Scripture Rev. 2:8-11
Listen link: https://www.lcepc.org Then look for “Sermons” tab.
When things are going well, and there is a feeling of blessing, people often say, “Somebody up there likes me!” Or else when things are going poorly, or we are afflicted by lots of problems and troubles we might think God is punishing us. Well he does discipline us, and the consequences of our sins can be a source of affliction. But that is training, not punishment. Also, and importantly, good behavior doesn’t guarantee a problem free existence, neither does strong and obedient faith.
The church at Smyrna was outstanding and commendable in its mission work. Jesus had nothing against them in his job review. Yet they were also poor and afflicted. They were being slandered by some people called the synagogue of satan. And as if that were not bad enough, Jesus had to tell them that there was more trouble ahead, a time of testing that they were about to suffer. Jesus wrote to encourage them to hang in there and pass the test.
It is significant that Jesus had no corrections to admonish them about. They apparently weren’t doing anything wrong. Jesus had nothing against them, the way he had something against the Ephesian church as we saw last week. And yet, there they were, the “perfect” church, about to be tested. So, for us also, if we were a perfect church, that would not mean no testing. It would not mean no conflict. Actually, it may very well mean more testing because Satan wants to destroy anything that brings glory and honor to God. If we are doing a good job as God’s church, we are really bugging satan. He takes notice and he is going to try to do something about it. Now we are a target in the spiritual battle.
Just think of Job, a fine, upstanding, wise and faithful man that God was bragging about before satan. Then satan challenged Job’s motivation and God basically said, “Ok, I’ll let you test him and find out. You’ll see.” Poor old Job and his friends spent a whole book trying to figure out what happened and why it happened to Job! Of course, Job’s so-called friends assumed that Job must have done something really bad, and we know he didn’t.
So here we are, we know we are not perfect. In fact, we are working, with the Vision Team in the lead, to improve our spiritual health and learn how to be more perfect. And we have our struggles, trials and challenges to face. But we have no reason to let any of that discourage us. We have Jesus with us! In fact, we know that suffering is good for the church as we learn in James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be complete, not lacking anything.”
But somehow, even though we see that is in our Bible’s and we sort of know it in our heads, we still struggle to accept it when our emotions want us to get all upset about how hard life is, or how difficult ministry is. I hope today’s message will help us get this truth about God’s concern for us worked into our hearts a little more, so that we can speak with a little triumph in our voices as we say with Paul, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” And we know that we will get up again and press on, striving toward the heavenly goal!
We see that the congregation at Smyrna, already impoverished and afflicted, was soon to suffer more acutely, Jesus’ first words to comfort and encourage them are that he is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. His very first word to them was to remind them of the power of his resurrection. The promise of eternal life can sustain us through life threatening afflictions. The mighty strength God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead is the same power at work in us today.
This language also shows that Jesus knew them very well and was in touch with the history and heartbeat of the people of Smyrna. The city of Smyrna had been decimated and destroyed centuries earlier. But when Alexander the Great came through he brought it back to life again when he rebuilt it. So, Smyrna was known as a city that had died and had come back to life. Jesus’ words about his own death and resurrection reminded them of the history of the city itself. That would have been a great way to reassure the Smyrnians that there is always hope for a brighter future, no matter how hard life is now. We also do well to remember that and trust in God for his provision and grace. But when we do trust in God, it doesn’t mean that there is nothing for us to do but hang on for the ride. We get to obey the call and press on to do the work we are called to do.
When Jesus said, “I know your afflictions and your poverty,” he was talking about actual economic hardships. Much of the business in that city was run by trade guilds. They were sort of like unions. To do any business in that town you had to belong to a guild, and you could only do that if you were willing to make the required sacrifices to the god of the guild and probably also to the Roman emperor. So even if Christians had belonged to the guild before they were saved, they would soon be kicked out of the guild and lose their jobs once they refused to worship false idols by making these sacrifices.
