Revelation Series Part 3 | Janet Roberts

Hi, everybody. How's everybody doing?

Getting your Easter? Resurrection Sunday. Sometimes I'm afraid to say Easter and we get yelled at because it is kind of pagan a little bit. Right up there with trick or treat and Christmas, if you want to tell the truth about the whole thing. But you know who's paying attention?

Not I.

We're going to continue looking at the book of Revelation. We're going to continue in looking at the seven churches, the letters to the seven churches. I had considered, like wrapping up all the seven churches in these first three meetings. And. And I thought no.

It just seemed like of all the parts of this book, those letters are of paramount importance to us right now. And so I'm going to take my time getting through them and we'll see where we get even if we're not done in 2026, the Lord willing and the creek don't rise. That a Southern thing, right? Yeah. We'll take it into 2027 and if we're still here, so praise God.

You know, actually, I want to start with an image.

If we can get that up there. Be fabulous. Okay, There we go. Do you guys recognize those images? What is the image on the left?

It's a stink bug. It absolutely is. It's very good. How about the one on the right? Lavender.

That's lavender. The stink bug and the lavender bush have something in common. And what they have in common is when they are crushed, they emit a smell. The distinction is when the stink bug is crushed, it emits a foul, off putting odor. Which is why when I find one at home, if I'm downstairs, I will throw it outside.

If I'm upstairs, I am too lazy to go downstairs. I'll put it on a toilet paper raft and it'll go down the falls of the commode. And I figure I give it a 50, 50 chance of surviving. After something's too big, I feel bad to kill. I don't know why.

It feels like it's more human or something. Yeah, bad, bad smell. The lavender. However, when the lavender is crushed, it produces a sweet and aromatic scent. I don't know that much about essential oils and things like that, but I believe that's one of the things you put in the doodad that you warm up and it's supposed to cause you to be calm and relaxed.

What do stink bugs have to do with the church that we're going to look at tonight, the church of Smyrna? What does lavender have to do with those churches? Well, the Christians in the church at Smyrna are being crushed. They're being crushed figuratively and literally unto death for their witness and their faithfulness to Jesus. The name of the city itself.

Smyrna. Smyrna. Potato. Potato comes from the word myrrh. And myrrh is a gummy resin that's extracted from a particular tree.

And it's a very sweet smelling ointment, SAP that is actually used in the embalming of the dead. Remember, the magi brought to Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh. The letter to Smyrna highlights the sweet smell of the death of a martyr.

And the apostle Paul knew something about being crushed for the sake of Christ and he wrote about it. In First Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, he wrote, we think you ought to know Asia, brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure. And we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die.

But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God who raises the dead. Have any of you come out of a year where you learned that hard lesson when you came to the end of yourself and knew it was only him? Yeah. You know what Paul's talking about. And in the very next chapter, he alludes to what was the result of that devotion.

Michael, my pages are sticking together.

Got it. In Second Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 16, he continues, and he writes this, but thank God he has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ's triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like a sweet perfume. The result of the crushing our lives are a Christ like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.

To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life giving perfume.

The crushing of the saint.

Paul obviously had his share of attacks and beatings and so forth. And you know, Paul was eventually executed by Nero. Nero had him beheaded. He also crucified Peter upside down. So these, these men knew what it was to be all in for Jesus.

And I was thinking as we were singing, how easy it is to love him.

Without having to manage terror or the fear that some people have to manage and how sweet it is to him when we do.

At this moment in the United States, Christians are not being crushed or put to death for their faith in Jesus. But we are crushed by life, circumstances, situations, temptations feel crushing to us, don't they? It's like, oh, stop that, let me go. And so, as we move forward to Smyrna, I just want you to think about this.

When you are being crushed, what is the aroma that your residue emits?

What's inside of you?

I want you to consider that tonight. So we're going to continue in looking at the seven letters to the seven churches that Jesus dictated to John that are contained in the book of Revelation. John, Pardon me. Jesus told John to write these seven letters and indeed the entire book to show his servants what must soon take place.

Well, what. The day of the Lord. The time when God will intervene into human affairs, take care of all business, prepare the way for the Messiah to come, who will conquer every global national king and army and set up his kingdom with a seat in Jerusalem. That's the time that is near. Have you ever heard the phrase to be forewarned is to be forearmed?

