To Smyrna: Endure Persecution

This is the second sermon in a series that I have started on the churches of Revelation 2 and 3.

As I mentioned last time, as we went through Ephesus, when we study the churches of Revelation 2 and 3, there are three ways we need to look at this. One is there's a prophetic message that these churches actually represent different eras or different church eras, times in the history of the church. They also represent different attitudes that exist at all times in the church. And they represent the real conditions of people who lived in Asia Minor in seven different churches at the time that John wrote it. And what we want to do is go through what we know about those seven churches at that time period. And as we went through the book of Ephesus, we realized there's an important message for us today. There's an important message for the church today. And they're specifically for the church. They're not for the world. They're specifically for the church. There is an important message to the church in each one of these messages. And that's why they are told all the churches, all the churches are to read, was written to the other churches. So today we're going to go through Smyrna. Now, by the way, I do have the map I handed out last time. Is there anybody that didn't get one last time? Oh, we got a couple here. Tell you what, Tim, would you mind handing these out for me? If you'll heat your hands up, you'll make sure you get one. Because on the back is an outline of the book of Ephesus. And now you can study what was written to the Ephesians.

Last time, our problem was there's so much about the church in Ephesus that starts early in the ministry of Paul. And this book is written somewhere 95 to 100 AD. Literally, what we have is a 30 to 50 year history of the church in Ephesus. Now, the next church we're going to talk about is Smyrna. Remember last time we were going through all this material and acts. We talked about the letter of Ephesians. We talked about the letter that was written to Timothy. And Timothy was actually in Ephesus when Paul wrote first Timothy to him. So we know a lot about this church. What we know about the church in Smyrna in terms of what's in the Bible is only in what's written in Revelation. That's it. But there's a very important lesson for us today. So let's go to Revelation chapter 2. Let me give you a little background as you're going there.

Smyrna was renowned throughout the Roman world at the time because it was a beautiful city. Like Ephesus, it was a harbor city. It's set on a harbor where ships would come in and out. And because of that, it was a very wealthy city of commerce. So we're dealing with another wealthy city just like we did in Ephesus. It's not near as large. Smyrna wasn't near as large as Ephesus, but as prominent as Ephesus. But it was considered a very beautiful city because it's set on a harbor. It was surrounded by these low lying hills. But also it was known for the beauty of the city itself. Of course, it had paved roads, which Ephesus, all these major cities, had paved roads because, you know, that were made out of stones, not paving like we have now, but because of the Romans. But it had beautiful Roman-style buildings. And so it was known as just a beautiful city. It had a lot of beautiful homes. And it was known for its culture, for its music, for its theater, for its sculpture. And so here was a city that's known as a fine example of Roman culture.

It's a wealthy city, which was what Rome was all about, free trade and building wealth. It's a wealthy city. It's a city that has, you know, freedom of religion. You can worship any god or god if you want to. And it's a place where they have lots of art and music and theater. And it was a beautiful place.

Now, what John writes, about 95 to 100 AD, this city had already existed for hundreds of years. In fact, some archaeologists believe that the earliest settlement in what became Smyrna goes clear back to 1000 AD. Now, you think about it, how long the United States has been around.

Smyrna had been around as a settlement for about four times, you ever take a little, four times the length the United States has been a country. That's quite a history. That's an amazing history that had been passed down. They were proud of their history. They were proud of who they were. And what's really interesting about Smyrna, and I think it's important if we're going to understand what happened to these people, is that clear back 300 years before John writes this, around 195 BC, they realized something. They realized that Rome was going to become an empire. And they built a temple dedicated to Rome and the Roman gods.

So they attached themselves, because remember a lot of these places were city states. They were cities and they controlled all the area around them. They were just loosely confederated, you know, what we call nations. There weren't very many nations back then. And so here they were, in very many ways acting as an independent state, and they aligned themselves with Rome very early in Rome's history, long before Julius Caesar, long before they became an empire.

Now, if you go back to the earliest days of the Roman Empire, when we talk about Julius Caesar, when Julius Caesar was killed, of course, he was replaced by his nephew Octavian, who became known as Augustus. And Augustus, when he was early in his his his emperorship, Halley's Comet went by. Now, they know what it was today because they've been able to track, you know, how often Halley's Comet comes by. And they know that there was records of a comet that was visible in the sky that was seen all over the world. They didn't have the lights we have now. When people looked up into the sky at night, they saw things that we don't see because there's so much light. If you've ever been out in the desert where there's not as much light, it's amazing what you can see. It's amazing how many meteorites you will see, that we don't even see. You know, it's very seldom you see a meteorite anymore. We have a meteorite shower here in this area twice a year. And occasionally, I go out and see one.

Most of the time, I don't. You go out, you wait, you wait, you wait. It's just too light, you know. I did go out with my grandkids last spring to see one. We went out, we laid out in the backyard, so there are light eyes we get adjusted. And one of them said, look, grandpa, it's like we're in a hole that's closing. And around us was this huge cloud bank that was closing, closing, closing, closing, closing. And right before it was totally wiped out, my granddaughter, who's 13, started yelling, I see one! I see one! And the rest of us didn't get to see it. You know how they're so fast they go by? And that was it. It closed. There was nothing but a cloud, but clouds. That's not like what it's like there. They all saw Halley's Comet. And Augustus, being the brilliant politician he was, said, you know who that was? That was a being. Of course, this seems strange to us.

