November 12, 2023 • 34 mins
Are you ready for an invigorating journey into the heart of early Christian history? Strap in as we embark on a voyage to the city of Smyrna in modern-day Turkey, a place once home to a small Christian population amidst a larger Jewish one. We unpack Jesus' letter to the Church in Revelation 2:8-11, where He acknowledges their tribulations and poverty and promises the faithful ones that they will not be hurt by the second death. As we pull back the veil, we reveal how some Jews of Smyrna conspired with Romans, a conspiracy portrayed by Jesus as the synagogue of Satan. This chapter is an eye-opener as we discuss these historical facts and their impact on the early Church, paving the way for an understanding of Jesus’ words.
What does it mean to remain faithful in the face of persecution? Ponder this as we delve into the lives of Polycarp and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, two faithful Christians who stood firm in their faith despite intense persecution. Drawing inspiration from Revelation 2:10, we reflect on the significance of standing firm and counting the cost. But it doesn’t stop there. We further explore the power of prayer, the importance of repentance, and the value of active participation in our local churches. We all bear a collective responsibility - a responsibility to pray for Israel, our families, and ourselves. Join us on this inspiring journey as we uncover the richness of our faith, the power of our commitment, and the strength of standing firm against all odds.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's open in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, I give youthanks today for the people
within the sound of my voice.
I give you thanks that youprovide us with a refuge, father
, a refuge from the chaos andthe craziness that is the world
that we live in.
And for the Christian Father,it's painful and it's
(00:27):
demoralizing and it hurts to seethe destruction and the hatred
and the ugliness, as everyoneseems to have taken sides, but
so many people have forgotten totake the one side that matters,
which is your side, father.
I heard it said once that wehad two choices revival or not.
(00:54):
Lord God, I asked for revivaltoday.
I asked it from my small spotin this world that you would
provide that which is sonecessary Revival, whatever we
as Christians can do tofacilitate that, whatever you
would have for us, whatever jobor rule that we would stand,
(01:18):
because our time of choosing isnow.
Our time of choosing is comingclose in this country and in
many cases, it's right on top ofus.
Father, god, I give you thanks.
I give you thanks for allthings.
I lift up a special prayer formy friend John Thorpe, my
(01:40):
brother in Christ, who lost hiswife this week to cancer.
Father, we know that Antoinetteis home.
We know that she is in no moretears, no more sorrow, no more
pain.
But I pray for John today as heprepares for memorial service
(02:02):
and starts to get himselfsquared away for the rest of
what you have for him.
Keep him strong and bring himpeace.
In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
Good morning gang.
We're here.
I have a couple of things thatI'd like to go over with you
(02:28):
before I get started.
It's been over a month sinceI've done this Again.
I just have to apologize andthrow myself on your mercy and
ask for your prayers.
I will tell you that, with theevents that have gone on since
October 7th, I have to tell youthat I just couldn't settle my
(02:55):
mind to do anything.
I couldn't settle my mind.
My head was spinning and I hurtfor the people of Israel, for
our brothers from the tree thatwe're grafted into.
(03:16):
Our brothers and sisters.
Lord, I asked you to protectthe Israeli father and we hope
and pray for their protectionand for all of the things that
go along with that.
It's something we're going totalk about a little bit today,
but I wanted to open with aquestion in a message that I've
(03:38):
entitled the Persecuted Church.
If you're able to do so, if youcould open your Bibles, please,
to Revelation, chapter 2,verses 8 through 11.
That is, this is the secondletter that Jesus wrote to the
church in Smyrna.
It is a church that's underheavy persecution and with that
(04:01):
in mind, I have a question andI'll ask it in a moment.
First, I've got to tell you,you know again, that the
persecution, the outrightslaughter that's happening in
Israel right now breaks my heart, breaks my heart.
I have opinions on what's goingon and all of those things, and
(04:29):
I normally keep those to myselfto stay focused, focused on
teaching scripture, and I'm notgoing to change that stance this
morning.
Instead, I'll provide factsFirst.
When people and I won't sayPalestinians, and if you want to
know why look up the origin ofthe name Palestine and where it
(04:54):
came from, you'll determinequickly, I think, that
Palestine's not a state or anation state at all.
But when people chant from theriver to the sea, palestine will
be free.
That means from the JordanRiver to the Mediterranean Sea
in Israel.
(05:14):
These are the eastern andwestern borders of Israel.
Their intention, make nomistake, is to wipe Israel from
the face of the earth.
It's in their charger folks.
Second, that being theirintention to annihilate Israel.
The two-state solution thateverybody talks about is now,
(05:39):
and has always been, a myth.
It's a convenient trope forpoliticians to use to
comfortably straddle the fenceof their constituency.
And this last piece is thebiggest part of it, and this is
where we're going to kick thingsoff.
Third and last, god is still onthe throne.
None of this surprises him, andas darkness falls on this world
(06:05):
, christians must alwaysremember that, always remember
that.
And now, like I said, open yourBibles up to Revelation,
chapter two.
We're gonna pick up in verseeight and go to verse 11.
This is the new King Jamesversion and we're going to read
it.
It says and to the angel of thechurch, and Smyrna write these
(06:28):
things.
Says the first and the last whowas dead and came to life.
I know your works, tribulationand poverty, but you are rich,
and I know the blasphemy ofthose who say they are Jews and
are not, but are a synagogue ofSatan.
