Revelation 2:8-11 // To the Church of Smyrna

all right let's do it revelation chapter two and we got through one church out of seven so far we're gonna try to pick it up a little bit at least here there's a there's a lot of needs thing in these letters to the churches and so it's kind of worth taking and camping out just a little bit as we're going through and so once again when when we look at revelation and especially chapter two it's part of a section in the Bible the Jesus lays out in chapter one he says in chapter one verse nineteen I want you to write the things which you have seen I'm talking to John and the things which are and the things which will take place after this and that's the natural outline of the book of Revelation and so the things that John had already seen we're in Chapter one it was a vision of Jesus the things which will take place after this when you get to chapter four it's a it literally says in Greek meta Tata after these things it's literally the same phrasing that Jesus uses and then the then obviously the only other thing that you have left are the things which are and that would be the things of the church in chapters 2 and 3 so that's where we've been let's pray before I get way into this and ask the Lord to just bless the study Jesus thank you again for your word thank you for this passage that we're going through it's all red letter so it's all what you had to say about each one of these churches and Lord as we go through it we get a real glimpse into what your heart is for the church what the the fact that you don't can decode anything you see everything that's going on and the the things that are a blessing Lord you call them out and the things that are bad you call those things out and you do it in really clear terms and so Lord as we're going through and looking at what you have to say about these these people and their fellowships Lord we just pray that you'd help us to take it to heart you say in each one of these passages you said he who has ears to hear let it let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches and so Lord we want to take these things seriously and and just hide hide them in our hearts we ask that you do this all in Jesus name men okay so once again there's a structure to this whole thing as you're going through and looking at the the seven churches and this is the general structure it's it's seven parts there's seven churches seven is a number of completeness the structure has seven parts there's a greeting or address that's the introduction there's a description or a title of Jesus there's a commendation there's a condemnation there's an exhortation and there's a call to hear and then there's a promise to the overcomer one of the other things that you have what the church's is that each one of these letters is addressed to a literal 1st century church so we're going to talk about the church at Smyrna first here in verse 8 and there's a there's a town called Smyrna that was in Turkey in the area that John is referring to in these passages and it was a literal first century Church and then the passage each one of the passages like I said in my prayer every one of them says there's that they're written to all who can hear or he who has an ear and then thirdly their representation of the mystical church through the ages their letter and their order corresponds to church history it's really interesting if any with any of these churches have been in a different order if for example Pergamus had come before Smyrna it would not correspond to church history but it does and so that's not the primary meaning that we should take out of the letters but it is something that's really interesting and it's a it's a cool thing it goes along with the whole prophetic aspect of the book of Revelation and then fourthly it's a description of churches in existence now so the kind of the key to the door and these issues is that you can you could see the historical church but then each one of these churches speaks to things that are going on in churches nowadays too and so it may not be in the United States for example we're going to be talking about Smyrna and a church under persecution but is certainly the issue with a number of churches whether you're talking about the Sudan or whether you're talking about China or whether you're talking about churches over Middle East in Iraq and in Syria and Iran in those places there are believers that are under persecution for the fact that they followed Jesus so let's get into this and let's look at it the message to the church at Smyrna first thing that you need to know about Smyrna is that the the name itself comes from the word myrrh okay and so you know from Christmas the the wise men brought three Grit the three gifts and it was gold and frankincense and myrrh and myrrh was an embalming element and so Smyrna has literally the name myrrh inside it and one of the things about myrrh I'd have have you guys ever seen myrrh how many of you have seen it yeah it's kind of it's kind of a like a crystalline substance and if you want to get a fragrance out of it you have to crush it and that's really interesting because this is about the church and a persecution let's read a verses 8 through 11 it says and to the Angel of the church in Smyrna write these things says the first and last who was dead and came to life I know your works tribulation and poverty but you were rich and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation 10 days be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life you as an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches he will overcome shall not be hurt by the second death and so in the in the passage when you look at for example the title of Jesus it starts off with an introduction to the angel and we'd already talked about that the angel being the messenger of the church most likely the pastor he says these things says the first and the last who was dead and came to life first and last that's the idea you know Jesus is called the Alpha and Omega that's the first letter and the last letter and the Greek alphabet that would be like it like calling somebody the a in the Z it's it sums up the the bet in Jesus is the first and last in the sense that he's the first one that was ever there he's the last one who will ever be there he's he's the eternal one and that's a title that's not only given to Christ it's given to the Father also and so he's the first and last basically all that counts all that counts on the first and the last and then he talks about the fact that he's the one who was dead and came to life and that is a good thing to be saying to a church who's under persecution in the first century by the Roman Empire because there was a good chance that these people many of these people were going to be put to death just for following Christ and and you know again that's that's one of those things that it's it's getting easier to kind of see in the sense that people just have a visceral hatred towards the things of God they have a visceral hatred towards the things of Jesus and you see people coming after Christians in that way in the United States more and more as time goes