We normally sing a song as we gather together to prepare for the ministry of the Word. This time, I wanted to introduce the song that I requested. It is a very special song to me.
It was written by Watchman Nee and is called “Let Me Love and Not Be Respected.” At one time in my life, when I was going through some difficulties, I had it pasted in my closet. I read it every day, memorized it, and it would come to me often.
It is also at the beginning of the book The Finest of the Wheat, which contains a short biography of Watchman Nee. The poem or hymn is presented as something that could represent his life, testimony, and ministry.
Today we are going to speak about the church in Smyrna—the suffering church of Smyrna. The letter in Revelation 2 includes martyrdom and being faithful unto death. Watchman Nee himself was a faithful man of God all the way unto death, even dying as a martyr for Christ.
I wanted to read the words of his last note before they sing the song. This was written shortly before he passed away. He had a heart condition and had been imprisoned for over twenty years.
When the Communists took over China, they wanted to wipe out Christianity, and they especially targeted the leaders. Watchman Nee was probably the main one whom they made to suffer. He was sentenced to twenty years, ending up in a labor camp, but they did not really let him go after those twenty years. We do not know whether they wanted him to recant or something like that, but he was not released.
It is a miracle that he even made it that far with his heart condition. Perhaps he knew he was going to go, and he wrote a note and placed it under his pillow. It said:
Christ is the Son of God,
Who died to atone for men’s sins,
And Who rose on the third day.
This is the greatest fact in the universe.I believe in Christ and die.
—Watchman Nee
Lord, we stand together as Your people right now—all of us in many different circumstances, all of us with such different histories. But You are the same Christ. You are the One of Whom we all testify. You are the First and the Last. You are the One Who became dead and lived.
Lord, we trust ourselves to You and look to You. We thank You for calling us out away from ourselves. We thank You for calling us to fellowship with You in Your sufferings.
Lord, we trust this time to You. We pray that You would help us to use Your Word in our hearts to minister something of Christ among us. I pray for myself also, that You would keep me and even hold my soul together.
I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This morning when I woke up, I felt that I needed to change what I had prepared to share. In light of the news we received late last night, our sister among us passed away, even though it was expected.
There is still something among us as believers. Those of us who have been praying for the family and walking along together know what the Bible says in Romans 12:15: we weep with those who weep. And as it says in 1 Corinthians 12, when one part suffers, we all suffer.
Even if you are not extremely close to someone, or not part of the family of someone going through suffering, there is a sense among God’s people that, when some are suffering, it touches our hearts deep within as well.
At first, I did not know whether I could share on the suffering church in Smyrna. So I looked to the Lord, and I feel that what we will do is share more on the spiritual viewpoint of this church in Smyrna. The prophetic parts, and the parts having to do with persecution, we will save for next week, God willing.
If I am scattered, have mercy on me. I have something on my heart, but I am not polished—not like I normally am polished.
Let us read the letter to the church in Smyrna. It begins in Revelation 2:8 and continues through verse 11.
And to the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write:
These things saith the First and the Last,
Who became dead, and lived again:
I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich),
And the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not,
But are a synagogue of Satan.Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer:
Behold, the devil is about to 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 the crown of life.He that hath an ear, let him hear
What the Spirit saith to the assemblies.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.—Revelation 2:8-11
There is another verse I would like to read for our time today, Romans 8:28-29. Most likely a number of us have it memorized.
And we know that to them that love God
All things work together for good,
Even to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained
To be conformed to the image of His Son,
That He might be the firstborn among many brethren.—Romans 8:28-29
Lastly, 2 Corinthians 4:17:
For our light affliction, which is for the moment,
Worketh for us more and more exceedingly
An eternal weight of glory.—2 Corinthians 4:17
Our momentary and light affliction works for us, in surpassing measure, an eternal weight of glory.
We have been going through the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. First, we looked at the vision in Revelation 1 of Christ as the great High Priest—the kingly High Priest ministering to His people.
In that vision of Christ, in all the descriptions of His present glory, there are seven lamps around Him: the seven churches. It is like the picture of the high priest in the temple with the menorah, the lampstand with its seven branches.
As we learn from reading the letters, each of these lamps shines a specific light or aspect of Christ. They each have their own testimony. When they shine the light of Christ, we see Him—but we see Him in the midst of them. They are the background shining Christ.