Do not fear any of these thingsin which you are about to
(06:54):
suffer.
Indeed, the devil is about tothrow some of you into prison,
that you may be tested and youwill have tribulation for 10
days.
Be faithful until death and Iwill give you the crown of life.
He who has an ear to hear, lethim hear what the spirit says to
(07:18):
the churches.
He who overcomes shall not behurt by the second death.
Again, that's new King Jamesversion, revelation two, verses
eight to 11.
Jesus says I know your works, Iknow your works.
And then he says tribulationand poverty quote or parentheses
(07:43):
.
But you are rich.
Wait what?
You are not rich.
How does that work?
Hold that thought, though, andwe'll delve into a bit of
history, to kind of set thestage here.
Smyrna was a city located inwhat is now modern day Turkey.
During the Greco-Roman times,it boasted a strong Jewish
(08:06):
population as well as a smallChristian one.
History tells us that some ofthe Jews in Smyrna conspired
with the Romans and worked toroot out the Christians.
Okay, I believe that these Jewsare the ones Jesus is referring
to when he calls them thesynagogue of Satan in verse nine
(08:30):
.
The church was really upagainst it, yet Jesus says do
not fear these things which youare about to suffer.
He tells them the devil isgoing to throw them into prison
so that they may be tested andthat they will be in tribulation
for 10 days.
(08:51):
All right, so before we delveinto the couple of different
thought processes around the 10days here, I wanna say something
quickly about the Christiansand how this letter is laid out.
Notice as you read it Jesus hasnothing against this church.
(09:19):
Every other letter with theexception also, then, of the
letter to the church inPhiladelphia, which we'll get to
later Every other letter startswith the positives, the things
that Jesus sees, that heappreciates and that he gives
(09:40):
credit for.
And then he says but this Ihave against you, and if you'll
remember, in chapter one it wasyou've left your first love.
It was you've left your firstlove, and we talked about that
(10:01):
at length.
But this he doesn't haveanything derogatory or negative
to say about how this church ishandling things, and that's
because they're under the gun.
They are sacrificing everything, including themselves, quite
literally, for their faith.
(10:22):
Okay, so again, and we're gonnaget deeper into that, but I
just kinda wanted to throw thatout there.
So let's now talk about the 10days.
As you might imagine, there aretwo schools of thought, and
possibly even three, about thesignificance of the 10 days
tribulation in verse 10.
(10:43):
Firstly is a literal 10 days.
The other is a symbolic view.
This view suggests that the 10days are representative of the
10 persecutions that began withNero and ended with Dio Slayton
(11:04):
and I'm not pronouncing thatcorrectly in the third century.
Okay, so it's either 10persecutions over a period of
time, right, or 10 literal days.
As you might imagine, I land inthe literalist camp, but no
matter where you land on thescale, to me it matters very
(11:26):
little.
Jesus tells the church thatthey will be persecuted and that
it will be terrible, and to himthat overcomes, he will give
the crown of life.
Okay, so at the end of the day,yeah, you know what?
There's some question amongtheologians about what the ten
(11:46):
days means.
It doesn't really matter.
Ten days of Deep persecutionversus ten days of our ten
periods of time of deeppersecution Matters not in, in
my view, as to what, what theActual, if you will, situation
(12:06):
on that is, and that is a lot ofstuff.
Okay, now for the two questionsI had at the top.
The first is what would you doif?
Okay, and I want you to thinkabout that what would you do if,
if, like the Christians in Rome, smirna, you were commanded to
(12:27):
bow and Acknowledge the deity,the false deity, of Caesar.
Okay, that's where we, that'swhere we find ourselves when
Jesus mentions these kinds ofthings.
That's the time period thatthese folks were living in Rome.
(12:47):
Rome wanted complete control,they wanted to close their fist
and, and you know, their visionof the world was a Roman, a pox
romana.
Right, a pact with Rome, a poxromana that was going to.
Yeah, you can have your faithand whatever else, but
(13:08):
ultimately you have to own thisfaith that you have in Caesar.
You have to acknowledge hisdeity.
Okay, would, what would you do?
Would you?
Would you?
Would you acknowledge it sothat you could go along, to get
along and keep your faithyourself, would you say, as
(13:32):
polycarp did in Smirna?
And we're gonna talk a littlebit about polycarp.
Polycarp was a, a deeply devoutChristian in Smirna.
He was a leader of the churchout there.
He said this quote when theyasked him, when they told him
this is what he needed to do,and and at the end of the day,
(13:53):
as you read that history, the,the Roman, the Roman in charge,
kept saying to him just justacknowledge it, I'll let you go,
I'll let you go, it's fine,it's fine, it's fine.
Okay, but it wasn't fine.
Here's what polycarp said, quote86 years I have served him,
meaning Jesus, and he never didme wrong.
(14:15):
How can I blaspheme my king whosaved me?
He wouldn't do it.
He wouldn't do it.
And To to Common Joe and Jane.
It seems like a really simplething, but when you have a
relationship With the savior ofthe world and you know
(14:40):
Personally that he reached downand plucked you out of the Myrie
clay and he saved your life,you can't turn your back on him
Because he didn't turn his backon you.
And what was called polycarp'sprice?
All right, we talk in Christiancircles about counting the cost
(15:01):
.
