the first and the last who died.  What?  The first and the last, the sovereign over all history died?  Why?  He died for us?  He died so that we don’t have to be afraid of death.  Think of how frightening death is.  It is scary.  The scariest thing about death is not leaving earth, but it is what happens when we leave.  The scariest thing about death, the most harmful thing about death is the permanence of it.  It is the second death that is so scary.  The second death is permanent.  The second death is eternal.  The second death is total and constant suffering.  It is described in Revelation 20 as the lake of fire.  From the second death there is no reprieve.  The second death has no end.  The second death is eternal loneliness, suffering, pain, agony, it is beyond description in its horrors.  But Jesus came and took on flesh and died so that his people would not have to suffer from the second death.  He died so that we no longer need to be afraid of death because death no longer separates us eternally from our God but instead death actually ushers us into eternal life with him.  That is why Paul can say to die is gain.  Death has been swallowed up in victory.  The sting of death which was sin has been taken away at the cross.  Our savior, who is the one we are to treasure above all things, is no longer dead but he is alive and if we will remain faithful unto death, if we will cling to him whatever the cost, then we will find that our death ushers us into an eternity with him.  An eternity with no more pain, no more suffering, no more tears, and no more death, for he has come to free us from the second death. 

It is interesting that this book begins with Satan throwing God’s people in prison for ten days, and it ends with God throwing Satan in the lake of fire for all eternity.  That is a fitting description of the difference between the sufferings we experience on this earth and the second death.  The sufferings we experience are only for a short time, but the second death is forever.  The suffering we experience now has already been experienced by our savior and even now he sees them and understands and sympathizes with us, but in the second death we will be all alone.  The grace of God which he gives to comfort us in our present afflictions will not be there.  What a gift that we don’t have to be afraid of death because if we will only cling to our savior he will give us the crown of life and we will not be harmed by the second death.  He is beautiful.  He has saved us from so much.  And he has saved us to so much.  He has saved us from the second death and he has saved us to himself.  He has saved us to gaze upon his beauty for all eternity.  He has saved us to fellowship with him forever.  At his right hand are pleasures forever more and in his presence is the fullness of joy.  My friends do not be afraid, but be faithful unto death.  Please.  Be faithful unto death.

I want to give you an illustration of what this looks like even today and then I want to talk about how to apply this to our own lives.  Last year when I had the privilege of working at Bethlehem Baptist church which is where John Piper serves, I attended one of the heaviest, elder meetings I have ever been to.  It was an elder meeting where we discussed Bethlehem missionaries and how much they should contextualize while working with Muslims in Islamic countries.  There is a debate among missionaries about how to deal with Muslims who accept Jesus.  There is a group who is pushing for a very high degree of contextualization.  This group of missionaries believes that when a Muslim accepts Jesus, instead of leaving Islam and becoming a Christian and joining a church and being kicked out of their families, ostracized and often beaten and killed, instead of this the Muslim should stay in their families, continue to go to the mosque, say the Muslim prayers, pilgrimage to Mecca, say that there is no God but Allah and Mohamed is his messenger etc.  By doing this they will avoid being persecuted and killed, and will better be able to witness to their families and friends and lead others to Jesus.  I remember listening as the elders thought through what to tell the Bethlehem missionaries who were being confronted with this.

And at the end of the day, they decided that such compromise was not okay.  To continue worshiping at the mosque and doing all these things while secretly being a Christian was not okay.  The missionaries must call those who love Jesus to be truthful before people, to stop worshiping as they once did and instead to follow Jesus.  This was intense because people will suffer and some will most likely die because of this decision.  Women will be beaten and kicked out of the homes never to see their children again and they will have to flee. 

