Hello, my dear people. How are you? Look, I'm very excited to be doing this study on the seven churches of Revelation.
If you haven't watched the other two videos, I want to advise you and I even want to take the opportunity to make an observation for those who haven't watched the other videos. The seven churches of Revelation existed in Asia Minor. Currently, the seven churches are in Turkey.
Many years ago I had the opportunity to take this trip with a caravan that I took there and we went to all the archaeological ruins of these seven cities. It's a must. At that time I studied a lot, historically, theologically looking for an application of the seven churches to our days, so you can't miss it.
It's a wonderful study. It's applicable, timeless. It's very good for any time, so take the chance and watch the other videos if you haven't watched, and please, share it with everyone.
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Today I’ll be speaking to you about the church in Smyrna. It’s the second church, it’s the third message because the first was an introduction, but it’s the second church. Revelation chapter 2, verses 8 to 11 says this, “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.
I know your afflictions and your poverty —yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.
I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. ” I always start by talking about the city. The city of Smyrna was aproximatelly 65 km from Ephesus It was a city of rare beauty, it also had a beautiful beach.
It was on the direct route both from India for those going to Rome, and from Persia for those going to Rome, that is, from those two countries, whoever went to Rome would have the city on their route. This means that people stopped at the city, used the port and obviously exchanged goods and so on. The city was also very popular because it had a medical school, as well as other sciences in general, so it was a very advanced city, they had beautiful buildings and very wide streets.
When you go to the ruins you see the width of the streets that were larger than other cities for that time's standards, and there was a temple to worship the god Bacchus or Dionysus, who was the Greco-Roman god of wine. Jesus, the counselor, the one who will talk to the church and give it advice, presents himself in verse 8. He says, "To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:" The angel here, in my opinion, is the leader of the church.
The word angel is messenger, and here it's not a supernatural angel. It wouldn't make any sense to write a word for an angel. God would speak directly to it, so it's the church's leader.
"These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again", so here Jesus is clearly saying to the leader of the church in Smyrna and to all those people who were facing tribulations, "the one who is writing to you has even faced death and overcame death, so pay attention to what I'm about to say because I have promises and blessings to you". Then Jesus gives a compliment to that church. In verse 9 He says, "I know your afflictions and your poverty —yet you are rich!
I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan”. Well, the church of Smyrna represents the persecuted church that existed from the year 100 until the year 313. The church of Smyrna is not from that period, it is from an apostolic period together with all the other churches.
They are all from apostle John’s time, but it has a prophetic representation concerning the persecuted church in the second century, so Jesus gives them a compliment saying, I know you have been persecuted because of my name, I know you lost many things and that today you are poor, but in fact you are rich. Why did they become poor? Because with the persecution from the Jews of that time they had no more people to buy from their businesses and they were gradually taken to the margins of society, just as today many people, only for being Christians, lose so many things, so the persecutors were Jews who didn't accept the gospel, so they literally persecuted, but they are called by Jesus members of Satan's synagogue, so history tells that Polycarp, a direct disciple of the apostle John.
Polycarp must have met John while he was very young because John wrote Revelation in the year 95 when he was about 80 something and Polycarp was killed in the year 168, so doing the math here, Polycarp must have been 17, 18 at most when he met the already old John, but Polycarp, history shows, there are writings about it, was killed in 168 AD. He was put in a fire pyre, tied up and the Jews who persecuted him brought wood to start that fire, that bonfire, so Polycarp died because of this persecution from those Jews who hated those who converted, so look at the level of persecution the persecuted church of the second century suffered, that's why Jesus speaks to this church in Smyrna that suffered 10-day persecution, but it represents the period of the persecuted church in the second century that existed between the year 100 and 313. So Jesus states that they would go through a 10-day tribulation and this is regarding the actual church in Smyrna that was contemporary to John but points to a period of persecution that happened in the second century AD.
You know, this church was the church that went through most tribulation. They were thrown in the Roman Colosseum, many times were buried and with their heads out and beasts came and ate them, devoured them in the Roman circus that was next to the Colosseum. They had to fight beasts with no weapons.
They had to fight tigers that were brought from Africa, India for shows, and all the Romans laughing at those believers who died, and many of them died glorifying God because they knew that they would have eternal life. So this was a very hard time for the church. For you to have an idea, it's estimated that approximately five million believers were martyred in those 200 and something years.
