Amen. If you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me tonight to Revelation 2, verses 8 through 11. As I mentioned during the announcements in light of events and the lateness of them in the week, we're taking a detour from our study in Luke and we're going to look at a passage where Jesus counsels his people amidst their suffering. Now in Luke we've been looking at his own sufferings tonight.
We consider a letter he commissions to be sent to a church that suffers and will do so in light of events in part of course because of the Bruce family sorrow. But there's much more than that is you know we've been praying for a whole variety of people in the last few weeks who have suffered in suffering illness, suffering accidents. This was the week of the Oregon College murders and martyrdom of Christians by some accounts I have read. The whole story on that is not yet out.
It's the year of tremendous turmoil in the Middle East and the persecution of literally driving out of believers and churches all across the Middle East and the imprisonment and death of many on behalf of Christ. There are many reasons to consider the subject of suffering in the Lord's Church and especially how does Jesus counsel his people in their grief and trouble. And so I want you to consider that with me tonight from this letter one of seven letters in Revelation, one of seven churches but for all of us. Revelation chapter 2 verses 8 through 11 to the Church of Smyrna.
Let me invite you to hear the word of God. And to the angel of the Church in Smyrna, right, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life. I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich. And the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Be whole. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested. And for ten days you will have tribulation.
Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. Amen.
This is God's Word. And he write it on our hearts, let's look to him in prayer. In our gracious Father in heaven we bow before you. We pray that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see wonderful things in your word about Jesus and about your love and care for your people in every circumstance.
The blessings comfort us, encourage us, strengthen us, help us in Jesus name on the cry. Amen. It was difficult to be a believer in Smyrna. We want to think about that but it also wasn't all bad.
Nor are our lives all bad. The people in Smyrna lived in a beautiful, glorious place. This city was second only to Ephesus in its day. It was a city on the Aegean Sea.
It was considered the most beautiful city of its day. It was a city of about 250,000 people famous for its monetary system, famous for its schools of medicine and science, broad main tree lined boulevards, great open air theatre seating 20,000. It was a step behind Ephesus in political and economic importance but on the Gulf of Aegean with an excellent harbor and the beautiful winds coming off the sea was a great place to live. It also had tremendous status in the Roman Empire because in 195 BC they had actually dedicated a temple built for Rome, a personified as a goddess.
So Rome wasn't dear to them. During the last days of Jesus they built in honor of Tiberius Caesar, another temple. They honored the gods Zeus and Apollo and Aphrodite and the Jewish community was large and the Roman pagan community was large and they actually got along very well with one another, just not well with the people of God. Smyrna is a Greek word for mer, translates mer, a perfume used in embalming the dead and it's fitting that such a place that such a people Jesus would speak about suffering.
Many of these near believers face all kinds of trials. Let's just briefly look at the troubles they experienced and then the seven points of counsel he gives to them in their trials. What did they experience? He says, well I know your sufferings, I know your tribulation.
Tribulation here is the word for being in narrow strait, for being hemmed in on all sides with no way of escape. It's, it's, what is extremely difficult and you feel hard pressed. They experienced it says poverty. Jesus says, I know your poverty.
Here the word is not for, you know, sort of the, the, the bottom of the economic ladder working their way up and it's the word for beggar. It's the word for total destitution. You simply relied upon the generosity of others or you were not spared. It abject suffering and poverty.
Likely many of the Christians there had been kicked out of their trade guilds because they wouldn't bow them to the God of that trade guild. So they lost their jobs. They lost their incomes. They, they were in many of them beggars and poor.
But more than that he says not only that, I know the slander of those who say that they are Jews but are not. That these were Christians who had been persecuted. Right about belittled by others and certainly by family members and neighbors. Their community didn't like these Christians.
And more than that it says some of you are about to be thrown into prison. They're going to experience that kind of persecution and some of you he says are going to face death. Death on behalf of Jesus Christ for believing in him. So they understood suffering and Jesus is counseling them as they face these difficult days.
And we've already mentioned some of the suffering of believers in our world and even in our own church family. But there are other ways that we suffer besides physical illness and accident and the death of loved ones. Some of us suffer social isolation for believing in Jesus. Maybe friends, family members have turned their back on you.
You aren't so warm. You don't get invitations to parties that you used to get invitations to. You don't even know what you're missing sometimes. But it's missing on a kind of following Jesus.
