Book of Revelation: Chapter 2:8-11 "Smyrna"

BONUS EPISODE - A letter to the church of Smyrna. While this church's daily experience is not favorable, their promise from Jesus is: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the victor's crown of life." Let's dive into the letter and learn what real, authentic devotion to Christ might look like for some of us.

Transcript

[Music] good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever or whenever you are listening to us right now and welcome to this bonus episode of the Churchosity podcast my name is Heath Brady and I'm Andrea Brady and we are your Churchosity podcast Personnel these are the types of episodes that we like to call the postscripts because these are the things that we think and talk about when the record button button is off so thank you for listening and welcome to the Inner [Music] Circle well Andy yes here we are again I know let's keep it going keep it going keep it going yeah is the excitement building yeah I really enjoyed our last episode on uh the Church of Ephesus yeah me too it's it's uh it's a very very special episode for a lot of reasons yeah there a long way it was a little bit long is this one going to be as long um I don't think so but you never know you never know my servant Heath is long winded we'll see how it goes I mean can can you learn too much about the Book of Revelation no probably not I don't think so either so I don't mind taking our time yeah well that's good cuz we're definitely slowly progressing well I mean there's a lot to take in I think a part of me not fully grasping the book is not taking the extra time to study it yeah on a deeper level mhm yeah well Revelation is a fun book yeah you know that it's probably my favorite it's probably the one book of the 66 books that we call the Bible that I have spent the most time engrossed in yeah well you like The Book of John a lot yeah coincidentally they were written by the same guy oh yeah that's true you know I like to Envision that John was like this big like football player just this big goony guy you know he him and his brother were called the sons of thunder yes the I like that yeah it sounds like a you know a wrestling name yeah like him and his brother were a couple of WWE tag team wrestlers or something like that that's what it makes me think of yeah yeah just this couple of big goon guys and John just was engrossed in the theology that's so cool that's probably why he appeals to me cuz I'm I'm I'm I'm more like a Lawrence Rutherford type lawence oh my goodness I haven't heard that word in a Long Time Lumpy yeah I'm lumpy and I love theology so the revelation of Jesus Christ the complete unveiling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which he gave to him which God gave to him to show his bond servants mhm the things which must quickly come to pass that's what the Book of Revelation is all about right yeah it's not about names or dates or times or places or people groups or countries or events in the newspaper the center of the focus of the Book of Revelation is verse one that it's the revelation of Jesus Christ and how he is going to unveil himself to all of human history H it's pretty powerful yeah pretty intense the lord gave John a specific outline in chapter 1 verse 19 where he said John write the things which you have seen which is all of chapter 1 write the things which are which essentially are all of chapters 2 and three which were in the middle of right now and the things which shall take place metat after these things which is essentially chap 4:1 through the end of the book yep and uh we're pretty fortunate blessed happy lucky as it says in verse three because we're reading and we're hearing the words of this prophecy and part of our goal as well going through this study of Revelation is that we would also heed the things which are written that's right in this book it's great to listen it's great to hear it's great to learn but we want to make that 18in Journey from our heads to our hearts and actually put into practice the things that we are discovering mhm as we go through this book of Revelation this is a book that was John was commissioned by the Lord to write and send to seven churches and we discovered that they were seven literal churches in Asia Minor which during the Roman Empire was the westernmost Province it's not like modern-day Asia the continent today right and more like turkey yeah modern day Turkey mhm it says in verse one that the Lord sent and communicated this prophecy by an Angel he sinified it through he rendered into signs and wonders the things which are quickly going to take place and I've mentioned so many times and I'll continue to mention as we go through this study that those signs and wonders yeah in the 404 verses contained in the Book of Revelation the over 800 signs and wonders are Illusions to things in the Old Testament right so once again I challenge all of us to read this book with the eyes of an Old Testament Saint oh God cuz that's how John is writing mhm John is sentenced on the aisle of Patmos for preaching the gospel and refusing to shut up about it he's there for roughly 10 years he writes this book roughly around 93 ad and then he is released from his sentencing around 95 ad he then goes to Ephesus where he lives out the last of his days caring for Mary the mother of Jesus when she passes he buries her there's a shrine there to this day and while there in Ephesus he not only writes his three Epistles but he also writes his gospel why does all that matter well because in our last episode we talked very extensively about this the first letter to the Church of Ephesus and how how much Jesus and Paul and John loved the church in Ephesus that's true and that despite all of their obedience to Paul's warning in the book of Acts chap 20 to be on guard against the wolves that would rise up and come against the church from outside and inside mhm despite their diligence and their patience and their longsuffering to weed out false Doctrine and bad Theology and false teachers the thing that the Lord had against them on the on their report card was that they had left their first love behind their espousal love their reason for being a church in the first place right and we had a lot of conversation about that did so now we come to the letter of the Church of Smyrna the second letter the second letter which is uh if we accomplish this successfully We Will Conquer four verses on this episode

