Dear Church Week 2: Trials and Triumphs: Navigating Faith Amidst Pain and Gain | Revelation 2:8-11

Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan and thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.

We hope today's message will challenge and help you take the next step as you follow Jesus.

So about 30 years ago, a Filipino fisherman had finished, had drugged his nets back into his boat and he began to head back to the shore when a storm erupted and the force of those winds and those waves made it impossible for him to reach the safety of harbor.

So there was a change of plans for that fisherman.

He decided that he was going to have to spend the night out on the ocean.

So he knew that if he would just spend the night, that the storm would pass, that the morning sun would rise and hopefully the next morning a few hours would pass and he could make it safely to land.

And that's exactly what happened.

He spent the night on his boat.

He got a little rest, he woke up and he was like it's time to go.

Only problem his anchor was stuck.

He was undeterred, though.

He immediately dove in to the ocean and he followed the chain of his anchor down to the floor.

And here's what he saw.

He immediately diagnosed the problem His anchor had become lodged in the mouth of a clam.

It was completely stuck.

He was undeterred, he was a fix it guy.

So he began to work and to remove and to pry open that clam shell so that he could remove the anchor.

And as he's removing the anchor from the mouth of that mullisk he discovers something quite remarkable a gigantic pearl.

Here's a picture of that pearl.

That pearl measures over like 26 inches in length, so about a little over two feet, and it's 12 inches wide, so two foot by one foot, and it weighs 75 pounds.

He lugged that 75, five pound pearl from the floor of the ocean up into his boat.

You know, a few gemstones in the world capture our eye like that of the shimmer of a pearl and a pearl, no matter its size.

Each of them begins the same way.

They're born in the natural world.

It begins when a single grain of sand enters into the mouth of an oyster or a clam, and that single grain of sand is something like a pebble inside of your shoe.

At first it's an annoyance and then it becomes a pain.

It really begins to bother you.

In the case of an oyster or a clam with a grain of sand in its mouth, it begins to turn that grain of sand over and over in its mouth, and it begins to coat that grain of sand with the inner lining of its shell, with mother of pearl.

It's hoping to make that grain of sand smoother so that it lessens the pain, but the pain remains.

The pain only grows day by day, month by month and year by year, but then, one day, that clam, that oyster, is lifted out of the water and it's opened.

Because of the pain that it experienced, the world gains something of great value.

You see, the experience of that oyster, that clam, can be summarized in kind of two phrases it knows pain and it knows gain.

It knows the pain of a grain of sand and it knows the gain of a pearl.

And the experience of that oyster and that clam, well, it tells us a lot about your life, my life and our faith together, because in life and in faith, you will know pain and you will know gain.

So the pain for the oyster, the clam, again a grain of sand.

Your pain in life, though, is going to be a little different.

It could inevitably it's going to be the pain of losing a loved one at some point in your life, or possibly the pain of losing a job.

It's the pain of a breakup when you're in high school, or maybe even a divorce later on in life.

It's the pain of growing old or it's the pain of growing up.

You see, in life you will know pain, but there will be gain.

For the oyster, the clam, it's the pearl In your life, it could be the gain of a promotion or the gain of starting a family, the gain of love, the gain of marriage, the gain of wisdom as you grow older, or the gain of a carefree childhood as you grow up.

In life you will know pain and you will know gain.

But what is more generally true of your life listen is also more specifically true of our faith In faith.

One of the pains that scripture says that followers of Jesus will experience is the pain of persecution.

Listen to what Jesus says himself.

This is Matthew, chapter five.

He says blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, yes, and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.

Jesus makes this statement out of a deep conviction.

Jesus is convinced of the fact that the gospel he proclaims, the gospel he brings, stands in direct opposition to how the world operates, to what the world claims to be true.

Jesus then believes that his apostles, his disciples, men who are and women who are saved by that gospel and sanctified by that gospel and who share that gospel, that those individuals and the churches that they are a part of will inevitably suffer persecution because they stand at odds with the culture that surrounds them all, because they simply take the gospel of Jesus Christ seriously.

Jesus disciples, he says I call you blessed.

I bring it up because I know what's going to happen.