What Mr. Frankie was talking about, a viewpoint that we have that seems strange to many, many people. And it's going to get stranger and stranger to many people. We got to transport ourselves back here and see how the average person, what they thought. It was believed that stars were beings. They were alive. And guess he looked at Halley's Comet and he said, oh, that's all Uncle Julius. He's showing you that he is now divine, which of course made Augustus semi-divine. He's not really a god yet, but he's almost. From this point on, all Roman emperors would be considered semi-divine. Now, they knew they weren't divine because they killed them on a regular basis, but they knew, you know, you just, there was something about him that was not normal because of the power that he had. And it was believed that when any emperor died, he became a god and joined Zeus and all the other gods on that level, but he joined them. Now, this is actually going to be important because Smyrna was a center of emperor worship. In fact, they actually built a temple specifically to, I think it was Emperor Tiberius, so that when they went in to worship the gods there, you know, they were also worshiping Tiberius as this semi-divine god.

So this is part of the system in which the people in Smyrna lived in. Now, you go to some places in the Roman world and, you know, all they cared about was money. But you will find in almost every major city, religion was a core issue. Corinth, we went through Ephesus. Remember, there was a riot in Ephesus we talked about last time because they had the temple of Diana there, Artemis, which was a huge moneymaker for the area. Religion is at the heart of their lives. And in Smyrna, part of it is the worship of the emperor and the worship of all the gods in the name of the emperor so that you would be blessed. One of the things that the earliest Christians were accused of was the belief that Jesus Christ was semi-divine and, therefore, had taken the place of an emperor and they would not accept that. He was called a king, he was a man who died, was resurrected, and is called a king. Oh, you mean like Nero? You mean like Augustus? No, that's not what they meant at all. But, no, no, you're saying you have a king that's semi-divine. Let's go to Revelation 2 now and let's look at the message. So this beautiful, wealthy, cultured city, people are well-dressed. This is what the church is like in this city.

Verse 8, After the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things says the first and the last who was dead and came to life. Oh, just like the emperors. I know your works tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say that they are Jews or not, but are the synagogue of Satan. The first thing he says to them, he knows their works, that they are good works. Smyrna is one of only a couple of churches that isn't condemned for either sinful lifestyles or for heresies. Smyrna doesn't have either.

Smyrna has a whole other set of problems. These people are holding on to the truth. These people are following God. They are very loyal to God in his way. Remember the Ephesians didn't have any heresies. They had just lost their love, their first love. They lost their love for God. They lost their love for each other. They lost their love of the truth. I mean, they knew the truth, but they didn't love it anymore. They knew God, but they didn't love him the way they... It wasn't a total dedication of life. And of course, because of that, they wouldn't love each other the way they should. And that is a very, very important message for the church today, as it is at any time. Smyrna, on the other hand, they have none of these problems. Smyrna, in a spiritual sense, is as solid as any churches has ever been.

But they have tribulation and they have poverty. It's interesting. The Greek word there literally means complete destitution. These people were persecuted and ostracized from society so that they lived in absolute poverty. It's a different message, but this message comes down through the ages to all the churches. That there are times when the people of God, because they are following God, are going to live in destitution and complete poverty. Also, they had suffered the blasphemy of those who say that they are Jews and they're not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.

Now, who is this? They say they're Jews and they're not. The only indication we have about this that could answer this—there's all kinds of speculations. I've read all kinds of speculations. There's one that makes the most sense. And that is, he's literally talking about Jews. But he's talking about Jews who have rejected Jesus as the Messiah. So they are persecuted. And you see that throughout the New Testament.

We're going to look at some cases here in just a few minutes. Of Christians, many of them were Jews, are being persecuted by Jews, the people of God. But something's happened to them. By rejecting the Messiah, they're not being led by God. They're actually fighting against God. Let's look at—keep a marker here, because we're going to come right back to here—but let's go to Romans 2. Romans 2, because Paul's dealing with a situation specifically here in Rome, so it's not in Smyrna. But in Romans 2, one of the problems he was dealing with is that the Jews in the church in Rome were requiring for Gentiles to be circumcised.

And I understand the argument. The argument is you have to be part of a covenant with God. The sign of the covenant with God is circumcision, so if you're not circumcised, you are not in a covenant with God. That's why later in Romans and also in Colossians, Paul would talk about how, no, we are circumcised in the heart, and baptism is the sign of the covenant.

But they were trying to enforce physical circumcision. Look at verse 25. For circumcision is deemed profitable if you keep the law, but if you're a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So he's talking specifically to the Jews here. In chapter 2, which Mr. Frank, he read a lot of here, or parts of it here in the in the sermonette, he's speaking specifically to Roman society, to the Italians, to the Romans. In chapter 2, he starts speaking to the Jews. So he's taking on both worlds here, and he's saying, you know what? Your circumcision, which is the sign of the covenant you have with God, means nothing if you're not keeping the law.

Let's jump down to verse 28. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that is one is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirits, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.

So he tells the Jews, you know what? You're not really the people of God. You're not really following God just because you have an outward sign. You're really a Jew. You're really a Jew if you're inwardly circumcised, if you have God's Spirit.

