The Crown of Life
Text: James 1:12
Introduction: Last Sunday evening we considered together the matter of faithfulness and the possibility of winning the incorruptible crown. But there is one aspect of faithfulness, that we did not touch on last week, which I want to consider tonight, and that is faithfulness in suffering. James wrote, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” You may recall from our studies in James, earlier in the year, how the word “ temptation,” is better translated “ trial.” James says, “Blessed, or happy is the person who perseveres under trial, who stands his ground.”
Now how can we rejoice in the midst of pressure? For three reasons: First of all, no trial lasts forever. Notice, James says “for when he is tried”, in other words “once the trial is past.” Trials are for a purpose, the term here conveys the picture of a precious metal being heated until it is liquid and its impurities rise to the top and are scraped off. Only pure metal is left. So the pressures of life, though sometimes painful, are designed to purify us, to draw us closer to God. Secondly if we endure them, literally, if we stay the course and are faithful in them, we shall win he crown of life. This is one of three victor’s crowns. Thirdly, the crown rests upon a promise – the promise of God’s Word, the promise of the God who cannot lie.
Now, allow me to turn your minds to a group of people who, I have no doubt, won this crown – turn to Revelation 2:8-11.
Here we read of the church at Smyrna. Smyrna is now known by it’s Turkish name, Izmir, and has a population of three million people, making it Turkey’s third largest city and second largest seaport, and, believe it or not is the only city in Turkey to this day that reflects a Christian heritage. Turkey is 99.8% Muslim and 0.2% Jewish & Christian, and Izmir is the last remaining stronghold of Christianity in that land to this hour. Perhaps in part that has something to do with the commitment of the early church there to remain faithful in the face of unspeakable sufferings. In fact, even today, the church in Izmir still suffers, but we will say more about that later.
Now in addressing the church the Lord Jesus introduced Himself by two titles:
He calls Himself, “the first and the last”. That’s a title of deity. See Isaiah 44:6. This name intimates the eternality of Christ, and it is fitting that the Lord should use it when speaking to the church at Smyrna. You see He is going to say again and again, “I know…” How does He know? He knows because He is eternal, without past or future, ever present in every age. He knows where we have been and all we have been through, and He knows where we are going, not only in this life, but also in the life to come. Nothing is hid from His view.
The second title He employs to describe Himself is as the One, “which was dead, and is alive.” Literally, “I became a corpse, yet I live.” In a few moments he is going to ask them to be faithful unto death, but first he wants them to know that he also suffered death for them. But now he is alive, In other words he suffered and survived. When we are suffering it is always good to know that others have survived the thing we are suffering. And so Jesus reaches out to this church with resurrection hope, and He says to them, you may have to die for me, but remember I died for you, but not only that I rose again, and you shall rise also. Death is never the last you will see of a Christian.
Now let’s look at this church, remembering that a church is a gathering of people, not a structure of bricks and mortar. See Revelation 2:9
I. They Were Experiencing Pressure.
A. “I know thy works, and tribulation…”
1. The word translated “tribulation” lit. means pressure, to crowd in upon you.
2. Jesus says to these people I know the pressure you’re under.
3. Do you ever feel under pressure?
4. Do you ever feel like life has you in a squeeze? Do you ever have the worries of the world pressing down upon your shoulders?
5. Life is full of pressure for all of us, but sometimes the pressures seem too much, and sometimes those pressures come because of our faith.
B. There is peer pressure – the pressure to conform to the world, to be what everyone else expects or wants you to be.
1. We often associate peer pressure with youth, but actually all of us have peers, and all of us feel the pressure of conformity from different circles of our peers - the circle of our immediate family; our wider family; our neighbours; our friends; our local church family; our team mates; our schoolmates; our co-workers etc.
2. It’s hard to withstand it sometimes.
a. Our society places us under all kinds of pressure
b. The pressure to conform to its standards.
(i) To be sexually loose, to play the field, to cast off the prohibitions of God’s Word (which are designed to protect and dignify us) and to behave like dogs in the street – you are better than that.
(ii) The pressure to be less than honest at times, to cut corners in our business, to bend the truth to our advantage.