That is why they were poor and afflicted. Many of them were unemployed and basically unemployable as far as the community around them was concerned. And far from getting any compassion or sympathy, the Romans and Jews would both agree that those Christians were getting what they deserved for being so uppity and uncooperative, or bigoted and intolerant to use the words of our day. By the way, the Jews, had their own guilds. They had already won a measure of tolerance with the Roman authorities, so that protected them from having to sacrifice to foreign gods.
Speaking of the Jews, Jesus mentions here that the Christians of Smyrna also had to contend with the synagogue of satan. We need to know who is in the synagogue of satan. But first, I do need to say that such a label doesn’t give Christians any right to be anti-Jewish. Anti-Semitism is a big problem in our world today, and in history Christians have been guilty of it too. But true Christians love the Jews! In fact, I recently heard that most of the Jews today who come to believe in Jesus are being led to the cross by Gentile believers!
So, “Synagogue of satan” was Jesus’ name for a group of people in Smyrna who were causing problems for the Christians of Smyrna. There are two possibilities. They were either Jews by birth who did not believe in Jesus as Messiah, or they were Gentiles and possibly Jews too, who had converted to Christianity but then accepted the teachings of the Judaizers. That is, there were Christians who were teaching that after you believe in Jesus, you still also had to follow all the Laws of Moses in order to be truly saved. That put pressure on Gentiles to be circumcised, for one example.
Let’s take a look at the first possibility, that when Jesus mentioned the Synagogue of Satan, he was talking about people who were Jews by birth, who were helping the Romans to persecute the Christians, because they thought Christians were a dangerous sect because they believe in Jesus. That would be pretty rough, but those Jews were the mission field. They were unbelievers who needed to be won over. Christians were already used to that.
So, let’s take a look at the second possibility, that the synagogue of satan was made up of Christians, who had accepted the false teaching of the Judaizers. Since Satan is a liar, it stands to reason that a synagogue of false teaching would be a synagogue of satan. It would have also been a harder temptation for the Christians to resist the group of Judaizers, because they were believers. They were only asking Gentile believers to join them in keeping the Laws of Moses.
There is another level of temptation here beyond merely getting along with these believers who loved all the Law. The temptation here was that it would have been a way to escape persecution by looking and acting like Jews, because the Jews were not being persecuted by the Roman Empire. Christians were. So, if Christians would have acted more like Jews, they could have joined the Jewish guilds too and go back to work. There would have been a strong temptation for the new believers to go ahead and accept the laws of Moses and act like Jews for the sake of earning a living. But that would have ruined the proclamation of the gospel! Real Christian grace and salvation is apart from the works of the Law. So, to add works of the law in order to escape persecution would have been devastating to the mission of the church!
Jesus encouraged them to keep on in the faith, and not give in to that awful temptation, no compromise. And he did that while at the same time very honestly telling them it would continue to be a hard thing to do and even get worse, but it would be worth it in the end.
What it all comes down to in general terms that can connect with our lives is that the Christians of that day were being tempted to compromise with false religion. They were being tempted to put Jesus in a private little box that nobody needed to know about, so they could live at peace with everyone and make a living. They were being tempted to pretend that they weren’t that different from anybody else. They needed this message from Jesus, this message of ultimate victory, in the face of the trials they were facing.
We need this same message today. We are tempted on every hand to compromise with the false religions of our day. There are many instances of the gospel being “watered down” to cater the masses, to satisfy the itching ears, to not offend anyone. This is an old problem. Saint Augustine said, “If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” And that was in the 4th Century! Today, there is a great desire to focus on the love of God and ignore his call to take up a cross. There is a great emphasis on tolerance and the mantra for that is, “Do not judge.” It amounts to a social and political push that asks everyone to approve of unbiblical positions on things like abortion, homosexuality, etc..
The book of Revelation speaks just as powerfully to us today as it did to those of John's day. We are in the same battle today and we must never give an inch of ground to the enemies of our Lord and Savior! (Galatians 2:4-5).1. But we also have to be careful about how we wage that war. We are not anti-gay any more than we are anti-Jewish, or anti-Semitic. I don’t even like to say that we are anti-abortion. We’re pro-life and we believe that abortion is wrong! But we don’t hate anybody. But we work in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.” That’s in 2 Cor 6.
