God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message on incredibly godly people. As we open the word together, know that we're available for you. Our phone lines are open at 866-899-WORD. We'd love to talk or pray with you.
That's 866-899-9673 or online at TEWONLINE.ORG. Now today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. All right, so get your Bibles and I want you to turn with me to Revelation Chapter 2. You're going to need your Bibles today. We're going to be in Revelation Chapter 2.
These are incredible. Just to remind you of something here. Now I want you to get a hold of this. Revelation Chapter 4, heaven opens. Heaven opens and John, who's on the island of Patmos, who's the one who received this vision, he gets caught up.
Why? Because the Bible says when heaven opens, Jesus comes out of heaven and he stops in the clouds and all believers are going to be caught up to meet him in the air, go back into heaven and we'll be with Jesus forever. That's the picture in Chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 and following.
So in Chapter 1, 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation, Jesus is talking to the church. He's talking to believers and I'm telling you this is fantastic because in Chapter 2, what we're about to study, he's talking to the church at Smyrna. Smyrna, S-M-Y. Got that?
Smyrna, S-M-Y-R-N-A. You can read it right there. I'm going to talk about that. So why did Jesus talk to these people? What was the purpose?
It's fantastic. So as we check our own temperature, Jesus was checking the temperature of this group of believers. He's looking at believers. He's talking to believers, the church. So this is what he says. Revelation Chapter 2 and verse 8, to the angel of the church in Smyrna. Right, these are the words of him who is the first and the last who died and who came to life again.
I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich. I know the slander of those who say that they are Jews, but are not. In fact, they are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you're about to suffer. I tell you, the devil would put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for 10 days, but 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.
The one who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. Now let me explain this to you. All right, let's start out. Now he's talking to believers in a place called Smyrna. Let me tell you about Smyrna, just very quickly, where it is. It's an incredible place. It's a fantastic place.
And it's an interesting thing. By the way, if you want to know where it is, it's right on the Aegean Sea. And the Aegean Sea is a beautiful sea, man, blue, blue water. You know, you want to go diving and swimming and you can see the bottom, you know, and all the fish.
It's just a, it's just gorgeous, drop dead gorgeous. We love places like that. Lots of those places on our coastlines. So it's right on the Aegean Sea, right on a beautiful river.
So it's got this incredible harbor at Smyrna. By the way, it's in modern day Turkey. And if you Google it, you'd have to Google the Turkish name Ismyr. Ismyr, I-S-M-I-R. That's the name of Smyrna today. Ismyr, I-S-M-I-R. You got that?
You taking notes? So it's in Turkey. We're talking about Asia now, folks.
Okay. Let me tell you something about, about this place. This place back in the day was a fantastic place to live. Don't know how else to put it. Everybody wanted to live there because it was kind of like, they don't use the word like being on the Aegean Rivera, right? I mean just fantastic. And it was the ideal place. People, everything about it. You said, if somebody said to you, where would you like to live?
Most of all, a lot of people would have said right there. The location was fantastic. They were a people full of fun. They were very affluent people. They did well economically because they had merchants coming in and out, a lot of stores and businesses. They had temples everywhere. So all the temple worship and everything like that brought a lot of industry and markets and everything. It was hustling and bustling.
Hey, get this one. They kind of had an independent form of government, but they were the darling of the Roman Empire. The Romans loved it. And in many ways, the people from Smyrna were infatuated with the Romans and with the Roman political system and government.
Get that, don't forget that. I mean, they went to extraordinary lengths. They built temples in honor of them. Everything they did, man, they wanted to please Rome.
That was the name of the game. And in all of this, there was all this paganism. Most of the population in Smyrna were Jewish people. A lot of them were good people. We're going to say about something because Jesus spoke about them.
He said something about some of them and it wasn't nice. By the way, just get this. Do you know what the word Smyrna means, where it comes from? We'll just cut the S off, go to Myrna, which is a derivative of the word myrrh. Myrrh.
Where did you hear about myrrh? Remember when the wise men came to see Jesus when he was born, what did they bring? Gold, frankincense, and you've got a myrrh.
Why did they bring those three things? I know it's not Christmas. Gold was symbolical of kinship, the kingdom of God. Royal, frankincense was symbolic of deity.
Jesus is Lord. They bring in gifts to the baby Jesus. So what in the world is myrrh? Myrrh is the substance that used to embalm bodies. It's a fragrant substance that are used when people die. They put it on the body, on the outside of the body at death after death. Why would the wise men bring myrrh? Because Jesus came to die. They got it. Kingdom of God, lordship of Christ, came to die because of you and me. There's myrrh.
