Smyrna - The Challenge of Opposition

Last Friday morning, about 1,000 people, representing 64 churches, gathered at the Delta Meadowvale Hotel for the 2nd Annual Mississauga Mayor’s Christian Prayer Breakfast. What an impressive gathering!

Many of the movers and shakers of Mississauga were there—members of the Provincial Parliament, representatives from the staffs of our federal MPs, trustees from our two major school boards, business leaders, community leaders, and church leaders all breaking bread and fellowshiping together. And it was all presided over by our wonderfully dynamic mayor, who served as the honorary chairperson of the event.

We sang together, we worshiped together, we listened to the preaching of God’s Word together, and we prayed together. Truly a glittering occasion under the crystal chandeliers of that great ballroom. I’m still basking in the glow of it.

And I couldn’t help thinking what a powerful appeal that has for us as Christians. Here we are, invited to sit at the table as equals with the secular powers that be. To hear them commend us, to hear them affirm us in our Christian faith. To sense that there is an opportunity to work together to steer our city in the direction of righteousness. It almost gives the impression that together, linked arm in arm, the church and the state can bring in the kingdom of God here in Mississauga.

And yet we need to remember that that scenario—church and state; Gospel and government, prayer and politics—whenever that has happened down through history, it has not resulted in the Gospel going forward. In fact, the opposite has happened. The church has lost its power, lost its spiritual vitality, and lost its ability to transform the world in which it lives.

If you look at church history seriously, it seems that we Christians are most powerful, most effective, most fruitful, when we are out of step and out of favor with the Establishment. I don’t like that; I don’t want that, but that is the truth of the matter.

The church grows most explosively when it is under persecution. Now today, in the year 2000 in Canada, we Christians are not, generally, facing persecution. Oh, there are isolated cases, and seemingly more and more of them, as our culture drifts away from its Judeo-Christian roots. But by and large, the government isn’t seriously hassling us for our faith. However, there are storm clouds on the horizon. And because of that, we want ot look today at a church in the first century which was facing persecution.

We’re going to turn in our Bibles to Rev. 2:8-11 and we’re going to take a look at the church in Smyrna. Let’s see what the Lord says to that church—a church which was facing opposition.

Revelation 2:8-11 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 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.

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 ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Last week, we looked at the church at Ephesus and found that they were facing an internal problem: they had left their first love. The church at Smyrna wasn’t facing an internal problem; it was facing an external problem—persecution, opposition, hostility.

Let me take you back to the city of Smyrna to understand the situation. Smyrna was generally regarded to be the most beautiful city in the province of Asia. Ancient writers called it the crown, or flower of Asia. If Ephesus was like Toronto, Smyrna was like Vancouver. The city was located in the valley of the Hermus River at the head of a long, sheltered gulf which stretched in from the Aegean sea. Rolling hills rose up behind the city and gentle west breezes from the ocean brought a year-round freshness to the place.

Smyrna was one of the first planned cities in the world. It had been destroyed by the Lydians in 627 BC and had lain in ruins for the next 300 years. But then King Lysimachus decided to rebuild it in 290 BC. He had his city-planners lay out wonderful straight wide streets and plazas. On the hills behind the city, many beautiful temples and public buildings were erected. As they shone in the sunlight, they looked like a diadem or crown of jewels on the head of Smyrna.

It’s no wonder, then, that many artists and writers made Smyrna their home. It was a great place to live and work. In fact, Smyrna claimed to be the birthplace of the Greek writer Homer. It was a city of refinement and high culture—there was a great theater, a concert hall, and a public library there. In fact, you might even say that Smyrna was the most “liveable” city in Asia. But it became a very “unliveable” place for Christians.

And there are two reasons why:

1. Smyrna was a strong ally of Rome. Back around the year 200 BC, here was the situation: Rome, in the west, was at war with Antiochus the Great of Syria, whose kingdom was in the east. Smyrna found herself caught right in the middle of that conflict. She had to choose sides. Smyrna chose to be on the side of Rome. The city aided Rome with a force of naval vessels. Their citizens took up a clothing drive and sent food to the Roman army who were suffering through a harsh winter.

And when Rome finally won that war, she showed her gratitude by making Smyrna a free city. The famous Roman orator Cicero called Smyrna “our most faithful and ancient ally”. It’s not surprising then, that in the 1st century AD, when the Roman Emperor was looking for a site to erect a temple to serve as a center for Emperor Worship in Asia, Smyrna was the city he chose.

So it was point of civic pride that, if you were a resident of Smyrna, you gladly bowed the knee to Rome. (Kind of like, if you live in Toronto, you root for the Maple Leafs.)

Now here you have this little group of Christians living in Smyrna and they don’t want to do it. They are refusing to bow the knee and say “Caesar is Lord”. So you can imagine how popular they would be!