If we were to calculate a percentage of the 5 million who died in those 200 years, it would be more or less close to the death of 100 million believers today. Comparing in percentage, obviously, the population of that time with ours. So Jesus gives a compliment saying, look, you have been persecuted, you faced so many things, you lost a lot of money you became outcasts of society, but you were faithful, so congratulations.
In this message about the seven churches, you will notice that I keep the same pattern. First I talk about the city, then I talk about Jesus, the counselor, then I talk about the compliments and after that, in fourth place, I come to talk about the condemnation, but interestingly the church in Smyrna had no condemnation, in fact, the name Smyrna means myrrh and myrrh was a very bitter spice and, in fact, it represents what life was like for those believers. It was a life of bitterness, of losses, of pain, and they went through all of it with much bravery, with a lot of faith, as a believer should be.
Because it's easy to be a believer when all is well when there's prosperity, it's easy but it's hard to stand firmly when persecution comes, when illness comes, when difficulties come, persecution from people, slander, lies, when you become a person who's not accepted by society, simply by your faith and today you're listening to me here, know that this is happening right now in the world. I have a friend, Pastor Elias, he is a man who travels the world promoting missionaries. He spoke to me recently about 600 women, only in Syria, who lost their husbands by decapitation, so he’s looking for people to help those widows, who were left without their husbands, with no support, because in Syria the husbands support and work, and besides everything they’re starving, so today there are people suffering for Jesus.
If here in Brazil and some countries in the world we're living in a time of prosperity, or at least having something to eat, thank God, but know that there are many Christians who don't have this privilege and even those, God loves them, Jesus loves them and allows this to happen because, maybe it is their calling to testify, to give glory to God even in tribulation. So without a doubt, this church, the church in Smyrna went through bitterness and it has everything to do with the name Smyrna that means myrrh, means bitter. What advice does Jesus give to them, since he doesn’t reprimand them?
May they be courageous and faithful. And there is one passage that I love the most, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown”. I remember when I was little in the Methodist church this verse was written in a wall, and I looked and asked, “what does it mean to be faithful to the point of death?
", and I had to grow up to know that there are people who live in places where to maintain faith in God they must lose their lives, so my dear people, if we don't need to lose our lives to serve Jesus, let's live for Him, let's be faithful to Him in life, because many, to remain faithful must die for Him. Amen? So Jesus’ advice is this, be courageous and faithful until death and do not reject Jesus to adapt to the world you’re living in, and what is the promise that Jesus makes to the church in Smyrna?
There are two promises. The first is the one I’ve mentioned, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown”, in other words, stand firm because after death there’s eternal life. The second promise that Jesus makes to the victorious, to the one who wins.
The victorious here is the one who stood firm despite persecution, despite the financial loss, despite death. The comrade who got to the end and said, I'm with Jesus, I won't give up no matter what, the devil might rise, the world can come against me and I will not deny my faith. And here Is a word for you my dear.
Today we live in a time of weak churches. You know, people go through a hard time, and I'm not here to minimize the hard times that you go through, there are people who lose children, people who lose their husband and they're really shaken, but it can't be so great that you'd leave God, because that is apostasy, so your love for Jesus. Your faithfulness to the Lord has to be above all other things.
God knows that you're shaken, God understands that, sometimes, you’re revolted none of that will change God's relationship with you, but rejecting Jesus, saying, "I don't care anymore, I can't believe God left me", as some people say; there's no coming back from that, "so be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown". In the second place, to the one who wins the one who is victorious, will not be hurt at all by the second death, meaning that Jesus is promising, I will not deliver you from death necessarily, not everyone will be free from death, but from one thing I promise, one thing I promise to you, you will be free from the second death, and the second death my loved ones, is eternal death, so is there anything greater than that? Is there a greater promise?
To be sure about eternal life despite our sins, isn't that wonderful? You will never go through the second death. If you're faithful to the word, if you're faithful to Jesus, if you keep your faith, no matter what happens you will not suffer the second death.
And when the resurrection, the rapture day, you will be there! Praise God! In seventh and last place, I want to tell you that this church, the church in Smyrna existed in the first century, at John's time, therefore it's a church of the first century, but it has a prophetic representation of the persecuted church in the second century.
If you haven't watched the first message when I make the introduction, I said that those seven churches serve three purposes. The first is contemporary, that is, there really were seven churches, that Jesus chose to talk about, and those churches and everything that Jesus talked about applied to those seven local churches from the first century. The second purpose is a prophetic purpose, and every single one of the churches represents a prophetic period of the church of Christ that begins at Pentecost and goes until the rapture.
