Chapter 2 Verse 8

• Smyrna represents the period in church history from AD 100 to AD 312. 

• Smyrna, like Ephesus, was a port city situated about 50 miles north of Ephesus.  It was a city of great commerce and attracted the attention of travelers and traders because of its coastal location on the west coast of ancient Asia Minor.

• Smyrna was famous for science, medicine and the majesty of its buildings.  Polycarp was the pastor of the church there in Smyrna in the second century who we know from the writings of Iranaeus and Tertullian, had been a disciple of John and was actually appointed as pastor by John himself there in Smyrna. 

• Smyrna was a city given over to the worship of Caesar and according to Tacitus, the historian, permission was granted to the City of Smyrna by Rome to build the second Asian temple to the Emperor.  This completed temple as well as other Roman inspired architecture earned Smyrna the title “crown of porticoes” by Apollonius.  It was a  metropolis of trade, of international culture and grandious structures…yet the church was very poor as we’ll read in a moment.

• One thing we’ll notice as we step through Jesus’ letter to the church in Smyrna is that there’s no word of fault given.  It’s an extremely short letter.  No real commendation, no notable correction, only an exhortation…keep going.  Don’t let up…your prize awaits.

• This is notable.  The word “Smyrna” has its root in the word myrrh…which is an oil type substance that is only released when the elements of the plant are crushed.  Another way you can get to myrrh is to penetrate through the bark of the commiphora myrrha tree as that wound would yield a bleeding of myrrh.

• And as we read through the letter here to the persecuted church, the crushed church, the bleeding church, you may not only relate to the crushing but also to the exhortation.  Its sometimes difficult to hear the commendation of the Lord when times are tough.  Sometimes its not heard at all, but what is heard is this…Jesus sees you, He knows bleeding, He is acquainted with many sorrows…

• At His birth what was brought to Him?  Gold, the element of kings, frankincense, the element of priests, and myrrh…the element of death.  Why death?  Because it was used throughout history as a burial spice and as a numbing agent, a narcotic of sorts to those terminally ill or fatally wounded. 

• On the cross, Jesus was presented with Myrrh as a soldier offered it to Him to deaden the pain…what did He do?  He refused it.  His will, His example to us, His resolve was…let the cross do its job.  As the pain of crushing sets in our flesh desires dope…this world offers remedy in the momentary highs of drugs, false friends, social networks, illicit relationships and bustling bars just to name a few.  But let Jesus be an example and don’t go after the numbing.  Let the cross do its job. 

• Why, why let Jesus be the example?  Why not medicate and look to my fellow man for comfort or another man, or another man, or another man…because they brought myrrh to Jesus a third time…to His tomb after the cross had done its job…but Jesus was not there!  He had risen!  You also are to rise!  You also are to overcome…but before the resurrection, always the crucifixion.  If the cross does not do its job, there is nothing to rise from.

• So keep going, keep at it, don’t faint…cling to the Lord, His Word and His promises…endure the cross of crushing because all that is dying is flesh which will ultimately lead to the freedom and power and permanency of the resurrection!

• These things says the one who was dead and came to life! 

Chapter 2 Verse 9

• Again Smyrna was a city given over to Caesar worship.  Even the Jews had played into this Caesar-Cult to gain position and power.  According to church history, the Jews, in order to take the heat of persecution off of them (which we also do) would incite the Romans against the Christians by accusing the Christians of drinking blood and eating broken bodies.
• We read the specific account of Polycarp’s attempted martyrdom by the Romans as a result of these accusations.  I say attempted because at a report like this from the Jews, the Romans commanded Polycarp, the leader of the Christian church there in Smyrna, to worship Caesar by burning incense at Caesar’s alter.  Polycarp responded to them by saying, “How can I deny Him who has been faithful to me these six and eighty years?”  So he was taken and tied to a stake and set on fire.
• But something amazing happened which we have several eye witness accounts of, in fact its one of the most well documented events in atiquity…the fire did not burn him!  After several minutes of him just staring at them through the flames, completely at peace, one of the guards grew frustrated and ran Polycarp through the shoulder with a spear.  Guess what happened next?  The blood of Ploycarp flowed out which put out the flames!  He did die there that day but God sent a very powerful message through him to the world and to us…if you do not deny Me then no matter how intense the heat, no matter how high the flames…no matter, you will not be burnt.
• You ever feel just burnt.  Man they just got the best of me…well what do you think you’re here for?  To get the best of them?  Your perspective is all wrong…put your “best” into the hands of the Lord and allow Him to work through you to serve others.  That is the calling placed upon the life of a believer.  That Jesus Christ would live through you…that you would be defined by His grace…Man all of these things are found so clearly in His Word, I wonder do we deny Him?
• Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1:12, “I am suffering.  Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him.”  And again Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives through me.”  And again Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:10, “I am who I am by the grace of God.”
• So clear you see…your “best” belongs in the hands of Jesus.  Your life is to glorify Him and to declare Him.  You are not defined by anything or anyone but by the grace that God poured out at the cross.  That is to be a Christian.  Folks have grown so dull that they read of Paul and all of these things, and his life, and his ministry and they conclude that he was a super follower…not so, he was exactly as all true believers are…living a life absolutely clinging to the Lord…abiding in Jesus.  That is why I often fear for so many who define their discipleship of Jesus by church attendance or by the fact that they own 10 bibles yet they read none and apply none…I fear for them, that they are deceived…
• God declared to the church at Smyrna and to the church as a whole through Polycarp what faithfulness looks like and what faithfulness results in…