Yeah. I would say in a nutshell, that's the purpose of the book of Revelation. To give the Lord's servants a heads up about the future so we will not be caught off guard and falter. To the contrary, we can arm ourselves with the knowledge that he provides the faith and endurance to overcome any obstacle. We can be confident in the knowledge that any trials we go through are momentary, but our final outcome is eternal.

And it's beautiful. You know, we deal better with situations when our expectations are managed. Just. That's an. I find that that's important for people.

I know it's important for me when something happens that I. That comes out of the blue. It's like you have to deal with the shock first and then you can tend to the situation. But if you're warned, hey, this is going to happen when it happens, okay, I knew this was going to happen and I'm ready. And that's the purpose of the book of Revelation.

These letters can have three applications. This is by way of review. First century at the time of their individual Christians and churches in the first century at the time of their writing. So these were seven churches in Asia Minor that these letters went to. I mean, there were many, maybe 100 churches that these letters could have gone to, but Jesus chose these seven particular churches.

Second, these letters are to individual Christians and individual churches throughout all times, in every culture. How do we know that? Well, Jesus says quite a few times, he who has an ear to hear. Listen to what Jesus is saying to the churches. If you've Got an ear to hear.

It's for us. What we have to do, though, in our time, in our century, is we have to find the message that transcends time and culture. Right? Because what. Although these letters weren't written to us, they were written for us and what they said to them, there's a key component that is the same for us, and we have to find what that is.

And there's a third application, and some say these letters are a prophetic outline of sequential church eras that began right after the apostles and will commence until the day of the Lord. So, for example, the church at Ephesus, which is the first letter, represents that church period right after the. The apostles. Yeah. And then the very last church, the seventh letter, Laodicea, represents the last church right before the day of the Lord.

And I'll tell you, sometimes I look at and I say, yeah, you know, I can see it. And sometimes they're like, nah, I don't know, you know, So I would give it to you. Why don't you investigate it and see what you think? Do some study. It's kind of cool to look at.

And nevertheless, in each of these cases, the Lord uses the contemporary backdrop of the church to connect with them and give them his message. If I could. We could put the map up of Asia Minor. There we go. Those are the seven churches to which these letters.

Ephesus in Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, all in what is today Turkey, but then was considered Asia Minor. The last time we were together, we talked about the letter to the church at Ephesus. The church at Ephesus, it was a good church. It was a really good church.

They excelled in doctrine, they excelled in duty, but they failed in devotion. You know, they. They left the love they had for the Lord. They left the love that they had for one another. And it was such a serious problem that Jesus told them, if you don't fix this, I'm going to come and remove your lampstand.

And what that translates into, you are not going to be a church anymore. And I would say that there is not a church in Ephesus anymore, because there is no Ephesus anymore. There are some ruins you can go see. But I think one can maybe surmise that those corrections were not made. Tonight we are going to read the letter to the church at Smyrna, which is just north of ephesus, maybe about 30 miles, and it is on the coast as well as Ephesus was at that time.

As opposed to Ephesus. Smyrna still exists today, but it is called Izmir. How about that? I think that's pretty cool. Over 4 million people live in what was Smyrna, the majority of whom are Muslims.

Now if I were to ask you where in the world is the greatest population of Muslims, what would you think? Where do most Muslims live?

Would you say the Middle East? Wrong. You ready for a shock? The vast majority of Muslims live in Southeast Asia. Yeah.

They live in Indonesia and Thailand, Myanmar. That's just a neat fact I threw in. So anybody ask you where do most Muslims, mostly Muslims in the 4 million. Answer to that. Southeast Asia.

However, there are mostly Muslims in the 4 million people who lived in today who are part of Smyrna. However, do you know there are both Catholic and Protestant churches still there, and the Catholic churches or the Eastern Orthodox churches, and they have some Protestant churches. And I did a little, you know, search and find and they have a church there. And if I ever get to Turkey, I am going to go to this church. It's called the Lighthouse Church.

It was started in 1993 by an American couple and a German couple. They said, let's just. Let's find some other people. Let's start having church here. And it grew, and they found that Turkish people began coming to their fellowship.

So it grew and grew and grew. And now they have two locations in Izmir and they have bilingual services. Turkish people are coming to this evangelical church. If you go to their website, it would be like going to a website of a, you know, like a church like ours. But they do have a page that I think sets them apart.

And one of the page in their website says this. Have you seen Jesus in a dream? Tell us about it. So aren't we hearing so much with Muslims, how Jesus is appearing to Muslims in dreams? That's the thing.