How likely is it in Smyrna that when you fill out a job application and they find out you are one of those Christians, you’re going to get the job? How likely is it in Smyrna that if you’re a Christian, and you’re trying to get your kids into that school of higher learning, they’re going to let them in? Or you’re haggling for your groceries in the marketplace, the merchant is going to give you a good deal?

The strong connection between Rome and the city of Smyrna was one of the reasons why Christians were hated there. But there was another reason:

2. In Smyrna, there was a large and very influential Jewish community. In fact, ancient documents tell us that the Jewish community in Smyrna contributed 10,000 denarii to an urban renewal project to make the city more beautiful.

Now I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the further you get into the 1st century, the more hostility you find on the part of the Jews toward the Christians. The Jewish community resented the fact that many of their people were converting to Christianity. They resented the fact that the Christians were using their Hebrew Scriptures to teach that Jesus Christ was the Messiah.

So you have this polarization developing in the Jewish community toward Christians. And that was happening all through the Mediterranean world, but it was especially happening in Smyrna.

In fact, several decades after the book of Revelation was written, the Christian bishop of Smyrna—a man named Polycarp—was burned at the stake for being a Christian. And in the ancient accounts of his martyrdom, it says that some members of the Jewish community helped to gather wood for the fire even though it was the Sabbath day and they weren’t supposed to be doing such work.

So you have these two forces arrayed against the Christians in Smyrna—the civic authorities because of Smyrna’s loyalty to Rome; and the Jewish community. Smyrna was not an easy place to be a Christian! Let’s go back to the text and see what Jesus has to say to his followers in that situation.

Revelation 2:8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.

Jesus reminds them of who He is. He is the Lord of history—He is the First and the Last. What was going on in Smyrna was not a surprise to him and it was not beyond his control. When we are facing opposition, we need to remember that.

And Jesus says “I died and came to life again”. I know what it is to pay the supreme price, and I am alive today—I’ve come through death. I’ve taken the worst that Satan could throw at me and conquered it. I am the Lord of life. It is a word of hope to these people who were staring death in the face.

Then Jesus reviews their situation

Revelation 2:9 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.

He knows their sufferings, he knows their afflictions. The word that he uses means “a burden that crushes” He says “I know that you are under a heavy load”

And he says I know your scarcity; I know your poverty—the word means “abject poverty”—not just having a little, but having nothing at all. And the fact that these two ideas are connected—affliction and poverty—seems to indicate that the one came because of the other. They were poor because they were being persecuted.

Yet, he says, “you are rich”. You don’t know how rich you are!

Have you ever met someone who really knows what it means to count the cost for being a Christian? I have. I’ll never forget him. His name was Andrej. He was a pastor, a leader of the Christian church, in the city of Bratislava, which is now the capital of Slovakia.

I met Andrej in 1989 in what was then Czechoslovakia. The Iron Curtain still hung heavy over Eastern Europe at that time. In 1989, I had the opportunity of going into Czechoslovakia, ostensibly as a tourist, but actually to do leadership training with the churches there.

Andrej and his family lived in a tiny, dingy apartment. The secret police knew about Andrej. They were watching him; keeping track of his whereabouts. When my partner and I arranged for our secret rendezvous with him, we had to make sure we weren’t being followed. Pretty exciting cloak and dagger stuff—actually I found it quite frightening. I had never experienced anything like this before.

Andrej had spent a good deal of time in prison for preaching about Christ. His health was broken because of that. Although he was a very intelligent man, a teacher by training, he was now—because of his prison record—only allowed to hold a menial laborer’s job, earning a meager salary that barely kept food on the table.

His teenaged son, who was extremely gifted and spoke seven languages, had applied to the university and had been rejected. You don’t have to guess why.

It was officially a criminal offense for Andrej to meet with us because we were Westerners. Unauthorized contact with foreigners was forbidden under the Communist regime. Yet Andrej not only received us like royalty into his home, he escorted us publicly to the train station at the end of our visit. And I will never forget his tearful embrace. He kissed me on both cheeks and said “We are brothers in Christ”.

Pastor Andrej was a man who may have been poor on the outside, but who was rich on the inside. Jesus said “I know you are poor; but you are rich.”

The Christians at Smyrna were the subject of slander as well. Did you know that there was a lot of malicious gossip about Christians in the 1st century? There were a number of scandalous stories circulating about them. And the general populace believed these stories.

• Christians were said to be cannibals because they supposedly ate the flesh and drank the blood of their leader.

• They were accused of engaging in orgies, because they had a feast that they called the love feast.

• They were regarded as traitors because they refused to worship the Emperor.

• Christians were thought to be home-wreckers because when one member of a family became a Christian, it often split the family apart.

• They were thought to be dangerous arsonists because they taught that the world would end in a fiery judgment. Nero got a lot of mileage from this one in 64 AD!

• Christians were even accused of being atheists because they didn’t worship idols and images and go to the temples like everyone else did.