That means what's this gonnacost me, right?
Well, he was burned at thestake.
But the story goes, theaccounting goes, and it it's
said to have been witnessed andwritten down by somebody in
Smyrna.
When it happened, he was burnedat the stake, which was the way
(15:22):
they did it.
They burned them at the stakeand and the interesting part is,
the fire wouldn't consume him.
That sounds familiar.
That's not familiar to you,because it sounds familiar to me
.
Biblically, in Daniel, shadrach,meshach and Abednego were
thrown into the fiery furnace.
(15:43):
They were thrown into fieryfurnace by Nebuchadnezzar and
the fire did not consume them.
And there was a fourth in thefurnace who was like a son of
God from Nebuchadnezzar.
So the fire didn't consumepolycarp.
So a guard Roman soldierstepped forward and stabbed him
(16:12):
and the blood flowed so greatlyfrom the wound as to douse the
fire.
He died.
He died, okay, or would you say, as Bonhoeffer did, dietrich
Bonhoeffer, during the SecondWorld War.
For those of you that don'tknow, he was a Lutheran pastor
(16:32):
who ran underground church inGermany, got Jews out of Germany
, also worked with the Allies tooverthrow Hitler.
There's a great book by EricMetaxas, simply titled
Bonhoeffer, if you want to learna little bit more about this
wonderful human.
Bonhoeffer said this as he wasbeing led to the gallows Quote.
(16:56):
For me, it is not the end butthe beginning of life.
Think about those for a second.
And let me tell you, as a sidenote, that history is rife with
this kind of martyrdom and thiskind of faith, this kind of
(17:17):
absolute, unbending faith.
Okay, if you want to take a look, I would suggest Fox's Book of
Martyrs.
You can get it on Kendall.
You can order it in a lot ofplaces.
I think it's free now.
It may even be public domain,I'm not certain about that, but
(17:41):
it's Fox's Book of Martyrs andthere are a couple of other ones
, two volumes called JesusFreaks, which are stories about
people like this, people whowere persecuted, not always in
the first century, oh, no, no,no, no People during the Cold
(18:03):
War.
In the Middle East, in China,in Turkey, all these different
places, people are standing forthe Lord.
Okay, now this goes back to whatJesus said up here, and I want
(18:23):
to touch on this.
I know your works, yourtribulation and your poverty,
but you are rich.
Why?
Why are these people who are sofar up against it?
Why are they rich?
Why does that happen?
They're rich.
(18:45):
Think about this.
They're rich because, no matterwhat the leaders in this world
are, the leaders in this worldor the leaders that are
persecuting them, due to them,they win.
They win.
You think about Stephen, thefirst martyr.
(19:06):
You think about Stephen, andStephen said Father, forgive
them.
He matched Jesus and he saidforgive them.
And then he could see Jesus.
And then he went home.
Who won?
Yeah, stephen was no longer onthis planet, but he was.
(19:29):
No more tears, no more sorrow,no more pain.
He had taken.
What one of my favoriteChristian artists, tobi Max says
is the J-Train?
Okay, he'd gone home.
So the question becomes Aquestion of where do you stand
(19:54):
in that reality?
Okay, one only need look aroundthe world today to come to the
conclusion that what I'm callingour time of choosing is coming.
It's coming.
Churches in the Middle East,people in the Middle East, china
, africa and many other placessuffer unending persecution.
(20:15):
Yet, I will tell you, in spiteof the negative pressure,
muslims that's right, muslimsare coming to faith in Jesus at
an exponential rate.
Jesus works through persecution.
You think about.
You think about the church inIsrael, the first church, the
(20:39):
apostles church in Israel.
Okay, what happened?
The persecution got so hairyunder Paul Okay, under Paul,
when he was persecutingChristians, that they spread out
and the church itself explodedto all corners.
(21:06):
Driven by that persecution, wewin, okay, but let me speak to
my American listeners for amoment, if I could Put bluntly
guys, we know nothing of truepersecution.
(21:27):
But, as I said, our time ofchoosing is coming.
All you have to do is lookaround to see where we are, okay
, as a whole.
You look at all of the poisonthat is culturally acceptable
today, right, christians arebeing pushed down and told to
(21:47):
sit down and shut up, okay, andmany sects of Christianity are
doing exactly that.
They are doing what we laid outat the beginning they're going
along to get along.
I've seen so many disgustingthings.
People send me things,different, crazy, unbelievable
(22:11):
things that I won't go intobecause they're just disgusting.
The things that the church isdoing to go along to get along,
the things that they'reaccepting and I'm sure that you
guys know exactly what it isthat I'm talking about.
But this is nothing new.
It's nothing new.
In the 30s in Germany, hitlertook over the church and
(22:35):
Bonhoeffer and his folks chosenot to go along to get along and
they grew an underground churchthat was called the Emergent
Church Okay, but the statechurch was all Nazi all the time
.
It was unbelievable to read.
(22:56):
It's unbelievable to read about.
If you want to read a littlebit about that again, eric
Metaxas wrote a book recentlycalled An Open Letter to the
American Church and it's verymuch a worthwhile read.
But we've seen it lately.
We got a small taste of thatpersecution.
(23:17):
The church at large got a smalltaste of that persecution
during COVID in 2020, whenchurches were deemed
non-essential.