(iii) The pressure to tolerate that which God will not. To agree that certain ways of living are OK, that one man’s choice is as good as another.
(iv) The pressure to treat truth as relative, to live without absolutes.
(iv) The pressure to get drunk, do drugs etc.
C. When you resist those pressures, let me tell you trouble will come.
1. You instantly become a target – and the world will make trouble for you.
2. That is what Paul meant when he said, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2Tim 3:12)
3. And that’s what the Christians of the church at Smyrna discovered.
II. They Were Experiencing Poverty
A. I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)…”
1. Why were they poor? Because they were being discriminated against.
2. Discrimination is a terrible thing for anyone to experience.
3. Some people are discriminated against because of their skin colour, some because of their political views, some because of disability and some because of their faith.
a. Illus: I grew up in the Protestant community in Northern Ireland, but my first ministry was among the Roman Catholic community in the Republic of Ireland. One evening after preaching in Belfast, I was traveling south when my car broke down on the motorway. It was late at night, the road was dark and it was pelting down with rain. A young couple kindly stopped and offered my wife and me assistance, and drove us to a nearby police station to report that our car was parked on the hard shoulder of the motorway.
Now this was in the dark days of the troubles in Northern Ireland, and people traversing the border between the North & the South were often viewed with suspicion. So when I gave the desk sergeant my number plate his instinct told him I was a Southern Irish Catholic, in all likelihood an Irish Nationalist. He gruffly took the details, allowed me to call a relative for assistance and to wait in the station for help. Half-an hour passed by and that police officer, suspecting we were "the enemy" spoke not one word.
Then the door of the station opened, and another officer entered with a prisoner on tow. The officer was an old school friend of mine and we exchanged greetings and chatted for a moment before he headed off to the cells with his charge. The desk sergeant was intrigued: "How did I know this police officer?" I explained we went to school together. In a divided society that information told him I was Protestant and Unionist. Then he asked why I was driving a car with Republic of Ireland licence number. I told him I was a Baptist minister serving in Dublin.
In an instant the atmosphere changed. "Would you like a cup of tea?" Would you like a newspaper to read while you wait?" How strange it is to be on the receiving end of suspicion and discrimination.
b. What a terrible thing discrimination is.
c. The believers at Smyrna were discriminated against, and this anti-Christian bias led to their poverty.
B. You can just see the pagan world ridiculing them for their claim of worshipping the Creator of all things while their God would not bless them with affluence.
1. But don’t you like what Jesus does – he reminds them that they are truly the rich ones.
2. In spite of physical poverty the Lord said, "but thou art rich."
3. How much better it is to be poor in the eyes of the world, but rich before Christ.
4. Do you recall what James said in James 2:5, “Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?”
a. The poorest Christian on earth, is richer than the wealthiest of worlding.
(i) “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.” (Proverbs 15:16).
(ii) “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.” (Proverbs 16:8).
(iii) “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” (Psalms 37:16).
5. What a stark contrast there was between the church at Smyrna who were poor, but rich in God’s sight, and the church at Laodicea who thought they were rich, but were in poverty in the sight of Christ – Rev 3:17.
C. So these believers at Smyrna were in poverty, struggling to make ends meet, struggling to pay the bills, unable to keep the wolf from the door, and why?
1. Because of their testimony for Jesus.
2. Are you suffering because of your testimony? Are you targeted and picked on, are you the butt of the joke, the end of every jibe at school, in work or at home?
3. Well, rejoice in that, it is an honour to suffer reproach for Christ.
a. Peter said, “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” (1Pet 4:16)
b. If you suffer for being a Christian, don’t feel ashamed, but praise God for being called that name.
D. But you know, it is a short step from being discriminated against to becoming actively persecuted.
1. And that is what the Smyrnans discovered.
III. They Were Experiencing Persecution
A. “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”
1. The early church was often a suffering church, they were persecuted and often martyred.
2. If you thought Christian martyrdom was merely a part of history, listen to this statistic: more Christians have been killed for their faith in the 20th century than in the previous nineteen centuries combined.
a. In more than 60 countries worldwide, Christians are harassed, abused, arrested, tortured or executed specifically because of their faith.
b. Two hundred million Christians throughout the world live in daily fear of secret police, vigilantes, or state repression and discrimination.
