Dear Smyrna | Dear Church | Trinity Sermons

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of

Trinity Sermons. This week we are continuing

our sermon series called Dear Church, where we're

looking at the letters in the book of Revelation

from Christ to the churches. And this week we

are looking at the church of Smyrna, which was

going through a lot of really hard times, a lot

of persecution, a lot of difficult situations.

And so what does Christ have to say to the church

in the midst of hard times? And what does Christ

have to say to us in the midst of our hard times?

Our reading today are from the book of Revelations,

beginning with chapter 1, verses 4 to 5, and

chapter 2, verses 8 to 11. John to the seven

churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace

to you from him who is, and who was, and who

is to come. and from the seven spirits before

his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the

faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead,

and the ruler of all kings of the earth. To the

angels of the church in Smyrna write, 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 ten 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, but by the second death, the word of the

Lord. C .S. Lewis, who was a writer of Mere Christianity

and the Chronicles of Narnia, he went through

a period of pretty intense pain and suffering

in his life when his wife, whose name was Joy,

got sick with cancer and ended up passing away.

He wrote in a journal throughout that whole time.

That journal became a little book. And so in

this book, which is called Grief Observed, you

can hear about his reflections on grief. But

also throughout this book, he kind of does a

little bit of... complaining about how some people

tried to say things to comfort him during his

grief, and it just didn't work out so well. So,

for example, let me read to you. He says, people

would tell me, oh, she's happy now, his dead

wife. They'd tell me she's at peace. What makes

them so sure of this? Why are they so sure that

anguish ends with death? How do they know that

she's at rest? They tell me that she's in God's

hands. But if so, wasn't she in God's hands all

the time? They say she will live forever in my

memory. Live. That is exactly what she won't

do. As if I wanted to fall in love with my memory

of her. And then he says this great line. He

says, I do want other people to be around me.

But if only they would talk to one another and

not to me. It's hard to know what to say to people

when they're in the midst of grief, and maybe

you know that, or maybe you've had someone try

to say something to you when you were grieving

and it didn't help, or maybe it even made things

worse. Friends, I don't need to tell you that

all around our world, people are suffering and

there is deep grief. Of course, we all witnessed

the horrible public assassination of Charlie

Kirk this past week. And we are grieving that

this happened. And we're grieving what is our

world becoming where such acts of violence become,

you know, or something that we see right in front

of our eyes and our kids see them in front of

their eyes and so on. What's going on in our

world? What's going on closer to home? You're

probably grieving. Some of you are going through

tough times now. Maybe it's at home. Maybe it's

with your help. Maybe you're grieving the loss

of a loved one like C .S. Lewis was. Family,

health, money, jobs. Whatever. You know, 2 ,000

years ago, Jesus used a human author whose name

was John to write a bunch of letters to some

churches throughout Asia Minor. And one of the

churches that he wrote a letter to was a church

that was going through a very intense period

of suffering and pain. The church was in the

city of Smyrna. And they were in a moment of

severe Roman persecution at that time. I mean,

there was suffering, there was death, it was

horrible. And so Jesus sends a letter to that

church. And unlike us, Jesus knew exactly what

to say to people who were suffering. And so today,

all we're going to do is we're going to open

up that letter and we're going to read it ourselves.

Why? Because if not now, someday you're going

to be in a place of suffering. Suffering comes

for us all. and it is really good for us to know

what Jesus says to those who suffer. And so we're

going to go through this, and to guide us, I've

divided this sermon into four parts. We're going

to talk about the setting of Smyrna. What is

this city all about? We're going to talk about

the suffering in Smyrna, the solace that Jesus

has for Smyrna, and finally, we're going to share

one story that comes out of Smyrna. And I've

created some sermon notes for you to follow along,

and of course, Those sermon notes are also available

on our church app. Smyrna. Let's talk about the

setting of Smyrna. What about this city? It was

located about 35 miles north of Ephesus, which

was the church that we studied last week. which

is about the distance from here to Oakville,

just no traffic, right? And Smyrna was built

by the Greeks. It was built on this beautiful

hill right along the sea. It was built about

1000 BC. A few hundred years later, it was totally

destroyed. And then 100 years or so later, it

was rebuilt into a glorious city. And so like

Jesus, Smyrna had died and come back from the

dead. And if you want to find Smyrna on a map

today, it goes by... by a different name, it's

the Turkish city of Izmir, okay? Back in the

day, Smyrna was glorious. It was considered to

be, like, the most beautiful city in Asia. And

I mean, like, the, right? It was because, again,

because it was built on this hill, the whole

city kind of sloped down into the water. And

on the top of the hill, it was like a crown with

all these beautiful buildings. And then on the

slopes going down, there was these amphitheaters

and temples and parks and colonies. It was amazing.

