Hebrews 12:1-2 Revelation 2:8-11 Matthew 10:26-33
Sermons to the Seven Churches: The Church of the Persevering Persecuted (2)
The First Century believers in Smyrna were a despised group of poverty-stricken individuals and, though many of them died in obscurity, the memory of their bold stand for the Gospel has served to strengthen beleaguered believers up to the present day. But perhaps, more importantly, these rejected and oppressed and afflicted members of the affluent city of Smyrna were intimately known by the one who is infinitely greater than the greatest power on earth.
But what’s more, this great and infinite Creator God also knew that, although his servants bravely proclaimed his divine sovereignty despite the severe persecution they endured from both unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, they were in need of strength and encouragement…and so he addressed them as the First and the Last, the one who is in absolute control of all things from eternity to eternity.
He is the one who began all things, and he is the one who will bring all things to an end. The God of the universe is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) and in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). He alone gives meaning to that which exists, “for by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17) But not only did he create all things, he also upholds all things by the word his power (Hebrews 1:3) and he is the one who will bring all things to an end (1 Corinthians 15:24-25).
As with the other churches in Asia, Jesus said that he knew everything about them. However, this knowledge of their predicament did not mean that he would take them out of that situation, but rather that he encouraged them to endure through it to the end. He is well aware of how much we can handle…he will not let us be tried beyond our ability (1Corinthians 10:13) …but as he is in control of all things from the first to the last, he also knows when our trials begin and when they will end.
Jesus is no stranger to suffering nor is he indifferent to our suffering, but as the Scriptures repeatedly point out, suffering is often the sharpest and most effective tool in the hands of our loving heavenly Father who knows that it is not good for us to follow our own ways. It is also his desire that we should bear much fruit to his glory…as Jesus said in John 15:2, “…every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” That pruning process is often painful, but the result is always well worth it. Suffering, in the life of a believer, always has a purpose.
The church in Smyrna seems to have been the poorest of the seven churches in Asia and yet Jesus declared them rich. This statement is not mere wordplay, but rather a revelation of what counts as true wealth in God’s economy. Jesus tells us to lay-up treasures in heaven and not on earth…true wealth does not consist of the number of things we possess…true wealth is measured in terms of eternal value. Think of what you can take with you when you leave this life and then invest your time and effort into accumulating that…or should I say, them.
As we saw last week, Smyrna was home to a large Jewish community that was actively aggressive against the followers of Jesus. In this sermon to the church in Smyrna, Jesus said that while they claimed to be Jews, they were not but were rather a synagogue of Satan. In one sense, this should not come as a surprise as there is not an Old Testament God and a New Testament God…he is one and the same. Indeed, as Jesus said in John 5:46, if the Jews truly believed Moses, they would believe him because Moses wrote about him!
But then, in John 8:44 he said to the unbelieving Jews, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.” And he continued to say in verse 47, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” Now remember, he was saying this to people who believed themselves to be the people of God. In fact, he could just as well have said to them, you say you are Jews but are not…
What then of the Jews, you might ask. Are the Jews no longer the people of God?
Now, I realise that this is a very emotional issue, especially at this time, but what I am about to say all comes from Scripture…in other words, this is not my opinion, but the teaching of those who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
According to Scripture, those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ do not believe in the one true God and therefore cannot be his people.
In Acts 4, when Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin, they made this point crystal clear: “…there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
And in 1 John 2:23 we are told that “no one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”
Paul wrote in Romans 2:28-29: “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly (in other words by birth or lineage), nor is circumcision outward and physical (in other words by conversion or affiliation). But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”
In Philippians 3:3 he said to the ethnically mixed church in Philippi, “…we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…”
Who then is a true Jew according to the Scriptures? Well, anyone, Jew or Gentile, who believes in Jesus as the Messiah.
As Paul said in Romans 9:8, “It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”
The reality of this sad fact is underscored by the statement in verse 10…
“Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.” It was the unbelieving Jews who delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate to be crucified…and I stress unbelieving Jews because Jesus himself was a Jew and all his followers at that point were Jews. Throughout the book of Acts, it is the unbelieving Jews who incited violence against both Jewish and Gentile believers.
The irony of it all is that the peculiar blasphemy of the unbelieving Jews was that they spoke out against their God in the name of God.
But perhaps, we are dealing with something even more sinister when it comes to the unbelieving Jews in Smyrna. As we saw last week, the Jews in Smyrna sided with the Gentiles against Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, saying that he was the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our gods, who teaches many not to sacrifice nor to worship…and then they proceeded to collect firewood to burn him to death on their own Sabbath Day!
This might indicate that many of the Jews in this particular city had so embraced the surrounding Gentile society that they had denied their faith, had sought to remove the distinct outward marks of that faith (which apparently was an all-too-common practice in the First Century world), and had engaged in Emperor worship and the worship of idols.
Either way, the Jews who said they were Jews were not Jews, but rather a synagogue of Satan…and, as such, they did the devil’s bidding.