Recently when I was back we received a letter from a woman whose sister had become a believer.  This woman begged her sister not to tell anyone.  She begged her to keep it a secret.  But her sister refused and she told her family, and this girl watched as her sister was beaten and killed by her own family.  She watched her die and saw her peace.  She saw the way she loved Jesus until the end.  She saw her joyfully and boldly accept her own death because she had found something more precious than life.  As this girl watched her sister die, she knew that her sister had found the truth.  She knew that Jesus existed and that he was with her sister even as she died.  This woman emailed one of the missionaries to say that she now believed in Jesus.  Do you what it looks like to be faithful unto death?  Do you see what Jesus was calling the church of Smyrna to?  He was saying to her what the missionaries are calling the Muslim converts to today.  They are saying, “Read this letter, it is the letter of your savior to you.”  Can you imagine being a missionary over there and watching a Muslim person come to faith?  What could you tell them?  What would you say to them?  I can think of nothing better than this letter in Revelation 2.  Can you imagine turning there with someone who was about tell their family they loved Jesus?  Can you imagine reading these words of Jesus together?  Listen to the words of Jesus to them.  He says, “The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.”  He calls them to listen to him before they leave here, for they may have to die.  How important to remind them, “Your savior knows you tribulations.”  He knows what they are about to suffer, he know that if they live they will be ostracized, poor, alone, ridiculed and lied about by their families, if they live, such will be their life.  And their savior says, “do not be afraid.”  Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.  Be faithful unto death and your savior will give you the crown of life.  Be faithful to him, for he is worth it.  He is more precious than your job which you will lose, he is more precious then your family which will turn on you (as the Psalmist says, Though mother and father forsake you, your God will never forsake you).  Jesus knows what it is like to be forsaken by his family.  His brother mocked him, his mother misunderstood, him, and his father, his eternal father whom he had dwelt with for all eternity, turned his back on him.  He endured all this for you.  Your savior endured all this so that he could end your suffering. 

Don’t you see that this is why our savior suffered?  He suffered to end our suffering.  He suffered so that at death, no matter how much we have suffered at death, it is over.  We will not be harmed by the second death!  At death all our suffering is over and we will go to dwell with the one who gave his life for us forever.  We will dwell with him and we will find him to be worth it all.  Because of this, our savior is more precious than life and so he calls all his people to be faithful unto death. 

It was crazy for me sitting in that room as the elders said “our missionaries must call Muslims to be faithful unto death.”  It was crazy because we were sitting so far away, in such a safe place, and we were saying that Jesus is more precious than life, family, friends, and work but it was others who had to endure it, it was others who had to live it out.  It made you look at your life and say, “If I am going to say that I believe so strongly that Jesus is more precious than life that I believe Muslims should be willing to die for him, I ought to evaluate my own heart and life.”  This letter to the church of Smyrna is a call for all of us to evaluate our own hearts and lives.

How precious is your savior to you?  Is he worth being faithful unto death?  What are the things in life that challenge your faith?  What idols come and sweep us away?  Is it a relationship that causes us to lose focus on our God?  Is it a family member who just makes us so angry that we feel like we can’t help but blow up?  It there someone we just can’t forgive, someone who has hurt us so badly that we don’t feel like we can really forgive them?  My friends, be faithful unto death.  Your savior is more precious than your suffering.  He is bigger than your need for revenge.  He is all you need.  What in your life are you clinging to?  What areas of your life do you struggle to give up to follow Jesus.  Remember the rich young ruler?  Jesus told him to give up all his money and follow him.  For him the call to “be faithful unto death” meant being willing to give up all his money.  What of us?  Is there anything in your life that if your savior took it from you now you would struggle to believe that having him is better than what he took away?  Do you know the one who is better than your children?  Better than your spouse?  Better than your job, your home, your comfort, your health, your dreams, your desires?  Do you know the Jesus who is better?  The call is to be faithful unto death.  This call screams at us to evaluate our lives, to look at the good things that God has given us that we have made into rights and come to believe that we actually need these things.  Our culture is so deceived by this idea of rights.  We are inundated by what we deserve and what we have a right to and if we don’t get these things we often feel somehow justified in sinning. 

