The 7 Churches of Revelation: Smyrna

Sunday Morning | May 31, 2026 | Colby Flowers | Louisville, KY

Student Pastor Colby Flowers continues our series on the seven churches of Revelation with Smyrna, the second church mentioned in Revelation 2:8-11.

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Good morning church. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Revelation chapter two, Revelation chapter two. The words will be on the screen for you to see, but we’ll be in Revelation chapter two. We're going to look at four verses this morning as we continue in our series on the seven churches of Revelation. We've already opened up with an introductory sermon, and Pastor John walked with us, walked us through rather the church of Ephesus. And now we're going to be at the church of Smyrna. We'll be in verse eight of chapter two this morning. But in July of 2024, a retired Irish pastor by the name of Clive Johnston was arrested and he was arrested for preaching the gospel. See in July of 2024, he went to what our Ireland calls a safe access zone. I'm not sure if you've heard of these. They're scattered across Europe and in 2023, Ireland passed a Safe Access Zone Act. And what it did, is it protected people who were wanting to get an abortion, the opportunity to go to the services and the places that they needed to. And the act states that you cannot directly or indirectly harass or influence or prevent someone who wants to go and to get an abortion. Well, this retired Irish pastor at 78 years old, visited one of these access zones and he was simply preaching the gospel

with the Bible from John 3: 1:48

16. Most well-known verse in the Bible. And frankly, even nonbelievers know what this verse is. And he was preaching about the love of Christ. And according to the footage that we have, he's simply preaching and telling people about who Christ is and what he's done for us. Not with a rude tone or or with a judgmental attitude and certainly he was just talking about the gospel. He never brought up the whole idea of abortion. And yet still the police came and arrested him. And this past month, he actually was convicted and charged for having influenced someone. And so he has a staggering quote, because I don't want to get to the that that the politics of that or what might be the best method to engage someone in that type of situation. But what he says is kind of telling. He says this. It effectively redefines peaceful Christian witness as a form of unlawful influence. If simply reading the Bible, praying, and preaching on God's love can now be considered harmful because someone might overhear it within a certain area, then we have crossed a very serious line. And this is the culture that we live in. And all the this is in Ireland, America, and a lot of ways is ten years behind Europe. Yet we even see things like this happening today in our culture. Now, I think it's important that we take this into effect because the the scripture, the passage that we're going to look at deals with the issue of persecution because of someone's faith. And so here's what we're going to see this morning, is that when the church lives boldly for the gospel, we should expect persecution. And we must remain faithful. When the church lives boldly for the gospel, it lives out loud. It lives with passion and fervor and an unstoppable passion to see other people come to know Christ. When we live with that type of boldness, we should expect persecution. And the goal or the charge that we get this morning will be we must remain faithful and we can't avoid the topic because it's May 31st today. And Pride Month begins next and begins tomorrow. And we all feel this direct or maybe indirect pressure to tolerate or to submit or to even if we don't celebrate these types of things, then we're going to be ousted. We're going to be canceled, we're going to be harmed because we've already maybe seen it on social media. Maybe you've seen it at the workplace, you've seen it in an email, if you've seen it on a flier. But the reality is we see this type of thing every day where we feel the pressure to renounce our faith so that we can celebrate something else. But as Christians, we have to remain faithful. That's the call. And we're going to see that this morning in the church of Smyrna here in Revelation chapter two. So let me read for us here in verse eight, just to set up some context, because we have a lot to unpack with the history of this church, because there's a lot. So this is what

