Revelation 2:1-7 Part 5 and Rev. 2:8-11 Bible Teaching

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Revelation 21-7 wrap-up
Revelation 2.8
February 5th 2017
Meat

Okay, I just have to do one more application to all we studied over the past five weeks regarding the promises Jesus gives to those who “overcome,” “have ears to hear,” who “follow His word until the end,” and who “confess Him before men.”

It will only take up part of our time today and then we will continue our verse by verse picking it up at Revelation chapter 2 verse 8 and talking about the message to the believers in the church at Smyrna.

We ended last week with my taking Jesus words in Matthew which say:

“Strait is the gate narrow the way and few be there that find it.”

There is a great tendency in the faith today to suggest rather liberally that broad is the way to life and narrow is the way to destruction.

Jesus says the opposite.

So while I believe most will experience afterlife loss (or destruction of most that they built their earthly lives upon) I can’t help but agree with Jesus own words that very, very few find the way to life eternal by comparison.

After compiling and crushing scripture down it seems that the net result, the highest achievement, “award” or “reward” given for discovery of this strait gate and narrow way is life – listen – to its fullest.

Eternal life to its fullest, if we want to put it that way. Eternal life without ANY loss or hindrance to our person. All that is laid on the alter is precious stones no wood hay or stubble. Never being touched by His consuming fire but instead being illuminated by it.

We know from scripture that all – even believers – will reap what we have sown.

Appealing to His grace and forgiveness it the means to erase what we’ve sown in the past in terms of sin – we can’t ever forget this. But in terms of rewards – or what we might call the promises of Christ to those who have overcome – all will reap what they have sown.

We also know from scripture that in “His Fathers house there are many mansions,” that there “are different resurrections relative to glory,” and that “some will receive resurrections of damnation and others (in degree) of life.”

So last week we wrapped up discussing what Jesus promised to those who have. . . “overcome,” have “ears to hear,” who “follow His word to the end,” and we added, “process Him before men.”

There were nineteen of them and the last was that He would grant to those who experienced this level of overcoming (as saved believers) to sit in His throne with him (just as He sits in the throne of His father BECAUSE He overcame).

II Corinthians 5 is really a great (and its an often ignored chapter as Paul writes beginning at verse 1):

2nd Corinthians 5:1 “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

Then jumping down to verse nine Paul adds:

9 Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

These are not the words of an outreach ministry trying to give people the Good News whereby they are saved from their sins.

These are not the words a babe in Christ is gulping down as a means to rejoice in the fact that they have been saved from their evil deeds.

These are meaty phrases for those who have come to understand the implications of the gift of salvation – the choice to die to self in this world and live to Him . . . or not. These are words about Christian fruits.

Now, amidst all the good that is in this world – and there is a lot of it – I want to state a fact: in the end it all amounts to suffering . . . and there is no solution to it.

Death, disease, discomfort, disasters will reign no matter how “advanced” we think we are, no matter the bunkers we build, no matter the vitamins we take.

Babes will drown. Mental illness will rise up in healthy minds. Poverty will always exist. Suffering. Loneliness. Alienation. Ugliness. Deformity. And this doesn’t even touch the suffering of the human soul where ostracization, existential breaks, disloyalty, lies, and selfishness reign.

Create a Utopia and things will fail and contribute to this swell of endless suffering. Loved ones will die, teeth will decay, cancer will be detected.

Certainly we fight them. Yes, we beat some of them back and even prevent them at times. But at the end of the day the dog will bite, the rain will fall on picnics, cars will break down, and all people lie and die.

There is NO escaping . . . pain – experienced or caused.

Yet amidst it all GOD HAS GIVEN human beings lives of choice.

In fact, by and through the suffering we are often moved or motivated to take action, to move.

Some choose to run from suffering as fast as they can through any means available while others try and wisely keep suffering to a minimum. And every now and again there are those who understand its purpose in this world.

And so we are faced with some constant choices – choices on what to make of this life surrounding us, on how to live, how to spend the time we have been allotted, how to deal with pain – and pleasure.

We might liken the world (and life in it) to an enormous and extremely diverse carnival into which we are all thrown.

The options of life and living in the carnival appear endless but perhaps we can reduce them down to essentially two polarized positions:

Those who focus on life in the carnival – the here and now (and whatever this entails, good, bad and ugly) and those who focus on the life to come (or the afterlife).