So they were the victims of all kinds of slander. And in v. 9, Jesus says that some of it is coming from the Jewish community. But it’s really coming from Satan, who is the slanderer; the accuser of the brethren.

In Acts 17, we read about a riot that took place in Thessalonica because of the teaching of Paul and Silas. And the rioters cried out “These are the guys who have caused trouble all over the world, and now they’ve come here!”

This was the environment of the 1st century world. This was the society in which you had to decide whether or not you would be a Christian. They sure weren’t having mayor’s prayer breakfasts back then!

Now Jesus, in v. 10, gives them a word of reassurance. The letter to the church at Smyrna doesn’t follow the usual pattern. There is no word of rebuke to this church, and consequently, no need for a remedy. But he gives them instead a word of reassurance, a word of encouragement, a word of comfort.

Revelation 2:10 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 ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Well, this is like bad news and good news. Take courage; there’s going to be a cost, but you’re going to get a crown. Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush! First of all, he says: “You’re going to suffer. You’re going to go to prison. You’re going to be persecuted. Some of you are even going to be put to death.”

(By the way, that “10 days” business simply means that it will be a finite time, which will one day come to completion.)

Jesus isn’t painting a pretty picture here but it’s a realistic picture. There are hard-times a comin’ for this church. It’s crunch time!

And this is a whole thread of NT teaching that we tend to ignore in the church in North America. Because we haven’t had to face persecution, we think that it is normative not to have to face it. But that isn’t true. Listen to the witness of the NT:

2 Timothy 3:12 …everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

Luke 21:12 “…they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. Because…

John 15:20 If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. So…

1 Peter 4:12-16 …do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

But Jesus goes on to say here in Revelation…

Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Don’t be afraid…be faithful. Waiting for you is the crown of life. This crown refers to the garland that the winner of the Olympic games gets. It’s not a royal crown, it’s a crown of reward.

And Jesus says in v. 11…

He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

The second death is what is spoken of in Revelation 20:14 - the Lake of Fire is the second death. It is the place of eternal separation from God.

We tend to think of the subject of persecution as a 1st century phenomenon. But did you know that more people lost their lives for the cause of Christ in the 20th century than in all other centuries combined? What will the 21st century be like?

You say “Well, I don’t see it happening here anytime soon. After all, we live in an enlightened age—we live in an age of tolerance, where everybody in our multicultural, pluralistic society can pursue their own beliefs without fear of being persecuted.”

Don’t be too sure! I believe that the one area of greatest threat to cause of Christ today will come from this very issue of tolerance. You see, our society places a very high premium on the virtue of tolerance. “Live and let live” is our modern-day credo, and it is based on the epistomological foundation of relativism. People believe today that truth is relative. What is true for you may not be true for me. So you pursue your truth system, and I’ll pursue mine, and we won’t bother each other.

Yet, to be a Christian means to believe (among other things) that there is only one true way of salvation. That there is only one true Saviour—Jesus Christ—who can bring us into relationship with God. That there are not many ways to God, represented by the many religions of the world, there is only one: Jesus Christ.

And to be a Christian means to understand that Jesus has given us the sacred responsibility of bringing that truth to other people, of other belief systems, of other religions, in order that they might become followers of the one true way.

Now do you see how that understanding of Christianity puts us completely at odds with the prevailing values of our culture. Our society says to us…

• How DARE you Christians suggest that there is only one way to God.

• How DARE you claim that there is only one spiritual truth for all mankind.

• How DARE you imply that you are right and everyone else is wrong.

• How DARE you try to persuade others to adopt your beliefs.

I believe that the 21st century is going to about how persecution breaks out against us on that issue. I believe that we are going to be hounded for being absolutists by a society which no longer believes in absolutes. The apostles of tolerance will not tolerate people who are absolutists.

So we’re going to have to be ready. We’re going to have to be prepared to count the cost.

One of the great martyrs of the 20th century was a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was the leader of the confessing church in Nazi Germany. His loyalty to Christ and the Bible led him to understand that Adolf Hitler was a devil. His love for Christ put him completely at odds with his government, with his nation, and with his people.

Although he could have fled to freedom, Bonhoeffer courageously elected to stay in Germany and be a voice for the truth. He was arrested in 1943 by the Gestapo and spent the next two years in various prisons and concentration camps.

During his confinement, he was not strident, or sullen as some of us might have been under similar circumstances. Rather, he reached out in love and ministered, not only to his fellow prisoners, but also his captors as well. In fact, some of the Nazi SS guards came to regard him so highly that they risked their own lives to smuggle his writings out of prison so that they might be published.

Just three weeks before the end of the war, in April 1945, by special order of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the Gestapo, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed.

One of the things that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote I want to leave you with today: He said “When Jesus Christ calls a man to discipleship, he bids him come and die.”

Are you ready to face opposition for Jesus Christ?