Each letter begins with the Lord sharing something of Himself. Actually, that is what their light should be. The second letter, to the church in Smyrna, has its own specific light: the One Who wrote it is the First and the Last, Who became dead and lived.
Prophetically speaking, Smyrna represents the period of the second and third centuries. We will hope to speak next week about the suffering and martyrdom that took place during that time. Smyrna follows Ephesus, which represents the end of the first century.
But spiritually speaking, this letter is for all of God’s people. Each letter ends with the phrase, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the assemblies.” Therefore, what is written to the church in Smyrna is written for all God’s people throughout all time.
Those Christians who lived before the second and third centuries could receive spiritual help from this letter before those events happened. And afterward, including us in our own time, can receive help from it as well. This letter is not written merely for one historical period.
The larger burden—the spiritual burden—is this testimony. There is something for us specifically to hear, even if we know nothing about church history. We can find it in the Lord’s description of Himself.
The description given to the church in Smyrna is not actually part of John’s initial description of Jesus in Revelation 1. When John sees the vision of Christ as the High Priest in all His glory, he falls down as one dead.
This is in Revelation 1:17-18. The vision struck John, and the Lord Jesus reached out with His right hand and said, “Fear not.”
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead.
And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not;
I am the First and the Last,
And the Living One;
And I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,
And I have the keys of death and of Hades.—Revelation 1:17-18
This is what the letter to Smyrna refers to. When the Lord says that the One writing is the First and the Last, Who became dead and lived, He is referring back to His own testimony to John.
John saw the vision and fell down as one dead. It is as though the Lord Jesus reaches down with His right hand, pulls him up to look at Him again, and brings him back to his feet, saying, “Fear not.” Then He describes Himself.
The church in Smyrna is called to be faithful even unto death. The Lord’s word to them is, “Fear nothing of what thou art about to suffer.” Their experience is similar to John’s. It is as though the Lord reaches down with His right hand, points them back to Himself, and says, “Fear nothing of what you are about to suffer. I am the First and the Last, the One Who became dead and lived.”
This was their strength. This was the testimony they expressed in all their suffering. And I believe this is the testimony we are to express in all our own suffering.
I would like to take suffering in a more general sense and step back from the specific persecution experienced by the church in Smyrna. We need to look at suffering from a larger viewpoint.
Dana Congdon told us not to drink water mid-sentence at the Queens conference.
When the church in Smyrna suffered, they were to see the Lord’s face and His description of Himself: He is the First.
As was mentioned this morning at the table, He is first of all things. He is the First of all creation. He existed before time began. He existed before anything was made, and He is the beginning of creation. He is the One through Whom all things were created.
Therefore, He has the preeminence—not only in how all things came about, but also in having the first place in all things. In the very end, He has the first place in everything. This is the calling of all creation and of the whole universe.
He is also the Last. The goal and end of this universe, and of all that God is doing throughout time, is Christ. Christ is the sum of everything, and He is the purpose of everything. He is the One to Whom we are called.
He is the beginning that we have, but He is also our all in all. He is what everything is about. In suffering, this is brought into our view.
The other thing He says is that He became dead and lived. This life after death is resurrection life.
There is something about Christ simply being the Living One, but there is also a living after death. It is a specific kind of life that Christians have as well, a life that the Lord Jesus has given to us. Death happens, but life comes afterward.
Let us take a step back. When we suffer, there are reasons for suffering. But we cannot blame everything on God. Originally, suffering was not God’s intention.
In the original creation, there was no sin, no death, and no need for suffering. The way God made things was not meant to be suffering. In the very end, all suffering will stop. Tears will be wiped away, death will be gone, and suffering will end.
Suffering came about because of sin. Death entered the world because of sin. Through sin, death infected the whole universe, and even all creation experiences death now. But this is because of sin; it is not because God is personally creating every instance of suffering.
There is a wrong idea that blames everything on God, as though every suffering must have been God’s idea, as though He is thinking up ways for people to suffer. That is a wrong concept.
Whether you are a Christian or not, you will suffer in this world. Why? Because there is sin in this world. Sin has corrupted creation, brought in death and disease, and brought confusion into creation. Disasters occur and hurt mankind.
But there are also sins presently being committed by mankind. Sometimes younger people ask about God’s sovereignty, whether God makes everything happen, or whether we have choices.
I usually bring up whoever is talking the most or texting in class, bring them to the front, and punch them really hard. Then I ask whether I am responsible for that or whether it is all God’s doing. Obviously, I get blamed for that one. Sometimes they punch me back.