There was a stadium in Smyrna that held 20 ,000

people, which is just a few more people than

we had at church last week. It was a famous city

because it was also the birthplace of Homer.

And I'm not talking about Homer Simpson. I'm

talking about the Greek poet Homer, right? So

Smyrna was, in some writings, called the first

city in Asia. the glory of Asia. So Smyrna was

glorious, right? But it wasn't just the glory

of Asia. It was the religious city in Asia too.

Its skyline was dotted with different temples.

And there was a temple to Zeus here. There was

a temple to Aphrodite there. There was a temple

to Apollo. All sorts of different gods were honored

in Smyrna. But Smyrna... was the birthplace of

a very unique kind of religion that became very,

very important. And that was the religion of

emperor worship. Smyrna, I think, became like

the very first city to build a temple to an emperor.

It was Emperor Tiberius. There was actually a

competition. Who's going to get to build the

temple to Tiberius? And Smyrna, the beautiful,

glorious city, won. It was a huge honor. And

it shows you how committed they were to this

whole idea of worshiping the emperor, worshiping

Caesar. And other emperors that came along later

would get their temples too, Hadrian and Domitian.

And Smyrna was, so it was a very religious place.

In many ways, it was very, very religious. Smyrna

was also known as Smyrna the Fragrant. Because

you see, the name of the city, Smyrna, it took

its name from one of its chief exports. Can you

guess what it is? Smyrna. Myrna. Myrna. That's

right, myrrh. Myrrh. Myrrh gets used as a perfume,

of course. It's a medicine. Bodies were embalmed

with myrrh. It was actually one of the most valuable

commodities in the ancient world, which makes

Smyrna this big hub of commerce. It was a bustling

port city. And you'll know that myrrh plays an

important part in Scripture, of course, right?

It was one of the gifts that the Magi brought

to the baby Jesus, myrrh. It's the one that in

the pageants the kids can never pronounce. It

was when Jesus was on the cross, they offered

him wine mixed with myrrh as a bit of a painkiller.

And when he was wrapped up after his death, we're

told that among all the spices they used to embalm

his body, there was myrrh in there as well. And

so myrrh is actually always associated, therefore,

with suffering. and pain, which makes it a very

fitting name, the city of Smyrna, given what

the church was going through, because that church

was suffering. The church in Smyrna was persecuted

and suffered horribly. You know, it's interesting.

In all of Jesus' seven letters to those seven

churches, he usually has some kind of a critique

to offer to these churches. You know, last year,

last week, rather, you remember he said, Ephesus,

I hold this against you. And he said they had

lost their first love and all this stuff. But

Jesus has nothing really bad to say to the people,

to the church of Smyrna. That's because Jesus

knew that this church in this city was suffering

and amazing. major, major way. So what caused

Smyrna to suffer so much? What did that look

like? Well, in verse 9 of our reading, there

are three really kind of telling Greek words

that describe the kind of suffering. We read

that, I know your afflictions, Greek word phlipsis,

and I know your poverty, which is tohea, and

I know about the slander, blasphemy. Okay? So

let's just look at these three words and figure

out what they were enduring there in Smyrna so

long ago. First, Jesus says, I know about your

flipsis. I know about your affliction. The word

flipsis actually means pressure. It means, you

know, a heavy, heavy weight has been placed on

something. It's like, imagine if you were at

the gym and you were lifting like heavy, heavy

free weights like I do every morning. But the

bar slips and it lands on your chest and you

can barely breathe and you can't get it off and

you're being pressed and you're being pressed

and you're pressed. That's kind of the meaning

of flipsis. It's like the mill wheel that grinds

the wheat through pressure. It's like the grapes

that have the juice. pressed out of them through

pressure. That is how it felt constantly to be

a Christian in Smyrna. Constant pressure. And

I mean, some of you here, you know that feeling.

Even this morning, some of you feel like you

have weight on your shoulders, you would say,

rather than your chest. But you feel like, oh,

I can barely breathe. I got so much going on

in my life. I feel the weight. I feel like I'm

being crushed. But I have to tell you, in Smyrna,

it was extreme, extreme what they were suffering.

