Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
Trinity Sermons. This week we are continuing
our sermon series called Dear Church, where we're
looking at the letters in the book of Revelation
from Christ to the churches. And this week we
are looking at the church of Smyrna, which was
going through a lot of really hard times, a lot
of persecution, a lot of difficult situations.
And so what does Christ have to say to the church
in the midst of hard times? And what does Christ
have to say to us in the midst of our hard times?
Our reading today are from the book of Revelations,
beginning with chapter 1, verses 4 to 5, and
chapter 2, verses 8 to 11. John to the seven
churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace
to you from him who is, and who was, and who
is to come. and from the seven spirits before
his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the
faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead,
and the ruler of all kings of the earth. To the
angels 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 about 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 life
as your victor's crown. Whoever has ears, Let
them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The one who is victorious will not be hurt at
all, but by the second death, the word of the
Lord. C .S. Lewis, who was a writer of Mere Christianity
and the Chronicles of Narnia, he went through
a period of pretty intense pain and suffering
in his life when his wife, whose name was Joy,
got sick with cancer and ended up passing away.
He wrote in a journal throughout that whole time.
That journal became a little book. And so in
this book, which is called Grief Observed, you
can hear about his reflections on grief. But
also throughout this book, he kind of does a
little bit of... complaining about how some people
tried to say things to comfort him during his
grief, and it just didn't work out so well. So,
for example, let me read to you. He says, people
would tell me, oh, she's happy now, his dead
wife. They'd tell me she's at peace. What makes
them so sure of this? Why are they so sure that
anguish ends with death? How do they know that
she's at rest? They tell me that she's in God's
hands. But if so, wasn't she in God's hands all
the time? They say she will live forever in my
memory. Live. That is exactly what she won't
do. As if I wanted to fall in love with my memory
of her. And then he says this great line. He
says, I do want other people to be around me.
But if only they would talk to one another and
not to me. It's hard to know what to say to people
when they're in the midst of grief, and maybe
you know that, or maybe you've had someone try
to say something to you when you were grieving
and it didn't help, or maybe it even made things
worse. Friends, I don't need to tell you that
all around our world, people are suffering and
there is deep grief. Of course, we all witnessed
the horrible public assassination of Charlie
Kirk this past week. And we are grieving that
this happened. And we're grieving what is our
world becoming where such acts of violence become,
you know, or something that we see right in front
of our eyes and our kids see them in front of
their eyes and so on. What's going on in our
world? What's going on closer to home? You're
probably grieving. Some of you are going through
tough times now. Maybe it's at home. Maybe it's
with your help. Maybe you're grieving the loss
of a loved one like C .S. Lewis was. Family,
health, money, jobs. Whatever. You know, 2 ,000
years ago, Jesus used a human author whose name
was John to write a bunch of letters to some
churches throughout Asia Minor. And one of the
churches that he wrote a letter to was a church
that was going through a very intense period
of suffering and pain. The church was in the
city of Smyrna. And they were in a moment of
severe Roman persecution at that time. I mean,
there was suffering, there was death, it was
horrible. And so Jesus sends a letter to that
church. And unlike us, Jesus knew exactly what
to say to people who were suffering. And so today,
all we're going to do is we're going to open
up that letter and we're going to read it ourselves.
Why? Because if not now, someday you're going
to be in a place of suffering. Suffering comes
for us all. and it is really good for us to know
what Jesus says to those who suffer. And so we're
going to go through this, and to guide us, I've
divided this sermon into four parts. We're going
to talk about the setting of Smyrna. What is
this city all about? We're going to talk about
the suffering in Smyrna, the solace that Jesus
has for Smyrna, and finally, we're going to share
one story that comes out of Smyrna. And I've
created some sermon notes for you to follow along,
and of course, Those sermon notes are also available
on our church app. Smyrna. Let's talk about the
setting of Smyrna. What about this city? It was
located about 35 miles north of Ephesus, which
was the church that we studied last week. which
is about the distance from here to Oakville,
just no traffic, right? And Smyrna was built
by the Greeks. It was built on this beautiful
hill right along the sea. It was built about
1000 BC. A few hundred years later, it was totally
destroyed. And then 100 years or so later, it
was rebuilt into a glorious city. And so like
Jesus, Smyrna had died and come back from the
dead. And if you want to find Smyrna on a map
today, it goes by... by a different name, it's
the Turkish city of Izmir, okay? Back in the
day, Smyrna was glorious. It was considered to
be, like, the most beautiful city in Asia. And
I mean, like, the, right? It was because, again,
because it was built on this hill, the whole
city kind of sloped down into the water. And
on the top of the hill, it was like a crown with
all these beautiful buildings. And then on the
slopes going down, there was these amphitheaters
and temples and parks and colonies. It was amazing.