Okay, the pot shop wasessential.
That was essential.
Home Depot, lowe's, they wereessential.
Right, the bar was essential.
(23:39):
You know any place wherethere's open debauchery and
whatever else that was essential, but the church, oh no, no, no,
no.
We can't have the church.
And in Colorado, where I camefrom, the church at large got
(24:00):
together and petitioned thegovernor there and got
permission to even in the earlyparts of COVID after a couple of
weeks to get permission.
They got permission to haveservices and of course there
were all kinds of hoops you hadto jump through and everything
else, and that was a small tasteof persecution.
(24:25):
Okay, but I digress.
If you remember my initialquestion, I asked what would you
do if?
Okay, I didn't ask about yourchurch or your deacon or your
pastor or your priest, or Ididn't ask what they would do.
I asked what you would do.
(24:49):
And the choice you make, themountain on which you stand,
will come with a cost, with aprice, and we've been through
this before as Christians.
I've been through it.
It could cost you a friend Yep,been there.
Family member Yep, been there Ajob Not quite, I haven't had
(25:11):
that, but it did cost me apromotion and it can cost you
your freedom or even your life,turning your Bibles over.
We haven't turned much thismorning.
Let's turn over to Mark 1311.
The book of Mark.
Of course you're going to cometo the left.
(25:31):
You can't go much further right.
Come to the left, and it is thesecond gospel, matthew, then
Mark.
Go to Mark 1311.
And in Mark 1311, and I leftthis in the new living
translation because I want tomake sure that this is 100%
(25:54):
clear Jesus says but when youare arrested and stand trial,
don't worry in advance aboutwhat you'll say.
Just say what God tells you atthe time, for it is not you who
will be speaking, but the HolySpirit.
So, basically, what Jesus issaying here is that God's going
(26:18):
to give you the words to say theHoly Spirit's going to give you
the words to say the stand totake.
So if you're worried about that, if you're concerned about
whether or not you'll stand upfor Christ in that moment, first
of all the fact that you'reworried about it tells me a
great deal, okay, about whereyou stand with Christ, and I
(26:43):
will tell you that in that caseyou don't have to worry, because
Jesus is going to be there.
You know it's interesting andI'll leave you with this the
persecuted church or persecutionof the body of Christ, the
(27:08):
individuals that actually makeup the church.
It's not anything new, and youknow so many people have always
asked well, where's God when allthis stuff is going on?
It's so terrible.
La, la, la, la, la la.
Well, yeah, it is, and God andJesus is right there with you
(27:32):
when you're being persecuted,and I mean truly persecuted.
I'm not talking about aknucklehead movie made at your
job.
That's not persecution.
You were just being aknucklehead, okay.
So let's get that straight.
If you jumped up on the tableat work and said, except the
bread of life, you know that's.
And then you got written up andpossibly fired, you know for
(27:54):
proselytizing, okay, you knowwhat, that's not persecution.
That's not persecution.
That's you being a knucklehead,okay.
I'm talking about realpersecution shutting down
churches, submitting the sermonsto the state authority, having
(28:16):
your home fellowship raided andhaving people hauled away and
put in prison or tortured, orboth, for their faith.
And the only, the only out, theonly, the only thing they have
to do and the world doesn't getit, but the only thing they have
to do in that case is they haveto say, yeah, I no longer
(28:40):
believe in Jesus.
I accept whatever it is thatthey're offering right the
Muslim faith.
You know, in Russia, you know,I accept full allegiance to the
state, because the Russians didaway with religion by and large
and the state was the religionof the, of the, of the
(29:02):
proletariat.
But a believer, someone who hasa deep faith, an understanding
of where we are and what we'redoing, a believer, will not do
that.
They can't because they knowthat Jesus counted the cost and
(29:24):
he paid the ultimate cost forthem, for you, for me, and they
won't do it, no matter whathappens in this world.
They can't win.
It's a no-win scenario.
So stand strong, make yourchoice, choose Jesus and stand
(29:49):
strong for what is coming.
And finally, if that kind offaith really blows you away like
you're sitting there listeningto me and you're like I couldn't
do it, there's no way Icouldn't do that I couldn't say
for me it is not the end but thebeginning of life I could not
(30:11):
say as Paulicarp did, how can Iblaspheme him who saved me,
knowing that all he had to dowas agree with the Roman, the
Roman authority, and that he'dbe set free?
He chose the other and he wonand left a mark that we're still
(30:31):
talking about today.
And if that kind of faith blowsyou away and you say to yourself
you know what, if all thisstuff is coming, you know, if
all this stuff is coming, I needto be on the right side of this
.
All you have to do is talk toJesus.
(30:52):
All you have to do is talk toJesus and you have to understand
that we were born separatedfrom God.
Okay, we were born separatedfrom God because of sin, and God
gives us an opening.
(31:13):
It's a free gift to accept himand repent of our sins and be
marked by the cross of Christforever.
And if you'd like to make acommitment to Jesus today, all
you have to do is talk to himand you can say something like
Dear Jesus, I know that I'm asinner in need of a Savior.
(31:33):
As I listen to this and as Ihear this Lord, I can see you've
shown me how things are andwhere things are, and I need to
get right with you.
I need to make a choice.
My time of choosing is now and,jesus, I choose you.
I promise to repent from all ofmy sins and follow you all the
(32:00):
rest of the days of my life.
