His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt encourages us to remain faithful to God no matter what comes our way.

Matt VanderVen: Things are going to heat up like Smyrna. I pray God raptures us out of here before it gets a lot worse, but if not, I want you prepared as soldiers to stand in your faith, the cross before you, the world behind you, no looking back. It's been said when God puts his children in the furnace, he keeps his hand on the thermostat and a close eye on the thermometer. It does seem that God is more concerned with our character rather than our comfort. Is that your concern? Today on His Perfect Love, we'll be encouraged to trust the Lord in the trials.

We'll be reminded that we're not alone. We're going to be okay, and God is up to something good in and through it all. From Revelation chapter 2, here is Pastor Matt Vanderbeen with more about the church at Smyrna. He says and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. This Greek word, I want you to look up here, blasphemia, okay? This word means universally slander. It means detraction of speech injurious to others and a good name. Once somebody ruins your name, especially in the eight times of ancient, it was very hard to find a job anywhere in that city.

And in context, it can mean bringing judgment. There are consequences to your decisions or what you say. So, it's used here in a reproachful terms because it can mean speech and or physical action. I think this is really, really important, right? We read here that there those that claim to be Jews but are not. He's talking about hypocrites and hypocrisy. So, a false witness, a defamation of being described here by Jesus towards these men. Now, these men were directly by their words and or actions being judged or a judgment to those undeserving, and Jesus calls them synagogue of Satan.

Why were they undeserving? Because they had done nothing wrong. We understand more than likely they were Judaizers. These were those that were of Jewish birthright, claimed to be born again, but going back to the law, to circumcision, to more on ceremonial practices and trying to push those on the Gentiles and Jews within this church of Smyrna and saying to them that if they did not conform, Paul dealt with this. Remember every time Paul planted, they'd follow Paul right around on the missionary journeys. Well, it's exactly what's going on here. I love that Jesus finally settles the matter for us.

He calls it a you're not in a church, my church. He says, no, you're part of a synagogue of Satan. Just so we understand where the authorship is this coming from. I think it's ridiculous when the church fights the church. I when we when there is infighting in the church, I don't understand that. I've never understood that. When somebody will defame another person's character or name, instead of just sitting down and talking with them directly and making things right, they will turn around and backbite, say all kinds of things. He says, look, I want you to understand when that kind of stuff is happening, I want you to know who the author of that is.

Let's not mince words. That's a synagogue of Satan. And as for the identity of this synagogue, well, there are a couple of views. First of all, one, and I I don't believe this is accurate, but the scholarly view, I want you to be, you know, Bereans. One is that there was a group of Gentiles who called themselves Jews, i.e. the chosen people of God. We know that today as replacement theology, which is sinful, wrong, and unbiblical. But instead of following Judaism, however, they self proclaimed people of God worshiped the Roman emperor and spoke out against the Christians in Smyrna.

So, they were playing both sides. In other words, they were claiming to be Jews, but they really weren't Jews ethnically. They also weren't following God, right? And then on top of that, they were almost being traitorous because they were turning around and then saying to the church, the people, the Gentiles and other people, they were going and ratting them out and saying, hey, you're not worshiping at the cult of the emperor. Can you imagine people you know? Well, I guess you can because Jesus watched someone do the very same thing named Judas Iscariot, who sold him for a slave's wage, 30 pieces of silver.

It's happened. It's happened before, it will happen again. There's wolves among sheep. Jesus doesn't hide that from us either. You know, pastor's role is to lead, feed, and protect, but we all are ministers. We should all be looking out for the wolves among sheep to protect the flock. It's not just one person's calling, it's all of our calling to be in the doctrine of the word of God, to know the truth of the doctrine of the word of God. Not our opinions, not what we think, not how they dress, not we're not anybody else's Holy Spirit, but we ought to know what they're saying is that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, a second view of the synagogue of Satan here was a group of physical Jews who followed the tradition, rituals, and ceremonial practices and the mosaic law. They were Judaizers, yet in reality, they didn't know God obviously because they were part of the synagogue of Satan. They were not Jews in the sense that they did not have faith in their father Abraham, right? Because after all, it was accounted in by righteousness. Luke chapter 3 verse 8 and John 8:40. They were of Satan in that they held the rejection to Jesus Christ. Jesus wrote in John 8:44, you are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.

He was a murderer. He's a destroyer, a killer. Whenever I see somebody trying to do that, I understand whose fingerprints are on them. If you're a Christian and you're trying to hurt another Christian, you're not Please don't say you're walking in the truth of God. That's not what That's not what's happening here. He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. If somebody comes up to you and says, I want to give you my opinion and you should follow this and you compare that to the word of God, which one should have authority?

