Letters of Jesus Part 3 - Smyrna

right here we're in Smyrna and a lovely day and I have the letter for Smyrna in my pockets so we'll read it it's the only letter that has no criticism of a church no there are two on there but there is still a church here as you know there are believers down the hill there in the city so let's see what the letter says it's addressed to the Angel of the church in Smyrna and it's quite a short letter it says this is a message from the one who is both the first and the last who was dead and came to life again I know how hard pressed you have been and of your material poverty though I see you are spiritually prosperous I know how those who call themselves Jews have reviled and slandered you I don't regard them as Jews but a synagogue presided over by Satan don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer I'd better tell you that the devil will manage to get some of your members thrown into prison where your faith will be sorely tested but it will only be a 10 day or D or even if you have to die for me I'll reward you with the crown of life again and life forever let everyone who hears these letters read take heed of what my Spirit is communicating to all seven churches and anyone who stays on top will not even be touched by the second death of Hell now one of the interesting things in that letter is I'll reward you with the crown and you are standing on the crown of Smyrna this is the crown and again Jesus shows knowledge of the local situation as well as of the church and so he says you've got a crown in Smyrna but I'll give you a better crown than that I'll give you everlasting life if you're faithful to the end with me well that's the letter to Smyrna so we've moved 35 miles north of to Smyrna Ephesus is main rival these two ports vied with one another to be the chief city of Asia it would be the next stop on a clockwise circuits Ephesus next stops Smyrna there are four things we need to know about this city first it was a beautiful city very beautiful indeed they were given various titles the pride of Asia and the glory of Asia so the city of much pride founded a thousand BC destroyed again just over five hundred years later so the city itself had died and come to life again because it was rebuilt some three hundred years after it was destroyed so he was a city that was dead and is alive again a phrase that actually comes into the letter when it was rebuilt as a Greek colony it was in fact a model of Town Planning very carefully planned and built and running down the center was a Street which they called the golden Street packed with temples all the way down there's not much left of that city just really a row of pillars of the Agora or the marketplace that's the only thing that's really survived because it's a live city unlike Ephesus which is now dead this is the second-largest city in Turkey after Istanbul and a very very busy port University town as well towering above the old part of the city down here towering up here is a magnificent hill called the crown of Smyrna everybody knows what you mean if you say at the crown interesting that that word too is picked up by Jesus here I will give you the crown and on top there is a fortress today an old fortress and you will see that on the video as well so it's busy city a beautiful city crowned by this hill secondly it is a very well city it still is all the trade comes in through this port from the West magnificent harbour I've told you we saw the Navy there the river hermus has in fact silted up quite a lot of the river but it still left this huge magnificent harbour with a narrow opening to the sea so an ideal harbour reminiscent a bit of Portsmouth in our country very cultured City that's the third thing I want to say very cultured an attractive climate unusually for Turkey but it has one natural feature which makes it a very desirable place to live and that is during the hot summer the westerly breeze which they call the Zephyr comes right up that Harbor and keeps the city cool much cooler than any other city in this part of Turkey and so it is a very pleasant place to live prosperous and pleasant very cultured used to have a big stadium and the library and the largest theatre it was the birthplace of the poet Homer and there's still a monument of Homer in the city but the most important thing to say about the city is that it was very patriotic mind you that was good for business nevertheless it always chose the right side in every war that swept through this area and if you can choose the right side in any war choose the victor side you're in and so when the Greeks won they became a very Greek city when the Romans run they became very Roman city and particular at the time of writing it was a very patriotic City to the Roman Empire and therefore to Emperor worship and indeed one of the first temples indeed the first temple in Asia to be built to the goddess Roma long before Emperor's were worshipped there was a goddess of the Roman Empire called Roma and the very first temple to Roma was built here in Smyrna was called a paradise of municipal vanity what a phrase and it love giving honors the freedom of the city to people honored to be a free citizen of this city 26 ad it was the only city in Asia allowed to build a temple for the Roman Emperor to be worshipped in this case it was the emperor Tiberius and the only city that Rome would grant the privilege of erecting a temple to die beerus was Smyrna now all this is