We don’t point at people and call them worse sinners than us because of the choices they have made. Sinners are not the mission field, because we are all sinners. Unbelievers are the mission field. They are lost, and they need to know the Truth that can set them free. We have to love them with the Love of God in our hearts! It is compassion for the lost that drives us, not hatred for their lifestyles.
And we have in our midst him who is the first and the last, who died and rose again. Jesus, our Lord and Savior calls us to keep the faith, even to the point of death, so that we might also win the crown of life. We may say that it is not likely that we would ever be threatened with death for proclaiming our faith, but certainly some people will turn against us for having our opinions. So, these days, while there is no persecution, what if you were more outspoken about your faith, making the most of every opportunity? Could you keep sharing the gospel from a heart that loves the lost, even if they call you an intolerant bigot?
And what if more physical persecution does arise? How would you stand up to such pressure? We today are still engaged in the same spiritual battle and the same missionary work, to stand up for Jesus and announce the gospel to anyone who will listen. Today it is possible to lose your job of you speak up for Jesus. But we have the same comfort and encouragement that comforted and encouraged our ancient brothers and sisters in Smyrna, namely Jesus Christ is with us! We still have the same mission too, to be diligent, fruitful and effective in evangelistic ministry by whatever means works to save the lost without denying or obscuring the truth.
We and our vision team are working toward developing a bold outreach ministry that cares about people, to build trust from which we can tell them the gospel that will save their souls. It’s going to get harder before it gets easier. Jesus is sending us as laborers into the harvest, laborers not vacationers. Everyone has a role to play, a gift to give, a sacrifice to make for the cause of Christ. There’s work ahead. It isn’t going to be easy. But it’s going to be worthwhile if we persevere. Let’s do it together.
And we have the same comforting promise, Jesus declaring in our midst, I know your afflictions and your poverty—you’re a smaller older congregation than you were a few years ago, yet you are still rich with the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people! I know about the slander you will suffer from people who fail to understand what you’re trying to do, but do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and Jesus will give you life as your victor’s crown! Amen.
1https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Rev/Message-Smyrna
Listen link: https://www.lcepc.org Then look for “Sermons” tab.
When things are going well, and there is a feeling of blessing, people often say, “Somebody up there likes me!” Or else when things are going poorly, or we are afflicted by lots of problems and troubles we might think God is punishing us. Well he does discipline us, and the consequences of our sins can be a source of affliction. But that is training, not punishment. Also, and importantly, good behavior doesn’t guarantee a problem free existence, neither does strong and obedient faith.
The church at Smyrna was outstanding and commendable in its mission work. Jesus had nothing against them in his job review. Yet they were also poor and afflicted. They were being slandered by some people called the synagogue of satan. And as if that were not bad enough, Jesus had to tell them that there was more trouble ahead, a time of testing that they were about to suffer. Jesus wrote to encourage them to hang in there and pass the test.
It is significant that Jesus had no corrections to admonish them about. They apparently weren’t doing anything wrong. Jesus had nothing against them, the way he had something against the Ephesian church as we saw last week. And yet, there they were, the “perfect” church, about to be tested. So, for us also, if we were a perfect church, that would not mean no testing. It would not mean no conflict. Actually, it may very well mean more testing because Satan wants to destroy anything that brings glory and honor to God. If we are doing a good job as God’s church, we are really bugging satan. He takes notice and he is going to try to do something about it. Now we are a target in the spiritual battle.
Just think of Job, a fine, upstanding, wise and faithful man that God was bragging about before satan. Then satan challenged Job’s motivation and God basically said, “Ok, I’ll let you test him and find out. You’ll see.” Poor old Job and his friends spent a whole book trying to figure out what happened and why it happened to Job! Of course, Job’s so-called friends assumed that Job must have done something really bad, and we know he didn’t.
So here we are, we know we are not perfect. In fact, we are working, with the Vision Team in the lead, to improve our spiritual health and learn how to be more perfect. And we have our struggles, trials and challenges to face. But we have no reason to let any of that discourage us. We have Jesus with us! In fact, we know that suffering is good for the church as we learn in James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be complete, not lacking anything.”
