Before Amy sings this song, I would like to mention something again. Last week, her microphone was turned off. The more I have been meditating on the church in Smyrna, the more this song keeps coming to me, so I asked her to sing it again.
It is not actually in our hymnbooks—not because it is not a good song. It is just a really hard song to sing. It is a really nice song to listen to, though, so we will put the words up.
This was written by Watchman Nee. When I have been thinking through stories of martyrs and persecution, and of being a living witness and a suffering witness for the Lord, the words in this hymn just show the life of it. They show somebody who is faithful all the way unto death—somebody walking through this, even somebody not too long ago. That is why I wanted to ask Amy to sing this.
Let me love and not be respected.
Let me serve and not be rewarded.
Let me labor and not be remembered.
Let me suffer and not be regarded.’Tis the pouring, not the drinking;
’Tis the breaking, not the keeping;
A life suffering to seek others’ blessing,
A life loving and true, forgiving.Not expecting pity or concern,
Not accepting solace and applause;
Even lonely, even for Your day,
Even worthless, even forsaken.Tears and blood, my price, for the righteous crown;
Shall be losing all my cause for a faithful pilgrim’s life.’Twas the life, O Lord, that You chose to live,
In those days when I looked, You walked,
Gladly suffering injury and loss,
So that all might draw near and repose.I cannot see how much further I shall go;
Still I press on, knowing there is no return.Let me follow Your pattern so perfect and true,
Bearing in gratitude without complaint.
In this time of trial, O my Lord, I pray
That You should wipe all my hidden tears away.Let me learn, O Lord, You are my reward.
Let me be others’ blessing only day by day.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we pray right now to entrust this time to You. We pray, as we are in Your Word, that Your Word would be like a soothing ointment in our hearts, even working and breaking free and drawing us closer to You.
Lord, we pray for encouragement and help. We pray for Your supply, and even as You have been ministering to us through all of our days, Lord, we pray right now that You would minister to us and work with us, even through what You speak concerning the church in Smyrna.
Lord, we pray for any heavy or light sufferings that all of us are going through. We pray that our testimony would shine, and we pray that You would use this Word even to brighten our weak light and take away the things that keep us from shining Christ.
Lord, even this song that we just listened to, we want this to be our heart’s song: that we would follow You in Your perfect pattern; that we would be others’ blessings all of our days, even if it includes much suffering. Lord, we just entrust ourselves to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I would like to read the letter to the church in Smyrna. It is found in Revelation 2, beginning in verse 8.
Last week, we also shared on the church in Smyrna, especially looking at the testimony of the church in Smyrna and sufferings in general. This time, I would like to look at the ministry to the church in Smyrna—the ministry that the Lord gave to them in the midst of their suffering—and also go further into the suffering of persecution.
Here is the letter that He wrote to the church in Smyrna, Revelation 2:8-11:
To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These things saith the first and the last,
Who was 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 churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Again, in Revelation 2:10, this is really the ministry to the church:
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.
Last week, stumbling through, we tried to go through the concept of the church in Smyrna having its testimony. The testimony is their own personal expression of Christ.
With each of the letters to these seven churches, there is a testimony at the beginning, where the Lord Jesus describes Himself. According to Himself, He discerns their condition and their circumstances. He also encourages them, exhorts them, or warns them according to that condition.
There is something in every letter, and the focus is the vision in Revelation 1. I mention this every time, but it is really what is on my heart. This vision of Christ is what the churches express, and it is the way to see these churches.
At the beginning of the letter to Smyrna, He describes Himself as “the first and the last, who became dead and lived.” This is found in Revelation 1:17-18.
After John initially saw the Lord Jesus in all His glory, he fell down as dead. The Lord reached down with His right hand and said, “Fear not.” Then He described Himself. This is the Lord’s own testimony.
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.
That is His full description. Here, with this church and especially with their circumstances, what the Lord wants to bring out of them—or shine through this golden lampstand—is this aspect of Himself: He is the first and the last, and He is the One who became dead and lived.
The picture in Revelation 1 is of the Lord Jesus as a great High Priest. He is ministering among the golden lampstands. Because there are seven individual churches, each one is like a golden lampstand.
It is similar to how the Old Testament high priest entered the temple. Inside the holy place was a golden lampstand with seven branches and seven lights shining. Here we have these golden lamps with seven lights shining, and each one shines a little bit of Christ.
Because of this testimony, the Lord Jesus ministers to them specifically so that they can shine that testimony. The word of encouragement that He gives them—or the word of warning—is to help them express Christ.
With Smyrna, the word He gives them is to help them show that He is the first and the last. It is to help them show that He is the One who became dead and lived.
It is very interesting because the churches have their own unique experiences. They have their own unique aspect of Christ that they are shining. They may have something on the outside coming against them, like this church. They have much suffering, tribulation, and trial happening.
According to where you are located, according to your time, and according to what is happening to you, the Lord may bring out a different aspect of Himself. There is this unsearchable richness of Christ.
It is not that one assembly—or definitely not one person—can shine all of Christ. So if there is some lack, turn your eyes from the lack and try to see what should be our testimony of Christ.
Definitely, our testimony is Christ. But what is the Lord doing among us? What is the Lord doing where He wants to shine Christ here? In our specific circumstances, with what we have been through and with what He is doing, there is something unique with each one of these.
I think that is encouraging, because sometimes you have your own gifting, and according to your own gifting, you feel everyone should be exactly the same. It can be frustrating.
But it is not always going to be that the church where you are, or the gathering of saints where you are, will bear all the fullness of that specific portion of Christ that you can see. They have Christ—that is what matters, the Person of Christ—but there should be something very unique of Christ shining.
