May 17 2026
Revelation 2: 8-11
As I look back on my life I can see that God was teaching me some hard truths about being a follower of Jesus at a fairly early age. On of these lessons God gave to me had to do with my being confirmed when I was fourteen years old. You see, back in the day, churches expected those who had been baptized as a baby to take classes so that they might accept the faith they were baptized in for themselves. These classes were held over a two year period, so it was a really big deal back then. So finally, there I was, one Sunday in May, standing with thirteen other confirmands before the congregation of the First Dover United Methodist. As we stood there we nervously recited by heart the Ten Commandments and the Apostles Creed, hoping to get them right. Then we each individually professed our faith in JesusChrist publicly before the congregation. Now, for me, in that moment, I realized that what I had just done was a life changing moment for I had pledged my allegiance to Christ and his kingdom.Well, fast-forward four years, when I graduated from high school, and turned eighteen. One morning in early September I walked in to the Senior High/Post High class, and I find myself there alone with the teacher. And to this day, I still am not over the fact that in just four years, those I had gone through confirmation class for two years, and those who stood with me before the congregation and professed their faith in Jesus, not one of the rest of those confirmands were anywhere to be found. In that moment God spoke clearly to me and his lesson was that what people confess and profess to believe in can never really be a true measure of ones faithfulness to Jesus. Or to put it another way, if you talk the talk you have to walk the walk. And so I never stop wondering just why so many who went through confirmation simply walked away.
Well, what caused me to remember this memory from fifty years ago, is that today in our study of the book of Revelation, we come to a section that is concerned with our calling to to be a faithful witness. Now as we probably know so well, being a faithful witness is fairly easy when life is going smoothly and all is well. But what happens when the clouds gather, the storms of life come, and you are called to remain faithful in the middle of pain and suffering not just in their absence? Well, what is an invaluable help for us in figuring out the key to remaining faithful to Jesus no matter the circumstances we face, is found in a little phrase we may have often said, yet one which we may not have understood what it truly means. This phrase is found at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, where we ask God to, “lead us not into temptation or hard trial”. What is implied when we ask God to lead us is that God will do so through his word. This is what Jesus teaches us in the tenth chapter of the gospel of John, where Jesus our Good Shepherd says this about himself, “The sheep hears the Shepherd’s voice and he calls his sheep by name and he leads them out. When he has brought out all of his sheep, the shepherd goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” So when we know that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, then when we pray for him to lead us not into a place of hard testing and temptation, this is perhaps more a profession of faith then it is a petition for guidance. We are to understand that the we can trust our Good Shepherd will lead us not to the place of failure but to a position of faith. Even though our circumstances may be bearing down upon us, nonetheless if we keep listening for the voice of Jesus then we can be assured that he will indeed lead us through our difficulties, otherwise he would not be a good Shepherd to us, would he?
You see, we must be certain that our ability to remain faithful to Jesus totally depends upon knowing the voice of Jesus. We are to rely upon the fact that Jesus will always be faithful to be with us. Jesus alone can say that he will never abandon us. This important understanding is crucial for us to make sense of what we see revealed to us, here in the book of Revelation. John, the elder who is overseeing seven churches, is given a glimpse of the future God has in store for those who follow Jesus. As we follow John through the open door that enters into heaven, we are called to ask the question, “ Where do I see ourselves in this story?” Last week, Jesus told the church at Ephesus that they had abandoned the call of Jesus to love others as he had first loved us. Sure they hated evil, which is the fear of God, yet instead of being praised for their wisdom they were instead confronted by Jesus for using their hatred of evil as an excuse so that they could limit just who they might demonstrate their love to. You see, our hatred of evil is to spring from the fact that evil has all people trapped, making everyone unable to do the good that they might desire to do. So, even though we have a body of death because it has been imprisoned in evil, Jesus through his forgiveness, assures us that we are not condemned. So when the church at Ephesus placed themselves within what was revealed to John, the church at Ephesus was to witness to those who had never given up on their first love shown to them by Jesus. The church at Ephesus was to notice that these who were willing to love greatly were the very ones who are forever secure beneath the altar of heaven. So the church at Ephesus was to called to join these who had been faithful unto death. They were to once again hunger and thirst for righteousness, no longer withholding their love from those they thought to be evil. No, now they were to long to be one of those found to be clothed in white, those who at could at last rest from their labor.