We face loneliness as believers. We struggle and suffer resisting the tug of indwelling sin as believer and to deny yourself and to die to self is a kind of suffering on behalf of the Lord Jesus and his kingdom. We suffer to bear with others that we don't like because Jesus calls us to and he bears with us to accept one another because he has accepted us even when we aren't naturally friends or naturally collect. And we have to bear with one another's quirks and personalities and preferences.
Love covers a multitude of sins and we bear with one another and we suffer for one another when we forgive one another instead of retaliating against one another. For other sins against us, there are many ways in which we suffer. We suffer the temptation of the world to follow its path to get along so that the world will accept us. And we say no to that.
There are many different kinds of temptation and suffering in stars that we face. What does Jesus counsel his people in their pain? And I want to highlight seven things following basically the tracking of different phrases of the passage which speak with you. I won't give them all to you but front.
We'll just take them one at a time. What counsel does Jesus have for his suffering people? In the first place, don't look at your text because it isn't there. The first thing I want to highlight is actually what Jesus does not say to this believing community.
Notice nowhere in this letter does Jesus rebuke them for sin as he counsels them about their suffering. Nowhere in this letter, otherwise if you look at the other seven letters where Jesus counsels his people, encourages them, affirms them, but also calls them out for certain sins, calls them to repent, calls them to correction. Here in the letter on suffering, he says not one word about their sins. Do you know how precious and valuable that is?
You need to remember this. That not every suffering we experience is directly related to our particular sins. Now we live a fallen world, a sinful world and we are heirs to misery on account of that. Of course, in a general way, but you cannot either say to yourself or look at somebody else, we know that the sorrow you experience now is because of some particular sin that you have to bid it and God is just punishing you or disappointing you on that account because this was the perfect place for Jesus to say, now repent and all will be well or repent because of this and he doesn't say one word about that.
So you and I must always be cautious and careful about making that direct line either for ourselves or for others. It's not always the case. You remember the man born blind and Jesus was asked, who sinned? Was it this man or was it this parents?
Jesus said neither, but just for the glory of God is what he said. And so likewise for us and that's the first thing I want you to see. Jesus does not always connect our suffering and our sin. The second thing I want you to see is in the text as are the others.
The second thing, notice where he begins at verse 8, Jesus points us to himself. His first counsel is consider me. Notice what he says, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life. Before I talk to you about you, dear friends, Jesus says, would you remember me?
Who am I? And who am I? He says, I am the first and I am the last. Now this is language that they would have immediately recognized, a very famous passage in the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 44 verses 6 through 8.
God describes himself this way, thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last beside me. There is no God. And Jesus turns right around to these people. He says, I am him.
I am he. You are right to worship me. You are right not to bow down to the God of Zeus, the God of Apollo, the God of Tiberius, the God of Rome personified. You are right to follow me even though it is brought in suffering because I am the first and I am the last.
It is a glorious reminder that we are to look at him and see him as our King and our God and our Redeemer even if we suffer on his behalf. Thomas Watson says, when God lays men on their backs, then they look up to heaven. Sometimes that is exactly where God wants us to open our eyes and look at Jesus and see him on his throne exalted. That is not all he says to them.
This is the third principle. Not only does he say, look at me, but notice particularly what he says to look at him about. He says, I am not only the first and the last, but I am the one who died and came to life right at the outside. He is warning them, some of them are going to die, but he begins by saying, would you remember what I did?
I died and I also came to life. He is saying it away. I am not going to take you, my dear people, to a place I have not already been ahead of you. But wherever I am going to take you, I have already been.
You remember that I suffered for you. This is one of the things that makes Christianity so unique among all religions as many have observed. Our God is not far off. He is not untouched or immune from the evils of this life, but he has faced them and endured them, even the worst of them, and come out alive on the other side of them.
And so because of that, the writer of Hebrews says Jesus is a sympathetic high priest. In Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 it says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weakness, but we have one who in every way has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Now, English majors heard a double negative, which I know is wrong in English, but it is strong in the Greek. He is unable not to sympathize, meaning he can only do one thing, sympathize.
He cannot but help to sympathize with his people because he has been where you are. He faced all of this on our behalf. And so he identifies with us in suffering. We can get tunnel vision in our suffering.
We can get fixated on life here and life now and on self. And Jesus is saying, would you remember my greatness and I rule and I reign? And would you remember that part of my glory was my humiliation? And then my exaltation, the cross before the crown.
And so no servant is above his master and he sympathizes with us. That's the third thing. Now, the fourth thing is this, and you see it in verses 9 and 10, when he says, I know what you are about to suffer. In other words, Jesus is saying, I know and having already declared his God, he's implicitly asserted I can stop this.