on used to be that you know when I was younger I've just kind of seen this my whole life so when I was younger when I was like when I was a kid back in the 60s little kid I was just a little kid I wasn't an older kid when I was a little kid back in the back in the 60s everybody talked about God you know what happens every new years they do they do a Twilight Zone marathon you guys ever watch that Twilight Zone marathon totally worth watching it's really cool because they have mentions of God all the way through them they have all these weird stories that come up and they talk about God all the time and it's because it's from the early 60s and you know everybody talked about God when they talk you know they have some stories of watched a couple of them where they have these stories about it you know kind of kind of end of the world events and dystopian a brother I always used these dumb words events that are that are kind of like the end of culture the end of society you know the the fact that that the the world society has gone off into totalitarianism and and that kind of it's called this no peein in any way they they have these stories about these things and it's always in those stories about good versus evil about about people coming into power who want to shut down speech who want to shut down learning and who want to shut down God and so you have these stories from the early 60s where these dudes are flat-out blasting out basically the knowledge that there is a God and that anybody who doesn't believe in God has a real problem and it's you know it's on TV and so from the time that I'm a little kid and Here I am and you know I'm in my 50s and from the top four for at least a few more months so from the time that I was a little kid to the time that I'm alive now the whole culture has flipped upside down where any mention of God is almost always negative and always the Christian who's in the story is some kind of jerk and some kind of phony some kind of hypocrite we're in the in the stories back in the 60s they were the hero right and so we can understand in in in some instances the fact that people want to persecute you it's still hard for me to understand why somebody would want to kill you because you believe in Jesus you believe in Jesus we want to kill you and that's where the Roman Empire was you believe in Jesus we want to kill you and so the fact that Jesus titles himself as one who was dead and came to life is really interesting because the the point of that would be you don't need to fear death I'm somebody who face death full on you know clear-eyed and strong and I came out on the other side Jesus in Matthew chapter 10 verses 27 through 31 had this to say about the whole persecution thing he said this what I tell you now in the darkness shout abroad when day bright daybreak comes what I whisper in your ear shout from the housetops for all to hear don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body they cannot touch your soul fear only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell what is the price of two sparrows one copper coin but not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your father knowing it and the very hairs on your head are all numbered so don't be afraid you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows and so Jesus and talking about the the issue of persecution again this is weird weird to me because when you step back and you look at it like seriously we're gonna kill somebody because they follow Jesus and tell people about salvation and tell people about you know forgiveness of sin that kind of stuff this makes me want to kill you but that's exactly the case people want to shut you up shut you down and keep you from keep you from saying anything about the Lord so it was like that in the first century when Jesus was around in Israel in the place where where David was born and where Moses brought the people and where Joshua was you got you got all these heroes in the Old Testament Jesus comes along and he's the fulfillment of all that stuff and they want to kill him because he's talking about the things that you have in the Old Testament to the Jews and they want to kill him and they do it and then after that you have the Christians being persecuted well that's something that happens with us too and so a lot of times some of you guys are in school right now and many times it was like this when I was a kid even even back in those days when I was in school it was kind of a scary thing to let people know that you were a Christian they had the whole thing where you went to church and that was okay but if you were a Christian somebody who actually talked about Jesus somebody who actually read a Bible somebody who actually talked to talk to people about coming into a relationship with God you were weird and even some of the people who were church people had a real problem with that and they wish you'd shut up and so standing up and saying something was something that was that was scary and I understand that there's a lot more pressure even now but what Jesus says about that whole issue is that if you're gonna be afraid of somebody you need to be afraid of the right person so don't be afraid of those who can only kill your body is what he says in that passage you need to if you're going to be if you're going to fear someone the you need to fear God the one who can cast both body and soul into health that's the one you that you need to fear but then he ends up that ends that passage up with rather than fear you need to understand the father's love towards you there's not a sparrow that falls out of the out of the heavens that God doesn't see he knows them all and there's not a hair on your head that's not numbered it doesn't say counted it says numbered and so I'm somebody who had more hair on my head when I first read this passage than I do now right and what's happened over the years is herring number 53 fell out and hair number 89 fell out and that's what he's talking about each one of the hairs on my head were all numbered and I don't know where they're at now but they're gone and giving and God even knows where those things were he knows the intimate details of your life and he cares about everything about you and so a lot of times we are motivated by fear and especially in the area of sharing our faith were motivated by fear it's what God goes get the fear things straight don't be afraid of the people who around you if you if you want to be afraid of somebody then you need to be afraid of me and that's called the fear of God and the Bible teaches that so I need to have a fear of God and so when I'm standing in front of somebody and you know it's it's like what they want me to do is shut my mouth and I know that I shouldn't shut my mouth I know that I should open up and say something when I'm standing in front of somebody like that I do a calculation in my head who do I care more about right at this moment am I really more worried about what this dude in front of me thinks about me than I am what Jesus thinks about me what am i more afraid of the response that I'm gonna get from this guy or the response that I'm gonna get from the Lord in