That was my own doing. Because there is sin in the world, and sinners are making choices in the world, extra suffering happens—not only because sin is present, but because we are causing suffering.
You may not realize it, but you have probably caused a number of people’s sufferings. Whether small or major, whether extremely sad or merely accidental, much suffering happens because of our own choices.
You may be tired, having a rough time, or sitting next to someone. You may say something rude without thinking, and someone else suffers. That is not God’s fault. In that case, you would say it is your fault.
Now put many people in the universe, and it becomes extremely complex. We do not know whether the reason I was stung by a bee is because a neighbor removed flowers from their yard and the bee had to come to mine. Whose fault is it? There is suffering, and it is very complex.
We cannot always identify one person to blame. We have to recognize the corruption that is taking place. There are not only human beings sinning and making choices, and governments making choices; there are also spiritual beings making choices, bringing in evil, and doing things.
This universe, seen and unseen, is full of things that make suffering happen.
That is part of suffering whether you are saved or not. It is something we all go through. Whether you do good or bad, you receive sunlight. Whether you are an evil person or not, if you have a child, they are still really cute.
Suffering happens to both the good and the evil. Yet some glorious things in creation also come from the goodness of God. He causes rain and sunshine to come upon both good and bad. Do not blame everything on God.
With that said, there is something with Christians that is slightly different. There is often preserving and protection given to believers, like we read in the book of Job.
Satan calls it a hedge. He says Job has a hedge—a whole circle of protection—around him. Satan could not affect Job or interfere with him unless God permitted it.
Job was a man of God in the Lord’s hands. So there is another factor. Not only have we made choices, and not only has the world made choices, and not only have our ancestors made choices so that sin has corrupted the world—God is also making choices. He is alive and active in this universe.
In many cases, with a believer walking with the Lord, there is some protection and preserving. Some of that is because you are not walking in sin, since much suffering results from our own actions. But there is also a special protection around a believer.
Think of the man in the Corinthian church. Because he had fallen into so much sin, the church had to ask him not to meet with them. One thing explained is that he would not even have the protection of the church.
There is a kind of blessing and covering. When you choose to walk in the way of Satan, you move out from under that covering, and then all things can happen. But with a believer walking with the Lord, there is something of protection.
This makes things more complex. In the book of Job, the Lord removed the protection in layers.
James 5 tells us that we have seen the endurance of Job and the end of the Lord. When we read Job, we notice that at the very end he is different. Though he was righteous in the beginning, a man of God, a priest in his own household, and one who cared about the things of God, the Lord produced something more glorious in Job than what was there at the beginning.
Satan thought he was doing something, but God was allowing it. Satan had to obtain permission. It is unique to see this inside story of a council among the angels, where Satan has to ask permission from God.
The Lord permitted Satan to hurt Job’s circumstances. Job lost family, riches, and many other things. Satan then asked again, because Job still blessed the Lord:
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.—Job 1:21
Satan then asked to touch Job’s body. Job’s body was hurt, and he had painful boils all over it. Initially, he remained faithful to the Lord, but through all his suffering and inward turmoil, something was produced.
The Lord uses everything, as we read in Romans 8, to produce something He desires. He works through all things for good. Just as with Job, He used suffering for something. There was an end of the Lord.
There is suffering in general because of sin, but there is also the Lord’s protection and His allowing of suffering for believers who walk with Him.
Romans 8:28-29 says that God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
If you backtrack that, you could say this is really for every believer. If you have been born again, there has been some touch of the Lord’s love. To receive eternal life, there has to be some experience of His love.
If you are saved, deep down there is an “I love the Lord.” Wherever you are right now, and whatever dirt is on top of that, uncover it all and there is gold underneath that says, “I love the Lord.”
And certainly, in the Lord’s arrangement and predestination concerning you, you are called according to His purpose. Every believer has been called for God’s purpose, and His purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son.
This calling is upon every believer. Deep down, there is a love of God. But in actual daily experience, the Lord uses circumstances.
Even if you are stubborn, God will use circumstances to break you and bring you again to a soft heart. But what is especially needed is not to be stubborn, but to love Him right now.
If you are walking in that way, there is an experience of protection and an experience of the Lord allowing some suffering.
When He allows something, we should not blame Him or try to figure everything out. We should remember that sin is in the world, and suffering will remain until the Lord returns.
