The Church at Smyrna — Revelation 2

0:00 For his help and then we'll dive into our discussion. Father, we come to you in the name of your son and we would like to petition you in a very special way. And that way is in regards to the movement of your spirit across our souls and through the spoken and written word of God. And what we'd like to ask is that you would protect us from error, protect us from being tangents, but also, Father, direct us toward the message that the spirit of God has for the churches. And we'd like to ask you to open up your word in a way that will bring comfort to the saints, a fear of the Lord, peace, and the consolation or the edification of the body.

0:47 In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So, last night, if you were unable to attend or you maybe missed part of it, Sort of the theme is visiting various churches and you can do that physically by visiting the churches around you, but I actually think there are a lot of churches in the New Testament we should visit first. And you can imagine that that material would be just immense. And so how would we do that? I mean, what if we were to visit the Church Of Corinth?

1:15 Well, that's another year of teaching, right? That's huge. And what if you were to visit the church at Galatia or Colossae? Well, again, lots of things to discuss and all the writings that went in to those churches. So, yeah, last night we decided to do sort of a historical sketch and just pulled out some lessons from the church at Antioch, a real sort of home base for the Apostle Paul.

1:38 When he went out, he went out from Antioch and when he returned, he came back to Antioch and resided there for periods of time before he went out again. So Antioch was a special place, a very unique church in and of itself. Paul himself, Barnabas, Silas, others stayed many years at a time, months at a time to teach the saints and to help them grow. And we saw that they were a church that had multiple functioning units, both spoken and unspoken gifting. We saw that it required that kind of shepherding and yet shepherding is a two way street.

2:14 There's shepherds who are doing the shepherding work and those who are being shepherded. And sometimes we just need to quit fighting the Lord and obey Him and that resolves many of our problems. We saw how they were attentive to the needs around them. And when the famine hit Judea, they didn't pause for it, they didn't procrastinate, they immediately went to work to meet the needs of the Jerusalem church who had sent helpers to help them along the way. That makes sense, doesn't it?

2:46 And I think we need to think that way. One of the things that happened in our circles in the last six months was the hurricane in Florida. Many of you remember that. And some don't realize this, but obviously some homes were totally destroyed. And some of the churches, some of our assembly buildings were destroyed or badly torn up.

3:10 So we contacted them. That's we meaning Assembly Care Ministries. CMML does a lot for disasters worldwide, but we don't really have an organization that would help funnel funds for domestic disasters. And so we were asked by CMML if we would do that. And we said, Sure.

3:29 And so we contacted the folks in Florida and we talked about their needs and what they knew and who was in a bad way. And, you know, this is to the glory of God, but the saints heard about it across The United States and they sent us $20,000 which we forwarded on to Florida. I contacted them a couple weeks ago and they said, That's exactly what we need. Everything's covered and we're able to rebuild. That's what they did at Antioch.

3:56 They heard about a need and they saw it broader than themselves and they met that. I think that's a sign of a healthy growing church. But it wasn't just in physical needs, it was also in the area of evangelism and sending out to countries or other parts of the Roman Empire, namely Asia Minor and then the second missionary journey much broader than that into Greece. And so you can see that this church had positive, very several positive qualities about it. And I think that's something we should shoot for.

4:29 So today I'd like to look at the church of Smyrna. So what I want to do for today and tomorrow is I'd like to look at two of the churches in Revelation. I know you just covered Ephesus, and so I don't feel like I should go back over that sacred ground. I understand that the teacher was really, really good. Right, Mr.

4:47 Morris? Right, okay, good. Didn't you do that? You did that, right? Yeah, I thought so.

4:52 And then so I thought we'd cover a couple of churches that have really good models to follow. Not that the other churches we don't learn from anything from them. I actually learned a lot from Laodicea, but I'd like to do that. And then depending on the direction of tomorrow, we may cover either the church at Philippi or Laodicea, I'm still not sure which one. So I want to talk about the Church of Smyrna, if you will.

5:18 Smyrna is an interesting place. Historically, it was destroyed by the Lydians and they ended up with a community for about four centuries in which it was just barely there. And so you had just a few little small villages. And so in essence, it was dead as a city, but there was still a few people alive. And this sort of feeds in to the history of the church and that that they were a few in number and they were kind of barely hanging on.

5:50 Eventually it came back to some measure of revival as an economic and seaport city and they were only second to Ephesus in their particular economic stance. Ancient Near Eastern literature says that there was a lot of wickedness and opposition to the gospel itself. Doesn't appear that there was any record in the New Testament of infiltration with the gospel, so we don't really know how this church came into existence. But what's interesting here is the word Smyrna means myrrh, and myrrh is a beautiful perfume that was used as one of the gifts given to Jesus as a baby. But it's harvested by crushing a certain type of plant that you extract the substance from.

6:42 And then it was used notably in the preparation of bodies for burial or embalming. And that's kind of interesting because when we read this letter in just a second, you'll see that there was a lot of persecution going on. And some of it was going to lead to death. In fact, he even says, be faithful to the end. And so there's a real sort of connection between the title of the church or the location of the church and the meaning of its name.