I do not always know what it is, and I do not know if the Lord always tells us. But if we are faithful simply to shine Christ, I think it will come out.
Maybe someone on the outside could say, “You shine Christ, but you shine Christ this way.” Then, as you visit another assembly, you may say, “They shine Christ this way.” Through all of this, that is why there are these seven churches. Through a little bit here, a little bit there, and a little bit elsewhere, we see this great description and this great vision of Christ.
The calling is to be faithful with the little bit that we have ourselves.
The ministry that He gives to this church is in the midst of their suffering. They have suffering all the way to the utmost, even to persecution.
Last week, as we talked about Smyrna being a church of suffering, we said how even the name Smyrna includes the concept of suffering. It comes from the word myrrh and this bitterness associated with myrrh.
If you remember the wise men, when they came and brought gifts to the Lord Jesus when He was a young child—or a toddler or something—they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
In a way, you can take these to sum up this whole realm of Christ. Gold represents who He is, even at His birth. He Himself is God. The Word became flesh. The Word was God; the Word is God. Yet He became human and dwelt among us, born as a baby.
Then there is frankincense, the strong fragrance. It is almost like the fragrance of the life of Christ, as He lived on this earth, was so strong that everyone noticed Him by His very life and by the way He was.
But another gift was myrrh. I think this represents the bitter death that He had on the cross, paying the price for our sins. Throughout Scripture, myrrh seems to be connected with suffering and bitterness.
In this church, there is suffering. Last week, we mentioned that when there are sufferings, it is not that the Lord created the concept of suffering. Sufferings are here as a result of sin.
We can never directly blame the Lord, or God in general, for suffering of any kind. It was never His creation. Sufferings came in because of sin. With sin came death, and with death came sickness, the corruption of the world, and the corruption even of creation.
Recently, we had a terrible disaster with so many souls dying because of the violence of the earth in Nepal. This is suffering that is here in the world. Do not blame God for it, saying that He caused the disaster.
The earth is groaning, in pain, and waiting for the Lord to reclaim this earth and bring it back to its rightful place. The earth is longing for the new heavens and the new earth. We are longing for the time when righteousness rules. But the corruption of sin has come, and we have sufferings.
If you are good, you have sufferings. If you are bad, you have sufferings.
This week, Catherine and I were talking, and she said, “Do you think some of these light sufferings we are going through are because you are sharing on sufferings?”
We had some momentary and light afflictions, so I said, “Maybe I should preach on prosperity instead.” But actually, that does not work.
The best thing is to know the purpose in suffering and to know what the Lord is doing with it. We need to realize logically that we cannot blame God. We have sinned. Mankind has sinned. Angelic beings have sinned. Other creatures have sinned. There are so many wills and choices, and all these sins affect each other.
But, as Romans 8 says, God uses suffering. He works everything for good because He has a purpose that cannot be stopped, even with sin. Even with the corruption of death, His purpose can never be stopped.
For those who love God and are called according to His purpose, He will use suffering to work what He is doing: to conform us to Christ, to bring us out of ourselves and into Christ, and to bring us to shine Christ.
Some sufferings are used because we have caused the suffering and need dealings ourselves. Some of it is that we reap what we sow, or we have flesh that needs to be dealt with, and the Lord uses breaking on the outside.
But some sufferings are simply so that we can fellowship with the Lord, share in His sufferings, and fill up what is lacking as He completes the church. There are sufferings through which He calls different ones to be faithful, endure, and go through them together with Him.
When we picture suffering, we should not picture God as the One choosing here or there what suffering is going to happen. We see the suffering Lord Jesus at the cross, suffering unrighteously as far as He Himself was concerned. He did not deserve it.
But in the righteousness of God, God planned that He would become Man and suffer for our sakes. When we think of any kind of suffering, it is the Lord going through it together with us. It is the Lord who suffered for us. This should be our right perspective of suffering.
Last week, I did not mention persecution suffering, but it is something that is specifically mentioned in the letter to the church in Smyrna.
The ministry given to them includes these things:
These things match up with the testimony. “Fear nothing of what you are about to suffer.” He is warning them that something is going to happen. The devil is about to cast them into prison, and they will be tried for ten days. They should not be afraid.
We should relate this back to the testimony. The testimony goes back to Revelation 1:17-18, where the Lord says to John, “Fear not.”
John, in wonder and amazement, fell down as one dead. Sometimes, for different reasons, we fall down too. When sufferings come, our chin is brought down low and we are looking down—either out of depression, out of being overwhelmed, or out of fear.
Especially when we think of suffering, tribulation, or something coming, the Lord’s ministry is to bring us back to see Him. Just like with John, He reaches down with His right hand and says, “Fear not.”
Suddenly John saw Him, and as He described Himself, it was almost as if He grabbed John’s chin and brought his face back up to look at Him. He said, “I am the first and the last.”
When we read this ministry—“Fear nothing of what you are about to suffer”—it is like the church in Smyrna realizes it has been going through tribulation, sees that more is coming, and its eyes get away from Christ. The first ministry that has to come to us is Him bringing us back to see Him.
We have to have an exercised chin, like a chin that is quick to come back up. Just as in Luke 21, when the Lord said that when wars, trials, and other things are happening, we should look up because our redemption draws near.
Something is coming. When you see these things happening, look up.
The Lord’s ministry in the midst of suffering begins here: we have to see Him. We have to look in the right place and look at Christ.
Another thing that He does in this ministry is call them to be faithful. This call is actually to be faithful unto death.
Now, faithful is commonly used today in a correct sense, but mainly outwardly. If a spouse is faithful to the other spouse, they have not cheated. If you are faithful as an employee, you do your job well. If you are a faithful student, you study, do your homework, and do not always wait until the last minute. Suddenly, all of us have guilt inside.