Chapter 2 Verse 10

• Jesus here refers to 10 days of testing, 10 days of suffering and of tribulation in prison and that it would be the devil who would be behind it all.  There are several perspectives out there on these ten days and exactly what they represent…a particularly hard period of ten literal days, ten literal years, even just “a brief time” as we see this period of time “ten days” in Genesis 24:55 and Acts 25:6 also yet referring specifically to a short period of time…but the issue I have with those perspectives is that we just can’t know really with any confidence…
• Why?  Well the church of Smyrna was in existence between the years 101 AD and 312 AD.  During that 200+ year period of time, there was great persecution, great crushing and we don’t have really any historical account that details a 10 day or 10 year period.  What we do know however is that between the years 101 AD and 312 AD there were 10 Roman emperors that each launched massive attacks against the believers.  So much so that during this time, between 5 and 7 million Christians were slaughtered.
• And so I’m able to accept that what Jesus is referring to is 10 periods of time, or ten reigns or ten tools of the devil that will throw some of them into prison and cause great suffering within the church. 
• But notice, no word of corrective exhortation for the church in Smyrna, but a wonderful promise.  “Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  So cool because we see this crown in one other place in the Bible…in James 1:12 where James says “blessed are you who endures temptation…you will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
• So put these two verses, these two appearances of the same reward together and the conclusion is revelational!  The crown of life is reserved for those that are faithful, who are faced with temptations…trials, tests, opportunities to reflect God’s will, God’s ways, God’s Word…or reflect the flesh…and James defines faithful for us…”those who love Him.”
• Jesus said once, “with their lips they honor Me.”  They pray their needs, their sing their songs in church, they profess that they love Me…He continued, “but their hearts are far from Me.”  Truly to truly to truly love the Lord, to truly to honestly to legitimately abide in His love…is to endure in faith.  To honor God with your time, with your money, with you marriage, with your job, with your relationships, with your attitude, with your reactions, with your mind, heart, soul, and strength! 
• And look that’s not a call to task, that’s not a call to work man!  That’s a call to relationship!  If you have a real, thriving, personal relationship with the Lord…the Holy Spirit living in you and your spirit being fed by your love life with Jesus then this will just be so so natural and normal.  This is not demanded of you, this will define you!  Fruit man, a tree a good tree just naturally bears good fruit! 
• And Jesus says here, “if that good fruit comes out”, when the testing comes the truth is told man…”if you endure in faith”…honoring the Lord with the sacrifice of praise…”then your love for Me is proven and your reward is sure…eternal life.”  The crown of life!

Chapter 2 Verse 11

• What is the second death?  It’s actually defined for us by Jesus in Revelation 21:8. 
• Jesus says those that are full of fear…”dalos” in the Greek…a word that is only used in two other places in the entire Bible which actually means fear as a result of faithlessness…those that are unbelieving…”apestos” meaning without trust in God…those that are abominable…meaning those that do and partake in things that God abhors…that cause stench literally…those that are murderers…”fonyus” in the Greek, those that are phony man, haters, backbiters, slanderers…those that are sexually immoral…”pornos” in the Greek meaning those who participate in sex outside of marriage…”those that are sorcerers…”pharmakeus” in the Greek meaning those that place their trust and lives in the hands of substances…drugs…those that are idolaters…worshippers of false gods…any false gods, something or someone or some cause exalted above the one true God in a person’s life…and all liars…”psyudas” in the Greek…fakers…those that honor Him with their lips but their hearts are far from Him…
• Jesus says here that all of those things, or one of those things, mark the lives of those that are lost…and they shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
• At the end of the millennium, the unbeliever will be resurrected to stand before the Lord at the Great White Throne Judgement.  There his failure to believe on the Lord and his refusal to accept God’s payment for his sins will condemn him to hell.  But according to Revelatin 20:6 for those who, like the church at Smyrna, are true…and that is proven through temptation, testing, suffering and even their fruitful lives, the second death will have no effect. 
• An interesting item to note, as we close our study on the letter to the church of Smyrna, is that we are living in a day where we can flip on the television, turn on the radio, buy CDs and video games and magazines and novellas, and what is being sold?  Faithlessness, “drama” as folks devour each other, sexually explicit and inappropriate content, drug use and alcoholism, idolatry and fake folks…living fake lives…and the masses laugh with cheer as we watch all of these things in what is called “sitcoms,” “reality television” and even headline news. 
• This world is prime for Christ’s return.  This world and all that is in it is passing away.  Are you ready?  Be ready!