So that's the only reference point we can have where anything is like that is said in the New Testament, which would lead us to believe that we can come to a probable conclusion that one of the problems they have in Smyrna is they're not just being attacked by Roman pagans. They're being attacked, well it would be Romans, but I mean they were part of the Roman Empire by pagans. They're being attacked by Jews who are saying, you're not a Jew. You have Gentiles in your group and you're not having them to be circumcised and the people of Smyrna are being ostracized by society. So let's go back now and look at verse 10 and back in Revelation chapter 2.

Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you have tribulation 10 days. Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. Now, once again, there's been a lot of attempts to explain exactly when that happened. 10 days, some people mean or some commentators say that means 10 years. The thing is we don't know. All we know is Smyrna suffered persecution and people died. Now, here's a church that other churches, I can guarantee you when we get to Laodicea and some of the other churches, the Laodiceans would have looked at the people of Smyrna and said, boy, you people just don't have any faith, do you?

You people just aren't good Christians. They have this much poverty and they have this much persecution. You're not good Christians. And yet, when we get to Laodicea, we're going to find that those people are very condemned by Jesus Christ as the head of the church. Because remember, all these messages are from Christ Himself. Smyrna receives none of that. He just says, hang on and some of you are going to die. This persecution didn't stop here. You know, it's very interesting. 150 years later, there is a famous Christian who taught that you should keep the Passover, polycarp. And he taught that those who kept Easter were wrong. Polycarp was so powerful, and he lived in Asia Minor, where these churches are, that he actually went to the Pope. He wasn't really the Pope at the time. The bishop of Rome, he didn't have much power, and said, you shouldn't do this. You shouldn't keep Easter. And polycarp got sent back and said, no, that's what we're going to do. And he continued to teach the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. We know that because he left the letter.

And he also believed in the resurrection, not the immortal soul. At 155, polycarp was taken into the arena in Smyrna and killed. We know that from history. So that's years, that's 50 years after this. And Smyrna is still a place where people are persecuted. The church is surviving in poverty and persecution.

Persecution.

He says, I will give you the crown of life. It's interesting. He says, you live in poverty, but you are rich. You live in poverty, but you are spiritually rich. What God was doing for them, the plan he had for them. And that's why in verse 11, he says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Once again, all the churches are to read this. To the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. The promise to the people of Smyrna was, you will live forever. It wasn't a promise, by the way, that their persecution would end. It was a promise that their poverty would end. We have something really important in this message, and that is to the church of God, there are times where poverty and persecution may be for the rest of your life.

Poverty and persecution may not end.

We always look at things and say, well, if I'm really following God, I'm going to get physical blessings and I won't be persecuted. Well, God gives us physical blessings sometimes. And for those of us here, what's the worst persecution you've faced? Losing a job over the Sabbath, maybe. Losing friends who hated you or family members. You've never had somebody drag you out in the street and beat you to a pulp. You've never had to watch your children be crucified. That's the kind of persecution these people went through. And remember, there are only one of two churches where God says, you're okay. You don't have the spiritual problems of the other churches. Let's remember what Jesus says in Matthew, chapter five, part of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew, chapter five. When you go through every one of these messages, they make us a bit uncomfortable. I had a couple of phone calls and a couple of emails this week where people said, wow, that sermon on Ephesus, I felt corrected by it. You know, I've never looked at the message of Ephesus and felt correct. Well, that's for a bunch of other people, right? No, all these messages are to be read in all the churches.

This is part of, of course, the Sermon on the Mount, part of the Beatitudes. Verse 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Christ comes out and says, blessed are those. Blessed by God are those who suffer persecution because of the Lord. Blessed are those who do what's right and are living what's right, and have a right relationship with God and the people around them hate them. Verse 11. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you and falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

In other words, Christ told his followers, expect persecution. You and I have never lived in this group here. We've never lived in a true world of persecution, not like Smyrna, not like many of the early Christians, not like the Christians did in Rome in 64, when Nero burned him at the stake so he could have lights for his parties. So we've never been through that. We've never been fed to animals in the arena.

In Smyrna, these people suffered.

And not only suffered because of what they believed, but because they were falsely accused. And I want to really draw on this for a moment, because you and I are living in a society that is changing.

It has been changing for a long time, but we're starting to see the repercussions of that. I gave a sermon, and I've done two Beyond Today programs, about secular humanism, once again mentioned in the sermon. How secular humanism in the 1930s became the basis of an entirely new educational system.

In the 1960s, we have a whole lot of things happen, as that becomes the fundamental way of philosophy of teaching and higher education in this country. And at the basis of it, there is no creation. The basis is evolution. So today, evolution is taught in schools, both in colleges and grade schools and high schools. Most places, it is taught as absolute fact. Every once in a while, you'll get a teacher that'll say, well, there's another explanation of this. But usually it's taught as absolute fact. That started in the 60s. And you have more and more people believing that's absolute fact. Or, well, they need something to believe in. And so what happens is, they've become ripped apart from any time of biblical basis. And so what happens is, they start to believe in New Age concepts, which is a lot of mixture of Hinduism and other things. Whole new religions are forming in this country.

Pseudo-science, where somehow the government can initiate policies to stop hurricanes. It's not possible.