So the church in Ephesus is the church that talks about the apostolic church, and it's the first prophetic period. The church in Smyrna is the church of the second prophetic period, which is the period of the persecuted church, that goes from the year 100 AD to the year 313 when the time of persecution ends. Why?
Because Constantine, the emperor was actually fighting Maxentius to see who would be the emperor and he realized that he couldn't win that battle unless he made a deal with the Christians because they were very numerous. He called the Christians and he did this, he said, “I had an experience with God”. He told them about the vision that he had – and here I’m giving you a spoiler of what I’ll tell you next week, but just so you understand the process as a whole – and then he says, look, if you help me, then I will make the Christian religion universal and that’s what happened, so in 313 the persecution ended, the believers who were persecuted now had an official religion, and no longer suffered persecution So the church in Smyrna that means bitter, that time of bitterness and persecution goes from the year 100 until the 313.
Amen? So my dear people I want to end this word saying that we live in a time, at least in the Western world where there’s no persecution but there’s so much persecution in the world today. There’s so much persecution in the Islamic world.
I recently translated an Egyptian pastor from a church of over 12 thousand people. He has missionaries all around the Islamic world. What has he told us?
That there’s so much persecution again in Syria, in Lebanon, because of the Islamic world and now Turkey is taking Islamic radicals from Syria to go on war against Libya. All of that against Christians. So, at this time that we're living, there are so many Christians dying for Christ.
As I said, we're involved in working to help these 600 women who lost their husbands by beheading simply because they didn't deny their faith. They were faithful to the point of death and certainly have the crown of life. Isn't it wonderful to know that?
Jesus has prepared a crown of life to those who are faithful. So dear, raise your head. I don’t know if you will receive this message on the other side of the world where there’s persecution, so I want to declare, to prophesy in your life, be strong and brave because the Lord is with you!
And He promises that if your faithful until the end, He will give you the victor's crown and you won't go through the second death. My dear people, it's so important that while we're living here we keep thinking about eternal life because the second death is eternal, spiritual, and the ultimate separation from God. My dear, you don't want to spend eternity without God.
Some people say, "I don't like God", you say that because you live under God’s blessings even if you don’t know that, for example, where do you live? In a world where there’s light, there are flowers, where there’s beauty, music, happiness, joy, there’s love. All of that emanates from God.
Satan, on the other hand, the prince of darkness. There’s no joy, only crying, pain, and gnashing teeth. There’s no love, only hate, resentment, revenge.
Are you understanding? Would you want to leave away from God? Nothing of the essence of God will remain with you.
It is to be eternally away. I heard a testimony from a woman who lost her sight at the age of 15. She was completely blind and she was saying that after living 15 years seeing light it's really hard to wake up every day, open her eyes, and see only darkness, but she said this, "my hope is that the blindness is temporary, because one day I will open my eyes and I will see the exuberance of my God, of the kingdom of my God.
So I want to tell you my dear, live thinking about eternity, understand that everything we have in this life is fleeting. What we conquer, the things we own, it’s all fleeting. What is eternal is our life with the Lord and we will spend eternal life with the Lord.
You know why? Because of Jesus. So while we’re in this life we’re fighting to get rid of our sins, of the weight that beset us in this world, but as Apostle Paul said, Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
” What is this calling? It's eternal life, so be faithful, stand firm with God despite what happens in your life, stand firm with the Lord until the end because the Lord promises you that you will never experience the second death, and you will have eternal life. Amen, my dear?
The Lord loves you, the Lord cares about you. Be like the church in Smyrna. Bravely resist all the persecutions without never ceasing to believe in the Lord and say to God, Lord I ask that you free me, free my family of everything, including Coronavirus, everything that's going on, but Lord I want to tell you that I need your help to be faithful under any circumstances.
Amen? May the Lord bless you. Please, share this message, and may it speak to your heart.
Listen to it one more time. This is such an important message, and meditate on it, think about it, read the passages, imagine the life of a believer in Smyrna, of the believers from the second century, of the persecuted church that so many times lost everything and lived in poverty because of their love for Jesus and we're living in such easy times, well it's persecution from a fellow worker, in school or some illness, or even the loss of a loved one. That's important, but it does not compare to what some of our brothers today are suffering in the persecuted church all around the world.
Amen? May the Lord bless you, may He comfort your heart, may He give you vision and purpose so that you can effectively make a difference in the time that we're living. I love you very much.
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