As a means to help us “find and define” the strait gate and the narrow path let’s describe these polarized extremes on the board as a continuum:

FOCUS ON FOCUS ON
“this Life” “the Life Hereafter”
EXTREME LEFT EXTREME RIGHT
(appropriately named as all will be left) (appropriate as all of it is right)
Self – my life, my time, my family, my . . . Truly God, Agape Love, Others
Material Spiritual
Broad way Narrow way
(Which Jesus said leads to destruction (because it leads to life)

Of what? All we have sown in the carnival

So let’s talk about the “this life” focus first. In the “this life” focus, I am going to suggest that the overall objective is comfort. The ancient Greeks came to the same conclusion more or less.
(ON BOARD)
Comfort
Acceptance
Popularity
Notoriety
Pride
Money
Recognition
Justice
Gain
Life abundantly
Rejoice
Rich in Spirit
Powerful
Full of Ambition
Divide and Conquer
Comfort Keepers
Saving protecting self

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with the pursuit of comfort. It is a basis in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Some people are created by God to spend all of their time and focus on solving problems for the human race and so their dedication has not only His approbation but His expectation.

We are happy with antibiotics, washers and dryers and the like and not everyone was created to be a monk. We have all been given a role to play by God and to play it well.

But there is a danger, as Jesus taught, in allowing whatever it is that brings us earthly pleasure and comfort to take precedence over our focus on the reality of the impending afterlife.

This fact brings us back to the reality we all have to face – do we choose to make our focus on “the here and now” or the “there and thereafter.”

Amidst all that this world is about – its demands, obligations, and factors that allow us to actually choose to express selflessness to others instead of toward our own comforts – we have an invitation by Christ . . . READY . . . to follow Him.

And it is in THIS invitation that we begin to develop and understanding of the situation of life in the Carnival and the discovery of the strait gate and narrow way which few find.

It appears, in the face of the billions and billions of people who have ever had life on earth, that Life – including all the suffering – is, in fact, a gift of God.

The vast majority of us live our lives (cradle to grave) in the service of survival, of seeking creature comforts, and/or in passing the hours of our lives in the anticipation and hope of something better.

God knew this. Listen – He has allowed (on earth) for what seems to be every approach imaginable for human being to fulfill the desires of their hearts.

Most lead lives of quiet desperation. Some rise and make their mark, others reach fame or infamy – others lay for years in the opium dens of comfort – it all depends on what we choose to comfort us in the face of the suffering.

But God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son to save this world, and any and all who simply believe on Him will be saved from future afterlife discomfort.

There must be something inherently very good in just being created by God, living life, dying and going on into an afterlife existence. It seems that He loved us so much that He made sure that this would be the case.

But as good as this basic plan is we must admit that afterlife loss is inevitable for all who seek to merely focus on comfort and gain here. This principle is reiterated in the teachings of the Christ.

The parable of “Lazarus and the Rich man, and warnings not lay-up treasures here on earth but in heaven,” for example.

Most of us have built our houses upon the sand instead of the Rock and will find that our temporal focus – whatever they may be – will carries little weight in the hereafter.

And God, “so loving the World,” sent His Son into it to save us – to show us a better way, a way that lends to less of a focus on self and comfort-seeking in the here and now of the carnival and more of a focus on others, on God and on what He has promised to those who overcome. On a way that carries weight in the hereafter.

So amidst all that the carnival presents there are those who choose to receive what Christ has to offer them by faith.

They believe on and in Him. They look to Him and to God. And these become the Children of God by faith.

Saved from after-life discomfort. Saved from themselves, saved to God. I would suggest that in the carnival these choose to move out from the riff raff, from the galleries and the funhouse and the cotton candy and typically they relocate to a place I’m going to call God Land.

This section is for those who do not want to live by beer, cigarettes and porn; for those who do not want to ambitiously focus on big business, the allure of highests education and all the trappings of the world.

God Land is a planned community of sorts for people who want a better way to live than life in the carnival.

God-land has Buddhist parks, Christian beaches, and Islamic deserts.

Within the Christian communities are organizations that provide “Godly activities” for those who pursue Him through Christ.

There we find weekly socials, dances, youth groups, men’s and women’s groups, choirs, worship teams, outings, hikes, breakfasts, and a great deal of opportunity to fellowship with like-minded believers.