B. The Christians at Smyrna knew all about that kind of thing.
1. There was in Smyrna a large Jewish community and a well established synagogue.
a. We should not be surprised at this, for, at the risk of sounding anti - Semitic - there was money to be made in that city.
b. And where there is a thriving commercial community almost invariably, as freedom allows there is a thriving Jewish community.
2. These Jews were guilty of the blasphemy in the Lord’s sight.
a. blasphemy = “slander”
b. These Jews were slandering the church and by their slander, and accusations they had brought misery upon God’s people.
3. Today it is not the Jews who make trouble for the church in Smyrna, nut the Muslims.
4. In recent times numerous Christians have been martyred throughout Turkey in general and Izmir (Smyrna) in particular.
a. Just last year three believers from the local evangelical Baptist church were brutally murdered by Islamic extremists in the city.
b. Church services must be shielded by the police from attack, though sometimes even the police are involved in persecuting Christians.
c. The pastor Izmir’s Baptist church has received police protection after being falsely accused of engaging in coercive evangelism.
(i) A local newspaper published an article accusing him and the Izmir congregation of being a missionary centre for evangelical Christians trying to convert Turkish Muslims.
(ii) It said the Christians are engaging in "brainwashing and using money to attract young people," whom they "make pliable" with drugs.
d. You see, some things never change – Satan is still at his work, accusing the brethren, blaspheming Christ and stirring up the hearts of men in opposition to the gospel.
IV. They Were Extended A Promise – vs 10
A. The Lord knew all about their suffering but in the midst of it he assured them of four things:
B. He knew what was coming.
1. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried.”
2. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurred to God. Nothing takes Him by surprise. He’s never taken aback, caught on the hop, never shocked and never shaken. He already knows what tomorrow is bringing.
3. For the Christians at Smyrna it was bringing suffering and it for some imprisonment.
C. He knew who was behind it.
1. “Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried.”
2. Sometimes we forget that behind every hateful act against the church, Satan is at work.
a. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6:12)
D. He knew how long it would last.
1. “… and ye shall have tribulation ten days…”
2. There was a limit to this, you see, even though Satan was behind it, God was sovereign over it.
3. He would allow it so that the believers would draw closer to Him through it, but it would not last one day more than it had to.
4. You see there are three levels to every trial:
a. There is the human level - we can call that misery
b. There is the satanic level - we can call that mystery
c. There is the Divine level - we can call that ministry
(i) 1Corinthians 10:13)
E. He knew how it would end.
1. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
2. You see suffering for the sake of Christ is never without purpose, and never without hope.
3. It’s purpose is to hone us, to purify and to purge, its hope is one of reward – the crown of life.
a. See 1Peter 4:12-19
Conclusion: No one ever said the Christian life was easy. Certainly Jesus never said that, and the Bible doesn’t teach it. Tomorrow, someone may mock you for your faith; you may be excluded, discriminated against or purposely humiliated. At times such things may leave you feeling confused, hurt or bitter. But that ought not to be. Bearing Christ’s reproach is part and parcel of your calling as a Christian. Therefore, bear it gladly looking to the end, knowing that if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him, and in reigning we shall receive the crown of life.
How the church in Smyrna began no one knows, but we do know from church history that its Pastor at the time of John’s writing was a man by the name of Polycarp. Polycarp himself died for the cause of Christ. History records the last words of Polycarp as he faced execution for His faith. When he was urged to renounce Christ he replied, “Eighty and six years have I served Him and He never did me wrong. How can I now speak evil of my King who has saved me?”
At that they tied the old man to a stake and burned him to death. He was faithful unto death. Polycarp secured the crown of life.
The crown goes to the faithful, not to the fearful. So, don’t allow the world to dictate your standards, to force you into conformity, to make you fit its mould. If needs be let it do its worst, that you might proceed to win the prize. Remember the words of Jesus, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Matt 5:11-12)