And it all came down to that emperor worship

thing, right? Every citizen in Smyrna was supposed

to go to the temple once a year, give a little

bit of incense. and say, Caesar is Lord. But

of course, Christians who believe that Jesus

is Lord were not willing to do that and did not

do that. And so they were branded as disloyal

and they were seen as treasonous and they were

persecuted. Some of them were tortured to death.

They were imprisoned. Right? Some Christians

in Smyrna were put on the rack. Yes, the rack.

Like medieval, like will rip you from limb to

limb. Some were thrown in pots of boiling oil.

Some were crucified. Many were thrown to the

lions in that stadium that we looked at. And

eaten. And people just watched for sport. And

I suppose... What I think might be one of the

most painful is some of them were just burned

at the stake, you know, just tied there and set

on fire. I mean, and Jesus says, I know your

flips. Right. I know your afflictions. I know

the pain that you're suffering. So that's the

pressure they were under. But I should say poverty

has created a new word. But Jesus also knew about

their destitution. Right. In Greek, there's actually

more than one word for poverty. There's a one

word, which means you're kind of living, you

know, day to day, hand to mouth. You're like

working poor, like you're barely scraping by

like, oh, geez, I'm just barely making it. Maybe

some of you know that kind of level of poverty

in your own life. But actually, that's not the

word that's used to describe the poverty that

the Christians of Smyrna were enduring. The word

instead is this word. which means absolute destitution

right the smyrna christians weren't just struggling

they had nothing because following jesus had

cost them economically they had been looted they

had been boycotted they had been robbed their

stores had been burned down right they weren't

even allowed to like sell stuff in the marketplace

because once they were known as christians well

who's going to trade with you and once you're

known to be a christian well who is going to

employ you And again, some of you might know

a little bit about this. Maybe you lost a job,

feel you were overlooked for an opportunity because

of your faith. But these people could not provide

for their families, right? Persecution is hard

enough as it is. A weight on your shoulders is

hard. But you add to that like economic devastation,

poverty, the load gets so, so much heavier. So

Jesus knew about their philipsis. He knew about

the pressure. Jesus knew about their tohea. He

knew about the poverty. But he also knew about

the blasphemia. And that is a Greek word that

gets translated as slander. And it refers to

all these malicious lies that people were spreading

about the Christians in Smyrna. Especially Jewish

groups who, according to Jesus, weren't really

Jews. They were part of the synagogue of Satan.

But these people were spreading horrible, horrible

rumors about these Christians. They would accuse

them of things like treason, right? Because they

weren't worshiping Caesar. They're treasonous.

Or atheism. They would say, these Christians

are atheists because they won't worship our gods.

Cannibalism. A rumor got started that these guys

were all cannibals because they kept hearing

about them eating the body and blood of someone.

Or immorality, because Christians would have

these regular get -togethers called love feasts,

which were just big communal meals. That's all

they were. But again, the rumor mill twisted

this and made it sound so, so perverted. Love

feasts, what's that all about? And I would again

say, still today, many Christians, they're totally

misunderstood. They're mocked. The media misrepresents

them to everybody else. And these lies, what

happens? They spread like wildfire. They poison

people's opinion of Christians and fuels more

violence. Sounds familiar, eh? So you got pressure.

You got poverty and persecution. That was the

suffering in Smyrna. You know, I was reading

about how myrrh is made. And it's very interesting.

You know how they make myrrh? There's a certain

type of tree and you have to go up and you have

to hack it. You have to cut into it. And once

you cut into it and you create this scar in it,

then the resin starts to bleed out of it. And

eventually that resin will harden. And it literally,

it hardens into these tear -shaped balls, which

are called myrrh tears. And then finally, these

tears get kind of collected from the trees. Pulverized,

pounded into a powder that can be used for all

sorts of various uses. What a fitting name for

that city. What a connection to the Christians

in that city. These Christians in Smyrna are

being cut and they're being wounded and they're

bleeding and they're being pulverized. But, you

know, here's the thing. Just as myrrh's fragrance

only really gets released after it's been cut

and crushed and processed. So too, the church

in Smyrna, despite or maybe even because of all

that they were going through, their lives released

a fragrance, if you will, that drew others to

Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote something about

this in another letter. He said, we are to God

the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who

are being saved and among those who are perishing.