Revelation2: 5:21

8 says in the beginning. And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write again, if you've been with this past couple of weeks, this is Jesus speaking to each individual church, and this is his words to the church of Smyrna. And Smyrna was located in Asia Minor. And so if you could throw up the map just so you can see it, we've used this for a couple weeks. It's just right above Ephesus, right above Ephesus. And this is a very checkered city. It's got a lot of stuff in it. And Smyrna, despite having, very little biblical information about this that is coming directly from the Bible, we have tons of historical evidence about this church and about this city. And so what I want to do for us this morning is to give you a little picture of what Smyrna was, because it's certainly going to help us understand what Jesus is saying in this context to this church. And so a couple historical notes about Smyrna. It was possibly likely the birthplace of Homer. So Homer wrote the Odyssey, like the movies coming out about it, one of the most well known ancient stories that we have. And this was likely the birthplace of Homer. In fact, they had a shrine of him in this city. And what's interesting about this is that it was also characterized by suffering and beauty. So Louisville, Kentucky might be well known for the Derby, right? But this city was known for suffering and beauty. We have tons of historical evidence that that speak to this, and in fact, you can even hear it in the name of the city. Smyrna. It derives from a word called myrrh. Y'all probably heard this myrrh. It's a spice. It's a common spice used, and it was used in the burial process. And so this word came to mean this idea of suffering and death and burial. And this is one of the spices that Jesus received when he was a baby, one of the three gifts from the wise men. And so this picture we get of the city is suffering because it got destroyed and rebuilt several times. In 600 BC, the Persians came in and wiped the city out, took it down and stripped it. And then by the fourth century BC, then Alexander the Great came in and commissioned to rebuild it. So it had gone through a lot of suffering, but it was also a city because of this was known for its beauty. It had paved roads. It had a library, you know, gymnasium, it had a stadium. So it's a very beautiful city. As a result. So a couple other notes, though, to that. This church had received a letter, a letter from a man named Ignatius. We're going to look at this in a little in a little while. But Ignatius was a, a pastor at the Church of Antioch. And it's really important because he gives us a lot of context of what was happening in this city. And we're going to see that in just a little while. And last but not least, just a final note is that Smyrna was likely the birthplace of two incredible early Christians that we know of, whose name was Polycarp, and Irenaeus. Those names are like, I have no idea who those are, and that's okay. But what's interesting about this is that the apostle John, who's writing this book, discipled Polycarp. Polycarp was a personal disciple of John, and so John plants Polycarp in Smyrna, and he was the pastor of this church. This is well after John's death. But but he was the pastor in this city, which is so interesting. And then this guy named Polycarp discipled Irenaeus. And we have all of these letters in these stories written from them and to them. And all that we have is historical evidence about this city. So I come back to the point, although we don't have a lot of biblical context for this city, we have a ton of historical context which helps us understand what the city is. So let me go here in verse eight says, and the angel of the church in Smyrna write the words of the first and the last who died and came to life. So Jesus addresses this church with some things about himself. I'm the first, I'm the last. I am the one who died and came to life. And Jesus is telling us about himself, but he's trying to encourage the church. He's actually giving them attributes about himself that will encourage them in what they're dealing with. See the Smyrnan church really didn't struggle. Their biggest issue and their biggest trial wasn't necessarily a sin issue, but it was a persecution issue that they were dealing with. And so Jesus wanted to encourage them and build them up and prepare them for what was about to come. So he says, I am the first and the last. I'm eternal. I was before everything. I'm going to be after everything. And then he makes note of his death and resurrection, that he was the one who died. But praise God that he came back to life. And what Jesus is trying to communicate to this church is to say, listen, I'm the one who was before and after everything. I'm the one who died and came back to life. And because of that, you can have hope and courage no matter what you're about to go through. It was an encouragement to the church of Smyrna. And we see in this picture that Jesus is trying to say that if I've won this victory, so will you. He goes on here in verse nine, Jesus says to the church, I know your tribulation or physical persecution and your poverty,(but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. It's pretty stark language that he uses there, but Jesus is