There was a stadium in Smyrna that held 20 ,000
people, which is just a few more people than
we had at church last week. It was a famous city
because it was also the birthplace of Homer.
And I'm not talking about Homer Simpson. I'm
talking about the Greek poet Homer, right? So
Smyrna was, in some writings, called the first
city in Asia. the glory of Asia. So Smyrna was
glorious, right? But it wasn't just the glory
of Asia. It was the religious city in Asia too.
Its skyline was dotted with different temples.
And there was a temple to Zeus here. There was
a temple to Aphrodite there. There was a temple
to Apollo. All sorts of different gods were honored
in Smyrna. But Smyrna... was the birthplace of
a very unique kind of religion that became very,
very important. And that was the religion of
emperor worship. Smyrna, I think, became like
the very first city to build a temple to an emperor.
It was Emperor Tiberius. There was actually a
competition. Who's going to get to build the
temple to Tiberius? And Smyrna, the beautiful,
glorious city, won. It was a huge honor. And
it shows you how committed they were to this
whole idea of worshiping the emperor, worshiping
Caesar. And other emperors that came along later
would get their temples too, Hadrian and Domitian.
And Smyrna was, so it was a very religious place.
In many ways, it was very, very religious. Smyrna
was also known as Smyrna the Fragrant. Because
you see, the name of the city, Smyrna, it took
its name from one of its chief exports. Can you
guess what it is? Smyrna. Myrna. Myrna. That's
right, myrrh. Myrrh. Myrrh gets used as a perfume,
of course. It's a medicine. Bodies were embalmed
with myrrh. It was actually one of the most valuable
commodities in the ancient world, which makes
Smyrna this big hub of commerce. It was a bustling
port city. And you'll know that myrrh plays an
important part in Scripture, of course, right?
It was one of the gifts that the Magi brought
to the baby Jesus, myrrh. It's the one that in
the pageants the kids can never pronounce. It
was when Jesus was on the cross, they offered
him wine mixed with myrrh as a bit of a painkiller.
And when he was wrapped up after his death, we're
told that among all the spices they used to embalm
his body, there was myrrh in there as well. And
so myrrh is actually always associated, therefore,
with suffering. and pain, which makes it a very
fitting name, the city of Smyrna, given what
the church was going through, because that church
was suffering. The church in Smyrna was persecuted
and suffered horribly. You know, it's interesting.
In all of Jesus' seven letters to those seven
churches, he usually has some kind of a critique
to offer to these churches. You know, last year,
last week, rather, you remember he said, Ephesus,
I hold this against you. And he said they had
lost their first love and all this stuff. But
Jesus has nothing really bad to say to the people,
to the church of Smyrna. That's because Jesus
knew that this church in this city was suffering
and amazing. major, major way. So what caused
Smyrna to suffer so much? What did that look
like? Well, in verse 9 of our reading, there
are three really kind of telling Greek words
that describe the kind of suffering. We read
that, I know your afflictions, Greek word phlipsis,
and I know your poverty, which is tohea, and
I know about the slander, blasphemy. Okay? So
let's just look at these three words and figure
out what they were enduring there in Smyrna so
long ago. First, Jesus says, I know about your
flipsis. I know about your affliction. The word
flipsis actually means pressure. It means, you
know, a heavy, heavy weight has been placed on
something. It's like, imagine if you were at
the gym and you were lifting like heavy, heavy
free weights like I do every morning. But the
bar slips and it lands on your chest and you
can barely breathe and you can't get it off and
you're being pressed and you're being pressed
and you're pressed. That's kind of the meaning
of flipsis. It's like the mill wheel that grinds
the wheat through pressure. It's like the grapes
that have the juice. pressed out of them through
pressure. That is how it felt constantly to be
a Christian in Smyrna. Constant pressure. And
I mean, some of you here, you know that feeling.
Even this morning, some of you feel like you
have weight on your shoulders, you would say,
rather than your chest. But you feel like, oh,
I can barely breathe. I got so much going on
in my life. I feel the weight. I feel like I'm
being crushed. But I have to tell you, in Smyrna,
it was extreme, extreme what they were suffering.