building up a picture its loyalty was proverbial not to participate in all this was considered treason a city that was so full of civic pride and imperial loyalty well in that city if you didn't go along with all that then you were considered a traitor Caesar worship had started quite informally it didn't start with the emperor saying I want to be worshipped it started with people worshiping him as people today worship pop stars and all kinds of other people they worship them some people used to worship royalty you know giving them a place of adoration and putting them on a pedestal in their hearts that's how Emperor worship began quite spontaneously from the people but the Emperor's then took it up and made it official it became an established religion such a little thing to do to say Caesar is Lord and been a pinch of incest but it could cost you your life and Smyrna is a suffering Church what do we know about the church nothing it was probably founded 40 years before this letter came converts from Ephesus came to the rival city of Smyrna further up the coast one tradition actually quite a strong tradition is that Paul spent a night there that on his last journey south on his way to Ephesus he stayed in Smyrna because Timothy's brother had a house there Timothy's brother lived there and so Paul apparently stayed a night but that's the only link we know what we do have is records of a man called Polycarp who is ultimately the pastor or as they then called him Bishop in Smyrna and we'll say more about him later one of the greatest stories of Christian martyrdom in all church history is the martyrdom of Polycarp from beginning to end the story of this church is a story of a church that suffered that paid a price so let's look further into the letter very interesting how Jesus describes himself it seems as if Jesus chooses some aspect of his personality or character either that will strengthen that church and comfort them or which is something that church has come to forget or overlook which they need to remember I don't know which but each title is appropriate to that church do you know how many names and titles Jesus has the answer is 250 nobody in the whole of history has ever had so many names and titles and it's a very good exercise to write them out for yourself most Christians can get as far as 30 or 35 and then they get stuck but Jesus actually has 250 and if you want to see Jesus in as a whole if you want to get a fully balanced picture you need to think about all those titles but to reach church Jesus says this is the aspect of me that I want you to think about that is most important for you to realize and he gives himself two titles here number one I am the first and the last I began at all and I'll finish it all off he is saying this really related to the history of the human race I was there at the beginning I was probably there at the end I started it all off and I will end it all I have the beginning in the end I'm the first the last time the Alpha and the Omega in other words get a bigger view of me some people just think of Jesus as some do was around for 33 years that's a very inadequate picture that would be the most that an unbeliever could think about but to the church he is the first and the last all the way through it's Jesus it's the Christ it's the Lord and that's going to be very important long before the Roman Empire came Jesus was there and long after the Roman Empire's decline fought it still be there and empires rise and fall their wax and wane they come and go they've been 21 major civilizations on planet Earth and they've all come and gone exactly the same way and in fact you can tell where a civilization is on the curve do you know how by the quality of metal in their coins when a civilization is on the up the coins get better and better quality but when it's on the way out the coins become cheaper and cheaper alloy of metals it was a professor of metallurgy and lovely Christian in Guildford University who told me that and he'd made a special study of it and he found that you can actually trace the rise and fall of every civilization and Empire by its coins and if you just take out the coins in your pocket you'll find where we are at the moment but all these civilizations 21 of them have come and gone and Jesus has been there all the time he was there before they all rose and it'll be there after they're all gone that's the meaning of first and last it's exciting second he said I was dead and I came to life again now I told you the city did interesting that about every other human being you have to put it the other way around and say he was alive and is now dead everybody else is like that Muhammad was alive and he's dead Confucius was alive in his dead Buddha was alive and is dead Napoleon was Lively's dead Hitler's at was alive Lee's dead about everybody else you say that there's only one person you could say he was dead in his life that's Jesus that puts him in a unique category all by himself but why is he saying it to them to tell them death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you it's not the end so don't be afraid of it I was dead but look I'm alive and that should take all the sting of death away from you well he speaks from experience as well as with authority I've been through it I've died I know what it's like and I'm alive so I know now he moves to approval and three times he says here I know I know I know and there are two meanings of that you can either