We use the term faithful in general, but scripturally speaking, faithfulness includes faith. God’s usage of the word faithful must include faith.
There is a process included with faithfulness, with becoming faithful. Faithfulness shows the working of faith through a believer all the way to the end, even to outward actions. In English, we may use the word mainly for outward actions and what we can see through time, but behind all of that, in Scripture, there is a whole process of faith.
When the Lord says, “Be faithful unto death,” He means faithfulness with faith. He does not simply mean, “Make sure you do the right thing.”
This is not a weak, “Do a good job” type of comment by the Lord. It is not like someone saying, “Go get them,” or, “Good luck,” or, “I hope you do okay.” He is not merely saying, “You are about to have all this. Be faithful.” He is giving a key, a secret, and help.
He is really ministering to them. He is giving them a clue as to how they can come through with their testimony while persecutions are happening to them. This faithfulness is a secret that we need to understand, practice, and develop.
He is shining the gold. He is adding oil. He is trimming the wick of that golden lampstand. He is serving as the great High Priest would serve the golden lampstand in the physical temple.
Faithfulness includes a process of faith. At the beginning of faith, there is something of the Lord revealing Himself or giving revelation to us. There is the revelation of faith. It is actually the foundation of faith.
When faith starts, it has to start from something unseen, something hidden in God. As He shows you something of Himself, there is a connection of faith—or at least the possibility of a connection of faith. There is a revelation that comes.
After that, the second step is what is called the obedience of faith. The book of Romans mentions that phrase.
There is something of, “I see something. The Lord has shown me something.” This happens when we are saved, but it also happens throughout our Christian life. I see something that the Lord has shown me, but I respond to it, accept it, and give myself to Him.
Think again of the testimony of the church in Smyrna. The testimony is, “I am the first and the last.” When you have this revelation of faith, He has lifted your chin and you see Him. “Fear nothing,” and you see Him. But He says, “I am the first.”
There is this beginning point of faith, but then there has to be a choice inside: “I believe. I choose to respond and obey what the Lord has shown me.”
When you get saved, the Lord shows you the Lord Jesus dying for your sins and the free gift of salvation. Yet there is something on your part that says, “I accept this free gift.” That is the obedience of faith, and it should include, “I give my all to Him.”
This testimony begins, “I am the first.” When faith begins to work in somebody, at the start of faithfulness, as you receive it, you make Him your first.
At the very start of faith as a Christian, when you have that obedience of faith, you say, “Christ is first.” When you are baptized, you are declaring, “He is my first. He is my all in all. He is my Lord. Jesus is my Lord.”
This is part of your testimony. This is part of the process of having the testimony through suffering. It does not happen only when we get saved and initially believe. As we go through suffering, there is constantly this process of faith: you look up to the Lord, see something of Christ that will carry you through, and make Him your first at the beginning point.
The third thing in this process of faithfulness—I do not know what you would want to call it; I call it the experience of faith—is that after you have responded and made Him your first, you begin to walk in it.
For that moment of trial, or for whatever you are doing—even in the positive realm, though I am focusing on suffering—when you step into it, you do it by faith. You live by faith. You walk by faith. You suffer by faith.
As this happens over and over again, you are exercising in the realm of faith. You have received something from the Lord, and now you are actually using it. You are using this portion of Christ that He has given you by the life of Christ inside you.
You are suffering by faith. You are going through the suffering together with Him.
Even though you may feel on the outside, “This is hard. I want to look down. I want to do something else,” by looking up to the Lord, you grab hold of Him. By faith, you take that first step and say, “Let’s do this together with the Lord.”
If this keeps happening in the small things, it can be suffering as small as yesterday. My dog kept whining because I was locked in my study going through the Scriptures, and he wanted to be in there with me. The Lord reminded me, “Even the smallest stuff—your smallest sufferings—do not waste them.”
So I tried to do it by faith: “Okay, can I handle this whining that is bothering me?” Then I had to keep taking him outside and all that stuff. It was an inconvenience.
You can complain and lose it, or you can go through it together with the Lord. If you do this in the smallest inconveniences, if you are faithful in little, then you can be faithful in much. This is a general principle from the Scriptures.
If you are faithful when there is some small inconvenience, do it by faith, and go through the trial or suffering with the Lord, it works something in you through experience. Gradually, with experience comes this characteristic of faithfulness. It becomes built into you.
That is the way it is supposed to happen. It happens by the experience of faith. This is faithfulness with faith.
As the Lord ministers to them, telling them, “Be faithful unto death,” it is as if He is saying, “Right now, before the time comes for physical death by persecution—which many of them went through—be faithful unto death.”
There is a progress that begins far back in minor sufferings, trials, temptations, and everything that may come your way. If you go through all suffering with the Lord, finding Him as your first, then He will also be your last.
If you are faithful unto death, that means He is not only your first; He is even your last. When it comes time for persecution—even to be a witness for the Lord unto death—He has to be your last. At that point, it is the end of your time here.
You have to have it in your heart: “My whole purpose in life must be Christ. The end of my life, the goal of my life, must be Christ if I am going to die for Christ.” After that, there is nothing left for me to do in this life. There is afterwards, but He has to be last.
This is why the ministry of faithfulness unto death shines the testimony that He is first and He is last.
The Lord says that they should be faithful unto death, but He also says that He will give them the crown of life. Part of their testimony is that Jesus is the One who became dead and lived.
The one who suffers in this way, going through it by faith and being faithful unto death, receives the crown of life. They shine the testimony that Christ is the One who became dead and lived.
Notice the death and life here. With the witness of the Lord, there is suffering unto death, faithfulness unto death, and then the crown of life is given.