But when He allows something, and we love the Lord and have His purpose in view, it takes away some of the hurt and bitterness of suffering.
The name Smyrna comes from the word myrrh, which is bitter. It probably speaks especially of the bitterness of suffering.
But when you go along with the Lord in suffering, the extreme bitterness is removed because He is doing something with it. The Lord uses suffering to conform you to the image of Christ.
He is taking you away from being conformed to this world and bringing you instead into conformity with the image of His Son.
This conforming concept also appears in Philippians 3:10. Paul says that he wants to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
When you fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, and when you go through suffering, He shapes you and puts you into the form of Christ. He takes you out of the mold of the world.
Everything that is not of Christ is brought to death, and you are brought into the way of Christ. You shine Christ. You decrease. What is not of Christ is removed, and what is of Christ is shaped and formed in you.
The Lord wants to use every bit of suffering for this purpose. That is why 2 Corinthians 4:17 says that our afflictions, though momentary and light, are used for the glory being worked in us.
There is surpassing glory. In view of the glory of being conformed to the image of Christ, even the worst suffering is momentary when compared with eternal glory. And any suffering, compared with the weight and reality of the glory to come, is light.
I do not want to make light of any suffering, even the smallest things we go through. This week I have been impressed that we should not even joke about minor sufferings.
I have received texts saying, “Pray for me. I am having an MLA—a momentary and light affliction.” Sometimes it becomes a joke: “Somebody was rude to me; I had an MLA experience.”
In one sense, it is all right because we are recognizing that our sufferings are small. But if you handle small sufferings the way you would handle a large suffering, then you are ready for large sufferings.
If we handle the daily sufferings in light of Christ’s testimony—what He is doing and how He uses these minor sufferings—then when a large suffering comes, even something unheard of or the worst thing that has happened in your life, you will have training and experience in handling suffering with the Lord.
It is preparation. I am not speaking about persecution today, but even in persecution, preparation is found in daily walking with the Lord and being a living witness of the Lord—a living martyr.
The way we handle regular suffering shapes us to become living witnesses and to be those who could be faithful unto death, as the church in Smyrna was called to be.
When suffering happens, there is this matter of being conformed to Christ’s death. The Lord says, “I became dead and lived.” But when He became dead and lived, He also became alive forevermore.
It says in Revelation 1 that He has the keys of death and Hades. This is something special.
The Lord said in Matthew 16:18:
I will build My church;
And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
When Christ went through death, He entered into Hades. Acts 2 quotes Psalm 16, where David prophetically says:
Thou wilt not leave My soul unto Hades.
Peter uses this to speak about the Lord Jesus. David’s grave was still there; David had not been resurrected. Therefore, it was a prophecy about the Messiah Who was to come.
When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He said to the thief beside Him:
Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.
—Luke 23:43
He was speaking about a section of Hades reserved for believers. When the Lord rose from the dead, He conquered all the power and fear of death. He took away the trap of the place of death, Hades, and He has the keys of death and Hades now.
Hebrews 2 says that Jesus had to become man so that He could suffer and die, and through death take away the fear that has gripped mankind: the fear of death.
There is fear upon us because of death, but not for those who have this testimony of Jesus. He is the One Who became alive after death, and He has the keys of death and Hades.
He can lock up death and unlock the place of death. He has authority over death and Hades. He overcame death. Resurrection life has already overcome death because it is life after going through death.
When we see Christ and have His life in us, this becomes our expression and the light we shine.
In Revelation 20, death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. In the very end, the One Who has authority over death and Hades removes them forever.
There will be no more death. Death itself is thrown into the lake of fire, into the second death. There will no longer be any need for the place of death. It will have been emptied.
The saints will have been emptied out in resurrection. A thousand years later, the unbelievers will be emptied out of Hades and judged before the Lord. Then that holding place of those who pass away is removed forever, because no one will die again.
When you see Christ as the One Who died and rose again, you must see not only that He Himself rose from death, but that He has complete control over it. His resurrection life is more powerful than anything of death and Hades.
That is why the gates of Hades will never prevail against the church. The life of the church is this resurrection life, and the testimony of the church is this resurrection testimony of Christ.
When suffering occurs, all suffering is in some sense a taste of death. Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the sting of death is sin.
All sickness and problems are, in a sense, tastes of death. Every type of suffering we experience pictures this reality. The first death is the death of the physical body.