Revelation 2 starting in verse 8 okay and to the angel of the church in Smyrna Wright the first and the last who was dead and has come to life says this I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan do not fear what you are about to suffer behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for 10 days be faithful unto death and I will give you the Crown of Life he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches he who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death that is the letter to the Church of Smyrna well maybe we will be here for a while it's not very uh uplifting but I guess but there I mean it it it doesn't sound all that happy no but yet there is Joy found in this that's true and and as we go through it and unpack it and dissect it you'll see that as I've mentioned before I have this peculiar view of these letters that they're written in on at least four different levels mhm and that certainly in my opinion applies to this letter uh the first one being the literal or the local level this was a literal Church in Asia Minor yeah at the end of the first century that was in existence this was a church just like the other six that John must have been very familiar with otherwise he wouldn't be writing to them and they obviously knew who he was I mean John was an apostle of Jesus so he's kind of a celebrity but it's pretty powerful that he's that he's writing these letters to these churches and one thing that I failed to mention on the last episode that I want to mention here is that you start to notice as you go through these seven letters that it almost implies that each of these churches is somewhat caught off guard by their report card you think so well like the church like for instance here Jesus says I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich like this is a church that thought that they didn't have anything and yet in the eyes of the Lord they had everything oh so it it it just kind of Demands this assumption almost that every single church is getting a report card that they weren't necessarily expecting like the churches that thought they were doing really good aren't doing as good as they actually were and vice versa right thus the need for the report card that's true right I mean think back to the days when we were in school honey and our teachers would send us home a progress reports and how much we dreaded getting home home and showing those to our parents or at least I did you were a good student I did get one bad progress report and it was very well had to bring my my grades up but yeah but the point is is that you got your report card it wasn't so great uh and you were in action to fix it that's right well that's part of the challenge that Jesus gives to most of these churches that if you change this then good things are going to happen m otherwise your lampstand is going to get removed right just as a side note do you think that the lamp stand in Ephesus is still [Music] there uh I don't think so it is not okay so obviously at some point in time Ephesus did not remember repent and repeat and the Lord removed their lampstand mhm the city's still there the church is gone right but here in this letter to the Church of Smyrna you notice some peculiar things the first thing that you notice is that there is not a single ounce of bad news on this report card as far as how the Lord sees this church true there's nothing there's no correction here whatsoever just an encouragement encouragement Commendation obviously there's going to be some form of persecution that they're going to endure unto death and there isn't even here's the weird thing there isn't even any sort of Hope of deliverance from it right there's just the promise that if you endure unto death if you are faithful unto Christ unto death that he will reward you with the Crown of Life H so even in the darkness of this letter there is still lots of promise right that's right so let's talk about Smyrna for a little bit Smyrna was a literal place the church was a literal Church uh Smyrna at the time that this letter was written was located as I said in Asia Minor in the in what modern day Turkey it located approximately 42 Mi north of Ephesus oh that's not far not too far it had this gorgeous and ginormous double Harbor okay today the name of this city is ismir which is the Turkish rendering of Smyrna oh okay and it's the third largest city in Turkey huh yeah at the close of the 20th century there was roughly 300,000 people living just in this one city H so it's pretty major city mhm at the time this letter was written Smyrna was a major trading Port it stood at the entrance to a very very fertile Valley called marmuse and and it was securely sheltered by the Gulf of Smyrna H it was very strategically placed between Europe and Asia and because of its beauty its Splendor and its size it rivaled the city of Sardis which we'll talk about later right on a later episode at least mhm by the 4th Century Alexander the Great orders one of his generals to build this city where it was nicknamed the flower of Ionia H because it was a beautiful and well-planned city in 27 BC Rome took control of the City of Smyrna because Smyrna had proven itself faithful during several Wars including the the great Syrian war and up until roughly 324 ad so 3 and A2 centuries they enjoyed a lot of prosperity but also during that time they suffered through a lot of earthquakes and a lot of Destruction but every single time they rebuilt the city that's how big of a deal the City of Smyrna was cool at the foot of its Mountain they built a Temple of Zeus and there was this road that went from the harbor all the way up to the foot of the mountain that was called the Golden Street and along both sides of this Golden Street were several shrines to Greek gods and goddesses such as Apollo and Aphrodite and aalap is which we'll address in a later episode their primary worship was to the god of cile which later in the Greek was the the Greek name of that goddess is rehea rehea was said to be the daughter of sky and Earth she was the mother of Zeus Poseidon and haen s the worship of her was pretty wild and crazy she was known as The Giver of wealth and artistic renderings of her depicted her as sitting on a throne with a crown that had towers and weapons on it

