Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Coming up today on Hope from the Word.

Bill Luebkemann: What a shame it is that the gospel's been so corrupted in America by people who claim, your material possessions are in some way related to your spirituality. I can't think of anything that is further from the truth than these people here in Smyrna would have no understanding of all of the gospel that is preached by many in this country today. I would love to see some modern 21st century prosperity preacher go to a third world country and preach that stuff.

Guest (Male): Persecution can look differently in different situations. A school child who mentions Jesus and is made fun of is a victim of persecution just as a missionary who's martyred. But one thing is sure. If you're a Christian, at some point in your life, you'll be persecuted. The Lord said so. Today on Hope from the Word, we'll look at the second letter to the seven churches in Revelation, Smyrna. Have you ever received an encouraging note from a friend just out of the blue? What a blessing that is. The people in Smyrna were doing a good job in God's eyes, and those are really the only eyes that count.

Here's Pastor Bill Lubkeman.

Bill Luebkemann: For the angel of the church in Smyrna, I want you to have a little bit of background on this church because you're going to see in a few minutes why why that matters. These are the words of him who is the first and the last who died and came to life again. Jesus here describing himself, first of all, the words of him who is, quote, the first and the last. Now, he describes himself differently. We said that earlier to each of these seven churches. Previously in Ephesus, he he said these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.

And in the next church, Pergamum, he says these are the words of him who has the sharp double-edged sword. Jesus finding a little variety and creativity in describing himself differently. But these are the words that were used back in chapter one when this whole vision first started. Jesus said to John in 1:17, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. And it's interesting the way he described himself here in chapter one. He used that same way over here in his address to the church of Smyrna describing himself as the first and the last.

Now, the word first in the ancient Greek means first. It means first in time or place, absolutely and substantively. It means first in rank. And last means last in time or place or last in a series of places. Last as referring to time. So, Jesus was in existence before time began and he's in existence after he will be after time ends because he's outside of time. He predates everybody and he postdates everyone. He lived before us and he lives after us and he's always present. In fact, that's why he calls himself I am. Doesn't even have a reference to time in that name because he lives outside of time.

And he described himself, that's who's talking to you. That's who is saying these words. The one who is the first and the last who died and came to life again. Now, in case you don't know it, died means you breathe your last. You are dead. Some people say, well, I think maybe Jesus really wasn't dead when he was in the tomb, you know. What happened was if with all those wounds, he was really weak and unconscious. And they put him in there on that cold slab, you know, and it kind of revived him in that tomb.

And after three days, he kind of got his strength back and he got healed and he was able to stumble out and move that rock out of the way that it took 12 soldiers to put in place. No, the word dead means lifeless, deceased, departed, destitute of life, without life, inanimate. Anybody have any questions on that? Dead. He says he was dead and now he's alive, which means he's breathing again. It seems to me that the Lord wanted to remind this church in Smyrna, which suffered all this persecution and they had more coming by the way.

And it seems like he wanted to remind them just exactly who it was that was victorious over all things. The one who is dead and now alive again. If I could bring myself back to life, it seems like he's saying, I can take care of your problems as well. And by the way, he can take care of our problems today just as well. And what an encouragement it must have been to these people. In spite of all this opposition to things of the Lord, all the temples, the the street with all the temples on it, the fact that they led the way and and worship of the emperor, even to the point of wanting to enter that contest and win it so they could have this first temple to the emperor.

And by the way, that was 60 or 70 years before this was written. So, you know, they were even further into it now. And in spite of all that opposition here, the only church here that seems to have a perfect record without blemish. Isn't it interesting that a church that has encountered such opposition and persecution would be spoken of so highly? Isn't that interesting? I wonder what the Lord would have to say about the American church where we live in such a luxury and the poorest person in America living better than the Queen of England did just 200 years ago.

And yet so many folks today can't find time to even crack open their Bibles from time to time. We have a country here full of preachers who who say that God wants you to have whatever you want, whenever you want it. Just claim it, name it and claim it, blab it and grab it and it's yours. Just believe it and God will give it to you and he'll bless you with it cuz that's what he does. You know, if you ran that gospel by these people in Smyrna, how do you think they would react? How do you think Polycarp would react as he was being burned at the stake?

