To DOWNLOAD an MP3 of
this message, first right click here then choose "save link as" or
"save target as". Older audio is removed to conserve server space,
but is available by request.
SERMON:
When the first followers of Jesus
gathered to his side, they didn’t really understand what they were getting
themselves into. The church of Jesus’ day taught that when the Messiah finally
arrived, he would establish a visible, powerful, glorious, governmental church—which
would rule the earth.
And so, when Jesus appeared, and
began to heal the sick, cast out demons, and do all sorts of miracles, the
people flocked to him. They thought the new age of Jewish glory had finally arrived—and
they wanted in on it.
And so it was hard for the disciples
of Jesus to understand, and to believe him, when Jesus spoke of how he was
destined to suffer a humiliating death.
When Jesus told his inner circle of
apostles that they too would suffer persecution, and even martyrdom, his words
fell on numb ears. How could this be? Didn’t the Old Testament speak of great
glory for the followers of God? What were they missing? What didn’t they
understand?
What they were missing was that the
time of glory would not come on this earth, but only after the day of judgment.
Only after the judgment, and the renewal of all things, would the followers of Christ
get to stand by their Heavenly Father’s throne in glory. In this world, the
followers of Christ should expect persecution, and even death, for faithfully proclaiming
his message.
Author C.S. Lewis once put it like
this…
“Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is.
Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say
landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of
sabotage”
(Mere
Christianity, C.S.
Lewis).
Soldiers in enemy territory don’t
expect tea and crumpets. They expect to be uncomfortable. They expect to face
violent opposition. But they know that one day the war will end, and things
will be different.
▬
Today we’re going to continue our
study of the seven letters that Jesus wrote to the churches in Asia Minor. Last
Sunday we heard Jesus rebuke the Loveless Church. Today he changed his tone to
encourage The Persecuted Church.
May the Holy Spirit cause us to
understand, to be comforted, and to grow in our trust of Christ. Amen.
▬
Revelation 2:8-11 (NASB)
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to
life, says this:
9 ‘I
know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by
those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
10 ‘Do
not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some
of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation
for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
11 ‘He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who
overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’
▬
The city of
Smyrna was located about 40 miles north of Ephesus. Like Ephesus, Smyrna was a sizable
city, home to pagan temples. It also contained a Jewish synagogue.
We have no
record of Paul or any other apostle visiting Smyrna. We assume that the church
there was started by Ephesian Christians traveling north to share the Gospel.
But we don’t really know for sure how this city first heard about Christ.
What we do
know, is that the Christians in Smyrna were facing great pressure. That’s what
the Greek word for “tribulation” means, “pressure”. This word can refer to anything
that weighs on a person, but Christ’s words suggests that the pressure these
Christians were feeling came upon them because they were faithfully sharing the
message of grace and forgiveness from God, through his crucified and risen Son.
In addition to religious
persecution, the Christians in Smyrna also faced the challenge of being poor.
This was not a time of great social generosity. This was a time when unpaid
debt could lead to legal slavery. There were no Food Stamps and Medicare for
these people.
Besides these things,
the Christians of Smyrna were being slandered by the local Synagogue. We’re not
told exactly what was being said, so we can only guess. But we do know that in
other places as Christianity spread, Christians were accused of things like cannibalism
or sacrificing their own children.
▬
Jesus starts this
letter of encouragement by reminding the Christians of Smyrna that he is “the
first and the last”, that is, Jesus is the eternal God. Then he reminds
them that he is the one “who was dead, and has come to life”. By
describing himself in this way, Jesus is reinforcing the truth that he is both
God and Man.
To a church that
was facing persecution, this was a comforting message. Jesus, THE ETERNAL GOD,
and was watching over their lives. He knew what they were facing. Jesus, the
one who had RISEN FROM THE DEAD, had power over death still, and would raise
his followers to life on the last day.
▬
These reminders
were important for these Christians, because soon they would be facing greater
suffering. Jesus warns them of this upcoming tribulation so that their faith won’t
be shaken when they are thrown in prison,
or when they see their brothers and sisters in Christ thrown into prison for
the faith.
The devil intended
this persecution to shake their faith to the core, causing them to abandon
Jesus. But Jesus would use this persecution to stoplight the faith of the
Christians at Smyrna. Their trust in the Savior would shine, and perhaps draw
more people to their Savior.
▬
I wonder what
the reaction of the Christians in Smyrna was when they heard this letter read. Remember,
we’re reading someone else’s mail here. This letter was written to real people.
Imagine getting a letter directly from Jesus that says, “I’ve seen your
hardships, now get ready for more. Some of you will be thrown in jail soon, and
you’ll be under great pressure for ten days.”
But Jesus accompanies
this revelation with a tender promise. He says, DON’T BE AFRAID about the
suffering to come. I’m the eternal God. I’ve got power over death. Your time of
tribulation will only last so long. Keep trusting in me, and I’ll give you the
crown of eternal life. Hell won’t be able to touch you then.
▬
It’s fitting
that we read Christ’s letter of comfort to the persecuted church on this
Sunday, for today is Reformation Sunday. This is the Sunday of the year that we
use to remember the Lutheran Reformation.
Almost 500
years ago, God used Martin Luther to restore the Gospel message to a world that
had nearly lost it. And through much of
his life, Luther experienced the same things that the Christians at Smyrna did.
If Martin Luther and the Christians at Smyrna could have met, they would have
had a lot of similar stories to share.
▬
The Christians
at Smyrna were poor. Luther too, was born into a poor family. Luther’s
parents, Hans and Margareta, were peasants. Hans worked hard to provide for his
family. He was a miner. Margareta worked at home, caring for their four sons
and three daughters. Like those in Smyrna, this family didn’t have insurance.