Sometimes we feel Like God can’t really expect us to be able to deal with certain people.  We say, “God knows how hard this is, he can’t really expect me to forgive this person.  God knows that I can’t handle these kinds of situations.”  Do you see how we justify ourselves all the time like this?  We excuse our behavior.  “I was tired, I had a bad day at work, I am depressed, my parents really messed me up…”  Listen to what Jesus tells the church of Smyrna, be faithful unto death.  Stop the excuses.  Stop thinking that they are okay.  Be faithful unto death.  Yes, God does know all your struggles and he comes to you in your struggles and says, “Don’t be afraid, be faithful unto death.” 

How can he possibly do that, you might ask.  How can he ask us to be faithful unto death when he knows how weak we are?  When he says be faithful unto death he is not talking about something you muster up on your own.  He is not talking about your own strength.  He is not talking about something you do at all.  He knows you can’t handle certain types of people.  He knows how much sleep you need to function.  He knows how sick your mind is.  He knows it and says, “Look away from yourself and look to me!”  In your weakness, let me be strong.  Being faithful means giving up on yourself.  Stop trying to do it on your own and look to me.  Let me live through you.  Do you see what we like to do?  We like to say, “God knows my weaknesses, he knows I can’t do this so its ok that I fail.”  That is not what he is calling us to do.  It is not to say, “I can’t do it, so I will just fail;” it’s to say, “I can’t do it, God help me.”  Being faithful means clinging to Jesus.  It means believing he is worth it, he is more precious, he is better than whatever else this world might offer.  Jesus has come and given his life to forgive us of our failures and to be to us the most precious, beautiful, valuable thing in the world.  He has come to save us from ourselves, not to make living for ourselves okay. 

Listen to Paul in Philippians 3:7-10.  Paul is in prison, and he thinks this might be his last letter.  He is waiting to see if he is given the death sentence or released, and this is what he says, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”  He is showing us what it looks like to be faithful unto death.  He is showing what it looks like to not be afraid about what you will soon suffer.  You savior is better.  He is better than family, work, pleasure, revenge, or being right.  He is just plain better.  Listen to how Paul finishes: “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Do you know this Jesus?  I know some of what we have said sounds extreme; it is extreme. It is extreme because our savior is extremely worthy.  He can call his followers to be faithful unto death because he is worth it.  Revelation makes it clear he is worthy because he was faithful unto death.  Worthy is the lamb who was slain.  He is worthy because his death was for us.  He is worthy because with his death he has conquered sin and death and hell so that we no longer have to be afraid.  Do you know the savior who is worthy of such an extreme life?  Do you know the one who is so beautiful that you would consider everything rubbish compared to him?  You daughter, rubbish compared to him.  Your own life, rubbish, compared to him.  Do you know this Jesus?  If you feel unwilling right now, if you are reacting against this inside, if you don’t like what you are hearing, the answer is not to buck up.  The answer is not, “Well, this is what Jesus says to do so you better do it.”  No, the answer is to search out this one.  The answer is to look for this Jesus.  Search for him in his word.  Like we talked about last week, consider your own sin, contemplate what the second death looks like, imagine what your sin deserves, and see your savior nailed to a cross in the place of his people.  See him suffering so that he can end their suffering.  Don’t see him as the God who doesn’t care about his people suffering, don’t see him as the one who enjoys their suffering.  No, he came and died to end their suffering and now he simply calls them to see how amazing, beautiful, and glorious he is.  In the midst of the greatest suffering, we should see him as more beautiful, not less, for the more we suffer the better we are able to understand the hell that he has saved us from.  He promises that the sufferings we experience right now, no matter how heavy they are, will one day seem light and momentary compared to the glory that he holds in store for his people.  For the Muslim girl who gave her life for her savior, her suffering will seem light compared to his glory.  The suffering you endure as you forgive that person you have been refusing to forgive, the suffering you endure as you watch a loved one get sick and pass away, the suffering you endure as you watch a spouse leave and yet you cling to your savior, the suffering of giving up some of your comforts to help those in need, those sufferings, as great as they may be now, will one day seem light in comparison to the glory of your savior.  I beg you all to look to him today.  Consider his beauty.  Know the savior who is worth treasuring above all things.  What a sweet thing it is to know him.   There is no sweeter place than to rest in your savior’s arms knowing that he is better.