cool Smyrna became one of the most early sponsored cities of Caesar worship M okay and this Caesar worship was extremely compulsory what that means is that each year every Roman citizen had to burn a pinch of incense on the altar in the temple to publicly acknowledge Caesar as the Supreme Lord oh gee now granted there was religious liberty in Smyrna you could worship whoever you wanted you could worship whatever God you wanted Christians could worship their God but ultimately you had to do this more of a political Act of pinching some incense on the Altar and burning it to say that essentially Caesar was the highest ranking of all the gods essentially this was done throughout all of the Roman Empire as a political symbol of unity interesting and and every year as I said every year uh Roman citizens would do this and after you did it on your way out you received a stamped document saying that you did it so you basically had to reup your certification of Caesar worship on an annual basis H so obviously for the Christians in Smyrna this created a serious problem and many perished by being burned at the stake or devoured by animals in the arena e oh because they would not declare Caesar as Lord now mind you they did this willingly mhm and I'm sure that much like today there were a lot of these Christians who would say that they were Christians privately but publicly had an allegiance to Caesar because they were afraid of persecution right they were afraid of ridicule MH what have you it's uh kind of intense when you think about it they weren't willing to be faithful until death yes I think it's pretty safe to say that by the time of John's letter to them the average Christian in Smyrna was facing martyrdom every single day so John writes this letter the words of Jesus to the Church of Smyrna and the title that Jesus picks for himself in this letter is the first and the last last so he identifies himself as God who was dead and has come to life that's a pretty peculiar title that he once again picks from Revelation CH 1 as his means of authority to say what's about to follow so I I find it rather provocative that a church in a city where Christians are persecuted and put to death for not burning a pinch of incense on the altar in Caesar lordship worship that he is claiming to be the one who was dead and has come back to life it's a promise of eternal life it's a promise of Resurrection in the Kingdom mhm I think that's just wonderful and and as I've said these letters are just so fascinating because of all of the many levels that they are written on and and we're going to discover that the theme of this entire letter literally is death everything about this letter speaks of death mhm in verse 9 Jesus says I know your tribulation oh there's that word tribulation everybody's ears perk up right the Greek word here for tribulation once again is thealis it means pressure or pressing together it means oppression it means Affliction it means distress I don't need to ask for a show of hands from our listening audience but I'm just curious how many of us experienced