7:34 It's only four verses and to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things says, the first and the last who was dead and came to life. I know your works, I know your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. Notice that. Almost an exact opposite of what he just said. I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.

8:03 Do not fear any of those things which you're 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 ten days. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. Now, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches and he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. Now, when we get introduced to the Church of Smyrna, the Lord Jesus introduces himself in a very unique way.

8:39 And he uses this terminology, I am the first and the last. That in and of itself is a statement of time. First is a beginning. Last is an ending. And so, when he says, I am the first and the last, what he's really saying is that he invented time.

9:02 Now, you have to think about this for a minute. It's sort of a philosophical discussion. But time governs us so much that we live and die by it. Oh, wait, I gotta be there on time, like 09:30 for meeting, right? Oh, oh, I've got to make it to my job.

9:17 My job starts at eight. I can't be late. Oh, I have to hurry to get to class. You know, if it's very embarrassing, don't get to class, I'll be, you know, the teacher will use me as an example. I got to be on time.

9:30 You know, we don't want to be late for things like your wedding. That's kind of a big thing. Men write that down. Don't be late for your wedding. Okay.

9:36 So, governs us so much that we don't even think about it. We just think it's normal. We think that's part of our existence. And that may be true. But yet, it was created by the Creator and the evening and the morning was the first day.

9:51 Those are time references. Now, if you have the ability to create a building and be the architect of structure, well that's impressive. We go in, we look at the structure, we admire its line, its beauty, its form, its balance, its efficiency. But let's say you're the inventor architect of time. Well, that's a mind bender, isn't it?

10:19 Because time isn't like a building, but in some ways it can be. You see, you step into a building and you step out of a building. Well, this is what Jesus is saying. I invented, created, architect time. Therefore, I can step into it and I can step out of it.

10:36 Now, what does that say about the Savior? What that says about the Savior is that he is superior to everything that touches your life. And here at church that's in a deep struggle of suffering, that means a lot to you. Because everything touching your life at that moment and you're being persecuted, you're under distress, you would like to know that the Lord of the Church is bigger than what you're going through. Therefore, I am the first and the last.

11:11 All right, let's look at this next one. It says this. Who was dead and came back to life. Now, that's interesting, isn't it? Dead to life.

11:23 Why does it say life to death? Normally, that's what we say, right? I was alive, then I died. You don't usually say I was dead, then I came to life. Our order is opposite.

11:31 Well, when you're God and you created time, then you're able to deal with the things of life, time driven, that are the bookends to your existence. Life and death are the bookends to your existence. Right? And so, what he's saying to you is that because I'm the first and the last, meaning I exist outside of time, in other words to say that is I am eternal, that means that I can also deal with the parts of your life that are the finality elements of your existence. Whether it be death or life, and he uses death life because he stepped into humanity, and as he stepped into humanity, like a building here on the grounds, he then went through everything that encompasses your humanity.

12:25 And you know what it says in the book of Hebrews, that he was made like unto his brethren that he might be a sympathetic and merciful high priest. So that was by design to be able to traverse the corridors of life and death. Right? That makes sense. Now, he uses the two things that are the most extremes of our existence.

12:49 We have a beginning of life and we have an ending of death. And what he says is, All that encompasses your existence, life and death. I went through both of those doors and I came out with life. When you enter the first door of life, you go out through the door of death. But I entered into the human race and came out of death.

13:30 They're looking, literally, at things that might end. Now, to give you an idea of what this might feel like, is there's a group of believers in Amman, Jordan today. They're my friends. They've been in my home. I've been in their homes.

13:45 Ibrahim and Lina. In the will of the Lord, if you were to travel with me to Israel in about three weeks, we'll go visit them. I went there about two years ago. They asked me to go there and teach. I went over to teach.

13:58 And they were amazing. They took me and showed me the gospel work. And they would make contacts in the city and they would vet them for several weeks, maybe even months, because they said they could be spies. And after they were sure that they were really interested in the gospel, and it turns out what they pray, I love this thought, Lina says, We pray that the Muslim first becomes an atheist of Allah. And then they go through that period where they're disenchanted and they get introduced to Jesus.

14:32 The true God. I thought, wow, that's really smart. So, anyway, they took me to several homes like this. And I watched as they used their computer and they walked them through what basically was like the four colors gospel, you know. And they talked them through it, and I looked at everybody they were ministering to.

14:48 Most of them were from Iraq. Some were from Syria, but most of them from Iraq. And, they just soaked in the gospel. I'll never forget it. And one of them afterwards, said, where are you from?

14:59 He could speak English. He goes, well, I'm from Nineveh. I said, You mean like, the Nineveh in the Bible? Yeah, that's the one. I'd like to go there.

15:10 Anyway, so we talked and talked and talked and I just saw the whole thing and they showed me different homes and places and they were so bold with the gospel. I said, are you ever worried? Are you ever worried that you could be arrested or, you know, somebody could set off a bomb? This is what he said. Ebrahim, he goes, yes, that's normal.