heaven when I stand before him and I'm not talking about an angry response you know that's done you know there are there have been times when each one of us has betrayed a friend right somebody who's been faithful to us there's no more faithful friend than Jesus and when when you betrayed a friend and you get caught you know you're you're standing before the person and you're trying to have that conversation where you're apologizing they don't have to say anything to you they just look at you and sometimes they look down and you know that's and it's bad and I don't ever want that when I stand before the Lord and so what I'm talking you know when I'm talking with somebody face to face I keep that in mind and the reason I do that is because of what Jesus said in that passage that's up on the screen that's why I do that but then on top of it I know that God loves me and the fact that God loves me just motivates me to want to share his love with the people who around me and that's the way that life is supposed to go and so there's a fear factor that does not involve gross food right there's a fear factor that's that that's involved here and I need to recognize that but there's a love factor also and so I need to keep in mind the love factor and that's what Jesus is dealing with when he when he says this stuff to these people imagine being under the threat of death for your faith and Jesus comes to you and he says I'm the first and the last I'm the one who's dead and I'm who was dead and I'm alive forevermore that that would have meaning to you in that situation then you have a commendation for these guys and he says in verse 9 I know your works your tribulation and poverty but you were rich and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan and so he talks about the works he talks about the tribulation and he talks about the the poverty that these people have and then in verse 10 he goes on with the exhortation let's talk about verse 9 a little bit now I know your works and again one of the things that I don't want to belabor this because we're gonna see this in a bunch of these letters but God sees everything you do he sees it all he's not missing anything and so you know there are times when we are faithful so faithfully serving the Lord were faithful faithful II ministering to people and were were it's not necessarily that you're looking for a reward but you're wondering if anybody notices never get like that you know I've just been doing this stuff for Jesus in Here I am and I'm plugging away and I'm and you know I'm doing this stuff and I just don't even know if anybody notices and so you may be over in the sunday-school you know plugging away with the children or he may be doing some other things around here with high school ministry or you know or just going out and witnessing and and I'll you know you don't see a lot of fruit from that whole thing you know I get to lead a lot of people to Jesus it wasn't always like that and so when when when I was first a Christian I did a lot of witnessing I did a lot of talking to people and got no fruit at all none at all and I just wondered what was wrong with me how come how come people listen to other people I would bring guys to church and Greg my pastor would get up and say exactly the same thing I said that week and I know he said exactly the same thing because I copied in you know and he'd say he'd say exactly the same thing that I said that weekend and the the dude I brought in would stand up and get saved and I'm like what am I you know that guy you know gets to lead people to though I didn't have a bad attitude or anything but it's like there's a little part of me that's that's going am I just spinning my wheels here am I wasting my time what's going on and the answer to that is no you're not God sees everything and so in that same passage in Matthew chapter 10 it's one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible in the same passage he talks about somebody who is doing things in the name of the Lord and one of them is giving people a cup of cold water and he said you says you do that you're gonna get a reward for it so the smallest thing that I do I can't think of you know there's not a whole lot that's that's less than giving somebody a glass of water are you thirsty can I give you a glass of water you know you're doing it for for the sake of Jesus Jesus sees that and says it's gonna be rewarded so God sees everything this is everything that goes on so something to keep in mind about your works I may never see your works I may never notice you you may never get recognition from the from the believers who are around you you're always going to get recognition from God okay so I see your works is what is what he says I know your tribulation one of the cool things about the early church and this is this is going beyond the church at Smyrna because when you talk about the early church in the first century mainly there's this kind of consolidation you have a bunch people who are getting saved a bunch of people who are beginning to follow the Lord they're really into the Word of God God's changing their lives and so they were very careful about what the Bible had to say and passing it on faithfully and that kind of stuff but as the church began to get known what happened was there was persecution and so the persecution starts coming in and when you look at what the early church had to say about these persecutions it's pretty well Tertullian one time said he was a early church father he talked about the seed of the church is the martyrs or the the blood of the martyrs the fact that every time somebody would die for Jesus multiples people would come into a relationship with God it was kind of you know it was kind of like trying to stamp out a fire if I took I haven't told my fire story for a while this is this is a good one because it's a great picture of how evangelism is supposed to work I was a calm I was a contractor and building a house and we are lacquering doors right and so we're gonna finish finish up this house and so I have a guy who's working for me and what we did was we put cardboard down on the floor in the garage and that's where we would spray the doors before we were gonna put him up and so we're done and so he's finishing out fish finishing it out and he didn't have the spray Rick grounded and so he's cleaning up and as he's cleaning up there's a spark because the spray rig wasn't grounded there's a spark and it catches on to the lacquer dust when you spray lacquer it goes on wet but there's this dust that drifts down and so it's like dust all over the ground well it's highly flammable and so it hits the the the spark hits the lacquer dust and lacquer dust starts going up and I mean inside the house doing some finish work and I hear this screams I'm like oh no what happened I'm thinking you're there's gonna be blood everywhere fingers are gone something you know something's happened like that and I come out and it's just this little spot right around the right around the can and it's lit up and it's it's going out and so what we do is we try to start stomping it out and so me and Greg are sitting there stomping on this stuff