say it means I know about your suffering or it can mean I know you're suffering firsthand because I've been through it I know what you're going through if you said that it can have a double meaning you follow me it can either mean I know all about your problem and I sympathize with it or it means I've been through it myself and I'm sure here Jesus means it the second way may be both ways but certainly the second way I've suffered I know it I know what you're going through it's an expression of profound empathy with them they have been afflicted in two ways and he spells it out first way they've been afflicted financially they're living in a wealthy city and yet they are among the poorest of the poor the word he uses for poverty is is the lowest it's it's beggar its destitution they are destitute they are nothing they are the poorest of the poor in the wealthiest city now either that means they were poor when they began to be Christians and there is a truth in that because it's always easier for poor people to enter the kingdom than rich people and therefore the church all along has had greater numbers of the poor in its membership read 1 Corinthians 1 not many noble not many wise it'sit's the poor people who welcome the gospel Jesus said it to the Pharisees he said the poorer sees the kingdom by force they grab it they've got nothing else to grab this is their only hope so they grab it and it may mean that but it also clearly since he puts it in the word affliction it means that they were rich but became poor because they became a Christian and that is very understandable in that situation don't believe those who say it always pays to be a Christian it doesn't always pay to be a Christian let's be honest about it they were living a reduced standard of living because they'd belong to Christ there is a prosperity teaching which I'm sure you must have heard which is naive in my Bible faith can leave you living in caves and dressed in rags according to Hebrews 11 it may be that God chooses to prosper some whom he can trust with money but it is not true to say that if you become a Christian you will be better off financially and the Christians here clearly were very much worse off it had cost them and they were now literally beggars in a wealthy City because as I've already told you so much of the trade in those cities was tied up with pagan religion you had to belong to a trade guild as it's called that's a cross between a Chamber of Commerce and a trade union and it had its religious ceremonies which you had to go through and you couldn't get business and people wouldn't do business with you if you didn't belong I would cite Freemasonry today as something similar it has its religious side and a man can suffer if he comes out of that I've known people who have done now in the same way these Christians in Smyrna would lose business if they became Christians and they would have to leave the especially the dinners I want to mention this particular because it comes up again in Pergamum and Thyatira these trade guilds used to have dinners now what's wrong with attending a trade dinner well just this before they could eat they went through a religious ceremony some trade dinners today may ask the local chaplain to say grace or something but they went through a complete rigmarole and offered sacrifice to idols before you had the dinner so there was idolatry before you got your meal and there was immorality after you got your meal because after they'd had their fill of wine and this was a wine growing area then our Dionysius used to get to work and it easily became an orgy and the girls were brought in after the dinner now in that kind of setting how does a Christian businessmen behave does he go to the dinner does he go after the idolatry at the beginning and does he leave before the immorality at the end or does he stay away all together or you can understand the pressure and they were paying for it and so poverty was one of the ways that were afflicted the other way was slender and particularly by the Jews now I want to explain something about Jews in that world at that time every religion had to be registered with the Roman authorities and once you got registered you became a religio licit ah but if you couldn't get registration you were a religious illicit ah or an illegal sect and therefore you were not protected by law and anybody could take advantage of that and persecution would not be punished now the Jews had managed to get registration in spite of the fact that they refused to worship the Emperor but it was here in Asia that they got immunity from that law and it then spread right through the Jewish dispersion or diaspora so the Jews were registered but didn't have to worship the Emperor now when the Christians came along at first they were largely Jewish and so they were able to as it will be covered by the Jewish registration but then when the local Jews realized these Christians were were more just Jews and in fact were inviting Gentiles to believe in the Christ they became irritated and they had a unique weapon they could report Christians they are not Jewish they're not of us and therefore they are an illegal religion and that was how Christians began to suffer from the Roman authorities if you read the book of Acts you'll notice how often it is that it was the Jews who made things difficult for Paul and indeed the whole of Luke's Gospel and the whole of Acts were probably written as a brief for the lawyer