tribulation maybe a little well in America I don't think that we experience it nearly as much as other parts of the world yeah but I think it's pretty safe to say that every single active Christian experiences some form of pressure some form of Oppression or Affliction or distress so uh I think this speaks to all of us mhm he says I know your tribulation Jesus knows it notice that there's always this sort of identification that Jesus has with the person that the letter is being written to that he knows what they're going through in Ephesus it was I know your Deeds here in smyrner it's I know your tribulation and your poverty it's pretty intense yeah no kidding now remember I said that this this city of Smyrna was an extreme wealthy and profitable City mhm and yet this church here is in poverty and this Greek word here for poverty there's there's two words in the in the Greek New Testament that are used for poor oh this one here means to literally have nothing at all to be under complete beggy oh no it makes me think of uh Matthew Chapter 5 blessed are the poor in spirit yeah it's the same Greek word it means to be bankrupt mhm spiritually bankrupt in Matthew Chapter 5 well here he Jesus says I know your tribulation I know the pressure that you're under the the oppression the distress the Affliction and I know that you are broke that you literally got nothing but yet you are rich and I would argue that that rich speaks of the Eternal riches that are promised to them like job though he slay me yet will I serve him yeah this is this is one of those examples that are comforting for me to know that Jesus cares about the details of Our Lives that he sees the things he sees the good and he sees the bad that we experience and that in these times of tribulation these times of poverty these times where we think we're we just got nothing left that we're still rich in his eyes mhm we're still Rich because of the inheritance that we have in him I just think that's wonderful yeah he says I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich he also says I know the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not that's a really interesting thing yeah that's kind of weird I don't know what that that's about well there's a lot of there's a lot of schools of thought on this H certainly John would know about the blasphemy of the Jews like think about John 8 I encourage our listeners to do a careful study of John chapter 8 this rather lengthy discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees where they just hurl all sorts of Blasphemous things at Jesus like he they they question his fatherhood um you know like when they say where is your father yeah you are of your father the devil yeah Jesus says that to to them you know it's it's a very very very intense uh fiery discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees and that's in John 8 so John's aware of this blasphemy of the Jews but it's quite possible because the majority of Scholars lean this way and I I think that I do as well that this is referring to the movement of legalism in the church oh it reminds me of the judaizers mhm now this is this letter is written roughly 3 years after Paul has written his his uh Epistles but remember in the book of Galatians uh this this band of troublemakers called the judaizers were on Paul's coattails mhm so while Paul is out planting churches and then he uh leaves a pastor or a bishop in charge and moves on these judaizers come in and get everyone to kind of revert back to this law centered Works oriented religion if you will oh okay and this was a major major uh type of persecution that the church faced because there was this Schism that was created through this legalism movement in the church at this time so it's possible that this this could be a movement of legalism because after all there was constantly an argument between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians about things like circumcision right like in Acts chapter 15 and what to eat and what not to eat yeah um you can look at Galatians Chapter 2 and 3 where Paul confronts Peter um about the legalism of of Judaism and that the Gentiles are saved as well but there's there's this fascinating reality that a lot of people Miss in church history and that is that the earliest of church persecution was not actually brought on by the Romans it was brought on by the Jews okay yeah like the Church of Antioch in Acts 13 um in Iconium and lisra in Acts 14 in thessalonica in Acts 17 so it's quite possible that that is more along the lines of what Jesus is is referring to here when he references the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not um because it's it's not necessarily meaning that these are literal Jews because remember all of Israel is not literal Israel right this could be more referencing the elect that that these are these are God's chosen those who say they are God's chosen but they are not does that make a little more sense yeah and then he goes one step further and says but they are of the ogue of Satan so that is where the reference to John 8 kind of flashed into my mind because in the in the argument or debate between Jesus and the Pharisees in John chapter 8 they essentially accuse him of being a fatherless man and he flips it around and says that they are of their father the devil right so you see the connection there that I'm trying to draw yeah well in regards to this persecution this tribulation that these Christians in Smyrna are facing there's this man by the name of polycarp mhm now polycarp if you're if you're a student of church history then polycarp should really peque your interest here right now so because polycarp was a disciple of John John trained polycarp oh okay John the Apostle one of the og2 disciples trained polycarp okay and I encourage all of our listeners if you have not studied polycarp and his sermons and his writings I really encourage you to do it because it's fascinating stuff but um for the sake of this conversation polycarp was who John trained for the ministry and appointed the bishop of Smyrna okay so he's like John's Timothy sure yeah that's fair yeah okay good yeah good good connection to draw there all right so John is writing this this book of Revelation in 93 ad he gets off the aisle of Patmos and polycarp is the bishop of