But there is a second death, and it is mentioned in the letter to Smyrna. To the one who overcomes, the Lord says that he will in no wise be injured by the second death.
The second death, Revelation 20 tells us, is the lake of fire. The first death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, and this is called the second death.
The first death is a precursor or example of what the second death really is. The real thing is the second death.
Jesus says in Matthew 10 not to fear those who can hurt or kill the body, but to fear the One Who has authority over both soul and body.
Someone can hurt the body and bring about the first death. But what we should care about is the second death. We should care about the Lord, Who has real authority over both the first and second deaths, over soul and body, and over all things.
The second death is not merely physical death. It is death in every sense, the absence of all things of God. Consider all the things people enjoy now from the goodness of God. The second death is the absence of God.
We do not know much about this, just as we do not know much about physical death. This morning, Luke’s Gospel was read concerning Lazarus and the rich man in Hades.
That is not even a picture of heaven and hell. It is a picture of the place of the dead. There is a chasm there, and there is a place called Abraham’s bosom.
When Jesus was on the cross, He called it Paradise. There are other references to Paradise in Scripture. The place where Lazarus was is different.
Even though it is in Hades, and even though the first death has come upon believers, it is as though they are outside of it. It is as though there is a protection of resurrection life around them, and they are in another realm. Their realm is called Paradise.
This resurrection life is present even in the place of the dead. In Luke’s Gospel, the rich man asks for a little water because of the heat. But the believers are not touched by Hades in the same way.
Think of this: the Lord Jesus has the keys of death and Hades. Even if a believer falls asleep—as Scripture usually describes the death of a believer—the believer will wake up, rise up, and be resurrected.
Believers do not merely go to the place of the dead. There is a place set aside called Paradise, a place of rest, a place called Abraham’s bosom.
This is a precursor or taste of the joy of heaven. The Lord’s presence is with them. It is not the fearful death that comes upon mankind.
Even the ultimate suffering the world can inflict, killing the body, is not to be feared. When the body of a believer passes away, that believer goes to Paradise.
In that place, death has not truly touched them. There is the presence of the Lord, and resurrection life is ignited within them. It is a totally different experience.
There is a chasm. Others remain in the place of the dead, Hades. Believers are, in one sense, in the country of Hades, but they have their own city within it, called Paradise.
The letter to Smyrna says that the overcomers will not be injured by the second death. What does this mean?
The second death is not Hades. It is hell, the lake of fire, the end of all things, even the place into which Hades itself is thrown.
For the believer and the overcomer not to be injured by the second death means that everything associated with death—the sting of death, sin, the finality and power of death—has no touch upon them.
I would apply this in two ways. First, if you are walking now in the testimony of Christ as your First and Last, as your all in all, and as the resurrection life within you, the flames of hell have no touch on you even now.
The old man that would always sin was crucified with Christ. You can say, “I also became dead. I was crucified with Christ, and I no longer live; Christ lives in me.”
The sting of death, which is sin, is removed because sin has no power over the new man who rises within you. The life of the believer has no sting of death upon it.
The second death cannot injure the believer who walks with the Lord and bears this testimony. Even though we will go through sufferings, it is different.
There may be more than two types of suffering, but I want to focus on two types that the Lord uses. We can use Old Testament pictures to explain them.
The first picture is wheat being separated from weeds or chaff. On the threshing floor, much suffering happens to the wheat. It is struck, and things fly into the air.
As the Psalm says, the chaff is like chaff before the wind. The weeds and chaff fly away, while the wheat sinks down. What remains is what is good.
Some suffering that the Lord allows removes what is not of Christ. Fire purifies and removes dirt.
Some suffering happens because of our own actions. If I am not walking with the Lord today, I say something rude to someone, and they respond rudely, I may be getting what I deserve.
Or perhaps I have a problem with my mouth—I speak before looking to the Lord. The Lord may allow me to experience suffering to tame my tongue.
Maybe there is worldliness upon me. As I look to Him and ask, “Lord, why is this happening? What is the meaning of this suffering?” He may show me that I am not coming to Him or walking with Him.
As suffering happens, the Lord separates what is of Christ from what is not of Christ. Unfortunately, much of our suffering seems to be of this kind. But do not miss it, or you will prolong it.
If we look to the Lord in every suffering, we can discover where the wheat is and what the weeds are. We can say, “Lord, if there is something You are purifying in me, something that makes more of Christ and less of myself, show me. I will go through this suffering together with You.”