15:31 It was like having dinner, you know. It's no big deal. This is what it is. And that's how we live. You see, that sort of mentality, where death has such a unique stoppage to your life, to your existence, to your ministry, and you just sort of accept the fact that it looms around me at all time and could descend upon me at any moment, that real is element of fear and consternation, fear, and and worry and what Jesus is saying is, Smurnaans, you exist in that same environment where at any time there could be a stoppage of everything going on, your family, your life, your children, your ministry, your church.

16:16 But I want you to know that the very thing that could just stop you in your tracks, I'm Lord of that. Ain't that precious? You see, this year, Westlake might go through some trials. He might probably have been through a lot of trials already. You need to remember, as you go forward, that there is a God, there is a Jesus, who is the first and the last, who invented the whole concept of time and existence and journey through life.

16:49 And the two things that perhaps both bring joy and threaten you, life and death, he's already conquered those. And the thing that can actually bring finality and closure, a seeming closure to everything, he's conquered that one specifically. Don't you love that? That's your Jesus. See, that's your Lord.

17:13 That is your savior. And when we meet the Church of Smyrna, or the Smurnaans today, they're like Abraham and Lena and they have death surrounding them. They could have spies in the meeting. They could have government figures right there. Kind of something we don't even think about today in our culture.

17:32 But they live that way. And you know what? They don't let that which could cause terror terrorize the people of God. Did you notice in the Old Testament that the people of God were terrorized by the people who dwelt in the land. That's what they were.

17:51 They were terrorized. When they were the Egyptians, they were terrorized of the Egyptians. Sometimes in the land of Canaan, when they were trying to conquer, they were terrorized by the people. God is saying, the one thing that would terrorize you, I have taken off the table. It says in Hebrews, he says, you know, I was made like my brethren so that I could rescue those who for all their lives were under the fear of death held by Satan.

18:22 He just deals with that. What that's supposed to do for us, oh believer, is to actually take you to the point where you can have solidarity and peace and harmony within your own heart, so you can then do the next thing. That's what he's saying. Now, I wanna say something before I go on here that's kind of important to me. I've talked a little bit about this idea of life and death.

19:11 It's only a part of existence. And when he stepped into that, he did so not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Now why would he want to? Because he created the human dimension, the human frame, the human existence. And what humanity did both individually and as a collective group is we turned around and said, thank you, but I wanna do what I wanna do when I wanna do anyway.

19:36 Now the Bible calls that rebellion, iniquity, transgression or simply falling short of God's standard, sin. Now, you can deny sin or you can dumb it down, but no one can really say it doesn't exist. There are very clever people out there that says, well, let's just run through the 10 commandments and see how you do. I can tell you, I can make it through half of one and I'm indicted. I'm pretty sure, if we ran through all 10, we could see that we've fallen short of the standard of God.

20:10 Now, God is not just an inventor. He's a lover. And he loves his creation. So, what he decided to do was to step into creation. And rescue the ones that rebelled against him.

20:31 You see, when I was practicing medicine regularly, I would meet patients sometimes and they were very, very hard to get along with. They were yelling and screaming at me. Swearing and cursing. And throwing their fists at me and spitting at me. And yet, they were having a heart attack right in front of me.

20:53 It took every ounce of spiritual energy from me to treat that person with kindness, with tenderness, when all they wanted to do was fight me. My temptation was says, okay, fine, die. You know? One guy actually did die. He was yelling and screaming at me and I got in his grill and I yelled back and he coded right there.

21:17 First time I ever yelled someone into ventricular fibrillation. I took the paddles, I shocked him, he woke up in twenty seconds. He looked at me and said, what happened? I said, we almost lost you. Now we're the best buddies, you know.

21:31 That's that's an aside. The point is, is that God would step into the human race and minced our violent sort of antagonism to God and then do the one thing that we couldn't do. Deal with the penalty of death because of rebellion. He took the death. He not only took the death, but he then was victorious over the death.

21:55 That's part of the Christian doctrine. He rose from the dead. Now you say, Oh, Steve, that is so, you're a doctor, you idiot. You should know better than that. That doesn't happen.

22:04 Well, actually, it did happen. Well, how do you know that? Well, ancient Near Eastern literature, namely the Bible, we've got 500 witnesses. Right? And we've got lives that were totally transformed from that.

22:20 So I'm pretty sure that we have enough evidence to support the claim. And secondly, it's the truth that actually transforms a soul. It has vitality to it. You can read all kinds of literature in the world. It doesn't change you.

22:33 You read the Bible, it totally transforms you. And so what I'd like to do before we go forward, before we leave this person of Jesus, is simply say to you, listen, this savior, he entered the human race to take your penalty of sin so that you, through faith alone, and the grace exercised through Christ alone, can be born and harvested into the family of God. And I want you to know something. That is the most important decision of your life. Trust me.

23:07 Alright, let's move on. Okay, so, we get through Christ and we look at his introductions here, but we have to recognize that Christ is going to say what he knows. And that's in verse nine. Let's look at verse nine. I know your works, your tribulation, your poverty.

