The Revelation of Jesus Christ – Worship and Witness in a Winner-Takes-All World (4)
October 2, 2022Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Christ has a prophetic message for the believers who gather in Smyrna for worship, and it is very meaningful to them. They were suffering tribulation in significant ways, up to and including death because they were obedient, they were faithful. They were also poor. In this message, they discover that true faithfulness brings true riches, despite bringing earthly poverty and death.
This is one of two churches which have nothing for Christ to criticize. Wouldn’t that be something. Jesus shows up to evaluate your church. Among those churches lined up, five receive some severe criticism, despite most receiving praise for what is right. Imagine your church comes up and there is nothing Christ offers to improve upon it. (If so, you are likely going to another church and not reading this email!)
There is a caution for us in studying this message. It would be easy to get the structure, the background, all the OT connections, and even all the exegetically correct meaning of the words and phrases, yet still miss the main point of the text.
This prophetic message to a suffering church had a different purpose to them than it has to us in the West living in relative prosperity. Yet they are related. It is written to them, not us, but it was also written for us. To find out what it says for us, we need to prayerfully consider why the believers in Smyrna received such a glowing commendation.
Join us in worship as we explore Revelation 2:8-11 seeking to hear Christ’s message for us today.