If you walk in the testimony of looking to the Lord, allowing Him to have first place and to be your final goal, then He weeds out things that have no purpose.
It may not always be sinful. You may simply ask, “Why did I spend forty minutes on this? It has no purpose. Christ is not the end of it.” In our actions, time, money, possessions, and everything else, we make Him first.
When suffering comes, He brings us to be fully consecrated and helps us realize what is not of Christ.
Another type of suffering can be pictured by the winepress. This is suffering in fellowship with the Lord’s sufferings.
It is not because of your sin. It is not even because He is removing something that is not of Christ. It is so that you may join in His sufferings and fellowship in them.
A grape becomes something better: wine. There is a maturing of the life within you through suffering. The Lord even allows what is good to become better.
The Lord Jesus suffered. Hebrews says that He learned obedience through the things that He suffered.
We could never say that Jesus had sin. The Bible teaches otherwise. He never suffered because He needed to become more like Himself. He is Himself.
He never suffered because He had sin or carnality to work out. He suffered in the sense of a grape becoming wine. He became something more precious through suffering.
With believers, perhaps sometimes there is a little of both types. But there are special sufferings that are not because you have done something wrong. When you look to the Lord and there is no particular purification He is showing you, He may simply say, “Go through this together with Me.”
That is a precious time.
Peter says not to be in trouble with the government because of something you have done wrong. But if you suffer as a Christian, this is good. You are blessed, and it is glorious.
Even in persecution, when someone is thrown into jail, it is unique. It is this grape-to-wine kind of suffering when they are not suffering because of wrongdoing.
If they suffer for the Lord’s sake, or if you suffer as Matthew 5 says—for righteousness’ sake, because you stand for something of the Lord—this is rare, unique, special, and blessed.
If you suffer for His name’s sake, you are truly blessed. Perhaps you are at work or school, and because you are a Christian and because of righteousness, you cannot do something. You cannot sign something, lie about something, or sit quietly and listen to ungodly talk.
You may have to speak out, walk away, or make a change because of righteousness’ sake.
Do not sit like Lot, tormented in your righteous soul without saying anything to the Sodomites. Because you speak for what is righteous, because you stand under the righteous God, you may suffer and be persecuted.
But this is precious, and this is where you are blessed.
When these things are happening, the injury of the second death is not affecting you. He that overcomes will not be injured by the second death.
You are going through death and resurrection. Perhaps you go through death because corruption, worldliness, flesh, or something else in yourself needs to go through death so that the resurrection life of Christ may come out.
Even then you can say, “Through that suffering, the second death did not injure me. Instead, I injured it and went down to death.”
All the sting of sin is dealt with as you go through it with the Lord and experience afresh that you have been crucified with Christ. There is no need to walk in old ways or let the members of your body continue in sin.
If you go through suffering in that way, you will not be injured by the second death.
And if you go through suffering in the other way—suffering because the Lord wants you to fellowship with Him, to be beautified and glorified, and to fill up what is lacking in His sufferings—you also are not injured by the second death.
Nothing is lacking in Christ’s suffering for redemption. He finished that work, and He said, “It is finished.”
But for the completion of the body of Christ, for the work of building His church, He calls willing believers who walk with Him to suffer together with Him.
He is beyond physical suffering in Himself, untouched by such things. But He is with us in His body. If one part suffers, all suffer. Therefore, He Himself, as Head of the body, suffers today with His people.
We can fellowship with Him in His sufferings. Together with His saints, we fill up the needed suffering for the work He is doing in the world and in the church.
The suffering you go through may not be only for yourself. It may cause Christ to shine more, and it may be for somebody else.
You may suffer not because you need it for your own holiness, but because your brother or sister needs you to know how to weep with those who weep. They need you to have gone through something last week so that, when they suffer this week, you can say, “I am with you. I can suffer with you. I understand what you are going through.”
Some of your suffering is needed because the Lord wants you to minister to His people. It is a beautiful calling.
The Lord works it for good—not only for your own good, but for the good of all the saints. There is glory in this fellowship of Christ’s sufferings among God’s people.
He has called us to bear this testimony: “Be thou faithful unto death.” Then the second death has no injury upon you.
There is another meaning to the second death not injuring the overcomer. It has to do literally with the kingdom age.
If you logically reverse the verse, you might say, “He that does not overcome will be injured by the second death.” I would apply this first to life now: you might be injured.