So wait a minute now. There's something about this name and why would that name, I'm not trying to read something in here, but why would a fantastic place have the name myrrh embalming feud? I don't know. Maybe because on the outward it was just party city, but on the inward man looks on the outward appearance, God looks upon the heart. So into this place was the Roman influence. So if you had an emperor, let's pick on one of them, Domitian. He was one vicious dude. Do you know some of the emperors, they were so vicious, they would use the heads of executed Christians to adorn the steps leading up to their palace doors.
Isn't that terrible? And if you were a Christian, you faced unmitigated persecution and suffering. And Jesus looked at the church in Smyrna, this church that had everything. They had great athletics. They had lots of money. Their economy was good.
Shops were open. They had this giant political big daddy that watched over them and treated them special. And in the middle of this, there was the church. You know that Jesus did not have one single bad thing to say about them. What?
Jesus had nothing but praise for these people. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. And what right do I have? Let's just reduce it to right now. Just whatever anybody wants to say. I'm your pastor and I'm the shepherd of this flock. I just want to tell you something. I really commend you for the Christian people you are in the middle of this crisis. By the way, have you noticed how the world is falling apart? Have you noticed the way people talk to each other these days? Have you noticed all the unrest, all the hate?
Guys, just get this. Have you noticed some of the most famous and well-known people, they would just cuss blaspheme on TV in front of our kids? Anyway, these guys in Smyrna, they were being squeezed man. They were Christians. They were believers. They loved the Lord and God set a standard for them.
I just want to give this to you. Let me tell you what hardships produce. Persecution. This is what, and the Bible is full of this. One day I need to do a series on just what persecution, suffering and hardship produces.
And by the way, if you want to run this to the test, you and I all know of people all around us that have gone through tough times. These three things, you can see it. Hardships, number one, sift. They sift out. They separate out. They show the real thing.
Hardships, challenges. People say all the time, you want to really see what a person's made of? Just watch who they are in the midst of a real challenge. Coaches do that.
I mean, I've heard coaches all my life. The team loses two straight. The coach goes and says, now we're going to see what you're really made of. And the team comes back and wins the rest of their season. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton and the Encouraging Word, and we'll be back with the rest of today's message, Incredibly Godly People, in just a moment. But perhaps you're in that similar situation where you feel like you've lost a battle or two.
And how is the rest of the season going to turn out? Well, we want you to know, one, that God is with you. He's promised never to leave you or forsake you. And we're with you as well. It's our privilege to pray together. We're connecting right now on the phone at 866-899-WORD.
We do that 24 hours a day. You can jot the number down or visit our website, TEWONLINE.ORG, for all the ways to connect. Again, that's keyboard to keyboard at TEWONLINE.ORG, or this phone number, 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to connect with you and connect you with resources that'll help change your life forever.
Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. But win or lose, you know what you made it. So what do hardships do? They sift.
Number two, they purify. When you go into a challenge, into a hardship, your family, your life, these people, you all of a sudden become purified in your understanding and your conviction about what sin is. See, challenges make us step up to God's standard because we live in a world in which, guys, what is our world saying? Well, God doesn't mean that anymore or times have changed or we need to modernize.
I mean, you need to get with it. Or the Bible doesn't mean that. Or you can only take this but not, listen, hardships purify us in terms of God's righteousness. Number three, hardships affirm believers. I love that. Hardships and persecution affirm a person's faithfulness, genuineness. I'm just telling you guys, listen to me.
Something is not anything like Smyrna. You take this coronavirus, those three things. Just think of the church back in February, inside everything going all hunky dory with all of us. Wonderful. Suddenly that comes. I'll guarantee you three things have taken place with believers all across America. Sifting, purifying, affirming.
How about you? That's what Jesus is saying here. And he looks at this and man, he is just congratulating this incredibly godly group of people. So what was it that caused them to face such persecution? Why were they so persecuted, living in such a great place with the favor of government, with rivers and boats, lots to eat, great restaurants, powerful people, influence, schools. By the way, they were known for science and medicine.
Smyrna was a place where people trained in the medical field. Why were they so persecuted? Remember Polycarp, one of the church fathers?
He became Bishop of Smyrna. Do you know just after this took place when Jesus was talking, Polycarp, an incredibly godly man because of his stand for Jesus, was marched out and he was publicly executed in the worst kind of way. The martyrdom of Polycarp. Go and read it. It'll shock you. When I was studying for this, I read the whole story of Polycarp.
I mean, it just get your heart. So why were the Christians in Smyrna persecuted in such a fantastic place? Why would Jesus have commanded them? Here's why they were persecuted.
Number one, because of their devotion to Jesus. See the emperor came along and he said, we're going to have emperor worship and a worship me. You're not Christian said?