Even in their suffering, they were faithful and

fragrant. So we've seen now the setting. We've

seen the suffering. But what words of solace

does Jesus offer to them? As we said earlier,

it's really hard to know what to say to people

who are suffering like this. But Jesus speaks

some important words to a suffering church because

he knows exactly the right words to say. His

words are not going to be trite or shallow or

cliche. These are words of compassion and solace.

And I got to tell you, they're just as important

for us today as they were back then. So I'm going

to go quick. But here's what we can learn by

a quick reading of those verses that we heard

this morning. First. It's clear Jesus knows their

pain. Twice in this passage, Jesus says, I know.

I know what you're suffering. I know your afflictions.

I know the slander. Jesus knows. And he doesn't

say, I know, because, well, I can imagine what

that's like. Or I know because I see what's happening

over there from a distance. No, he knows because

he himself has been mocked. He himself has been

slandered. He himself has been beaten and crucified.

pressure or pain the church endures, Jesus has

felt it too. And whatever you are enduring, you

are not alone in that suffering. Jesus knows

your suffering. And in the city of Smyrna, there

were all these gods, but these gods were detached

from human experience. It was this crazy idea

to say that God would know what suffering is

like, but that is exactly what Jesus knows. He

knows all about your pain. He knows all about

their pain. He knows all about my pain. Secondly,

the second thing Jesus says is, He tries to change

their perspective. He doesn't just sympathize.

He wants to remind them that there's more going

on than what they can see, right? He writes,

these are the words of him who is the first and

the last, who died and rose again. In other words,

he reminds them, hey, listen, I was here before

Caesar was here. And I will be here long after

Rome has turned to dust. I am the one who was

dead and I'm the one who came to life again.

And I know that all... All you can see are the

problems that are right in front of you right

now. But I'm bigger than that. And my plan is

better than that. And there's more going on than

you can see. There's another perspective. The

third thing Jesus reminds them is actually just

how rich they are. Rich? Rob, we just heard that

they were dirt poor. He says, I know your poverty,

yet you are rich. See, the world looked at Smyrna's

Christians, and they just saw a bunch of beggars.

But Jesus looked at them, and he saw wealth.

Why? Because true riches are not measured by

what you have in your bank account, but by your

treasure in heaven. They had the presence of

Jesus. What a treasure. They had the Spirit of

God. Amazing treasure. They had the promise of

eternity to go with all that. That made them

rich beyond measure. And actually, it's sometimes

only in times of poverty and pressure that you

actually realize the spiritual riches that we

do have in Jesus Christ. Fourthly, and this one's

kind of an interesting one. Jesus limits their

trials, I said here. Why do I say that? It seems

like Jesus reminds them that even though they're

suffering, their suffering is only for a fixed

period of time, which is brief when it's compared

to eternity. He says, you will suffer persecution

for 10 days. Now, some scholars have tried to

figure out what is this 10 days? Is this referring

to a specific 10 day event? Do these 10 days

refer to a 10 year period? You can do your own

digging in the week ahead. But I think that the

point of it all is that Jesus is saying your

suffering will be. Right there. Jesus draws a

boundary line around their suffering. He says

it's going to go this far, but no further. And

compared to eternity, their trials would be short.

Again, when you're enduring something, cancer,

grief, loss, or someone betrayed you or something

like that, it can feel like. That pain is never

going to go away. Like, it's endless. But Jesus

says it won't last forever. And I'll carry you

through it. Okay, so Jesus knows their pain.

He changes their perspective. He declares their

riches. He says there's a limit to your trials.

And in doing all that, what has he done is he

has removed their fears. He says, do not be afraid

of what you are about to suffer. You know, fear

often goes hand in hand with suffering. And fear

makes suffering worse because fear whispers in

your ear and says, you're not going to make it.

You're going to be destroyed. But Jesus comes

along and says, no. Don't be afraid. Not because

the suffering is going to come. He told them

that. But because he's going to be with us in

it and he will see us through it. And when you

know that, when you know that, fear loses its

grip on you. You know, at our life group this

past week, someone said, you know what the book

of Revelation reminds us? The book of Revelation

reminds us that Jesus wins in the end. And if

you know that Jesus wins in the end, then fear

loses its grip on us. We know how this is going

to end. Finally, Jesus promises to reward their

faithfulness. He gives them this word of encouragement.

He says, be faithful even to the point of death.

and I will give you the crown of life. He promised

these people not just survival, but a crown,

a victor's wreath that lasts forever. When the

world experiences suffering and death, it feels

like devastation. But when Christians experience

suffering and death, it's actually a coronation.

