His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Here is the encouragement ahead of us on his perfect love.

Matt VanderVen: If you're in the midst of a very heavy tribulation and trial, what do you need? You need encouragement to stay on. If somebody puts a gun and I pray this doesn't happen to you, but if somebody ever put a gun to your head and said deny Jesus, at that moment your life is going to flash before your very eyes, the people you love, the things that you've done, the things you haven't done, the things you wish you would have done. It is going to play like a video very quickly before your eyes and you're going to make a choice.

You're either going to deny Jesus in hopes to gain this life or you're going to lose this life to gain the next. I pray to God in that moment every one of us makes that difficult decision, but only as we just read by the spirit of God.

Guest (Male): It's time for his perfect love with pastor Matt Vanderven. Have you ever been through a trial or a period of discouragement and then you received a note or message from a friend that really ministered to you? That's exactly what the Lord did for the church in Smyrna in the second chapter of Revelation. Smyrna was suffering persecution for their faith and also tribulation and poverty. This little passage of just four verses is a reminder to stay faithful and keep on keeping on with eyes on the Lord. Here's pastor Matt.

Matt VanderVen: So as we look at another church in the church age, chapter two and three, the church age, the very age we're living in, again John gave us an outline in chapter one told very specifically that Jesus in verse 19 write the things which you have seen past tense, the things which are he calls the present tense what began 2,000 certainly years ago through Jesus Christ and the work of the church up to this very present day and age, we are still obviously in the church age because I woke up this morning and showed up and so did you and you're the church, the body of Christ.

It's not a building, it's the people that gather in the church. I'm certain we're in the church age because you're here and I'm here and so he said the things which are and then he tells us that there will be after chapter four, after chapters two and three, a time where we'll get into the scripture in Revelation where we're looking things that will be future, prophetic, things that will happen in the future, but he camped out in chapters two and three and he wrote seven letters, seven being obvious the number, whether it's Hebrew or Greek, use universally speaking to a worldwide church, certainly a very specific church here this morning, this church of Smyrna.

Now the church of Smyrna specifically faced terrible persecution, attacks from both within and from outside. Smyrna must face and they're being told that they have to face this opposition until death if you look at verse 10. He didn't mince words. Jesus was not grammatically challenged. We love the word of God because God has given us a literal interpretation of his emotions, thoughts, his desires and his wisdom. It's a man that comes to it and tries to reinterpret it, but if we take it at face value when he says death, what does he mean? He means end to death.

These are very sobering things here this morning that we're talking about, sobering and a very serious letter. But I think the first question that many of you are asking or maybe I'll ask of you is what can you tell me about Smyrna? Maybe you've read the book of Revelation before in context, what was going on in this church that Jesus wrote a letter specifically to them and then obviously something very applicable to you and I because the church, the Christians are going to continue to face persecution and opposition and affliction just as they have for 2,000 years.

Nothing has changed under the sun. So I think it's a fair question. So again the hermeneutics of who, what, where, why and when, the five W's, right, that we always think about in biblical hermeneutics that we should ask ourselves in every passage we come to. What is Jesus trying to communicate to us? Well, first we should know a little something about this Smyrna, the city of Smyrna. Smyrna was a large important city on the western coast of Asia Minor. It was famed for its schools of science and schools of medicine. The words of Jesus in the church of Smyrna, specifically verses eight through 11 we just read, offers us an insight into the first century congregation that's gathering there.

And again I believe there are many applications for us today. Smyrna was named and many of you may know this, but some of you may not, that word Smyrna and the naming for that comes from the word myrrh. Now when you think about myrrh, maybe some of you think back it's sort of an aromatic kind of gum resin, maybe I could describe it that way. So bitter to the taste, but sweet to the smell. I want you to think about where it's been used in scripture. It's quite a lot in Old Testament and new. Specifically one passage I'd call out to you this morning, that's John chapter 19 verse 39.

It was used to embalm the dead in the first century. So just think about that. No coincidence. The very name of this city Smyrna, the church that would have gone by Smyrna, its name means what? Myrrh, which would be used to embalm the dead and Jesus came to them and said I want you to be faithful until what? Death. You think there's any coincidence there? I certainly not. I wonder if when they were naming that town Smyrna from myrrh, if that even crossed their minds. Why do we have a name like this? The church of Smyrna faced bitter persecution and death.

