02 Smyrna: Lighting the Candle


Copyright © 2019 Michael A. Brown


Being Prepared to Make the Ultimate Sacrifice
‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’ (Tertullian)
To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
“These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.  I know your afflictions and your poverty – yet you are rich!  I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.  Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.  I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days.  Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.”
(Rev. 2:8-11)


ALTHOUGH these seven churches were not separated by great geographical distances, yet it is interesting that they were having such widely differing experiences all pretty much at the same time.  No doubt the believers in Laodicea were happy and self-satisfied with their comfort and material riches (perhaps even attributing all this to the blessing of God upon their lives!), and no doubt the complacent believers of Sardis continued to faithfully attend their dead church in which there was no spiritual breakthrough.  However, over here in Smyrna things were very different.  Here there was soon to be an outbreak of localized persecution, as the believers in Pergamum would also experience.
      While the Laodiceans relaxed on their couches checking their bank balances and the believers in Sardis went on singing their songs, these Smyrnean believers would be persecuted for their faith.  Satan, the slanderer, was already using the local Jewish community to publicly and unjustly malign their godly character, and it seems that some of them had already lost their jobs simply because they were Christians, perhaps because they were Jewish converts or had been thrown out of their trade-guilds.  Some of them had perhaps also had their homes and possessions confiscated (cf. Heb. 10:33-34), leading to poverty and destitution (2:9).  So these believers were already undergoing hardship simply because they were remaining steadfast to their faith in Jesus.  And the Lord tells them that even tougher times are on the way...  Satan was going to stir up a season of localized persecution against Christians in this city of Smyrna, and some of them would be thrown into prison for their faith and perhaps might even die there.
      This message to these believers at Smyrna is one of understanding, encouragement and empathy.  It is interesting that the issue of repentance is not mentioned at all.  This would probably suggest that the Lord is focusing here on the fact that the lives of the believers were going to be affected in a profound way by what they would go through.  It perhaps also anticipates the fact that the coming persecution would, as it always does, sift and cleanse the church.  The faith of those who would prove to be faithful even unto death would be strong and vital, suggesting that the message of repentance did not need to be emphasized to these believers.
      Despite the relatively quiet lives that many western Christians lead today, yet the sobering reality is that persecution and suffering for the faith is the lot of many others in the body of Christ in other parts of the world.  This letter to the believers in Smyrna is prophetic of the suffering Church.  It represents one very real part of what it means to follow Christ and to be the church of Christ on earth, suffering persecution for the faith and perhaps even martyrdom.
      Pastors and leaders may get hauled before courts on unjust, trumped-up charges, simply because they shepherd groups of believers, and thrown into prison or sent to labour camps.  Christians in some countries are treated like second-class citizens.  They are allowed to do only menial work and are denied access to higher levels of education or career employment.  Church buildings and the homes of Christians may be destroyed or burned down, and they may be forced to move away to another place.  Bibles are confiscated or burned, while those who possess them may get thrown into prison or sent to a labour camp.  And all simply because they believe in Jesus and follow him...
      Those of us who live in the UK would do well to remember that our freedom to possess and read the word of God, and to freely attend church meetings and express our faith, was bought at a tremendous price by our predecessors during the time of the Reformation, by men such as Tyndale, Latimer and Ridley (and others) who were publicly burned at the stake for their faith in Christ.
      Some commentators see these ‘ten days’ (2:10) as prophetic of ten distinct seasons of persecution that the Church suffered in the Roman Empire prior to the time of Constantine the Great (who, by the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, brought the persecution of Christians to an end).  It is certainly true that, towards the end of and then after the apostolic period in the first century, the Church suffered irregular seasons of persecution.  Apart from the early persecutions by the Jews (cf. Acts 8:1 – 9:31), these Gentile persecutions began in 64 AD during the reign of Nero and lasted until the Great Persecution of 303-311 AD in the reign of Diocletian.  It was the infamous Nero who falsely blamed Christians for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD and then began to cruelly torture and execute them.  The apostle Paul himself suffered martyrdom in Nero’s reign by being beheaded in 67 AD.  These persecutions were often localized in specific areas and relatively short-lived, but others were more widespread.  There were many atrocious, brutal and horrific acts of barbarity committed against believers in this period.