And yet I'm going to allow this in your experience. I know what you are about to suffer and you are about to suffer this. Do you see what Jesus is doing? He's capable of stopping it.
He's the first and the last. There is no other God. But he sometimes chooses not to stop it in the experience of his people. And that's the case here.
And look, this is a place of great comfort. There is no comfort in the idea that God can help me when I suffer, but he can't keep me from suffering. He isn't ultimately in charge of my suffering. Because if there is some other power at work in the universe, roaming around unchanged, unrestrained by God, then that power is at least an equal to his sovereign power.
That power would by definition be divine. Or our God would by definition be less than divine, sharing his rule in reign with something. But our God is supremely in charge of all things. And evil is on a leash.
Evil is on a rope. He organizes, governs, restrains and permits in a fallen world for a time. These things by the end of the book of Revelation, we learn, of course, that he will take it all away. But here in love for his people in a fallen world, as they experience their own brokenness and the brokenness of others, they will suffer.
And he knows it. And he could stop it. And he chooses to permit it. Don't wonder if you know God to be God like that to you.
I wonder if you scratch your head and say, is God being good to me? Is God good? The place to learn that lesson is not by looking at the difficulty of your experience and judging God based on that experience. The place you learn that God is good and that God is good to me is at the cross.
And let the cross interpret your experience. Don't let your experience interpret the cross. Don't let your circumstances tell you that God really forgot about me. God doesn't love him care for me.
But let the cross teach you God always remembers me. God loved and died for me. Therefore, what I am experiencing is interpreted in light of that. As some of you know, I've mentioned his story before.
He's now gone on to be with Jesus, an elderly man from among us, Dr. Dick Schooning, who had a son who in his youth was a giant by Dr. Schooning's testimony in Christian truth, but in his head and not his heart. And he grew up through college in his early 20s.
He rebelled against what he knew to be true. He left the church. He lived in a moral life. His own father, Dr.
Schooning, pressed the church, rightly so, to so love his son that they would call him out for his rebellion and seek even to excommunicate him, put him out of the church, basically to say, if you don't know what that means, to say, we love him, but you're deceived about whether you're a Christian. The way that you're living evidences that you are not, as Jesus taught us to do. And they said, now you trade him like you would a tax collector and you said, you love them and share the gospel with them, right? An object of somebody who, a person who needs the good news.
But Dr. Schooning, to his own son, said to the elders, you need to excommunicate him. He's living totally immorally rebellious. Pressed that issue.
And he pricked this way, Lord, I don't care what you have to do and however hard it is, just do whatever will humble my son and bring him home safely to Jesus. Do it, Lord, and I won't be bitter and I won't complain whatever it is. And a year later, his son was fixing a friend's four wheeler, took it for us, flipped it, and without a how many without a roll bar broke his neck. I became a quadriplegic, which he is to this day.
This is how many decades later. Dr. Schooning raised him in the hospital to begin to talk to him of Jesus and he said, I know that. I've already made my peace with Jesus.
The Lord used this very difficult circumstance to bring his heart back home to a right relationship of walking with the Lord Jesus and the Father where he here now, but in heaven, he says it, the Father and the son would both say to us, totally worth it. I'm so glad the Lord did this in my experience. Jesus knows and can stop our suffering and sometimes he chooses not to. And that's what he tells these dear believers.
I know what you are about to suffer. God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He clamps his footsteps in the sea and he rides upon the storm, says the hymn writer. Yee, fearful saints, fresh courage take.
The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace behind a frowning province. He hides a smiling face and every believer may have that confidence. Now that's the fourth thing in the fifth is this as in verse nine he speaks to their poverty.
I know your poverty, he says, Jesus reminds them that suffering can lead to spiritual strength because their perspective is and he knows them to be suffering. They are poor. I know your poverty. I know your abject poverty, parentheses, my perspective, but you are rich.
Jesus mocking them, of course not. What is he doing? He's saying, but remember the priority of spiritual things over physical things. You remember that you are rich in spiritual things.
You have me and in having me you have all things and that you don't have it all right. You are now sight seen. You are not poor in me is what Jesus is saying because you have me and every spiritual blessing in me. Now it could be that their poverty helped them actually to be strong spiritually.
When you know you have nothing, it can so humble the heart. It comes easy and quick to turn to the Lord and say Lord I need you and riches on earth can so harden the heart and so puff you up with pride. You don't think you know the Lord and so you don't turn to him. It's a dangerous thing to be wealthy and it can be a blessing.