Technically, this crown of life is a future reward in the kingdom age. They are faithful unto physical death, and there is this literal crown of life at the kingdom time when the Lord says, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
I know my accent. I probably say crown the wrong way. My wife picks on me. The coloring crayons and “crown” in Kentucky—we say them the same way. So anyway, I am conscious about it.
But the crown of life is literally there. There is also a spiritual experience of this now.
If you are suffering at one percent, while one hundred percent would be physical death—if you are suffering in some very minor inconvenience or small thing, but you do it with faithfulness unto death to yourself, unto death to the carnality in you that wants to complain, stand up for itself, or refuse inconvenience—then there is a slight, glowing crown of life inside you that rises up.
I do not mean that there is literally going to be something on your head that someone can see. But there is a taste of the crown of life now.
There is an experience where you go through that little bit of death, but you shine Christ because He is the One who became dead and lived. If you are faithful unto death—applying death to the self or death to your flesh—then He gives the crown of life even now. That comes by the resurrection life that is inside.
As there is a denying of yourself, the life of Christ thrives under death to self, because the life of Christ within us is resurrection life. The nature of resurrection life means there has to be death beforehand.
The testimony that Christ shines through the suffering ones in this way—the crown of life—is almost like a victor’s crown shining forth after you endure suffering in the right way. It truly is an expression and testimony of Christ.
This is how He ministers to them, how He brings them through, and how it applies to the testimony of the church.
With this church in Smyrna, there is also a prophetic view of a time period. I brought some stories that I wanted to read.
One way of seeing the churches is that these letters represent periods of church history. This does not cancel the spiritual view; both are valid. One way the Lord uses these ministries or letters is through time.
In the Old Testament, there were major ages or dispensations in what God was doing with mankind, but within those there were also times. For example, in the age of the law, beginning with Moses and ending with Christ, there were different periods.
At first, with Moses and Joshua, the people seemed to be led directly by God. It was like God was King, a theocracy. Then there was a time of judges. We read in the book of Judges of judges rising up, including Samson with the long hair. After the judges came the time of the kings: Saul, David, Solomon, and the others. There was a time of falling away, captivity, recovery, and perhaps even a silent time after that.
There are these time periods. In the age of grace, since the time of the Lord Jesus, you can say that there are seven times that the church goes through—seven time periods represented by these seven churches.
The period of the church in Smyrna, seen this way, comes after the first century. In the second and third centuries, there was a time of much suffering for the church. It seems to be the ultimate period of suffering for the church.
In this time period, you can take this letter and apply it to the church in Smyrna then. The Lord begins by saying, “I know thy tribulation.” Speaking to the church at that time, He knew their tribulation. He knew what they were going through and what they were about to go through.
At the end of the first century and the transition into the second, the church had already gone through much tribulation. There had been suffering, persecution, trials, corruption coming in, suffering from Jews persecuting them, and persecution from the government.
He says, “I know your suffering. You are poor, but really you are rich. I know what you are going through. It looks like you are so poor. Physically, you are poor, but actually you are rich.”
If you remember the more famous letter to the church in Laodicea, they say, “I am rich. I am wealthy.” But the Lord says, “You do not realize that you are poor.” Here in Smyrna, He says, “You are poor, but you do not realize that you are rich.”
In suffering, and especially in persecution, Christians can easily be brought into poverty. In the different waves of persecution in these centuries, they were often poor. Throughout time, even today, when there is suffering or persecution, poverty is often included.
Someone can have much earthly wealth, but it can easily be lost through persecution. You can be very rich, and then a government comes in and everything is gone because you are a Christian.
You can be doing well at your job, but because you are a Christian and leave on time for the prayer meeting, refusing to work those extra hours, you may miss your raise. You are poor, but you are faithful to the Lord, and really you are rich. You gain spiritual wealth that will last forever.
You can be a good student in school, but because you are a Christian—especially in college now, though it happens in high school too—you may fail a test or do poorly in a class because the teacher does not like you. You will not deny God; you will not deny Christ.
Some Christians have had problems with their grades because of this. In a way, they are poor. They are not able to excel in their programs of schooling because of this sometimes. But actually, they are rich.
If you fail your test because of being a Christian, you got an A-plus. You are rich, actually.
Any suffering like this, even poverty, contains spiritual wealth.
When you read the stories from this time period, there are many times when people are poor, in need, and going through all of these things. Yet there is a shining of Christ among them. There is a richness that cannot be touched.
They may take everything away from someone, but that person is still wealthier than all the others because they are spiritually rich.
Just as Jesus said, do not try to gather earthly treasures. They rust, and thieves can steal them. But there are treasures that cannot perish and treasures that cannot be stolen. These are the treasures of those who suffer in this way and are persecuted.
Then He says there is the railing of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. This is their circumstance.
One person from this time period, a brother named Polycarp, is very famous. He uniquely mentions the persecution from Jews and how they would even connect themselves with the Roman government, helping to call out Christians and intensify the persecution.
These physical Jews by birth were railing against the Christians and adding to their suffering. This was not something new. It happened in the book of Acts, and of course it happened with our Lord Jesus. The Romans crucified Him, but the Jews turned Him over.
This is not saying anything against Jews by birth or Jewish bloodline. Our Lord Jesus was a Jew. The disciples were Jews. The first Christians were Jews. But circumstantially, this is what happened in the early church and at this later time.
One reason was that they did not want Christianity to be labeled as Judaism, because otherwise they would suffer too. They wanted it to be seen as something new and different, not a section of Judaism. The Romans would not persecute the Jews at certain times, though not always. If they could separate themselves from Christians, they would do so.
Another reason was that some hatred developed as more Jews came to believe in the Messiah and become Christians. If you think you are losing your people because they are believing in the Messiah and coming to Christ, you hate it.