and every time we stomped it it's spread and it got it got worse it got worse and it got worse and I saw where this was going and so I just ran out to go find a hose and it took me probably two minutes to go and find this hose and by the time that I found the hose the whole floor of the garage was on fire and everything like you know the guys who were who guys had from other jobs to come over and tried to help us and they were trying to drag out cardboard and and that kind of stuff and it was just going up and they've given up there's there's smoke rolling out stuff and I finally you know I got in underneath the smoke and I put it out right and so I got it out so that's the end of that story and you know have that whole thing but whenever I think of the early church I think of that a little spark that comes out and it hits the hits the lacquer dust there's there was a preparation for a fire there and it hits the dust and it just starts going and somebody doesn't want it to go and so what they do is they try to come over and they try to stomp it out and every time that they stomp all they did was spread the flame and that's how church is supposed to be that's how Christianity is supposed to be the fret the flame just gets spread the more the people try to stamp it out in the early church the early church was a lean mean preaching machine there's a lot of junk that we deal with in churches nowadays because we got a bunch of people in our churches who aren't fully committed you know the the Bible talks about Israel and it talks about the fact that there was a mixed multitude there were people that really loved the Lord really wanted to go for it we'll really wanted to go into Canaan and then there were a bunch of people who really didn't like Egypt so much but they didn't really like the the situation with going through the wilderness so much they were you know they were just kind of in the middle on all kinds of stuff there were moderates so they're in the middle on all kinds of stuff and anytime that anything would go south anytime that anything was a problem they would have a hissy fit and they were the ones that caused most of the problems when Israel was going to the wilderness going through the wilderness they literally dragged people down in that situation and that's what we have in churches nowadays we have people who are on fire for the Lord they're going for it with Jesus they they're they're thankful for what God's done for them and they want to grow in the Lord and they want to lead people to Jesus and then you have the people who are just coming to church and they don't like to they don't like to be upset they don't like things to change they don't like you know they you know when whenever anything goes south they just start going you know the Sheep start buying you know and they they have real problems sometimes they lead people astray that kind of stuff you don't have that in the church that's under persecution because anybody who's like that is not going to stick around they don't they they don't want to be involved with that with that whole thing and so some of the best times that the church has ever had in all of its history was when it was under persecution that's what you have going on in China right now you guys that's how do what you have going on in the Sudan right now in Central Africa right now there's all these people who are under persecution and the Word of God is spreading in radical ways God's doing miracles for these people he's blessing them in all kinds of really cool ways and it's because they are a lean mean preaching machine all the junk has been cut out of their churches and that's what we need and hopefully you know we can have that without persecution but if it takes persecution I'm game you know let's do that because I'd really like to see a bunch of people get said I really like to see people coming to the Lord millions were saved they had no buildings they had no budgets they had no pray programs no buildings just think of that no buildings no money no programs just the Bible and millions of people got saved and a lot of times when we look at what goes on with church we expect for those things to have to happen if you don't have enough money how are you going to get the Word of God out if you don't have a budget for media how are you going to get the Word of God out and I don't have a problem with using a lot stuff I've you know using media you know obviously we've got a radio station we do stuff on Facebook we use whatever we can but these guys had none of that and there were more people getting saved in the first and second third and fourth centuries there well then then we've got going on now at all it's not even close as far as that and it was because again you had a bunch of people who were committed a bunch of people who were going after it and that's what we need flaming preaching machine and so then you then you have the poverty thing look again at verse nine I know your works tribulation in poverty so he knows that these guys are poor so not only do they not have a budget they don't have enough to live on that's what poverty is you don't have enough to live on and so they not only don't have a budget for their church they don't have a budget for their homes there they're absolutely poor one of the things that would happen many times when somebody became a Christian is the government would come in and confiscate all their goods if you were a businessman people would stop dealing with you in business if you were part of even a rich family a wealthy family a lot of times your family would disown you and you know again back in these days you had family farms basically and so you grew up you worked on the farm it was part of your living it was part of the way that you took care of your parents when they got older and all that stuff goes away when your family has a funeral for you because you became a Christian and so people would become poverty-stricken in those situations and so Jesus goes I know your works I see it all I know the tribulation that you're having I know the trials that you're going through the hassles that people are giving you I see it all and I know your poverty too I know the fact that you don't have anything and then he goes but you're rich there is a church in actually it's the last Church in Revelation 3 where it talks about the fact that they think that they're rich they're they're wealthy they have need of nothing and Jesus said but you're poor and you're blind and you're naked and there's this church who has nothing like literally has nothing and what Jesus says is you're rich and it's against something to keep in mind you know we were talking this morning about covetousness and there are ministries that are built on covetousness built on the fact that you know I want stuff I you know I think I should have stuff I think that God should give me stuff and so I'm gonna go out and claim the stuff that God should give me and they have that kind of attitude and that's not the attitude that you see in Scripture does God bless people yeah absolutely does he bless him all the time what about Smyrna and the blessings that these guys are getting in