      History records that the apostles of Christ all suffered violent deaths (with the exception of John who was sentenced to labour in copper mines on the isle of Patmos, cf. Rev. 1:9).  Martyrdom has always been part of the Christian call and walk, and it was not an uncommon experience in this Early Church period.  In fact, Jesus himself is called the ‘faithful witness’ (Rev. 1:5) and the Greek word used here is martus.  So literally, Jesus is the faithful martyr.
      Throughout the history of the Church there have been many recorded examples of believers who were put to death for their faith in Christ.  In the early Church period, when people became Christians and accepted Jesus as Lord of all, they did this knowing that they might well be persecuted and perhaps even have to seal their faith with their blood.  Stephen was the first such martyr, stoned to death outside the walls of Jerusalem by the leaders of the Jews (Acts 6:8 – 7:60).  To become a Christian was to enter into a new life in which suffering for the sake of Christ was simply a recognized part of the call:
‘I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.’ (Phil. 1:20)
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him…’ (Phil. 1:29)
‘In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ (2 Tim. 3:12)
‘…exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.’ (Acts 14:22 AV)
      The Christian community in this city of Smyrna had the privilege of furnishing history with one of the greatest and well-known martyrs of the Early Church period, Polycarp.  Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of the apostle John, became the bishop of Smyrna where he lived and ministered during the latter years of his life.  He was always treated with great respect by younger Christians because of his exemplary life and prophetic ministry.
      The prevailing Roman cult of emperor-worship demanded that all people should openly proclaim that Caesar was Lord and should make a sacrifice to him.  Polycarp (along with many other Christians) refused to do this, saying to the proconsul, “Eighty and six years have I served [Jesus], and he never did me wrong; and how can I now blaspheme my King that has saved me?”  So, even at such an old age, he was condemned to be burnt publicly at the stake before a baying crowd in a packed-out stadium.[1]
Invited into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings
      To be called to follow Jesus is to be called to walk with him in everything that this means to follow him.  He is certainly the risen and victorious Saviour, but he still bears the marks of his wounds (John 20:26-27).  Although he truly reigns triumphant as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, yet it is the slain Lamb who dwells in the midst of the throne of God (Rev. 5:5-6).  At the heart of his triumph is his cross.  So, to know him and to walk with him in committed relationship is an open invitation to fellowship with him in his sufferings.
      Some modern-day western Christians reclining in Laodicean comfort perhaps do not realise this, but it’s actually an integral part of the deal.  It goes with the territory!  We serve and walk with a Saviour and Lord who not only suffered and died himself on the cross for our redemption, but who has been and continues to be repeatedly persecuted since the birth of his Church for what he is doing in the world, releasing people from the dominion of Satan and bringing them into the true freedom of the kingdom of God.
      Jesus is still despised and rejected by people (Isa. 53:3).  Unregenerate human nature will always be at enmity with him (Rom. 8:7).  Satan is the implacable enemy of Christ and will do anything and everything he can to disrupt, slander, malign, hinder or destroy the work of Christ on earth through his Church (cf. 1 Thess. 2:18).  In using people to persecute believers, he is persecuting Jesus himself (Acts 9:5), and when Jesus is persecuted, it is we ourselves who bear the brunt of this suffering on earth.
      In the words which he spoke to Saul/Paul on the Damascus Road, Jesus made clear the fact of his continuing suffering: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ (Acts 9:4), and he told Ananias that he would show Paul how much he was later going to suffer for Christ’s name in his apostolic ministry (Acts 9:16).  As he grew in his faith, Paul embraced wholeheartedly this call to share in everything that it means to follow Christ, and he summed this up when he said:
‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.’ (Phil. 3:10-11)
      He exhorted the believers in Philippi in particular to recognise and accept suffering for the faith as part and parcel of their call:
’For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him...’ (Phil. 1:29)
      No servant is greater than his master, so if Christ was hated and persecuted by the world, then it is certain that there will be times when we also will be (Matt. 10:24-25, John 15:20).  To walk in the Master’s footsteps means to fulfil on earth what is still left of his suffering (Col. 1:24).  Jesus made it clear that if we want to follow him, then we have to be prepared to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23).  We must walk the same path of surrender and obedience that he himself walked.