The railing happened. Literally, these were Jews in that historical circumstance. But the application is when there is an outward history with God without the inward reality.
The Jews had a great and glorious history with God in the Old Testament—beginning with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then the nation under Moses. Yet, as Romans teaches, not everyone who is outwardly a Jew is truly a Jew. Not everyone who is circumcised is truly circumcised. There must be an inward circumcision of the heart.
Not all Israel are Israel. Not everyone who is a son of Abraham is truly a son of Abraham in that inward sense. A person can disassociate himself from being the people of God until all that remains is religion.
That is why He says they say they are Jews but are not: they were not truly being the people of God at that time. Instead, they were a synagogue of Satan.
Satan was using that gathering and realm so much that it was like a synagogue of Satan rather than a synagogue of God. Because Satan is mentioned, we should realize that it is not the Jews themselves that we should focus on when there is persecution.
We have to see that Satan is using them. Just as it says afterwards that the devil is about to cast them into prison, even though it would be the Romans doing it, we should step back and see that the persecution really came from Satan behind the scenes.
The Romans were used, but even persecutors often became saved as they were persecuting Christians. I have been immersed in these stories over the last month or so, in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and others beyond that. One thing I have noticed often is that people would be saved while they were around and helping to persecute.
There was one wife of a nobleman who was helping care for a prisoner who was about to be persecuted, making sure he would make it to his trial. Just by being around him, she became a Christian. She also died soon afterward.
There is another story, a famous one, in which believers were placed in freezing water. Warm baths were prepared nearby. All they had to do was come out, enter the warm water, and recant—say that they were no longer Christians.
These Christians were singing songs and joyfully suffering for the Lord. One person went out and was not faithful. But then one of the soldiers helping with the persecution stripped off his clothes, ran into the water, and cried, “I am a Christian! I am a Christian!”
He became a Christian through their testimony. He suffered and died with them, singing songs joyfully. He probably had little knowledge and perhaps no Scriptures, like the thief on the cross who said, “Lord, remember me,” and heard, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”
This man joyfully suffered for the Lord, yet he had been one of the Romans persecuting them.
When we see persecutors, even now in any circumstance where someone persecutes us, we should see with eyes that look behind the scenes. It is the synagogue of Satan. It is the devil casting me into prison. It is not merely these humans, the Roman soldiers, nor merely these Jews doing this.
Then we can look at them with compassionate eyes, like the first martyr who was able to care for those killing him. We can say, “Lord, forgive these ones that are killing me,” just as the Lord Jesus said of those who were killing Him.
This also applies to religious persecution more generally. Later on, one reason for Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was the persecution against Christians carried out by the Catholic Church at that time.
Foxe lived around the time when Shakespeare was born. As he became a Christian, walked with the Lord, and saw things differently, they eventually cast him out. They saw that he was acting differently—acting like a Christian.
These were outward Christians, but I would say they were like the Jews in this passage. They had the background of something of God, but the inward part was gone. Then they persecuted.
This happened repeatedly. It happened not only when Roman Catholics persecuted those called Protestants, but later when a new wave of faithful people rose up among the Protestants and saw more of Christ.
For example, there were the Anabaptists. They realized that baptism should be for believers, not infants. Martin Luther did not realize this, or at least did not preach it. The Anabaptists said, “We do not want to baptize our babies. We want to baptize believers only.” They were called rebaptizers.
Then some of the reformers became outward Jews in this sense—not every person, but in general. They became those who say that they themselves are Christians, though they had the history of Calvin, Martin Luther, and others, and yet suddenly they missed Christ. They drowned Anabaptists.
Even some of this history was hidden until the more recent years. Religious persecution has happened from outward religious people all throughout time.
We cannot say this is merely something unique to Jews. It can happen with Christians too when they fall away from following Christ. Whether minor or large, even unto death, persecution has happened through the Romans and through different waves of Protestants.
Even now, if you become merely an outward Christian and someone rises up around you who is joyfully walking with the Lord, you may accidentally persecute them because they bother you. They stand out. They may even reveal your own condition.
He says that they would have tribulation for ten days. Last week, I mentioned how ten days can represent a short time period. I think it definitely represents that. There is a short time period; it ends and has a finish. That is very encouraging.
You will have tribulation, but it will only be for ten days. It is momentary.
Possibly, these ten days could also represent the ten waves of Roman persecution. In Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, the stories of persecution are organized around ten persecution waves that happened under the Romans.
At first, I thought I would take one story from each of the ten waves, but that would take a long time. So I pulled out a few examples.
The reason I want to read some of these examples is that I think this testimony—the way of the living martyr or the true witness of the Lord—is caught and not merely taught.
We can teach the encouragement the Lord gives, and we can try to practice it now. But it is also caught through the example of others. When you see it or hear about it, encouragement comes: “Lord, I want to be faithful like that one unto death.”
There is spiritual motivation that comes from the Lord. This happens in all Christian life. If someone else is in first love, it encourages you and pulls you into it. Like the Shulamite says, “Draw me; we will run after thee.”
If one person is doing it, many of us can be faithful. That happened in many of these stories, and it happens now too.
When I was in college, for one semester I was in a public school. Most of my college years were in a Christian school, but in one public-school class I was labeled “Jesus.” They called me Jesus as a derogatory name.
It was almost like they were calling me a Christian or calling me Christ. I had two professors who were against Christianity in general. It was not even science trying to prove something. It was literature or math—just random classes—but they picked on Christianity on purpose.
I tried to be faithful to the Lord, but sometimes I was afraid. Every morning, I read some stories from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, and it encouraged me a lot.