Smyrna roughly 166 ad polycarp was around 100 years old at this time wow polycarp the bishop of Smyrna refuses to can't his Christ lordship belief mhm he refuses to do the pinch of incense on the altar to publicly announce Caesar as Lord now mind you when you're looking at this letter to the Church of Smyrna and in verse 9 Jesus says I know your tribulation and your poverty that tribulation and poverty could have been eradicated if they would have just gone into the temple and pinched incense on the Altar and burnt it right they willingly are enduring this so polycarp in 166 ad refuses to do it and he is arrested and he is beaten and he has this well-documented quote 86 years have I served him and he has never done me wrong how can can I blaspheme my king who has loved me so bring on the Flames gee wow and polycarp was taken out and he was burned at the stake on the Sabbath day which was encouraged and cheered on by the Jews who hated him and this was done as an object lesson of Roman persecution jeez it's pretty gruesome yeah pretty gruesome when I think about the idea of persecution this is where I get myself into trouble with people because it speaks to some of my theological and doctrinal views on eschatology and modern day Christendom I make no bones about the fact that I am not a dispensationalist okay I make no bones about the fact that I am not a premillennial pre tribulation eschatological guy okay that's not me one of the reasons why is because many who are premillennial pre-trib dispensational Believers not all but many differentiate between the tribulation and persecution that John is writing about here in Smyrna and additionally is writing about being a fellow partaker of in Revelation 1 and what is classically referred to in the dispensationalist camp as the Great Tribulation okay and that just causes so many problems and one of the problems that it causes and again not all but many fall into this Camp of this sort of lethargic Christianity that because of this event known as The Rapture mhm the Great Tribulation is something that we're not going to have to deal with got it that may or may not be true however that spills over into this idea unfortunately about the church facing persecution while still on the earth and even though in the United States of America we enjoy a ridiculous amount of Freedom that we take for granted when it comes to religion how arrogant can we ever possibly be in the American Church to think that we are exempt of any form of

persecution that is the thing that I fear the most about many folks who fall into that dispensational camp H is that there's this idea that in the church in the United States of America that we aren't going to have to deal with any of this stuff you mean to tell me that a way of life that most of the church in most of the world that for most of the last 2,000 years has had to endure is something that the church in the United States of America is going to be exempt from oh yeah I would argue and I do argue 2 Timothy [Music] 3:2 indeed all who desire to live Godly in Jesus Christ will be

persecuted I looked at the Greek on that mhm guess what all means all all means all will be is a guarantee uhhuh and and persecuted is is a derivative of the same word for