It doesn't mean every poor person is safe but they were poor and they had Jesus and he says you're rich. Lean on me. Depend on me. Find your resources in me.
We need to be careful then how our circumstances shape our hearts as we respond to them. Circumstances can do you much good. They can also do you much harm depending upon how you respond to them. You know that the same pot of boiling water can both hard boil an egg and make a soft make soft potato.
For the one it hardens and for the other it makes pliable so it is with our hearts. You can either grow into your suffering bitter and resentful or you can grow soft and malleable, changeable, humble, reliant, depending. One poet put it this way I walked a mile with pleasure she chatted all the way but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow and there a word said she but oh the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me.
What is suffering doing in your experience dear friends and if it's hardening you say Lord soften me. Help me. Jesus delights to help the helpless. Now the sixth principle is in verse 10 as we just move through the passage again.
Jesus isn't done at verse 10. He speaks of the devil throwing some of them into prison that they may be tested and for 10 days you have tribulation. Now what is he saying to them? Here I think at least one thing he's doing is he assuring Christians that all their sufferings do have an end and he knows the end of them.
Now what do I say that what does he mean here? What does he mean by 10 days? Well the commentators disagree on this as you can imagine. I mean is this symbolic language?
Is it literal language? Is it a week and a half? Or is it a long time or is it a short but intense time? I have my own opinion it's not the point right here but notice it is a definite time.
10 days not nine not 12 but 10 it's definite. It's not an ending. It has a conclusion. It has a finish and this is so helpful friends because in our difficult circumstances we can get into a dark tunnel and not see the light at the end of it and Jesus say I know the light at the end of it for you.
It is 10 days and but only 10 days and it will be done eventually. It will be finished one day. So he's putting things here in an eternal perspective for us. We need to look at our life for a second and count the length of 80 years on a timeline the timeline of eternity and in that timeline our life is what a vapor our life is but a mist that quickly passes and of course it doesn't feel that way to us as we're living it but one day we'll look back on it and say but of course it was about a snap of the fingers.
So Paul having this eternal perspective and sub-cribe the insat force as this so do not lose heart though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed day by day for this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not at the things that are seen but the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are transient but the unseen things are eternal and so I simply want to say this Jesus knew the end of their suffering and Jesus knows the end of our suffering and the final thing is this verse 7 and Jesus promises believers in him that they will never experience the worst possible suffering that they will never experience the worst possible suffering in verse 11 be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death what's he talking about he's reminding them that there is death and second death the first death is death as we experience it the separation of body from soul believer immediately goes to be with Jesus it's better to part Paul said and to be with Christ but there is such a thing as second death he's reminding them that there is such a thing worse than earthly sorrow and trouble and that is the horror of eternal life without Jesus and without his blessing and experiencing what sin deserves why do I say that well second death is defined for us in Revelation 20 verse 14 and 15 what is second death listen to the language 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 to experience the second death and Jesus says no believer in me will ever experience that kind of suffering never why because their names in the book of life why because Jesus died their second death and they are trusting in him for salvation Jesus suffered as it were the lake of fire upon the cross when he endured what sin deserves its judgment in the hell he faced before the face of God taking what we deserve to rescue and free us and it is for all who looked at him who say Lord die my death on my behalf save me from my sins and Jesus guarantees you you will never experience this great suffering let them this passage build our confidence that Jesus is as a good shepherd a pastor verse who is for us and not against us he says look up to me on the first and the last I am I'm the one who died but I'm the one who am alive remember me and I have been ahead of you in this and I will not take you where I have not been and I know you're suffering and I could stop it but for now and for a time I'm going to let this be in my own wisdom wisdom wisdom wisdom wisdom you don't understand but it shall be but I know the end of it and you are ranch you are not poor in my eyes you have everything and that's all that matters because you have me and I will put an end to this and I will protect you from what all your sin really deserves be assured dear believer he is for you and not against you not a note of rebuke in this text not a word of chastisement in this passage he sympathizes with you and a bruised breed he will not break and a faintly flickering candle he will never snuff out and he this good shepherd is an ever-present help in time of trouble may you and your soul find rest in him let's pray our father grant to us this rest help us to lean on Jesus as our rock and our fortress our Savior our shield and defender thank you that you hold us in your hand and no one can snatch us out of your hand in Jesus they my friend let's stand and sing a song of longing of hope of looking into the coming of the Lord into fullness that he offers us