In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: Let's turn to the book of Revelation. We've come as far as chapter 2. We're going to pick up there in verse 8. Only four verses this morning: 8, 9, 10, and 11. I should be able to get those four verses done within two hours. I've allocated about a half hour per verse. How much have you allocated for? Let's pray and dive in. We have an interesting study before us, and I think it's so applicable.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word. Lord, it won't mean anything this morning, it won't profit anything, and it won't affect us unless it goes past our head into our hearts. Father, you end every one of these letters that your son Jesus Christ dictated to John by saying, "He that hath an ear, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches." Lord, I'm convinced more than I've ever been convinced that the thing the church needs in these final moments more than anything else is an ear to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying as he's warning us.

As he's correcting us, he is trying to get our focus off of the things that are temporal onto the things that are eternal. As the Holy Spirit is trying to speak to us about our walk and trying to tell us that we should not love this world—this world is fading away and the things of this world are about to come to an end—we should be in preparation, not only for our own souls and spirits but for those around us, for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As we walk through these seven churches, speak to us, Father. Give to us revelation knowledge. We won't be able to understand unless you give us that. Who by searching can understand God to perfection? The answer is no one. Lord, we are responders; you are the initiator. But we know that you're speaking this morning, and we know that there's never a problem with the transmitter. It's always with the receiver because so often we're tuned into the wrong stations. So help us this morning to hear, to be warned, and to respond. If there are things we need to change in our life, speak to us about that this morning. We trust the Holy Spirit to do the work.

There's such an interesting flow in these letters. There have been times, like when I got home last Sunday, that I wanted to come back and do it over again because there was so much that, because of the restriction of time, I left out about the background of the seven churches. Then we did the church there in Ephesus. Again, there's a pattern and a flow to each one of these letters. It's interesting that there's always a commendation, which is usually followed by a correction.

Smyrna and Philadelphia are the only two churches that don't have a correction. We're going to see why this morning for Smyrna. Then it's followed by a cure for the problem. The Lord never deals with us unless he offers us a cure. There's always something that we should do, something we can apply in response to the correction that is necessary to fix it. Then he ends always with some kind of reward or statement that if you are obedient and you do apply the cure, this is what's going to happen for you.

That's in every one of the letters, but they follow a certain postal route. I had the privilege four or five years ago to be able to go to Turkey and to visit every one of these churches. It was very interesting when we were there just how the Holy Spirit spoke to me. If they were out of order, if they didn't follow the order that we find them in chapter 2 and chapter 3, then the message would lose the sense of what's going to go on through the church age.

We came to Ephesus last week, and at the end of the message, he warned the church because we know what happened at the end of the first century: the church began to cool. Isn't that always the problem with our hearts? The problem with your heart is that it always has a tendency to cool. It always has a tendency to become apathetic or complacent. There's always that tendency for the fire and the passion to wane, to die down, and sometimes even to go out.

That's why it's so important that we tend our hearts and take care of those things. That's why when Jude writes, he says to build yourselves up on the most holy faith. It's so important because the word of God will speak to you if you sit alone with it and you read it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. There's something about the word of God when you sit alone with it and you're reading it and you're studying it with the attitude and the desire to apply those things. It's not just in the study; it's in the application that it will stir in you.

Then he goes on to say, "and praying in the Holy Spirit." You need, and I need every day of our lives, to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It seems to be a foreign concept to the modern church, but it wasn't a foreign concept to the first-century church. The first-century church moved in the power of the Holy Spirit. A.W. Tozer once said that if you would take the work of the Holy Spirit out of the book of Acts, 90% of what we read would have never happened because it was a work of the Spirit, led of the Spirit, directed of the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit.

Jesus said, "Don't go do anything until you receive the baptism of the Spirit, that dunamis, that power." So the early church moved in that power, but the modern church—as A.W. Tozer went on to say—if you took the work of the Holy Spirit out of the modern church, 90% of what we see wouldn't even be affected. It would go on just like it is because it's a program, it's a work of the flesh, and it is an organization rather than an organism. We need again that God would breathe on his bride. We need again a fresh wind and a fresh fire.

