Letter to Smyrna Revelation 2:8-11
We heard last week that John the Apostle was commanded by Jesus in a vision to write seven letters to seven Churches. We looked at the first letter which John wrote to the Church in Ephesus. This was a warning letter telling them that they had started off OK but now had to return to their first love.
This week we will look at the second letter which was written to the Church in Smyrna.
The city of Smyrna was situated about 40 miles north of Ephesus on the coast. It was the next Church the postman would deliver to after he had been to Ephesus. Like Ephesus, Smyrna had a good harbour and was right on the main trade routes. It was a really prosperous city with many merchants and a flourishing export trade.
The city of Smyrna was a Roman colony and was very proud of its connection to Rome. It was a supporter of the Roman demands for public worship of the Emperor as being divine.
We don't really know when the Church in Smyrna was first founded as it is not mentioned at all in either Paul's letters or the Book of Acts.
In fact it's not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament until we reach the Book of Revelation. However there is an early tradition that Paul the Apostle visited the town on his way to Ephesus. It's actually more probable that the Church in Ephesus was founded first and that the Church in Smyrna grew from this. Possibly even a Church plant.
So what did Jesus have to say to the Church in Smyrna?
First of all there is the greeting in which the Church is reminded of exactly who is actually writing this letter.
Revelation 2:8
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.
Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the first and last.
Then we get to the real meat of the letter. Verse nine says
I know your afflictions and your poverty - yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
It's clear that the meaning of this is persecution. The Church here was really having problems as the enemies of Christianity could be cruel and aggressive. Because of the fact that Roman law demanded that all citizens should worship the Emperor as God
it would have been a very dangerous thing to be a Christian in Smyrna at that time.
We are not told in this letter what caused the persecution that they were suffering but we can piece it together and try to reconstruct the situation.
In 195 BC, about 300 years earlier, a temple to Dea Roma, or the goddess Rome, had been built in the City. And partly through this they had gained a reputation of being totally loyal to Rome and the empire.
Around about the year 25AD many of the cities in the area had been competing for the honour of building a temple to the Emperor Tiberius. And in the end that privilege was given to Smyrna. This was obviously a matter of great pride for the town.
So what happened to the Christians? Did they refuse to take part in the worship of the Emperor?
Of course they did!
They knew that to offer worship to anyone other than God would be idolatry and they could never call Tiberius Lord, not when Jesus was their only Lord. The problem was that the proud citizens of Smyrna couldn't or wouldn't understand this and assumed it was just a lack of patriotism and even treason.
This bad feeling against the Christians was made worse by the Jews living in the town. As Jews they had been allowed by the authorities to be exempt from this Emperor worship, but they used the privilege this gave them to cause trouble for the Christians who they hated.
The persecution that the Church had to put up with came in four parts. poverty, slander , imprisonment and death. All of these are shown in verses 9 & 10. The Christians were poor in one of the richest towns in the area.
One of the people who would have been sitting in the congregation at the time that this letter was being read out was a young man aged about 20 called Polycarp. He later became the Bishop or Elder of the Church at Smyrna.
The story goes that he was converted by the Apostle John himself. He was certainly respected as a Church leader by other Churches. We know that he received a letter and a visit from one of the early church fathers, Ignatius of Antioch, just before Ignatius was martyred for his faith.
Polycarp was also a major player in the discussions with Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome, over the correct dating of Easter.
When Polycarp was 86 years old he was convinced by the members of the Church to go into hiding for his own safety as the persecution was getting worse.
On the 2nd of February 156 AD he was tracked down by his persecutors. He made no attempt to run away, instead he gave his captors food and drink. He then asked for permission to go away on his own to pray which he did for two hours.
Then they started to travel back into the city. On the journey the officer in charge tried to get him to turn away from Jesus. "What harm can it do to offer a sacrifice to the Emperor?" but Polycarp refused.
On arrival in the city he was brought before the pro-consul who again tried to get him to turn away from Jesus.
"Swear by the genius of Caesar" he said.