But somehow, even though we see that is in our Bible’s and we sort of know it in our heads, we still struggle to accept it when our emotions want us to get all upset about how hard life is, or how difficult ministry is. I hope today’s message will help us get this truth about God’s concern for us worked into our hearts a little more, so that we can speak with a little triumph in our voices as we say with Paul, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” And we know that we will get up again and press on, striving toward the heavenly goal!
We see that the congregation at Smyrna, already impoverished and afflicted, was soon to suffer more acutely, Jesus’ first words to comfort and encourage them are that he is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. His very first word to them was to remind them of the power of his resurrection. The promise of eternal life can sustain us through life threatening afflictions. The mighty strength God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead is the same power at work in us today.
This language also shows that Jesus knew them very well and was in touch with the history and heartbeat of the people of Smyrna. The city of Smyrna had been decimated and destroyed centuries earlier. But when Alexander the Great came through he brought it back to life again when he rebuilt it. So, Smyrna was known as a city that had died and had come back to life. Jesus’ words about his own death and resurrection reminded them of the history of the city itself. That would have been a great way to reassure the Smyrnians that there is always hope for a brighter future, no matter how hard life is now. We also do well to remember that and trust in God for his provision and grace. But when we do trust in God, it doesn’t mean that there is nothing for us to do but hang on for the ride. We get to obey the call and press on to do the work we are called to do.
When Jesus said, “I know your afflictions and your poverty,” he was talking about actual economic hardships. Much of the business in that city was run by trade guilds. They were sort of like unions. To do any business in that town you had to belong to a guild, and you could only do that if you were willing to make the required sacrifices to the god of the guild and probably also to the Roman emperor. So even if Christians had belonged to the guild before they were saved, they would soon be kicked out of the guild and lose their jobs once they refused to worship false idols by making these sacrifices.
That is why they were poor and afflicted. Many of them were unemployed and basically unemployable as far as the community around them was concerned. And far from getting any compassion or sympathy, the Romans and Jews would both agree that those Christians were getting what they deserved for being so uppity and uncooperative, or bigoted and intolerant to use the words of our day. By the way, the Jews, had their own guilds. They had already won a measure of tolerance with the Roman authorities, so that protected them from having to sacrifice to foreign gods.
Speaking of the Jews, Jesus mentions here that the Christians of Smyrna also had to contend with the synagogue of satan. We need to know who is in the synagogue of satan. But first, I do need to say that such a label doesn’t give Christians any right to be anti-Jewish. Anti-Semitism is a big problem in our world today, and in history Christians have been guilty of it too. But true Christians love the Jews! In fact, I recently heard that most of the Jews today who come to believe in Jesus are being led to the cross by Gentile believers!
So, “Synagogue of satan” was Jesus’ name for a group of people in Smyrna who were causing problems for the Christians of Smyrna. There are two possibilities. They were either Jews by birth who did not believe in Jesus as Messiah, or they were Gentiles and possibly Jews too, who had converted to Christianity but then accepted the teachings of the Judaizers. That is, there were Christians who were teaching that after you believe in Jesus, you still also had to follow all the Laws of Moses in order to be truly saved. That put pressure on Gentiles to be circumcised, for one example.
Let’s take a look at the first possibility, that when Jesus mentioned the Synagogue of Satan, he was talking about people who were Jews by birth, who were helping the Romans to persecute the Christians, because they thought Christians were a dangerous sect because they believe in Jesus. That would be pretty rough, but those Jews were the mission field. They were unbelievers who needed to be won over. Christians were already used to that.
So, let’s take a look at the second possibility, that the synagogue of satan was made up of Christians, who had accepted the false teaching of the Judaizers. Since Satan is a liar, it stands to reason that a synagogue of false teaching would be a synagogue of satan. It would have also been a harder temptation for the Christians to resist the group of Judaizers, because they were believers. They were only asking Gentile believers to join them in keeping the Laws of Moses.