I thought that was really cool. So let's, let's. Let's go do a. What's that called? A field trip to Izmir, go see Lighthouse Church and tell them we heard about that.

Wouldn't it be cool? I'd like that. All right, let's read the letter. Because according to the book, the one who reads the letter is blessed. And the ones who hear and obey the letter are blessed.

And what does blessed mean? It means to experience the full measure of God's presence in your life. And I am for that. Let's read. This is the shortest letter.

Jesus says, write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This Is the message from the one who is the first and the last, who was dead but is now alive. I know about your suffering and your poverty, but you are rich. I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not because their synagogue belongs to Satan.

Don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for 10 days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand victorious to the churches.

Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death. Well, let's take this apart. Sometimes phrase by phrase, sometimes sentence by sentence, and see. See what it has to say. Say to us.

Write this letter to the angel. The church at Smyrna we talked about with a letter to Ephesus. If you weren't here, I. I'll repeat that there is legitimate debate over whether these angels are supernatural beings or human beings. Of the Greek word angelos, which is sometimes translated messenger, sometimes translated as angel. I would say study it out for yourself and see what conclusion you come to.

This is the message from the one who is the first and last who was dead but now alive. This designation of Jesus as dead but now alive is especially meaningful to the Christians in Smyrna for a couple of reasons. One in the BCs, right way back in the BCS, Smyrna suffered a catastrophic earthquake. In fact, that area is earthquake prone. And for over three centuries, 300 years, it was a pile of rubble when Alexander the Greek came in.

And then his kingdom was divided into the four regions. And the one general that took that area went in there. He started a rehabilitation program. They rebuilt Smyrna to build a fabulous, beautiful city. And the saying about Smyrna was the city that died yet lives.

So if you came into. You know how cities have mottos, the city of industry, the city of friendly faces, whatever, there's the city that died yet lives. So the way Jesus presented himself would have connected with the city Smyrnians. It's like I'm saying Smurfians, but it's Smyrnians.

Second or number two. But more poignantly, it was the city where Christians would die and yet live and live gloriously. Jesus tells them, I know about your son suffering and poverty, but you are rich. And I think it might be safe to say that each of the churches were surprised by how Jesus saw them. The churches that thought they were Doing well, I would say Sardis and Laodicea.

Probably surprised to find out that Jesus was not pleased. Or even Ephesus. And the two churches that seem to be struggling, Smyrna, Philadelphia. He was looking at them and saying, well done. So he looks at this church in Smyrna and he says, you are rich.

The word there, suffering, Greek, has words that can have expanded definitions. You know, we tend to give one word for one word, for one word. There's a couple of different words in Greek used to convey suffering. This particular word means to apply constant pressure, dare I say crushing, till eventually the life is squeezed out of you. And these Christians were feeling that kind of day by day by day, crushing.

And also a number of words used to express poverty. This word does not mean lower middle, lower on food stamps. It means abject poverty. They had nothing. And they had nothing because of their witness for Christ.

So nobody would go to their businesses. The workers couldn't join the trade unions, so they had to scrap to live.

And Jesus says, I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. When we hear the word blasphemy, we think it has to involve somebody saying something about God, about a holy person, right? But it really just means slanderous lies. I know that there are people opposing you and they are lying. And these slanderous lies, by definition are meant to harm somebody.

And in the next phrase, he unpacks and tells them what they already know. Who are those people opposing you? They say they are Jews. Those are the ones doing the blasphemous speaking against them. But they are not because their synagogue belongs to Satan.

You know, you have to keep in mind that the first group to instigate trouble against Christians were the Jews, right? They're the ones that instigated Rome to crucify Jesus. Everywhere Paul went, the Jews would follow him and start up trouble. You know, I, on one hand, I try to understand why they might be adamant to protect the law. Because the reason they had nothing is because they got away from the law, right?

And got into worshiping in false ways.

But they hated Christians. There were no two ways about that. Those, that same animosity that they had during the time of Jesus. And then Paul was just as much aflame 60 years later in Smyrna. And when Jesus says that those Jews is that their synagogue belongs to Satan, can I tell you, he's not speaking metaphorically.

He's quite literally referring to those Jews as belonging to Satan. And it's not the first time he's made that claim.

And the Gospel of John captures a very interesting speech. Jesus made dialogue. He had. I don't have it in a. In the notes.