The word of God, right? It's certainly not equal to man's opinions. Anybody that gives you their opinion on a matter that's unbiblical, you'd immediately reject that because God tells us very clearly Jesus tells us who Satan is, that he does it from his own resources. So, if you're not listening to biblical counsel or the word of God, whose resources are you listening to? Your own, right? It's very simple here. He He doesn't again make it grammatically confusing. It's very, very simple. He speaks from his own resources. Who you hang around with and how you spend your time, you become like that person or people.

There's fingerprints. He says, for he is a liar and the father of it. Somewhere reading here, it seems very certain that this large huge population lived in Smyrna and Satan used it to hinder the church. Thus, Jesus gave it a title, the synagogue of Satan. Now, Jesus dealt with many such religious leaders in his time when he was on this earth, and certainly we read in the Pauline Epistles, he did the same thing. An example that is Matthew 23 or um Acts chapter 18 verse 6. Now, in fact, Paul differentiated true spiritual Jews from those who can only claim a physical connection to Abraham.

This is fairly important here. Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29. I'll read it to you. This is God's word, not man's opinion. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. Anybody confused about that? Nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. It's similar to what was read in the Old Testament when we would read when Jesus or God would say to us, he says, your lips speak of me, but your hearts are far from me.

You want to add some weight to this view? Just so you don't think, well, pastor, you're you're clearly just reading in this context here to make this is what Smyrna was going on. Nope. Polycarp. How many of you heard of Polycarp? He studied under Peter, under John. He was martyred. Do you know where he was martyred? Smyrna. The very place that we're talking about around AD 155. Polycarp, the famous bishop from Smyrna, was singled out as a leader of the church. At Polycarp's trial, the unbelieving Jews, and this is recorded, of Smyrna joined with the pagans in condemning him to death.

So, the Jewish people and the pagans joined together. Have we ever seen something like that before at another trial, at another crucifixion, or at another death sentence? Who was it with? Jesus. That 's right. Remember the Roman Pontius Pilate and the religious leaders did the same thing there. It happened in Smyrna as well. Then we read refusing to recant his age. We get a little bit of this detail. At 86 years old, Polycarp was burned alive at the stake. But before he died, he he reported to have said, 80 and 6 years I have served Christ and he has not done me wrong.

How can I speak evil of my king who saved me? Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius of Pamphylia, hang in there with me, guys. Not to be confused with his contemporary Eusebius of Nicomedia, it's very important. Fourth-century Christian scholar, he was known as the father of church history. He writes as a historian recorded in the ecclesiastical history 415 so we can read it extra biblically. Eusebius writes the Jews being especially zealous ran to procure fuel for the burning. They even tell us that they went and got the fuel to light Polycarp on fire to watch him suffer and burn.

When we talk about persecution in Smyrna, this is real. This isn't just figurative. And certainly in verse 10 after commending the church of Smyrna for their spiritual victories, Jesus warned of a coming persecution. He says, you're going to suffer. I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for 10 days. Some of the church would be in prison and this way of persecution would last for about 10 days, it says. However, Jesus gives them hope. What does Jesus say to them? Do not be afraid.

The same thing he's telling you this morning. Do not be afraid. There are so many people that are getting caught up in these cults and you know, these talking heads and what's going to happen and you know, the state within the state and all this other stuff and all that may be true or not true. I don't know. I don't weigh in on it, but I know one thing. What does that have to do with me in serving Jesus? I know what I'm called to do. You know what you're called to do. I can be about my father's works or I can be paying attention to all these other things that are dividing my attention.

You can't do both. There's a movie I once heard and just I don't want to give the name of the movie. It's an '80s movie. I but I just want to give you one of the points of the punch line to make it when he says do not be afraid. But in this movie, what I'm was so captivated by is it speaks to a future time when there's all kinds of DNA and testing and basically they go in and they can do modification on humans. Sort of sci-fi, I guess you could say, or is it at this point?

I can remember when I worked for a certain company that was a pretty well-known company that um they were we were asked to invest in being able to change eye color and different things like that um at birth or just you know, before birth, while in womb. At that time, Microsoft said, no, the company said, no, we're not going to be involved in that. Google said, yes, but that's not the point. I believe it was um my understanding that was they signed. I I shouldn't I shouldn't say that. I should be 100% on that before I say that.