Thank you, jesus, for dying onthe cross and for rising from
the grave three days later forme, amen.
And if you prayed that prayer,welcome to the family of God.
(32:20):
Now, normally, I would saysomething to the effect of I
really love to hear about it.
My website is down currentlyand the email that went with it
is also down.
It's one of the things I'mrectifying this morning.
But get involved in a localchurch.
Get involved in a local churchand dig in and I'll have
(32:43):
resources back up this week.
That's all the time we havetoday, friends.
Pray, pray for Israel, pray foryour family, pray for yourself.
Make a count gang and beblessed.
Let's open in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, I give youthanks today for the people
within the sound of my voice.
I give you thanks that youprovide us with a refuge, father
, a refuge from the chaos andthe craziness that is the world
that we live in.
And for the Christian Father,it's painful and it's
(00:27):
demoralizing and it hurts to seethe destruction and the hatred
and the ugliness, as everyoneseems to have taken sides, but
so many people have forgotten totake the one side that matters,
which is your side, father.
I heard it said once that wehad two choices revival or not.
(00:54):
Lord God, I asked for revivaltoday.
I asked it from my small spotin this world that you would
provide that which is sonecessary Revival, whatever we
as Christians can do tofacilitate that, whatever you
would have for us, whatever jobor rule that we would stand,
(01:18):
because our time of choosing isnow.
Our time of choosing is comingclose in this country and in
many cases, it's right on top ofus.
Father, god, I give you thanks.
I give you thanks for allthings.
I lift up a special prayer formy friend John Thorpe, my
(01:40):
brother in Christ, who lost hiswife this week to cancer.
Father, we know that Antoinetteis home.
We know that she is in no moretears, no more sorrow, no more
pain.
But I pray for John today as heprepares for memorial service
(02:02):
and starts to get himselfsquared away for the rest of
what you have for him.
Keep him strong and bring himpeace.
In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
Good morning gang.
We're here.
I have a couple of things thatI'd like to go over with you
(02:28):
before I get started.
It's been over a month sinceI've done this Again.
I just have to apologize andthrow myself on your mercy and
ask for your prayers.
I will tell you that, with theevents that have gone on since
October 7th, I have to tell youthat I just couldn't settle my
(02:55):
mind to do anything.
I couldn't settle my mind.
My head was spinning and I hurtfor the people of Israel, for
our brothers from the tree thatwe're grafted into.
(03:16):
Our brothers and sisters.
Lord, I asked you to protectthe Israeli father and we hope
and pray for their protectionand for all of the things that
go along with that.
It's something we're going totalk about a little bit today,
but I wanted to open with aquestion in a message that I've
(03:38):
entitled the Persecuted Church.
If you're able to do so, if youcould open your Bibles, please,
to Revelation, chapter 2,verses 8 through 11.
That is, this is the secondletter that Jesus wrote to the
church in Smyrna.
It is a church that's underheavy persecution and with that
(04:01):
in mind, I have a question andI'll ask it in a moment.
First, I've got to tell you,you know again, that the
persecution, the outrightslaughter that's happening in
Israel right now breaks my heart, breaks my heart.
I have opinions on what's goingon and all of those things, and
(04:29):
I normally keep those to myselfto stay focused, focused on
teaching scripture, and I'm notgoing to change that stance this
morning.
Instead, I'll provide factsFirst.
When people and I won't sayPalestinians, and if you want to
know why look up the origin ofthe name Palestine and where it
(04:54):
came from, you'll determinequickly, I think, that
Palestine's not a state or anation state at all.
But when people chant from theriver to the sea, palestine will
be free.
That means from the JordanRiver to the Mediterranean Sea
in Israel.
(05:14):
These are the eastern andwestern borders of Israel.
Their intention, make nomistake, is to wipe Israel from
the face of the earth.
It's in their charger folks.
Second, that being theirintention to annihilate Israel.
The two-state solution thateverybody talks about is now,
(05:39):
and has always been, a myth.
It's a convenient trope forpoliticians to use to
comfortably straddle the fenceof their constituency.
And this last piece is thebiggest part of it, and this is
where we're going to kick thingsoff.
Third and last, god is still onthe throne.
None of this surprises him, andas darkness falls on this world
(06:05):
, christians must alwaysremember that, always remember
that.
And now, like I said, open yourBibles up to Revelation,
chapter two.
We're gonna pick up in verseeight and go to verse 11.
This is the new King Jamesversion and we're going to read
it.
It says and to the angel of thechurch, and Smyrna write these
(06:28):
things.
Says the first and the last whowas dead and came to life.
I know your works, tribulationand poverty, but you are rich,
and I know the blasphemy ofthose who say they are Jews and
are not, but are a synagogue ofSatan.
Do not fear any of these thingsin which you are about to
(06:54):
suffer.
Indeed, the devil is about tothrow some of you into prison,
that you may be tested and youwill have tribulation for 10
days.
Be faithful until death and Iwill give you the crown of life.
He who has an ear to hear, lethim hear what the spirit says to
(07:18):
the churches.
He who overcomes shall not behurt by the second death.
Again, that's new King Jamesversion, revelation two, verses
eight to 11.
Jesus says I know your works, Iknow your works.
And then he says tribulationand poverty quote or parentheses
(07:43):
.
