Perseverance | Letter to the Church in Smyrna | Revelation 2:8-11

INTRODUCTION

We are in our journey through the seven churches of Revelation. The last time, we saw Ephesus – the church that left its first love. Today, we come to the second church – Smyrna, the persecuted church. It is one of the only two churches, along with Philadelphia, that does not receive a negative report. Jesus is commending this church and asking them to persevere in the midst of trials.

Revelation 2:8-11

⁸“To the angel 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. ⁹I 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. ¹⁰Do 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.

¹¹Whoever 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.

BACKGROUND

The city of Smyrna is today Izmir in Turkey. Smyrna was a bustling seaport, it was the closest seaport to Europe.

The name Smyrna comes the ‘myrrh.’ Myrrh is a spice used for embalming bodies.

In 600 BC, the Lydian king Attalus conquered Smyrna and destroyed it, but the city was later rebuilt by Alexander the Great and was known as the city that “once was dead and came to life.”

Notice how Jesus introduces himself to this church:

Revelation 2:8

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.

Jesus is saying, “Smyrna, I know your story but more importantly, I know your suffering but more importantly, I know your suffering. I have walked the road of death and resurrection. Trust me.”

1. THE CHALLENGE

Revelation 2:9

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.

Christ knows the various kinds of trouble its members were undergoing.

a. Affliction

The church was probably the closest among the seven churches to one that was under some type of severe persecution.

The believers in Smyrna faced crushing burdens. They were going through tribulation. Smyrnaeans believers were rejected by neighbours, threatened by authorities, betrayed and even rejected by their own facilities. But Christ says: “I know.” That’s our comfort – Jesus himself suffered rejection, grief, and even death, and He cares.

b. Poverty

Next comes poverty. The believers in Smyrna were poor because of their faith. Many were cut off from work and business. The Jews and Romans did not do business with the believers. Believers were not employed. They were living in poverty, yet Jesus is telling them that they are rich (contrast 3:17). True riches are not counted in bank balances but in Christ’s inheritance and eternal life.

c. Slander

Jesus goes on to refer those who slander (blasphēmia) them, those who slander the church (cf. Rom. 2:25, 28–29). The believers were falsely accused, especially by hostile Jews who tried to separate themselves from Christians under Roman rule.

Judaism in the first century, for the most part, seemed to enjoy protection under the Roman government and was accepted as a valid religion and exempted from emperor worship, as they were traditional monotheists. But the more Christianity spread, the Jews distanced themselves from the Christians and probably slandered about them to their Roman authorities.

In the early second century some Jewish accusers participated in betraying to the Romans Polycarp (a disciple of apostle John and bishop of Smyrna) leading to his execution. Though it was the sabbath, they gathered wood for the fire in which the martyr was burnt. Such hostility and slander may well go back to the time when John wrote.

These men are a synagogue of Satan. Their assembly for worship did not gather together God’s people, but Satan’s, who is ‘the accuser of our brothers’ (12:10).

Though John does not clearly mention that any have yet died for their faith at this point, clearly they are suffering some type of persecution, perhaps at the hands of local authorities, keen to make sure that everyone conformed to participating in the emperor cult and worship of pagan gods.

2. THE ENCOURAGEMENT

Revelation 2:9b-10

I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰Do 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.

a. You Are the True People of God

Revelation 2:9b

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.

If the Jews are slandering against the church, their gatherings have become a gathering of Satan. True Israel now is not identified by ethnicity but by faith in Jesus. The church though small, poor, despised is God’s true covenant people. Don’t be discouraged, you are the true Israel.

b. Do Not be Afraid

Revelation 2:10

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.

The Smyrnean believers are not to be afraid, though suffering is certain. Some will be imprisoned. Though this is done by the local authorities, this is ascribed to the devil. The source of your suffering is ultimately the devil himself.

When they look out at their world, they see pressure from the Roman authorities, they see pressure from the Jewish synagogue. But John reminds them in anticipation of chapter 12. He unveils the true nature of their struggle, and that is: Behind their struggle and behind their persecution lies the attempt of Satan himself to thwart God’s people. This will be unpacked in even more detail in chapter 12.

But God is supreme. Even through the devil and evil men he works out his purposes. The imprisonment will be to test you. The clear implication is that God will see them through the test. Prison in the 1^st Century was simply a place of confinement while awaiting execution (against this view are passages like Acts 16:23; 2 Cor. 11:23).

When God’s people suffer Jesus is with them, he understands them. God says, “Do not be afraid. Your suffering have a greater significance.”

c. Your Testing is Temporary, but Your Reward is Eternal

Revelation 2:10

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.

You will suffer for 10 Days. What is this referring to?

Is Jesus predicting a future period of time of exact length?

Is it something that happened in the past?

Why ten days?

The 10 days of testing is an intentional allusion to Daniel 1:12–15, where Daniel and his three friends were tested for ten days in refusing to eat meat offered to the king.