They didn’t have food stamps. They didn’t have an emergency room to run when
sickness hit.
While the
Christians at Smyrna were outwardly poor, Jesus tells us that they were
actually RICH. That is, they had the Gospel message. They knew their sins were
paid for by the Son of God. They knew that the Creator of the universe loved
them dearly.
But Luther
didn’t have this richness in his youth. His parents didn’t know the Gospel of
forgiveness because the church wasn’t preaching that message anymore. Instead,
they taught Luther that Jesus was a stern judge who expected him to be perfect,
and to pay for each sin he committed. Through stern discipline at home, and at
church, Luther learned to fear God in the worst way.
▬
While attending
university, Luther’s fear of God only increased. A close friend of Luther’s
died suddenly, and unexpectedly. And while traveling back to school from home
one day Luther found himself in a violent lightning storm. He was so afraid
that God was finally coming for him, that he vowed to give his life to God if
God would just spare him from death in the storm. He vowed to become a monk.
Though Luther
thought God was angry with him because of his sins, God was actually leading
Luther on a path to learn about God’s free forgivness. As a monk, Luther’s
superior told him to study the Bible. And as Luther began to study the Bible,
he began to see that the God of the Bible was much different than the God the
church had taught him to know.
Though the God
of the Bible certainly hated sin, Luther discovered the God of the Bible had
provided a way for sinners to escape judgment and hell. One particular verse
stuck in Luther’s mind. Luther read…
“16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew
first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God
is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by
faith” (Romans 1:16-17 NKJV).
Luther came to understand
that Christ Jesus was not just an angry judge. Christ suffered and died to
erase the sinner’s sin. What kind of judge does something like that?! Not an
angry, hateful judge, but a loving, compassionate one. Luther learned that forgiveness
of sins and eternal life was a gift from God, given through faith in Jesus. When
the Holy Spirit finally got through to Luther with this Gospel message, the spiritually
bankrupt Luther became rich, just like the Christians at Smyrna.
▬
And it was then
that Luther began to face tribulation, just like the Christians at Smyrna. After becoming
a monk, Luther become a priest, then a professor, then a scholar, and then finally
he was appointed to be the preacher at a church in the German city of
Wittenberg.
As Luther continued
to study God’s Word and to preach what he found there, the power of the Gospel
began to take hold of him. One historian writes…
“The true Gospel of salvation by grace through Jesus
Christ grew on him with increasing force as the great fountain of divine wisdom
and knowledge was opened to him and the refreshing waters of life began to pour
forth from him upon his hearers. He began to teach and preach that forgiveness
of sin was obtained not by outward works of righteousness, but was bestowed
freely by grace upon all who fully believed in Christ alone who had fulfilled
all the demands of the Law and borne all our sins” (Sketches from the
History of the Church, E. Hageman).
Amazingly,
Luther didn’t start preaching against the church that had mislead him all his
life. He still was convinced that the Pope was the rightful leader of God’s
church and must simply not know what was being taught in his churches. He
figured that if the Pope knew what was going on in Germany he would set things
right and direct the people to trust in Christ alone for their forgiveness.
But this wasn’t
the case. And when the leaders of Roman Church heard what Luther was teaching,
they demanded that he stop teaching the Gospel and burn all his writings.
Eventually the Pope excommunicated Luther from the church and convinced the
Emperor of Europe to declare Luther an outlaw. Now, for simply preaching what
the Bible said, Luther could be legally murdered by anyone who found him. Talk
about pressure.
Friends of
Luther had him kidnapped by vizored knights as he traveled home from the city
of Worms. They took him to the castle of Wartburg to keep him safe from the
Pope and the Emperor. Though he wasn’t imprisoned in the same way that the
Christians at Smyrna were, Luther was entering into his own “tribulation for
ten days”. For the last 25 years of his life, Luther would remain an enemy
of the state, unable to travel openly.
▬
And just as the
Christians at Smyrna faced slander from the unbelieving Jews of their city,
Luther was also mercilessly slandered by the writers of the Catholic Church.
One historian
records the following…
“Scarcely had it been published when a pamphlet from
Italy came to hand, giving and account of Luther’s death. It related how Luther
had died shortly after having received the sacrament and that his body had been
placed on the altar. After the burial a terrific storm arose and the communion
wafer was seen suspended in the air. During the next night there was a great
noise at the grave which was found empty, emitting such stifling sulphurous
fumes that none could approach it. In reply Luther republished the pamphlet,
stating in a preface that it might be regarded as a huge joke, if it were not
so sacrilegious” (Sketches from the History of the Church, E. Hageman).
Eventually, the
real death of Luther took place, though it was not so sensational. Luther’s
health had grown worse in recent years, and when he returned to Eisleben, where
he had been born and baptized, he commented to his doctor that he believed he
would soon die. Friends gathered around him there, and as Luther struggled to
sleep amid his final pains, his friends became anxious. They woke the pained
Luther and asked, “Reverend Father, are you ready to die in the faith of your
Lord Jesus Christ and in the doctrine which you have preached in His name?”
Luther’s reply was a simple and clear, “Yes.” And that night the Lord released
Luther from his life of suffering and persecution.
“Be faithful
until death, and I will give you the crown of life,” the Lord Jesus told the
Christians at Smyrna. “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation
2:10,11 NASB). We look forward to meeting Luther in person, when we gather
with all the faithful beside our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
▬
In the book of Second
Timothy it says…
“12 Indeed,
all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” (2
Timothy 3:12 ESV).
No comments:
Post a Comment