I'm of the belief—and if I'm wrong, then I'll just be wrong until Jesus comes—that there's an early and latter rain. It's taught in the word. The early rain prepared the soil for the seed to be sown so that it would germinate. But the latter rain was always the rain that came before harvest to get the crops prepared for the harvest. Yet when we get to the church of Laodicea, the last of these seven churches, we're going to find that church asleep in the light, having a form of godliness without the power. This is the time we're living in, just going through the motions without any emotion or passion.

As we started our journey here in these seven churches with the church of Ephesus at the end of the first century, it begins to cool. False teaching comes in. There's no longer the passion in the worship or in the service. It's just become kind of a religious thing and not a relationship thing. But we move quickly now into the church of Smyrna, which represents the church that existed at the end of the first century through the next three centuries into the third century.

This was a time of great persecution. In fact, the cure for complacency is always persecution. The cure for complacency is to let your faith be attacked physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. It will wake some people up. I think always when you study through the Bible, it's interesting that persecution has always been the thing that aroused God's people who had fallen asleep. In fact, the early church fathers tell us of this period of time between the first and third century that there are over 100,000 Christians that were martyred.

I'm not talking about ones that were put to death, but they were publicly martyred as a spectacle to quell the church. The early church fathers said that the seedbed of the early church, the thing that caused it to grow the most and become the most powerful force upon the earth, was the blood of the saints. It had a purifying effect upon the church. All of a sudden, it was no longer, "Should I go to church on Sunday or not?" They went to church under the threat of death.

The Roman Empire had come down upon them. Those ten Roman emperors—and we're going to see this morning the beginning of emperor worship starts in Smyrna—forced them to call the Caesars "Lord" and attribute to them godhead. They had to put a pinch of incense before them and worship them, or they couldn't buy or sell. Beyond that, they would be put to death. If you let that come back, then the real church would move forward and the false church would just go away. There would be no more social gospel. It would get really real.

I think it's going to get really real because we're told in the last days that you're going to be hated by all nations. I think to some degree persecution is coming, and I'm not a masochist, but I'm rejoicing if it does because it will wake the church up. At the end of the first century, we have this complacency and this apathy. We have this lukewarmness kind of trying to come upon the church. They're losing their passion and their desire to serve the Lord. False teaching is coming in, and they're not even really dealing with it.

When we come to the church of Smyrna—and Smyrna, by the way, comes from the root word "myrrh." Myrrh is a resin that is secreted by the Commiphora tree, and when it's crushed, it puts forth this sweet aroma. It was one of the spices used in the burial of Jesus. It was one of the gifts given to Jesus when the wise men came two years after his birth. They presented him with gifts: frankincense and myrrh. Not only was he born as a sweet fragrance, but he was going to be the sweet fragrance of death.

We're going to see this morning that when the church suffers and they stand firm, and maybe even some of them are put to death for their faith, it puts forth such an aroma before the nostrils of a living God. It moves his heart like nothing else. When you are tried, the Bible says, like gold is tried by fire and you come through the other side and you've stood and you haven't compromised, to the Lord that is more precious than fine gold refined in the crucible.

The greatest thing you and I can offer the Lord is a heart that's unwilling to compromise and unwilling to bow its knee before the gods of this world or the temptations of this world because it's already bowed its knee and it'll bow to no other. This is the church of Smyrna. They had made a decision, and it didn't matter what the Roman government did or what the false Christians did—the synagogue of Satan, those who say they're Jews and are not. It didn't matter what they did; they refused to bow and many of them were martyred for it.

As we're going to see, the greatest of those was Polycarp. We're moving from a time now where the church was on fire into complacency, and again, the name for Ephesus is "desirable." God desired a relationship of intimacy. Toward the end of the first century, they're cooling, and now comes the church of Smyrna, where they're going to have to be crushed so that fragrance of worship will rise from them once again. During this period of time, historians tell us that over 100,000 Christians were martyred.