Daniel 1:12–15

¹¹Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ¹²“Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” ¹⁴So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

¹⁵At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

In the context of Daniel and his three friends, they find themselves under the pressure of another pagan empire and pagan ruler. John now picks up this theme from Daniel chapter 1 of 10 days to describe a period of testing that his readers will undergo.

Suffering had a limit. Ten days is symbolic of a short, controlled period. Satan may try to harm God’s people, but God sets the boundaries. So, number 10 is symbolic for completion (time period). Suffering for God’s people is a limited time period. They were tested for 10 days but they endured and were rendered a favourable verdict, in the same way, God’s people in Smyrna will suffer a limited persecution. It certainly points to something more than 3-1/2 days, which is John’s usual expression for a trial of limited duration (Rev. 11:9-11). Yet even 10 has its limit.

Suffering had a purpose. It was a test. Just as Daniel and his friends were tested for ten days in Babylon and came out victorious, so the church would be tested but refined.

Suffering had companionship. Jesus says, “Be faithful.” He does not leave us alone in trials—He walks with us.

Not Satan but God has the last word. Believers will be tested like Daniel and his friends were. This gives them, therefore, the encouragement to take heart, to endure and persevere through any period of testing that they will face.

3. THE PROMISE

Revelation 2:10

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.

The Crown of Life & No Second Death

The Crown of Life: Daniel and his friends were spared, but some may even face persecution and end up in death. The church is exhorted, Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life (cf. Jas 1:12). Death, which people fear so much, is set in sharp antithesis to life, which alone matters for the people of this world. It is ‘the’ life, eternal life, that is in mind here. Crown (stephanos) here is not a royal crown, but the victory wreath given to athletes; specially appropriate in Smyrna, a city famous for its Games. That is what Jesus promises. The believer who remains faithful even when it means death will receive the trophy of victory. His crown is life.

No Second Death: We have confidence to persevere even through and beyond death. Because Jesus overcame death, and He says, “I’m going to do the same thing for you.”

Church, Jesus’s promises don’t fail when you die. Jesus’s promises don’t fail when your loved one dies. Jesus’s promises endure beyond death. And He proved it. He showed it. We have every reason for confidence. We have Jesus’s resurrection assuring us of life.

Some may undergo persecution that may result in death. They are now promised life and preservation from the second death, both concepts that occur in Revelation chapter 20.

In Revelation 20:4-6, the saints who were beheaded because of their faith come to life and reign with Christ for a thousand years, and they do not participate in the second death. That’s what is now promised to a church that is undergoing persecution.

The second death is a different kind of death. It’s the lake of fire, into which everything that is not Christ is tossed at the end of time. It’s the point at which separation from God takes place. The point at which that which is cast in is burned up, is destroyed, it perishes. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life, will not perish.

Sure, the first death might get you. Sure, the first one might get your loved one. But the second one for those who are in me has no power. Church we cannot lose. There is no greater confidence than this. There is no greater reason to persevere than this. Even if we die—we don’t. We enjoy life with God forever. We are assured of it. We are guaranteed the victory.

CONCLUSION

Jesus was there at the beginning, and Jesus is going to be there at the end, and everything in between; nothing is outside of His view, nothing is outside of Jesus’s experience. Once we grasp that, it does something amazing. He won’t fail. 100% guaranteed.

This is the main point of the sermon: Jesus is eternal. Jesus is eternal, and He defeats our enemies, erases our anxieties, and satisfies our longings. Therefore, we have every reason for confidence, every reason to persevere, no matter what we face.

Do you have enemies? Jesus is bigger than them.

Do you have anxieties? Jesus is your peace.

Do you have longings too big for this world? Jesus is the your treasure.

And church, once you recognize that, there is no reason for you to lose heart. There is no reason for you to give up. There is nothing, nothing that is going to come between you and this all-sufficient Jesus.

LIFE APPLICATION – PERSEVERANCE TODAY

He knows – Remember that Christ knows your trials

When you face rejection, loss, or pressure at work or home, take comfort: Jesus says, “I know your afflictions.” (Rev. 2:9) We are never unseen or forgotten by Him.

Jesus enriches -Treasure spiritual riches above earthly wealth

Even if you lack resources, or face financial struggles, Jesus says, “You are rich.” (Rev. 2:9)

Our true inheritance is eternal life in Christ, not the possessions of this world.

Jesus vindicates – Stand firm when falsely accused or misunderstood

Others may slander you for your faith or look down on your obedience to Christ. But Jesus knows the truth, and His approval is what matters (Matt. 5:11–12).

Jesus is Present – Do not fear suffering, for Christ is with you

Trials may come, but they are temporary and under God’s control (Rev. 2:10).

Fear not—the One who died and rose again walks with us through every fire.

Jesus Rewards – Be faithful unto death, knowing your crown is sure

Whatever trials we face—loss, poverty, sickness, or even death—our end is victory. Jesus promises the crown of life and freedom from the second death (Rev. 2:10–11).