All Things New, Sermon Five. Message Notes for Revelation 2:8-11, the Letter to the Church at Smyrna
Revelation - All Things New, Sermon Five
The Witness of a Faithful Church, the Suffering People of God - Revelation 2:8-11; 20:4-6
Brief intro notes on the text: 35 miles north of Ephesus - Izmir… Smyrna (myrrh): anointed for death: John 19:39; Matthew 2:11. The women who went to Jesus’ tomb are simply referred to in church history as “the myrrh-bearing sisters.”
Goddess Roma; Temple to Tiberius - Emperor when Jesus was crucified
Beginning and End of Revelation - Vision of the Church’s Maturity
Smyrna’s Christians are headed into a great trial of their faith, a faith that’s already been severely tested. As in all great trials, the witnesses' testimony will be crucial. Let’s look at the Testimony of Jesus, the Testimony of the Church in Smyrna as they take the stand, and the Testimony of Eternity - of heaven and hell - to the fidelity of God and his people.
I. The Testimony of Jesus - First and Last; the One who Died and Lives Again - 2:8
His signature is appropriate to the destination
First and Last - the middle matters, and that includes the pain; Christ is God incarnate (Isaiah 41:4; 44:6)
To you whose city is dedicated to the Emperor under whom I was crucified and killed - he is dead. I was dead, but I’m alive forevermore.
II. The Testimony of his Bride - Ten Days of Intensified Persecution (myrrh) - 2:9-10
“I know your tribulation…” - “crushing pressure”
The “ten days” points in two directions: back to Daniel and his friends and forward into the future of the church. It alludes to Daniel 1:12-15 where, you remember, Daniel and his friends were tested for ten days. Those young men were likewise tempted to compromise with the pagan religion and government around them, but they refused and passed the test given to them. It points ahead to the entire church age described in Rev 20, not as ten days but a thousand years, in which the martyrs reign, and the gospel moves forward across the world.
Already experienced much suffering - financial impoverishment, slander; the anxiety comes with such suffering. Now, prison and death are on the horizon.
PICTURES OF THE 21 ("Ya Rabb Yeshua" - Arabic for "O Lord Jesus").AND OF CHINESE PASTOR Wang Yi (Early Rain Covenant Church; Professor of Law before he became a Pastor)
The Christian MUST have a theology of suffering
There is a uniquely Christian view of suffering: through suffering, God saves the world.
Jesus’ suffering on the cross is complete, but Jesus suffers in and with his people in our pain in many forms. The sufferings of Christ are a fellowship to which all believers belong.
Christians suffer as all people suffer and sometimes suffer for their faith. That’s part of our theology.
Christ suffered once and for all on our behalf; he suffers now in union with us: Acts 9:5
Paul: Acts 9:16; Colossians 1:24; 2 Cor 11:23-33
All Christians: Romans 8:16-17; 1 Peter 4:12-13
Our suffering points to his; his suffering comforts us in ours.
God is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, meeting us in our suffering and sorrow, redeeming them for our good and his glory. By suffering, God is known to us; Christ meets us in our destitution; we are humbled and weakened so that our dependence on God increases even as self-dependence decreases - 2 Corinthians 1-2
Suffering is sent by Satan but used by God (the devil is still God’s devil). John reminds them that it will be no one less than the Devil himself who will stand behind their persecution and orchestrate it when it comes. If Christians know it is the Devil who is after them, if they see Jewish zealots and the Roman governors as simply his pawns, they will not be beguiled so easily by the temptation to submit and to conform as a way to make life easier for themselves. They will see it for what it is: a test of the integrity of their faith and their loyalty to Jesus. 2 Corinthians 11-12
Suffering will do one of two things with our faith - purify it or destroy it. It will mature us or ruin us.
Job 19 - “I know…”
“Everything is necessary that he sends. Nothing is necessary that he withholds.” - John Newton
If there’s been no prison… no letter from a Birmingham jail from Dr King, no Pilgrim's Progress from Bunyan, no Lex Rex from Samuel Rutherford, no Gulag Archipelago from Solzhinitzyn, nothing of note from the hand of Dostoyevsky, like House of the Dead, Brothers Karamazov, or Crime and Punishment.
In Revelation, as we shall see the martyrs are a synecdoche for all Christians, a part for the whole, a representative community that stands for the entire church. And there is a very natural reason for that. Every Christian is called to suffer for his or her faith. Paul said that through many afflictions we must inherit the kingdom of God and, in another place, promised that if a man or woman were determined to live a godly life, he or she needed to prepare for opposition and persecution.
The whole life of a Christian is, in other words, a form of martyrdom; Paul even speaks of dying daily (1 Cor. 15:31) as a way of describing a faithful Christian life of godliness and service. We die to ourselves, we die to the world, we die to sinful desires, we die to ease and comfort in order to live for Christ and his kingdom. We are actively to seek, as Paul says, the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings because in a world of sin and death, in a world that is opposed to the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, everything good, everything holy, everything eternally valuable is going to come at a price.
III. The Testimony of Heaven - 2:10-11
Suffering is not worthy to be compared to either the glory or the horror of eternity
A young man in the church who heard it when it was first read - same age as the university students with us. He would later become the church’s pastor. Great Pastor-Leader-Bishop: Polycarp (read portions of letter/testimony, as below)
The Crown (Stephanos - the victor’s wreath)
The Second Death - Nothing to fear!