So the church at Ephesus was to know the importance of being those who remained a faithful witness to the word of God. You see, only those faithful who live according to the word of God are able to overcome the evil of our world. John further records in the sixth chapter of Revelations, that those under the altar were to rest until the full number of their fellow servants, those brothers and sisters who remain faithful, has at last been reached. These are the servants who are being described in the seventh chapter. John tells us that these are the ones who have a seal placed upon their foreheads. Now, this seems to be a rather strange way to speak about these priests of God, yet if we look at what is written in the third chapter of John, we find that Jesus teaches us that those who have taken hold of his witness, the truth he has brought to us from heaven, these are the ones who God will seal in his truth. This seal, Jesus goes on to tell us is the Spirit of truth, for the Spirit speaks to us the very words of God. Now just like the seals that closed up the scroll pointed us to the one who has the authority to open the scroll, so too, when we have been given the seal of the Holy Spirit, we now have the authority to witness to the truth. John also tells us that those in heaven who have been sealed by the promise of the Holy Spirit make up a great multitude that no one can number. And one more important fact about this multitude, is that these are the ones who have come out of the times of great testing and suffering. So here we appear to have proof of what we pray, that when we ask the Father to lead us not into temptation or hard testing. Through the Spirit speaking to us the truth of heaven we are able to come through terrible testing and suffering, to live in praise of God.
With all of this in mind, let us imagine what would happen if the church at Smyrna would ask the question: “Where do we see ourselves in this story?” Well, right here at the beginning of what Jesus says to them we hear that Jesus knows of their testing and their suffering. They find themselves in the midst of great affliction, having been stripped of all worldly wealth, and slandered by those they thought would have accepted them. We are told that those who were harassing the church at Smyrna are the very people of Israel, those referred to here as being a Jewish synagogue. Yet in spite of their supposedly being God’s people we are told that they are instead a synagogue of Satan. Now it is rather shocking to hear Jesus use such harsh language but if we are aware of the teachings of Jesus we should know that this is not the first time this has happened. If we turn to the eighth chapter of the gospel of John, we are find Jesus speaking to some Jews who had placed their faith in him. So they were followers of Jesus for as Jesus tells them, “If you abide in my word, if you take and live through obedience to my word, this is when you are truly my disciples.” Jesus continues by telling us this,” If you indeed find life through the obedience to my word, then you will know the truth and this truth will set you free.” Now, when Jesus questioned the very idea of their freedom, insinuating that these disciples just might be be slaves, they were quite offended. What did Jesus mean by implying that they had been captured by one who seeks to use and abuse us? Well, as Jesus continues, he explains that if they were indeed children of their Heavenly Father and not slaves, they would love Jesus because he had come directly to them from the Father in heaven. So not only is Jesus telling them that they are not free, but he is so telling these disciples who believed in him that that did not truly love him, talk about confronting them about their sin. You see, the problem was that they could not accept the word that he spoke to them. So because the word that Jesus spoke to them was simply too difficult to obey they instead began to listen to another voice, the voice of the devil or Satan. No matter what he is called, the evil of the evil one is that he is another voice which challenges the validity of what Jesus speaks to us. So, because they were listening to the devil, Jesus told them that it is the devil and not God who is their true father. When they obeyed the word the devil spoke to them, then they were doing the will or desire of the devil so that the devil was indeed their father. So here in this gathering of Jews was a synagogue of Satan because they were obeying the word Satan speaks to them instead of obeying the word of their Heavenly Father, the word brought to them by his Son, Jesus. So we are left wondering just what is the difference between the word of Jesus and the word of Satan? The answer, Jesus tells us is that the devil is and always has been a murderer, a taker of life. Our God, in contrast, is always and only a giver of life. So when the followers of Jesus decided to join their Jewish brothers in the violent overthrow of Rome through their desire to kill those who afflicted them, they had nonetheless become enslaved to doing the desires of the devil. So, as Jesus pointed out, if they were not willing to obey the word God spoke to them through Jesus, then they could not consider themselves to be true children of Abraham because Abraham obeyed God, no matter what.
