Spiritually Rich

Written by Joel Davis  

Today, we are continuing our verse-by-verse study of Jesus’ words to seven different churches in Asia Minor (Modern-Day Turkey) in Revelation 2 and 3. I would encourage you, if you are reading at home or at least not driving right now, get out a physical Bible and a pen, perhaps even a journal, and let’s give our full attention to these words of Jesus. 

There are billions of dollars being spent on capturing your attention through these little 6-inch screens called your cell phone, and so I recommend you put that little attention-grabbing distraction machine on Do Not Disturb and get a paper Bible so we can instead give our full attention to the Spirit’s words to us in these words to the church in 1^st Century Smyrna. 

I’m going to be reading out of the Christian Standard Bible or CSB. But there are a number of good translations available. Maybe one day we’ll do a podcast conversation on translations, but for now you may have the NASB, ESV, CSB, NIV, or NLT and all of those are very good translations with large teams of scholars seeking to hold to the original meaning of the text, so we can be confident what we are reading is capturing the intent of the author. 

“Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna” 

First, a little background on Smyrna. All seven of the churches are in what is modern-day Turkey, and all on the western side. Smyrna is just 35 miles up the coast from Ephesus, a wealthy port city. What distinguishes Smyrna from Ephesus though, is that it is today a large city of over 200,000 people and Ephesus lies in ruin. Jesus says this to them:  

“Thus says the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life.”  

When I am doing a deeper study of any passage, I want to begin by writing out as many questions as I can about the passage. And even though we are only soaking in four verses today, there is no shortage of questions to ask ourselves! What about this for a question, “Why does Jesus identify Himself as the First and the Last to the church in Smyrna?” Jesus has gone by many names. When I was growing up, there was a popular praise chorus we would sing, “He’s the alpha omega, beginning and end, He’s my Savior, Messiah, Redeemer and Friend. He’s my Prince of Peace.” And Jesus is called by all of those names! So why, to this church in Smyrna, does He identify as the First and the Last? 

To say He is the First and the Last is to say He was in the beginning, and He will be in the end. It is to say He is the Eternal One. But even though He is eternal, He also identifies Himself as the one who died. Jesus’s love for us was so great, that even as the ETERNAL ONE, who cannot die, He took on flesh and came and died on our behalf. Jesus Himself confirms this in John 15:13, when He says, “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” The eternal one laid down His life, but that was not the end of the story, because the one who died is now alive! Now I want you to think about it in this way — that even though Jesus took on human flesh and died a sinner’s death on the cross, there was a far deeper, truer reality that was on display right before their eyes. This was the Eternal One, the creator and sustainer of all the universe. And that reality was decisively evidenced when the Father raised Him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Why would all of this be particularly important for the church in Smyrna? Keep reading: 

“I know your affliction and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” 

The church in Smyrna was under persecution. Although the city was prosperous, they were economically poor, and under fire from the local Jewish people. But Jesus is reminding them of deeper, Kingdom realities beneath the surface. Although they are financially destitute, they are spiritually LOADED! Similarly, James 2:5 says, “My dear brothers and sisters, didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the KINGDOM?” And although those who oppose them identify as Jews, the people of God, they are actually followers of Satan. We have two kingdoms in conflict here, do we not? Jesus had a similar rebuke for the Jewish leaders during His earthly ministry. They said in John chapter 8, “We have Abraham as our father.” But Jesus responded to them in verse 44, “You are of your father the devil.” Jesus is not afraid to mince words! And He identifies what is true underneath what can be seen with the naked eye. 

Many of us, like the church in Smyrna, may be suffering today. Could be a physical ailment, a broken relationship, or unmet expectations and hopes. In that longing, in that suffering, allow the Spirit of God to remind you of the deeper Kingdom reality of your adoption as a son or daughter of the Father, a brother or sister to Jesus, and the Holy Sprit’s temple. When we do that, Jesus says we won’t be afraid: 

“the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days.” 

Speaking of Kingdom realities, Jesus says it’s not really the earthly powers and authorities that are throwing these Christians into jail, it’s the devil himself. So again, we’re back to our kingdoms in conflict as we’re reading through the lens of Overflow.  

But what on earth is this “ten days” deal? There’s a lot of figurative language in Revelation, is this a symbolic number or is Jesus giving them a peak into the future? Scholars disagree over how to interpret this, but if you just took a Bible study tool like blueletterbible.org. If you don’t know about blueletterbible.org, it’s a very powerful tool, highly recommend it. But if you just did a word search for the term “ten days,” you would find a lot of instances, throughout the Old Testament and New, of testing periods; waiting periods. So, whether it’s literal or figurative, we can only speculate, but Jesus is saying this will only be for a short time. And for those whose persecution doesn’t wind up in their earthly deliverance, but in death, the ultimate upside-down Kingdom reality is in store for them. On account of their faithfulness to death, they will be given the crown of life. There’s a word of encouragement here for us that our suffering, no matter how great or small, will never go unnoticed by our Heavenly Father. 

“The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.” 

Only the Book of Revelation mentions the second death, and here it is not surprisingly set opposite the Crown of Life. The first death is what all humanity will experience when their natural life comes to an end, and the second death is what happens at God’s final judgment. If you read on in Revelation, you’re going to see that the second death is the Lake of Fire, it is an eternal separation from the presence of our Heavenly Father and His infinite love for us. And it is reserved for those whose names are not written in the book of life (20:15), the unrighteous (21:8), the false prophet and the beast (19:20), the devil (20:10), and Death and Hades itself (20:14). Jesus warns his audience not to fear those who can destroy the body, but Him who is able to destroy body and soul in hell (Matt 10:28). And the one who endures suffering has no reason to fear even that judgment.  

This passage is a massive encouragement to me, I hope it is to you as well. It reminds me of John’s words in 1 John 4:18, “perfect love drives out fear.” We have no reason to fear the judgment of God, instead we know His love is extended to us as a compassionate Father. And because we know His love extends to us, we don’t even fear persecution here and now because we know that it is only a drop in the bucket compared to an eternity of love that we will experience, and that we can begin to experience TODAY, this very day, in the Overflow.