addressing them and saying, listen, I know what you're going through. I know, I know what you're dealing with in the trials that you're facing. But listen, I've been in your shoes. I've been persecuted. And this picture that we see here is that Jesus knows our persecution. But listen, Jesus can also sympathize with us. He doesn't just know when and what and how we suffer, but he knows it because he was in it. Hebrews tells us we have a faithful and a great high priest who can sympathize with us, because he himself has suffered far worse than we have. And so he's saying, I know that you're suffering, and I know it because I've been there. For some of you, you may be going through something now, you may be suffering. You may be suffering at your workplace from persecution, from a family member. You may be getting shamed or canceled, whatever that might look like. But but listen, what Jesus is saying is, I know that you're being persecuted, and I know what it feels like. And the most comforting thing is to have someone in your corner that's been through it before you that you can lean on, that you can trust and you can go to. And I guarantee you, Jesus can use that for his glory and your good. Let me come back here to verse nine, because there's something else that we need to point out is that he says, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. So notice what Jesus says listen, I see your persecution. You're physically persecuted, you've been robbed and pillaged, and your possessions and money have been stolen, which has caused you to be impoverished. You're even publicly shamed and talked down to and as we might say today, canceled because of your faith. Jesus has a little comment there. He says, but you are rich. You might recognize in James chapter two, verse five, it says that God chose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith. Meaning we might be canceled. We might be stripped and robbed of promotions of jobs. We might be. We might have things taken away from us, but our inheritance in the afterlife and what is to come with Jesus is far greater than what we could ever achieve in this one. So we might be poor in this world, but we certainly by God’s grace are rich in the next. So yes, we may be dealing with that. But he's saying, listen, you may be tempted and persecuted and going through this trial now, but listen, you are rich. It may not feel like it. Didn't have did not kind of bring up like that's the way life is. It feels like that sometimes. I don't feel like I'm rich. I don't feel like I have joy in my heart. Like life is getting at me. Whether it's because of lack of money or difficulty with our jobs or our families or our relationships, or our health, we're this temporary, present life. And these temporary bodies are saying everything but being rich in faith. But let me remind you today that if you've trusted in Christ, and I pray that you have, that you have a hope beyond the circumstances that you're dealing with today, whether it's persecution or financial stress, whatever that looks like. But notice who the opponents are of the church, these false Jews, Jews who say I'm Jewish, but they're really not. We might call them hypocrites. People who are religious, who have this religious facade, but they don't really know who God is. And these are people who were like Jews that potentially could have been worshipers of Yahweh, but also trying to worship other gods at the same time. Maybe they were just Jews who were opposing God's will, but for Jesus to say that they're the synagogue of Satan, we need to unpack that, because that's pretty stark language, is it not? But I think throughout the the Bible, we're given this idea that those who are against God have this, this, this something about them called the synagogue of Satan. So, so let me say it this way anyone who opposes the will of God is being deceived and manipulated to do Satan's will. Now you might hear that and think, well, does that mean that everyone who's a nonbeliever is possessed by the devil? That's that's not what we're saying here. We're not going to that extreme. But let me show you what I think this means. In fact, if you think back to Mark chapter eight, when Jesus says, I've got to go to Jerusalem, I've got to go die and be raised again. And what does Peter do? Hold up Jesus. I need to correct your thinking Jesus. I need to rebuke you. Jesus, you can't go and die because you're the Messiah. So what are you talking about? And if you recall, what does Jesus say? Get behind me, Satan. Now, is Jesus calling Peter Satan in this instance? I don't think so. What I think he's getting at is, is because of Peter's deceptive. His mind was deceived. He was being manipulated to try to convince Jesus he can't go down the cross for us. He was being used and manipulated by our spiritual enemy to go against the will of God. So here a disciple of Jesus himself is one who was operating on the other team. Did you all catch that? Peter was a faithful believer and yet he was opposing God's will. Do you all see that? We get other instances in the Bible as well. In the book of Acts, I gave these in your notes. It's because Satan has power in this world. The ability to deceive and manipulate and his schemes are pretty good. And in fact, Jesus encountered a particular group