Yet it admitted such a a beautiful fragrant, a testimony of faithful commitment to Jesus Christ in the midst of an idolatrous society. We learned something there as well that just because the circumstances of this world, no matter how evil it gets, no matter how idolatrous, Jesus Christ expects us not to flee from that, to be in the world, but not of the world, to be the light to a lost and dying world. The city of Smyrna was about 35 miles from Ephesus, not very far at all. It was located at the base of Mount Pagos.

It was nestled between seven hills in a well planted and protected coastal harbor near the Aegean Sea. And because of its location next to the Aegean Sea, the Hermes River of course, Smyrna was a major commercial center and it brought great wealth, brought wealth that some would argue, scholars that they say that it would rival Ephesus and Pergamos. You're talking a great city here. Now Smyrna, one of the things it was known for, if you ever look at some of the archaeology or you ever look at some of the pictures and different is you would notice that the streets that they've unearthed very wide, much wider than Ephesus and Pergamos and some of the other.

It was just these really wide streets. They were very beautifully paved, very well known for its architecture, specific specifically beautiful buildings. And the city was known in as an art education center, a a center of philosophy, science, a school of medicine and a world-renowned large library. What is so significant about that? Humanism. Some of us think that is new. That is something that just happened today, this intellectualism where we look at the feats of men and begin to worship them instead of the God who created all things. And Solomon told us there's nothing new under the sun.

And that's exactly what was going on in Smyrna. The city of Smyrna, they were on the map, they were proud of their city and they looked to the architectural accomplishments and said look, look at us. There is no one as great as we are. Maybe Ephesus, but we're better. And on top of that, the idolatry that was practiced there, for example, they had temples set up to pagan gods. So you couldn't help but walking through these cities and just picture these erected statues of these pagan gods as you'd walk through them. Apollo you'd see. Asclepius was another one.

Aphrodite, Sybil, the emperor Tiberius, Zeus, it all dotted the landscape as you would walk around you'd see these large monuments and statues to these pagan idolatrous gods. But one in particular out of the other one, many of them from Greek mythology, but one in particular was not and maybe you heard me when I said emperor Tiberius. That should bring to your mind emperor worship, cult-like behavior, worshiping a government or a person within a government like a political leader instead of worshiping God, Jesus, the one true God. This is something that was going on there and this is important because it explains some of the persecution and suffering that was going on.

The church was surrounded by a demonic system dedicated to these gods or these gods of Rome. The midst of this cesspool of pagan pollution, Smyrna's church exhibited such a powerful testimony that Jesus literally wrote them a letter saying keep on keeping on. He doesn't give a single rebuke to this church much like the church of Philadelphia, except he gives them a warning and encouragement because they were walking in such purity during the years in which Christians were being severely persecuted for their faith. Now this was not new and during the time that Jesus even walked this earth and physically was on this earth, right, incarnation, incarna in the flesh, caro in the Latin meaning in the flesh.

In 8026 Rome granted Smyrna the right to erect a temple in honor of Tiberius. So this wasn't new when Jesus Christ walked the earth, that was already there. And his mother Julia. It was the golden street. He he basically gave permission because it was his monument and statue and his mother that they were to erect this statue in Smyrna and then they paved the street in gold while people were suffering, while people had were poor and had no food, no money, nothing to eat. And can you imagine outside of your home as you would walk down into the city street that you would see people taking gold and pouring it that could be used to feed the poor, the homeless, the widows, the orphans.

This golden street extended from the temple connecting it with others within the city. So as you would take multiple roads and paths you would walk upon this reread of their tribulation. Again that refers to how believers suffered because of their uncompromising commitment to Jesus Christ. I want you to think about this 2,000 years ago. Maybe we don't have to think that far back because I think it's coming to a city near us. First they were persecuted politically because they would not worship Caesar as God. Second they suffered abject poverty because of this persecution which means, and I'll spell it out simply, because you were known as a Christian, because you weren't willing to bow your knee to a Roman Caesar, a government official, a God in his own eyes, that then not only affected your family in regards to obviously prisonment, different things like that, but if you or your family tried to go get a job to provide for yourselves, you were shunned from commercial organizations.

Please don't tell me that wokism is new. Please don't tell me 2,000 years later that that being woke is a new concept and that commercial companies have not been imploring this type of intimidation, this type of uh basically belittling or the smerging or taking people that need to work to provide for themselves financially and taking that off the table and saying you do what we tell you to do or you will no longer have a job. And you think about those that might have been wealthy in that city, certainly a lot to look at. But what does Jesus say again in verse nine?