I can personally testify that after reading those stories, I would go into school thinking, “I know I am probably not going to die in school today, but this is some minor persecution.” Of course, it was very light compared to their suffering, but their faithfulness encouraged me to think, “They were faithful like that. I can definitely be faithful if a professor tries to expose me, show my lack of knowledge, or make fun of me because I am a Christian.”
There is a quote we sometimes use: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the gospel.” Tertullian, near the end of the second century, is probably the one who first said it in this form: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians.”
But perhaps fifty years earlier, an unknown non-Christian author said something similar in a speech to the pagan Diognetus:
Do you not see that the Christians, thrown to the wild beasts so that they may deny the Lord, do not allow themselves to be beaten?
Do you see that the more they are punished, the more they increase in numbers?
He was saying, “The more we try to kill these Christians, the more Christians there become.” Even though they were trying to force them to recant, the Christians won. They won the battle because they were faithful.
There is the brother Polycarp. He was actually in Smyrna, one of the church leaders there. This is very interesting.
We have many extra-biblical writings from that time, including some of Polycarp’s own writings, so his story seems more historically reliable, or at least parts of it are more clearly reliable. Some of the stories in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs must be taken with a grain of salt. We do not know whether every detail is absolutely true.
When Polycarp was dying, it is said that he asked for time to pray for one hour before he died. During that hour of prayer, some of his persecutors were saved.
When they tried to get him to deny Christ, he said:
Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He hath done me no wrong.
How then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?
Bring forth what you will.
We do not know whether he was eighty-six years old or had been a Christian for eighty-six years. But he was burned at the stake because he would not burn incense to the Roman emperor.
Some Christians were called atheists because they would not claim that emperors were gods and would not burn incense to them.
There is another famous person, Perpetua. Her diary was kept while she was suffering, and many writings around her time were preserved. We have more of her story than many others.
In Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, you will not get all of her story. You will find out how she died, but behind the brief mention of someone dying, there is often so much history of faithfulness. It reminds me of Hebrews 11, where at the end it is almost as if the writer says, “We do not have time for everything.”
Perpetua was twenty-two years old and had a baby. She had a husband and a child. With her were several others, including Felicity, who was also married and pregnant.
One thing that happened was that Perpetua’s father kept trying to get her to deny Jesus. She said to him:
Can I call myself anything else besides a Christian?
If this cup is a cup, can it say that it is not a cup?
I am a Christian.
Her father pleaded with her:
Have pity on my gray head. Have pity on me, your father.
Do not abandon me to the reproach of men.
Think of your brothers. Think of your mother and your aunt.
Think of your child. This child will not be able to live once you are gone.
Give up your pride.
This was temptation coming at her through her family. There was a strong emotional attachment, especially to a new baby. All she had to do was say that she was not a Christian, and she would live and be able to care for the baby.
Think of the temptation and the call to be faithful unto death.
When she came before the governor, he also said, “Have pity on your father’s gray head. Have pity on your infant son. Offer the sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor.”
At that time, she said, “I will not.”
He said, “Are you a Christian, then?”
She said, “Yes, I am.”
There was much torture through soldiers and wild beasts. I do not want to read all the details. But after wild beasts had badly injured her, she said to the other Christians being persecuted:
You must all stand fast in the faith and not be weakened by what we have gone through.
They died faithfully to the Lord.
Another was Denisa, a young woman only sixteen years old. When she knew she was going to be killed, she said:
O unhappy wretch, why would you buy a moment’s ease at the expense of a miserable eternity?
The official who was responsible for killing her heard this. She testified that she was a Christian, and she was beheaded by his order soon afterward.
There was also Agatha, a Sicilian lady. She had such a living testimony in her own life that her piety, beauty, nobility, and character were noticed by everyone around her. A governor wanted to possess her.
He made many attempts upon her chastity and wanted sexual relations with her. He tried to surround her with people who would influence her. But when she was definite in her morality, she was persecuted for righteousness’ sake and for being a Christian.
When he realized he could not gratify his lust, he wanted revenge. He ordered her to be scourged, burned with red-hot irons, and torn with sharp hooks. Through those torments, she faithfully suffered unto death. She was carried back to prison, where she died.
There is also the story of Rufina and Secunda, beautiful sisters and Christians. There were noblemen who wanted to marry them.
Their suitors were Christians at the time persecution began, but they were not faithful to the Lord. They backed down from testifying of Christ and renounced their faith. They tried to persuade these women to do the same.
When they could not persuade them, they turned them in. These men to whom they were engaged turned them in. The women were apprehended as Christians, brought before the governor, and sealed their martyrdom with their blood.
I bring this out because of the personal relationships involved in much persecution. In the time of persecution in China, one method used was to get children to turn in their parents. The enemy uses this tactic because of strong emotional attachment.
There was also an account of the Theban Legion, a legion said to have contained 6,666 soldiers toward the end of the third century. The whole legion was supposed to have been Christian. I do not know whether every detail is true, but this is the story told.
They joined the emperor Maximian. He ordered a general sacrifice in which the whole army had to participate. He commanded them to take an oath of allegiance and to assist in wiping out Christianity in Gaul.
But this legion of soldiers refused to participate in the sacrifices and the oaths. This enraged Maximian, and he ordered the legion to be decimated.
This meant that every tenth man was selected from the legion and put to the sword. After this bloody execution, those who remained alive were still inflexible. So he ordered a second decimation, and another tenth were put to death.
Again it happened. When they stood firm all the way to the end, he had all of them killed and put to the sword. This whole legion was faithful to the Lord.
Lastly, there was a brother named Timothy, a deacon, and his wife Maura. They had been married only three weeks when persecution separated them.
Timothy was apprehended as a Christian and brought before the governor. The governor knew he had been keeping the Scriptures and commanded him to hand over the Scriptures to be burned.
