God has a different perspective on things. And it's very important if we are living in a blessed state of life. To keep that sort of antivirus thing running in the background. that we may one day have to be persecuted. But one day it may befall not only us, but our family.
Any of those things which you are about to suffer. This is a prophetic promise. Don't fear them. You're listening to Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville.
Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick in Revelation chapter 2 with the conclusion of his study called Smyrna: Love Tested. Those in Smyrna who did not cave to the pagan pressure would either lose their jobs or be harassed, and losing, of course, the work. Bright.
Financial strains. poverty even. In other words, obedience brought persecution. then as it does now. But Christ says, but you are rich.
Only thing that's going to get you through this if you're going through these times is faith and nothing else. You see that, you know, God has a different perspective on a lot of things. Like, don't fear, you're going to suffer. Ugh. That's what he tells them.
And for us, it's like, well, that's counterintuitive. If I'm gonna suffer, I'm gonna be afraid of doing this. And yet Christ says, no, I need you to look beyond it and just take it. and not lose the faith.
Well May we always be ready, again, to make modifications to how we respond to what's going on in our life.
So Christ says, but you are rich. No other church in the New Testament is described as being rich. Laodicea They thought they were rich, but Christ. Said, no, you're poor. This is the only one that is explicitly said in that way.
The blasphemy, he says, I know that you are rich. And then he says, I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not.
Well, this is a historical fact. It's not as anti-Semitic. The Jews in Smyrna, who were not Christians, ridiculed Christ and vehemently. express their sacrilege. and cited against them.
In fact, they instigated trouble. They inspired the Gentiles who had the authority. To persecute the Christians, and that deflected a lot of it off the Jews. You know, we're always at the bottom of the barrel.
Now let the Christians be, let them get it. But it was deeper than that. They actually had a hatred for Christ because by this time, By the time the revelation is circulated and the days follow, Galatians, Romans, and Hebrews, three of Paul's letters that call out Judaism without their Messiah. Has been long in circulation. Everybody knew it.
They are Christians using arguments from Galatians and Romans and Hebrews. The Jewish Christians against their Jewish family and say, you know, Christ is the Messiah, and you're now incomplete in the faith without Him. And when they didn't receive that, they turned against it, and it kept the problems going. From day one The New Testament church had to deal with this. That's the whole story of Paul persecuting the church before his conversion.
And so the church at Smyrna preached. What Jews and Gentiles Loads. And that is that Christ is Supreme. What our faith forbids The world demands. This is why we are, you know, they blame, you know, the Puritans and the Judeo-Christian as they're trying to.
Turn the world upside down with insanity and target especially the innocent children, hating us for not celebrating the sin. They want us to do more than tolerate it. They want us to celebrate it. for daring to oppose them As Abel opposed Cain. They hate us for that.
How dare you stand up to us as we're trying to normalize insanity? They're against us for having the audacity to call their madness crazy to their face and not apologize to them, to stand our ground. Despising us because we like God more than we like them. We have no right to do that. according to Satan.
and those in cahoots with him whether they know they're in cahoots with him or not. And this was happening then, and this is a story of persecution. These Jewish persecutors forfeited their share in Abraham. When they ignored and rejected, The proof. of Christ.
Romans 2, Paul said, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. And he goes on to say, But he is a Jew who is one inwardly. Related to seeing their Messiah. Not enough to just have the DNA. You got to have the faith.
That's what made Abraham shine. It was accounted to him for righteousness, his faith. And without that faith, regardless of your DNA, You're not going to make it with God. Without faith, he wrote to the Hebrews, it's impossible to please him. And the faith Paul was talking about.
was to trust that Jesus Christ is everything He said he is. In John chapter 8, Jesus went head to head with them. He said, Your Father, rejoice to see my day. What big words are that! Imagine me saying, yeah, I was there when George Washington crossed over the, you know, the Delaware, the Potomac.
I was there when he did that. He was insane. No, you weren't. Then I'd show you selfies with him and you'd have to believe me. Yeah.
Anyway, Jesus said, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.
Now, he's not finished with them. I'll come back to quotes from John where he calls them devils. But let's go back to Polycarp. Leading pastor, in, I don't, I'm not a fan of that title, lead pastor. There's the pastor of the church, and there's the brothers that help him, and they're pastors too.
You know, you gotta kind of watch that pecking order thing. But then on the other side, there is structure.
Well, polycarp, again, it's the Apostolic Fathers, this is from, there's a letter from Polycarp to the Philippians, and certainly after Polycarp's. Being burned, as being burned at the stake, others gave more detail. In the same book. In the thirteenth chapter, in the first verse of this letter, Yeah. The writer is telling us how quickly the persecution moved.
once they got their talons into Polycarp. It says these things then happened with so great speed, quicker than words could tell, the crowds forthwith collecting from the workshops and baths, timber, and the Jews more especially assisting in this with zeal, as was their habit. And so this is the life that the Christians were facing. That again, 150 years after the birth of Christ, so not that long, 150. 20 years after the crucifixion.