But that's what some people believe. They can stop hurricanes. But this new world we're living in, as it continues, you have to understand how weird what we believe will become.

In 1973, when they passed the law, allowing abortion—well, it wasn't as a law. It was supported by the Supreme Court as a right. Most people, a lot of people said, well, this is good. There are poor women who are sick or have problems, and now they can get abortions. And of course, that's not what happened. Now it's a means of birth control. And to say that you're against abortion means what? You hate women.

I can remember my mom—I've told you this before—telling me that when she worked as a nurse in a mental institution, there were men there that had really strange problems, and they were mentally ill, and they were there. And I kept thinking, I don't know what she's talking about. And finally, sometime in my mid-teens, I figured out, oh, those are homosexuals. It was a mental illness then. The AMA classified it as a mental illness. Until a few years ago—of course, it's changed. That was changed in the 60s and the 70s. Until a few years ago, transgenderism, which is a remarkable mental illness, was a mental illness. Now, even by the UN, it's considered a crime to call it a mental illness. Understand the world is changing. And we, because we live in our little bubbles, we don't realize how much it's changing. And as it does, there's going to come a time where if you believe what you believe right now, you will be accused—you know, you think, oh, I'm going to be persecuted for my Sabbath-keeping. I'm going to be—no, you know what you're going to be accused of? Hate crimes against humanity. You know what the earliest Christians were persecuted for? Cannibalism.

Because once a year, they got together to eat somebody's body and drink their blood. Destroying families. Because, you know, once you came into this Christianity, you were so out of step with paganism, your family usually just owned you. So you just—they were for destroying families. Atheism, because they denied the existence of all the other gods. Political rebellion.

They were accused of political rebellion because they refused to participate in the politics.

They refused to participate in the worship of the emperors. You see, religion and politics were one thing. And you were expected to sacrifice to the emperor. You were expected, when the emperor came through, to lay down in front of him, or lay down before him and bow your head as a semi-divine being. And the Christians said, oh no, he's not semi-divine. You're a political rebel.

And of course, they were pyromaniacs because they kept saying the world was going to end in fire. Although, I don't care if you hear that out because the Stoics said that at the same time, but that's what they were accused of.

But he tells them you will not be hurt by the second death. Now, think, wow, that's a tough message. The message to the church in Smyrna is a very, very tough message.

We say, well, that's all we know. I guess it'll just go sit down. No, I tell you what I want to do. I want to take the last 20 minutes or so, 25 minutes, and I want to go through, and I want to show you how the apostle Paul was persecuted and how he handled it.

Let's look at some real persecution here. I would just pick up one man because I don't think there's been anybody except Jesus that was persecuted as much as the apostle Paul. One thing was he persecuted Christians before God came into his life, and I think God said, there's a penalty for that, Paul. I forgive you for your sins, but you persecuted my little ones, and now you're going to go teach them, and you're going to get persecuted. And you look at what he went through. Beatings. At one point, he was in the arena. He must have probably had to find an animal, and he survived. He was stoned on numerous occasions. They didn't stone you until they beat you. Oh, well, we threw a few stones at him. He's learned his lesson. They stoned you until they thought you were dead, and he was left for dead. And Paul got up and staggered around and went back into the same city that he came out of. This is what it means to be persecuted. And we want to look at some of the ways he handled persecution, because being persecuted may become part of our lives. I don't know. I know the message of this church is to be read in all the churches. So we have to be prepared in case we are persecuted. Because if you truly believe this way, unless you go live on a farm someplace, build a wall around it, no, no, to come over the wall. You've got to hide. You have to hide someplace. You can't be around other people and have them not figure out you're different, right? You can't. And we're out of step. And we're living in a society. I know we keep wanting this to go back to some normal. I don't know what normal was. It's always been a problematic world we live in. But we want to go back to some normal. It's not going to. Oh, COVID is going to go away eventually. Well, I don't know. It may come back every year, just like the flu did for a few months. I suspect that'll happen at some point. But the world's never going to go back. Our country is never going to go back to what we consider normal. Now, how would we handle persecution? Well, let's go to Acts 9. Wow, what a downer. No, blessed are those. We have lived in the easiest time probably there's ever been to be a true Christian. You and I are blessed people. And this may go on for a few years. I don't know. Things may sort of go on okay for a few more years. But eventually, it will change. And I believe it's going to change in the lifetime of many of us here. Because we're in a changing world.

Acts 9 verse 20. Paul here, of course, is called by God. He's baptized. He's going around persecuting Christians. This is what he's been doing because he's a leader in the Jewish world. And then verse 20 it says, immediately, this is after he was baptized and had hands laid on him. He preached Christ in his synagogues and that he was the son of God. That all who heard were amazed and said, is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem and has come here for this purpose so they might bring them bound to the chief priests? What's he doing here? But Paul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelled in Damascus, proving that Jesus is the Christ. Now, after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. This is before he became known as Paul. He becomes known as Paul as time goes on. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down to the wall in a large basket. And he shows up and draws them and starts preaching. Now, we're going to watch as Paul goes through years here as persecution increases in his life and how he has to change. You know, the first thing he did makes the most sense. And this is one way of handling persecution. You just go someplace else. Just you go away from it. I'm not going to be around the people who persecuted me.