They were fed to the lions in the arena and burned at the stake. They were martyred in all kinds of different ways, like being boiled in oil. In fact, Diocletian—the one who tried to boil John in oil before he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos—ordered 20,000 Christians to be martyred. Nero set them on fire as torches and rode through them on his chariot screaming in a demonic tone with no clothes on. This was a time of great persecution where it cost you something to be a Christian.

This was a time when you didn't get up in the morning and say, "Should I go to church or should I go to my cabin or the ocean?" There was none of that. There was none of this, "Should I watch pornography or not watch pornography?" or "Should I just drink to get a buzz or maybe just go ahead and get drunk?" These people were in a struggle for their souls. This was people that were in a struggle, and it was a life and death battle.

The temptations of this world had nothing to do with this church. It had already settled the issue of who it was going to serve and it wasn't going to bow its knee to anything else, no matter what it cost. This is the church of Smyrna, the church of myrrh, the church that when crushed puts forth this fragrance. So he begins this epistle there in verse 8 by saying, "Unto the angel, the messenger, the pastor, write these things."

The one who is responsible for feeding the flock of God and in every one of these short little epistles, he introduces himself to that particular church by pulling from chapter 1 part of the character that we saw as John sees him. In this situation, he says as he reveals himself to this church, "These things saith he that was first and is last, which was dead and is alive forevermore." What he's going to challenge this church is to be faithful unto death.

We're going to read in Revelation chapter 12 that they overcame. You want to know how you overcome? You overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony. What do you believe today? What do you believe that you're unwilling to compromise? What are you willing to die for? What do you believe so deep in your soul and in your spirit that you will not compromise it no matter what you have to face? What is about you that is so unmovable that no matter what anybody says or does to you, you're not going to change that viewpoint?

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he is the eternal Word? Do you believe that he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death on Calvary's cross for your sins, rose again the third day, and is ever living to make intercession for you? Do you believe that you must give your life and heart, all of it, to the lordship of Jesus Christ to be saved? Do you believe that? Are you willing to compromise any of that? I'm not. Come and take me; I don't care.

The worst you can do for me is kill me and send me home, because I know this: I'm never going to die. I've already died; I've died to the flesh and I'm born of the Spirit. I love Jesus with all my heart and I will never denounce him, nor this faith that he's once and forever delivered to the saints. I've settled that issue. I'm already a dead man. What can you do to me? Because here's what I do know: I'm alive in Christ.

Though one day this body dies, one day I find the zipper on this earth suit and I shed it, I'm going home. That's why he introduces himself to this church. He said, "Listen, I am he who was alive, dead, and I'm alive forevermore." This is the promise I give to you: the promise of eternal life to those who overcome, to those who are unwilling to compromise, to those who are unwilling to bow their knee to the gods of this world.

It's interesting. Smyrna, which is modern-day Izmir, was about 60 miles north of Ephesus. It was also a seaport city, one of the wealthiest cities in the region. But in Smyrna, they had a road called the Golden Road and every idol, every god—Zeus, Astarte, every god of the Roman Empire—was on that street and they were worshiped. In fact, we're going to see this morning that Rome and the Roman Empire began to be worshiped.

I caution you this morning when you begin to worship America or you begin to worship the political things in America. Listen, saint, your citizenship isn't here. Oh, do I thank God for what's going on in our government today? I think it's necessary. I think God is pulling back the curtain and exposing things that need to be exposed. But my hope is not in President Trump or JD Vance or Cash Patel or whoever his name is; I can't ever pronounce it. I appreciate those people. Most of the cabinet that Trump has elected are Christians. Isn't this going to be amazing if the church was taken out today, what would be left? That's amazing to me. But my hope is found in Jesus Christ. My citizenship already exists in heaven. My heart is already there; I'm just waiting for my body to catch up. It looks like it's catching up pretty quickly as I'm getting older by the moment. They had in this street called Golden all of these idols and all of these gods. But it's interesting that he uses Smyrna because in 196 BC—now we're going way back, almost 200 years before Christ—Smyrna built the first temple to Dea Roma, the goddess of the Roman Empire. This was the beginning of emperor worship.