      There is no – and there can be no – Christianity or true, personal walk with Christ without carrying the cross.  We cannot afford to shrink from or avoid this uncomfortable truth: following Jesus costs!  He gave his life for us and, in following our exalted yet persecuted Saviour, we will certainly be called to give our all for him in terms of personal obedience and surrender.  In its turn, this may well lead into smaller or greater degrees of suffering for our faith (cf. Matt. 10:34-39) and, for some, it might even mean being prepared to pay the ultimate price for following the Master (cf. Matt. 24:9, Rev. 6:9-11)!  Surrender and obedience inevitably give rise to opposition or even downright persecution at some stage…
      We are called to walk with Jesus through the whole of life and in the particular call that is upon our lives.  This short letter to the church in Smyrna makes clear to us the certainty of experiencing occasional times or seasons of affliction and suffering (and perhaps even death) for our faith.  Similarly, the apostle Peter wrote his first epistle to believers who were being persecuted, and it is basically an exhortation for them to continue steadfast in their faith through the overcoming grace of God (1 Peter 5:10-12).  However, although suffering for the sake of our faith can be very real at times, yet this prophetic message to the believers in Smyrna makes it clear that such suffering is limited in its scope.  Only some of them would be cast into prison, not all of them, and the persecution itself would only last for ten days (or there would be ten intermittent periods of persecution), not longer (2:10).
      In order to be able to walk with Christ through such times we must learn to live totally surrendered lives.  If not, then the likelihood is that at some point we will be tempted to turn back from following him, for example when difficulties come, or when we are offended by what we go through or by what God allows to happen to us.  We will retract long before the end; we will sink into hard-heartedness and bitterness, and the true ‘depth’ of our faith and personal surrender will be exposed.
      Although many of us may still live relatively free and comfortable lives in the West, yet this does not mean that we will somehow be able to avoid problems and suffering of whatever kind in life.  And, as we have seen plainly from several cases reported in the media in the last few years, it also means that we can assume that the basic tenets of our Christian faith and our moral values may well now sometimes be in overt conflict with the shifting values of surrounding society.
Being tested by Satan
        The fact that the devil would be allowed to put some of these believers in prison to test them, even to the point of death, uncovers to us the often-hidden realm of the spiritual warfare which rages in this world between God’s kingdom and Satan’s dominion.  The lives of these believers were to be the very stage on which God’s wider purposes in this spiritual battle would be openly worked out.  As with Job, their hedge of protection would be removed and they would be tested (Rev. 2:10, cf. Job 1:10-11).
      When Satan was allowed to attack him, Job experienced the loss of his livelihood and business, all of his children, and finally his own physical health as well.  And all of this tragedy seems to have happened in a very short space of time…  The heart pain, grief and torment which this dear man suffered are clear from the narrative of the book which bears his name.  Satan was allowed to throw his worst at Job, and yet Job overcame him by maintaining the integrity of his faith in God:
‘Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.’ (Job 2:3, 13:15)
      Satan’s attacks against Job were ultimately rendered powerless, because Job determined to maintain his faith in spite of anything that might happen to him (including physical death).  Furthermore, through his time of testing, Job’s faith was refined and came out even stronger than it was before:
‘But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.’ (Job 23:10)
      It is when believers show forth the genuineness of their faith in the heat and turmoil of difficult trials that Satan is overcome and defeated.
      And do you remember Daniel’s three friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?  Determining to be loyal to their God and to keep their faith alive, they refused to bow down to the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up.  The price they paid for this was to be thrown alive together into a blazing furnace.  In order to protect and preserve the integrity of their faith, they took an open, uncompromising stance and were willing and ready to be martyred for this, if necessary.
