Text: Revelation 2:8-11
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_0Rc-0lIPs&list=PLYSdk4DAv_anFhxfY0u-bVYvh0vcgJIqn&index=2&t=0s
Intro: As I prepared for this message I had to wrestle with the fact that I do not like this text....I do not like this letter to the church of Smyrna. I did not have a problem with the letter to the church in Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7) b/c it was calling them out. They were being warned of judgment that they deserved....they had lost their first love and they were being called back. The church in Ephesus was going to face trial and tribulation designed to bring them back to their first love. But the church in Smyrna is one of two churches out of the seven that "did nothing wrong" and yet they are going to face trial and tribulation....I sat back and had to admit that I did not like the unfairness of this...and then I wondered if that isn't how some of us have felt in light of COVID?
Going on the words "the first and last" in the text are there to remind us that God is in control...and yet they are going to be thrown into tribulation even though God is in control. Again, the question of fairness comes up...life isn't always the way we want it...the question of fairness seems to rise to the surface more often than not in our hearts. But the problem is that this is only true in the short term... not the long term. In the long term we trust that God is able to and will set everything right.
Other questions that this message wrestles with are:
- Do we long for power? I mean if Christians were in control.we would set things right....right?
- Do we long for riches? If we had more money we would....tribulation, slander, poverty are called strengths in this text and yet we see them as tragedy?
- Suffering is bad right?
- Are we running to win or will we pull up short in the face of trials?
- Who was the first recorded Christian Martyr in Smyrna? Polycarp. Here is a short article on it. https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/martyrs/polycarp.html and the longer version https://onlinechristianlibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/The-Martyrdom-of-Polycarp.pdf
Why not take a listen to the message today and wrestle with how fair we want life to be? Make sure you listen all the way to the end for the answer to that question.
Blessings,
PT