But there is also the time of meeting the Lord, the time of family judgment. There is some injury of the second death for those who do not overcome.
This does not mean they enter into the second death, which is hell. Believers do not go to hell. But the flames of hell can injure a believer, and they may miss out on the kingdom.
It is like the flames mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3. Those flames should purify us now and make the gold shine. But if the flames come when the Lord judges the church, it is a shame.
The fire burns up wasted work and a wasted life. You will be saved in the end; you are not going to hell. You are going to be in the New Jerusalem. But Scripture says, “saved; yet so as through fire.”
That fire of the second death injures the believer. The result of not walking with the Lord in this testimony is that you miss out on something of life. You miss out on the life of the kingdom.
There is no way that a believer can enter into the second death. John 5:24 says that if you hear His Word and believe Him, you have eternal life. You do not come into judgment, but have passed out of death into life.
You will not face the final judgment of the great white throne. I am not saying otherwise.
But hell can injure a believer in the sense that the believer misses the kingdom age. They miss out on something of life. Even the kingdom age is sometimes called eternal life.
Instead, they experience some lack of Christ, something missing of God. They are not left hopeless, because they have the Holy Spirit and the Lord will eventually work and shine them. But they miss something.
I want to mention one more thing. The letter says they will have tribulation for ten days. Prophetically speaking, this has one meaning, but spiritually speaking, what are these ten days?
Ten days occurs several times in Scripture as a short period of testing.
In Genesis 24, when Rebekah was being asked to go and become Isaac’s wife, her family asked for ten days to think about it and consider everything. It is a strange way to get your wife, but this is how the Lord did it.
When they said, “Give us ten days,” they meant a short period, a little over a week, a time to test and weigh the matter.
In Daniel 1, Daniel and his friends were being asked to eat foods that, as Jews, they considered unholy. They asked for ten days. They would eat vegetables and their own food and see whether they remained as strong as the other young noblemen.
It was ten days of testing. Therefore, spiritually speaking, ten can represent a short period of testing.
I would compare this with the momentary affliction in 2 Corinthians 4:17. It is for a moment. However long you live, suffering is for a moment.
I do not want to make it light. Some suffering lasts many years. But in view of the glory to come and in view of eternity, it is still momentary.
If this is the case, let us take the lightest of all our momentary and light afflictions and consider how to overcome in those cases.
Every small thing should become an experience of this testimony. Think of the smallest momentary and light afflictions that you may face today.
You may need to deny yourself to help somebody. Someone may have done something wrong to you. Perhaps you simply need to stop being lazy. Whatever kind of suffering it is, if we handle it in the right way, the Lord will regularly work glory in us.
It will become part of the light that Christ shines through us.
When suffering comes, see whether Christ is first and last. What do you do when you suffer? Where do you look?
Suppose someone else caused the suffering, or you believe that one person or a few people caused it. If you look at them, it does not benefit anyone.
We know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness. Yet our feeling is often, “This person said this, and this is what happened to me.”
If you look at that person in your suffering and your reaction is toward them, bitterness can arise. You see them only through the suffering they caused. This produces unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness stops your prayers from working. It hinders the Lord’s forgiveness toward you. You cannot see Christ in that person; you see only their flesh and know them only according to the flesh.
When you receive suffering, however momentary and light it may be, looking at another person brings damage.
If you tell others about it, I am not saying that you can never discuss details. That can be fine. The issue is where your heart is looking.
If your heart is directed toward that person as you tell someone else, you may exaggerate what they did. They stepped on one foot, but you say they stepped on two. They said one thing, but you add a few words.
Exaggeration can easily happen because, in your feelings, what they did seems greater than it really was. You are not looking up to the Lord, so you become confused.
Suddenly, all kinds of ideas come. Perhaps a twitch in their eye means something else, and now you think you know what was in their heart as well.
When you tell someone else, damage is done. That person may become bitter toward the one who hurt you. They may tell others, and all kinds of mess can happen.
Looking toward someone else and pointing toward someone else seems always to do damage when suffering is taking place.
The way of the Lord’s witness is to love the person who caused the suffering.
The Lord Jesus, dying on the cross, said:
Father, forgive them;
For they know not what they do.—Luke 23:34
His look toward those crucifying Him was love. He said, “Forgive them.”
The reaction of someone who has Christ as first and last, and knows Him as the One Who became dead and lived, is: “I love that person.”
