Church Health #2 - Smyrna - Hold Fast to Your Faith
Date: Sunday, January 14, 2007
Author: Rev.
Kenneth Wish
Listen
to this sermon
The
city of
Smyrna
at the time that
this letter is written to them was quite a jewel in the
Roman Empire
.
It was a cultural, business, political, and athletic center.
Among the beautiful buildings with the finest architecture were a massive
library, state of the art stadium, a finely engineered concert hall, and a
variety of theatres as well richly appointed synagogues and
Temples
to what the Jewish
peoples would call Pagan gods, Zeus and Cybele.
Smyrna
itself had been in
existence since about 1000 B.C. originating as a Greek colony.
About 600 B.C. the city was destroyed by the Lydians and for about 400
years was nothing more that a loosely associated series of villages.
A Greek king Lysimachus later rebuilt the city as a planned city. The
city was built with long straight streets, various districts to accommodate the
specialized activities that the city hosted and beautifully appointed buildings.
While built by a Greek, the city was established as a free city and early on in
the Roman era, became loyally affiliated with the
Roman Empire
.
In fact at one point,
Cicero
called
Smyrna
“one of our most
faithful and most ancient allies.”
The Christian church had been established there, though how and when we
don’t know for this is the only mention of the church in the scripture.
It is noteworthy that this is one of the two letters in this series we
are exploring in which there is no judgment against the church.
The church in
Smyrna
was a very faithful
church. But the church was in a time
of dire challenge. The Jews in
Smyrna
were the
predominant group in the city. They
were also quite loyal to the Roman rule and participated in the annual rite of
allegiance to the divinity of Caesar. It
was the Jews who were the ones causing so much trouble for the Christians.
This is consistent with what the Jews were doing in many other cities.
They were repeatedly reporting the Christians for politically incorrect
activities including the refusal to honor Caesar as a god.
Polycarp the Bishop of Asia was in fact burned at the stake for his
refusal to say that Caesar is lord.
The Christians in
Smyrna
however were not
weakening in their faith. They
continued to stay faithful in spite of the terrible persecution that they were
experiencing. This short letter to
them that John was moved by the Spirit to write is a letter of encouragement and
promise! As Pastor Jon and I help us
to explore the principles of church health in this series of messages, it is
noteworthy that the faithful occasionally need to be encouraged.
In this letter, Jesus is stating that He sees their situation and knows
their affliction and poverty. He
knows the persecutions that they are undergoing and is already providing
encouragement when he begins the letter, “These
are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life
again These words are words of
hope and a promise of power and eternity. Jesus
is the First and Jesus is the Last or the Alpha and the Omega.
He is the One who died and came to life again.
With these words, he is providing great encouragement and hope to those
who are suffering affliction and poverty and slander.
10Do 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
ten days. Be faithful
The environment
in which the Christians in
Smyrna
were living would for most people engender
fear. One would never really know
when they might run into trouble with the authorities, but their faith continued
to hold firm. The Christians were
already suffering by the time this letter reached them, but this warning in
verse 10 puts them on warning that things were going to get worse, but only for
a short while. In essence, Jesus is
telling the Smyrnan Christians that they needed to be on guard for what was too
come. The Jews and the pagans in
Smyrna
were repeatedly bringing slanderous charges
against the Christians. There were
the charges of cannibalism based on the words during the communion service.
There were charges of the Christians holding orgies based on the Agape or
love feasts that were held in the celebration of the fellowship they shared in
Christ. There were charges of the
Christians breaking up families based on the fact that some families did break
up when one would become a Christian and the other did not.
There were charges that the Christians were atheists based on the fact
that they did not have any images of God. The
pagans could not get their minds wrapped around this.
There were charges of political disloyalty because Christians would not
affirm Caesar as lord. And there
were charges of the Christians being incendiaries due to the fact that they
predicted that the world would end in flames.
Of course, we know that there is no basis for the charges that were
brought against the Christians, but it would be easy for malicious people to
trump up these charges to create enmity against the Christians.
Jesus, in this letter is letting the Christians in
Smyrna
know that not only is He aware of the
challenges they are facing, but that the challenges would get greater and that
they would need to be on guard. On
guard, not so much for the troubles that would be coming, but on guard for their
faith.
