Revelation 2:8-11 - To the Church at Smyrna

To the Church at Smyrna

Rev 2:8-11

The Preamble

Jesus is the First and Last, and who Died and and came to Life again

The Praise
Jesus knows their afflictions, poverty and that they are rich

The Problem
Jesus knows the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not; they are a synagogue of Satan

The Prescription
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will put some of you in prison to test you; you will suffer persecution for ten days.

The Promise
Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.

The feeling of this section is different than that for Ephesus. I feel a sense of compassion, tenderness, and sweet, melancholy knowing. Nothing bad is said about these people. Their problems are all external. They are suffering. Jesus assures them that in their poverty, they are rich by another standard.

Jesus is introduced to the believers in Smyrna as the one who is "the First and Last" and who "died and came to life again". Why?

I don't know what ten days means. Ten actual days of extreme hardship? Is this some prophetic ten years? But they have reason to be afraid. Satan is personally active with them. Some are going to prison. Likely some will die.

They don't have to change anything. There's no repentance prescribed here. This is done, wrapped up in Jesus' approval and comfort of them. Just be faithful.

Be faithful and Jesus will give them a crown of life, eternal life. And then the negative repeating of this: they will not be hurt by the second death.

This may have something to do with the Roman Emperor Domitian's persecution of Christians in his day.

Death is very much on the radar. They are to be faithful even up to their deaths. And now we understand Jesus' introduction. Jesus is the first and the last. This title will come up again in Rev 22 for Jesus. Like Alpha and Omega/Beginning and End, which are used of both Father and Son, the "First and Last" is used of Christ here, and of YHWH in Isaiah 41:6, 43:10 (before me no God, after me none), 44:6, and 48:12.

Jesus died and came to life again. This is the stamp of authenticity for the message: Jesus can promise them a crown of life, and that the second death can't touch them because He himself was resurrected. First and Last establish His power and His death and resurrection define his intimate knowledge of life after death. So even His presentation to the church is intended to reassure them.

All we are given to know about this poor church is their suffering and Jesus' ardent tenderness towards them. When we are suffering, we have a Father in heaven and a Savior whose heart is to collect and comfort us.

Domitian's Persecutions

From John MacArthur (Grace to You):

"But for this little church in Smyrna life was dangerous. It was dangerous for a number of reasons, not the least of which was if you failed to acknowledge Caesar as Lord, you could lose your life. And Smyrna had a very unusual affinity to Caesar, and I'll explain that in a few minutes. So much so that some historians tell us in Smyrna in particular there were mass executions of Christians who refused to bow their knee to Caesar. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't knuckle under the political leader, Caesar was proclaimed as a god and he was to be worshiped as deity. And so it was very dangerous being a Christian in this town which had an unusual affinity for Rome and Caesar."

"There was a very strong emperor worship cult there. In fact, they killed people who didn't worship Caesar. Each year every citizen, get this, each year had to burn incense on Caesar's altar after which he was issued a certificate. To be without a certificate as certainly must have been the case for the Christians obedient to Christ, was to risk discovery and the death penalty. About a half century after John's time, after the time of the writing of this letter, Polycarp, a man named Polycarp was burned alive at the age of 86...86. One writer said it was the twelfth martyr in Smyrna. It happened, of course, he was the pastor of the Smyrna church 50 years after this and he would not bow his knee to Caesar. Joining hands with the Romans to oppose Christianity was a large Jewish community and we know that the Jews repeatedly informed the Romans against the Christians and incited the local government to attack them. It was tough. It was the center also of the worship of Cybele, the worship of Apollo, Aesculapius, Aphrodite and Zeus and they all had temples there as well as the glorious monument to the great writer Homer who apparently was born there. And nestled in this great city was this little church."

The Link to Myrrh

From John MacArthur (Grace to You):

The word "Smyrna" is interesting. Smyrna means myrrh, myrrh. And if you read the Bible and do any background study you can learn about myrrh. Myrrh was a substance that was taken from a thorny tree and it was used basically for perfume or it was used to put on a dead body for aromatic purposes. It had some kind of fragrance to it. And you will remember, of course, that it is mentioned several times in the New Testament. In Matthew 2 when the wise men came, they brought...literally they brought in the Greek smurna.They brought this aromatic substance that had been crushed from the thorny tree and yielded up fragrance. They brought it as a gift to the baby Jesus. It was a perfume. In Mark chapter 15 Christ was offered wine mixed with myrrh, mixed with smurna. And in John 19 you remember that when Christ was buried his body was covered with smurnaor myrrh.

So it started out, of course, in the New Testament as a perfume and then later on was associated with death. And it becomes the picture of suffering in this little church. Smurnaor myrrh was used to treat the dead. And it perfectly shows the suffering character of this church, suffering even to death. In order for that thorny tree to yield that fragrance, it had to be crushed. And so you see a little church, the myrrh church, crushed and when it's crushed it yields the sweet aroma. So the church, I think, was in the right town. God permitted Satan to crush them to yield the sweetness of their aroma.