If somebody said, oh yeah, God wants you to have it. Just claim that you're not on that stake anymore and you won't be there. We'll talk about him in a few minutes. These are the words of him who is the first and the last who died and came to life again. In other words, this is God himself talking to you guys. So, listen up. Verse nine. I know your afflictions and your poverty. Yet you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.

Look, some verses say, I know your works. I know your works and your afflictions and your poverty. Um some other versions just have afflictions and poverty, don't mention works. I'm not sure why. He knows their good deeds. He knows what they've done for the kingdom. And I am sure there was many things these folks did for the cause of Christ. And at the same time, they suffered with much affliction and poverty. They were afflicted because they would not bend their knee to Caesar. And this is what happened to them. They lost their jobs. They were unable to work.

They couldn't get into the trade association, the union, if you will, of the day. They couldn't get in because they didn't meet this requirement. Nobody wanted to do business with them. They couldn't buy and sell things very easily. They didn't have a job. They didn't have a place to work. They didn't fit into the economy here. And of course, without a job, you know, you didn't have much money. Without much money, you weren't able to eat. So, when he says, I know your afflictions and your poverty here, the word for poverty is literally beggary. Beggary.

In the New Testament, it is the condition of one who is destitute of riches and abundance. In other words, flat-out broke. They were on empty here. They had nothing. These people lived in conditions that were beyond description. It reminds you of Hebrews 10:34 which says, joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. Knowing from a different version, knowing that you have an enduring possession from yourselves in heaven. I don't believe this verse in Hebrews was written just for the Smyrnaeans here by the way, but it would sure seem to apply.

I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich. There are people in India today that are going through the same kind of suffering. Hundreds, if not thousands of Christians who are being martyred just because of what they believe. Their houses burn, their churches burn, just mowed down as easy as, you know, you mow your grass with your lawn mower. Christians just being exterminated in mass. And I'm sure it's happening in plenty of other third world countries as well. And in spite of the tribulation they were having, the afflictions, by the way, the distress, if you will.

And in spite of that and in spite of their abject poverty, the fact that these people had nothing. Here's Jesus telling them, hey, in spite of all that, you are rich. How about that? They are as poor as you can get in this in this world. And yet what the Lord tells them is they're rich. And that that would be that they were rich in their spiritual possessions, by the way, that their relationship with the Lord and the blessings that they had because of it. They were they were abundantly supplied in Christian virtues and eternal possessions, if you will.

Hey, look, when God tells you you're rich, then you're rich. And if God tells you you're rich and you look around and you say, well, I'm not I don't have any food in the cupboard. I'm poor. And when God says you're rich, you need to readjust your definition of rich to God's definition and not yours. What a shame it is that the gospel's been so corrupted in America by people who claim your material possessions are in some way related to your spirituality. I can't think of anything that is further from the truth than these people here in Smyrna would have no understanding of all of the gospel that is preached by many in this country today.

I would love to see some modern 20th century 21st century prosperity preacher go to a third world country and preach that stuff. The truth is that material wealth, it's not a sign of your spirituality. In fact, if anything, it works against it. You know how there's a story in Mark 10 about how hard it is for a rich man to get into heaven. And how about the rich guy that Jesus talked to who did all these things and kept the law and did all the requirements and Jesus said, just one thing you lack. Give away your money and come and follow me.

And it says he left Jesus's presence very sad because he was a man of great wealth and he didn't want to he didn't want to give it up. It is said that in the glory days of the papacy, the Rome in Rome, hundreds of years ago, it is said that a man was walking with the Pope and marveling at the splendors and riches of the Vatican. And it said that the Pope told this man, we no longer have to say what Peter said, silver and gold have I none. But his the man said to him, but neither can you say rise up and walk.

And it seems like a shift has been moved over to the material things and not the spiritual things. And we have all the material possessions we can we can use. We're loaded up with possessions. We have them out the wazoo. It seems like seems like the more possessions the church has, the less effective it is at its mission. Or now, it's become a church that is so full of possessions that we're telling people the more possessions the better. And if you have possessions, then God is blessing you. Maybe that's because the more we have, the less we think we need God.

And that's how we get off base there. These people were poor. They were destitute. They were living in abject poverty. Remember that word, beggary. Yet the Lord's telling them, hey, you're rich. You know, and there's another church here. He tells them just the opposite. Another church, we'll get to it in a few weeks where they have everything and he tells them, you know, you got all this stuff but you have nothing. You're flat-out broke. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. We know there was a large synagogue in this town.