tribulation my point here being that every single alive and breathing Christian is going to face some form of persecution at some point in their life right not one of us is exempt from that and I don't say that to freak everybody out I say that so that we can all realize that even if our faith in Jesus Christ were to lead us to our death we are still rich in [Music] him we are still promised a beautiful promise that's true and that is what Jesus talks about in verse 10 mhm he sayso not fear what you are about to suffer man do not fear it would appear that the antithesis of faith is fear how many times in scripture are we told to fear not that's true how many times are we told to be anxious for nothing a lot right we talked about the Overcomer what is the Overcomer in 1 John 5 it says that whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith so Jesus tells those who are experiencing tribulation and persecution and poverty and being blasphemed by those who say they're Believers and they aren't do not fear what you're about to suffer mhm I love that I love that yeah I'll get to the why in a second in the early church there were three very very prominent false doctrines that ran rampant the first one being legalism which I mentioned already the denial of Christ's finished work that's what legalism is essentially that Christ's death on the cross was not enough to save us got it the second one is gnosticism or the denial of Christ's Humanity oh that he wasn't both 100% God and 100% man at the same exact time mhm and the third one Caesar worship this denial of Christ's lordship and especially with the Believers in the Church of Smyrna the Roman government assists by the jering of the Jews who hated the Christians instilled this culture of fear in the church in Smyrna H and Jesus tells them do not fear what you're about to suffer and here's why behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for 10 days be be faithful unto death and I will give you the Crown of Life this is a very interesting Crown there's several different crowns in scripture yeah this particular Crown here this Greek word here is Stefanos it's a Victor's Crown oh if you were competing in the Roman games yeah and you won this was the crown that they gave you Jesus is saying that if you are faithful unto death you may have lost in this life but you are a victorious in My Kingdom H it's your right of passage mhm it's your claim to Victory it's pretty intense when you think about it yeah that's cool yeah think about the martyrs for the faith yeah later in the Book of Revelation talks about The Souls of the martyrs under the altar those who have been put to death for their faith some of them we're reading about right now when you think about it

yeah there's this interesting thing that Jesus says here do not fear what you're about to suffer behold the devil so that tells you who's literally behind all of this is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested there's that other word for tribulation yeah and you will have tribulation for 10 days so what's up with this 10 days yeah that's a good question now I I I will do my best to not park on small phrases or words or anything to overly sensationalize things mhm but this is one that I wanted to take a few minutes to stir up some controversy all right the more and more I study this book The More I am convinced of what I like to call the now and not yet view that what's being written about not only is literally happening in real time or did literally happen in real time but has yet to be fulfilled later as well it's a yes and conversation if you will okay so I believe that just like the church in Smyrna was a literal Church in a literal City that literally there were some who were cast into prison who were tested and faced tribulation for a period of a literal 10 days okay I also know that in the Old Testament in several places the the phrase 10 days refers to a quote short period of time oh I see that could mean anything because depending on who you are and what period of time you're living in a short period of time could be 5 minutes it could be 5 years who knows depends on what you're waiting for right that's true it also could be a word of encouragement that the time that they are tested and the tribulation that they're going to endure is only for a short period of time so two sides of the same coin if you will mhm but here's where I want to stir up trouble you ready for this okay as I said I believe that these letters are written on sever several different level levels one of them being prophetic that they lay out all of church history so if the first letter to the Church of Ephesus represents the apostolic era the apostolic church and all of the things that it struggled with which are outlined in all seven of these letters mhm as well as six of the seven letters that Paul writes in his Epistles then this letter would speak to the phase of church history of the persecuted Church okay and I will have all of us know that there literally is a period of time that is labeled as the age of persecution mhm it's roughly 250 years wow during this 250 years there were some interesting people in charge of Rome that hurled persecution gross persecution and murder at the church it wasn't just Nero ladies and gentlemen yeah that was the first one that came to mind yeah so if you start with Nero uh-huh then you have demission uhhuh then you have Tran then you have Marcus aurelus all of our Gladiator movie lovers ears just perked up then you have someone named Septimus seus sounds like a Harry Potter character I was going to say seus Snape then you have Max amminus okay then you have Deus uhhuh Valyrian aurelian and then