It is precisely because there is a Devil, because there are such things as spiritual poverty and spiritual wealth, because there is the Word of God that stands forever, and because there are the crown of life and the second death that Christians are willing, have always been willing to suffer even to the point of death if only they might prove themselves loyal and faithful to Jesus Christ, who died and came to life again for them.
The only way to escape the second death is a second birth
You may lose your life, but you will gain the crown (stephanos)
The only way to salvation is in Jesus Christ who died for sinners such as you and I, and rose again to overthrow satan and death, securing our eternal life. Come to him today that you may truly begin to live, and - when it is time to die - you will have the crown.
Link to the Wang Yi Letter - https://chinapartnership.org/blog/2018/12/my-declaration-of-faithful-disobedience/
Letter concerning Bishop Polycarp’s martyrdom below -
Chapter 8. Polycarp is brought into the city
Now, as soon as he had ceased praying, having made mention of all that had at any time come in contact with him, both small and great, illustrious and obscure, as well as the whole Catholic Church throughout the world, the time of his departure having arrived, they set him upon an ass, and conducted him into the city, the day being that of the great Sabbath. And the Irenarch Herod, accompanied by his father Nicetes (both riding in a chariot ), met him, and taking him up into the chariot, they seated themselves beside him, and endeavored to persuade him, saying, What harm is there in saying, Lord Cæsar, and in sacrificing, with the other ceremonies observed on such occasions, and so make sure of safety? But he at first gave them no answer; and when they continued to urge him, he said, I shall not do as you advise me. So they, having no hope of persuading him, began to speak bitter words unto him, and cast him with violence out of the chariot, insomuch that, in getting down from the carriage, he dislocated his leg [by the fall]. But without being disturbed, and as if suffering nothing, he went eagerly forward with all haste, and was conducted to the stadium, where the tumult was so great, that there was no possibility of being heard.
Chapter 9. Polycarp refuses to revile Christ
Now, as Polycarp was entering into the stadium, there came to him a voice from heaven, saying, Be strong, and show yourself a man, O Polycarp! No one saw who it was that spoke to him; but those of our brethren who were present heard the voice. And as he was brought forward, the tumult became great when they heard that Polycarp was taken. And when he came near, the proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. On his confessing that he was, [the proconsul] sought to persuade him to deny [Christ], saying, Have respect to your old age, and other similar things, according to their custom, [such as], Swear by the fortune of Cæsar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists. But Polycarp, gazing with a stern countenance on all the multitude of the wicked heathen then in the stadium, and waving his hand towards them, while with groans he looked up to heaven, said, Away with the Atheists. Then, the proconsul urging him, and saying, Swear, and I will set you at liberty, reproach Christ; Polycarp declared, Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?
And when the proconsul yet again pressed him, and said, Swear by the fortune of Cæsar, he answered,
Since you are vainly urgent that, as you say, I should swear by the fortune of Cæsar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn what the doctrines of Christianity are, appoint me a day, and you shall hear them.
The proconsul replied, Persuade the people. But Polycarp said,
To you I have thought it right to offer an account [of my faith]; for we are taught to give all due honor (which entails no injury upon ourselves) to the powers and authorities which are ordained of God. Romans 13:1-7; Titus 3:1. But as for these, I do not deem them worthy of receiving any account from me.
The proconsul then said to him, I have wild beasts at hand; to these will I cast you, unless you repent.
But he answered, Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous.
But again the proconsul said to him, I will cause you to be consumed by fire, seeing you despise the wild beasts, if you will not repent.
But Polycarp said, You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why do you tarry? Bring forth what you will.
Chapter 12. Polycarp is sentenced to be burned
While he spoke these and many other like things, he was filled with confidence and joy, and his countenance was full of grace, so that not merely did it not fall as if troubled by the things said to him, but, on the contrary, the proconsul was astonished, and sent his herald to proclaim in the midst of the stadium thrice, Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian. This proclamation having been made by the herald, the whole multitude both of the heathen and Jews, who dwelt at Smyrna, cried out with uncontrollable fury, and in a loud voice, This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, and the overthrower of our gods, he who has been teaching many not to sacrifice, or to worship the gods. Speaking thus, they cried out, and besought Philip the Asiarch to let loose a lion upon Polycarp. But Philip answered that it was not lawful for him to do so, seeing the shows of wild beasts were already finished. Then it seemed good to them to cry out with one consent, that Polycarp should be burnt alive. For thus it behooved the vision which was revealed to him in regard to his pillow to be fulfilled, when, seeing it on fire as he was praying, he turned about and said prophetically to the faithful that were with him, I must be burnt alive.
Chapter 21. The date of the martyrdom
Now, the blessed Polycarp suffered martyrdom on the second day of the month Xanthicus just begun, the seventh day before the Kalends of May, on the great Sabbath, at the eighth hour. He was taken by Herod, Philip the Trallian being high priest, Statius Quadratus being proconsul, but Jesus Christ being King for ever, to whom be glory, honor, majesty, and an everlasting throne, from generation to generation. Amen.
Chapter 22. Salutation
We wish you, brethren, all happiness, while you walk according to the doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; with whom be glory to God the Father and the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of His holy elect, after whose example the blessed Polycarp suffered, following in whose steps may we too be found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ!