The Church of Smyrna
Tom Shrader examines Christ's letter to the church at Smyrna in Revelation 2:8-11, a persecuted congregation facing poverty, slander, and impending imprisonment. He explains that Jesus, as the One who Himself died and rose, is a sympathetic Savior who knows suffering firsthand and calls His people to courageous faithfulness rather than fear. Shrader closes with practical guidance on the sources of suffering, the reasons God allows it, and how believers can respond with trust, prayer, and an eternal perspective.
“Jesus is not going to talk to you about suffering in a theoretical way — He is a sympathetic Savior who says, I understand your pain, I do not just feel it, I have experienced it.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: What Christ Says to the Church (Revelation)
Recorded: 2010 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 47 min
Themes: suffering, persecution, fear, faithfulness, hope, encouragement, courage, eternal perspective, facing persecution, struggling with fear, going through trials, feeling abandoned by God, new believer, someone in crisis, grieving loss, questioning God's goodness
Scripture: Revelation 2:8-11, Revelation 2:7, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 2:17, Revelation 2:26, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 3:12, Revelation 3:21, 1 Corinthians 13:7, 1 Corinthians 1:26, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Acts 8:1, Acts 13:50, Acts 14:2, Acts 14:5, Acts 14:19, Acts 17:5, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 2 Timothy 4:7-8, James 1:2, James 1:12, Mark 15, John 19
Theological Themes: eschatology, resurrection, Christology, Christ's sympathy, soteriology, perseverance of the saints, biblical prophecy, letters to the churches
Full Transcript
Introduction to the Book of Revelation
Let's open your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 2. If you need a Bible, raise your hands really high — both here and in the conference center — and the ushers will work their way around the room. Raise that hand really high and they'll give you a copy of the Old and New Testament. Go to the back of the book and work your way to the left, and you'll come to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation.
Jesus is appearing to John. This is John the Apostle. John is exiled on the island of Patmos, a little island just into the Mediterranean Sea, about six miles long and four miles wide. The book begins with the word "Revelation," which means to unveil or to disclose. In this book, Jesus is going to unveil and reveal who He is — His deity, His desires, His thoughts, and ultimately His return. That is how the book is broken down.
In chapter 1, John describes his vision. Chapters 2 and 3 contain the very words Jesus has for seven actual churches. Chapters 4 through 22, the balance of the book, are about things that are to come.
The Seven Churches and Their Geography
We had a map up on the screen a couple of weeks ago. For those of you with maps in the back of your Bible, if you find one labeled "Paul's Missionary Journeys," you can follow along. As you come inland from Patmos, you arrive at Ephesus. From there, the seven churches form a kind of oval shape, connected by an actual highway. It runs from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum, then heads a little east to Thyatira, south to Sardis, and then southeast to Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Jesus communicates to each of these churches following a general pattern — with some exceptions, and today's church is one of them. In the general pattern, Jesus identifies the recipient, then autobiographically identifies Himself, then mentions a strength in that church, followed by a weakness, a call to action, and finally a promise. Most scholars would say these seven churches describe churches with characteristics found in all times and in all places. They also, in a real sense, describe individual people.
Recap of the Church at Ephesus
We saw in the first week that when Jesus writes to the church at Ephesus, He says, "Here is what I know about you: you work really hard, you persevere, and you are discerning." Those are good things — especially for a Bible church, those are exactly the characteristics you look for. Hard working, discerning, persevering, full of activity.
But He said, "I have this against you: you have lost your first love." You have lost that sense of relationship with Me. Perhaps it is a matter of motivation, or perhaps it is the deeper reality that faith is not just about knowing Scripture, but about knowing the God that Scripture points us to — the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Universal Experience of Suffering
This week, Jesus writes to a church that is suffering. As we said in the first week, if love is the universal language, then suffering is the universal experience. It is not really an elective for anybody. If you live for any length of time, you are going to experience all sorts of suffering and pain and hardship.
Let me digress just a bit, because I decided to address this in the first hour and I don't want to deprive you of it either. We now live in a way where suffering is, in many ways, more intensified because it can be so widely exposed. There was a young man last week at — I believe it was Rutgers — who was having a sexual experience with another man, and his roommate or a friend videoed it and streamed it live. When the young man found out, he could not cope with it, and he took his own life.
I had a hard time getting that story out of my mind, and I think the reason is the pain that was inflicted in such a haphazard and careless way. I cannot imagine the anguish his parents are going through. I assume those who set up what they may have thought of as a prank — though it was far more than a prank — probably did not anticipate what happened, though they could have. I imagine they feel sick about it. What it reminded me of is how fragile we are — how a single experience, or a single moment of exposure, can shatter a person.
Love Protects Rather Than Exposes
I taught this again in PL this week, and I've come back to it about every six months since we went through 1 Corinthians. At the end of 1 Corinthians 13, when Paul is defining love, he writes in verse 7: "Love bears all things, love believes all things, love endures all things, love hopes for all things."
I read a couple of paragraphs from John MacArthur's commentary on that passage, and something he said struck me deeply. He said that one of the gross sins within the church is gossip, and what makes gossip so destructive is that there are so many willing listeners. Then he spoke about what love actually does. He said that love, even when someone sins, does not expose the sin — it protects the person. That is not to condone the sin, but if God is dealing with it and there is repentance, the impulse of love is not to expose but to protect.
There is something about that incident, and something about the internet, that brings this into sharp relief.
Introduction
When we talk about love, it is the universal language. When we talk about suffering, it truly is a universal life experience. There is suffering enough in the world — you do not have to create it. There is suffering in the world, and there is suffering in your own life.
The Letter to Smyrna
Let us read this letter. It is verses 8 through 11 — the shortest of these seven letters.
"And to the angel of the church at Smyrna write: the first and the last, who was dead and has come to life, says this: I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. The blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, they are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death."
The pattern holds, as it does in each of these letters. It is addressed to the angel of the church at Smyrna — the angel being the messenger, the one who will receive the letter and read it to the congregation. We believe we know who the angel of the church at Smyrna was, and there is a rest-of-the-story moment we will return to at the end.
How Jesus Identifies Himself
Whenever Jesus identifies Himself in these letters, He is highlighting an attribute or characteristic of Himself that generally applies to the problem, the strength, the weakness, or the action being addressed. Here He calls Himself "the first and the last" — the Alpha and the Omega. He is the One who knows all things, the Creator, the sovereign One, the One who spoke the world into existence. That is who is speaking.
The City of Smyrna
Smyrna was founded in 1000 BC. It was called the Crown of Asia and the safest of all harbors, which always means commerce, and the city flourished accordingly. It was a city of prosperity and wealth, and it was beautiful. Alexander the Great called it the most magnificent of all cities and designated it as a kind of planned community — a paradise of peace.
It had a magnificent library, one of the largest theaters of its day, and it was the home and birthplace of Homer, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. It had a magnificent transportation grid that allowed people, horses, and livestock to move through the city in an orderly way. Aristides wrote of it, "The wind blows through every part of the city and makes it fresh as a grove of trees." It was a constant westward wind — with one problem. When they designed this magnificent city, they placed all of the sewage at one end, so when the westward wind blew, the smell permeated the entire city. Things have not changed.
Smyrna was a free city, meaning Rome did not maintain a constant presence there. Cicero said of it, "Smyrna is one of our most faithful and most ancient allies." In 195 BC, the first temple ever built to the goddess Roma was constructed in Smyrna. In 26 AD, there was a contest among the cities to see who would be awarded the privilege of building the temple to the godhead Tiberius, and even against the wealthy city of Ephesus, Smyrna won.
What becomes especially important in our study is that Smyrna had an active and involved Jewish population. They participated in civic affairs and city government. They were prosperous. As a result, Smyrna was a city that was hostile to the Christian faith — highly, highly pagan. The people worshiped Zeus, Hermes, Apollo, and Mercury, and the chant most often heard in worship was this: "Caesar is Lord." That is the backdrop. You only need to know a little of that to understand where the suffering and persecution are going to come from.
A Sympathetic Savior
Returning to the latter part of verse 8, Jesus identifies Himself as the first and the last. He is supreme. He is sovereign. There is nothing outside His control. And then He adds this: it is He who was dead but came to life.
Jesus is about to speak to them about suffering, and He immediately draws their attention to His own experience of it. He is saying: I am the One who was beaten. I am the One who was spit upon. I am the One who was humiliated. I am the One who was crucified. I am not going to speak to you about suffering in a theoretical way. I am not going to give you a message on suffering as someone who has observed it but never experienced it. I am a sympathetic Savior. I understand your pain. I do not merely feel it — I have experienced it.
That is what I want to hear. What weighs heavily on me in all of this is that God cares and He can do something about it. When I pray, I pray with that knowledge in mind. I am praying to a God who is a sympathetic Savior, who says: I understand this, I have experienced this, and I can do something about it.
The Crushing Weight of Tribulation
Our process is typically this: I know you can do something about it, so will you remove it? And He said, well, I don't know that that's what I'm going to do about it. I may or may not remove it, but this is what I can do — I can join you in the midst of this, and I will provide you a comfort beyond anything that you can imagine. I understand that, humanly speaking, that's what we want. If our kids have a problem, my tendency is to want to remove that problem rather than ask, wait a minute, what is God teaching us in the midst of all of this?
Sometimes we learn that lesson very quickly, and that pressure needs to be relieved — it needs to go away. You shouldn't necessarily live under that stress and that pressure. There are other times where God is simply working out His own plan. So look at what He says in verse 9: I know three things.
He says, "I know your tribulation" — and again, it's not just a factual thing, it's an experiential thing. He says, "I know your poverty," and then adds parenthetically, "you really are rich." And then He says, "I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not — the synagogue of Satan." That is where He begins.
The Meaning of Smyrna
The word tribulation means to be crushed beneath a weight — it is a constant pressure. One of the ancients writes that nowhere in the first century could the life of a Christian be more difficult and dangerous than in Smyrna. Smyrna also means myrrh, which is significant. Myrrh is not like a rose that you pick and simply smell and enjoy its fragrant aroma. Myrrh was used for perfume and for medicinal purposes — in some cases to relieve pain, and in some cases to embalm a body in its preparation for burial.
But for myrrh to be activated, it had to be crushed. For that aroma to be released, it had to be crushed. And it is not just a single blow — think not of a boxing match where a fighter delivers a left hook and knocks his opponent down and it is over, but think of a wrestling match where there is a constant, unrelenting pressure. That is what is going on here.
Myrrh was part of Jesus' life. When the kings came to visit Jesus, they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. When Jesus hung on the cross, someone brought a sponge dipped in what Mark calls in Mark 15 a sour wine — myrrh was likely part of that mixture, serving as an anesthetic to take care of the pain. And then in John chapter 19, Nicodemus — the one who came to Jesus by night in John chapter 3 — comes and brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, a hundred pounds of spices and oils, as they prepared the body of Christ after His death for burial.
A Sympathetic Savior
He says, "I know your tribulation." Here is what you need to hear today. You may barely be hanging on. It could be economic, it could be a relationship, it could be physical. You could be under intense, constant, unrelenting pain — some days worse than others, but always present. Maybe you wake up most days knowing this is likely the best you are going to feel for the rest of your life. Maybe you are in a financial situation like that.
Here is what I am saying: you have a sympathetic Savior. He knows. He may use that pain and simply take it away, or He may join you in the midst of it. What are the sources of suffering, and how do you respond to it? We will talk about that in a moment.
Absolute Poverty, True Riches
He also says, "I know your poverty" — and then quickly adds, "but you are really rich." What He is saying is: I know what your bank statement looks like. I have seen it. There are two Greek words for poverty. One describes the working poor — people who are scraping by, some months with a little left over, other months with nothing, balancing out to barely enough. That is not the word He chooses.
