1. Introduction:
Beginning with Ephesus, the Lord then began to do with Jean around each church. The order of this tour of churches by the Lord, as we have seen, does not by chance. Historians and as we shall see later, it corresponds almost exactly to the description different phases through which the Church will over time. If the Church of Ephesus is the time of the early church in its early days (he is spoken of the Apostles), the Church of Smyrna on it embodies pretty much the second phase in the history of the Church The Church in the suffering of persecution, the Church of the catacombs and the bullring, the Church of martyrs.
What did Jesus say? What decision is there on this part of the history of the Church? What can we draw for us today? That's what we'll try to see this morning!
2. Identity of the Church of Smyrna:
A. I know:
Just as the Lord had said to Ephesus, Smyrna He also says that He knows, He knows, He is perfectly conscious and aware of everything that Church of Smyrna and saw everything through which it passes.
If knowing that the Lord knows what happens in the church, where in it things that are not His glory, we can inspire a feeling of fear, it is quite otherwise when the Church through persecution. The "I know" the Lord does not watch scary here, but comforting.
is probably there with others that we will see later, the first consolation that all Christians rejected, ignored, to suffer for their faith, received from the Lord. Each of our troubles, as he also says in Isaiah 63.9 , is also his troubles. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, raises the question: Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Will this distress, anxiety, persecution, hunger, deprivation, danger or sword? I am sure for my part, he says, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature has the power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus: Rom 8,35.39 .
Probably none of us has known suffering and persecution for Christ to the point that saw the Church of martyrs from the 1st to 3rd century. Yet the words of Jesus in the suffering that we can live for Him in this world Because of our faith are also for us. He also knows that we live this certainty may be the primary source of our consolation!
He knows: but what does he know? "He sees the situation in Smyrna? 3 things:
B. I know your sorrow, your poverty, slander (or curses) ...
By saying what he knows of the Church of Smyrna, Jesus is really around all that touches and concerns :
a. He knows his distress : he knows exactly what she passes by. He knows what his pain and suffering is done. He is well aware of, besides being himself been there before her.
What we know and that by which we must move because of Jesus, we must remember that it is impossible for Jesus to be abroad. If we know, jail, beatings, humiliation, slander against us, let us know that Jesus knew before us. Let us be certain: because Jesus lived before us, he knows, knows what it means to go through the trouble. Also, have fellowship his suffering, to participate in advancing the kingdom of God is part of the counter that binds us to Him as a disciple 2 Cor 1.5; Philip 3:10, Col 1:24
b. He knows his poverty-but then, he adds, it is rich:
no doubt that in saying what he says here, Jesus responds not only to the external situation in which passes the Church Heb 10.32-34, but also the feeling that lives inside. If there is indeed a feeling that can inhabit the Christian suffering is undoubtedly a sense of his helplessness, even of its uselessness. Who am I, a Christian who is in prison, put to death, poor as to have lost everything even my most basic rights: freedom of religion, speech, assembly, etc ...
You think poor, meets Jesus! Well, I tell you you're rich! Because, if for me, you show that you are capable of losing everything, including perhaps one day your life, then you show the world that you possess in you a treasure worth more than all the riches of the world. Remember, Church of Smyrna, what I said in my time to my disciples: What doth it profit a man to gain the world if it is to make the loss of his soul: Marc 8.36 ? Remember to: true wealth is not the side of those who make war and you take you all, but on your side.
c. He knows the calumnies which the Church is the object:
If physical pain is without doubt one of the most unbearable persecution, she is not alone. Sometimes even inwardly being slandered, falsely accused suffering in exceeds what shots could occur.
Let us now though: slander, lies are and continue to be today, in countries where there is persecution, one of the most commonly used weapons against the Church of Jesus Christ.
Tel pastor is accused in Iran or China to be an enemy of the state or because he received a Western Christian home, a relay of foreign powers. Another man may be arrested under the pretext that committed crimes or acts, supposedly reprehensible by law.
worth noting, that if one day our freedom is threatened, lies and slander will be part of the arsenal of weapons used against us. Jesus was the object: "We found that individual in the process of encouraging our nation to revolt and it prevents them from paying taxes to Caesar, and he said he himself is Christ, King Luke 23 2 . We shall be also.
us console ourselves, however, because, as He knows the distress by which we pass, Jesus knows also the validity of the charges which we can be the object. If we have nothing to reproach ourselves before God, we need not consider the charges that we may be subjected by men. Moreover, Jesus told us that when such a thing would happen to us one day: from 5.11 to 12 Mat. These slanders are proof that we're on the right side, the side of truth and the Kingdom of God!
3. The power of the devil
If they are indeed men who slander and persecute the Church of Smyrna Jesus is that, in the minds of Christians, there is no ambiguity about the true author of their suffering. Their real enemy, they are not beings of flesh and blood that stop them, persecute them, slander them, make them suffer: it is the devil.
If, on reading, this distinction may seem like a simple twist of language, in fact, in the persecution, it is essential. For how indeed could we stay witnesses of Christ in this world if we do not distinguish between those who persecute us and that which is true author of the hate we are the object?
Never once it appears, in speeches and behavior of Jesus, that he regarded the men as his true enemies:
- to love Jesus recommended those who persecute us, to pray for them, bless them (and their wish to do good): Luke 6.27 to 28. But this requirement is only possible if we consider them not as guilty, but themselves as victims of evil.
- Even when he was arrested, Jesus continues to call Judas "Friend! Jesus wants to make Judas aware that, although attractive, his real enemy is not him, but he who, at this time, the handles. Jesus would try it this distinction to save even Judas: I do not know. But note that he did so clearly!