What is often overlooked is the fact that most of these activities are patterned in some way after the attractions in the Carnival.

In other words they have rides (but they are Jesus rides). They have clothing (but its Jesus clothing). They have concerts, and camps, and schools, and restaurants but they are all Jesus oriented. Therefore they are wholesome, and void of the fleshly focus found in the rest of the world.

But as we can see God-land is still in the Carnival, it operates off Carnival appeals, and the key to all of this (listen) – the key is the groups that thrive in God-Land so do because they provide people – COMFORT.

That’s right, in the name of God, people – Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all those in between – join, commit, participate and support – the part of God Land to which they belong and in so doing they get rewards here.

How?

Because RELIGION – of every kind and type – provides all who seek it acceptance, financial well-being, networking, friends, popularity, occupational growth, fame, positions of power, community and the like.

They provide comfort.

So instead of having friends that work at the Carnival rides people in God Land have friends who operate church rides.

Instead of getting together and going to a questionable carnival movie people in God Land go see a God film.

Instead of a rock concert where the flesh is fed with carnality people in God land attend a Christian concert where their flesh is fed with Jesus.

And just as life in the Carnival has financial demands so does life in God Land. They are called tithes, donations, love offerings and building funds.

Each church, religion, or group in God Land survives by laying claim to specific ideologies, teachings, doctrines and practices and demands which they suggest are in some way superior to the views of the others sharing space in God Land.

Each group, therefore, extends the benefits of belonging to their group to those who agree to maintain the beliefs of their chosen group, and who trust in the established rules, practices and ways of the group – no matter how big or small the group may be.

You still with me?

In the genuine Christian world, faith in Christ Jesus is usually the defining attribute of each group but there are a range of other ancillary demands that tend to flow directly from this first shared tenet.

It is at this point that all believers must decide – “Will I remain here in my area of God-Land and settle on what my respective institution has demanded of me in terms of allegiance, or will I do what Christ did and exit the carnival altogether as a true follower of Christ and a Son or Daughter of God.

Remember, it was Jesus Himself who said:

“Strait is the gate and narrow the way and few be there that find it.”

In terms of numbers we cannot possible believe that all who choose to live in God-Land are the few. Numerically they represent the many.

Therefore we might admit to ourselves that “the few” must include individuals who have received Christ by faith and then at some point in time decided to do something other that sit back and live within the confines of a God-Land group.

What do they do? In order to answer this let’s look to both the life of Jesus and to His teachings in the New Testament because His truest disciples do what He did and what He taught must be done.

So where life in the Carnival, in the world of Self-Focus is all about . . .

(see the board)

ADD THESE NOW

Comfort Suffering (Son of Man has no place to rest His head)

Acceptance Rejection (he was despised and rejected of men)

Popularity Anonymity (many times nobody knew who He was)

Notoriety Invisibility (was believed to be a failure then and now)
Pride Humility (He humbled Himself below all things)
Money Relied on His Father
Recognition Overlooked
Justice Injustice
Pleasure Discomfort
Life abundantly Abundant Death
Respect Indifference
Welcomed Outside City Walls
Rejoice (commends mourning)
Rich in Spirit (commends being poor in Spirit)
Powerful (commends being Meek)
Full of Ambition Hunger Righteousness
Divide and Conquer Peacemakers
Comfort Keepers The Persecuted
Saving protecting self Offering Life up

So finally, and including the above, let me wrap this up with a scriptural audit of principles that directly tells us how “the few” “overcome,” have “had ears to hear,” have “followed His word to the end,” and have “confessed His name before men” as a means to receive all of nineteen after life promises He has given to the believers in the Seven Churches.

Understand, that if we were to give specifics there are over a thousand direct commands in the New Testament alone – a thousand.

To even attempt to live them specifically would make living under the law look like a cake-walk.

So we speak in terms of general principles that were created by, in and through the actual life of Christ and prescribed in the writings of the New Testament authors.

They include:

Being crucified with Christ. In this life, it means living as new creatures and not after the old.

Of course Paul puts it this way in Galatians 2:20 says it:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

And in
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

And in
2nd Corinthians 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

How often are we crucified with Christ? Daily, as Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 15:31 and then adds in Romans 8:36

“For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

What is the net result of these daily crucifixions?
Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

So one of the results of our being crucified is

“the world is crucified to us and we unto the world.”