Jesus promises a reward, a crown for those who

are faithful. So there he goes. That's what Jesus

says to them in their suffering. But what does

that mean for us today? And what do we do with

all this? This was Smyrna 2 ,000 years ago, but

he's still speaking these words to us today.

So if you are here today and you feel the pressure

of life pushing down on you, Jesus says, I know.

I know all about it. And if all you can see is

your own problems, Jesus says, change your perspective.

I'm the first and the last, the beginning and

the end. If you're walking through poverty of

any kind, financial or other types, I suppose,

Jesus says, yet you are rich, right? If you're

weighed down by fear, fear of the future, fear

of loss, fear of suffering, Jesus says, do not

be afraid. And if you're wondering, how much

longer can I hold on? Jesus says, hey, listen,

your suffering's not going to last forever. I've

put limits on it. And then finally, if you feel

like your faithfulness to Jesus is costing you

everything, Jesus says, just be faithful. And

I will give you the crown of life. I couldn't

say these words to you and comfort you. You couldn't

say them to me and comfort me. But when they

come from Jesus, they give us solace for every

season of suffering. And if that doesn't encourage

you this morning, perhaps this final story will.

This is a true story, by the way, that came out

of Smyrna. It's about a man. Whose life and death

shows us kind of exactly what it looks like to

live out Jesus' words. I got this from an account

called the Martyrdom of Polycarp. About 60 years

after John wrote the book of Revelation, the

church in Smyrna again faced another horrible

wave of persecution. And their pastor, their

bishop at the time, was this old man named Polycarp.

And I know that name sounds like it comes from

like a Pokemon character or something like that.

But Polycarp was a real man. He was a real name.

And he was a real pastor in Smyrna. He was probably

a disciple of John himself who wrote these letters.

And anyways, the authorities said, we got to

go arrest Polycarp. And when they arrived to

arrest him at his house, he didn't even run.

He invited the soldiers into his house, and he

fed them. He gave them food and drink, and they

ate. And then he asked the soldiers, can I just

have one hour to pray before you arrest me and

take me back to the city? And they actually gave

him two hours, we're told. When they got him

back there, they brought him into the stadium,

you know, with this bloodthirsty crowd. And the

Roman governor at the time, he was like, hey,

listen, you're old. Just swear by Caesar and

we'll call it a day and we can all go home. And

we read that the proconsul pressed him, take

the oath and I will let you go curse Christ.

That's all he needed to do. And that's when Polycarp

gave one of the most famous lines he ever spoke,

recorded in the history books. He says, 80 and

six years I have served him and he has done me

no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved

me? And then the governor threatened him with

the lions and the wild beast. And Polycarp replied,

go ahead, call them in. And then the governor

threatened to burn him. And Polycarp answered

this. He said, you threatened me with fire that

burns for a short time and is soon extinguished.

You do not know about the fire of the judgment

to come. Well, then what happened is they said,

fine, Polycarp, that's what you want to do. We

are going to burn you. And so they bound him

to a stake and they were actually going to nail

him in place to the stake. But he said, no, you

don't have to nail me. I'm not going to move.

And he said, he who gave me the strength to endure

the fire is going to give me the strength to

stay in the fire. And then he prayed aloud. Everyone

could hear him. He prayed to actually thank God

that he was counted worthy to share in the suffering

of Christ. The fire was lit. The old man burned

up. And that was his story. And I think in that

moment, the words of Jesus to Smyrna came true

for him. Be faithful unto death, and I will give

you the crown of life. Polycarp was faithful.

He received the crown. So the city of Smyrna,

it's gone. Like I said, there's a new city there.

The emperors who demanded all that worship, they

are now dust. And Polycarp's faith, though, it

still speaks to us. And these letters, they still

speak to us. My friends, I just want to say,

whatever poverty, whatever pressure, whatever

persecution you're facing, Jesus has words for

you. You know, our words. Always seem to fall

short, but Jesus' words don't. And he says this,

I know what you're going through. Do not be afraid.

You are rich. Be faithful to the end, and I'll

give you a crown of life. So let's go from this

place. As people who have the courage of Polycarp

and the hope of those Christians in Smyrna, that

our suffering is never the end, but it's a doorway

into a greater life with Christ. Thanks be to

God. Amen. Thank you for listening to this week's

episode of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded

at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga,

Ontario on September 14, 2025.