Any time that we address the matter of suffering, it draws a lot of interest, simply because it is such a real phenomenon in the world and in the lives of believers. People often find it difficult to reconcile suffering with a loving God, yet suffering has been part of the experience of Christians from the beginning. Today we cover the churches at Smyrna and Pergamum. All seven of the churches in Revelation suffered under persecution, but more so Smyrna and Pergamum. The church in Smyrna did receive an honor from the resurrected Lord in the letter that he sent to that church. The honor that they received was that in the letter sent to Smyrna, there was no rebuke. There was no... No complaint that the Lord leveled against this particular church. Just two of the churches received a letter with no rebuke, Smyrna and then Philadelphia. The church at Smyrna received also a powerful commendation. They were commended from Jesus and that commendation came in three simple words, you are rich. I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. Now the richness of the Smyrna believers was not financial, it was spiritual. As far as their socioeconomic status, Smyrna believers lived in poverty. God gives little weight to the socioeconomic status of people. Perhaps it was hard for the Smyrna believers to keep their spirits up. Every day, it seems, they got up to new accusations that came from the supposed Jews. They had more of their goods plundered. They were barely surviving. And maybe they thought, you know, what's wrong? God owns everything, you know. And here we can barely survive. And we're just poor. We're just poor. And Jesus said, oh, no, no. Actually, you're rich. You're rich. Now, compare what Jesus said to Smyrna with what he said to the church in Laodicea. To that church, he said, you say, I am rich, I have become wealthy, I have needed nothing, and you do not know that you're a wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. We might say it this way, the Smyrna is the riches of poverty, Laodicea is the poverty of riches. Now the spiritually rich person gives their heart to Jesus. They have a special and close relationship with him. Now all believers have the riches of Jesus at their disposal. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That's Ephesians 1.3. whether or not we apply those riches is a different story. A story is told of a young couple who inherited a home. They lived a simple life and survived by hard work and being frugal. And one day they ventured into a far corner of the old dusty attic and were shocked to find boxes full of rare collectibles. worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The treasure was there all the time. But they didn't live as though they were rich. The treasures existed, but not in their daily walk. That's how it is with some Christians. True spiritual riches are available, but we live like paupers. because we won't fully give our heart or lives to Jesus. Now, the Christians in Smyrna lived daily in spiritual riches because they cultivated that relationship with the risen Jesus Christ. And spiritual relationship with God requires an investment. It doesn't happen automatically. Spiritually rich people spend time in God's book versus spiritually poor people who spend time in men's books. Spiritually rich people invest time in prayer. Spiritually poor people invest time in worry. Spiritually rich people serve others versus spiritually poor people who serve themselves. spiritually rich people invest their money in God's kingdom versus spiritually poor people who invest in their own kingdoms. Now the letter from the risen Lord tells us something about the suffering of the Smyrna Christians. It's called Tribulation. I know your works, Tribulation and Poverty, and Tribulation means it's pressure, it's anguish. And this anguish came from persecution, and we see the nature of it in verse 10. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, but you will have tribulation 10 days. The church in Smyrna lived under the specter of imprisonment and death. Well, who was persecuting the Christians in Smyrna? Jesus identified two sources of the persecution. The first is seen in verse 9, I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not. So, the persecution came from false Jews. Now, I don't think Jesus meant that they weren't Jewish by descent. I think they were. I think what Jesus meant was these Jewish people falsely Assumed that they were the the guardians of the true faith of Jehovah God in In the Gospels we see the Pharisees and high priests and the scribes during Jesus day They assumed that they were they were the great guardians of the faith of the Old Testament but they rejected the Messiah of the Old Testament and and became persecutors of Jesus and and eventually became the prime movers behind his trial and crucifixion. Similarly, the Jews in Smyrna had the pretense of being the great guardians of the true faith of Jehovah, but they were not the guardians of the faith, they were actually the church of Satan. And they were the enemies of God the Father, and they were enemies of his son, Jesus Christ. And Satan is the second source of the persecution. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation 10 days. Ultimately, the fingers that pull the strings of the puppets who persecute Christians are the fingers of the devil. But the devil doesn't use his own hands to persecute Christians. For that, he needs people. And Jesus said to the religious leaders, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning. And if Satan is a murderer, which he is, Who do you think would be the target of murder other than Christians? But he needs the hands of puppets to carry out the persecution and the murder. And you can tell from verse 10 that his intention was murder. Be faithful until death. The devil's not happy throwing believers into prison for a brief punishment and seeing them released. The devil uses the hands of real people to carry out his imprisonment and murder of Christians. Now, note that it was the religious people of the day behind the Christians' imprisonment. So we sometimes fear the secular, you know, we fear the atheists, and sometimes, It is, the secular and the atheists, maybe, you know, in communist countries that persecute religious people, but often it's religious people. Listen to the warning of Jesus to his disciples from John 16 too. They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think he offers God service. It was the curators of the synagogues. They were the persecutors. They persecuted Christians and believed they were doing God a favor. And I suspect that we'll see increasing hostility from churches that have left the faith, churches where Jesus Christ has removed the candlestick, and true biblical Christians at some point will likely come to suffer at the hands of apostate Christians, if we can call them that. Poverty. I know your works, Tribulation and Poverty, the poverty that they lived in, it wasn't because they were poor business people, it wasn't because they were less educated, it wasn't because they were poor managers of money. their poverty resulted from their faith. And through the centuries, one means of persecution against Christians has been economic deprivation. A phenomena is referenced in Hebrews 10, starting at verse 32, where the writer says, recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, that is after you were saved, You endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven." plundering of property here in Hebrews 10 is tied to the compassion that believers had for those in prison. And this is not a passage promoting prison ministry in the sense of evangelizing criminals, although we believe in that. The persons in prison here were not criminals, but fellow believers thrown into prison for their faith in Jesus Christ. And when early Christians were thrown into dungeons that look a little bit like that, I don't know how much you can see, but part of it is the darkness. They depended on the compassion of other believers to sustain them. If imprisoned believers were to survive in the cold and dark and damp and disease-ridden conditions, they had to depend on their Christian friends to bring food and water and clothes and medications. The Christians in those societies were singled out for victimization. Christians would leave their home to bring supplies to their brothers in the dungeons and come home to find their home has been plundered. And those who stole from the Christians knew the government would look the other way. There would never be justice for the Christians who had their property plundered. But these believers, such as in Smyrna, gladly endured the plundering of their property. The third word under suffering is the word blasphemy. I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not. You can think of this as slander. The Jews wanted to distance themselves from the Christians and the Roman Empire. The Jews already suffered some level of persecution because they were monotheistic, they had one God. And it made it worse when, Jews were connected to Christians in people's minds, and Christianity arose from Judaism. And so they were afraid that their persecution would increase by being associated with the Christians. And so what they did was they slandered the Christians. They bad-mouthed them. They tried to disassociate from them. One of the accusations against the early Christians was that they were cannibals. In this communion thing they do, they eat the body of Jesus, they drink the blood of Jesus. They're cannibals. The average Roman citizen was unable to sort out truth from error. And so the slanders became the public identity of Christians. Those bizarre weird people, they were increasingly hated and they faced increasing crimes against them. And Jesus said, yeah, I know the extraordinary weight of that blasphemy. I know the weight of that slander that you are suffering. Because of the slander, Jesus gave the believers a warning of coming things in verse 10. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. I don't know. What do you mean, Jesus? The devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you'll have tribulation for 10 days. More trouble was coming. Imprisonment and death for some was on the way. And here we face that difficult question. Why? When it was within God's power to do so, Did he not provide justice sooner for these beleaguered Christians so that they need not die unjustly? Or for that matter, why does God allow Christians to suffer at all when it's within his power to bring relief? Now, the letter of Jesus to the church at Smyrna offers one clue to that difficult question. at the end of verse 10. Be faithful until the end and I will give you the crown of life. And at the end of verse 11, he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. The priority of Jesus is to prepare for eternity. Jesus made little preparation for this life for himself. He said, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head, no home. He didn't bother buying a house. His words are, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Our priority in this life is often comfort here. Preparing for eternal life leads to very different decisions than decisions meant to prepare us for this world. And we won't understand God's decisions until we understand God's eternal priorities. See, we think it's awful when people suffer injustice. It's horrible that the Christians had their possessions stolen. But was it? Does God agree with that? Listen to the words of Jesus. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven." When we suffer, we think, God's not watching out for me. And meanwhile, God is thinking, I'm preparing him or her for eternity. The words of Jesus to the saints in Smyrna were that more trouble is coming, the devil's about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested for 10 days. I think 10 days is a, I don't think it's a literal 10 days, I think it's a way of saying a short period of time. It's short-lived, but short-lived in comparison to what? The words, be faithful until death were certainly not reassuring to the people of Smyrna if they were hoping for an easy and quick end to the persecution. Some people were going to die for their faith, but their persecution was short-lived relative to eternity. On this earth, we're left with the reality of suffering. Some of that suffering is persecution. But avoiding, always avoiding suffering is not God's will. God doesn't always step in and stop physical suffering, or mental suffering, or persecution, or financial stressors, or family problems, or discrimination. The purpose for these Smyrna believers to be thrown into prison was that you may be tested, verse 10. And he who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death, verse 11, preparation for eternity. We should, we should pray to God in all of our stressors. First Peter 5, 7, casting all your cares on him for he cares for you. But we realize that even as we pray, that in some cases, it will not be God's will to relieve the stress. He won't deliver us from all hardships. The imprisonment of the Smyrna believers was part of God's plan. It was going to happen. Jesus predicted it. It wasn't going to stop. He wasn't telling the Christians in Smyrna to beg out. It was part of his plan. Some of you are enduring hardship right now, and when you pray about the hardships, God may spare you from the hardship, or he may continue to test and strengthen you. He doesn't promise to end hardship, but he does promise his presence. And the Lord, he is the one who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be dismayed, Deuteronomy 31.8. And when we understand that we have God's presence, it's possible then to have peace in the midst of the storm. Well, there was a promise given to the Christians at Smyrna. It was a promise of heavenly reward. I will give you the crown of life. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. The promises Jesus gave, again, they were all about heaven. There's no promise in there that had to do with the comfort of their own life there in Smyrna. Things didn't go easily for the saints at Smyrna. The prediction of Jesus about martyrdom at Smyrna are recorded in history. There is a famous martyr in Smyrna whose name some of you will recognize, Polycarp of Smyrna. Polycarp was just under 30 years old when Jesus gave the messages to the seven churches. He was or later became the bishop at Smyrna. Polycarp spent his life distributing scripture, encouraging believers, protecting the church from false teaching. Many years after John's letter, Polycarp ran afoul of Rome because He was commanded to burn incense to the emperor, and he refused to do so. One night, Polycarp had a dream where his pillow caught on fire, and he told his friends the next day he believed God was warning him that he would be burned at the stake. Three days later, the local proconsul sent police and horsemen to arrest him. When they arrived, Polycarp ordered that the men be served food and drink, and he requested one hour to have uninterrupted prayer, and that was granted to him. Polycarp's prayer was with such energy and grace that the police began to feel guilty for arresting the old gentleman. And they brought him to the proconsul, who also, seeing and talking to Polycarp, began to feel regret at the thought of martyring the old man. And so the proconsul begged Polycarp, he said, reproach, reproach Christ, and I will set you free. And the response of Polycarp was, 80 and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king and my savior? and unable to convince Polycarp to recant, the proconsul ordered him to be burned at the stake. And so Polycarp died praying and thanking God that he was counted worthy to be included among those worthy of martyrdom for Jesus Christ. Things did not go easily for the believers in Smyrna. All right, Pergamum. Now, if you have your scripture open to Revelation 2, we'll read verses 12 through 17. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos, write these things, says he who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it." The city of Pergamum was known for its many temples. There were temples to Zeus, the god of the sky and thunder, to Dionysius, the god of wine and pleasure, to the goddess Demeter. She was the supposed goddess of harvest and fertility. There was the temple of Asclepius. It gets really bizarre here. Sick people went to be healed in a strange ritual. They were induced into sleep. And late at night, snakes were released to slither over the sick people, which supposedly healed them. Actually, the medical symbol of the snake, you know, wrapped around the rod, we think dates back to Pergamum. There was a temple to the goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and for those worshiping Rome, there was the temple of the imperial cult of Trajan, who was the Roman emperor. In the many religions and temples, one was missing, the church of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Pergamum was called the throne of Satan. Among the victims in the city of Pergamum was Antipas. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name. You did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. We don't have too much history on Antipas. He was the bishop at Pergamum, and according to tradition, anyway, he died when he was thrown into a hollow metal bull, B-U-L-L, and heated over a fire. The bull was often a symbol in ancient religions, symbolizing power and fertility. Antipas was murdered late in the lifetime of Saint John because of his witness for Jesus Christ and his witness against the pagan religions. Antipas was once told, Antipas, the whole world is against you. To which Antipas replied, well, then I am against the whole world. After the death of Antipas, the church at Pergamum refused to fold. And they were commended for their faithfulness under threat of death. You hold fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days when Antipas, my faithful martyr, was killed among you. These were tough-minded believers, committed to Jesus no matter what the cost. And after the death of Antipas, the Christians became prime targets for the next murder. but they refused to be intimidated. But now, unlike the church at Smyrna, who Jesus had no complaint with, the church at Pergamum was rebuked by Jesus for the teachings of Balaam. You'll remember Balaam as the man who beat his talking donkey while he was on his way to curse the children of Israel. In that story, Balaam was guilty of greed. He wanted the money that Balak would pay him to curse the children of Israel. His other sins were idolatry and immorality, and it was these sins that Jesus condemned in Pergamum. The believers in Pergamum were under the constant onslaught of open lust and immorality in the city and in that environment of temptation. Some believers became careless and succumbed to idol worship and sexual immorality. You can understand the parallel to 21st century America. Now in the story of Balaam and the Talking Donkey, God intervened and refused to allow Balaam to curse Israel, but Balaam was a cunning kind of magician and a charlatan. And he had advice for Balak somewhere along the way. The Bible doesn't record him telling Balak this, but the advice of Balaam to Balak was, well, if you really want to destroy Israel, you can do it by throwing temptations in front of the young men and young ladies and tempt them into sin. We know this by words that Moses said to the Israelite soldiers as they were coming back from a battle once and bringing some of the young women back. And Moses said to them, Numbers 31, 16, look, these women, Canaanite women, caused the children of Israel through the council of Balaam to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor. And there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now notice what Moses said. There was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Here we find another truth about suffering. Sometimes people suffer because of their own behavior. The plague at Peor happened after the Israelites began to worship the gods of the Canaanites, along with the Midianite women of the land, and that worship involved ritual, sexual rituals. It's the exact thing God accused the believers in Smyrna of, eating things sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. And there is a process of desensitization to sin that happens and is happening in our culture. The movies we watch, what is seen in TV and in video games, through a process of constant immersion, we're desensitized to sin. The books we read, the media we watch, Sometimes the secular schools we study in, they further desensitize us to sins. And after desensitization to sin, the next step is dabbling and dabbling in sin. Are we allowing too much cultural influence to erode pure thoughts and pure actions? Because if we are, it will lead to suffering. Now the teaching of the Nicolaitans, thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. The Nicolaitan teaching essentially was, you know, whatever you feel like doing, do it. The teachings of Balaam and the teachings of the Nicolaitans were quite similar. They're summed up in verse 14. where Jesus said, I have a few things against you. You have those there who hold to the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to, what, eat things, sacrifice to idols, and commit sexual immorality. So these practices will lead to suffering. In the Old Testament, it was the plague at Peor. Thousands of people died. at that plague because the people insisted in sin. They brought the suffering on themselves. In Smyrna, the suffering might look very different. But it would be real because Jesus would address the problem of impurity in his church. The resurrected Jesus had a very pointed and very simple solution then for the church in Pergamum regarding idol worship and immorality. Repent. The only action with which God accepts from the sinner, but which he always accepts, from the sinner is repentance. And Jesus put the weight of the decision on the sinner. God never said, I will repent for you. He said, you, person caught up in idolatry and immorality, turn from your way, repent. And Jesus gave no second option. There is no second option. God defined sin, he defined holiness, and those boundaries never