You're going to experience the pain of persecution.

You will know that pain.

It's inevitable in your life.

But Jesus's disciples will also know gain your reward in heaven the hope of eternal life.

Jesus says you're going to endure the pain of this world, but you have the hope of eternity with me.

We live in a free country and we hear the word persecution and I think we automatically think that's somebody else's problem.

But if persecution isn't already present in your life, it doesn't mean that it won't one day be present in your life.

I'm not talking about again, pains of just generally living in a fallen world, the pain of generalized suffering, the pain of losing a loved one.

I'm talking about specifically facing pain and suffering in your life simply because you confess the name of Jesus Christ.

First Peter four, verses 12 and 13.

Don't be surprised at the fiery trail trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.

Instead, be very glad for these trials.

Make you partners with Christ in his suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world in life and in faith.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you will know pain.

You know the pain of persecution, but you also know gain, the gain of eternal life, the gain of our great hope that is in Jesus Christ.

This morning we're continuing the series that began last week, dear Church, as we read the second piece of Jesus' mail that Jesus sends to an ancient church through that apostle named John, and it's the letter to the church at Smyrna.

And in this letter Jesus reminds this church of the truth taught to us by the oyster, by the clam, the truth we'll all experience in all of our lives, and we may want to deny that this pain is a reality, that it's a possibility, but listen, the church at Smyrna could not deny the fact that pain and persecution came into their life, all because they called on the name of Jesus Christ.

And it's my prayer, listen, that by understanding the pain of persecution experienced by this ancient church, our eyes can be opened to the experience of the historic and global church that experiences persecution almost a daily basis and we'd be drawn to prayer, but only be drawn to prayer.

We would be prepared, prepared for what lies most likely in our future, in our children's future, in our grandchildren's future, if we faithfully follow Jesus Christ in a world that stands opposed to his good news, his gospel.

But listen, pain doesn't tell the entire story.

We're going to also know gain.

Jesus reminds that church of the gain they have because he is alive and he promises to them the hope of eternal life.

Listen carefully to this second piece of Jesus' mail.

Chapter two of Revelation, verse eight, begins this way to the angel of the church at Smyrna right.

These are the words of him who is the first and the last who died and came to life again.

I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich.

I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.

I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for 10 days.

Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Smyrna is located about 30 miles north of the city of Ephesus, the recipient of that first piece of Jesus' mail.

The ancient city of Smyrna was known for its economic prosperity.

It was a very rich city, in large part due to its harbor and to the fact that it was the end of a major trade route.

So merchants came in and out of the city on a continual basis, but not everyone shared in the prosperity of the city.

Specifically, the church at Smyrna suffered the pain of economic persecution, a persecution that led to poverty, and that's just one of the three kinds of persecution they faced.

Here's what would happen in the ancient world.

Something like this scenario A Christian farmer would harvest his crop.

He would take his crop to the market.

The market would be filled with people, yet he didn't have a single customer, because the pagans, the Romans knew he was a Christian and they knew that the man who brought the goods, the harvest, to the market, he didn't pray to the meter, he only prayed to some Jewish guy they crucified, named Jesus.

Knowing that he would not pray to the meter, the God of the Roman harvest, they would not frequent his business because they didn't want a crop that they worried didn't have the meter's blessing.

Maybe it would spoil quicker, maybe it was cursed.

The man had all the goods but he could not sell any of them.

Imagine if you owned a business.

Some of you do own a business.

Imagine if you worked so hard every single day and you did not have a single customer.

How would you provide for your family?

That was his situation.

Or in a city like Smyrna, christians would be known by their neighbors and it's very possible and it was quite frequent that a Christian might leave their home and go visit someone and their neighbors saw it as a time to pounce.

They were targeted because they followed Jesus.

While they were gone, while no one's watching their home, they would break in, they would pillage and they would leave nothing.

They didn't necessarily burn it to the ground, they just took everything out of it that was of value.

When the man, the woman, the family returned, their whole life was gone.

Most likely their only choice was to become a slave of someone so they could feed their family, so they could live and survive for another day.

But that's just one of the types of persecution that Jesus says the church at Smyrna faced.