      Of course, we know the ends of these stories.  Job’s faith shone through, he persevered and was eventually healed and restored (Job 42:10-17), while, to use Nebuchadnezzar’s phrase, one ‘like a son of the gods’ appeared in the furnace with the three friends, walking with them, and they came out unscathed from the fire (Dan. ch.3).  God loves to honour and commend genuine, proven faith.  The apostle Peter takes this principle of the testing of our faith and applies it to the lives of believers who are suffering for their faith:
‘In this [salvation] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.’ (1 Peter 1:6-7)
      We prevail over Satan’s attacks by resisting him (Jas. 4:7), maintaining our faith and walking through our sufferings hand-in-hand with God:
‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.’ (Rev. 12:11)
      Satan’s venting of his unremitting hatred for Christ on the earthly Church ultimately proves to be his undoing.  A faith such as Stephen’s that is willing to embrace even death for the sake of Christ (cf. Acts 7:59-60) demonstrates to all that there is nothing in life or in this world, nor in any evil scheme that Satan can conjure up, that can overcome true love for Christ.  There really is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:38-39).  We can endure opposition to our faith and suffering for his name when the fire and passion of love for him within us is greater than the pressure of the opposition we feel from outside.
      Jesus exhorted us not to be afraid of those who can kill the body and after that can do no more to us, but of him who can destroy both soul and body in gehenna (Matt. 10:28, Luke 12:4).  Although we may well recoil from the thought of suffering physical pain, yet we should never be afraid of death itself.  When God’s people are not afraid of death, then he whose ultimate weapon is the power of death is overcome and rendered powerless (Heb. 2:14-15).  Genuine faith and the passionate, inward fire of true love for Christ can overcome and triumph over the fear and power of death (Rev. 12:11, cf. 1 Peter 1:6-9), and it is such overcoming faith and love which then convinces and wins many others to Christ.
Life comes out of death
        It has been amply demonstrated in history (and especially in the first three centuries AD) that persecuting the Church ultimately leads only to its increase and expansion.  When Satan’s attacks are overcome, then the power of his dominion over people’s lives is weakened and the Holy Spirit can break through to release them into God’s kingdom.  This is what Tertullian meant when he said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
      Faith in God is shown to be real, and indeed is refined and grows stronger when believers are willing to go through hardships, to suffer and even die for it.  It is pressure that brings out the reality and genuineness of our faith (Rom. 5:3-4, 1 Peter 1:6-8), just as a diamond is formed in the earth under high pressures and temperatures.  Faith that is tested and shines brightly in the times of deepest suffering convinces other people that it is true and genuine, and therefore that the gospel is true.  So Satan is defeated; the faith thrives and is embraced by other people, and the Church grows.
      Do you think that the godly men who buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him did not ask God, “Why did you let this happen?” (cf. Acts 8:2).  Of course they did.  Do you think that at that time they knew or understood that God had a deeper purpose in this which Stephen’s very life was being used to fulfil?  Probably not.  It turned out that, in God’s purpose, it was through Stephen’s death that Saul/Paul was saved.  He was standing nearby when Stephen was stoned (Acts 7:58, 22:20) and afterwards came under deep conviction (Acts 9:5 AV, 26:14) which eventually led to his conversion.  So it was Stephen who paid the price necessary to see Paul saved and later the Gentiles reached with the gospel through his ministry.  When the persecution which broke out after Stephen’s martyrdom eventually ceased, we are told by Luke that the Church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria then enjoyed a time of peace; it was strengthened and grew in numbers (Acts 8:1, 9:31).
      Victory for the establishment and growth of the gospel in a particular place often comes about through chosen, anointed and obedient servants of God who are totally surrendered and willing to embrace in God’s strength any suffering that this might entail.  Victory for the gospel costs.  Victory in natural, human warfare necessarily involves the willingness and courage to pay the ultimate price and give one’s life for the cause, if this is what it may cost.  In this sense, spiritual warfare is no different:
‘They overcame… they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.’ (Rev. 12:11)
      Breakthrough for the gospel of Christ in Philippi did not come about simply through the quiet conversion of Lydia by the river, nor by the fact that a demon was cast out of a slave girl.  It came about through two Spirit-empowered men (Paul and Silas) who had surrendered themselves utterly to Christ and were sold-out for the kingdom of God holding nothing back, and who were therefore willing to embrace the imprisonment and suffering which was brought about by the disenfranchised owners of the slave girl.  The quality of triumphant faith which Paul and Silas displayed in pressing through and beyond their physical suffering and taking hold of God through prayer and praise at midnight in their cell, was what was needed to overcome and break the grip of the spiritual powers of Satan’s dominion which were entrenched in Philippi, and to release the hand of God in an earthquake which threw all the prison doors open and loosened everybody’s chains (Acts ch.16).