There were a lot of Jews there and these folks look none too kindly on the Christians. The truth is they claimed to be Jews but they weren't Jews because they failed to worship the promised one that was sent by God but they were also likely willing to bend their knee to Caesar and then to do their own thing for the rest of the year. They they didn't think it was a problem. We'll we'll give that pinch of incense. We 'll say Caesar is Lord. The rest of the time, we'll be Jews. We go to the synagogue and we'll be happy with that.

Maybe you think I'm being too harsh on him. Well, here's what the Lord says about him. They are a synagogue of Satan. I'm not being harsh. That's the way he's describing them here. We'll go with his description. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. The slander meaning the Christians are being accused, they're being persecuted, they're being slandered by these people who claim to be religious and claim to be Jews but really weren't not either. And the Lord saying, I know. And I think it's also interesting here that he uses that phrase, I know, twice.

I know your afflictions and your poverty yet you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not. You know, God knows us and he knows what we go through and he knows everything about us. Everything we suffer, all the goods and the bad. He knows it all. And we don't. We can talk to somebody who is sick. And if they're sick and we've been sick, you know, you have the flu, I had the flu. I can sympathize with you. Boy, that's crummy having the flu, you know. You have a car accident, I had a car accident.

Maybe I can sympathize with you. You know, you lost a loved one, maybe I lost a loved one. Maybe I can sympathize a little bit with you. But there's a lot of things we can not sympathize with each other on. Someone loses a child. Most of us haven't lost a child. How do you sympathize with someone who lost a child? You can't say, I know the pain you're going through. That'd be the wrong thing to say unless you lost one also. You can only imagine and you really probably can't even imagine. Jesus can say, I know.

I know you. I know everything about you. I know what it means to be lonely. I know what it means to be separated from my father. His father can say, I know what it means to lose a child. He knows what it's like to suffer for his faith, to be persecuted beyond what any of us will be persecuted for. He knows what it's like to die on a cross, to have his blood shed. He knows. He knows. He says, I know. We should never think that things are going so poorly for us. We should never think God forgot about us.

You know, I wish God were here. I wish he would fix this. God, he he left me out here on the limb all by myself that's about to fall off and I'm going to go hit the ground. God didn't leave you on a limb. He knows what you're going through. When he says he knows it, he means it like no other can know it. I know, he says. I know your afflictions. I know your poverty. I know how you've been accused. And then he gives him some instructions here. No, nothing wrong. He doesn't tell him anything they're doing wrong.

Gives him a little bit of instruction though in verse 10, 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 10 days. Be faithful even to the point of death and I will give you the crown of life. Do not be afraid here. You know what that tells me? They must have been afraid. And he doesn't condemn them for that. He doesn't say, you of little faith, shape up. You don't you're not, you know, you're afraid.

Huh, you're some Christian. He doesn't say that. He says, do not be afraid. Fear not. They get encouraged here and he tells them, you're going to suffer persecution. We'll get to that in a minute. Persecution is coming and it's of the devil. Some of them are going to wind up in prison. And prisons of the day were not like prisons we have today. You know, they didn't have a gym and a health spa and they didn't get three square meals a day. They didn't get time to go outside and and run around. Persecution is coming and and they're going to get tossed in prisons and these were places where they where you waited until they executed you.

That's what prison was. They throw you in there and that was the end of it. Lights out. We're not talking about people who are getting a headache and saying, oh, woe is me. I'm bearing my cross for Christ. I have such a migraine. That's nonsense. That's nothing like what these people suffered. They were they were to the point of having serious persecution even to the point of death. And God allowed it so that they could be proven. Look at what happened with Job. Same kind of thing here. You have to hear some people today, you would think that they only needed to condemn the devil.

Well, up, you just condemn the devil and cast him right out. And he can't do that. The devil can't touch you. The devil just just just cast that old devil right out of there. It's not what it says here. The Lord's telling them, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you. These people were not writing books. How I became the mayor of Smyrna by being such a nice guy. These people here were suffering serious persecution and they were not being told just just when the devil comes against you, just cast him out and live your best life for God and it's going to be wonderful.