Just find it for yourself or just listen. Jesus is talking with a crowd of Jews. They're going back and forth. It's in John chapter 8. We'll do verse 37 through 48.

He just does not pull any punches with these people. Starting 30. I'm sorry. 31. 31.

48. Jesus said to the people who believed in him. You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And I think that's a measure that will work today. If you really want to know if someone is a true disciple.

Are they faithful to the teachings of Jesus? I don't think it's more complicated than that. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. But we are descendants of Abraham. They said.

We have never been slaves to anyone. I gotta tell you. Unless this is a bet. How do you process even that statement? Aren't they?

The people spent 400 years in Egypt. I don't understand this. So I'm thinking. Is this a translation problem or something? I can't even process that.

Nevertheless. What do you mean you will. You will be set free. And Jesus replied. I tell you the truth.

Everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family. Family. But a son is part of the family forever. So if the son sets you free.

You are truly free. Yes. I realize you are descendants of Abraham. Yet some of you are trying to kill me because there's no room in your hearts for my message. I am telling you what I saw when I was with my father.

But you are following the advice of your father. Our Father is Abraham. They declared. No. Jesus replied.

For if you were really the children of Abraham you would follow his example. Instead. You are trying to kill me because I told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing. No.

You are imitating your real father. They replied. We aren't illegitimate children. Do you know what's implied in that sentence? Like you.

God himself is our true father. And Jesus told them. If God were your Father you would love me because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own. But he sent me.

Why can't you understand what I'm saying? It's because you can't even hear me. For you are the children of your father. The devil. And you love to do the evil things he does.

He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth. Because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don't believe me?

Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin? And since I am telling you the truth, why don't you believe me? Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don't listen because you don't belong to God. And the people retorted, you Samaritan devil.

You know what's unpacked in that statement? Calling him a Samaritan. Joseph isn't your father. Mary had a baby daddy and he wasn't even a Jew. That's what they were saying to him.

Didn't we say all along that you were possessed by a demon? Now, this wasn't true of all the Jews at all. Every one of the apostles were Jewish. The beginning of the church started in Jerusalem. So.

So, but some were of their father, the devil. And I'll tell you, there are times when we're talking to people and we're giving them such a sound, logical, biblical explanation and trying to enlighten their minds. And if you're ever amazed by why aren't you? Can't you hear what I'm telling you? It's not you, it's them.

And the best thing you can do is pray that the eyes of their understanding would be open. Because at some point, people have decided not to listen. You know, and you think, if I could maybe say it this way, or if I could maybe say it that way, These same type of people with the same loathing for Jesus in Judea, instigating the execution of his followers, were doing the same thing in Smyrna. And Jesus tells them this in the letter. Don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer.

I mean, how would you feel if the Lord told you that these people, people aren't marvel avengers? Yeah, bring it on.

They're dads and moms, children and grandmas and grandpas. You don't think they were afraid? I mean, they're human.

I mean, we don't have that kind of fear. But today there are Christians who have to manage that fear every day.

Please don't take that for granted. What we have.

Now, why was a Christian living in Smyrna in more danger than some of the other cities? Remember I told you last time that the experience of the Christians in these seven cities were unique? Let me tell you why.

Smyrna was in what in today's Term what we would call a patriotic city, right? They loved being a part of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was good for Smyrna because the Empire's strength brought stability to the city. There was a port, it was a port city. There were merchants coming, coming in and out.

The city itself was beautiful, both in its natural geography and the buildings that they were able to build. And no enemy would mess with Smyrna because big brother Rome was there.

If you remember your history classes, which I'm sure you all do, your ancient history classes, the Pax Romana, the Peace Rome, Rome was able to come in. They took what they wanted, but once they took what they wanted, they settled it and they let everybody do what they want to do, wanted to do. Just don't rebel against us. And there were tons of people that were glad that Rome came in and made peace out of. Out of chaos.

And I will tell you when the. That there is a time coming when this world will be in chaos again and we will want it to stop. We want our life the way it was. We don't want to have to be afraid. We don't want to not have enough food.

Somebody do something and one will rise up and he'll have the answer and he'll bring peace. And we'll be so glad because we'll get our lives back and things will be good for three and a half years. And all he'll want us to do is get a number on our hand or number on our forehead. And there'll be. Some people will be so glad because all they want is their lives back.