23:24 Now the word I know or know, the verb, In Greek, the subject is usually attached to the verb. So, many times the I, which is the subject, is in the word. So, it's oida. Now, this word is, there's several words for know. There's one word that's sort of like I see.

23:44 Another word for I know by experience or I've sort of endured the events, so I've learned it by first hand knowledge. It's Genuszko. But this word Oida is a little more factual based. I know the data. I've calculated and tabulated what's going on, which implies that the Lord Jesus has been observing the Smyrna church consistently and persistently.

24:18 Now, that's exactly how he is to every church, I think. In fact, when we talk about all these churches in past series, that word I know is in every church. And that means that he has his eye upon Wesley Christian Fellowship. And he knows you and what you're doing. Your works.

24:59 He knows the whining, but also the worship. And what I'd like to say to you as a church is that as you meet this Samuritan church, Christ would know your works too. And let not your worship only be that which happens on Sunday. Let not your praising only what we do in song, but let it be of the hidden quality of the heart so that when you are alone and just you and God brushing your teeth in the morning or shaving or whatever you do, that work of worship is heard in heaven. I think that's beautiful.

25:39 Have you ever gotten to a point in your Christian journey where you actually just say, I'm going to spend some time with the Lord, my cup of coffee, the word of God, I don't drink coffee, so my cup of tea, the word of God. And as you're looking at the word of God, you're just overwhelmed at something that you've read, something that lifts itself off the page and suddenly has a three-dimensional form in front of you. That happened to me when I was reading about Moses. All the times that the children of Israel were rebellious. Moses said, no, don't get upset.

26:09 Listen, listen, blot me out of the book. Don't blot them. Oh, be merciful. Remember your great promises. I mean, I would have said, if I was Moses, I would have said, take them now.

26:19 Just be done with them. You're right. But Moses acted like Christ over and over. I was so overwhelmed because I could see my name in the Korah family. Right?

26:32 You see, I was overwhelmed by that. And I began to sing. Just me in the closet. Unfortunately, no one else because they wouldn't have appreciated it. See, that's what we want, isn't it?

26:45 That work that happens both tangibly or visibly and invisibly. And I would suggest to you, ladies specifically, that that invisible worship of yours that occurs so regularly is well heard in the heavenlies. That should be true for all of us. Alright, moving on. Generally speaking, Christ knows what?

27:11 Well, he knows three things. First of all, he knows what you're enduring. See that word tribulation? That means distresses, troubles, sufferings, persecutions, of course. In this case, due to circumstances.

27:27 You see, one of the problems we have, I don't know about you, but is that we actually feel that I am the only one going through what I'm going through. Anybody here feel that way? Okay, so we have so many volunteers. But how many times have we not felt that, right? This is only my thing.

27:46 And if only somebody knew what I was going through. If only I could tell someone. I've got great news. I've got fantastic news. Your Savior, Jesus Christ, already knows your distresses.

28:00 Actually, it's like he's been sitting there kind of calculating and recording them and sort of taking note. I know them. I oida, right? So, this is the beauty of our Savior. He knows what you're enduring.

28:14 What are you enduring, O Christian? What are you going through? Some of us have gone through our own health challenges. I remember when I got COVID back in Africa. I thought the world was going to end.

28:29 Apparently, it didn't. I remember when my little girl got appendicitis and she was sitting there in her bed in the hospital saying, Daddy, I don't understand why God would do this to me. If I had a daughter, I wouldn't do this to my daughter. Oh, wow. Little, she was 10 then.

28:52 She's asking the great theological questions of all time. If we were able to answer those, we'd win the Christian Nobel Peace Prize, but there is no such thing. But that's the right question, isn't it? Little postscript to that. Months later, we get through it all.

29:08 We're having devotions in the car as I'm driving her to school. She says, I want to read you Psalm 13. I go, Okay. She reads Psalm 13 and she gets to the last two verses. I think it was Psalm 13 because it's kind of depressing.

29:18 And she says, Those last two verses, those are mine. My hope. And then she said to me, little 10 year old, I learned I don't have to know everything. All I have to do is trust him in everything. I go, I really love you.

29:41 Wow. What are you going through? Little girls with appendicitis. Father in laws that fall. Wives that have back problems.

29:54 Your savior is totally aware of every detail. Now, notice also what it says he's aware of. Not only what you're enduring, but he's aware of your condition. It's one thing to know what you're going through, but he also knows what your current state of affairs is as you're going through it. He knows if you have strength or no strength.

30:16 He knows if you're discouraged or not discouraged. He knows the condition. Here, notice what it says here. He says, I know your works, tribulation. Poverty.

30:25 That's a condition. Now, the word poverty there means to be beggarly or extremely poor. Now, obviously, the most obvious interpretation is that they're poor monetarily, right? They don't have a lot of money. And that may be the case.

