We’re looking at the second message today to the church of Smyrna. This is one of the shortest messages, and this is one of only two churches where there is nothing negative said about the church. Yet this is the kind of church that the world would not be impressed by.
We start with the character of Christ as every one of these messages do in Revelation 2:8, “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:” now here is the description of Christ, “The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this.” So, He is going back to Revelation 1, and the descriptions of Christ. He is the first and the last, beginning and end, and the Alpha and the Omega. That is who Jesus Christ is. What a comfort that is to these folks. He is eternal – He has always been there. He is in charge. He is sovereign. He is immutable – He never changes. He is the first and He is the last. The verse continues saying, “who was dead and has come to life.” This might be particularly important to the church of Smyrna because the city itself had ceased to exist some centuries before probably because of some invasions and so forth, but it had come back to life some centuries later, but that was part of its history, having been dead and coming back to life. Even more so, as we move into the message, we find that death hung over this church. They are one of the most persecuted of the seven churches. They were in danger, some of them perhaps, of losing their lives and the Lord is wanting them to know that even if that takes place, He has conquered death. They may die in this life for the cause of Christ, but they will be resurrected from the dead. They will come back to life as Christ did because Christ, their Lord, conquered death.
Then He begins the actual message, and He starts with a commendation. He says, “I know.” Every one of these commendations begin with this statement “I know.” Christ knows. He is not deceived, He is not getting fake news, He is not getting information that is unreliable. He knows! He says, “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich),” what a beautiful phrase. He knows they are going through hard times. He doesn’t doubt that. He understands it. He knows their poverty. So, apparently, they are a very poor church so they wouldn’t have a very beautiful cathedral or anything like that. They are just a very poor, common people. He immediately adds the phrase, “but you are rich.” So, in the things that matter, their spiritual wealth, they are rich even though in this life they may be in poverty. “and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” So, they are under a particular pressure, by a group of Jewish people perhaps, but He says they are from the synagogue of Satan. So, whether there is an actual literal synagogue of Satan here or not is debatable, but nevertheless, it is a religion controlled by the devil himself. That would probably be the takeaway. He says, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer.” He does not minimize that. He has already said I know your tribulations, and it’s going to get worse. They are going to suffer. Revelation 2:10 continues, “Behold, the devil,” once again Satan is mentioned, “is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days.” Ten days is a common Greek expression for a short period of time. So, they are going to have a really difficult time in front of them of being cast into prison. They are going to be tested for at least a short period of time . . .