This is the reaction of the life of Christ. Only resurrection life does this. Our natural life does not do it; our natural life does other things.
This happens only when you look up to Him. Instead of looking at the person, you look up to the Lord. Then the reaction of Christ within you can forgive that person.
Christ within you can make you gentler in your explanation. The Lord Jesus was speaking to the Father, and They knew everything that was going on.
Jesus knew the hearts of men, as John 2 and John 3 show. Yet He said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”
They knew what they were doing, but He was gracious. In one sense, they did not understand everything they were doing.
Do you say that when someone else causes you suffering? “They do not really know what they are doing.” Is that at least the attitude of your heart?
Perhaps technically you know that person meant to mistreat you. But is your heart saying, “Forgive them; they do not know what they are doing”?
When you look to the Lord, you can do this because the shining life of Christ inside you will react that way. You look to Him as the First and Last, the One Who became dead and lived.
But what happens if you look inward when suffering is taking place? Normally, you become confused.
You suffer, and a feeling comes upon you of shutting down inside. You go through turmoil. It is like Job, who looked inwardly and whose soul entered all kinds of arguments.
There are battles of argument happening in the soul. The mind becomes confused. We do not remember everything clearly.
We can also become confused about the Lord’s relationship with us. “Is this person saying this because it is true? Did they speak against me because the Lord does not care about me?”
Then new ideas enter the mind. Perhaps they do not even come from your own thinking, but from the enemy. Darts of evil come into your mind, and depression comes upon you.
The enemy works oppression upon your spirit, and suddenly you are down and sunken in all of it.
What is the way through? Do not look inwardly when you are going through suffering, even though you feel like doing so. Look up to the Lord.
It is as though He takes you with His right hand and says, “Fear nothing of what you are about to suffer.” Or, as He said to John, “Fear not.”
He points you to Himself and says, “I am the First. I am the Last. I am the reason for all this. I am the One Who became dead and lived.”
Even the death or suffering that is upon you has no injury upon you when you look up to Him. This is the way we go through suffering. This is the way the Lord calls us to walk.
I believe this is our testimony. In prayer meetings, many of us join the Lord with those who are going through extreme suffering. It touches our hearts.
But in daily life, it is in the little things that we should go through suffering in this way. It is in the little things that we should suffer like the church in Smyrna.
You may not have a major suffering today, but if you have a small one, let Him point you back to Himself.
Let Him take you with that right hand that holds the seven stars and keeps you. Let Him pull you back and bring before you this testimony: “I am the First and I am the Last.”
This is like the experience in Romans 12:1-2. Romans 12:1 tells us that we are called to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.
He is the First. I give Him all. It is an offering of consecration and hope. He is what I am about, and He has the first place in everything.
What this produces in Romans 12:2 is that we are not conformed to the world, but are transformed and conformed to Christ.
When you have Him as first and last, this is your choice in suffering. You choose: “Lord, I am going through this suffering, but I am going through it with You. I choose You as my First.”
“I choose You as the First of all, and I choose You as the goal of all. You are what I am about in everything.”
Then the result is that you know Him in His death and resurrection. He is the One Who became dead and lived.
Through suffering, He works to conform you to the death of Christ and to His resurrection, because you are being conformed to Christ—to the image of Christ.
As suffering goes on, if you make Him first and last, and this becomes your testimony, you will know Him as the One Who became dead and lived. You will shine the life of Christ in this way.
This is my encouragement today. I thank God. I felt as though I might get up today and simply cry for an hour because of many different reasons.
Sometimes we need to weep together. We need to realize that what is a momentary suffering to one person may be very major to someone else.
Even though it is momentary and light in view of the Lord, do not count anything as small. Do not waste anything that you are going through.
Go through it in the right way, as though it were the largest thing—with Him as First and with Him as Last.
And with our dear saints who are suffering in the world right now, and with those among us whom we know are suffering, we can suffer together with them.
We can share in their sufferings as God’s people with this testimony of Smyrna.
Lord, we are Your people. We trust ourselves to You. We thank You for reaching down with Your right hand and not leaving us on the floor as one dead.
Lord, we thank You that You point us back to Yourself. Our testimony is not something we find in ourselves. We look away and see You.
We see the One Who is all in all, our First and our Last. Lord, it is our confession right now that Jesus is our Lord and Jesus is our goal. You are what we are after right now.
Lord, we worship You together. In Jesus’ name, amen.