Timothy said:
If I had children, I would sooner deliver them up to be sacrificed than part with the Word of God.
What he meant was, “I will be faithful to the Lord unto death.” True, it was a piece of paper. Your logical mind might say, “Just give him the piece of paper.” This is the tactic of the enemy.
But at that moment, the piece of paper represented Christ. It was not just a piece of paper. It represented Christ. Timothy was saying, “I will be faithful to the Lord, even if you take the dearest things from me.”
Throughout persecutions in all times, the enemy uses this. He asks you to turn from some person, some Christian. “Turn from them. Say that they have sinned.” But it is not merely that; they represent Christ.
Earlier, we sang the song by Watchman Nee. During the persecution against Christians in China, Watchman Nee was singled out as someone people could turn against. Probably the same kind of thing happened with the Apostle Paul when all Asia Minor turned against him.
They said, “Just say that he has done wrong. Just say that he has faults.”
There was one brother, an elder in the assembly in Shanghai, Dr. Chu. Other Christians came to him saying, “Most of us have done this. Go ahead and say it. Even the co-workers have done this.”
But he said, “I cannot. The Lord will not allow me to do that. I cannot do that.”
True, everyone has faults. But I think he knew what they were getting at. At that moment, this church leader represented Christ. If they could get you to turn from him, they could get you to turn from Christ, even if they could not get you to say, “I am not a Christian.”
If they can get something less, they get you not to be faithful unto death. That is the tactic of the enemy.
Timothy would not part with the Word of God. The governor was so angry that he ordered Timothy’s eyes to be put out, saying, “Then you cannot read the Word anymore.”
But Timothy’s patience was so great that the governor grew angrier.
Then Timothy’s wife, Maura, came and urged him for her sake to recant. This was his newly married wife, his wife of his youth, his first love.
At this point, he had a weight tied around his neck, a gag in his mouth, and he had been hung by his feet. They took the gag out of his mouth so that he could respond.
Instead of agreeing with his wife’s plea, he said:
Your love is mistaken.
I am determined to die for my faith.
Your love is not greater than the love of Christ.
Out of this, his wife wanted to imitate his courage and faith. Her heart changed, and she died with him. She was tortured and executed with much pain together with Timothy, her husband. They were crucified near each other.
I think this is a beautiful testimony. The wife was saying, in a sense, “Have pity on me. Think of me.” But he said, “Think of the Lord.”
It was as if his testimony said, “Fear nothing of what you are about to suffer.” Her face was turned back to Christ. She saw the first and the last. She said, “He is my first also. I will make Him my last also.” Then she suffered and died for the Lord Jesus.
These are the testimonies and the experiences. I feel that they are a great encouragement.
I cannot read any more stories, but there is a brother named Antipas. He is mentioned in the letter to Pergamum.
In that letter, it says, “My faithful witness, Antipas,” or “My faithful martyr, Antipas.” If you follow this according to time periods, Antipas may have been during Smyrna’s period.
I would like to borrow him from that letter for a moment. Antipas is like all of these Christians. His name means “against everyone.”
When everyone is falling away and going with the world, when everyone is giving in, he is against the tide. He is willing to suffer for the Lord.
The Lord says, “My faithful witness.” He was faithful all the way unto death. The Lord brings out Antipas and points to him, saying, “Do you see My faithful witness Antipas? He was slain among them, but he was faithful.”
Antipas was probably a literal person, but I think he also represents all those who suffered for the Lord, all those who were witnesses and martyrs. The word martyr actually means witness. He was a living witness, but he also died for the Lord’s sake.
Antipas reminds me of what the Lord said to Satan about Job: “Hast thou considered My servant Job?” The Lord could point to Job and say, “Do you see My servant Job?”
The Lord will sometimes boast in those who are faithful. He may refer to them to other Christians: “Do you remember this person? Do you remember that story you heard about, or that person you saw, who was faithful to Me?” He uses it to encourage others to be faithful as well.
In the book of Job, the Lord could say to Satan, who was roaming through the earth seeking whom he might devour, “Have you seen My servant Job? He is a righteous man. He is not into sin. This is My faithful servant Job.”
Then layers of protection were removed from Job. I want to bring this out because I think it also happens with being faithful unto death.
In the first layer, Job’s circumstances became terrible. There was loss of wealth—you are poor—and loss of family as well. Much tribulation happened to Job, but he was faithful.
The Lord never gives us something beyond what we can bear, as 1 Corinthians 10:13 teaches. I would rather say He does not allow a trial or temptation beyond what we can bear.
The Lord allows it because He knows that you can be faithful unto death in that circumstance. Do not be afraid, thinking that we will always be like Peter at his failure.
In Matthew 26, Peter said, “I am willing to die for You.” We should not boast like this in self-confidence. Peter failed the Lord, but the Lord picked him back up.
At the end of the Gospel of John, the Lord told Peter that he would die the death of a martyr. He said that someone would take him where he did not want to go, speaking of the way in which he would die.
Peter actually died as a faithful martyr. It was those years of practicing faithfulness, years of minor sufferings and minor persecutions, that brought him to be faithful unto death at the time of his martyrdom.
I think that is what the Lord is doing with us and why He encourages us this way.
With Job, one layer of protection was removed. Another layer came when Satan said, “You did not allow me to touch his body.” Yet the Lord could still stand firm and boast of His servant Job, saying, “Okay, just do not kill him.”
With some, there is another layer. It is allowed for the body to be killed. Yet we should not fear those who can only harm the body. Rather, we should live in the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord, who has charge of our soul and body.
What about now? We have gone through this time period and this concept. I have read a number of things on the church in Smyrna and listened to messages.