      God’s overall purpose is always much greater than our own personal suffering, and we need to understand and embrace this wider perspective.  He may have a deeper purpose in it which we may not perceive initially.  God’s purpose in Smyrna was to demonstrate the reality of genuine heart faith even in the face of death, and thereby to defeat Satan and win many others to faith.  Sometimes victory for the spread of the gospel comes through a depth of the working of God’s grace in and through us which can be effectual only through a willingness to suffer or even die for the sake of Christ, if this is what it takes.  Stories of such willingness, commitment and heroic sacrifice abound in the annals of worldwide Christian missions…
      Furthermore, the courageous and overcoming faith of those who suffer in this way becomes an example which inspires others who become aware of it.  Along with the recorded examples of Job, Daniel’s three friends, Polycarp, Latimer (and many others), the faith of these believers in Smyrna was destined in the purpose of God to be an example which would strengthen the faith of countless millions of other believers down through the ages.  Their trust in God and faithfulness even unto death raised up a living testimony which has inspired and strengthened believers everywhere who have suffered for their faith in Christ, as they walk similar paths.
      This principle of God’s wider purpose in our suffering was underlined by Jesus when he said:
‘I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’ (John 12:24)
      This is the principle that God works by: life comes out of death, and it is the basic principle of fruitfulness in the kingdom of God.  Having died in the ground, the kernel of wheat then produces fruit.  The next verse applies this principle to our own personal lives:
‘The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’ (John 12:25)
      Jesus, of course, was the greatest example of this principle being worked out in practice.  It was for the joy of what he could see ahead as the fruit of his own resurrection (the winning of many people to faith and the establishing on earth of his redeemed community, the Church) that Jesus endured the cross and laid down his life (Heb. 12:2).  As born-again believers having new life in him (Rom. 6:3-8), we are the fruit of his being willing to lay his own life down.
      And so too in our own lives…  The true meaning of life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions, but in our intimate living union with God himself, in knowing and loving him (John 17:3).  Spiritually, we are rich in him, even though we may be outwardly poor.  Jesus reminds not only these believers in Smyrna of this (2:9), but also those in Laodicea (3:17-18; cf. Eph. 3:8, Col. 1:27).  The instinct of our carnal nature is to cling on to self-preservation at all costs, and we often do this for the sake of security and comfort.  However, as disciples of Christ learning the way, we find true meaning for our lives as we learn to release ourselves from the hold that such things have over us and live by faith for the kingdom of God.  Because we are rich in spiritual things, we should never allow temporal need or poverty to become a cause of losing our faith.  He has promised to meet all our needs as we seek first his kingdom.  As we allow our carnality, our instinct for self-preservation and our sinful nature to be slowly stripped away, then the grace, light and power of Christ’s life within us shines forth and influences others.  This is what Paul was referring to when he said:
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.’ (Phil. 1:20-21)
      Until we have learned to die to ourselves and our own carnality, we cannot bring forth fruit in the kingdom of God.  We have never truly lived, until we have learned to die.  Divine life can only work through us as we learn to die to self and live for the glory of God.  If we really do want to receive the crown of life and therefore reign with Christ, then we cannot afford to love our own lives.  We cannot allow our self and our own desires to be the centre of everything.  We must make Jesus Lord of everything and submit ourselves to his purpose for our lives, whatever that proves to be.  The Church is not above its Lord and Master: it is in surrendering our own life that we come to know his (John 12:25).  It is in losing our lives for his sake that we truly find them (Matt. 16:25).  We can live to him, as we die to self.  If we love our lives by finding their meaning in this world, then we lose them as far as fruitfulness in the kingdom of God is concerned, but if we will die to ourselves for Christ’s sake, then we will come to know the life-giving power of his kingdom bearing fruit through us (Matt. 10:38-39).  The apostle Paul was expressing this principle when he said to the Corinthians:
‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.’ (2 Cor. 4:7-12)
      Latimer understood this principle of life coming out of death in the work of God.  His last words to Ridley when they were both tied to the stake are well-known: “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle in England as I trust by God’s grace shall never be put out.”