They also faced the persecution that Jesus says is called slander.

Specifically, what would happen in the ancient world for these first followers of Jesus is that Jewish people.

Jesus calls them the synagogue of Satan.

That's how he identifies the Jewish community in Smyrna.

With that phrase, what Jesus is saying is that they are not God's people anymore.

They have walked away from the covenant, they have abandoned it.

They stand opposed to God's ways and works in the world.

But those Jewish people, that synagogue of Satan.

They would know that someone was a Christian and they would go to the Roman authorities, to the Roman governor, and say, hey, you know this guy over here.

He's a Christian.

He doesn't worship the emperor, he refuses to bow down.

He refuses to bow down to the Roman gods.

He only will worship a guy named Jesus.

That's all he'll do A second century Roman governor named Pliny the Younger.

He actually wrote a letter to the emperor named Trajan to explain how he would handle this type of accusation, this word of slander.

When he received a Christian's first name and he was able to identify them where they lived he knew their face, he knew what they had done he would call them into his court and he would begin to question them.

In the questioning he would say I hear, you only worship Jesus, you will not worship the emperor, you will not worship the Roman gods.

And some of those Christians would say, oh, I never did that, that's a total lie.

Or another Christian would say, oh, you know, that was kind of just a phase in life Like I just got influenced.

I was away at college for a season, started practicing a new religion.

Oh, that's old hat, don't do that anymore.

If the Christians gave Pliny one of those two responses, in his letter to Trajan he says this let's say okay, prove it to me.

He says if you will just bow down and worship before the emperor, the statue of the emperor right now, if you will bow down before the statues of these idols, you're good to go.

No fear of punishment, no fear of retribution.

And some did that very thing, but other Christians.

They refused and what Jesus describes as these Christians who would refuse and Pliny says this if they refused to bow down, what I do is I send them to prison and they wait for their execution.

Isn't that what Jesus describes in this very letter?

You will get put in prison, you will suffer unto death.

Jesus is describing what these people knew all too well Capital punishment.

That's the kind of the third and the ultimate form of persecution that these Christians would face In the second century.

One of the leaders of the church of Smyrna was a bishop.

His name was Polycarp.

Cool thing about Polycarp he was a disciple of the apostle John.

Like the John who wrote the gospel John, the John who wrote Revelation, polycarp learned how to follow Jesus from the apostle John.

How cool is that?

Well, at the year of eight, when he's 86 years old, polycarp has that charge that slander's language levied against him right Like he's accused of only worshiping.

He's actually accused of being an atheist.

Not because he didn't believe in God, it's because he didn't worship the gods.

He would only worship the one true God, the God who had, you know, called Abraham and made a covenant with Abraham.

The God who had revealed himself through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the God who is now present through the dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

He would worship that God.

Polycarp refused to recant.

Since prison, he's facing his execution.

Well, in the day of his execution, we are told that a city official kind of takes some pity on Polycarp.

He's like he's 86 years old.

Guys, we're really going to take the life of someone who's 86.

So he is walking towards his fate.

That city official says this he says why don't you just say Caesar is Lord, put a bit of incense on the altar devoted to the image of the emperor, and then we can let you go?

In other words, that city official says this Are you kidding me?

Like you can get out of this if you'll just make an offering.

Like is it worth your life?

Do you really believe this stuff?

Come on, man.

Like one final chance.

Polycarp answers this way 86 years I've served Christ and he never did me any harm.

How then can I blaspheme?

My King, who saved me, couldn't do it, wouldn't do it.

And so, minutes later, polycarp walked to a stake where he was tied up and a fire was set.

He knew pain in that moment, the pain of persecution.

Today, more than 360 million Christians around the world live in places where they face high levels of persecution on a daily basis.

That's one in seven Christians.

These three varieties of persecution that we just laid out, that we see at the church of Smyrna, economic persecution that leads to poverty, slander, that kind of persecution where accusations are made to government officials, suffering that even leads to the point of death those three types of persecution are still present and widespread in our world.

In the country of Pakistan, christians suffer economic persecution that results in poverty.