Diocesan those are all Roman emperors wow guess how many there are 10 10 and during these 10 specific

Caesars which spans over 250 years mhm there is an intense amount of death in the church wow at their

hands this is what the Roman persecution looked like there was famine and pestilence running rampant in Rome and this was caused by several things for instance there were several diseases that were brought back from various Wars like the Syrian War mhm the Tyber River overflowed and so all of the grain storehouses all flooded out oh no so essentially Rome was really not doing okay mhm and they decided to blame it on this false religion called Christianity quote unquote false religion of Christianity so Christians were blamed and punished for this famine and pestilence in Rome and therefore Christianity became illegal and during the period of time that these 10 different Emperors ruled over 5 million Christians died wow and you can read about that in detail in the fox's book of Martyrs I didn't just pull that number out of thin air okay it's very real it's a matter of History not just ch church history but world history MH you can see the catacombs exactly yeah yep but Jesus promises these specific Christian Christians here in Smyrna and I believe all Christians of all time as I will get to here in a second to be faithful even unto death why because he will give them a Crown of Life the Stefanos the Victor's Crown mhm and then you have this addendum this PS that just like in the letter to the Church of Ephesus is outside the body of the letter the he who has an ear well that's everybody let him hear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches that's all churches not just this one not just these seven but all churches of all time everybody listen up he who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death he who overcomes right we heard that last time yep 1 John 54 and 5 whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith who is the one who overc comes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the son of God that's the one who overcomes the world right so even though we may not have long life while on this Earth we've overcome the world because of Jesus mhm because he's overcome the

world but he says he who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death what is this second death what does that mean oh I guess I didn't look at that second death some points of interest would be in Revelation 20:6 yeah which references the second death and Jude verse 12 which refers to dying a second time H but I kind of like my old buddy Chuck mistler little flippant statement that he makes in regards to this whole concept of the second death mhm if you are born only once then you die twice oh but if you are born twice you die only [Laughter] once I guess that's true I think that speaks pretty plainly yeah uh to what Jesus is referring to here in other words you must be born again right yeah a Christian is someone who is Born the second time born of water and spirit mhm you will not taste the second death isn't that great right isn't that great like the whole gospel message is even present in this rather dark and not so positive letter yeah it's kind of dark yeah I'm kind of quiet here listening and thinking I'm like oh this is sad yeah so it it begs the question then why do Christians suffer why must Christians Suffer Well I came up with as many as nine possible answers to that okay wow one is to glorify God mhm that we are glorified in our suffering that God is glorified in our