I am the resurrection and the life
      So the theme that runs through this brief letter is that of death and resurrection life.  The name ‘Smyrna’ (now the modern port city of Izmir in Turkey) derives from the word ‘myrrh,’ a spice used in embalming the dead prior to burial.  The city itself had been conquered and sacked by the Lydians about 700 years before John wrote this letter, and it had then lain mainly in ruins for three centuries before being re-built under Greek rule.  So in John’s time this city had in a sense itself been ‘raised from the dead.’  Jesus presents himself to these believers as ‘the First and the Last, who died and came to life again’ (2:8).  He exhorts them to heed what the Spirit is saying to them and to overcome by remaining faithful unto death, and they will have the honour of receiving the crown of life.  As overcomers, they will reign with him and will not be hurt at all by the second death (2:10-11).
      This theme of death and resurrection life is a major principle that runs through the entire Bible: from the wrong choice of the first couple to embrace death rather than life in the garden; through the exhortation to the Israelites to choose life rather than death in respect of the Law (Deut. 30:15f); through Jesus who is ‘the resurrection and the life’ (John 11:25-26), who died and came to life again, and who offers eternal life to all who will believe in him (John 3:16, 1 John 3:14); unto the resurrection of the dead in Christ (1 Cor. ch.15) and, ultimately, the eternal separation of unbelievers from God in the second death (Rev. 20:14-15).
      It is important for us to realise that God’s purposes for us as his Church go above and beyond that which is merely human.  He often uses our needs and our situations in life to reveal himself to us, so that we break new ground in our walk with him and come to know him in deeper ways.  The lessons that Jesus teaches us are experiential and therefore deeply formational.  For example, it is in times of personal need that God can reveal and prove himself to us as our provider.  It is in times of sickness that he can reveal and prove himself to us as our healer.  And, similarly, it is in times of death, bereavement and grief that we can come to know him as ‘the resurrection and the life.’
      When Lazarus was sick, Jesus stayed where he was for two more days, specifically in order that he could take this situation and use it to reveal himself in a new way (John 11:6).  When Martha came to him, expressing her grief over Lazarus’ death, he spoke his famous words ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ directly into her heart (cf. John 11:20-27).  These were words of revelation and of living faith spoken deeply into the presence of her grief and loss, bringing hope to her.  And, of course, he then went further and actually raised Lazarus from the grave, giving a practical demonstration to all who were present that he had power over death.  They had entered into an experience of death, bereavement and grief and found that Jesus was still there with them in the very midst of it, and could minister to them in such a way that the power of death was overcome in their lives.
      So Jesus is the First and the Last.  He is the Living One.  He was dead, and behold he is alive for evermore!  And he holds the keys of death and Hades (cf. Rev. 1:17-18).  He conquered the power of death by entrusting himself to his Father and willingly entering into the state of death, and then being raised out of it by the power of God (Rom. 1:4, 1 Cor. 15:1-3).  If we stay faithful to him through our affliction, strengthened within by the Spirit of life and trusting that God has a wider purpose in it all, then as ‘the resurrection and the life’ Jesus has the power to bring new life out of a situation where there has been apparent failure and loss (Rom. 8:28).  In Christ, death, failure and loss are never the end of the story.  He works through death to bring resurrection.
      Just as he used Lazarus’ death to reveal himself as ‘the resurrection and the life,’ so too he used his church here in Smyrna to demonstrate practically to people that he has overcome and destroyed the greatest weapon of our spiritual enemy: the fear and power of death.  Death cannot overcome real heart faith in Christ, the Living One, because he himself went into it, conquered it and came up victoriously out of it, and therefore his purposes both for us and for his Church go above and beyond physical death (Rev. 12:11, Heb. 2:14, Job 13:15).  He has brought to an end the fear of death.  His resurrection life has overcome death and swallowed it up (1 Cor. 15:54).  He lives beyond death, so believers have the deep, inward assurance that there is always life on the other side of death.  In Adam all die, but in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).
      So even if we are indeed faced with being martyred for our faith, then we can willingly surrender and relinquish our lives here on earth and enter into eternal life, departing to be with Christ which is better by far (Phil. 1:23), knowing that God has a wider purpose in it all and that we ourselves will one day be resurrected in Christ anyway, and will receive the honour of the crown of life and will reign with him (2 Tim. 2:12, Rev. 20:4).
