Revelation 2:8-11
The Character of the City
A. Smyrna means “bitter.:”
B. Smyrna was a rich, beautiful, resort Port City.
C. God of Smyrna was Dionysius / Bacchus: the god of drunkenness and sexual revelry.
- Fertility god
- Annual celebration of his death and resurrection
- Priests were presented a crown.
The Christ of the Church
A. Christ is not some mythical god. He is the First, the Creator and the Last, the Conqueror.
B. Christ is the Real God, Who died and was Resurrected!
The Comprehension of the Christ
A. Christ knows the Church’s Poverty and Persecution.
- Abject poverty in things of the world.
- Rich in matters of eternity and faith.
- Tribulation refers to societal and political affliction.
B. Christ knows the Blasphemy of those claiming to be believers, and are not.
- True spiritual Jews are Christians, see Philippians 3:3.
- Blasphemy is declaring “Caesar as Lord.”
- Once a year, citizens were compelled to offer a pinch of incense and declare “Caesar as Lord,” and afterward would receive a certificate that allowed them to buy and sell.
- All the Christians had to do was burn a pinch of incense, say “Caesar is Lord,” receive their certificate, and go away and worship as they pleased.
- Those who compromised and conformed to Caesar worship were called by Christ, “the synagogue of Satan.”
The Caution of the Christ
A. Do not fear suffering for Christ.
B. You will be cast into prison and tried.
C. Your suffering will be shortened.
D. Be faithful to the end, even to the death.
The Commendation of Christ
A. A crown of Life
B. The definite article: “the crown of Life.”
C. Two words for “crown” in Greek:
- the crown of a king, crown of royalty
- the crown of a winning athlete, a trophy
- Champion athletes and priests of Dionysius who finished their year of service received a crown of leaves that would eventually get brown and disintegrate into dust.
- This kind of crown was also worn at weddings. This is a picture of Christ and His bride, each wearing a crown.
- The crown here is a trophy that never disintegrates! Jesus says to the Christians of Smyrna: “You won the battle. You deserve a trophy.”
Polycarp was a personal disciple of the Apostle John. As an old man, he was the bishop of the Church at Smyrna in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Persecution against the Christians broke out there and believers were being fed to the wild beasts in the arena. The crowd began to call for the Christians’ leader Polycarp. So the authorities sent out a search party to bring him in. They tortured two slave boys to reveal where Polycarp was being hidden.
It was a Friday afternoon. Polycarp was resting upstairs in a country home. They came in like a posse, fully armed as if they were arresting a dangerous criminal. Polycarp’s friends wanted to sneak him out, but he refused, saying, “God’s will be done.”
Polycarp welcomed his captors as if they were friends, talked with them and ordered that food and drink be served to them. Then Polycarp made one request: one hour to pray before they took him away. The officers overhearing his prayers (that went on for two hours) began to have second thoughts. What were they doing arresting an old man like this?
Despite the cries of the crowd, the Roman authorities saw the senselessness of making this aged man a martyr. So when Polycarp was brought into the arena, the proconsul pled with him: “Curse Christ and I will release you.”
REPLY: “Eighty-six years I have served Him. He had never done me wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who has saved me?”
The proconsul reached for an acceptable way out: “Then do this, old man. Just swear by the genius of the emperor and that will be sufficient.”
REPLY: “If you imagine for a moment that I would do that, then I think you pretend that you don’t know who I am. Hear it plainly. I am a Christian.”
More entreaties. Polycarp stood firm.
The proconsul threatened him with the wild beasts.
REPLY: “Bring them forth. I would change my mind if it meant going from the worse to the better, but not to change from the right to the wrong.”
The proconsul’s patience was gone: “I will have you burned alive.”
REPLY: “You threaten fire that burns for an hour and is over. But the judgment on the ungodly is forever.”
The fire was prepared. Polycarp lifted his eyes to heaven and prayed: “Father, I bless you that you have deemed me worthy of this day and hour, that I might take a portion of the martyrs in the cup of Christ. . . Among these may I today be welcome before thy face as a rich and acceptable sacrifice.”
As the fire engulfed him, the believers noted that it smelled not so much like flesh burning as a loaf baking. He was finished off with the stab of a dagger. His followers gathered his remains like precious jewels and buried them on February 22, a day they set aside to be remembered. The year was probably 155. In the strange way known to the eyes of faith, it was as much a day of triumph as it was a day of tragedy.