And it all came down to that emperor worship
thing, right? Every citizen in Smyrna was supposed
to go to the temple once a year, give a little
bit of incense. and say, Caesar is Lord. But
of course, Christians who believe that Jesus
is Lord were not willing to do that and did not
do that. And so they were branded as disloyal
and they were seen as treasonous and they were
persecuted. Some of them were tortured to death.
They were imprisoned. Right? Some Christians
in Smyrna were put on the rack. Yes, the rack.
Like medieval, like will rip you from limb to
limb. Some were thrown in pots of boiling oil.
Some were crucified. Many were thrown to the
lions in that stadium that we looked at. And
eaten. And people just watched for sport. And
I suppose... What I think might be one of the
most painful is some of them were just burned
at the stake, you know, just tied there and set
on fire. I mean, and Jesus says, I know your
flips. Right. I know your afflictions. I know
the pain that you're suffering. So that's the
pressure they were under. But I should say poverty
has created a new word. But Jesus also knew about
their destitution. Right. In Greek, there's actually
more than one word for poverty. There's a one
word, which means you're kind of living, you
know, day to day, hand to mouth. You're like
working poor, like you're barely scraping by
like, oh, geez, I'm just barely making it. Maybe
some of you know that kind of level of poverty
in your own life. But actually, that's not the
word that's used to describe the poverty that
the Christians of Smyrna were enduring. The word
instead is this word. which means absolute destitution
right the smyrna christians weren't just struggling
they had nothing because following jesus had
cost them economically they had been looted they
had been boycotted they had been robbed their
stores had been burned down right they weren't
even allowed to like sell stuff in the marketplace
because once they were known as christians well
who's going to trade with you and once you're
known to be a christian well who is going to
employ you And again, some of you might know
a little bit about this. Maybe you lost a job,
feel you were overlooked for an opportunity because
of your faith. But these people could not provide
for their families, right? Persecution is hard
enough as it is. A weight on your shoulders is
hard. But you add to that like economic devastation,
poverty, the load gets so, so much heavier. So
Jesus knew about their philipsis. He knew about
the pressure. Jesus knew about their tohea. He
knew about the poverty. But he also knew about
the blasphemia. And that is a Greek word that
gets translated as slander. And it refers to
all these malicious lies that people were spreading
about the Christians in Smyrna. Especially Jewish
groups who, according to Jesus, weren't really
Jews. They were part of the synagogue of Satan.
But these people were spreading horrible, horrible
rumors about these Christians. They would accuse
them of things like treason, right? Because they
weren't worshiping Caesar. They're treasonous.
Or atheism. They would say, these Christians
are atheists because they won't worship our gods.
Cannibalism. A rumor got started that these guys
were all cannibals because they kept hearing
about them eating the body and blood of someone.
Or immorality, because Christians would have
these regular get -togethers called love feasts,
which were just big communal meals. That's all
they were. But again, the rumor mill twisted
this and made it sound so, so perverted. Love
feasts, what's that all about? And I would again
say, still today, many Christians, they're totally
misunderstood. They're mocked. The media misrepresents
them to everybody else. And these lies, what
happens? They spread like wildfire. They poison
people's opinion of Christians and fuels more
violence. Sounds familiar, eh? So you got pressure.
You got poverty and persecution. That was the
suffering in Smyrna. You know, I was reading
about how myrrh is made. And it's very interesting.
You know how they make myrrh? There's a certain
type of tree and you have to go up and you have
to hack it. You have to cut into it. And once
you cut into it and you create this scar in it,
then the resin starts to bleed out of it. And
eventually that resin will harden. And it literally,
it hardens into these tear -shaped balls, which
are called myrrh tears. And then finally, these
tears get kind of collected from the trees. Pulverized,
pounded into a powder that can be used for all
sorts of various uses. What a fitting name for
that city. What a connection to the Christians
in that city. These Christians in Smyrna are
being cut and they're being wounded and they're
bleeding and they're being pulverized. But, you
know, here's the thing. Just as myrrh's fragrance
only really gets released after it's been cut
and crushed and processed. So too, the church
in Smyrna, despite or maybe even because of all
that they were going through, their lives released
a fragrance, if you will, that drew others to
Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote something about
this in another letter. He said, we are to God
the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who
are being saved and among those who are perishing.