In otherwords in and through the death of our old man on the metonymic cross “the world is killed in us and us to the world.”

Stay with me. Where was Jesus crucified? without the camp – outside the city walls – which is emblematic of the world, of the land of the living, the comforted, the carnival camps – of EVERY kind.

This is where we are also crucified with Christ, where we “die daily,” where we are “killed all the day long.”

We don’t suffer, we are not put to death as He was not put to death, within the Carnival or in God-Land.

There is where we find comfort and ease and are fed as we are lead by Man. But no man is crucified among fellowship with His own brethren. We are all crucified BY our own brethren. Outside the city gates, because we have walked from the crowd, and have allowed our flesh to be crucified where all flesh dies by crucifixion – outside of fellowship, outside of the swelling happy masses.

Get it?

Galatians 1:4 says, speaking of Jesus:

“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.”

1st John 5:19 says ”and we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.”

This world lying in wickedness is represented in scripture as life within the camp – life in the carnival. Death occurs outside of these comforts.

It is not a mistake that we read in Leviticus 24:14 that God says:

“Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.”

And that Jesus, the accursed was also taken outside the camp to Calvary to die. And make no mistake, this is the exact same death all the few be there that find it allow to occur in their lives.

In my estimation, and in summary, we have somehow come to believe that to be one of the few we are to join the many in God-Land, and find solace in the arms of brothers and sisters who are like minded.

In my estimation we are to die as Christ died, and that will be at that hands we call our brothers and sisters, that true eternal life is found in our dying daily outside the camp, at the hands of those who should have loved us most but actually hate us for refusing to be part of the many.

At the end of the day, maybe you are realizing what the purpose of CAMPUS is –

First to REACH INTO THE GENERAL CARNIVAL with the Good News of Christ. (Missional Outreach)
Second, to reach into God-Land and teach the babes in the Church the Gospel through the Milk of the Word. But finally, to push all Christian meat-eaters outside of the comforts found within the city gates and to a lonely, painful, daily death at Calvary.

To help make creations children, to nourish His Children with the Milk of the Word and to finally help produce Sons and Daughters, joint-heirs with Christ, by helping them want to exit the city and walk to their waiting deaths.

Okay. So I had to get that off my chest.

Let’s at least, getting back to our verse by verse, read our text for today . . . and next week.

Revelation 2:8 “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

Okay back to verse 8.

Revelation 2:8 “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

Now we have already covered who or what the “angel of the Churches” could be and we’ve also covered the fact that each address to each church begins with a description of Jesus.

Here to Smyrna Jesus, the one speaking to the Seven Churches, is described as:

“The first and the last, which was dead and is alive,” a description used by Him to describe Himself to John in chapter one. And this is what He says to the church at Smyrna (verse 9)

9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

He begins with an acknowledgment of what they have experienced, saying:

“I know your works” and we recall that this is another uniform phrase Jesus uses toward all seven churches in His introductory comments to them.

We also decided (or at least I decided) that because this was to the church as a whole (to the seven of them) that the works Jesus is judging is the direction the church as a body has taken and we need to be careful about assigning the line, “I know thy works” to Jesus speaking to individuals.

It’s not that our works for Him are not known or are not important but the discussion of Jesus assessing the works of different churches and individuals is a separate topic.

So He says, “I know thy works,” and adds here (to the believers at Smyrna)

“And tribulation.”

. . . all that they suffered in whatever form – suffering, persecution, trials inflicted upon them by their enemies – Jesus knew them.

And he adds, “And poverty.”

Isn’t that interesting? Jesus here admits that He knows of their poverty. In other words folks, He allowed those who are His to experience what seems to be material poverty.

It’s one of the paradoxes of the faith that we trust in a God who allows – at least by the fact that He does not remedy – all poverty.

Some people have a great problem with this. They think that if Christ was such a wonderful humanitarian He would provide a steady flow of bread to every table.

It’s just not so – as evidenced by this passage right here in front of us. He is aware – “He knows” their poverty and the tribulations they have suffered” which directly proves He does NOT solve it all. And the why’s are only an exercise in conjecture.

But we are going to end with a parenthetical reference He gives after admitting that He is aware of their poverty. He says

(but thou art rich).

Really beautiful. And something we will cover next week.

Q and A / Prayer