suffering another one is discipline for no sin h a third one would be to prevent us from falling into sin you know kind of like a reflective timeout yeah yeah a fourth one would be to keep us from Pride mhm I mean I don't know what can strip us more of Pride than going through tough times that's true to bring about humility yeah mhm a fifth one would be to build our faith M when times are tough remember the Lord yeah you know mhm the sixth one would be to cause growth in our faith mhm you know think about some of the most persecuted churches had the most growth afterwards that's true some of the greatest growths in all of christen all the history of Christianity come out of a a small Remnant being left and starting over right another reason might be to teach obedience and discipline you know I'm going through this tough time because I was disobedient and I need to discipline myself to be more obedient so this doesn't happen again right an eighth reason would be to equip and comfort others maybe the sole purpose for a trial or tribulation that we're going through because you know a lot of times there's tough times and we're like Lord why are you letting this happen but then somewhere down the road somebody else comes into our life that's going through something similar it's true and we can relate cuz we've been there right mhm the last thing I thought of was to prove the reality of Christ in US ooh yeah for we all suffer in Christ mhm in summary it just kind of shifted my perspective about suffering about persecution about trials and tribulations May me think of James chapter 1 yeah starting in verse two consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing to summarize the those nine things that I could come up with for why it would be beneficial for Christians to suffer I think James kind of hit the nail right on the head right yeah no kidding in polycarp's vernacular don't put the pinch of incense in the bowl suffer for Christ mhm right right so that's the letter to the Church of Smyrna H so did the lampstand get removed maybe because they were persecuted to death well here's the thing what there's nothing mentioned in this letter that their lampstand is going to be removed right it doesn't say that does it yeah interesting and guess what what there's still a church there oh there is MHM oh yeah okay now it's underground okay because it's in Turkey which is a very Muslim country mhm but it's still there huh at least last I checked I mean I haven't talked to the pastor in a while just kidding a kid so on the local or literal level this church literally existed this letter went literally to the pastor and Christians of the Church of Smyrna this letter is written to all churches of all time to heed the instructions in here to suffer unto death be faithful in the suffering unto death mhm and the reward is the Crown of Life wow prophetically speaking as I said this is the period of time in church history that's known as the persecution of the church roughly 250 years this takes us from the end of the apostolic era all the way up into the beginning of the fourth Century where we bump into Constantine okay we'll talk more about him on our next episode but I want you to notice two very provocative things okay the first first thing is in this entire letter Jesus has not one concern for the Church of Smyrna nothing's out of line there's no correction here whatsoever it's one of the two churches that nothing bad is said about interesting they got straight A's if you will the second thing I want you to notice what's the overall theme of this letter Andy well it kind of seems like death death everything is death okay Jesus's title the one who is dead and has come to life right uh his his Commendation to them I know your tribulation and poverty do not fear what you're about to suffer be faithful even unto death he who has a ear let him hear he who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death right it's pretty cut and dry that death is the overarching theme of this letter yeah guess what Smyrna literally means uh what it means myrr myrr myrr oh like frankincense and myrr like frankincense and myrrh okay and so myrr myrr is a fragrance uhhuh it's an embalming ointment it's it's a perfume that is sprinkled on a person's body when they're embalmed and buried oh wow oh but it gets even creepier are you ready for this what myrr the ingredient that make up the fragrance of myrrh yeah give off their scent after being crushed oh wow I don't know about you that makes me think of Isaiah 53:5 the me one of the many mesonic prophecies about Jesus and his death on the cross but he was pierced through for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the chastisement of our well-being fell upon him and by his stri stripes we were healed mhm death death death death death to the whole thing and even the very name refers to death Smyrna which means myrrh which is an embalming fragrance that gets its scent by being crushed wow Not only was it used as an embalming ointment but it was also used for pain relief H so you have this whole theme of pain and suffering and death but yet you have this promise to the Overcomer he who has an ear let him hear that's all of us listen up to all churches of all time that like polycarp if you refus to put the pinch of incense on the Altar and declare somebody else Lord if you endure unto death Christ's lordship in your life you will be crowned with a Victor's Crown and will not be hurt hurt by the second death it's a pretty powerful letter yeah it's an extremely powerful letter it's one of two where Jesus has nothing bad to say about the Christians in this church it's not the most popular letter because of its theme mhm but the application for me that I take away from this

letter is to look at the different things that I bow my knee to in my life

life the things that replace my Lord and Savior on the throne of my heart the things that I would pinch incense for that's deep it's absolutely deep but that's what this letter is about it is a it is a letter to a church that thought that they were doing bad and they were doing richly and they were not hurt by the second death because they overcame by their faith and so what can we take away from this letter let us put our faith into practice let us be active Christians so that one day even if while on this Earth our faith would cost us our very lives we cross over into the arms of our Lord and Savior Jesus who would say Well done my good and faithful servant and place a Stefanos a Victor's Crown on our heads and that's all we have to say about that thank you for listening to the Churchosity podcast the post scripts on our next episode we'll be taking a look at the letter to the Church of pergamum what in the world does that word mean what is the theme of that letter it's going to be crazy you're going to be blown away but until next time this is the Churchosity podcast Personnel saying peace