Smyrna it doesn't don't have to do with finances it has to do with their faithfulness and what they're looking forward to when they stand before Jesus this life ends up being pretty short it doesn't go very long and then all the stuff that you think matters now they don't matter anymore and the only thing that really matters again is that time when you're gonna be standing before the Lord and seeing what's on his face seeing what he thinks about you and so these guys are not rich and yet or excuse me our poverty stricken but Jesus says they're rich and that goes in Contra distinction to anybody who goes along teaching that if you're a Christian and you're in the will of God that you should be wealthy that is not what the Bible teaches sometimes God blesses financially and sometimes God bless us spiritually sometimes God does both but the fact that you have finances doesn't mean that you're okay and the evidence of that is Laodicea and that's the that's a church that would correspond to the last day's church like the Levites these guys had no inheritance in the Old Testament you had 12 tribes anytime that an inherence inheritance was being spoken a spoken about Levi was left out of the lists so you have these twelve tribes and one of the tribes was the tribe of Joseph had had two sons of Joseph Manasseh and Ephraim and when you're talking about passing out stuff passing out physical goods Levi was left out Manasseh and Ephraim ender enters in under Joseph and that's a twelve tribes when you're when you're talking about the twelve tribes just in general it's Joseph and then Levi you follow that okay and so there's two different kinds of lists of the twelve tribes of Israel and the Old Testament it has to do with material goods Levi's left out and what God says to Levi every time Levi is left out is I am your inheritance I'm your inheritance so let's think about that a minute when when we're talking about an inheritance do I want land do I want you know property do I want goods do I want that kind of stuff or do I want God and which one's gonna last the longest what's the best investment here are you guys you know what I mean and so that's that's what Jesus is talking about when he's talking about the fact that these guys are rich the exhortation comes up then verse 10 do not fear any of those things oh you know what I missed the synagogue of satan' part I know the he goes I know your works or tribulation and I know the blasphemy of those who say they're Jews but or not but are a synagogue of Satan in John chapter II when Jesus was having a conversation with the Jews at the time it's not all of them because Jesus is Jewish it's not all of them because Peter was Jewish and John is Jewish he's still Jewish right so it's not all the Jews but there were there were Jews that were opposed to Jesus and what Jesus said about them is you're of your father and they said our fathers Abraham and and Jesus said Abraham never tried to murder anybody you're of your father the father of the devil and he just flat-out told them you go through John chapter 8 it's really specific and so you had a group of people who were saying that they were followers of God and yet they weren't they were in actuality followers of the enemy right and that's always a danger when you're when you're talking about religion you know we we need to have a walk with God that conforms to the Word of God in every arena and so I'm supposed to love people you know here's here's the deal you know you get to a New Testament believer and I understand that they're there there are rules in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament for the execution of criminals and and that kind of thing but you have to understand that in the Old Testament you were talking about a national government it was the national government of Israel and so when certain things were were done in the nation of Israel they carried the death penalty that does not carry over into Christianity in the sense that we don't have a nation this is not a nation here we're a church and so what we do is we share the gospel with people and we don't we don't have the ability or the right biblically or otherwise when somebody walks in here if we find out for example that they have committed adultery you know in the Old Testament under the law under the nation of Israel you commit adultery it got the death penalty it's so that's that's kind of like what would happen you know if we were Israel if you went down to the courts that's the courts but when you're talking about the Assembly of believers the death penalty was not something that that people were supposed to be meeting out what we're doing is we're dealing with a bunch of people who don't know Jesus and they need to know him and so I don't I don't have the right or a reason to go out and start condemning people and that kind of in that kind of way what we do is we reach out to whoever comes in and we try to bring them into a relationship with Christ and the the maximum penalty that you give to anybody who is not gonna follow the Lord is you stop fellowshipping with them if they don't want to follow follow Jesus then the Bible says that they shouldn't be in your fellowship and she and so you go you know what dude you need to repent and if you don't want to repent and especially if you're gonna start spreading this nonsense around to other people you need to not come here you know and that's that was that was it that's basically the whole thing and so when when the church goes on and we'll talk about that a little bit when they when the church goes on what happens is it goes from a church that's not just in control of its own body of believers the control starts get more and more stringent in the sense that it gets more and more radical as Christian as church history goes on and then it starts turning into what was called Chris and dumb we're now what we're trying to do is we're trying to make the kingdom of God on earth and so now we've gone from a bunch of people who are ambassadors for heaven who don't have their inheritance in this world who have an inheritance in heaven were citizens of heaven two people who are coming in and conquering the planet and making certain areas in certain groups of people part of the kingdom of Christ and that's when you have stuff happening during the Middle Ages where people are getting put to death for for false doctrine and that kind of stuff people being burned at the stake the the whole thing with the Catholic Church and in Spain and in other areas where you have the Inquisition and those kinds of things the reason that they went there is they considered their church to be a governing authority on the planet and so all of a sudden you have a situation where the church grows teeth and they start they start trying to rule over people in that kind of sense and you can get yourself into a situation where you're no longer following God even though you can find chapter and verse in the Bible that says the things that that guy is doing is evil the problem comes in is at the point where you think that you're a governing authority that you should put down the evil and you can you can end up being again a