A little bit A little bit less. Anyway, he continues here in verse 9, but are of the synagogue of Satan. You know, if you get nothing, so well, I knew that, I knew that, I knew that, that's fine, but it's good to review this because this is a. We're sitting here in a very peaceful environment right now. There are many brothers and sisters that are not and have not.
Paul writing to the Hebrews said, Remember those that are in chains, and speaking about the persecuted Christians. but are of the synagogue of Satan.
Now Jesus is doing the speaking. The assembly of Satan, the church of Satan. That's his estimate. Of what has happened to the synagogues that were terrorizing the Christians. or contributing to their terror.
John, he's not speaking of all Jews. In fact, he is a Jew. His Lord came as a Jew. But only those zealous or zealously persecuting The Christians. False Christians persecute Jews.
False Jews persecute Christians. If you are a Jew according to the seed of Abraham, you are not going to persecute anybody, you are going to preach the Messiah. And if you are a Christian, you are not going to. The Spanish Inquisition was a movement of hell in Jesus' name. persecuting the Jews as they did.
Look, a certain group of people may annoy you to no end. It gives you no right. To persecute them. You might not like their music, their food, their customs. All right, there's some room for that.
But you have no right To hold them in disdain. or contempt. John's Gospel again when Jesus was dealing with that type. of Jewish person. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father.
And Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham, which is faith. according to God. He continues, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do, that never gets old, that just never gets corny, hearing Christ tell them to their face. You're in cahoots with Satan. You're on his team.
You attend his church. You wear his uniform. You eat his food. You do his work. You are his children.
That goes beyond saying you're his flunky. Your family with hell. Please.
Well, they reduced themselves to an assembly of devil workers. Again, John. Chapter 16. They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God's service.
Beware of that. Verse 10 now. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Pause there. Maybe you're watching online, going to the kitchen right now, getting yourself a snack.
Yeah. Yeah. Rebuke that. You can lose the calories. Spare them.
Anyway, coming back. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison and that you may be tested. And you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Man, he's just calling them out to trust him. No matter what. Job didn't get this kind of a heads up. Job was just thrown into it. Lost his family.
You know, we think about his pain, his physical ailment. What about the loss of his children? Words of assurance. Fear not, repeatedly given by Christ and in the Old and New Testament alike. Fear not, fear not.
This happens often. Vance Havner says this, and if you don't know who Vance Havner was, slash is, you'd do well to familiar yourself with him. If we are beset By an unseen foe, we are also befriended by an unseen friend. Great. is our adversary But greater is our ally.
Fans Habner has, you know, his wife went through an illness that she did not survive, and he documents that. I don't recall the name of the little pamphlet, but he writes about that. And there's a case of this. Dynamo of the faith dealing with the realities of of a cursed world. 1 Peter the time of persecution, that's what 1 Peter is all about.
But even if You know, we like this verse. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you a reason for the faith that is in you with meekness and respect. But what comes before Peter says that? I don't think we're often we lose sight of this. He says, but even if you should suffer, For righteousness' sake, yes, You are blessed.
and do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. Instead, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. That's how it was given to the church that was being persecuted, who Peter wrote to. And then with the passage of time, Peter showed them how to do it. And they crucified him.
And we know that the Lord told us, Preacher, they're going to spread out your arms and they're going to do to you whatever they want, which was to kill him. History says he was upside down and he lingered for three days before he finally died. God has a different perspective on things. And it's very important if we are living in a blessed state of life. To keep that sort of antivirus thing running in the background.
that we may one day have to be persecuted. But one day it may befall not only us, But our family. Any of those things which you are about to suffer. This is a prophetic promise. Don't fear them.
Well, God is going to use this testing to show genuine faith. He said, What's the point? It's all vanity above vanities. It's all vanities, as Solomon said. And he was right on a lot of levels.
But God is saying, no, this is not vain. This is not wasted. You can waste it. You can go to a battlefield for some cause, die there, and it's a wasted cause. Or you can serve me.
I won't waste that. History is full of courageous people who suffered and died. for nothing. We're not to be in that group. Smyrna, the church there, was tested to show us all.
What a faithful Christianity looks like. Christ on the cross. You know, he could have escaped across any time he wanted to. He demonstrated so much from the cross. And what did the centurion say?
Surely this is the Son of God? That sacrifice was not wasted on that witness. They never are.
Somebody Somebody's paying attention.
So that those without Christ will not outdo us when it comes to suffering, We are supposed to be able to outsuffer them. And there are many, again, who have not Christ, who face torture and abuse and persecutions of different sorts. If we are captured as prisoners of Christ? Are we to allow the world to outdo us when they are captured and tortured as prisoners for some other cause? We've seen our enemies waterboarded.
That's what Jaddy got to do to get it out of them. Kind of an intense swimming lesson. I don't want to ever go through it. And if I did, I pray I go do well. The Jews should have known better about this kind of stuff.
Daniel chapter 3. Shadrach, Meshach, Abennego. Let it be known to you, O King. That we do not serve your gods. Nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.
Well, that's what the Christians will go facing, too, with the incense on the altar for Caesar. We have our template.