defending Paul at his trial in Rome both books show that Christ and Paul his follower were accepted by Romans even Roman soldiers everywhere but were it was always the Jews who stirred up the Civic trouble for them that's what happened at Ephesus and the riot in Ephesus for Paul and here it clearly was happening in Smyrna now unfortunately as soon as the church got power under Constantine ever since the church has taken its revenge and been anti-semitic and given the Jews and back what they did but we mustn't forget that it was the truth originally some of them Jesus was a Jew all the apostles were Jews mostly early church was Jews but nevertheless there was anti-christian ISM before there was anti-semitism and we just need to get that perspective right so they were slandered they were betrayed there they were betrayed to the authorities by Jews who didn't like them and Jesus disowns them now these are his own countrymen remember and Jesus says I don't call them Jews he said their synagogue is presided over by Satan now Jesus had said that during his life if you read John 8 it's one of the most stirring debates Jesus had with the Jews of Jerusalem and they said God is our Father and he said he's what if God was your father you would love me I'm his son but actually he said that your father is the devil that's why you tell lies about me because he said lies are the devil's native language very interesting word indeed the devil's name is slender a dialysis slanderer and so the devil is the father of lies and clearly the Jews were telling lies about the Christians to try and get the authorities to bend them and that's a difficult sort of hostility to bear now listen to what Jesus says he says first you're the poorest of the poor but in my sight you are the wealth thing you're the plutocrats of smeller you are the richest people not the poorest cause not in money they weren't the richest but in other things and in fact when you come to die how much can you take with you how rich will you be one minute after death because you got to leave all your stocks and shares all your pensions all your bank balance you've got to leave everything behind now how rich will you be then that's the perspective you need to get because a shroud has no pocket and when a multi-millionaire multi-millionaire died someone asked how much did he leave the answer was everything see the real test three wealth is how much you're worth after you died and thus merlyn's were fabulously wealthy they've got much treasure in heaven wealth is relative riches a relative term and Jesus first of all says I know your poverty but then he knew it personally he never owned anything himself except his clothes and those were gambled for and taken off him before he died he knew poverty he had nowhere to lay his head he became poorer through him we might become rich he says you become rich through me don't think of yourselves as poor you've lost nothing that's reversing human verdicts and then he says and don't think that they're Jews they're not that's a synagogue of Satan let's get the right perspective on it see things as I see them realize that you're fabulously wealthy and you will never lose the riches you've got and realize that you are the chosen people of God not them Jesus is going to reverse human opinion all the way through these letters he's going to tell rich people that poor he's going to tell poor people a rich he's going to tell a live church it's dead he reverses our opinion he says get your thinking straight and then you can cope with the situation you're in but when you only think about your situation and not how Jesus sees it you'll go under if you only think of yourselves as poor and lied about well the one thing that then comes is self-pity and there are a few things more self-centered than self-pity get my angle on it he says see those poor Jews who call themselves Jews as in the grip of Satan you'll pity them then and see all those wealthy people and businessmen around your writing in their posh chariots and nearly said Mercedes Jerry's been riding around in that posture see all them as the real poor that they've got nothing they can take with them and then you'll get a better perspective it's really quite a thing but he says now what do I have against you and the answer is nothing Oh surely they weren't perfect nothing all their troubles were external there were no internal troubles I find this a real insight into Christ of course they weren't perfect they weren't entirely sanctified yet they still had a long way to go that doesn't bother Jesus if they share his sufferings they'll share his glory a church that's suffering for Jesus Jesus will not criticize interesting isn't it you're going through it all he has our words our encouragement and help suffering only gets sympathy from Jesus the church is nearest to Christ when it's sharing his sufferings which means that many churches in the third world are a good deal richer than many churches in our world and the church in Smyrna today is a suffering Church but it's the only one that's still there isn't that interesting there's not a church in any of the other six but there is a church in Smyrna and my wife and I had the privilege of having fellowship with them and ministering among them I'll tell you a bit more about that later well what's the advice strange comfort really wouldn't you have thought that Jesus would have given them some prosperity teaching to counteract their poverty wouldn't