that I want to show you in John chapter eight. That kind of brings this full circle for us. But in John chapter eight, Jesus is dealing with, religious Jews, and he's disputing with them. And he says here, in John chapter eight, verse 39, these are these Jews speaking. They said, well, they answered Jesus, Abraham is our father. We're the Jewish of Jews. We are the Jewish nation. And Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. Do you see what Jesus is doing? You may be related to Abraham, but you certainly aren't acting like his children. Then he goes on in verse 44 he says, you are. This is Jesus speaking. You are of your father, the who the devil, and your will is to do the father's desires. Do you see what he's doing? You are opposing God's will and as a result, you are doing what the devil wants you to do. So I can't make a blanketed black and white statement to say that every person who's not a believer is following and doing Satan's will, I can't. You can't really say that, but I can say those who oppose what God wants and wills in this world, they are certainly helping the other team. Do y'all get this picture? This is what I think Jesus is saying. There is a group of people, false Jews or even Jews, who think that they're following God, but they really aren't. And what they're doing is they are persecuting you, and they are the synagogue of Satan. And as a result, they are opposing God's will. So this morning, church, you need to see that this threat, this scheme is still present today. The repeated threat to believers is to renounce our faith, to avoid persecution. If you would just renounce, recant, go back, give in, move your principles, surrender the line, inch backwards. Then we won't cancel you. Then we won't judge you. Then we won't go after your job or after your career. Then we won't shame you on social media. If only you would just step back from being Christ followers. Then we might accept you. Because it doesn't matter who it is. Religious, secular, anyone who opposes the will of God, we can be persecuted. And persecution looks different as we're going to see. But whether it's social, financial, physical, emotional persecution, we as the church, if we're following Jesus, we need to be expecting it. He goes on here in verse ten, he says, do not fear what you're about to suffer. Do not fear. Here's your first command. Jesus gives. And what's interesting about the church of Smyrna. This is the one of two churches that we'll look at in this series that doesn't get a rebuke or a correction from Jesus. In fact, Jesus is trying to encourage them because they were dealing with persecution. So Jesus says, do not fear what's about to happen, what you're about to suffer. Stand strong. He goes into detail. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. So although he says your persecution may be short. And may end with your life, so he's preparing them. Be ready. Do not fear. But as a Christian, we might say, I might die. Why would I not fear Jesus? How can I say, how can you say to me, do not fear when I know my life might be on the line? How can I have faith in the midst of such a thing? Well, look at the end of this verse. Jesus comforts us with some promises. He says, but be faithful unto death. And notice what he says, and I will give you the crown of life. Here's the promise. Here's the reward that if we remain faithful in to that we receive the reward of eternal life. Meaning putting this in perspective that your physical present health and wealth are not more important than your spiritual eternal health and wealth, that our eternity is much more valuable and much more lasting than the suffering that we can experience in this life. And that's not to downgrade what you might face in this life, but it's supposed to raise our eyes to see what is ahead for us if we remain faithful to following Jesus. We're called to be faithful, to remain, to be steadfast. And here's the truth the world takes notice when you live boldly and faithfully for Christ. When you live unspotted, unapologetically, unashamedly for Christ and the gospel, it will spark up the world. Christians don't have to create controversy because the truth is already controversial to a world who doesn't like it. The gospel in and of itself is controversial, but it's the truth, and we need to stand by, remain faithful to, and if we live boldly for it and not be silent about it, yes, we will be persecuted. So listen. Remaining faithful to Christ will likely result in suffering. It might be a loss of your reputation. It might be a loss of your career. It might be a loss of your freedom, and it might be a loss for your life. There's so many stories I could share, but one comes to mind right now is the is the church in Congo right now Is being heavily persecuted, killed. It was last year that in one month, over 200 Christians were martyred for their faith. Now that's completely foreign to us in a in a in a culture, in a in a country where do we do have freedom of religion, but that line is being pushed back, is it not? So because of that, persecution might look different. But if we remain faithful to Christ, the world will take notice, and then it will push back against the church. So hear me out. The finish line of for a believer's faith is death. Paul said it so well