But the point I'm getting at is that this has been talked about for the last whatever, 20 years. Well, in this movie, it plays out. They actually have a child and they do it naturally like we would today and they called that a God child. That's actually the name of the child they used in this movie. And then they had this other child uh because this child that this God God child seemed to develop a little slower compared to all these other children that were being engineered. And so, feeling bad after the first child going, oh man, you had to struggle a little bit more, you had to work, and also the child ended up having a defect in the heart is at this time they're able to put in some AI, spit out a thing, and it says, oh, you're going to you're probably life expectancy will be here.

Can you imagine knowing that ahead of time? Jesus does, we don't. And sometimes it's a good thing. So, they spit this out. Well, this other child, well, we don't want that to happen again. So, they have another child, but now they engineer the child, right? Bioengineer. So, this other child comes out and boy, he excels in every way. He's taller at a younger age, he's more physically fit, all these things. Well, the dream of this young child that's this God child, he's he wants to go to space. He wants to be able to fly and and go up there and be part of a mission.

Well, nobody would ever hire you at a company like that because if your longevity was only 15 to 20 years, nobody's going to invest in you. I mean, this is where this bioengineering, bioethics technology is going. It will boil down and affect your ability and everything around you. Uh you know, you think of China with their um their social uh score, credit score, right? This is I mean, start thinking where this is Follow it to the nth degree, you'll get the answers. It's not hard. So, in this movie, again, striking how similar some things are coming to fruition.

In this movie, they wouldn't hire him. So, he ends up as a janitor and that's all he could pretty much do until he kind of goes sort of rogue if I can say it that way. I don't want to give out the details on how he does that. It's pretty dark, but the point is he ends up working in this place. He's doing things that they thought weren't possible because he's a God child. Well, there's one point where he and his brother compete all the time. And his brother goes and they get in the ocean, they're swimming, and he just keeps swimming.

And the one child that's been modified or engineered, he's just going, going. Finally, he gets out so far in the ocean and the waves are crashing over his head and his brother that's the God child just keeps swimming. And he turns around and he's looking at him like how are And he literally gets to the point where he's like, stop, stop. And as he looks at him, he says, how are you doing this? Like this is not possible. This This doesn't make sense. Here I am genetically modified and engineered and and you're not. You're a God child.

How are you doing this? And he says, you want to know how I am doing this? He said, I never held anything back in the swim to get back to shore. He said, I put it all on the line and I gave everything I got and my goal was to swim as far as I could, as fast as I could without ever consideration for getting back safely. It wasn't can I build a bunker 20 ft deep so that when there's a nuclear war or an atomic war, I have rations and food and all these other things we think about.

It's not running away from the problem, it's running into the fire. He says, I didn't think about any of that. I didn't hold anything back. And then the brother that was genetically modified begins to sink under the water and drown. He not only goes up and grabs the brother, pulls him back to shore safely and his brother lives. And he says, I just don't understand how you're doing this. It's all heart. There's a spirit. You can modify the body, but you can't change the spirit and the heart that is from God. For the born-again believer, it's no different.

We're born again spiritually. We don't hold anything back. God never intended us to live a life where we have one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom and figure out how to straddle this and coexist in this. He expected us to live a life where we don't know how we're getting back to shore, but we're trusting him for the journey. And wherever we end up, that's where we're supposed to be when we're in the will of God and following his perfect plan. That is a totally different thinking than the American gospel. And that's why missionaries are now coming to America to to evangelize the body of Christ in this country from places we went and spread the gospel at one time.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:11 12, blessed are you when they revile you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven. So, they they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And he says, this is not new. Church, pay attention. The Lord allowed Satan to incarcerate these Christians in Smyrna to test them for 10 days. And again, scholars hold on to different positions. They, oh, is it 10 literal days? Is it 10 major Roman persecutions? Is it 10 persecutions from a specific Caesar?

Is it 10 10 symbolic for something else? Look it. There's got to be a place that every Christian here this morning has to decide and I hope you make this decision before you walk out of these doors. First of all, that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, number one. That's everything. And then the very second thing you have to figure out as a disciple of Jesus Christ is this word that you hold in your hand. Do you believe it's God breathed? And if you believe it's God breathed, do you believe and want to commit your life to following the word of God in obedience and taking God literally at his word?

Or do you take and make a concoction that allows self-deception and waters it down so that you sleep good at night and can have that one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. I am not browbeating anyone. I am asking an honest, legitimate question that unfortunately pastors aren't standing up and asking anymore because they're worried about filling seats. I don't care about filling the seats. I want you to get the word of God so that you keep it no matter what happens. Somebody comes in here and says, oh pastor, you can't do this anymore.