"Swear and I will release you, revile Christ"
Polycarp is reported to have replied "For 86 years I have served Him and He has done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"
The pro-consul started again "Swear by Caesar, I have wild beasts; if you do not change your mind I will throw you to them"
Polycarp calmly replied "Call them then" Because he was not worried about the wild animals the pro-consul decided to have him killed by fire. Angry Jews and gentiles gathered wood for the fire and Polycarp stood by the stake. He specifically asked not to be tied to it.
He then prayed aloud "O Lord, almighty God, the Father of your beloved Son Jesus Christ through whom we have come to know you. I thank you for counting me worthy this day and this hour of sharing the cup of Christ among the number of your martyrs"
The fire was then lit but the strong wind blew the fire away from him which only prolonged his suffering. Eventually a sympathetic soldier killed him with his sword.
Polycarp would have read the letter that we are reading tonight.
He would have been warned that more severe persecution would follow. He would have been very well aware that, as Bishop of the Church, he would be a prime target of the persecutors.
But he would also have been encouraged by the letter.
Jesus is pleased with them, with the way in which it has handled the problems of Emperor worship and persecution.
What an honour to have Jesus say that He is pleased with you! He would have also been encouraged by the last line of all of the letters.
"He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death."
The second death was a Jewish idea which compares the death that all humans must go through with the fate of those who are destined never to escape its power. Either because they are not worthy of resurrection from the dead or because they will suffer judgement at the end of the age. This gives the idea of dying twice, normal human death and a further spiritual death.
The Christians at Smyrna are given the reassurance that they will not have to suffer this second death. This call to the Christians of Smyrna is the same call that is made on the lives of all Christians today. The New Testament tells us that suffering for our faith is an indispensable mark of every Christian, the mark of every church.
Jesus Himself tells us in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:10
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
and also in John 15:18
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
Jesus experienced the same poverty, slander arrest and execution that he now writes about to the Church in Smyrna. This is what Jesus taught, that suffering could come to all who follow Him.
The things that Paul had to suffer would make most of us nervous wrecks. He was imprisoned, flogged and shipwrecked, he braved all of the dangers of travelling by sea, river and by land and was exposed to the attack of many enemies. It's not surprising that he could write to Timothy "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,"
And to the Church in Philippi "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,"
Faith and suffering seem to be totally linked together as twin privileges for the Christian.
What about ourselves? Most of us here are normal human people. Most of us are afraid of the thought of suffering. The truth is that we probably would try to avoid suffering by some sort of compromise. The gospel talks about things that most people would rather not recognise in their own lives Human sin and guilt, God's wrath and judgement, and the fact that salvation has nothing to do with man or with good works.
So what happens quite often is that preachers don't preach the whole truth about God, about His attitude to all the moral standards that the Bible teaches. The preacher tends to ignore these difficult subjects so that he won't be persecuted. We can see this happening in so many Churches today.
Another minister said to me once that if I continue to preach about hell and the judgement of God we will never get new Christians in the Church. He believes that we should simply preach about the love of God and forget the fact that God is a jealous God.
Forget about the fact that we are warned in the Bible about God’s anger.
Forget about the fact that he Bible tells several things us very clearly.
In John 3:3 Jesus said “"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. " And in John 3:36 we read “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
In Luke 12:5 Jesus says “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.”
And in Ephesians 2:8 Paul tells us “ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. “
The warnings of the Bible are unpopular even among some Christians. They try to re-interpret them to make them more palatable. The moral standards of Jesus are also unpopular, not just with the non-Christian but often with Christians as well.
But we actually need to be a little more like Polycarp who could have saved his life if only he had offered incense on the altar to the Emperor. After all he could have repented afterwards
couldn't he? But he didn't, he stood his ground, the ground that he knew Jesus wanted him to stand.
The world today ignores the warnings of the Church because they believe we are hypocrites. Many non-Christians accuse us of having double standards, of saying one thing but doing something different.
The Christian Church needs to come back to the teachings of the Bible. We need to stop compromising our faith to make it more acceptable. But we need to understand that if we do this then we are likely to be persecuted.
Jesus promises us His support if we do this. With the call to suffering comes the promise of God's grace. Jesus offers us His strength to help us to meet the commands of the Bible.
This letter to Smyrna is a letter to every Christian Church, everywhere and in every time. It's a letter full of sufferings but also a letter full of comforts and consolations as well.