The second word means absolutely impoverished — to own nothing at all. It is the picture of a bond slave. When we use the word slave in the Greek and Roman context, there were different categories. Some slaves were very much like people working off a debt, or people paid a salary while under the ownership of a master. They might have their own house and come and go with relative freedom. But the bond slave owned nothing. The very clothes they wore belonged to their master, and they had those clothes only because of the graciousness of their master. That is the word He uses here.
It is a word that, frankly, became identified more and more with the early church. When Paul writes to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1:26, he says, "Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble." What he is saying is: as I look around this church at Corinth, there are not many people with a great deal of wealth. James, when he writes —
The Blasphemy of the Synagogue of Satan
He says, "I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan." When we think of blasphemy, we think of accusations against God Himself and how we blaspheme Him. But here Jesus is speaking of those who claim to be Jews yet are not — they are of the synagogue. That word "synagogue" simply means assembly or congregation. It is not that they are necessarily saints and worshippers; rather, they stand in opposition to the one true God.
John Wesley wrote about witnessing to an atheist, and at the end of the encounter, as the person rejected the gospel, Wesley wrote, "Your God is my devil." That is the idea here. It has been a constant theme from the very beginning of the church.
Persecution From the Very Beginning: Stephen and Saul
In Acts chapter 8, Stephen has been stoned — and we must be careful, because words change their meaning over time. What is meant there is a form of capital punishment in which rocks are thrown at a person with the intent to kill. Stephen has been killed, and provision is being made for his body. Acts chapter 8, verse 1 tells us that persecution then broke out in the city. It reads this way: "Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death, and on that day great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.
"But Saul began ravaging the church." In Greek literature, the word translated "ravaging" would be used to describe a wild animal as it tears apart its prey. Saul tears apart the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women and putting them in prison.
So from the very beginning, here is a group — in this case, Jews — who come in opposition. They kill Stephen. Saul is the one leading this charge. Then he has an experience in which God exposes Himself, Christ exposes Himself to Saul, and instead of persecuting the church, Saul becomes the foremost advocate of the church. What happens then is that Paul begins to experience the very ravaging he himself had inflicted on others.
Paul Pursued Across Cities
Look at Acts chapter 13. Paul and Barnabas have set out on the first missionary journey and they are in Antioch. Chapter 13, verse 50: "But the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and they drove them out of their district." They did not drive them far. They drove them, as chapter 14 shows, to Iconium.
Chapter 14, verse 2: "The Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren." So in verse 5, "there was an attempt made, both by the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to mistreat and stone them." They are driven out of Iconium and land in Lystra.
Chapter 14, verse 19: "Jews came from Antioch and Iconium." It is no longer enough simply to drive them out of the city — now they are pursuing them. They come to Lystra, win over the crowds, stone Paul, drag him to the outer parts of the city, and believe he is dead. That is what stoning was: a form of capital punishment. Leaders from Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra — a mob from three cities — all rally against him and stone him. They think he is dead. He is not. Paul gets up and continues to preach.
The Pattern of Jealousy and Mob Violence Continues
Chapter 17, verse 5: Paul arrives in Thessalonica and begins to preach. One might think the word would have spread — that something extraordinary must be happening, given all this man has endured. But what happens is that the Jews become jealous. They see how his preaching is perhaps threatening them — threatening them financially, threatening them theologically. They "take along some wicked men from the marketplace, form a mob, set the city in an uproar, and come upon the house of Jason," seeking to bring Paul and those with him out to the people. Their intent, once again, is to kill.
This was occurring some forty or fifty years before what we are looking at in the letter to Smyrna. And that persecution continued, and continued, and continued.
The Charges Brought Against Christians
The charges leveled against Christians fall largely into six categories. First, Christians were accused of being cannibals because they ate the body and blood of Christ. Second — and this is ironic, coming from those whose own religious practices included sexual encounters — Christians were accused that their agape love feasts were in fact orgies. Third, they were accused of ruining families, which to some degree carried a measure of truth, in the sense that families were splitting over the person of Christ: mother against daughter, siblings against one another. This is something many believers have experienced firsthand.