30:40 We know on record that Christians would have their property seized. Or maybe they entered into the equation being born again out of poverty or with poverty. But I think, from an application, we should see that the Savior knows your condition. When I was entering into the last month of the year, December, I was in a bad condition. I've been preaching every weekend since August 20, and I got home and I wanted to take a breath.

31:17 And I had volunteered to do a series at our chapel, which turned out to be eleven weeks. And then there was a conference in there and another thing. And I said to the Lord, What was I I am so out of energy. And then I had a Greek test and I had medical tests and then the big conference about... And I just was whiny, complainy and I just said, Lord, I don't have the strength to hang on.

31:45 I don't have anything. I'm out. I'm spit. I'm empty. Don't you see?

31:48 The gauge is on E and the light is on. My father said to me, my savior said, I know. You just trust me. And that little conversation I had with my daughter in the summer, I learned I didn't have to know everything. I just have to trust him and everything.

32:07 Came back to my mind and I said, okay. You know, I'm happy to report. All those things that were on my plate, I got through. Got through better than I thought I was gonna get through. And now, here I am with you.

32:18 You're my first conference of 2023. Woo hoo. By the grace of God, my savior has said, I know your condition. What condition are you in today, saints? You're barely hanging on.

32:33 My fingernails are not long enough to hold me up anymore. Your savior has got that. You don't feel like you have no means of support? Your savior has got you. And I want you to know that.

33:00 Do you ever do that with somebody? They come in, they're scared to death, they're like, you go, don't be afraid. Like that's gonna fix it. Right? The child that comes in middle of the night, storm, you know, in our house, we got a lot of windows.

33:18 And the storm comes, lightning, thunder. We got Gracie, she's in bed, and then we've got the dog and the cat and the mouse. I don't know where the mouse came from, you know. And then what do I say to Gracie? Don't be afraid.

33:32 And I do it in my most, you know, majestic Luke Skywalker voice. Don't be afraid. Or Yoda voice, Don't be afraid. Does wonders for the situation. Nah, not at all.

33:46 Next, lightning flashed across the room. She buries her head right in my armpit. Ah, daddy, right guys. Ah. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

33:54 You see, it doesn't make sense, does it? Logically, don't be afraid. Did you know, on nine separate occasions, each with a different motivation for fear, the Lord Jesus told people in his narratives of the Gospels, don't be afraid. One of them was when Simon Peter was with them on the Sea Of Galilee. And he heard the Lord Jesus preaching probably all afternoon into the evening.

34:16 And then the Lord said, I want you to throw the net on the other side. He says, throw the net nets. And Peter said, oh, we're gonna throw one. You know, we've been up all night. We can't really do this.

34:24 And so he throws the net over and they have the best fishing day ever. Peter falls down. I have jumped up. He falls down. Depart from me, I'm a sinful man.

34:34 You know what he was doing? I think he was patronizing the Lord Jesus. I think he was treating him in a passive aggressive sort of disrespectful way. Okay, we'll throw a net over, but who's really the expert? Okay?

34:48 And we'll see what happens. All right, don't be embarrassed if we don't get anything here. And they have the best fishing day ever. Peter recognizes that the exposure of his condescending attitude was out in the open and he falls down. And what did Jesus say to him?

35:04 Don't be afraid. Widow of Nain. Lost her only son. Already had lost her husband. She's destitute in terms of society.

35:17 Little Nain is a very small village. Still is a small village. There's an ancient graveyard outside that apparently was the graveyard where they were going to bury this boy. Perhaps with the father, the husband was already buried. The Lord Jesus shows up with his entourage coming all the way from Capernaum to show up at noon in just the right time and just the right way to meet just the right funeral and just the right widow.

35:36 And what does he say to her? Don't be afraid. You know, for some reason, when the Lord Jesus says it, it actually does something. Why? It's the person, not the statement.

35:55 The Savior. The person. When I say, don't be afraid, little Gracie, about the lightning and the thunder. I can't go outside and say to the lightning and thunder, would you calm down here? You're waking up my kids.

36:08 That doesn't... First of all, if that happened, you would ask me to have a medical evaluation because that's really nuts. But, when the Lord Jesus says it, it's not nuts. Do you remember the time he was asleep in the boat and this kind of storm's coming and it seems like things are kind of getting out of hand and they really get scared, they go and wake up the Lord Jesus, he's asleep. I love that.

36:33 He's just, Whoo, this is really nice. It's swaying back and forth. Don't you care that we perish? Do you ever get awakened out of sleep like that? Who are you?

36:45 You go up to the top of the deck. It's a very small boat. Be quiet. And the storm goes, oh, sorry. You know, it's the person, okay?

36:57 It's the person that deals with the fear. You've got... You've got works going on, you've got deeds and actions, you've got tribulations and distresses and you've got a poor condition. And Jesus shows up and he says, but you are rich. It's the exact opposite of what's going on.

37:19 Now, in this case, what are they rich in? Well, they're rich in faith, you see. James two:five, you're rich in faith. You see, faith is the one, think of it like a commodity. Like dollar bills.