In America, it is often said that we will not have persecution unto death, but that we can still gain lessons from this church because we have light persecution and suffering. People have said that we are a Christian nation and that there is some protection here right now.
But actually, I feel that this word has come to me as it came to the church in Smyrna: “Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison.” There will be persecution.
Something has happened. Unfortunately, even now, it is different from fifty years ago. When preaching on the church in Smyrna, people could say, “We are not going to die for our faith.” Actually, I cannot say that totally.
If we are honest with ourselves and take the scales off our eyes, we should prepare for persecution of all types, even physical death, even in America. Some of it has happened, and not long ago.
Recently, the president of this country said that we are not a Christian nation. Perhaps it was an accident or a Freudian slip. He was supposed to say that we are not only a Christian nation, that we have many religions. But what came out was, “We are not a Christian nation.”
It was almost as if the word rang out to all of us: here is the representative saying that we are not a Christian nation. Perhaps he was only trying to say that we include all these things. But without the preserving morality of Christians, the preserving way of Christians, and the selflessness of Christians, religions cannot coexist together. The country would not be safe.
But this is what was said.
If you look around, we have a few things happening now that affect us and definitely affect the whole world. Islam is not something that we are probably going to pray out of existence.
People talk about an extreme Christian, and they usually mean it in a good way. I have a devotional at home for teenagers called an “extreme devotional” for “extreme Christians.” If you read the Bible once a year, you are considered amazing.
But when people say “extreme Muslims,” they often mean people are killing others. That is not the same thing.
When someone in Islam thinks of martyrdom, they may think of killing themselves while killing others. When a Christian thinks of martyrdom, they think of being killed for the sake of Christ and not fighting back. It is completely different.
Whatever the world tries to match up with these things, when a Christian is not acting like a Christian, you may have someone who claims Christianity killing another Christian, but that is not Christlike. Those are the ones who say they are Jews and are not.
A true Christian follows the way of suffering and laying down life for others.
If you watch the news, your head can go down. You see one hundred thirty killed, one hundred killed, seventy killed, or this many killed. Why are they being killed? They are asked, “Are you a Christian?”
Even when they are merely outward Christians, there is no test asking, “Are you born again? Are you a faithful Christian?” It is simply, “Do you call yourself a Christian?” So it is an attack specifically on the name of Christ.
Recently in the news, many people were trying to leave Africa for Italy as refugees. Many were fleeing persecution, while some were simply seeking a better life.
Some reports included people being thrown overboard and drowned because they were Christians. I read one story in which many people described what happened. People on the boat were asked whether they were Christians. Some were likely fleeing persecution, while others were Muslims faithful to Islam. The Christians were thrown overboard, while the others were allowed to live.
This is happening. The warnings have come to our hearts. There is a depth in our being saying, “The devil is about to cast some of you into prison.”
There is persecution coming from atheists, it is true, through schools and other things. It is becoming more and more difficult simply to be Christian.
The current wave includes conflict over sexual morality. The speaker’s concern is that Christians who hold biblical convictions may be portrayed as hateful or equivalent to racists merely because they will not affirm what they understand to be sinful.
There is a tactic of the enemy here: turn it into something different, so that Christians can be persecuted—not immediately because they are Christians, which would be difficult to do—but because they will not support immorality. They suffer for righteousness’ sake.
Some are paying fines for refusing to make a cake. Some are losing jobs. Many other forms of persecution are happening.
I think there are waves of what the Lord is allowing because Christians among us, including ourselves, may not be ready for all-out persecution. But I feel the Lord’s call to us is to be faithful right now and to fear nothing of what we are about to suffer.
When we think of the faithfulness of all those who have gone before us, and remember how they stood for Christ, how can we not take the little things we go through and say, “Lord, in this small thing I want to look up to You and bear the testimony. You are my first. You are my last. I am willing to suffer, minor or major, for You.”
If you do this, development happens. This is the encouragement for us: allow faithfulness to develop in us.
We are not left without training. There is no need for us to come suddenly to a moment in which someone puts a gun to our heads and asks, “Are you a Christian?” and then have to decide what we are going to say.
Many people have told me, “I do not know if I would choose the Lord in that time.” They are afraid to say either way. But I say, do not have that kind of concept.
One guy was boasting of it to me. He said, “Who knows? I could probably fail at that time.” He acted as though that were a humble attitude. I think that is an incorrect attitude.
I say, “By God’s grace, I am trying to be faithful right now. By God’s grace, He can keep me, because He is faithful. He can keep me faithful in that day.”
If you commit yourself to the Lord right now, you do not have to fear. You do not have to be afraid, wondering, “In that moment, am I going to make it or am I not going to make it?” Practice and exercise faithfulness now, even unto death, even in the smallest things.
Keep the testimony of Christ before our eyes: He is the first, and He is the last. I think this is our way forward.
There is a warning, but there is also a great encouragement from the Lord:
I will give thee the crown of life.
He will give this to us. There is a taste of it right now, and it is something to which we all look forward.
Let’s entrust ourselves to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, we thank You for keeping us up until this day. We can say together that God is faithful, that You have been faithful to us, and we give ourselves back to You.
Lord, we confess You as our first and as our last. We come to You to say that Jesus is our Lord.
Even in this time of some peace, with things growing around us and slight persecutions or slight tribulations that we can see coming, we realize it is only ten days. We realize it is only momentary, and we entrust ourselves to You.
Lord, all of us want to look away to You and keep our hearts focused on You.
We thank You for the water of the Word, washing away all the faults in our hearts, all the fear in our hearts, and all the frightening tactics of the enemy that would keep us on edge or worried that someday something terrible would happen.
Lord, even as we hear of things in the news and hear of different circumstances, each time we want to commit ourselves to You and make You our first and our last right now.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.