synagogue of Satan right so I have no problem calling out sin I have no problem calling out center in our culture I have no problem calling out sin in my life in your life in any person's life I have no problem with that but what is the answer to sin and the answer to sin is repentance and forgiveness the grace of God a life with Jesus that's the answer to sin and so sin needs to be called out but then forgiveness needs to be presented and that was something that the that the the Jews in John chapter 8 had missed and so they become they think that they're actually followers of God and doing the work of God Paul thought that when he when he killed off Christians that he was helping God out before he became a Christian that's a again a really dangerous place to be so he says that they're a synagogue of Satan Jesus in his exhortation here says in verse 10 do not fear in any of those things which you were about to suffer and so the suffer suffering hasn't stopped Jesus doesn't say to pray for protection he doesn't say to pray for the end of the suffering he says don't fear don't be afraid for those things which you're about to suffer indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison in the natural reaction of that would be well God hurts you greater than the devil can't you keep me out of prison couldn't we do that and what Jesus is telling them is that's not what's going to happen and so all the way through this letter he's encouraging them to endure under the under the persecution that they're going through there may be a time when God does exactly the same thing with you there may be a time when God does exactly the same thing with our church you need to endure under the persecution I'm not always going to deliver you from everything and when you go through the Bible in the in the Old Testament there were people who had absolutely marvelous deliverances I've had some of those it's very cool when God delivers you and there are other times when they had to endure it and so when when you when you have the list of believers out of the Old Testament that God uses as kind of the Hall of faith in the Hebrews chapter 11 it ends with people who didn't end up getting the promises who instead of getting the blessing of God lived in caves and in dens of the earth and they were persecuted and in that kind of thing and what God says about them is the world wasn't worthy of them that's God's commentary on that lifestyle he doesn't say it about Abraham doesn't say about didn't say it about Jacob doesn't say it about Moses doesn't say it about any of those guys but when he comes to those people who suffer persecution and many times died under it he says the world wasn't worthy of that's what God thinks and so again I don't necessarily want persecution I'm not a guy who goes out looking for it but if God deems it worth deems me worthy of it okay I can hack it through that can you we've got the Holy Spirit and now that was a situation that Jesus talked about with these guys he talks about satanic attacks there's going to be these attacks and they indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life so he lets them know that that a trials come in and I don't know the you know we can't know from history we don't have anything in history that talks about a specific persecution the church in Smyrna and the whole 10-day thing we don't know for sure exactly what Jesus was talking about but it is very interesting that the persecution under the Roman emperors came under 10 different Emperor's and so it was Nero I'm gonna give you the list nirodha mission Trajan Hadrian Severus maximun Decius valerian aurelion and Diocletian and the and the persecution under Diocletian lasted 10 years and so that may be what's being spoken about in any case what Jesus does is he warns them about trials that are coming and that's a cool thing about the Lord - when you're gonna go through a trial jesus's and you know he doesn't he doesn't just let things come on you you know without warning necessarily if it's a big enough trial he'll give you a big enough warning about the whole thing so that you can bear under it and this is where I would tell you my jail story but I don't want to short version is I went to jail I went to jail because I blew it with tickets and God warned me the day I was going to jail and what happened was I got up I'm reading my Bible spending some time with the Lord I'm going through Psalms and I read this Psalm and I can't remember what your song it was and I've read the Psalms a whole lot and I've tried to remember but I don't remember which Samet was but I'm going through reading Psalms and it's talking about talking about person it will it's talking about a trial wasn't talking about persecution and so it was talking about a trial and I got done with a psalm and you know I just felt like the Lord was saying hey you're gonna have a trial today and I was so excited in the in the sense that I was like I'm gonna have a trial and you told me about it and it's like you know I'm gonna go through this day and I'm gonna know that everything has the hand of God all over this no matter and what I'm thinking of is I'm gonna go to work my boss is gonna get mad at me for some reason or things like that no I went to work and then went to jail that's what happened you know and and so that's a that's a cool story God used it all the way through I get to witness two guys in the in the in the jail you know you're in jail and you're witnessing to people great you know good witness Steve but anyway God God used the whole thing it was a cool story in any case the you know the whole thing with the Lord is you're going through a radical and trial God will let you know one of the things that needs to happen is you need to be talking to the Lord right the reason that that happened with me was because I got up and read my Bible that morning before I went to work and God gave me the warning he would have gave me a warning but it wouldn't be it wouldn't have been as specific and as as necessarily you know in black and white where I could see it but because I had been spending time with the Lord and I was speaking him he was speaking to me and he let me know about it before it ever came to came to pass and so I went through some hard time hard situations that whole day and the whole way through I'm just kind of I'm embarrassed but I'm victorious at the same time and God used it in my life in really cool ways and so he does the same thing with these guys he says you're gonna be tested you'll have tribulation be faithful until death and so he tells them what's coming be faithful until death and I'll give you the crown of life so death is not the end for me death is not the end for you when you die there's a crown of life that's going to be that's going to be given to you this is called the martyrs crown in in the Bible and so these guys are going to end up giving their life for the Lord and what God's gonna do is he's gonna reward them for those things these people are already in heaven they've already gotten the reward and I can tell you for sure when you go in when you go and speak to them you can you can get up to heaven and you get to