37:34 And the more you have of that, the more buying power you have. And what he's saying to you is, you are rich in faith. How do you get rich in faith? By trials and tribulations. And that richness of faith is way worth more than a lack of trials and tribulations.

37:58 You see, faith not only saves you. How do you come to Christ? By faith alone. It is by faith. How do you live the Christian life?

38:05 By faith in the Son of God. We cannot move forward in the Christian journey as a Smyrna church, as a Westlake Christian Fellowship Church. We can't move forward if you don't have faith. If you don't have the commodity of faith. If you don't stretch yourself to be put in a position where faith grows.

38:25 So as you look at this year, I would say, with all due respect and kindness to you, you might go through some trials. You really might. But you will not become poor. You will not be drained of all your assets. You will not be suddenly on the fearful list.

38:44 You actually will have the greatest opportunity in the world and that is to grow in your faith. That's what the trials do to you. And without faith, this is what it says in Hebrews. It's absolutely impossible to please God without faith. You gotta have it.

39:04 And what he's saying to the Smyrna church, what he's saying to us today as we visit this place, he's saying listen, there is a collateral effect that's a bonus for you. And although you have done these works in difficult circumstances with the distresses around you, although your condition is eroding under your fingertips, you've got a benefit that no one else has. You've got faith. Because that's what these trials do. Now, he knows something more specific too.

39:47 Defamation of character. Defamation of personhood. Reviling. Disrespecting with the intent to do harm. And he says, now it looks like these are Jews that are doing this for you.

40:00 It looks like these lies and ridicules are coming from a certain people group. Now, who is this people group in that day? The perpetrators. The perpetrators are really those who are Judaizers. Remember last night we talked a little bit about those Pharisees who wanted us to stay part of the law.

40:16 Now, are actually believers. They just held onto the law. There are others who did not believe in Christ and they wanted this renegade sect of Judaism, Christianity, to move itself over and align themselves with the law so much so that they began to talk the bad mouth and trash talk Paul and John and these believers. And so they're very antagonistic. Paul has several things to say about them.

40:42 In fact, in the book of Philippians, he says, Beware of the dogs. Beware of the mutilation. He's speaking in derogatory terms of this particular people group. He's saying, now listen, this group, they're after you. They want this Christianity to go by the wayside and so they can't conquer it with the logic of the scriptures.

41:01 So what they're doing is they're just trash talking you to death. But I want you to know something. It's not that they're being real Jews because real Jews would actually see that Jesus is the Messiah. What's going on is something bigger than that. And what's going on that's bigger than that, the true battle, is the unseen battle.

41:23 It's not people against people. It's principalities and powers. Look what it says. They say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. You know, synagogues were really an entity that sort of came out of the Hasmonean dynasty and then moved forward when Rome took over and all that kind of stuff.

41:41 And they began to collect themselves so that they could worship towards Jerusalem. And what does it, you need like 10 men in a city to have a synagogue, that kind of thing. And so they became places of not just worship and reading of the Torah, but they became places of teaching for school and community center. And so the synagogue was sort of the life heartbeat of the community. And he says, the community that these guys are from, their heartbeat belongs to Satan.

42:09 That's what's happening. Do you see what God is saying? I know what's really going on. And the distresses that you have. The trials, the blasphemy, the destructive terminology, trying to ruin your reputation in your life.

42:25 I know who the real perpetrator is and it's those who are physically speaking these things against you, but really, there's an unseen battle that is engineered, orchestrated and enacted by Satan himself. They are of the synagogue of Satan. You see, one of our problems that we learn when we visit the church of Smyrna, one of the things we need to realize is that this battle is not flesh and blood. It's against principalities and powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness. That is our number one faltering point in Christianity today.

43:03 We fail to realize that this is way bigger than what you can see. Now, want to challenge the concept. You've heard this all your lives perhaps. It goes like this. It says, the church is not a building.

43:16 It's the people. True or false? It is true. But it's partially true. You know why it's partially true?

43:24 Nice try, but no, not a good... No, no. The church is made up of those who are saved. But there's the head, so Christ is part of the church too. You know, head of the body.

43:42 And then there's this person, his name is, let me think, Spirit of God. And he took all of us and he immersed us into the body. So there's a lot more to this body than just our people, right? It's Christ and the Spirit of God and the believer and they're intertwined in such a unique way that all that coming together makes up the church. Remember, the spirit of God directs our worship and our ministry and the whole thing.

44:06 How divorce can him out, right? And so what I'm saying to you is that the church is both visible and invisible. And in fact, the book of Ephesians would say there's a real invisible quality to it because we made up this new entity that joins both Jew and non Jew in one body and they have this uniqueness. Christ even said it himself, I have many who are not of this fold. I'm gonna come and bring them and we'll be one.

44:30 So tangible and intangible. And what I think the message that Jesus is giving to the church of Smyrna is don't forget the intangible. Don't forget what you can't see. Because what you can't see is many times way bigger than what you can see. Now, he's asking them, of course, not to fear.