in First Corinthians nine: 25:40

I run the race to receive the imperishable wreath. Says in First Timothy that I run the race to receive the crown. And that I did not back down.

In James 1: 25:54

12 literally says that those who are faithful to the end will receive the crown of life, because the reward if we remain faithful, is eternal life in Christ Jesus church. Final verse

this morning, Revelation 2: 26:08

11. Jesus ends by admonishing them, encouraging them, and charges them. He says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Whoever can listen, whoever would listen, listen to this. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. Now the second death. This idea is a it's rabbinical idea. A Jewish rabbi, a rabbinical term used to talk about the afterlife. Because, yes, we die in this life, and that's our first death, our physical death. But there is an even worse death that happens after that. And that's eternal separation from our Lord and Savior. But the promise, the truth is that if we hold fast to the gospel, hold fast to Christ, that we will not be hurt by that death. So church, we should not fear those who can kill the body. Because Christ has secured our victory in eternity church. We as a church, we don't go out looking to be persecuted. We don't go out looking to stir up controversy. We don't go out looking to to step on people's toes. But if we're boldly living for the gospel and living for Christ, it's going to happen. And so we shouldn't fear those who may threaten us with job loss or loss of promotion, or canceling on social media, or even the worst of the worst, that they would kill us because we have a victory set in heaven for eternity. Praise be to Christ. So here's my one point, my one admonishment, my one encouragement for you this morning. Live for the crown that never perishes. Heading into June for Pride Month. You may be tempted to look for the crown of people pleasing. To look for the crown that I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings because I don't want to share my faith. And there's always nuance and wisdom with this church. That doesn't mean we go around and we violate every rule that we can find. We shouldn't be a toddler. That's my daughter at home. I draw a line and she crosses it. That's not what the church is called to be. That's that's emotional immaturity. We don't do that. But when we are confronted with an opportunity to stand firm on the gospel, we need to stand firm. And yes, that means the loss of our job, as bad as that might be. Do we believe that the God of the universe can take care of the financial loss if we stand firm in the gospel? I want to share with you a couple of things as we close, because I think the situation in Smyrna goes beyond just what Paul wrote, because we have, as I said, historical writings that told us what happened and the Pastor Polycarp, who was the pastor in Smyrna, eventually the Jews and the Gentiles began pushing back and persecuting him to see if he would cave. And what's so cool about this story is that there's a book or a letter called The Martyrdom of Polycarp. You can find it. It's so beautiful. But it details the story of this man being martyred for his faith. And I want to share a little excerpt for you about the people who witnessed this pastor being persecuted and ultimately killed because he would not budge in Smyrna. Look at this Martyrdom of Polycarp. This is, not the Bible. This is just an historical account, and this is what it says. But when the proconsul, the judge persisted and said, take the oath, and I will release you, revile Christ. Polycarp responded, 86 years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How could I blaspheme my King who saved me? And to his death they attempted to burn him, and then they ended up killing him because he didn't budge. I will show you one more thing, because I think this is so impactful, church. Because I want you to see what the church did and how it responded. This is Ignatius writing back to the church in Smyrna after the fact, after Polycarp has been killed, after John wrote this book of Revelation, and this is what it says, one, one little, passage from a letter that Ignatius wrote. Look at this. He says, I give glory to Jesus Christ, the God who has made you so wise. For I perceive that you have been established in immovable faith. Just as if having been nailed on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Immovable faith, church, that's what we need. Here's your challenge today. Are you living boldly enough for Christ that the world takes notice? Because some of you are thinking, listen, I've never really been persecuted for my faith. I've never had to deal with the hard, a hard conversation with a nonbeliever, or with a coworker, with a family member or whoever it is. I've never had to really stand on my own two feet for my faith. And I totally get that, because we live in a culture, we live in a country where there is freedom of religion. So it's very possible, very likely that you can be a bold, believing Christian and never having been persecuted for your faith. But there's also another aspect to this that may be a reason why you haven't been persecuted for your faith is because you're not living boldly for Christ at all. And my my encouragement for you is that I've been there where I have not said the thing that I needed to say, or I've not loved my neighbor as I should have, and told them the truth, or I didn't stand where I needed to stand. I've been there, but that's not an that shouldn't be an excuse for us moving forward, that we should be a church that is willing to live boldly for Christ. That means saying the the appropriate, grace filled, truthful thing when we need to, when we're called upon. Because here's the truth. It's better to offend someone into heaven than it is to affirm them into hell. I would rather be truthful with the gospel and them hate me because of it, but yet they would believe in Jesus one day, than for me to affirm them and not deal with the issue at hand and allow them to go to a place far from God. So my prayer for us church for me is that we would pray, we would. We would live a life boldly for the gospel so that we would see our neighbor come to know Christ amidst persecution, amidst trial, and this pressure to conform. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the for the for the gospel and for the Bible. I thank you for this church and the church of Smyrna. I thank you for their immovable faith that despite the persecution, whether it be social or financial or physical or emotional, but God, they remained faithful to the gospel, willing to stand on the ground of the truth. And I pray, father, that we would also have an immovable faith, that we would like Jesus, be full of truth and grace, that we would have the words to speak and the wisdom to navigate the conversations in the in the workplace and at home and in public. We would be cautious and careful how we interact with people, even online Father. But all of it's for the sake of helping people, God, understand the gospel and understand the truth, even if it means that we lose a job, that we lose a promotion, that we lose our life because we know God. That your son has secured for us the crown of life through his death and resurrection, so that no matter what happens to us, no matter the threats, no matter the persecution, that we have an inheritance that is eternal, that we will get to be with you forever one day. So may our future reward outshine our present circumstances Father. Make us bold for our faith in Jesus name. And the church said Amen.