But you are rich.
Wait what?
You are not rich.
How does that work?
Hold that thought, though, andwe'll delve into a bit of
history, to kind of set thestage here.
Smyrna was a city located inwhat is now modern day Turkey.
During the Greco-Roman times,it boasted a strong Jewish
(08:06):
population as well as a smallChristian one.
History tells us that some ofthe Jews in Smyrna conspired
with the Romans and worked toroot out the Christians.
Okay, I believe that these Jewsare the ones Jesus is referring
to when he calls them thesynagogue of Satan in verse nine
(08:30):
.
The church was really upagainst it, yet Jesus says do
not fear these things which youare about to suffer.
He tells them the devil isgoing to throw them into prison
so that they may be tested andthat they will be in tribulation
for 10 days.
(08:51):
All right, so before we delveinto the couple of different
thought processes around the 10days here, I wanna say something
quickly about the Christiansand how this letter is laid out.
Notice as you read it Jesus hasnothing against this church.
(09:19):
Every other letter with theexception also, then, of the
letter to the church inPhiladelphia, which we'll get to
later Every other letter startswith the positives, the things
that Jesus sees, that heappreciates and that he gives
(09:40):
credit for.
And then he says but this Ihave against you, and if you'll
remember, in chapter one it wasyou've left your first love.
It was you've left your firstlove, and we talked about that
(10:01):
at length.
But this he doesn't haveanything derogatory or negative
to say about how this church ishandling things, and that's
because they're under the gun.
They are sacrificing everything, including themselves, quite
literally, for their faith.
(10:22):
Okay, so again, and we're gonnaget deeper into that, but I
just kinda wanted to throw thatout there.
So let's now talk about the 10days.
As you might imagine, there aretwo schools of thought, and
possibly even three, about thesignificance of the 10 days
tribulation in verse 10.
(10:43):
Firstly is a literal 10 days.
The other is a symbolic view.
This view suggests that the 10days are representative of the
10 persecutions that began withNero and ended with Dio Slayton
(11:04):
and I'm not pronouncing thatcorrectly in the third century.
Okay, so it's either 10persecutions over a period of
time, right, or 10 literal days.
As you might imagine, I land inthe literalist camp, but no
matter where you land on thescale, to me it matters very
(11:26):
little.
Jesus tells the church thatthey will be persecuted and that
it will be terrible, and to himthat overcomes, he will give
the crown of life.
Okay, so at the end of the day,yeah, you know what?
There's some question amongtheologians about what the ten
(11:46):
days means.
It doesn't really matter.
Ten days of Deep persecutionversus ten days of our ten
periods of time of deeppersecution Matters not in, in
my view, as to what, what theActual, if you will, situation
(12:06):
on that is, and that is a lot ofstuff.
Okay, now for the two questionsI had at the top.
The first is what would you doif?
Okay, and I want you to thinkabout that what would you do if,
if, like the Christians in Rome, smirna, you were commanded to
(12:27):
bow and Acknowledge the deity,the false deity, of Caesar.
Okay, that's where we, that'swhere we find ourselves when
Jesus mentions these kinds ofthings.
That's the time period thatthese folks were living in Rome.
(12:47):
Rome wanted complete control,they wanted to close their fist
and, and you know, their visionof the world was a Roman, a pox
romana.
Right, a pact with Rome, a poxromana that was going to.
Yeah, you can have your faithand whatever else, but
(13:08):
ultimately you have to own thisfaith that you have in Caesar.
You have to acknowledge hisdeity.
Okay, would, what would you do?
Would you?
Would you?
Would you acknowledge it sothat you could go along, to get
along and keep your faithyourself, would you say, as
(13:32):
polycarp did in Smirna?
And we're gonna talk a littlebit about polycarp.
Polycarp was a, a deeply devoutChristian in Smirna.
He was a leader of the churchout there.
He said this quote when theyasked him, when they told him
this is what he needed to do,and and at the end of the day,
(13:53):
as you read that history, the,the Roman, the Roman in charge,
kept saying to him just justacknowledge it, I'll let you go,
I'll let you go, it's fine,it's fine, it's fine.
Okay, but it wasn't fine.
Here's what polycarp said, quote86 years I have served him,
meaning Jesus, and he never didme wrong.
(14:15):
How can I blaspheme my king whosaved me?
He wouldn't do it.
He wouldn't do it.
And To to Common Joe and Jane.
It seems like a really simplething, but when you have a
relationship With the savior ofthe world and you know
(14:40):
Personally that he reached downand plucked you out of the Myrie
clay and he saved your life,you can't turn your back on him
Because he didn't turn his backon you.
And what was called polycarp'sprice?
All right, we talk in Christiancircles about counting the cost
(15:01):
.
That means what's this gonnacost me, right?
Well, he was burned at thestake.
But the story goes, theaccounting goes, and it it's
said to have been witnessed andwritten down by somebody in
Smyrna.
When it happened, he was burnedat the stake, which was the way
(15:22):
they did it.
They burned them at the stakeand and the interesting part is,
the fire wouldn't consume him.
That sounds familiar.
That's not familiar to you,because it sounds familiar to me
.
Biblically, in Daniel, shadrach,meshach and Abednego were
thrown into the fiery furnace.
(15:43):
They were thrown into fieryfurnace by Nebuchadnezzar and
the fire did not consume them.