change. But his mercy is such that any sinner who turns from his way is forgiven by God. Through the blood of Jesus, there are no limits put on what sins. he will forgive or how often he will forgive. The Bible simply tells us, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Any limits that we suppose are on that forgiveness have been dreamed up in our own minds. Well, there was a warning, repent or else I will come to you quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. I find this interesting. So the command to repent was aimed at those sinning in the church, those persons following the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. And he said, repent from your evil ways. But the warning is directed to the pastor and to the faithful in the church. Do you see that? Repent or I will come to you quickly and I will fight against them with the sword in my mouth. The you and them is important in this verse. Them, the them refers to those persons following the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, them. but I'll come to you quickly. Jesus said, I'm going to be rid of them even if I have to expel them myself. It would be better if the pastor or the people, faithful people in the church would address the problem through church discipline, but if we're unwilling to address it, Jesus will. He has a sword, he can judge. But that would be a humiliation if Jesus himself had to come and clean up the mess which believers were unwilling or unable to clean up. Now, Jesus didn't threaten to remove the lampstand from this church, he did on others. There was enough to commend the church at Pergamum, Jesus wasn't about to withdraw his presence, but his presence would not coexist with Balaam or with the Nicolaitans. The church would get rid of him, or Jesus would. We have a responsibility to keep the church pure. Are we up to it? Just speaking for myself, I can say that I have a tendency to avoid confrontation. And that leads sometimes to the temptation to look the other way in a church. That's not what Jesus called for. He called for purity. The Corinthians had a problem with wanting to look the other way when there was sin in the church, but Paul refused to be caught up in that looking the other way. I'm reading now from 1 Corinthians 5, verses, we'll just say one through seven. You can join me at that passage. It's listed, I think, in your bulletin. 1 Corinthians 5, verse one. Paul said, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife. And you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For indeed, I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged as though I were present him who has done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such in one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." This man in Corinth had already gone through the gentle entreaties to repent. He had hardened his heart, and Paul said, turn him over to Satan. to destroy his body. This man would become sick. He would become weak. He would become depleted. He would become near to death as a result of Satan's abuses. But notice the end goal of God in this hardened man's life in verse five. Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Even in this painful experience, God's goal was to save the man's soul. God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2.4. And so we need to acknowledge how sober the matter of sin in the church is. Jesus said, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And yes, I recognize there's hyperbole here by Jesus, but is telling us that sin is a serious matter. And we do well to remember that the next time we would watch a lewd movie or consider looking at a sensual image or consider reading a bawdy book. The promise. Hidden manna. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. That's a bit mysterious perhaps. Manna in the Old Testament was bread that sustained the Israelites physically. In the New Testament we read that Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died. Jesus said, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. That's John six, starting at verse 49. Now, instead of getting too complex about the meaning of manna, I suggest that manna just refers to the closeness of relationship with Jesus. Those of you that are suffering, if you overcome, You'll have that closeness with Jesus. And then there is the matter of the white stone. I will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it. The white stone is a special name that's a special honor given by God to the faithful ones. Now, we don't like suffering, I don't, but there is reward for those who endure in suffering patiently, and for those who maintain their trust in God through suffering. If we allow suffering to do so, it can keep us close to God, And we trust that hardship is a tool that he'll use to perfect us. He's preparing us for eternity. We'll soon be there. And the days of this life will then truly seem like a vapor, here and gone. God's preparing us for eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your presence with us in the hardest of circumstances. Father, as we reflect on churches and times throughout history where Christians have suffered greatly, We are humbled to see how faithful these brothers and sisters have been. Father, give us strength. Whatever suffering we are facing, spiritual, emotional, mental, financial, we do ask that you would give us strength and help us to realize that you were with us in the midst of that suffering. Be with us as we continue to worship this morning. Father, we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.