      So as we go through affliction with Christ and come to know experientially the strength of overcoming faith within us, the living hope of resurrection life becomes enfleshed in the very fabric of our lives and the life of the Church, and we become the earthly embodiment of him who is ‘the resurrection and the life’: Christ in us.  So the Church becomes a social community – in fact, the only social community! – which knows deep within its own being the triumph of Christ’s resurrection, and can proclaim this with deep assurance and confidence to a world languishing and mourning in the darkness of sin, the hopelessness and despair of human suffering, and the fear of death.
Strengthened through mutual fellowship with the Living One
        The open exhortation in this letter to the church in Smyrna is addressed to believers who would soon suffer persecution, imprisonment and perhaps even martyrdom for the faith.  They are exhorted not to be afraid and to remain faithful even unto death (2:10).  For obvious reasons, when we think of martyrdom, we generally tend to focus on the faith and heroic courage of those who were killed.  However, their martyrdom necessarily deeply affects their family members, their close friends and other church members as well.
      If the Church is to survive and even grow through such circumstances, then it raises the question of what about those who are left after the persecution ceases, those broken-hearted people who have lost family members or close friends to martyrdom, the church members and/or co-workers who survived, and others who may have suffered the very real trauma and grief of it all, and probably have many unanswered questions.  Homes and church buildings can eventually be rebuilt, employment can be found elsewhere, orphaned children can be cared for and brought up by family relatives, but what about believers themselves?
      The oblique reference to myrrh (from which the name ‘Smyrna’ derives) brings to mind the context of death.  The embalming of a dead body with myrrh to prepare it for burial was overseen by the family members and close friends who, of course, were still alive.  So the reference to myrrh evokes the whole general scene of bereavement, loss, pain, grief and unanswered questions.
      It is a fact that we can neither live nor die unto ourselves alone.  Our afflictions and our death always affect those around us.  When we follow Christ and pay a price for it, there is pain for other people as well.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, was told prophetically that ‘a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (Luke 2:35).  There would come a time (when Jesus was crucified) when she would feel the wound, grief and pain of the loss of her son deeply within her own heart.  On that day, she partook in the fellowship of his sufferings and paid a price herself to see the Church later come into being.
      When Jesus came to Bethany intending to raise Lazarus from the dead, we can feel the depth of Martha’s and Mary’s pain and grief in their heart-cry: ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ (John 11:21,32).  Not only did they feel the pain of the loss of their brother, they also felt the pain brought about by their wrong expectations of what they thought the Lord should have done for them.
      Similarly, we can see just how close-knit and loving the relationships in the early church community had become, when we read that, after Stephen had been martyred, godly men buried him and mourned deeply for him (Acts 8:2), experiencing the bereavement and soul trauma of his loss.
      It is important for us to recognise that the invitation to enter with Christ into the fellowship of his sufferings for the sake of the gospel is a call into mutual fellowship with him in suffering.  To carry the cross is simply to walk together with Jesus wholeheartedly and without reserve in the unfolding of God’s purposes for our life.  So we are never asked to bear alone our sufferings for him.  The Living One walks together with us as the Lamb who was slain, and he suffers with us.  On our part, we partake in the sufferings of Christ himself, and at the same time, on his part, he holds us and walks closely with us in and through our afflictions and sufferings in life.  When we walk through the fire and pass through the waters, he is with us (Isa. 43:2); he does not abandon us in our times of affliction.  God can take the risk of allowing us to suffer, because he knows that we can go through it with him.  He has promised to be with us always and to never forsake us (Heb. 13:5).
      The Greek word eido which is used in verse 9 (‘I know your afflictions and your poverty’) means much more than just knowing about something.  It implies a personal acquaintance with and a fullness of knowledge about something.  It is variously translated as ‘to be aware of,’ ‘to behold,’ ‘to consider,’ ‘to be sure of and understand,’ and it brings out the empathy of the Lord for these believers.