There is another level of temptation here beyond merely getting along with these believers who loved all the Law. The temptation here was that it would have been a way to escape persecution by looking and acting like Jews, because the Jews were not being persecuted by the Roman Empire. Christians were. So, if Christians would have acted more like Jews, they could have joined the Jewish guilds too and go back to work. There would have been a strong temptation for the new believers to go ahead and accept the laws of Moses and act like Jews for the sake of earning a living. But that would have ruined the proclamation of the gospel! Real Christian grace and salvation is apart from the works of the Law. So, to add works of the law in order to escape persecution would have been devastating to the mission of the church!
Jesus encouraged them to keep on in the faith, and not give in to that awful temptation, no compromise. And he did that while at the same time very honestly telling them it would continue to be a hard thing to do and even get worse, but it would be worth it in the end.
What it all comes down to in general terms that can connect with our lives is that the Christians of that day were being tempted to compromise with false religion. They were being tempted to put Jesus in a private little box that nobody needed to know about, so they could live at peace with everyone and make a living. They were being tempted to pretend that they weren’t that different from anybody else. They needed this message from Jesus, this message of ultimate victory, in the face of the trials they were facing.
We need this same message today. We are tempted on every hand to compromise with the false religions of our day. There are many instances of the gospel being “watered down” to cater the masses, to satisfy the itching ears, to not offend anyone. This is an old problem. Saint Augustine said, “If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” And that was in the 4th Century! Today, there is a great desire to focus on the love of God and ignore his call to take up a cross. There is a great emphasis on tolerance and the mantra for that is, “Do not judge.” It amounts to a social and political push that asks everyone to approve of unbiblical positions on things like abortion, homosexuality, etc..
The book of Revelation speaks just as powerfully to us today as it did to those of John's day. We are in the same battle today and we must never give an inch of ground to the enemies of our Lord and Savior! (Galatians 2:4-5).1. But we also have to be careful about how we wage that war. We are not anti-gay any more than we are anti-Jewish, or anti-Semitic. I don’t even like to say that we are anti-abortion. We’re pro-life and we believe that abortion is wrong! But we don’t hate anybody. But we work in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.” That’s in 2 Cor 6.
We don’t point at people and call them worse sinners than us because of the choices they have made. Sinners are not the mission field, because we are all sinners. Unbelievers are the mission field. They are lost, and they need to know the Truth that can set them free. We have to love them with the Love of God in our hearts! It is compassion for the lost that drives us, not hatred for their lifestyles.
And we have in our midst him who is the first and the last, who died and rose again. Jesus, our Lord and Savior calls us to keep the faith, even to the point of death, so that we might also win the crown of life. We may say that it is not likely that we would ever be threatened with death for proclaiming our faith, but certainly some people will turn against us for having our opinions. So, these days, while there is no persecution, what if you were more outspoken about your faith, making the most of every opportunity? Could you keep sharing the gospel from a heart that loves the lost, even if they call you an intolerant bigot?
And what if more physical persecution does arise? How would you stand up to such pressure? We today are still engaged in the same spiritual battle and the same missionary work, to stand up for Jesus and announce the gospel to anyone who will listen. Today it is possible to lose your job of you speak up for Jesus. But we have the same comfort and encouragement that comforted and encouraged our ancient brothers and sisters in Smyrna, namely Jesus Christ is with us! We still have the same mission too, to be diligent, fruitful and effective in evangelistic ministry by whatever means works to save the lost without denying or obscuring the truth.
We and our vision team are working toward developing a bold outreach ministry that cares about people, to build trust from which we can tell them the gospel that will save their souls. It’s going to get harder before it gets easier. Jesus is sending us as laborers into the harvest, laborers not vacationers. Everyone has a role to play, a gift to give, a sacrifice to make for the cause of Christ. There’s work ahead. It isn’t going to be easy. But it’s going to be worthwhile if we persevere. Let’s do it together.
And we have the same comforting promise, Jesus declaring in our midst, I know your afflictions and your poverty—you’re a smaller older congregation than you were a few years ago, yet you are still rich with the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people! I know about the slander you will suffer from people who fail to understand what you’re trying to do, but do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and Jesus will give you life as your victor’s crown! Amen.
1https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Rev/Message-Smyrna
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