Nope. We can obey the law. Go to Romans 12. We're going to obey the law, but you drawing a line in the sand, we're not going to worship the emperor. We're not going to worship politics. I'm going to worship government. I'm not going to worship any person. We only worship Jesus and they paid for it. They said, no, no, we're going to keep the main thing, the main thing.
We're going to worship Jesus. They paid a price. They got persecuted.
They lost their lives. It's the first reason. Second reason why they were so persecuted was their refusal to paganize. It was one thing to be devoted to Jesus, but it was their refusal to paganize.
And what does that mean? Pagans were everywhere. There were temples everywhere and associated with temple worship was immorality, was partying, sacrificing ceremonies, gatherings, drunken this and drunken that. And the Christians said, nope, we're not going to do that. They refused to paganize. They said, no, no, no, no, we can't do that.
That's not God's standard. You know, maybe some of them said, listen man, it's okay, just go and participate, but just don't do. Have you ever heard someone say that?
You ever heard someone say, man, just go get involved in that thing, but just, you know, just be careful. None of these Christians in Smyrna said, you know, we're not going to be square pegs around here, but I'll tell you one thing we're not going to do. We're not going to worship the emperor. We're devoted to Jesus. And number two, at great cost to ourselves we're not going to paganize. The third reason why they were persecuted, which was big, was their determination to obey. See, it's one thing to be devoted to Jesus. It's another thing to be refusing to paganize, but it's altogether another thing to actually obey what God says. Now, Jesus tells us here about a group of Jews.
Most, the larger population in Smyrna were Jews. Jesus said, I know that even though they are in the synagogue, I can see their hearts. They're just pretenders. They're hypocrites.
They're not the real thing. By the way, and I'm making a tough statement, I'm not so sure that all churches in the midst of all the godly, wonderful people, you don't think most churches have pretenders inside? Jesus was just saying it straight out and he was commending these Christians. Now, look, let's put this in context, okay? Why did the Jews persecute the Christians so much?
Well, I can give you five reasons among many other. Number one, because they accused the Christians of cannibalism. Can you imagine that? You and I can't quite identify, but the Christians would celebrate the Lord's supper. They would eat and drink the flesh of Jesus. So they accused them of being cannibals. They would accuse them of immorality. Immorality accused the Christians, yeah, they had this thing called the holy kiss. They got body slammed over this stuff from the Jews. Any excuse to criticize the Christians, to demean them. Third reason why they criticized and went after the Christians because they said Christians were breaking up families and homes. Now, why would they say that? Because Christians believe that you should not be unequally yoked.
That's like kind of prejudiced, isn't it? And get this, so you'd have two pagans that would get married in Smyrna. And then one of them, the husband or the wife would hear about Jesus and their whole life would change. What happened when their life changed? They refused to worship the emperor. They refused to paganize and they were determined to obey. And the other one was still a pagan. And so it would seriously affect their family.
And many times would lead to the breakup of the enemy. Who did it? Who done it? You Christians did it. You better be careful if you become a Christian.
They're going to persecute you. Another reason they persecuted them. Do you know the Jews actually accused the Christians of being atheists? Oh, whoa. Accused them of being atheists.
Yeah. Because the Christians would not accept pagan deities. They wouldn't believe in the pagans.
Got that? Wouldn't believe in the gods. Wouldn't do what the gods wouldn't get involved, wouldn't sacrifice to the gods. Therefore they were atheists.
Hello. Forget Jesus because they didn't know or know about Jesus. That's not belief as far as these satanic Jews were concerned. But the fifth accusation against them led to the greatest persecution. They accused the Christians in Smyrna of treason and disloyalty because they wouldn't worship the Roman government and the Roman emperor. That wasn't true.
They accused them of that because they didn't get out there and hoist a flag of the Romans, even seemingly higher than the flag of Jesus in their lives and in their hearts. So what did he say? He said three things to them. This is what he said to them. Number one, he said, do not fear.
Even though you're going to suffer, even though they might imprison you, don't fear. Isn't that a great word? Second thing he said, be faithful. That word faithfulness is amazing, isn't it? You know how God is faithful. He'll never leave you, never forsake you.
Faithfulness. Number three, get ready. Just get ready because here's what's going to happen. You're going to receive the crown of life. Get ready. You can sense the excitement in our pastor's heart, but Dr. Don has more than just preaching and teaching to share with you.
He wants to ask you a most important question next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin.
I confess my sin to you. And I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name, I pray. If you've prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.
This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. If you just prayed that prayer along with Dr. Don, welcome to the family of God.
You need to tell somebody, and why not tell us? You can communicate right now at 866-899-WORD. We'd love to talk with you.
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Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-04 11:03:26 / 2024-01-04 11:12:27 / 9