Satan, the devil is the true enemy of the Christian, the question arises, what is the extent of his power to them? Reading the Apocalypse, we can infer at least two things:
1. Although the cause of Satan is lost, until he was finally thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, he still enjoys great freedom and great power. Thus, nothing in this book nouv see:
- throw Christians in jail: 2.10
- accuse them day and night before God's throne: 12 , 10 (what patience of God!)
- harp on Israel 12.13
- make war with the saints and defeat: 13.7 has
All Satan can do against the people of God, he does not hesitate to do
2. Although Satan still enjoys considerable freedom and has a great power, everything he does to the people of God is perfectly measured and controlled by God:
- he threw the Christians prison, but the duration is limited (10 days: there were, apparently, 10 emperors who have persecuted Christians)
- He blames God day and night, but Christ intercedes for day and night as His own
- he continues to destroy Israel, but Israel miraculously survives
- he makes war with the saints but his reign on earth, which is given by God, is actually super-short: an hour: Rev oc 17.12.
4. Resist:
If anyone knows what it means to be imprisoned by the devil, it's Marie Durand. Born in the eighteenth century, this is still a young Protestant girl, when at age 18, she was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of Constance in Aigues-Mortes. Marie Durand will come of that 39 years later to finally do live only 8 years of freedom. Marie Durand How did she endure for a long time in captivity. What was his secret to keep and alone, isolated, and does not renounce his faith or even end up losing the reason?
On the wall of the cell where she was, Marie Durand engraved a word, one which, despite the passage of time, remained inscribed in the stone tower. This word is "Resist! . How as a Christian is it possible to resist, to keep the face of suffering and persecution which we ourselves are from Satan? It is impossible in 5 minutes to answer this question. Some clues, however, the letter from Jesus to the church of Smyrna, however, we can help answer it.
first index: It is contained in the title or the expression in which Jesus presents himself to the church of Smyrna. If Jesus had underlined the church of Ephesus, who was the church which occupied the main square in the order of the churches of Asia, that he was the Head of the Church is here as a definitive winner Risen and death that Jesus reveals himself to the church Smyrna.
In this presentation, Jesus reminds us that, in suffering and persecution, there is basically only one thing for Christians to take: it is their hope. Even the sufferings of the moment are challenging, the Christian knows that despite the difficult they are, they are temporary and remain, momentary. Our enemy can certainly take away life, but Jesus attests, there's one thing he can not take us: it is our relationship with God and our salvation: Reminder: Rom 8.35-39 . Also, it is not those who can destroy our body we have to fear of persecution, but He who alone has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell: Mat 10.28
2nd clue: If Jesus is as the risen Christ to the Church of Smyrna, it is not just for say and attest to Christians who suffer the devil and death will not have the last word on them. It is also telling them that despite their incarceration and isolation, they can count on him on his presence at every moment with them and with them. As Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, Christians are persecuted but not abandoned: 4.9 2 Cor. They are legion, the testimony of Christians who bear witness in prison because of their faith, they have no known Bible proximity with the Lord as they never had the time of their release.
3rd index: it is in the reward that Jesus promises to those who remain faithful until death: Rev. 2.10. Very clearly, the Bible strongly binds the suffering that we can live in the present to the future glory that will be ours: Rom 8.17-18, 2 Cor 4.17 to 18 . "If the Apocalypse," said John Alexander, announces tomorrow that mourn, it also predicts the next day singing!
5. Conclusion
If every Christian is called to go through the martyr all must be ready to become one. This is reflected by the apostle Paul himself in Acts 21.13 . If Paul was not a martyr here, he had somehow mind.
If this provision exists in the heart of Paul, many believe it is not due to his character. Neither he nor Etienne, nor any other Christian who had to die for his faith was of men above the others. One thing basically made them willing to pay the maximum price for the cause of their Master: it was her who was weakened more in the church Ephesus: their love for Christ: 2 Cor 5.14 to 15
the fourth century, Basil, a bishop, speaks of a virgin sentenced to be burned alive, which was offered his life and possessions if she agreed to bow before an idol. She replied: "That life and the money would go, welcome to Christ. "
Welcome to Christ! God gives us in His grace today to be ready, if necessary, to pay the maximum price for him, knowing that at that moment, as any other where we must be witnesses for Him, He will not make us wrong!
ANNEX: Compilation of testimonies of martyrs of the Roman era:
Polycarp: Bishop of Smyrna
The tumult was great when public learned that Polycarp was arrested. The proconsul to bring him and asked him if he was Polycarp. He replied yes, and the proconsul sought to deny do by saying, "Respect your old age" and everything we are accustomed to say in such cases. "Swear by the fortune of Caesar changes his mind, saying:" Down with the atheists (the Christians were regarded as such). "But Polycarp looked with a stern eye of the crowd in the stadium godless heathen, and he waved his hand against her, then sighed and looked up, he said:" Down with the atheists. " The proconsul insisted and said, "Swear, and I let go, cursed Christ" Polycarp replied: "There are eighty-six I serve it, and it does me no harm, how could I blaspheme my King who saved me? "
Ignatius bishop of Antioch in Syria
Tertullian: Apologetics
For you, worthy magistrates, as you are insured applause of the people, as you would sacrifice the Christians, condemn us, torment us and crush us: your injustice is the proof of our innocence and that is why God allows us to be persecuted. Recently, condemning a Christian to be exhibited in a place infamous rather than lion, you recognized that the loss of chastity is for us the greatest of punishments, and more terrible than death itself. But your most refined cruelties are useless: it is an additional attraction for our religion. We multiply as you reap: our blood is the seed of Christians.
I am coming soon!