44:51 Look at this. Do not fear any of those things which you're about to suffer. I went through that briefly a minute ago, so I won't belabor that point. But they were fearing, what would they have been fearful of? Well, several things.

45:02 He mentions that suffering is to come, so that's on the list. He mentions that there's imprisonment and perhaps ten days of tribulation. He mentions Satan's involvement and his headquarters being right there. And the testing. Notice the word testing is in the text.

45:16 He says, verse 10, The devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested. That's a word that is used in the world of metallurgy where you take a rough rock and ore and you then put it into the melting pot so that it can separate out the layers of the pure minerals and metals. And sees that's kind of what's gonna happen to you. He says, now listen, I'm asking you a lot. With all that's going on, I know what's going on behind the scenes, but I also know that I'm asking you to endure several things.

46:14 You see, think about it, alright? It's one thing if we, who already agree with Christ, do the will of God. Right? That's natural, normal to be expected. But if you're really powerful, you're really powerful, you get your enemy to do what you're going to do anyway and he doesn't even have to agree.

46:35 That's called real power, right? And that's what he's doing. He is taking that which is violently opposed to him and he reconfigures, organizes, structures it so that the one that is so violently opposed, shaking their fist at God, rebellious to the core, ends up doing the will of God anyway. I don't know if I could do that. Can you imagine if you're a boss like that and had people under your care like that?

47:01 You could get them to do their job when they hated you? We'd call that a great successful company, wouldn't we? God does this all the time. Now, what about the record? What's the record say?

47:13 Well, I have a few listed. Of course, Satan was attacking from the beginning and God said, the seed of the woman will bruise your head. That's taking Satan's desire to destroy and turning it in and reverse engineering to actually bring victory from the person that you got to steal to your side of loyalty. Remember Job's situation. Satan is one of the sons of men, sons of God, which is a term used for angelic hosts, in the presence of God.

47:43 And God uses Satan's sort of antagonism to Job to, first of all, make Job become a man of greater faith. Even says, I repent of what I didn't know. And then, God uses that to deal with Job's three friends and blesses Job in a bigger way. And it was all started because Satan wanted to have a little spar match. He wanted to duke it out.

48:07 You see, God has a reputation of doing this all the time. I would mention Pharaoh to you, but that's a long history of of somebody really representing like the devil trying to destroy the people of God and God using that whole event to bring his power and glory across the known world so that when they got to Canaan forty years later, the people in Canaan go, Wow, we heard what you did in Egypt and we're petrified. That's amazing, isn't it? God does this kind of thing. Whoops, let's go back to what I wanted to say.

48:39 My favorite is one Kings 22. Alright? One Kings 22 about this guy named Ahab. Now, for those of you who are younger, Ahab is not one of the five boy names in the Bible you want to use. Okay?

48:54 Don't use it. Don't even use it for your dog. Okay? Now, Ahab, he really badly influenced by his wife, his spouse. And she, by the way, was the daughter of a priest of Baal.

49:05 Let me tell you something. If you marry the daughter of the priest of Baal, what do you think you're gonna be doing with your life? You're gonna be like going after Baal because Mrs. Ahab lacks Baal. Okay?

49:16 That's the way it works. And so he was after Baal and wrecked temples and altars and the whole thing. Quite honestly, I'm amazed God had such patience with him. One day, he wanted to go back and take back this place called Ramoth Gilead, which is actually an ancient city that was one of the cities of refuge on the Eastern Side Of The Jordan. And so, he has Jehoshaphat, which ironically, a king of the South who loved God, had their kids intermarry.

49:45 I'm thinking, Joe, what's wrong with you? That's not a good idea. And so they're having like an in law kind of party. And during the party, oh Ahab says to Joe, Hey, you want to go help me go and take Ramoth Gilead? Like, I mean, that's what we talk about.

49:59 Normally, family events, we say, hey, you want to play a game? They just talk about war. I don't know. So, Jehoshaphat says, well, do you have any prophets of God? He says, oh, we got prophets.

50:11 We got a lot of those. Brings them all in and they all say, Hey, you're gonna win. Go get them. Fight. Win.

50:17 And Jehoshaphat goes, So you have a prophet of God? Well, we got one. I don't like him. He always says negative things about me. That's Ahab talking.

50:29 Jehoshaphat goes, Oh, bring him in. His name's Micaiah. So he comes in and they said to him, Hey, now listen. The boss is here and the other boss is here and so you be nice. That's a loose translation out of Steve's standard version.

50:42 You be nice. And so Micaiah goes in there and this is what he does. Go conquer Raymoth Gilead. You're gonna win. Ahab says, See, I told you.

51:00 He doesn't like me. Jehoshaphat says, Well, tell us about what God really said. He says, You wanna know what God really said? This is what I saw. And this is the important part.

51:11 There was God. And he had all these sons of God, spirits, angelic hosts around him. And he said, who's gonna take Ahab over to Ramoth Gilead so he can die because it's his time? And there was a little bit of debate about who's going to do what and where. And finally, a lying spirit.