They were rich in Christ's love and had spiritual blessings and scriptural encouragement. While they may not as Christians because of their choice to follow Jesus that may have affected their employment they may not have been able to have that six figure job or seven figure job or whatever it looks like they might have had to make choices and and that could have meant that things were very difficult at home where they would live, where they would eat, if they would have food. All because they would not bow a knee to the government or bow a knee to worship another man.

Jesus Christ told us there would be a cost, right? He told us the cross while he said the world behind us, the cross before us, know what? Turning back. And those worthy are those that pick up their cross daily. Please remember what a cross was. How many of you wear electric chairs around your neck? Anybody in here have a emblem with an electric chair around your neck? What was a cross but a tool to be used as a death instrument? When Jesus was telling us to pick up our cross he was communicating that to us that we needed to die to self.

Now I know that's not popular today in American Christianity and American Gospel. But lest you and I who've been given line by line, verse by verse teaching the word of God, much is given, much is required, lest we be ignorant of what Jesus is really saying here and that it's going to cost us greatly and it cost him greatly. Now maybe somebody's sitting here this morning. Maybe it's your first time at Calvary Chapel. Maybe it's your first time reading line by line through the Bible and you're pastor, whoa, this is heavy stuff, man. I walked in here this morning.

I was doing really great. Things were awesome and then you just laid whoa. Maybe this is just an isolated letter. Maybe this is an isolated idea. Maybe Jesus himself through the Pauline epistles or the Gospels didn't echo something very similar to this and maybe this isn't in a harmony with the rest of the Gospel. Well, I'm glad you asked. Turn to second Corinthians chapter six please in your Bibles. Second Corinthians chapter six, Paul writing to the church in Corinth. You start to think about that, right? I think of first Corinthians and everything he wrote to them.

But I'd like you to bring to chapter six verse one in second Corinthians because Paul described what are the marks of ministry. Now you and I know that we can never judge the heart. Amen? I'm not your Holy Spirit. You're not my Holy Spirit. I can never judge your hearts nor should I try, nor should I try. But I am a fruit inspector and so are you and and just in case you didn't know you were what How many of you go to the Wegmans or you go to the supermarket in this area and you go to find some type of produce and you walk up to it and what do you do?

You look at it and if you're anything like me or like you know my wife, you might even pick it up and turn it over to make sure there's not what? Rottenness, blemish or anything anywhere. Why? Because you're spending your hard earned money and you want to get what you're paying for. Every one of us understand that. We don't have a problem with that whatsoever when it comes to our fruit and our produce. We're fruit inspectors. Some of you even smell melons. I have no idea what you 're doing. But some of you may be I've seen it cuz I'm in the grocery store.

So I was going to have to I'm I'm sure I'm going to get letters on Monday morning on the radio, everything. Somebody's going to I I I I watch you. Maybe it's the smell if it's rotten or something. I don't know, but you're like and I'm like it smells like melon. Like I don't know. I I I need to obviously do some research to figure that out, but but we're fruit inspectors nonetheless. Look at chapter six verse one. Paul gives us through direct revelation of Jesus Christ what are the marks of ministry. Lest we miss this and think that this is new what Jesus is telling us in Revelation.

We then we plurality, inclusive Paul, the church, the church at Corinth and who he's writing to, might as well say Calvary Chapel here in Mechanicsburg. The body of Christ, East Shore, West Shore, the body of Christ worldwide, workers. That means it's hard, it's difficult. You're going to work. I'm going to work together with him, with him who? Jesus. Also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Don't take for granted the grace that God is giving you for he says in an acceptable time I have heard you and in the day of salvation he brings it right back to that which is one of the spiritual armament we gave we're given, the helmet of salvation, Ephesians 6 11 through 17 there.

He says in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. Paul begins the same way that Jesus is going to begin because it's God's word. It's perfect and infallible. We give no offense in anything that our ministry may not be blamed. Ministry first, but in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God in much patience. Wait a minute. Patience. How many prayed for that this morning? Tribulations, pressure, affliction, persecution, suffering. You mean that's what it is to be Christian? It's not a faith and prosperity gospel.

It's not about how many jets or cars you can own. What? In needs, not wants, in distresses. Is he Is he laying it down heavy? I think he's laying it down hot here. In stripes, what does that sound like? Beatings. Lest we don't know what that means. It means beatings. In prisonments, right? Being in prison. Tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love. All authored from God, all allowed by God, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness, on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report on good report, as deceivers yet true, as unknown yet well known, dying.