No, God has a purpose in suffering and sometimes he allows it. If they've been off trying to rebuke Satan and cast him out, well, it would have made for great TV but it wouldn't have worked and it wouldn't have been what God's will was. And he says here, you're going to suffer persecution for 10 days. Now, a lot's been written about this 10 days, by the way. Was it really 10 days or did it mean 10 years? Some people feel felt it meant 10 10 years. Some people felt it meant 10 days. Some people felt it meant you're going to be persecuted over the reign of 10 different emperors.

There's even one theory that, you know, 10 days of 24 hours each is 240 hours. And it was 200 and you change that to years and it was 240 years from 85 AD to 325 AD when Christianity became the religion of Rome and it became acceptable to be a Christian. Not just acceptable, they probably would kill you then if you weren't a Christian. There's all kind of theories. There's no way to know for sure what this means but I think we can safely know that it means the suffering won't last forever. It's going to be for a time, for a season.

There'll be an end to it and God is in control of it. And I hate to I hate to even say it'll be a short time because on God's timetable, it's a short time but we always think if it lasts more than an hour that it's a long time. Why doesn't God do something about it? I've had this toothache for a whole hour. I took all the pills I had. My wife says, you can't use old prescriptions. They have expiration date. You can't use them after the expiration date. I say, keep everything. You never know when you might need it.

You wake up in the middle of the night with a toothache. I know the oral surgeon gave me something 5 years ago and I'm going to find it. And the worst that can happen if it's 5 years old, maybe I'll have to take two instead of one cuz it's not as strong. And it's not going to kill me. You can't buy it in the store. So, save it all. You never know when you might use it. Don't throw out my pills. That's what I always say. Look, the sufferings are going to last for a while.

Be faithful, he says. Be faithful even to the point of death. Look, their suffering might end with death. We're going to see that in a minute too. How many of us today are looking at death as the ultimate price to pay for us following the Lord? Somehow you can't quite line up this this passage with what those TV preachers say. And yet here's what the Lord is telling his church, speaking in the first person, giving them instructions here. And just as important by the way is what he's not telling them. As I said already, he's not telling them they did anything wrong.

And just about everybody else has something. Even the church of Philadelphia, he doesn't say and that's not Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the way. But he doesn't say in Philadelphia, nevertheless, I have this against you. But he does have one tiny little complaint with them. So, there's no way here you can conclude that this church of Smyrna is being punished for some kind of failure to follow the Lord. Can't conclude that. You can't say they're being punished because they weren't following God because they were doing everything right. On the contrary, they have been refined by the fire and they expect to be refined even more so or they should.

That's what the Lord's telling them. Expect it. More persecution is coming. You need to hang on tight cuz you're going to receive the crown of life if you do. And the Greek word here for crown, you know, there's two Greek words for crown. One of them is the kind of crown worn by the royalty like the king. And the other word for crown in the Greek is the word that was describes the crown that was given as an award like what a athlete might get when he won a contest. And that's the word that's used here.

The crown that's described as an award, not the one as royalty. We're not going to be ever become Lord. You're never going to be God even though you might want to. But we are going to win a prize if we hang on to the end here. And it's not talking about salvation, by the way. You're saved by grace not through works, lest no man may boast but when you get to heaven there, your award is going to be based on how well you followed them. And apparently, well, there's there's a some extra crowns you might be able to get along the way.

It wasn't uncommon to see crowns in Smyrna. Worshippers of certain pagan gods, they would wear crowns. People who won contests, athletes and stuff, they would walk around wearing crowns. And Jesus says, you're going to have your own crown here if you hang on and be faithful even if it means to the death. Verse 11. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be heard at all by the second death. Look, we said last time when it says he who has an ear, ears, it's talking about the attitude of the heart.

The the word here for ear, we're talking about the faculty of perceiving with the mind, understanding and knowing something. When he says, he who has an ear, let him hear, we're talking about perceiving what is said, understanding it. It's the spirit that's speaking here. If you're listening spiritually, if your heart is open to it, if you perceive what is understood, then you'll be doing the right thing. If you have an ear, if you can hear this, pay attention. They don't have to overcome an outside enemy but an inside one.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in a Through the Bible series. You can hear this message or more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Lubkeman by going to ccmarlton.org or wherever you find your podcasts. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. And finally, if you'd like a CD copy of the message, please call 856 983 1662. Again, that's 856 983 1662. We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 a.m.

And there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org. And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856 983 1662. We'll continue our Through the Bible series next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Lubkeman, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.