So the lineage of a vast majority of Christians in Pakistan goes back to the lowest rung of the caste system of the Hindu religion, and so when these Hindus then convert to Christianity, what they in effect do is they make their life even worse.

And it was until just last year.

You could do this in the country of Pakistan.

You could post a help wanted ad in the local paper that specifically said Muslims need not apply, christians should apply, because the job was too degrading and too demeaning.

Those jobs like cleaning the city sewer system, collecting all the refuse off the streets, and most of those jobs they don't pay enough to put food in your family's belly.

Or in countries like China and in North Korea, neighbors often bring to attention the confession, the religion of their neighbors who follow Jesus, and if the neighbor doesn't tell them, guess what?

They live under a constant state of surveillance.

That's why the house church often operates in the dark.

The threat is all too real and the ultimate persecution suffering unto death, suffering and facing death willingly, all for the name of Jesus Christ.

Here's what our most recent statistics tell us.

Every month, 322 Christians are killed for their faith.

In 2021, over 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith and since the birth of the church, more than 70 million Christians have been martyred.

When we gather in a room like this, those are not the statistics or the facts we want to hear.

Here's the cold, hard reality.

According to the International Human Rights Society, international Human Rights Society is a secular organization that catalogs and analyzes human rights violations around the world.

It's not a religious organization, not a Christian organization.

According to the International Human Rights Society, 80% of all religious persecution in the world is against Christians.

That means, by and large, an overwhelming amount of religious persecution is directed to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

They are our brother, they are our sister.

They have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, just as we are saved by his blood.

They have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, just like we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

They are our family and they are suffering.

We don't like circumstances and statistics that make us uneasy about how the world is operating.

They are heavy, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The church is a global movement.

We have to be aware of what's going on in the lives of our brothers and sisters.

We have to feel their pain.

We have to respond by praying for them.

Hebrews 13 puts it this way.

It says remember those in prison.

An imperative command Remember those in prison as if you were there yourself.

Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.

We cannot ignore the stories that are reported from around the world, because Scripture says this that we should share the cell with those who are suffering persecution.

Do you hear that we should share the cell as if you were there yourself?

We can't look the other way and act as if it's not happening, because Scripture calls us to experience that same pain in our own bodies.

We cannot overlook them.

We must pray for them.

We don't experience the persecution that I just named.

In many ways like at the kind of the scope that we see in other places around the world, but that's not to say persecution doesn't happen in our country.

If I were to describe the persecution we face in our country, it's more like the dull kind of continuous pressure of a pinprick, just over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

And it's just this pressure to conform.

It's a pressure to live like everyone else.

It's a pressure that is nonstop.

A leader in the underground church in the Middle East describes his take gives.

His persecution is like an advanced stage of cancer it eats away at you, yet you cannot feel it.

This is the worst kind of persecution.

So the persecution of the American church is something like an undiagnosed disease.

It's eating us away and we're not even aware.

It's why last week we talked about why it is so important that we root out all these areas of compromise in our life.

But here's what you should know we're out of warning.

When we root out compromise from our life, the pressure will intensify.

You see, when we root out the compromise, that's when the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to fully stand in conflict as an adversary to the messages sent to us by our surrounding culture.

When we root out compromise, friends will be lost, damaging claims about who we are can be shouted and doors of opportunity will be closed.

But take heart.

We are sharing in the same persecution, then, that our own brothers and sisters around the world, for generation after generation, have faced and have endured.

And we can face the pain, we can know the pain, we can endure through the pain, because in life and in faith there is also gain.

We will know gain.

Jesus promises to the church at Smyrna and to all of his father followers that after the pain of persecution, he will bestow upon them a victor's crown, much like American culture.

Culture in ancient Rome loved a good sporting event.

They especially loved it when a winner was crowned.

They wanted to cheer for a winner.

And the victor's crown that Jesus is speaking of is a laurel wreath that would be given to someone who won some kind of athletic competition.

And Jesus is saying this that there is an even greater race that you are running the race of faith, the race of life on this earth.

And if you stay faithful to me, if you do not compromise, if you remember who I am, if you worship me and me alone, if you live into your salvation day by day and you're sanctified by the spirit, like if you follow me, if you endure the pain, I've got a crown that I'm going to put on your head, a crown that points to the victory that Jesus won on his cross.