There would be
the temptation for the Christian living in those circumstances to live in fear.
Always looking over their shoulder, or startling at the unexpected out of
fear for what might happen. The
words of the letter encourage the believers to not be afraid.
Jesus has already reminded them that he is the First and Last.
This is a very hopeful statement for those who understand it.
It is the promise of Jesus’ presence with them.
He who was at the beginning will continue to be with us to the end as
well. What a note of encouragement
to those who were being persecuted. For
the promise of Jesus being with us, while not exempting us from the trials to
come, does assure us of His constant help, strength, guidance, and grace.
If we have all of the benefits of being Christ with us at all times, of
what do we need to be afraid? So it
is that Jesus is able to encourage his followers to be not afraid.
On the surface
the most predominant concern that the Jews had about the Christians was their
lack of willingness to honor Caesar as god.
It is said that as Polycarp was being walked to the stake where he as
going to be burned that the governor of the area who did not want Polycarp to
die told him that if he would simply say that Caesar is lord, regardless of what
he actually believed, that the sentence of death could be averted.
To the governor, it was a simple thing, speak a lie and then go ahead and
practice whatever you wanted to believe, but to Polycarp, to speak a lie such as
he was being asked to do, was to quit his faith and beliefs.
It was only as he stood firm in the faith that he had been given by God.
What an example he must have been for the Christians in
Smyrna
! Jesus,
in this letter that John has transcribed for Him, tells the Smyrna Christians to
be faithful. “Be faithful even to
the point of death” is another
principle at which we need to look.
It might be
considered normal that people get scared and quiver in their boots and quit when
the going gets challenging. The
Christians in
Smyrna
held firm in the face of overwhelming
opposition to their faith, they did not quit.
These faithful, whoever it was that taught them as they received the
faith, learned their lessons well, for they kept on guard for their faith and
maintained their trust in God, they had confidence and did not fear in the face
of the persecutions, slanders, and their destitute lives.
In all of this they remained completely faithful.
Jesus concludes the letter with two promises; the first is that as they
continued to remain faithful, they would gain the crown of life.
The word for crown that is used here is not a royal crown but like one
that is given to the winner of a race. One who has run the race and has crossed
the finish line in victory; the second is that they would not be hurt by the
second death. The first death is the
one that we will all experience at the end of our physical life.
The second death is that which will be suffered at the day of judgment by
those who have not taken Christ as Lord.
In this letter
to the second of the seven churches we have the admonitions to keep our guard,
to not be fearful and to not quit (or be faithful) along with the promises of
the crown of life and the lack of harm from the second death.
These three admonitions were important for the church in
Smyrna
, but are equally important for the church today
and no less so for the Cape Elizabeth Church of the Nazarene.
While we in
Cape
Elizabeth
and surrounding areas might not be experiencing
the persecutions, slanders and destitution in the same respect that the Smyrnans
did, but we do have our own challenges to which the words in this letter may
also apply. There are those times
when our faith is challenged. In not
being externally challenged in our faith we have the potential of becoming
content in the sublime nature of our faith and culture.
In the midst of our comfort, we have the capacity to become complacent in
our faith walk. If this happens we
let our guard down and do not maintain the disciplines necessary to guard our
faith. If our faith is not guarded,
then it becomes easier for us to be fearful in threatening circumstances and
subsequently also easier for us to become apostate, or quit our faith.
The scriptures
that we read earlier, John’s gospel 2:1-11
and 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 talk of some of the things of which we need to be
aware for quality church health. The
gospel lesson highlights the importance of recognizing who Christ is in our
lives and from whence miracles and sustenance originate.
The epistle passage describes out interconnectedness as followers of
Christ. Would it have been possible
for an isolated Christian in
Smyrna
to
maintain the faith? Yes it would
have been possible, but without the support of the fellowship in the body of
Christ it would have been a remarkable person to have done so.
Jesus is encouraging this church to continue to be faithful, do not have
fear and guard your faith. Let us
not only take strength from the Word, but also each other as we seek to support
one another in the faith, maintaining the disciplines to which Christ has called
us.
He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Benediction: Now
to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according
to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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