Ep.117 - Seven Churches Speak: Why Suffering - Smyrna

It can be very easy to speak in terms of God‘s sovereignty and control over all things. Even when we see very difficult times inflicted on the world and others, it is not a huge stretch of faith to maintain the conviction of God‘s control of world events. However, when that suffering and pain impacts on our own personal lives and on the lives of those we love, it is considerably harder at that point to maintain a stubborn insistence on the sovereignty and governance of God over the events of life. The temptation is to rethink our understanding. To doubt that God is either all powerful or all good.

In this second episode of our new series ‘Seven Churches Speak’, Pete and the Curious team take a look at the Church in Smyrna. The Smyrnaean believers were being maligned and slandered, blasphemed and persecuted. And rather than being met with good news that their difficulties and pain was about to come to an end; they are told by John that persecution will not only continue but increase!

This week the Curious Team take a look at how this particular church in Smyrna managed not only to endure, but to thrive and grow in the most hostile of environments. Tune in this week as the team uncover some wonderful lessons from the church in Smyrna.


Further Reading
We’ve listed some views below for you to read and ponder…
What does God say about the Church at Smyrna? - Christianity.com

The Letter to the Church in Smyrna - Ligonier.org

What we’re reading?
As a feature to our notes, we are adding the book(s) that we’ve been browsing and reading as part of this episode. So here goes. We’ve been getting stuck into the following;

Jeffrey A D Weima—
The Sermons To The Seven Churches of Revelation (A Commentary and Guide)

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