So the synagogue of Satan thought of themselves as being the true people of God, but they nonetheless could not justify this claim because they refused to obey God choosing instead to listen to the voice of Satan. Of course when the church of Smyrna proclaimed themselves as being the true children of God, this brought this synagogue of Satan under judgment causing this synagogue to blaspheme them, saying the church at Smyrna was caught in a lie. Their situation was described by Jesus in the third chapter of the gospel of John, where he tells us that everyone who does evil works hates the light and they will not come to the light so that their works can be clearly seen for what they truly are. The silver lining surrounding their situation is that at least now the church at Smyrna knew that they were indeed children of the light. This is why Jesus could tell them that they had nothing to fear, even if they were to face the suffering that was in their future. This little church was told by Jesus that they were to be tested, having to endure much affliction as those who obeyed Satan thought nothing of throwing many of their congregation into prison.
Now all that Jesus has to add concerning this churches upcoming suffering is the admonition that they were to hold onto their faith in him, even unto death. This seems to be a very difficult expectation that Jesus has for this church, yet what must not be forgotten is that Jesus himself faced temptation and testing. In the fourth chapter of Hebrews, we hear that Jesus speaks from experience when he tells us to be faithful when we find our faith being tested. We can read of this testing of Jesus in the fourth chapter of Matthew and Luke’s gospel accounts. In Matthews account, we find that the first lesson we can learn from this testing of Jesus is a truth taught to the people of Israel as they wandered there in the wilderness after being rescued from slavery in Egypt. God spoke to Moses and told him that every morning God would supply the people of Israel with bread from heaven, something like white flakes that would be gathered up to eat. They were to only gather as much as they needed for one day, otherwise this heavenly bread would rot. Now the reason why God fed them in this way is found in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy where we hear that the people were to know, that we as people do not live by bread alone but we live by every word which proceeds form the mouth of God. So listening and obeying God is found to be of utmost importance when we face hard testing. So when Jesus tells the church at Smyrna to be faithful, even if they face death, he follows this by further telling them that their ears should be tuned to hear every word the Spirit speaks to them. As Jesus teaches us in the sixteenth chapter of John, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but the words he hears, these he will speak to declare to you the things that are to come.” You see, only those who is willing to be lead by the speaking of the Spirit, only these will be known as being conquers, those who indeed have overcome the world.
This church at Smyrna then would have resonated with what is revealed to John when the first seal of the scroll was removed. When the first seal was removed we hear that one has come forth riding on a white horse wearing a crown. This is the one who conquered and who continues to conquer. This conqueror is of course, Jesus, the very one who conquered death through his resurrection from the dead. But Jesus keeps on conquering when all those who listen and obey the Spirit who speaks the words of Jesus to them. This is why the church of Smyrna could say that they were those who had been sealed by the Holy Spirit because they were obedient to do all that Jesus the conqueror commands them to do.
This church in Smyrna, then, serves as a bridge between the first section of this revelation and the next. As the first section focused on how Jesus conquered over the evil of this world through his love and mercy, the second section will give us instructions on how to live in a world where there is not peace but persecution. And the very means by which we face this affliction that comes on account of our faith is prayer. The essence of this lesson on prayer is the truth that the church at Smyrna already knew so well, that our prayer must be all about hearing and and obeying what God speaks to us, for it is these words that will guide through every affliction until at last we are at home with God. To God be the glory! Amen!
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