Suffering During the Holiday Season
I recently saw an internal note about Christmas parties — schedules, tables, what we need — and I thought, my goodness, we are already in that time of year. For some of you, I love that. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but I am growing fonder of Christmas too, though it has always been a bit difficult for me. What I do know is that many of you are coming up on a time when you will face intense family issues, and some of those issues will center on your faith. God has saved many of you, and as you begin to share with your family what He has done, they respond with something like, "Wait — is that a rejection of us? Not just our faith, but us?" You have to be very wise and very careful in the midst of that.
The Accusations Against the Church at Smyrna
The believers at Smyrna were accused, ironically, of atheism — because they refused to burn candles and make images and statues. They were considered politically disloyal because they refused to say "Caesar is Lord." They were also accused of inciting rebellion because they taught that Jesus would come again as a conquering King. Their opponents would say, "See what they are doing? This is festering, and it is going to explode one day." That is the backdrop as we come to verse 9.
Christ Speaks to Their Suffering
In verse 9, Jesus says, "I know your tribulation, I know your poverty, I know the suffering and pain, the hardship." Then in verse 10, He moves to action: "Do not fear what you are about to suffer." He is not saying this in some Pollyanna way. He is not promising a happily-ever-after. Jesus is not in any way suggesting it will not hurt, that there will be no suffering, that there will be no pain. He says it is coming — but do not be afraid of it.
Go back to those same words: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the beginning and the end." He is fully aware. He is in control. There is not a maverick molecule. This somehow all works for your good and His glory. And because of that, Jesus can say, "Do not be afraid of those things you are about to suffer."
He continues: "Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison." Not all of you — which in itself will raise questions, because people will wonder, why them and not me? Why me and not them? The reason He gives is this: "You will be tested. You will have tribulation ten days." Ten days is not a literal ten days; it describes a brief and finite period of time. "But be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."
The Crown of Life
Do not gloss over the suffering — it is real. And the same is true for you today. Do not for a second think that because Jesus is your Lord and Savior and Master, you will not have hard and difficult times in your life. He does not put a bubble over you when you come to Him in repentance and faith. We say we know that, but when suffering comes, we have a tendency to say, "Really? How come I'm going through this?" You know it is true. You think, "I understand if You had dealt with me when I was lost and raising Cain and doing all of that — but why now?" For at least part of it, the answer is that it is to test you.
In the ancient games at Athens, Corinth, and Smyrna, the one who won an event received a victor's crown — a picture of victory and joy. A public official who served a complete term of office would in many instances receive a crown of recognition. Jesus promises that same crown of life. James writes of it in James 1:12: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." That is what awaits.
Paul writes of it as well in 2 Timothy. He says the time for his departure is clear — it is here, it is now, it is coming. "I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. And there is laid up for me on that day the crown of life, that victor's crown." Then he adds that it will be awarded not only to him, but to all who loved Him and His appearing.
The Sources of Suffering
Now let us turn to some practical application — the sources of suffering, the reasons for suffering, and how to respond. There are four sources of suffering: satanic activity, ungodly people, the world system, and our own sin.
First, we have an enemy. One source of suffering is satanic activity. Our fight, our war is not with flesh and blood — it is against spiritual realms. Satan, Lucifer, the devil, comes after you, and he has legions of demons. There is a spiritual warfare, and you are in the midst of it.
Second, you will suffer from ungodly people around you, just as we saw in Paul's life. A group pursued him in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, and they never stopped. Ungodly people will inflict suffering on you. Third, there is the world system. God's value system and the world's value system are in collision, and that collision produces suffering. Fourth and finally, our own sin can cause suffering as well.
Why Christians Suffer
You could go home and Google why Christians suffer and get a whole list of reasons. Let me just highlight a couple of them. First, I would group several together under this idea: suffering lets us see the fruit of joy, patience, maturity, and righteousness in our lives. You do not know if you are patient until you are put in trying situations.
I love this simple way of thinking about it — it comes from my own life, so I appreciate simple. I do not know if I am a patient driver if all the lights are green. I do not know if I am a patient driver when traffic is moving. I do not know if I am a person who really has joy and endurance until I am put in difficult circumstances. Those circumstances are going to show me what is really there — it is the best teacher we can have.
If we go around the room and say, "Talk about a time when you saw God work in your life in a real way — a time when God really made Himself evident to you," most of us will talk about a time of difficulty. Most of us will talk about a time of suffering. Suffering purifies our lives. It is like taking gold and putting it in the fire time after time until you have pure gold.
It makes us like Christ. It glorifies God. Everything that comes into our lives for our good and His glory — especially in suffering — is a wonderful opportunity to reveal Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to the people around us.
Suffering Reveals Us to Ourselves
This is my favorite reason: suffering reveals ourselves to ourselves. It allows me to see who I really am. I may think I am an absolute Christian superstar, and along come difficulties, and I fold like a cheap suit. Or perhaps you have looked at someone else's hardship and said, "I could never do that" — and then God brings it into your life, and indeed, you realize you cannot do it on your own. But He is in you, giving you great strength, and it becomes a powerful display of how He is really working in your life.
Suffering also helps your prayer life. For about the last six months, there have been three things I have been praying for consistently — and when I say consistently, I mean six to twelve times a day, every day. Almost the first thing in the morning, almost always the last thing at night, and sprinkled throughout the day. This morning, as I was in the shower praying through these things, I said, "God, are You sick of hearing about this yet? I have brought this up roughly 1,800 times. Are You tired of this?" But these three things all revolve around some level of hurt, pain, or suffering, and that reality drives me to pray without ceasing.
Think about it this way: if you are a salesperson, do you pray when the deal closes or when the deal falls apart? You tend to pray more when it does not happen. Suffering sharpens and deepens your prayer life.
Suffering Qualifies You to Comfort Others
Suffering also qualifies you as a counselor. You may say you never want to counsel anyone, but listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1: *"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of mercy and God of all comforts who comforts us in our affliction, so that we will be able to comfort those who are in affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God."*
A man came up after the first service and told me his son had committed suicide in August. I cannot say I understand how he feels — I have no frame of reference for that. But he began talking about this whole litany of things: how he has seen God work, how it has drawn him closer to Him, how it was something beyond anything he could have imagined, and yet how he can see the living Spirit of the living God indwelling him and giving him strength, and now giving him opportunities to share with other people who are walking through the same thing. Where I say "I cannot relate," he says, "I can. I understand."
Beyond comforting others, suffering furthers the witness of the gospel, draws you closer to God, and shows His sovereignty over all things.
How to Respond to Suffering
Let me give you some practical reactions to suffering — this will take about five minutes. The first is simply this: do not be surprised by it. Expect to suffer. *"Count it all joy when you encounter various trials."* Trials are inevitable. You are going to have loved ones who die, people who get sick. The more people involved in your life, the more opportunities there are for suffering and pain and hardship.
If you are living alone, there will be suffering, but the moment you add a second person — we call it marriage — you double the opportunities for it. Then you have children, then grandchildren, and the possibilities for pain and affliction multiply further. Add to that the world you live in, the economic conditions, the political climate, and so on. Suffering is expected. It is going to come.
The second thing is this: commit to God at the very beginning of the suffering. Say, "God, I do not know what is going to happen, but I know You, and I am trusting You in the midst of this." That leads naturally to the third thing: do not try to understand it. I am not talking about intellectual suicide. I am simply saying that rationally, I cannot always see what God is doing. I do not know why He is working a certain way. I do not know why He would cause something or allow something. When I start asking questions that begin with the word *why*, it is almost fruitless at the front end of suffering. Sometimes, as time goes on, I will see God work and be able to say, "Oh — I see what He did. Now I understand why."
Suffering in Perspective
Realize that other people suffer. Our tendency is always to think that no one has really suffered like this, that no one has ever hurt like this. But 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us He won't tempt, try, or test you beyond that which you can endure, nor is that temptation or test unique to you. Pray. Don't despise it. One of the paraphrases — I think it's the Phillips — renders James 1:2 as: welcome the trials and the tribulations and the suffering. Welcome them as friends, not as intruders. Why? Because God is going to work through them.