Even in their suffering, they were faithful and
fragrant. So we've seen now the setting. We've
seen the suffering. But what words of solace
does Jesus offer to them? As we said earlier,
it's really hard to know what to say to people
who are suffering like this. But Jesus speaks
some important words to a suffering church because
he knows exactly the right words to say. His
words are not going to be trite or shallow or
cliche. These are words of compassion and solace.
And I got to tell you, they're just as important
for us today as they were back then. So I'm going
to go quick. But here's what we can learn by
a quick reading of those verses that we heard
this morning. First. It's clear Jesus knows their
pain. Twice in this passage, Jesus says, I know.
I know what you're suffering. I know your afflictions.
I know the slander. Jesus knows. And he doesn't
say, I know, because, well, I can imagine what
that's like. Or I know because I see what's happening
over there from a distance. No, he knows because
he himself has been mocked. He himself has been
slandered. He himself has been beaten and crucified.
pressure or pain the church endures, Jesus has
felt it too. And whatever you are enduring, you
are not alone in that suffering. Jesus knows
your suffering. And in the city of Smyrna, there
were all these gods, but these gods were detached
from human experience. It was this crazy idea
to say that God would know what suffering is
like, but that is exactly what Jesus knows. He
knows all about your pain. He knows all about
their pain. He knows all about my pain. Secondly,
the second thing Jesus says is, He tries to change
their perspective. He doesn't just sympathize.
He wants to remind them that there's more going
on than what they can see, right? He writes,
these are the words of him who is the first and
the last, who died and rose again. In other words,
he reminds them, hey, listen, I was here before
Caesar was here. And I will be here long after
Rome has turned to dust. I am the one who was
dead and I'm the one who came to life again.
And I know that all... All you can see are the
problems that are right in front of you right
now. But I'm bigger than that. And my plan is
better than that. And there's more going on than
you can see. There's another perspective. The
third thing Jesus reminds them is actually just
how rich they are. Rich? Rob, we just heard that
they were dirt poor. He says, I know your poverty,
yet you are rich. See, the world looked at Smyrna's
Christians, and they just saw a bunch of beggars.
But Jesus looked at them, and he saw wealth.
Why? Because true riches are not measured by
what you have in your bank account, but by your
treasure in heaven. They had the presence of
Jesus. What a treasure. They had the Spirit of
God. Amazing treasure. They had the promise of
eternity to go with all that. That made them
rich beyond measure. And actually, it's sometimes
only in times of poverty and pressure that you
actually realize the spiritual riches that we
do have in Jesus Christ. Fourthly, and this one's
kind of an interesting one. Jesus limits their
trials, I said here. Why do I say that? It seems
like Jesus reminds them that even though they're
suffering, their suffering is only for a fixed
period of time, which is brief when it's compared
to eternity. He says, you will suffer persecution
for 10 days. Now, some scholars have tried to
figure out what is this 10 days? Is this referring
to a specific 10 day event? Do these 10 days
refer to a 10 year period? You can do your own
digging in the week ahead. But I think that the
point of it all is that Jesus is saying your
suffering will be. Right there. Jesus draws a
boundary line around their suffering. He says
it's going to go this far, but no further. And
compared to eternity, their trials would be short.
Again, when you're enduring something, cancer,
grief, loss, or someone betrayed you or something
like that, it can feel like. That pain is never
going to go away. Like, it's endless. But Jesus
says it won't last forever. And I'll carry you
through it. Okay, so Jesus knows their pain.
He changes their perspective. He declares their
riches. He says there's a limit to your trials.
And in doing all that, what has he done is he
has removed their fears. He says, do not be afraid
of what you are about to suffer. You know, fear
often goes hand in hand with suffering. And fear
makes suffering worse because fear whispers in
your ear and says, you're not going to make it.
You're going to be destroyed. But Jesus comes
along and says, no. Don't be afraid. Not because
the suffering is going to come. He told them
that. But because he's going to be with us in
it and he will see us through it. And when you
know that, when you know that, fear loses its
grip on you. You know, at our life group this
past week, someone said, you know what the book
of Revelation reminds us? The book of Revelation
reminds us that Jesus wins in the end. And if
you know that Jesus wins in the end, then fear
loses its grip on us. We know how this is going
to end. Finally, Jesus promises to reward their
faithfulness. He gives them this word of encouragement.
He says, be faithful even to the point of death.
and I will give you the crown of life. He promised
these people not just survival, but a crown,
a victor's wreath that lasts forever. When the
world experiences suffering and death, it feels
like devastation. But when Christians experience
suffering and death, it's actually a coronation.