you thought he would say my servants should be rich if they had enough faith he didn't say anything like that he didn't even promised them any help in their suffering and he certainly didn't promise that he would get them out of their suffering now we need to notice what Jesus doesn't say in the letters as well as what he does he didn't give them one word of practical relief from their suffering indeed he goes one worse he predicts more I love the honesty of Jesus don't you he never told us that the way out of trouble is to follow him he said it's the way into trouble you ever heard these testimonies where people say I came to Jesus and all my troubles were over he heard that kind I used to believe I don't know my testimony is simple I came to Jesus in 1947 and my troubles began got baptized in the spirit a few years later and my troubles got worse and in the last few years I've been in more trouble than in the previous 30 but hallelujah jesus promised that is that in the world you'll have big trouble but cheer up I'm on top of it asked a friend some time ago how are you and you said I'm very well over the circumstances now that's a Christian reply but Jesus didn't say I'm going to bring his suffering to an end or I'm gonna help you through it he said there's more on the way and the words to come were three things they had already lost money it's through becoming a Christian they were now poor they had lost their reputation because lies are being told about them they're now to lose three more things and Jesus in all honesty says some of you going to lose your freedom you're going to go to prison for me and the conditions in prison in those days were nothing to write home about believe me indeed even today that been films made about prison conditions in Turkey Midnight Cowboy no Midnight Express thank you well some of you will face that he said loss of freedom and bad conditions many early Christians saw the inside of a prison cell next he said the loss of security there is going to be an intense period of persecution that you'll have to go through he said fortunately it'll be brief a ten day wonder but he said it's coming that phrase ten days means it's a kind of round phrase to mean it law it'll be some time but it'll be brief a ten day ordeal and third leaves that it's gonna mean loss of life martyrdom some of you will die for me some of you will have to be faithful unto death now that little word untrue doesn't mean until he's not saying be faithful until you die but be faithful to the point of having to die the most precious thing we have I suppose is life itself it's the thing we hang on to most self-preservation is a profound instinct in us I remember saying to a saintly man I'm not sure that I could die for I'm not sure if I was thrown to the Lions whether I could go through with it and he said something very wise he said David if you're faithful in small ways now he will give you the grace if the big thing comes get it right now and so Jesus says whoever is faithful to death I'll give him the crown of life the crown that he'll at the top there the glory of Smyrna the pride of Asia is that I'll give you a better crown than that the crown of life it's wonderful assurance and he says a favorite thing it says don't be afraid don't be afraid well I'm sure you realize that sounds like Jesus do you know that in this Bible where is it there are 366 times when it says don't be afraid that makes one for each year the day of the year including leap year but it was a favorite saying of Jesus all saying don't be afraid but the key here is this don't be afraid now of what's coming because so often fear is anticipation the worst fear is when you know what's going to happen and you're sort of thinking about it beforehand right even just a little thing like a visit to the dentist it's the before hand it's the fear that you can have now about what you know is coming or if you're suddenly receive a notice that the hospital can do your surgery now so come in next Tuesday it's what happens between now and next Tuesday Jesus says don't be afraid now I've told you what's going to happen prison even martyrdom but don't let that become a source of fear to you know don't be anxious about it don't be afraid of it there is a contradiction between fear and faith Mark's Gospel brings it out more than the other you can't be both at the same time you can't be trusting you can't be afraid it's either fear or faith all the way through the whole of Mark's Gospel is how Jesus weaned the disciples from fear to faith don't be afraid only believe fear and faith are incompatible when we're afraid of something especially anticipating it it means that we're losing a little faith he says fear is irrational and you deal with fear by switching the light on a child who's afraid of the dark you just switch the light on on the fear will go when they see the thing in reality in true perspective that is the cure for fear of something and here the cure is fix your eyes on the crown of life then you don't fear death see Christianity is a way to die as well as a way to live and there was a man in Beckett's field invited all his friends and relatives to come and stay with him when the doctor said his life could only last a few more days and he wrote them said come and see how a Christian dies that's a challenge isn't it that's because the Christian is looking beyond looking forward to something and that's what he says he has switched the light on see death