And, you know, he wasn't condemned for that. It was the right thing to do at the time. Funny thing about persecution, though, if it becomes societal-wise, you know, throughout societal society, there is a point you can't hide from it. You can't. Now, you know, giving this sermon, I have this fear, everybody's going to become paranoid. Oh, I'm going to get persecuted.

I don't know when in hell, but every party is going to—a little persecution in life. Some people a lot. The message to the church in Smyrna that everybody's supposed to read is sometimes poverty and persecution is part of what it is to be a Christian. And there are parts of this world outside the United States where people are persecuted and live in poverty because of their Christianity. We're so far from that we just don't—you know, oh, well, that's sad. No. If you're living where they live, that's not sad.

It's terrifying. So let's zero in not to be paranoid and upset and worried, but to understand we have to think through how we're going to handle things if we are persecuted. And to what degree? This one was pretty easy. Just run away. I'm not going to talk to you about this. You can walk away from a lot of persecution. Just walk away from it. It's not worth the argument. You know, Paul didn't even try to argue with him after a while. He's like, you're not going to listen to me. I'm just going someplace else. He got away. So that's the easiest way. I like that one. I think that's the best way to get away from persecution. It just reminds me of that Proverbs where Solomon writes, whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps him soul from troubles. That means they're just a time to be quiet. They're just a time not to say anything. It's not worth it. It's just not worth it. It's not going to change any minds. Now, but sometimes he couldn't avoid it. Let's go to Acts 16.

He goes to Philippi in Acts 16. He's with Silas, who was one of his companions. And he gets thrown in prison here.

He says, now it happened as we went to prayer. It says we here because Luke was with him at this point. And Luke's writing the book of Acts. So as it happened, as we went to prayer, the certain slave girl, possessed with a spirit of divination, met us and brought her masters, much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. This went on for many days. Now, Paul tried to ignore this. Now, you've got a demon possessed girl who's used by people to make money. This is Acts 16. We're in verse 16. 16. 16. And Paul lets it go. I mean, like, why pick a fight here? You know, she doesn't want the demon to leave. They don't want the demon to leave. And finally, he just has enough of it and he turns around and he commands in the name of Jesus Christ for the demon to leave. And it does. And so these guys see their livelihood gone. Remember, this is sort of like what happened in Ephesus. The people really got upset with Paul and Ephesus. We went through that last week. Why? Well, you know, people are leaving the paganism. And as they're leaving paganism, we're losing our money. Well, these people lost their money. They were losing their money. So, they go to the magistrates, they go to the head of the city in Philippi, and they complain about it.

And so they take Paul and Silas and they stick them in jail and they put them in chains.

Now, we're going to learn a lesson here. When you and I face persecution, our first reaction is despair. Right? I mean, first of all, people don't like me. They may hurt me. Third, I'm in jail and I haven't done anything wrong. Right? I haven't done anything wrong. Why am I in jail? Look what happens to Paul, verse 25. At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. And there's a great earthquake and God lets them out. Well, they can get out.

The poor jailer runs over and realizes, uh-oh, you know, the earthquake broke down part of the wall. I've lost my prisoners. He whips out his sword because he's going to commit suicide because what they're going to do to him for losing prisoners will be worse than suicide.

Paul and Silas say, oh, don't do that. We're still here. We didn't run away at all. What do you mean he didn't run away? No, this is our chance to preach the gospel.

This is our chance to preach the gospel, and they preach it to him.

They preach it to the jailer. Now, in despair, these men are praying and singing hymns, and the entire prisoners, people are listening to them. You know, those two guys sing pretty good. They're listening to them sing. This is difficult, but this is where we have to go.

God will allow persecution on us to do his work.

What was the work he was supposed to do in prison? Well, go to verse 34. The jailer took them, well, verse 32, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and immediately he and his always family were baptized. And when he brought them into his house, he sent food before them and rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. That entire family gets baptized in one night. Wow.

Now, this tells us something, and that is we have to find the blessings in persecution. And a lot of times what it is, God says, I have something I want you to do.

You know, we have some information about Pauli Karp's martyrdom in Smyrna. And what's interesting about it is that he, as an old man, earned the respect of the Roman soldiers. Rome honored older people. People who lived a long time were special. And here was this old man who showed this courage, who treated them nicely, you know, didn't swear at him, didn't try to fight them. And they actually respected him because of that. He did the work of God. Of course, if the stories about Pauli Karp are true, he also stood in the arena with about 30,000 people in there and told them about Christ and told how he was the real Messiah, that there was one God, and they needed to worship the one God and give up their idols. See, there is a time to stand up, and they killed him for it. But he had his chance, huge audience, 30,000 people. Man, it's so much easier today. WGN, we average 50,000 people a weekend, and no one—I mean, I get hate mail. I'll get an email, everyone says, well, I'm hoping I go to hell or something, but I mean, no one's trying to kill me. That's not real persecution.

He stood in front of his audience knowing what it would cost him.