It's hate speech. Guess what? It's like I told first service, there better be a guy that is they cart me out and that's fine. You better come up and pick up Oh, we're in verse 3. Let's keep going. We're not playing church and playing Christian. I don't want you to get to heaven and stand before Jesus and go, I thought you were kidding. Cuz he's going to look at you and say, I wasn't kidding. You may be in heaven, but you don't want regret. Think about your life and the things we think about regret here.

I believe this interpretation literal is the most correct interpretation unless the language tells us otherwise. It doesn't in the Greek. And before Jesus even describes the suffering, the Lord commanded and counseled the church in verse 10, do not fear any of those things which you're about to suffer. He's commanded you and I to do that same thing. Jesus assured them he's in complete control of their circumstances. We learn that God limits Satan and he limits what he can do to believers just like in the book of Job. He's a lion on a leash in which God controls.

He will not allow them to be tried beyond what they are able to bear and his grace is sufficient to carry them through the trials as we read in 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Corinthians 12:9. He's the ancient of days. He hasn't changed. And he says that you're going to get what if you do this? Read in verse 10, you will get a crown. He calls it the crown of life. Those who remain faithful during persecution receive this very special reward. And Jesus says to them, be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

And I think this is important. This specific crown is also mentioned in James 1:12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. I think something you need to remember here so that you don't face condemnation cuz we all blow it, don't we? We all blow it. This is very, very important here. Please notice of me, this is not salvific salvation focused, but sanctification focused. He did not say and you will inherit eternal life. The crown you get is a victor's crown.

It's a reward, but it 's not the reward of eternal life. As a born-again believer, you already received that award. That was given to you by putting your faith in Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross. This is a martyr's crown given to those who are faithful until death in recognition for their unwavering faith. Jesus makes a final promise to all believers in Smyrna. He overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. He wants you and I to know that we are overcomers, that we are conquerors, and this refers to all believers, everyone of you here.

And if you don't believe me, we looked at it last week. It's 1 John chapter 5 verse 4 and 5. Born again believers are conquerors and overcomers. And he said the second death is reference reference here he's talking about to a Revelation chapter 20 verses 6 14 and Revelation 21 8. And then he concludes as I will right now. And you guys have been very gracious with me this morning. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Again, a reminder. He's speaking to Smyrna specifically, but the application he gives to the ecclesia.

That word in the Greek means church and he uses it in the plural tense, churches. What other churches is he talking about? You and all the other churches. He means what he says when he says plurality. What he's telling us, believers will not hurt at all by that judgment. Their sin Our sin was judged at the cross. And in Christ, there is no more condemnation. Romans 8:1, amen. So, this letter is very important. It's one of the ones that I often ask people to memorize. There's very few scriptures where I say memorize the whole passage, but this is one of those ones that in these last days because I really believe COVID was a warm-up.

We started seeing a lot of things during COVID that was happening, a lot of shutting down, a lot of things. Wherever you are politically on that's between you and Jesus. But at the end of the day, I started realizing the technology was there already. On my phone, there appeared a device actually on the device, there appeared an app that allowed me to put in whether I had COVID or not, whether I had been vaccinated or not. And then I started figuring out that when I went next to somebody else that had a paired phone, they could do the same thing.

And being a technologist as I used to be, we used to call that tracking. We used to put metadata there things on websites I can do to track different things like that where right? I'm not unfamiliar with that technology. I know how it works. And I thought, well, here it is. The infrastructure is already built. All you have to do is turn it on and actually collect that data including who you vote for. Are you an enemy of this state? Are you for the state? Are you against the country? Are you for the country? It's supposed to be an autonomous, right?

I'm just saying really think clearly. I really believe in these last in the last days, friends. Things are going to heat up like Smyrna. I pray God raptures us out of here before it gets a lot worse, but if not, I want you prepared as soldiers to stand in your faith, the cross before you, the world behind you, no looking back. Amen.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt Vanderbeen on His Perfect Love. Thanks for taking part in today's study of Revelation, a book that comes with a blessing attached to those that read and study it. If you were blessed and encouraged by the Lord, we'd like to know. Email us while it's fresh on your mind. They're at our website, hisperfectlove.org. Be sure to include your prayer requests. Also, at our website, you'll find an archive of these studies in Revelation making it easy to replay a message you enjoy or catch what you miss on the radio. Again, we're at hisperfectlove.org and now at oneplace.com as well.

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