heaven you can go hey anybody anybody from Smyrna here you know and then have a talk with them and they're gonna come walking over over to you you know depending on the timing and they're gonna have a crown on their head because every once in a while we could take the Crown's off we throw them at the feet of Jesus so they're gonna have a crown on your head you're gonna go is that the crown of life and they're gonna go yeah that's a crown of life and you're gonna go well would you have traded that for you know I don't know of a vacation in Greece would you have traded that for you know just a just a nice job and and you know and and family and and that kind of thing would you traded that for you know that crown for that and I can guarantee that not one of them is ever gonna say that and we need to have our priorities straight obviously with that whole with that whole situation be faithful unto death death not the coming of Jesus is what he says here death not the coming of Jesus promise the promise of the coming of Jesus was given to the last four churches so as you go through this list of churches it's really interesting that when you get to the last four all of a sudden the coming of Christ before the church starts getting mentioned over and over and over again right and the answer that would be that Jesus didn't come during the second and the third in the fourth century then he has a promise to the overcomer he says he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death and the second death is something that we're going to get into later on in the in the book of Revelation but basically what it is is this if you are born once you die twice and you when you think of death we have a tweaked concept of death we think of death as being the end right and so somebody dies if we think that that's the end when when we're thinking of death that is not what death is death is a separation so as you're going through and looking at what the Bible has to say about death when I die when you die you are separated from your body so your spirit leaves your body and that's what death is that's what's the first death is and so the Bible teaches that everybody who doesn't take part in the the rapture of the church the coming of Jesus for the church is going to die physically we all die physically and so you're separated from your body as you're separated from your body one of two things happens you either go to be with the Lord or you're going to go to the other place not so good we don't want to talk about that right I just don't want to get into that whole thing and so it's either heaven or hell right okay when when you stand before God and this has to do with the heaven or hell thing when you stand before God there's going to be another joining with the Lord or a separating so for some people there's going to be this life that we have where we're with the Lord and for other people there's going to be a separation so everybody goes through the first separation we all die you're separated from your body the second separation has to be what has to do with being separated from God forever and that's going to hell it's going to a place where God is not and as far as you're concerned God is everywhere but as far as you're concerned God just backs off on his presence and you're destroyed from the presence of God forever is what the Bible says it's the idea of you don't have any recognition of God's presence if you're in hell and so you didn't want God and God goes okay that's what you get the the rest of your life eternal life without me and it's a separation and so the first death is separation for your body the second death is separation from God and so in this passage Jesus says he will overcome shall not be hurt by the second death you.your when when you die the only dying that you're going to do is a separation from your body and then you're going to be with the Lord forever so basically it goes like this if you're born once you die twice that's why Jesus talked about being born again if you're born once you died twice you're born once you're going to die physically and then you're gonna die spiritually two you're going to be separated from your body and then you're going to be separated from God but if you're born twice you only die once if you're born twice if you're born both physically and spiritually you may come to a point where you're separated from your body some of you are not even going to go through that because the Lord's gonna come back and you're gonna you're going to be resurrected from from this body here it's gonna be a cool thing but if you if you're born twice you may die once that's physical death but then you're gonna be with the Lord forever and the second death the separation from God is never gonna have any power over you you're never going to be separated from God that's a cool thing to think about because I always thought that I would be the second Satan you know do you guys think this way you know I was like okay you know in the first in the first whole thing and this whole thing with angels angels are all cooled and Adam and Eve are all cool everything's cool and then all of a sudden Satan you know gets a bee in his bonnet and he acts like an idiot and he just wrecks the whole thing you Rex it just because he feels like it and you know he wants to be in charge and and that kind of stuff and you know then you you get I didn't know a whole lot about the Bible and so then I get I go you get to the end and so yeah everybody's up in heaven again but you know Here I am in heaven and I know how I am here on earth I love Jesus and I want to follow him but I'm always doing something stupid and so maybe and maybe I get to heaven I become the second Satan and I wreck everything again and then we have to go through this whole thing and what God says is that when when you get to heaven what happens the choices that you've made here are sealed it's done and you become you become what God wants you to be for the rest of eternity you never turn away you never rebill the second death never has power over you it's only life it's only eternal life with God that's the promise that he gives to those guys were we out here oh my gosh we did one letter sorry guys but it was a good one don't you think and again it's something to keep in mind you know in the in the book of Hebrews it talks about the fact that we need to remember brothers who are in Chains we need to we need to keep them in prayer right and so it's it's something that I always keep in mind when I'm going through this letter I've always I've already mentioned people in central Africa the some of the stuff that they're going through the the folks over in China and that kind of thing in India you know it's wild you know over in India you got you got Christian pastors who are literally being burned to death by by groups of sometimes it's Muslims sometimes it's Hindus most often it's Hindus in India and they're burned to death they just come in and kill people off just because they're Christians and it's something that we need to be praying for in any case you know again I'm not somebody who looks forward to persecution but you know if God has had that