So, here we have a situation where in this comfort, because God—I'm singing with God—it is God that I'm worshiping. It is God because of who I'm suffering for. It is God's going to take me through this no matter what happens. And he ends up being used to convert somebody, a whole family, that God wanted converted. But that's a hard way to do it. I sure hope I don't have to get put in jail so someone can get baptized. I mean, I've gone in jails to baptize people, but I was always glad I could leave. Now, Paul did get to leave. So, let's go to chapter 21. Now, there's all kinds of stories about him. Just everybody's in one. He's persecuted. But let's look at Acts 21. We can't turn away in despair. When we are persecuted, we have to draw close to God because that's where the power comes from. And then watch what he does. Watch what he does. What we have in Acts 21 is that Paul goes to Jerusalem, and a mob gets upset because they see him in there. The Jews see him there. They know he preaches the Gentiles. He has some men with him, and they assume these men are Gentiles, and they're not. And so, the Jews get so worked up that a mob forms, and they take him to kill him. They seize him. Now, next to the temple, actually attached to the temple, was a Roman garrison because they always knew there was going to be trouble at the temple. And so, they send out the Roman guard. They come marching out, break up the group, seize Paul, take him back into the fort. And it's like, another stupid Jew, what are we going to do with you? What kind of problems are you causing? And he's getting persecuted by the Jews, now he's going to be persecuted by the Romans. And all he did was show off the temple to worship God.

He just showed up privately. He was a few friends. He'd been taken in Azarite Val. He was going to do a sacrifice. Here's the man sent to the Gentiles who was teaching them they don't have to sacrifice, but when he goes home to his Jewish world, he's going to go to a sacrifice to God. And he's accused of what? Hating the temple and teaching against the sacrifices. Now, this is so ironic because Gentiles weren't allowed to go in to give sacrifices. They had to stay out in the court of the Gentiles. So, you talk about hypocrisy here. Absolute hypocrisy.

Wait a minute. I'm here as a Jew to sacrifice. No, you can't come in here.

Why? Because you teach Jews they don't have to... I mean Gentiles, they don't have to sacrifice. Well, you won't even let them sacrifice. Okay, what do you mean? It's wrong for me to teach them they can't sacrifice or don't have to sacrifice. So, he goes in and what happens is in verse 18.

Now, I don't want to go through all this. This is so much of this here. Let's go to verse 26. He goes in at verse 26 and 27. He talks about that. And he cries out men of Israel. And then we go down to verse 30. It says, all the men were disturbed and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple and immediately the doors were shut. And they were seeking to kill him. And the news came to the commander of the garrison. All Jerusalem was an uproar. So he took his soldiers and his centurions and he runs out and he grabs him.

And he drags him in. And he's not sure what this means. He doesn't know what does this mean. So Paul tells him, let me just talk to them. Let me just talk to the people.

And the centurion says, well, you know, I'll calm them down. He talks to them and he starts telling them his defense. And they all stop and they listen. At the end of chapter 22, he says that God told him, depart for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.

And they said, that's it. Up until that point, we can agree with you. Maybe this Jesus is the Messiah. But now you're saying that all the other people on the earth are equal to us and we won't accept that. And so they have to take him. And so the Romans take him. And the Romans are trying to decide what to do with him. And they're going to beat him. And he tells him, well, you can't beat me. I'm a Roman citizen. Now, what we're finding here is the brilliance of Paul in dealing with the calm way he deals with persecution. I mean, a mob's dragging him out, right? I, okay, I know myself well enough. If a draw, a mob dragged me out and some soldiers came and took me away, the last thing I'd say is, no, no, no, just let me talk to him.

That's the last thing I'd say. But he does. Then the Romans have to save him again. And the soldiers take him in. And he's going to just beat this guy up. And he says, you can't do that. I'm a Roman citizen. Oh, no, they can't do that. So now they're a little bit nervous because they've sort of roughed up a little bit of a Roman citizen, which is against the law, because all Roman citizens had due process. If you weren't a Roman citizen, you didn't have due process, but, you know, Roman citizen did. So now he's facing his persecution always in this...

He always tells the truth, but he always handles things with this ability to reason out what's happening. And that's because of God. And that's what we have to trust.

God will give us the reason. God will give us the knowledge, because we don't always remember... I'm just kidding. We always won't remember what we're supposed to say.

We will always remember the Scripture. We have to be praying. Any persecution, every confrontation, we should be praying for God to give us the wisdom to handle this properly. So Paul says he's a Roman citizen, and because of that, he's able to save himself. So here we have a situation where he actually uses the legal system to save himself. So this now begins a whole interesting journey of what Paul has to go through. He's brought before the Sanhedrin, and there he gets to talk to them, and they get even more upset. And he says, well, I'm just here because I believe in the resurrection of the dead. Well, half the Sanhedrin believes in the resurrection of the dead, and half doesn't. So they start fighting each other.

The Sanhedrin has him, doesn't know what to do with him, and finds out that 40 Jews have gotten together, and they're going to kill Paul. They're waiting to ambush him. So he sends Paul out wherever he goes with a bunch of Roman legionaries, and nobody's going to mess with that. And so Paul gets saved once again. He's always telling the truth, but he's always dealing with everybody he deals with, except one case in here where he's before the high priest, and he doesn't realize the high priest. The high priest slaps him, and he loses his temper. Instead, it's something pretty nasty to him. And they say, you can't say that to the high priest. And he looks at him and says, I'm sorry. Quotes the scripture that says you should honor the high priest. And I said, he tells him, I did not know you were the high priest, and I apologize. Now, these people are going to beat him up, hurt him, do all kinds of things to him, and he apologizes. I didn't know who you were, or I wouldn't have said what I said to you. So I apologize for that.