But the most amazing thing about this sermon to the church in Smyrna is that there was no complaint! Jesus did not have single word of criticism for this church! Surely this is something we all should strive for!
If there is any hint of a correction it would be the command not to fear what they were about to suffer. Now they had every reason to be afraid. Roman prisons were not places of lengthy incarceration with a view to rehabilitation like modern western prisons…no, Roman prisons were the first step to execution…hence the command to be faithful unto death.
But as Jesus is the first and the last…as he is the one who is in control even when every circumstance seems to indicate the exact opposite…as he is the one who has conquered Satan, sin, and death…they need not fear those who were limited in power.
The second reason they ought not to fear, was because their tribulation had a definite limit. For ten days, Jesus said, you will have tribulation. Now, although this may be a specific period of time, the number ten and its multiples are used throughout Scripture to denote totality…something with a definite beginning and a definite end. For instances, we have the ten plagues, the ten commandments, the ten curtains and ten pillars in the tabernacle, David’s ten thousands, the ten days of testing for Daniel and his friends, ten virgins in the parable and so on. So, in other words, their suffering would be definite, controlled, and limited and therefore they were not to fear.
But the encouragement was not based on false hope of physical rescue (or rapture). Many believers would meet their death in this ongoing local persecution…but death holds no power over a believer…death is simply a door to glory. This is why Jesus addressed them as the one who was dead and is alive again. Their Lord, and our Lord, is the conqueror of death.
And so Jesus promised that he would give the wreath (or crown) of life to those who were faithful unto death. As we saw last week, the wreath (or the crown) was an image taken from the athletic games. Paul used the same terminology in 1 Corinthians 9:25. “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath (or crown), but we an imperishable.”
We are strange creatures, you know? We will go to great lengths to obtain something we really want. It’s just such a pity that all too often these things we want are temporary. The wreaths of this world are perishable and subject to decay. We will suffer all manner of discomfort to lose weight, to win a race, to get an A+ in an exam, or to get a prized promotion at work…but do we apply the same diligence when it comes to things eternal?
“Be faithful unto death…” This call to faithfulness is often a test of Christian commitment. Christianity has never claimed to be the sort of fairy tale so many want it to be. God is not a divine Santa Claus. Heaven is not a celestial dispensary of candy-coated niceties.
The day when you committed your life to Jesus, you declared war on Satan, the world, and its ways. It is not for nothing that Jesus warned that in the world we would have tribulation. Paul said that all who seek to live godly lives will suffer persecution. Which only makes one wonder why we do not suffer more…
In Hebrews 12:1-2 we are encouraged to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and (to) run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
The cross, which was the ultimate suffering of Jesus, was the way to victory. It was there that Satan was defeated. It was there that death was stripped of it sting. It was there that the penalty for all the sins of all his people were paid for once and for all. It was there that a permanent way was opened up for us to enter into Paradise once more…and an open door into the very throne room of Almighty God. All this was made possible through suffering.
Now, obviously, as there is no complaint section there is also no negative consequence for their failure to correct a problem…instead there is a doubly positive consequence: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the wreath (or crown) of life. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”
This wreath of life was a reward given to those who were faithful to death…a blessed paradox, if you will. Throughout Scripture the emphasis is not on starting but on persevering to the end…it is always about enduring and about overcoming, because the consequence of winning this race…of enduring to the end…of overcoming even to the point of death would be that they would “not be hurt by the second death.”
Now, what exactly is this “second death”? Jesus referred to two types of death in Matthew 10:28: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Interestingly in Ephesians 2:4-6, Paul likened the salvation of a believer to a resurrection. “But God,” he wrote, “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…”
John linked those who partake in this first resurrection with those whom the second death would have no power in Revelation 20:6. “Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power…”
In Revelation 20:14, John tells us what the second death is. “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Again in Revelation 21:18 he wrote: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”
Thus the second death is an eternal separation from the very source of life himself.
When Polycarp was burned to death by the instigation of both Jews and Gentiles on the Sabbath Day, he referred to this second death, the lake of eternal fire. He had been brought before the proconsul and was commanded to reproach Jesus and swear on the fortunes of the Emperor. To this Polycarp replied, “I have served Jesus for eighty-six years and he has never wronged me once. How then shall I now blaspheme my King who has saved me?”
After more threats, the exasperated proconsul threatened to burn him. To this Polycarp countered, “You threaten me with a fire that will only burn for an hour and will then be extinguished. But you are ignorant of the fire of the future judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Do whatever you please.”
It is probable that the bishop was referring to what John had written to the church in Smyrna a few years earlier…Polycarp was faithful even unto death and, in overcoming, he not only received the wreath (or crown) of life, but he would “not be hurt by the second death.”
The tribulations we face from day to day are far more subtle than being burned at the stake, but each one is equally poisonous. Whatever we have to face, whether it be relentless peer pressure or social dislocation or workplace discrimination, we have to constantly be on our guard to make sure that we are still a reflection of Jesus and that our words, deeds, and attitudes are not mirroring the world.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2025
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