as the weight of the crown of life it reminds me of Paul's last letter to Timothy he said I fought the fight I have finished the course I've kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me the crown of life and looking forward even Jesus himself coped with the cross he despised the shame he endured the cross why for the joy that was set before him he says get this future perspective look beyond martyrdom look beyond prison look beyond and see that crown and the fear will go it becomes irrational now his assurance has both a positive and a negative side to it the positive is I'll give you the crown of life the negative is and you will not be hurt by the second death you see there's something even worse than death the first death well it's difficult enough to think about and look forward to but the second death now that's the real thing Jesus himself said to the Apostles when he sent them out don't be afraid of those who can kill your body and do nothing worse rather fear him who can throw body and soul into hell that's the second death there's much more about it at the end of Revelation the one who overcomes can not only look forward to the crown of life but can also be assured the second death will not touch them that takes the sting of death away because the real sting of death is actually the second death the real sting of death is sin the real sting that makes death something to be abhorred is that after death you will pay for your sins that's the real sting that the second death is beyond the first and Jesus says you won't even be touched by it now it's he who overcomes I'm afraid the church can't do this for you each person has to settle this for themselves and he who overcomes well Smyrna de today did the church respond to this letter yes they did and I must tell you about Polycarp the so called Bishop of Smyrna he had known the Apostle John when he was a little boy but that just dates him but he lasted into the second century AD and became the leader of this church in Smyrna but then he was betrayed and the church was so anxious not to lose him they rushed him into hiding and they hid him in the country but I'm afraid one church member who didn't like his ministry told the authorities where he was hiding and they came and they arrested him he actually cooked a meal for them and said I'm sure you're hungry and thirsty so let me get you something to eat and drink talk about if your enemy hunger feed him and then he said but just give me two hours please I need two hours to prepare and they left him for two hours and during that two hours he prayed and he prepared his soul and he said right you can take me no he was brought before the proconsul and the proconsul said he wanted him to swear that he was loyal to the Emperor and say Caesars Lord he said I'll set you at Liberty if you'll only just swear but he added you'll have to reproach Christ and dear Paula cop came out with the classic answer 80 in six years have I served him and he never did me any injury how then can I blaspheme my king and Savior later he said to the proconsul you threatened me with fire which burns for an hour and after a little is extinguished but you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgement and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly well this infuriated them and so they ordered him to be burned at the stake now listen to this it was a Saturday but the Jews of Smyrna offered to go and collect the for the fire which was breaking the law of Moses and the Jews collected the wood on the Sabbath so hated they this man this synagogue of satan' collected the wood for the fire the custom was to nail them to the stake so they couldn't get away from the fire but he said I won't run away you don't need to know me I'll stay right here so they lit the fire and a strong Zephyr wind that Zephyr wind of Smyrna came and blew the fire away from him and the flames didn't touch him so the proconsul ordered him to be put to death by the sword that was it and polikov died suffering says the New Testament is the mark of a normal Christian whoever would live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution so it's directly related to how godly you are from the more godly you are the more difficult life will become well the city is still there is Mir has 2 million inhabitants now the second largest after Istanbul silting hasn't spoiled the port in 1922 as I've told you all the Greek houses were burned and the Greeks had to flee from the city but the church has sprung up again there is now a lovely Church of believers meeting in a basement flat by the edge of the harbor the sea has flooded the little church out two or three times already but they just came it up and pump it dry and they carry on but they suffer for their faith it's still the same story in Smyrna but it's there of course there are some Orthodox churches as well but you know the tensions between Turkey and Greece which have split Cyprus in two and it was the Greek Orthodox Church that was there but all over Turkey are springing up little groups of believers but they pay for it they suffer for their faith and therefore the church was the letter to the church at Smyrna is still the letter that speaks to their condition I was dead and I'm alive I'll give you the crown of life you

Channel: David Pawson - Official

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Length: 41min 40sec (2500 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2014