A crown that points us to the tomb that is empty, where Jesus claimed the victory over sin and over death.

We will know the pain of persecution.

It's inevitable.

Jesus promised it.

We need to prepare for it.

We need to pray for those who are facing it today.

But take heart.

We will also know gain, a gain that is so much greater than the pain in this world the gain of eternal life.

Our friend, the Filipino fisherman.

Do you know what he did when he got home with that gigantic pearl?

He put it under his bed.

No one even knew he had it for 10 whole years until one day he moved.

He called his sister hey, I need you to come help me move.

Sister's helped moving all of his belongings to a new home.

Sister reaches under the bed and she's like what is this?

We didn't get this in the inheritance.

Where did this come from?

She demands that her brother go and have the pearl appraised.

He takes it to an appraiser and he is told that the pearl he's been keeping underneath his bed for 10 whole years, that pearl is worth $100 million.

That's quite the gain, isn't it?

Quite the financial windfall, but the gain that Jesus offers his followers, it's a value that far exceeds $100 million.

It actually exceeds any amount of earthly wealth, earthly riches, because, through Jesus Christ, our gain, our crown, is the gift of eternal life and we receive eternal life.

And Jesus says that means you avoid the second death.

That means that we receive the gift of eternal life and we avoid the eternal pain of hell, of being eternally separated from God.

Listen, the pains of this world, even the pain of persecution, is temporary, but the pain of the second death is eternal.

Yes, child of God, in life and faith you will know pain and you will know gain, but one day your faith will become sight, you will experience the fullness of Christ in his salvation and you will be in the presence of God for all of eternity.

That's how we endure the pains of this world.

We keep our eyes focused on what we will gain and that our hope is secure.

Our hope cannot be shaken and we keep our eyes on eternity because of what the one we follow think about this way.

The one we follow was persecuted before we were persecuted.

Right, jesus knew the pain of persecution in unfair trial, betrayed by his friends and arrested in the middle of the night, crucified like a criminal, thank you, for no good reason.

Like.

He knew the pain of persecution, but he also knew the gain, because, by the power of the Holy Spirit, jesus was raised on the third day.

That's who we follow, a savior who is well acquainted with the pain of persecution, but he is also the author of the gain of eternal life.

So, for all the days of your life on this earth, if you call yourself a child of God, be prepared to face a pain of persecution, be ready to continually pray for those who are being persecuted, but also also, also also hold on to the hope that the gain is coming.

The gain is greater because the one who died, jesus Christ, he came to life again.

Let us pray Almighty, god, maker of heaven and earth.

We pray for our brothers and sisters around the world today who cannot worship with freedom.

There's a place in their heart, even as they sing, even as they read scripture, even as they pray, that is held captive by very real fear, the very real threat of being persecuted for your name and your sake if they are found out.

Holy Spirit, strengthen those churches to remain faithful to Jesus Christ, no matter the pain that they face.

But those who are tempted to walk away, be held captive by your grace and know that the gain of Jesus, the gain of eternal life, is enough to remain faithful in this world.

Oh God, strengthen them.

Oh God, protect them.

Protect them in the same way that you protected and saw a way through for those three men, shadrach, meshach and Abednego, that there was a fourth man in the fire with them, like you protected the prophet Daniel when you closed the mouth of the lion.

We believe you can do amazing things to protect your children.

You love them.

So, and, lord God, we also ask to help us continue to root out any compromise in our life, realizing that that can bring persecution upon us.

We know that the gospel doesn't go along with the culture that we live in.

Forgive us when we try to make your gospel fit into a cultural mold that makes our life so much easier.

Forgive us, convict us, strengthen us to be more faithful followers of Jesus, and we celebrate the hope we have in Jesus this morning.

We thank you that he has won the victory through his cross and resurrection, and one day we will share in the fullness of that victory.

Jesus, we love you.

We thank you for going ahead of us, pointing the way, leading us, comforting us, guiding us.

Let us be found faithful on this day and in every day, no matter what comes.

In your name, jesus, we pray Amen.