      Jesus can know our afflictions and the feeling of our infirmities, because he has been there himself and experienced it personally.  He too was afflicted and knew what it was to suffer in the purpose of God, even unto a brutal and cruel death on the cross.  So he understands the pain of our suffering, and he freely chooses to walk with us through thisOur God is a God who chooses to suffer together with his people.  He enters into our feelings and walks with us in the anguish of our afflictions, burdens and troubles.  He is an empathetic God.
      This empathetic nature of our God is unique to Christianity.  Other religious systems have no concept whatsoever of personal divine empathy to offer people in their suffering, and so people are left to cope merely in the ‘strength’ of their own human weakness.  Christianity is the only faith which teaches and believes that in his love God empathizes with human suffering.
      If this is not true, then we simply have a God who does not feel pain within himself, and who, in our times of trouble, cannot be anything other than distant from usHe cannot truly be a God of love, and so our relationship with him is bound to fail at the time we need it the most, and our faith will prove to be unable to take us through the whole of life.  In practice, exhortations to be ‘faithful unto death’ (2:10) and to endure suffering for the sake of the gospel will prove to be worthless, empty platitudes.  Instead of enduring and remaining faithful, the likelihood is that we will simply give up, deny him and walk away.  But no!  Jesus ‘shared in [our] humanity’ and was ‘made like his brothers in every way’ (Heb. 2:14,17), so that, as our faithful high priest, he can ‘sympathize with our weaknesses’ and is ‘touched with the feeling of our infirmities’ (Heb. 4:15 NIV and AV).
      The consequence of this is that, as the wounded Lamb who was slain, he himself empathetically feels our pain and suffering.  He understands and feels our anguish, our burdens and our troubles.  God is love (1 John 4:16) and love freely chooses to stand with another who is suffering.  So he is not separate from our suffering.  This particular implication of our living relationship with God is summed up in verses like the following:
‘In all their distress he too was distressed.’ (Isa. 63:9)
‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.’
(Ps. 23:4, underlining my own for emphasis)
      When our own hearts are pierced by the sword of suffering, then he draws alongside us and carries our cross with us; he carries our griefs and our sorrows (Isa. 53:4).
      The heart of the ministry of Jesus (summed up in passages such as Isaiah 61:1-3) is to come intentionally into the brokenness and suffering of the ‘warp and woof’ of human experience, bringing the transforming comfort and provision of the life-giving and restoring presence of God into the very places of our hearts where there is grief, pain, mourning and despair.  This is why he can be so subjectively close to us when we go through afflictions and suffering for his sake, and it is why believers so often feel the deep peace and comfort of the Lord in their spirit in a time of death and bereavement (2 Cor. 1:3-4, Phil. 4:7).  Because he does not abandon us, but walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23:4) empathizing with the inner pain and grief we feel, he can strengthen us deeply within by his grace (Heb. 4:16, 1 Peter 5:10-12) and carry us through it all.
      So as we heed what the Spirit is saying to us and resolve to walk closely with the Lord through our sufferings for the faith, rather than moping in our complaining and unanswered questions, we can know and experience the power of his grace permeating and strengthening our inner beings by his Spirit.  This is to know and experience the subjectively-felt presence of the Living One, ‘the resurrection and the life,’ in the very midst of suffering, bereavement and death.  He is there with us in the middle of it all; he is not separate from it.
      As we open ourselves up to him in times of such affliction, this allows the Holy Spirit (who is the Comforter) to touch our hearts and pour his comforting grace into the tender fragility and vulnerability of our very point of need (see Heb. 4:12,16).  So through our intimate fellowship with him we receive his inward strength and comfort, and his healing grace for our inner heart wounds (cf. Isa. 53:5).  As we determine to remain faithful to Christ in times of deep personal trial, and to walk closely with him through it in the inward strength of his grace, we prove his power to overcome, and fear and death lose their power over us.
      Furthermore, through learning this deeper lesson of walking with the Living One and being inwardly strengthened by his very presence as he walks with us in the midst of affliction, we attain deeper levels of practical faith and trust in our lives.  As a consequence, not only are we better prepared and equipped ourselves for the next time we go through such difficulties, we can also minister out of this new inner spiritual depth to others who are in similar situations:
‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.’ (2 Cor. 1:3-4)




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THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown.  Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.






[1] Cruse, C.F. (Tr.), Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Book 4, Chapter 15, Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998, pp.123-127.

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