And this was Smyrna to them. Rome was great and they didn't want anybody messing with the balance that was in their city. Even before, you know, in the BCs, right before the birth of Christ, Smyrna had built a temple and they had dedicated it to Deia Roma, the goddess of Rome. And you might say it was a sign of patriotism to go to. When you went to Smyrna to go into that temple and worship the spirit of Rome.

It would be like if we had a church under the Statue of Liberty and you would go into the church and worship the spirit of the United States. That's what it was like. But this worship, however, progressed from worshiping and honoring the notion of Rome. I feel like that's a line in the gladiator is there about the Rome, anyways, the notion of Rome to worshiping the individual Caesars. So you've got this Dea Roma temple built in the BCS.

Well, in 23 AD, this would be during the life of Jesus. The city of Smyrna won the prize, won the honor of building the first temple to honor and venerate the current Caesar, who at that time was Tiberius. And they were very proud that they were chosen to be the city to have the first temple to honor the Caesar Tiberius. And here's what's interesting about their worship of the emperors. They didn't require you to be exclusive.

You didn't have to only worship Caesar. In fact, in Smyrna, there was a street, it was called the Golden Way or something, where it was all temples. It was temple to Apollo and Aphrodite and Zeus. Maybe if you've ever been to Las Vegas, I only been there a couple times with that street called the Strip, right? And so you have all the casinos, right?

Boom. You can go in any casino you want. You could go to Smyrna, go down the Golden Way, and you could go to any temple you want, worship any God God you wanted. However, although they didn't demand exclusivity, they demanded primacy. You must honor Caesar first.

He must be above all other gods that there are. And once a year, it was mandatory. Every citizen in Smyrna had to go to the temple of Caesar, where they had burning coals on an altar. They had to take some incense, throw it on the coals, and they had to say, caesar is Lord. And there would be a magistrate of some sort there, he would witness their worship, he would write out a certificate, he would give them their certificate, they would take it and they would proudly display it in their business or in their homes because.

Because they had done their duty. And if you didn't go in and participate in the rite, R I T e, things became very difficult for you. Well, as you can imagine, this was a problem for the Christians. But people being people being people, no matter what century they are in, there were magistrates who could be bribed. That is, you could go in and if you paid them, you didn't have to throw the incense.

You didn't have to say, Caesar is Lord, but they'd give you the certificate anyway. And there were Christians who were participating in this option. And it actually caused a divide in the church because some of the Christians were saying, this isn't right. And the other Christians were saying, what? I didn't do it, I didn't throw it in, I didn't say it.

I got the certificate, now my family and I are safe. So they had a council and they decided, you can't do that. Anymore because other people think you did. Whether you did or didn't, other people think you did. And we're trying to say there is no other Lord but Jesus.

And they see that certificate on your business. They see that certificate, certificate in your house. They think you can share your devotion with Caesar. So it caused a problem. And when the Christians began refusing to go to the temple of Caesar, it made the rest of the citizens furious because they considered them atheists.

They called them atheists. They thought they were a bane on the community because they loved Rome. Rome is good. You are harming our city. And if you read the news at all, there are definitely people in high positions today who feel like people who think like us are bad for the United States.

I mean, this is not that far of a jump for people to think that we would be so bad as Christians. Always tell us who we can marry. Always telling us what we're supposed to do. Always tell us what we're doing wrong. We'd be so much.

They're so hateful.

Jesus goes on and he says, the devil will throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer for 10 days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life. I am struck by what Jesus doesn't say. It says, the devil's going to throw you into prison. See, here's what I think Jesus should have said.

Rebuke the devil and he will flee. That's Bible. Bind that rascal in the name of Jesus. That's what I'd be doing. I'll be binding them, loosening and binding.

Throw me in prison. I don't think this is.

That's not what he tells them to do. He calls the people to endure it. And I'm telling you that for me, is an uncomfortable truth. I have to come to grips with. I have to come to terms with.

It's like both of those things can be true.

There's a time to bind and there's a time you just sit and you better know which one you're supposed to do.

Now, what does the 10 days mean? I wish I had some glorious revelation from on high. I've been sitting on a mountaintop and now will illuminate your understanding. There are so many options about what this can mean from the very literal. Hey, you're just going to be in prison 10 days.

You're going to suffer 10 days to. It's a Greek idiom that means anything from a short time to a long time to a bad time. There are some who the 10 days means 10 caesars, right? I'll tell you the truth, don't know, so I'm not going to speculate. Verse 11.

Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.