51:31 Sodom says, I got it. I know what to do. I'm going to send a lie across all those other prophets and they'll tell the boss man to go over to Ramoth Gilead so he will and they can meet his death. And what did the Lord do? He used that plan.

51:47 So, if you wonder if it's possible for God to use that which is satanically engineered, that is meant to destroy you for good, the answer is yes. He does do that. It's a theme. Remember those guys, they were Joseph's brothers? They wanted to kill him.

52:06 And I don't mean nicely. It wasn't like death by lethal injection. It was like, we want you to be suffering for all the things. And they sell him instead. He comes to power.

52:18 They recognize his prime ministership of Egypt. Their lives are saved. Their families' lives are saved. Their kids are going on. And they get to the end of chapter 50, and they were really scared that Prime Minister Joseph is going to lower the hammer because Jacob just died.

52:35 And he says, Joseph says this, You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. How can I be mean to you? You see, he let the overarching, we call it the providence hand of God, rule his perspective over the narrative. And that's what he's telling the Smurtons to do.

53:01 Even though the enemy wants to take you out, even though he's rabid and dripping with saliva on the outskirts of the perimeter, Don't be afraid because I am the one who overrules the enemy. I am the over one who works all things together for good to them that love God and are called according to its purpose, Especially that which is satanically engineered because I've been doing it from the beginning and I've been doing it through human history and I'll be doing it all the way to the eternal state. So saints, here you are. You're in this church and you're like a Smyrna today and the persecution and the distresses and the work is overwhelming you. You've got little strength.

53:44 You feel like your condition is deteriorating and it feels like the enemy is about to win. I've got great news. And the news is that the Savior has never let the enemy actually do more or less than what the Savior is allowing to happen and He, my friends, He will work whatever is making us quiver, work together for good. That's the message of Smyrna. When we visit the Smyrna church, we recognize, like I recognize with Abraham and Lena, that yeah it exists, yeah it's a reality.

54:18 But it's not out of control of my great, good and chief shepherd. I think that's beautiful. I think that's a church I would like to go and spend some time with to figure it out. Oh, there's so much more to say but I've run out of time. Lessons from testing.

54:36 The struggle is spiritual, not just physical. The struggle will demonstrate the corporate glory of God. Oh, I have lots to say about that. I can't. The struggle is designed to do a few things.

54:51 It's designed personally, perhaps, chasten us. Remember Paul had a messenger of Satan that chastened him so that he learned that the grace of God is sufficient. That is exactly like my daughter. I learned I can trust him. I don't have to know everything.

55:05 The grace of God is sufficient. It's designed to be corporate. Sometimes chastening through the hand of the enemy is designed to bring disciplinary approach to us as people. Remember one Corinthians 11? He says, If you don't partake of the Lord's supper in a worthy manner, some of you are ill and sickly, some of you sleep.

55:25 Those are all things that bring us to his measure of holiness. As it says in one Peter four:one-two, He who suffered is established in holiness is a loose translation. It has Christ learned obedience by the things that he suffered. We learn maturity by the things that we suffer. You see, all of these things, our great savior is orchestrating, calculating, organizing so that the glory of Christ shines through us in a manner that reflects him perfectly.

56:00 All that's happening, all the raging, the 10,000 that are at your side who want to take you out is what the psalmist says. The 10,000 are on your side. They won't touch you. They won't touch you. So here you are.

56:14 You're looking on the precipice of another door. Another approach for this year, 2023. For the, maybe five years to come. What will it be? You're going to have some shaking of the windows and rattling of the rafters.

56:28 I want you to know that's going to come. But the Lord will not let Satan harm you. It's his method. He'll take all that is so evil and he'll work it for good. How frustrating this must be for Satan, don't you think?

56:48 This has got to drive him nuts. Tries this great plan and it doesn't work. Tries another great plan and it doesn't work. I'm just thinking how nice it is to be on the winning team. Alright, time is gone.

57:02 I'll stop there and we'll, wow. Can I say one more thing? Just one more? I think you're thinking. Alright, the letter ends in this.

57:11 He says, you'll be tested ten days. So, there's an end point to it. Christ knows how much you can take. Be faithful unto death. In Latin, it's fidelis ad mortem.

57:36 But the story is, is that he was arrested for his faith. And that he was going to be burned at the stake. It says that when he was first arrested, people came to his home. He got on his knees and he said, don't take me yet. Let me pray for you.

57:50 And he got on his knees and he prayed for those guards. They took him away. They took him to the stadium where he was supposed to be burned at the stake. And they said, deny Christ. And he said, eighty and four years I've served faithfully and he's never denied me.

58:04 How can I deny him now? Faithful unto death. So, this is what I think. We're gonna be faithful unto death or we're gonna die trying. Either way, it's the same result.

58:19 Right? And that's what I think we should be. I don't think we have to apologize for it. I don't think we have to moan about it. I think our Savior smiles about it.

58:30 Father, we thank you for this time we've had in the word of God. It's been precious. But, Lord, this visit with Smyrna, it's been nice. Help us to be faithful to the end. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.