Now, if you say, I don't know how I'm going to do if I face this kind of thing.
Well, why would you know? Except to say That God will be with you. If you want him to be. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison.
Well, the government criminalized the faith back then, as Nebuchadnezzar did, and as we also see happening today. What they were about to suffer was unavoidable and imminent because God said so.
So, the letter that was received, you're sitting there in the congregation, you're hearing Ephesus being laid out. You left your first love, you need to get back. And then he gets to your church, Smyrna. And you're like, this is going to be good. And he says, you're going to get killed.
You better stay hang tough on that. Satan uses a body system. He finds people to help him and do his work. And persecution is going to be worse. Than ever before under Antichrist.
We shouldn't be here, we should be raptured. that you may be tested. This is widespread. Love, test it. That's what we're having there.
tested for the purpose of being a testimony. God is doing something with Whatever Satan is doing.
So when Paul says God causes all things to work together for the good. that all things part. is very broad. You younger Christians, what are you going to do? When you're facing persecution, it comes in many forms.
Anything to try to get you to turn your back on Christ is a form of persecution. It's coming against you to harm you. Will you see it for what it is? Will you have the nerve, the guts, born of faith, to say, I don't do that. And I don't want to do that.
And I'm not Too concerned with what you think about me not doing that. I'm more afraid of what Jesus will say.
Now, You can rehearse that. You're going to get your chance. will you be able to do it? Will you be able? to carry it out.
That conviction. 1 Peter again. Writing to persecuted Christians, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory At the revelation of Jesus Christ. And that's essentially what I said. You more fear for Christ than of your.
Uh Comrades, Trying to get you to join them in sin. We're supposed to present our bodies living sacrifices. I'm looking in heaven, we won't have that verse anymore. We'll never have to think about You know, there's so much we won't have to do in heaven. Um You can't wait to get there, but you gotta stand in line to do it right.
I know you don't get that one, but you get it later. Anyway, purpose in the testing. That's what I've been trying to say. In 10 days, now that's a figurative, not a literal number. I know there are many good Bible teachers that try to squeeze into that 10 emperors and phases, but it doesn't work.
There are more than 10.
So Uh it's it's figurative. And how many hidden persecutions were there? And is he talking about just Smyrna? Of course not. It has broader application.
But in Smyrna itself, There are more than 10 days of persecution. You know, when Daniel and his friends faced. The Babylonian Empire said, We don't want to eat the things on the king's table. We just want to eat vegetables. Try us for ten days.
And we'll let you tell us if it's working. We're not looking gaunt. We're still looking healthy.
Well, when he used the 10 days, even in Daniel, it was probably figurative.
Now, some of you might have tried. a 10-day vegetarian diet, and you might know the answer. Did you see any difference in ten days? Were your clothes not fitting anymore? I don't think so.
But if you're the one exception, do share it with me so I can make an example of you next sermon. Yeah. Well, coming back to this, I wouldn't do that. on purpose. Uh Be faithful until death.
Remember the church at Alexandria Alexandria. Carthage Antioch, Jerusalem. Faithful unto death, This punishes Satan. Jesus encouraged them to suffer and die faithfully.
Well, our militaries do that when they hit the beaches of Normandy and the other beaches there. Um They knew they weren't if you were in the alpha wave the first ones to hit You had almost a 0% chance of surviving. But they did it. And a Christian has to look at those kinds of things in life and say, well, I serve my commander that way. In this church age we live in, the Lord may ask some of us to die for him, but he asks also all of us to live for him.
And I will give you the crown of life, is eternal life with Him, making it worth it. The word crown here is not diadem, which is reserved for king, the king's crown. This is Stephanos in the Greek, the winner's crown. In those days, if you did the Olympics and you won, you get a jar of oil. and a leafy crown that would rot Eventually, but this one will not, it will not fade away.
God wants us to finish. Verse 11, and we covered that with the Nazarite vow. If the vow was interfered with, they had to go back to start. Like the game of monopoly, you know, you go back and begin again, but you're still expected to finish.
Well, verse 11: He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.
Now This is not addressed to the church, it's addressed to the individuals in the church. They make up the church. Salvation and hell are personal. And so he says, let him He who has an ear, let him hear. It doesn't say y'all.
No. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say, y'all hear this. Yeah. It's personal.
So use what God gives you to learn what God wants from you. And these are basic formulas that belong to our faith. What the Spirit says.
Now the Holy Spirit in the Bible is not some abstract spiritual being. He's the Great Spirit. He's the Holy Spirit. And he's part of the Godhead. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.
Well, that should tell an unbeliever that he's going to be hurt by two deaths if he insists. To die in your sins is to die. As sin has found you. Defective. The second death Is the judgment of eternal condemnation.
It comes up again in Revelation 20:14. And as Moody says to D.L. Moody, He who is born once will die twice. He who is born twice will die once. The born again.
will not face the second death. There's no call to repent. or condemnation for this church. And I close with this verse from John's Gospel again. Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life.
and shall not come into judgment. but has passed from death into life. Uh Uh This has been Cross-Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand.
Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Yeah.