And Paul handles this persecution the way this has to be God's Spirit, but this is what we are to look for. And persecution, we are to look for God's Spirit to lead us to do his work. If God allows us to be persecuted, especially violently persecuted, it's because he's doing something, and we happen to be the tools. We're the tools! I don't like that. God, you know, please make me a... I don't want to be that kind of tool, you know? I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, right? I don't want to get pounded on. So in all this, he ends up being sent to the governor, and he goes before the governor, and there is where he gets them all upset because he says, hey, I'm here because of the resurrection of the dead. I believe in the resurrection of the dead. He gets the two sides fighting each other. What's interesting is in this, before the governor, the Jews actually go hire a professional orator. It's in chapter 24. See, being before the court was a big issue, so they go hire. It'd be like today hiring the best prosecuting attorney you can find. They bring in the best, an orator who gets up and gives his eloquent speech and makes, you know, he just nails it in the coffin of Paul. Any governor is going to say, oh, this man is guilty of sedition. He's guilty of trying to overthrow the Roman Empire.

And Paul gets up and says, he realizes if he tries to argue that, this is an important point, sometimes you can't argue where they take you. We've all been there. Where someone takes this someplace where you can't argue that point because the explanation takes too long. Right? And as for Paul said, well, Felix, here's why I'm here today. I'm here because I believe in the resurrection of the dead. He met by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but that's always said. And the Pharisees and Sadducees got in a big argument and Felix had to dismiss them. Their orator didn't mean anything. I guess you pick your battles. You say the truth.

You say the truth and you pick your battles. Just read through these chapters. They're just remarkable what he went through. I mean, Felix actually tries to keep him there. He keeps him there for two years. Not because he doesn't actually convict him of anything because he hasn't done anything wrong. What he does is he wants him to bribe him, not realizing the kind of man Paul was. Paul wasn't going to bribe him. After two years, Paul says, by the way, I'm a Roman citizen and I appeal to the highest court. I appeal to the Supreme Court. I appeal to Caesar himself. And he had a right to do that. It says Felix would have let him go eventually, but he had no choice now. He had to send him to Caesar. What's very interesting is at the beginning of this whole event, all these series of events that Paul went through, he received a message from God that said, you have to teach about me in Rome. In Rome? How the world's going to get to Rome? Finally, he realized after sitting around for two years, oh, I'm supposed to go to Rome.

I've been persecuted for sitting here for two years under some kind of arrest. I mean, it wasn't like a terrible prison. He wasn't condemned. He was a Roman. They had to keep him under some kind of house arrest. He's not in the dungeon someplace. After two years of being in a prison, like I said, not a prison in a terrible sense, but any prison's bad, oh, I'm supposed to go to Rome. My persecution has purpose. He says, I appeal to Caesar, and he gets sent to Rome.

What's amazing is he gets to Rome. Let's go to Acts 28 here, the last point we're going to look at.

You know what's interesting about Paul in all these situations? He very seldom, well, very seldom, he does with the high priest, because the high priest slapped him and he lost his temper. But in all the other cases, he never attacks the person that's persecuting him. Like, you're just stupid. You just don't know God. You're just a pagan. He never does that. He just defends what he believes. And when he's done, everybody says, well, that's reasonable. Now, they didn't know what to do with him, because, you know, as soon as we laid him out here, the Jews are going to kill him. And he's a Roman citizen. If they kill him, we've got a mess to clean up. We've got to go arrest a bunch of Jews and crucify him, and then we're going to have a riot. And it's just going to be a mess. They knew what was going to happen and what was going to happen and all this. So they keep trying to all the Romans, keep saying, okay, he has some reasonable belief, but he hasn't broken any Roman laws. And so it's interesting. He never attacks them. You think, you know, he would stand up to the governor and say, you're an idiot. No, you know what he said to the governor? Or was it a grip? It might have been a grip on the king, a grip. He says to him, because he's in this story too. He says, you know, I'm glad I got to talk to you. I'm glad I've been brought before you. You know why? You know more about what I'm teaching than anybody else. Oh, well, yeah, I do. Okay. And so they couldn't argue with him. It's a fascinating story of a man who's persecuted because he always says, I have something to do. God wants me to do something in his persecution. I'm supposed to accomplish something. Now, remember, I keep going back to polygarp. He knew at one point what he had to do in his late, you know, he was in his 70s at the time. I have to die here, but boy, do I have an audience. And I'm going to tell him about God. He knew what he was supposed to accomplish in his persecution. Paul keeps living by just saying, but this is what I believe. I believe in this God. I believe in his son, Jesus Christ. And I believe in these scriptures. And between Felix and the grip of, they all knew the scriptures. Now, he said to Rome, Acts 28, verse 16.

Now, when he came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. Oh, you know, everybody else has to go to prison. But Paul, you've been this model prisoner. You get to live with the guard. So he's in a house with the guard.