Don't faint. Be patient. And here is a difficult one: thank God for your suffering. We come to Thanksgiving and we go through the whole list — thank you for the house, thank you for the food, thank you for Mom who prepared it, thank you for the turkey. How often do you stop and say, "Thank you for this pain in my arm that's so intense I can hardly endure it"? Or, "Thank you for the hardship we've had at work"? Why can you say thank you? Because you know He is working His purpose in you and in the circumstances around you — not because you have it all figured out.
Don't suffer needlessly. You don't need to go out and create suffering circumstances. They will come to you. That would be unnecessary.
Weighing Suffering Against Eternal Glory
The last thing to consider is this: weigh your current suffering against the coming glory. Second Corinthians 4:16–18 says, "Do not lose heart, though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. Momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Here is what Paul is saying: if you take a scale and put all this suffering on one side, and then put the eternal weight of glory and what God is accomplishing in eternity on the other side, there is simply no comparison.
I get it, because I am like you. When suffering comes, it absorbs everything. That is exactly why Jesus comes to the church at Smyrna and says, "Don't be afraid." Why? Because He is the Alpha and the Omega. He knows the pain. He felt it. He is not saying this to scare them, but to say: line up these promises. He will not test you beyond what you can endure. In the midst of it, I may not know why, but God does. It is not a bumper sticker — it is something to grab onto and hold onto. Whatever the circumstance, it is for my good and for His glory, and He will be manifest in it.
If you take those reasons and reactions together, consider this: let's say you really do love God and you are praying, "God, use me, soften me, draw me closer to You. I want to enjoy You. I want an intimate relationship with You. I want to know You in a vibrant, real way — not in theory, but intensely." He says: perfect. For us to get from here to there, you are going to have to suffer. In that case, the suffering is really an answer to prayer.
He Who Overcomes
Here is how Jesus closes His letter to Smyrna: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes." Jesus uses that phrase in chapter two, verses 7, 11, 17, and 26, and in chapter three, verses 5, 12, and 21. The idea of overcoming is simply the reality that God has persevered and preserved you. It is not you hanging on to Him — it is Him hanging on to you.
Polycarp: The Angel of Smyrna
Now, here is who we believe the angel of Smyrna was. We believe it was Polycarp. Polycarp was born in 69 AD and died in 155 AD. Tradition holds that he was in Smyrna, probably taught by John himself, and was leading that church. On February 23rd, 155, there were public games, athletic festivals, and celebrations taking place in Smyrna. A crowd grew large, excitement built, and a mob formed — calling for the persecution of Christians. Polycarp was a visible figure in the community, loved not only by the Christians but by Roman leaders as well. But it became clear that they were going to have to act, and they were going to begin killing Christians.
They came to Polycarp and said, "Just say Caesar is Lord. You don't even have to mean it — just say it." He asked to go and pray. He went away, prayed for two hours, came back, and prepared a feast for them. He fed them, and then said, "I cannot do that." His formal words are recorded: "Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a time and is quickly quenched, for you do not know the fire that awaits the wicked in judgment to come and the everlasting punishment. Why are you waiting? Come and do what you will do."
He refused again. They pressed him again — just say Caesar is Lord. He said no. They prepared to kill him by burning him at the stake. They gathered the wood, set the stake in the middle, and brought him to it. He said, "Don't tie me up." His words are again recorded: "Leave me as I am, for He who gives me power to endure the fire will grant me the power to remain in the flames."
That was not theoretical for Polycarp. He was saying: the One who brought these flames will give me the power to endure them, because this is about Him and His power — not about me and my suffering.
Don't Be Afraid
Maybe you are here today and you are barely hanging on. Here is what Jesus says: don't be afraid. I know some of you are going to suffer. I know the tribulation, the poverty, the slander. I know how much you hurt. But it is only for a time, and only for your good.