And there was a fourth in thefurnace who was like a son of
God from Nebuchadnezzar.
So the fire didn't consumepolycarp.
So a guard Roman soldierstepped forward and stabbed him
(16:12):
and the blood flowed so greatlyfrom the wound as to douse the
fire.
He died.
He died, okay, or would you say, as Bonhoeffer did, dietrich
Bonhoeffer, during the SecondWorld War.
For those of you that don'tknow, he was a Lutheran pastor
(16:32):
who ran underground church inGermany, got Jews out of Germany
, also worked with the Allies tooverthrow Hitler.
There's a great book by EricMetaxas, simply titled
Bonhoeffer, if you want to learna little bit more about this
wonderful human.
Bonhoeffer said this as he wasbeing led to the gallows Quote.
(16:56):
For me, it is not the end butthe beginning of life.
Think about those for a second.
And let me tell you, as a sidenote, that history is rife with
this kind of martyrdom and thiskind of faith, this kind of
(17:17):
absolute, unbending faith.
Okay, if you want to take a look, I would suggest Fox's Book of
Martyrs.
You can get it on Kendall.
You can order it in a lot ofplaces.
I think it's free now.
It may even be public domain,I'm not certain about that, but
(17:41):
it's Fox's Book of Martyrs andthere are a couple of other ones
, two volumes called JesusFreaks, which are stories about
people like this, people whowere persecuted, not always in
the first century, oh, no, no,no, no People during the Cold
(18:03):
War.
In the Middle East, in China,in Turkey, all these different
places, people are standing forthe Lord.
Okay, now this goes back to whatJesus said up here, and I want
(18:23):
to touch on this.
I know your works, yourtribulation and your poverty,
but you are rich.
Why?
Why are these people who are sofar up against it?
Why are they rich?
Why does that happen?
They're rich.
(18:45):
Think about this.
They're rich because, no matterwhat the leaders in this world
are, the leaders in this worldor the leaders that are
persecuting them, due to them,they win.
They win.
You think about Stephen, thefirst martyr.
(19:06):
You think about Stephen, andStephen said Father, forgive
them.
He matched Jesus and he saidforgive them.
And then he could see Jesus.
And then he went home.
Who won?
Yeah, stephen was no longer onthis planet, but he was.
(19:29):
No more tears, no more sorrow,no more pain.
He had taken.
What one of my favoriteChristian artists, tobi Max says
is the J-Train?
Okay, he'd gone home.
So the question becomes Aquestion of where do you stand
(19:54):
in that reality?
Okay, one only need look aroundthe world today to come to the
conclusion that what I'm callingour time of choosing is coming.
It's coming.
Churches in the Middle East,people in the Middle East, china
, africa and many other placessuffer unending persecution.
(20:15):
Yet, I will tell you, in spiteof the negative pressure,
muslims that's right, muslimsare coming to faith in Jesus at
an exponential rate.
Jesus works through persecution.
You think about.
You think about the church inIsrael, the first church, the
(20:39):
apostles church in Israel.
Okay, what happened?
The persecution got so hairyunder Paul Okay, under Paul,
when he was persecutingChristians, that they spread out
and the church itself explodedto all corners.
(21:06):
Driven by that persecution, wewin, okay, but let me speak to
my American listeners for amoment, if I could Put bluntly
guys, we know nothing of truepersecution.
(21:27):
But, as I said, our time ofchoosing is coming.
All you have to do is lookaround to see where we are, okay
, as a whole.
You look at all of the poisonthat is culturally acceptable
today, right, christians arebeing pushed down and told to
(21:47):
sit down and shut up, okay, andmany sects of Christianity are
doing exactly that.
They are doing what we laid outat the beginning they're going
along to get along.
I've seen so many disgustingthings.
People send me things,different, crazy, unbelievable
(22:11):
things that I won't go intobecause they're just disgusting.
The things that the church isdoing to go along to get along,
the things that they'reaccepting and I'm sure that you
guys know exactly what it isthat I'm talking about.
But this is nothing new.
It's nothing new.
In the 30s in Germany, hitlertook over the church and
(22:35):
Bonhoeffer and his folks chosenot to go along to get along and
they grew an underground churchthat was called the Emergent
Church Okay, but the statechurch was all Nazi all the time
.
It was unbelievable to read.
(22:56):
It's unbelievable to read about.
If you want to read a littlebit about that again, eric
Metaxas wrote a book recentlycalled An Open Letter to the
American Church and it's verymuch a worthwhile read.
But we've seen it lately.
We got a small taste of thatpersecution.
(23:17):
The church at large got a smalltaste of that persecution
during COVID in 2020, whenchurches were deemed
non-essential.
Okay, the pot shop wasessential.
That was essential.
Home Depot, lowe's, they wereessential.
Right, the bar was essential.
(23:39):
You know any place wherethere's open debauchery and
whatever else that was essential, but the church, oh no, no, no,
no.
We can't have the church.
And in Colorado, where I camefrom, the church at large got
(24:00):
together and petitioned thegovernor there and got
permission to even in the earlyparts of COVID after a couple of
weeks to get permission.
They got permission to haveservices and of course there
were all kinds of hoops you hadto jump through and everything
else, and that was a small tasteof persecution.
(24:25):
Okay, but I digress.