for us and for our church it would end up being a really awesome thing you'd see some cool things going on because we're never God's debtor what God has you go through God is always going to bless God's going to always honor and he's gonna he's going to give you blessings that basically overcome the trials that you're going through you need that in mind here's another thing to keep in mind before before I close itself this morning I was goofing around I put that that whole thing up about you know supporting Millennials and that's hilarious it was it was really funny I like the Kampuchea thing No did I say that right toe Millennials speak up today I didn't say that right did I kombucha kombucha okay because my son loves that my son should have been here this morning I'm gonna send in this study yeah but you know it's like those things are hilarious but you know what when you when you look at a lot of the trials that we go through to something to keep in mind as Christians I'm you know I'm going through some trials right now they're not that they're just normal trials there are things that happen in your life and so my mom's got cancer and so she's in my home and and you know we're taking care of her and stuff and you know there there are times when you know I'm on the verge because it's still my mom and and that kind of thing and it can be hard but it's not that hard Jesus Jesus gets you through those things that's just kind of life in general and I think that a lot of times the the thing that I'm saying is that a lot of things that that people in the United States get all worked up over like oh no my phone isn't working you know the other day I was working on a septic tank and this is a brand-new phone I got a brand new phone you know why because working on a septic tank in my old phone plot you know fell out of my pocket and fell under the septic tank you know there was a time when that would have happened and I would went you know it was in my sweatshirt you know that sweatshirt pockets and you know I kind of stuff happened I kind of fell over sideways and all of a sudden I hear this kapu [Music] and so I'm sitting there and I'm like okay you know my first thought was do I want to get that and and it was a the septic tank of a rental if it was my home septic tank i Matta might have thought more about that my first thought was well do I want to get that and then I just realized you know there's nothing about that phone that I want near me for the rest of eternity okay I lost my phone you know and and sometimes things like that happen with us and it's like oh no it's like seriously you lost your phone your form got broke it's called a first-world problem you know and a lot of the problems that we have that's what they are there firstworldproblems we're not having problems with eating we're not having problems with you know necessarily our our family is is going to starve or anything any any of those kind of things that that other people are going through and I'm not saying that we don't have some problems that are common to other people promise problems with your family as far as walking with the Lord and that kind of thing those are those are worldwide those are things that are that are intense but a lot of the stuff there that we think are trials you know my dishwasher broke my dishwasher broke you know what my you know i when i was a kid i would ask my dad are we gonna get a dishwasher and he goes yeah it's called an Armstrong dishwasher and what that is is you got arms to watch the dishes I'd say dad are we gonna get a power motor mower and this is what I meant by a power mower I used to mow with one of those push mowers where you go back and forth and you're rolling this thing and you had to make sure that you did it every week otherwise it was a big fat chore and what I wanted was a motor mower with it with a motor on it got it dad we're gonna get a power mower and he goes we already have one it's Armstrong and you'd say Armstrong on everything and so you're your dishwasher breaks even your mower breaks you know that kind of thing your weed eater breaks I used to have to do they didn't have weiners they had these little like scissor thing that you went around the edge of your yard clip clip clip clip on your hands and knees you know that kind of thing you know and so you gripe and moan about your weed eater and that kind again firstworldproblems right and we need to keep it in mind there are things that are way more important than that and people are suffering in ways that we're not and and so there's suffering in my life that that really matters in the in the sense that it can it can be you know overwhelming in some instances but most of the stuff that I go through it's not all that bad I'm not having a hard time even when I'm getting picked on for being a Christian call you a name and Jesus Freak you know over and over in the Sudan they kill you and they take you and they they nail you up to the door of your house in the position of Jesus being crucified like this they've done this with children in the Sudan that's what those guys are going through stuff to keep in mind let's pray we'll get out here Lord God we thank you again for your love for us thank you Jesus that we're not going through persecution or nothing that's that's really all that awful Lord we would like the purity though that comes with it and and so Lord we pray for that that you'd make us pure father we pray for the believers in China and Central Africa some of them are that are going through it through it in India and places like that father we pray that you'd have your hand on them that you'd be blessing them Lord that the promises that you gave to the church at Smyrna would be promises that would be applicable to them got the the miracles that you did kind of routinely in the early church especially when they were under persecution God I just pray that those things would be things that these people would be seeing even today Lord for us we pray that you keep our attitude straight our hearts right Lord that we would be people who are others minded in in the sense of blessing people who don't have it as good as we have it and that we'd remember them in their chains Laura I want to pray for anybody who's going through trials right now here in our fellowship and just ask that you come along beside them Lord like you did with the church at Smyrna if there's things that they have to go through that you warned them about those things and you tell them that you're gonna be with them and that you comfort them in the middle of it anybody in here who's going through those things lord I just pray that you would be their comfort that you you would stand right beside them and that you would be blessing them and that they would know it and that they would feel you there Lord we just give you the rest of the evening and pray that you bless it all that you do this all in Jesus name Amen all right god bless you guys

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 5,230

Rating: 4.8947368 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: dT3mEd4GKFw

Length: 57min 28sec (3448 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 14 2019