So God was even intervening in his persecution because he still had a purpose for him. What in the world would be that purpose? Let's go to the last verses of the book of Acts, because the book of Acts ends with Paul being under house arrest, living with a guard, with a Roman guard. Then Paul dwelled two whole years in his own rented house. Well, he actually got moved out of that. They let him live in his own house. He couldn't leave the house, but he got to rent a nice house. Well, persecution wasn't so bad now, except think about what it is not to be able to leave a house. Then Paul dwelled two whole years in his own house, rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence. No one forbidding him. He ends up in Rome, where he now is preaching the gospel at the very heart of the pagan Roman Empire. And people, Jews and Gentiles, are coming to him all over for years, and he teaches every day. He started the church in Rome, or at least founded it as it would become the Church of Rome. It doesn't say he started a church, but he taught people. He taught people.

And it would eventually evolve into a church in Rome.

Now, Paul eventually had to stand before Caesar. Paul had to make his proclamation.

And when he did, and Caesar realized, probably it was Nero who was the Caesar. So we think he actually went before Caesar. We're not sure. We know what happened, though. At some point, he made a proclamation about Jesus Christ, and they said, you are guilty of treason. But because he was a Roman, he wasn't crucified, he was simply beheaded. And that's how Paul died. This is where his journey of persecution led him to die. Just like Polycarp, Polycarp dying in the arena, it led him to be dying but by giving a proclamation to leaders of the Roman world. Now, you and I are going to be called to bring messages to the leaders of the United States. That's not our calling. But we may be used by God to give a message to our neighbor, but we may be persecuted. It may be in our societies, in our little towns, and we may be persecuted.

It may be at the school, where you have to stand up because, no, my child will not. You see, in California, they passed a law that all schools down to, I think it's kindergarten, must now teach bisexual, transsexual, homosexual, and transgender. And it was voted in by the parents.

It was voted in by the parents.

What kind of societies that produce in 10 years? You see what I'm saying? The persecution has to come.

What kind of society is produced when heroin is legal for everybody to use, as it is in Washington or Oregon? Anybody know? Oregon.

What kind of society?

You say, well, how could it come to this? Oh, it's been going on for a long time. This didn't come out of nowhere. Our society has been deteriorating and deteriorating and deteriorating. And it didn't start at a real high place. It never started as the kingdom of God. So the level it was at wasn't exactly the kingdom of God by any stretch of the imagination. It has been going downhill.

So there has to come a time when Christians, if we have any impact at all, will be persecuted. The Smyrna church was probably wasn't very big.

Ephesus was probably the biggest of all the churches, because remember they had to go, Paul went and rented a school. And they rented a school.

Menides were probably house churches. We don't know. 50, 100 people. There might have been a couple hundred. We really don't know. It wasn't thousands.

There's no record of a church in Smyrna outside of this. Well, there's a record of people being there, like at the time of a polycard. But I mean, there's no external, really, like a Roman record or anything like that.

So that's the lesson.

You know, I remember years ago I gave the lessons from the churches. And when I started through this again, I thought, wow, I don't even want to give this one. But I didn't know it's there. It says all of them read, everyone read the message messages to the churches. We're supposed to read all these. We have been very fortunate. I think we will continue to be fortunate for a time period. I don't know how long.

But persecution is coming on the church, eventually, sometime. Semernae is the almost forgotten church. I mean, what was it? Ever heard anyone talk about Semernae? Why? I don't know. It was a message for us. It was a great church. How could a great church be in poverty and persecution for the whole, it seems like the whole history of its existence, because that's what happens sometimes to be a Christian. That's what we signed up for. That's what we signed up for. That's what we signed up for.

The short story, just a few verses, is there to tell us, wherever you live, no matter what time or place, there's a Smyrna someplace. There are people going through that right now. There's a Smyrna someplace. In the world in general, and in our society, persecution of biblical Christians is going to happen. I just don't know how serious it will be in our society, but it's going to happen. It's going to get worse. It has to, because we will be guilty of hate crimes. You can't get away from that. And what will be defined as hate crimes. What we do, we need to remember and pray. Apply what Paul did. Don't live in despair, but seek God. Sing hymns to God, even in prison. Pray to God.

And don't attack the attackers. Simply state what you believe. Don't get dragged into that. See, he wouldn't let that happen. Every place, except the one that he had to apologize for now. He had to apologize for it. Every place but one, he simply stated, this is what I believe. Here's what I build my life on.

And when we are privileged, as we are right now, you and I live in times of peace and prosperity. It really is a good time. I know with COVID, and I know with all the things going on in the country, it's easy to get discouraged. But I don't know. I had a nice breakfast this morning. How many times have I said that? I had a nice breakfast this morning. I drove here in an air-conditioned car.

I get to worship in peace with 50, 60 of my brother and hundreds online. I get to go home and eat a nice dinner in a nice home where tonight when it gets down to 34, the heat will come on.

And I'll probably sit down with my wife tonight and watch some movie.

Wow! And all of history, name something better than that. Name something better than that.

And that's the life we have. But when you live today, think about if there's some way we can make those people in Smyrna real to us.

If there's some way we can understand who they were, who they are today, in places where that's happening, if that can be real to us, and in our peace and our prosperity, we can honor them.

We can honor them, and we can remember them. And if we ever face persecution, that God can say the same things about us that He says about them.