There it is. Circle it in your Bible. Not a new teaching. Death unto death, dying. And behold we live as sorrowful, right? Or excuse me, as chasten and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making rich. There it is. Poor. As having nothing and yet possessing all things. Is that not what Jesus said when he said you are poor, but really you're rich because you have everything you need in Christ. You have that which cannot be bought with human hands or human terms. If you are born again believer, you have eternal life with Jesus Christ and it is guaranteed.

And that's what he's saying here. He's saying because if you're in the midst of a very heavy tribulation and trial, what do you need? You need encouragement to stay on. If somebody puts a gun and I pray this doesn't happen to you, but if somebody ever put a gun to your head and said deny Jesus, at that moment your life is going to flash before your very eyes, the people you love, the things that you've done, the things you haven't done, the things you wish you would have done. It is going to play like a video very quickly before your eyes and you're going to come to the point and you're going to say and you're going to make a choice.

You're either going to deny Jesus in hopes to gain this life or you're going to lose this life to gain the next. I pray to God in that moment every one of us makes that difficult decision, but only as we just read by the spirit of God. Cuz I really don't think a man or woman can do that on their own. In In that crisis or that moment it has to be Jesus standing with you. We We need the power of God in that. So as we read this, it's important to realize that this is nothing new.

This should not be new for the Christian. If you're here this morning, it's okay. Please don't feel guilt ridden or anything like that or you know because you're like man, I never knew this. Okay, well praise the Lord. We're reading our scripture. We're finding out this is truth. This is real. Like I said, there is no faith and prosperity gospel. There's none of this idea that a Christian shouldn't face persecution, suffering, affliction. It should be part of our DNA. Why? Well, for two reasons. One we're going to look at here, it's not the reason. Two of them, one is certainly sin.

God through our sin, he will often use conviction, tribulation, judgment, things to bring us back to right relationship. Amen? I'm thankful he doesn't quit on us and doesn't give up on us. The second which we're talking about here because this is not a sin issue for this church. He doesn't rebuke them for their works. This is persecution because of their faith in Jesus Christ and their unwillingness to deny him even if it cost them their lives, their reputation, even if it means they're shunned, even if it cost them everything. They would rather die in Christ Jesus and for his glory then turn around to profit to gain the whole world, but to lose their very souls.

This is what he's talking about. These These are heavy heavy things here this morning. This is not again a popular ear tickling sermon, but it's truth from the word of God.

Guest (Male): Today on his perfect love we've been looking at the suffering church as described in Revelation chapter two. It's part of pastor Matt Vanderven's study in Revelation. You can hear the study from Revelation again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We've expanded our podcast too. Look for us on oneplace.com and most of the major podcast platforms. The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered. We can help you get started when you visit hisperfectlove.org. We're thankful for the listeners that come alongside of us with their prayers and financial support.

If you're interested in supporting this radio ministry, there's a place to do that at hisperfectlove.org. Together we can reach people with the love and truth of God in these last days. Pastor Matt, as you were talking about Smyrna, a suffering church, I couldn't help but think someone listening right now can relate to that. Would you pray for them as we close?

Matt VanderVen: Absolutely, Rude. It would be my privilege. Father, you you told us suffering would be part of this life, but sometimes it's more difficult than we ever imagined. Father, we know it's never too late to ask for help since we still have breath in our lungs. We know your grace is sufficient, but Lord maybe someone listening right now is going through something so horrific that they cannot process the pain. They feel numb and broken, maybe even unsure how to pray. Father, you knit us in our mother's womb. You formed life. You are perfect peace in the storm.

Please pour out your love, your peace and your comfort right now on all those struggling and meet the need in any way, Lord, in every way that only you are perfect holy creator and God, the God of this universe can. Please Lord, comfort our cries, our sorrows, comfort the brokenhearted. Lord I know you will not leave them nor forsake them. You will be with them through every step of this difficulty as you keep them from quitting, Lord. Father, heal the mental, the emotional and the physical pain. Deliver us all from unrighteousness and evil. We trust you, Jesus.

And Father, we just pray and we ask all this in the name of your blessed son Jesus Christ and we all pray together. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Thanks again, pastor Matt. Do you live in the Mechanicsburg area? Are you looking for a church that teaches the word of God without compromise? If so, then you're invited to join us at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore, 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg. Our service times are Sundays at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and our midweek study is on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. For more information you can visit the church website at ccharisburg.org.

Matt VanderVen: His perfect love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.