Jesus promises a reward, a crown for those who
are faithful. So there he goes. That's what Jesus
says to them in their suffering. But what does
that mean for us today? And what do we do with
all this? This was Smyrna 2 ,000 years ago, but
he's still speaking these words to us today.
So if you are here today and you feel the pressure
of life pushing down on you, Jesus says, I know.
I know all about it. And if all you can see is
your own problems, Jesus says, change your perspective.
I'm the first and the last, the beginning and
the end. If you're walking through poverty of
any kind, financial or other types, I suppose,
Jesus says, yet you are rich, right? If you're
weighed down by fear, fear of the future, fear
of loss, fear of suffering, Jesus says, do not
be afraid. And if you're wondering, how much
longer can I hold on? Jesus says, hey, listen,
your suffering's not going to last forever. I've
put limits on it. And then finally, if you feel
like your faithfulness to Jesus is costing you
everything, Jesus says, just be faithful. And
I will give you the crown of life. I couldn't
say these words to you and comfort you. You couldn't
say them to me and comfort me. But when they
come from Jesus, they give us solace for every
season of suffering. And if that doesn't encourage
you this morning, perhaps this final story will.
This is a true story, by the way, that came out
of Smyrna. It's about a man. Whose life and death
shows us kind of exactly what it looks like to
live out Jesus' words. I got this from an account
called the Martyrdom of Polycarp. About 60 years
after John wrote the book of Revelation, the
church in Smyrna again faced another horrible
wave of persecution. And their pastor, their
bishop at the time, was this old man named Polycarp.
And I know that name sounds like it comes from
like a Pokemon character or something like that.
But Polycarp was a real man. He was a real name.
And he was a real pastor in Smyrna. He was probably
a disciple of John himself who wrote these letters.
And anyways, the authorities said, we got to
go arrest Polycarp. And when they arrived to
arrest him at his house, he didn't even run.
He invited the soldiers into his house, and he
fed them. He gave them food and drink, and they
ate. And then he asked the soldiers, can I just
have one hour to pray before you arrest me and
take me back to the city? And they actually gave
him two hours, we're told. When they got him
back there, they brought him into the stadium,
you know, with this bloodthirsty crowd. And the
Roman governor at the time, he was like, hey,
listen, you're old. Just swear by Caesar and
we'll call it a day and we can all go home. And
we read that the proconsul pressed him, take
the oath and I will let you go curse Christ.
That's all he needed to do. And that's when Polycarp
gave one of the most famous lines he ever spoke,
recorded in the history books. He says, 80 and
six years I have served him and he has done me
no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved
me? And then the governor threatened him with
the lions and the wild beast. And Polycarp replied,
go ahead, call them in. And then the governor
threatened to burn him. And Polycarp answered
this. He said, you threatened me with fire that
burns for a short time and is soon extinguished.
You do not know about the fire of the judgment
to come. Well, then what happened is they said,
fine, Polycarp, that's what you want to do. We
are going to burn you. And so they bound him
to a stake and they were actually going to nail
him in place to the stake. But he said, no, you
don't have to nail me. I'm not going to move.
And he said, he who gave me the strength to endure
the fire is going to give me the strength to
stay in the fire. And then he prayed aloud. Everyone
could hear him. He prayed to actually thank God
that he was counted worthy to share in the suffering
of Christ. The fire was lit. The old man burned
up. And that was his story. And I think in that
moment, the words of Jesus to Smyrna came true
for him. Be faithful unto death, and I will give
you the crown of life. Polycarp was faithful.
He received the crown. So the city of Smyrna,
it's gone. Like I said, there's a new city there.
The emperors who demanded all that worship, they
are now dust. And Polycarp's faith, though, it
still speaks to us. And these letters, they still
speak to us. My friends, I just want to say,
whatever poverty, whatever pressure, whatever
persecution you're facing, Jesus has words for
you. You know, our words. Always seem to fall
short, but Jesus' words don't. And he says this,
I know what you're going through. Do not be afraid.
You are rich. Be faithful to the end, and I'll
give you a crown of life. So let's go from this
place. As people who have the courage of Polycarp
and the hope of those Christians in Smyrna, that
our suffering is never the end, but it's a doorway
into a greater life with Christ. Thanks be to
God. Amen. Thank you for listening to this week's
episode of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded
at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga,
Ontario on September 14, 2025.