If you remember my initialquestion, I asked what would you
do if?
Okay, I didn't ask about yourchurch or your deacon or your
pastor or your priest, or Ididn't ask what they would do.
I asked what you would do.
(24:49):
And the choice you make, themountain on which you stand,
will come with a cost, with aprice, and we've been through
this before as Christians.
I've been through it.
It could cost you a friend Yep,been there.
Family member Yep, been there Ajob Not quite, I haven't had
(25:11):
that, but it did cost me apromotion and it can cost you
your freedom or even your life,turning your Bibles over.
We haven't turned much thismorning.
Let's turn over to Mark 1311.
The book of Mark.
Of course you're going to cometo the left.
(25:31):
You can't go much further right.
Come to the left, and it is thesecond gospel, matthew, then
Mark.
Go to Mark 1311.
And in Mark 1311, and I leftthis in the new living
translation because I want tomake sure that this is 100%
(25:54):
clear Jesus says but when youare arrested and stand trial,
don't worry in advance aboutwhat you'll say.
Just say what God tells you atthe time, for it is not you who
will be speaking, but the HolySpirit.
So, basically, what Jesus issaying here is that God's going
(26:18):
to give you the words to say theHoly Spirit's going to give you
the words to say the stand totake.
So if you're worried about that, if you're concerned about
whether or not you'll stand upfor Christ in that moment, first
of all the fact that you'reworried about it tells me a
great deal, okay, about whereyou stand with Christ, and I
(26:43):
will tell you that in that caseyou don't have to worry, because
Jesus is going to be there.
You know it's interesting andI'll leave you with this the
persecuted church or persecutionof the body of Christ, the
(27:08):
individuals that actually makeup the church.
It's not anything new, and youknow so many people have always
asked well, where's God when allthis stuff is going on?
It's so terrible.
La, la, la, la, la la.
Well, yeah, it is, and God andJesus is right there with you
(27:32):
when you're being persecuted,and I mean truly persecuted.
I'm not talking about aknucklehead movie made at your
job.
That's not persecution.
You were just being aknucklehead, okay.
So let's get that straight.
If you jumped up on the tableat work and said, except the
bread of life, you know that's.
And then you got written up andpossibly fired, you know for
(27:54):
proselytizing, okay, you knowwhat, that's not persecution.
That's not persecution.
That's you being a knucklehead,okay.
I'm talking about realpersecution shutting down
churches, submitting the sermonsto the state authority, having
(28:16):
your home fellowship raided andhaving people hauled away and
put in prison or tortured, orboth, for their faith.
And the only, the only out, theonly, the only thing they have
to do and the world doesn't getit, but the only thing they have
to do in that case is they haveto say, yeah, I no longer
(28:40):
believe in Jesus.
I accept whatever it is thatthey're offering right the
Muslim faith.
You know, in Russia, you know,I accept full allegiance to the
state, because the Russians didaway with religion by and large
and the state was the religionof the, of the, of the
(29:02):
proletariat.
But a believer, someone who hasa deep faith, an understanding
of where we are and what we'redoing, a believer, will not do
that.
They can't because they knowthat Jesus counted the cost and
(29:24):
he paid the ultimate cost forthem, for you, for me, and they
won't do it, no matter whathappens in this world.
They can't win.
It's a no-win scenario.
So stand strong, make yourchoice, choose Jesus and stand
(29:49):
strong for what is coming.
And finally, if that kind offaith really blows you away like
you're sitting there listeningto me and you're like I couldn't
do it, there's no way Icouldn't do that I couldn't say
for me it is not the end but thebeginning of life I could not
(30:11):
say as Paulicarp did, how can Iblaspheme him who saved me,
knowing that all he had to dowas agree with the Roman, the
Roman authority, and that he'dbe set free?
He chose the other and he wonand left a mark that we're still
(30:31):
talking about today.
And if that kind of faith blowsyou away and you say to yourself
you know what, if all thisstuff is coming, you know, if
all this stuff is coming, I needto be on the right side of this
.
All you have to do is talk toJesus.
(30:52):
All you have to do is talk toJesus and you have to understand
that we were born separatedfrom God.
Okay, we were born separatedfrom God because of sin, and God
gives us an opening.
(31:13):
It's a free gift to accept himand repent of our sins and be
marked by the cross of Christforever.
And if you'd like to make acommitment to Jesus today, all
you have to do is talk to himand you can say something like
Dear Jesus, I know that I'm asinner in need of a Savior.
(31:33):
As I listen to this and as Ihear this Lord, I can see you've
shown me how things are andwhere things are, and I need to
get right with you.
I need to make a choice.
My time of choosing is now and,jesus, I choose you.
I promise to repent from all ofmy sins and follow you all the
(32:00):
rest of the days of my life.
Thank you, jesus, for dying onthe cross and for rising from
the grave three days later forme, amen.
And if you prayed that prayer,welcome to the family of God.
(32:20):
Now, normally, I would saysomething to the effect of I
really love to hear about it.
My website is down currentlyand the email that went with it
is also down.
It's one of the things I'mrectifying this morning.
But get involved in a localchurch.
Get involved in a local churchand dig in and I'll have
(32:43):
resources back up this week.
That's all the time we havetoday, friends.
Pray, pray for Israel, pray foryour family, pray for yourself.
Make a count gang and beblessed.
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