Faithful Unto Death (Revelation 2:8–11)

The apostle Paul wrote that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). The Lord Jesus often made it clear to his would-be disciples, particularly in Matthew 10, that to follow him would not necessarily mean peace, but a sword—that there would be opposition to those who follow him. Neither did Jesus hide from the church at Smyrna the troubles they would still face.

The church in Smyrna, located in what is now modern-day Turkey, was indeed a suffering church. She was faithful, and yet the Lord exhorted her to remain faithful to the end as the suffering intensified. As he evaluated this church, unlike the church at Ephesus, he offered no words of condemnation or correction, but only words of consolation with a slight commendation.

We need to consider what this particular letter has to say to a church that suffers, even though realistically we cannot even imagine what they were going through. Matt Rhodes, in his book Persecution and Missions, observes that the majority of the world’s Christians suffer persecution. Yet when we think about ourselves in South Africa, we know very little of that. We have no idea of the kind of suffering that most Christians in this world endure—and I am not complaining about that. However, we do need to study this because there are levels of persecution that we will face if we desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus. We also need to understand what our brothers and sisters are going through around the world so we can minister practically and prayerfully to them.

Let us hear what the Spirit says to the church in Smyrna.

The Lord was very honest with this church. He knew what they were experiencing. He did not promise to deliver them. Instead, he told them they were suffering and exhorted them to be faithful until death. He was very honest about what they were going to endure.

The church in Smyrna faced intense political challenges. Of all the seven cities mentioned in Revelation 2–3, this was the most Roman-loyal city in the empire. They were well known for emperor worship. They had temples to Augustus and a temple to the Roman emperor Tiberius. In fact, the city was so loyal to Rome that when the Roman army was freezing somewhere, people sent their clothes to care for the Roman army. This was a city guilty of statism. The state was everything, and those who did not conform to the state, who did not say Caesar is Lord, were going to suffer.

It was also a city that faced religious challenges. Smyrna boasted the largest Jewish population in that part of the world, which in those days—as you realise when reading the book of Acts carefully—meant that the Jews were a bigger threat to the church than Rome was. The Jews were persecuting the church in a very intense way. This church existed between the rock of obsessive statism and the hard place of a Christless religion. This was a church that suffered, a fitting picture of the crushing persecution they faced.

The Lord knew what they were facing, and was honest with them about it. He told them that it was going to get worse. They were going to be thrown into prison “for ten days.” I do not think he is necessarily speaking about literally ten days, but there was going to be a definite time of further persecution, and he told them to expect grief.

The Lord Jesus is transparent about what his church will face. There is not the slightest hint of prosperity theology here. He does not say anywhere that things are going to go great. He tells them they are going to suffer. And when this suffering comes, he expects them to worship, not to whine.

We face various kinds of persecution as we desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus. But as I said, I do not think we can even understand the kind of suffering that this church was going through, and what many around the world are undergoing. The Lord does not promise us deliverance from that—at least not now—but there is going to be persecution.

He knows our grief. Notice how this opens: And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. Why did Jesus die? We know he died as a sacrifice for sinners like you and me, but humanly speaking, he died because he was literally persecuted to death. The Lord Jesus experienced this kind of grief, this kind of opposition. Psalm 2, prophesying and picked up in Acts 4, asks why the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain. Peter unpacks that in Acts 4, quoting Psalm 2, saying that Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas and the chief priests all got together to persecute the Lord Jesus.

Jesus knows when his people suffer. He knows exactly the grief they are undergoing. What a great comfort is the fact that he knows and he cares.

I was reading the book of Exodus recently. In Exodus 2, after a pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph and began to persecute and oppress the Jews in Egypt, we read these words: “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. It is wonderful. God knows when we suffer for our faith. He knows the grief we are undergoing. Though he may not always deliver us from it—as certainly here in Smyrna he did not—he knows, he sees, and he cares.

In the midst of all of this, I love this little word of great comfort in v. 9: “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich).” What is he reminding this church of here? Their identity. “You are rich.” How were they rich? He is not speaking about material wealth. They were rich because they had been reconciled to God. They were rich because they had been redeemed. They were rich because they did have a future inheritance. They were rich because they were saints.

We need to realise, when we are undergoing hardship, that our riches in Christ. They are eternally secure. They cannot be taken from us. This church is reminded of that in the midst of intense persecution.

The Lord expects grace from this church. In v. 10, he says, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer.” They are going to undergo great heartache. As they undergo this great heartache, he is saying to them that he knows it is going to be hard, that they are going to feel this intense pressure, but they do not need to fear.

Why do they not need to fear? Because the Lord is with them. When Jesus sends his disciples out in Matthew 28, he says to them, as they go and make disciples of the nations, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (vv. 18–20). Because the Lord Jesus is with this church, they can expect grace to overcome; they can expect grace not to fear.

Justin Martyr was a martyr in the early church. Once he was threatened with scourging and death if he continued to refuse to worship the Roman gods. They threatened him with scourging, even to the point of death. He responded that they could kill him, but they could not hurt him; they could kill him, but they really could not do any damage to him. When we are in Christ and we know that the Lord is with us, we know that ultimately no one can harm us.

The Lord Jesus expected this church to persevere until death: “Be faithful unto death.” This is a way of saying to this church that they can expect grace not to fail, that they can expect grace in the midst of their hardship.

I do not know how many people I have spoken to over the years—Christians as they have struggled with certain trials—who will say that they do not know how they will ever be able to handle this. We have all been there, haven’t we? We wonder how we are ever going to get through this. But isn’t it true that you find in the darkest of moments God’s grace is sufficient? God supplies what we need in our hour of trial. He says that we do not need to fear, but that we can be faithful to death.

He is not expecting them to simply work up this faithfulness. His exhortation, his commandment, is actually a promise: You can be faithful unto death because I will give you all that you need. He promises them his resource in the midst of this commandment.

Revelation 2:10b–11 concludes: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”

He speaks about a reward: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” This crown of life is mentioned in James 1:12: When we undergo temptation, when we endure the temptation, we are given the crown of life. What is this crown of life? I think the crown of life is the same as what Paul talked about in 2 Timothy 4:8—the crown of righteousness.

The crown of life is not, I do not think, a literal crown that we are going to receive when we get to heaven. The crown of life is just that: what he is saying is, if you are faithful unto death, if you persevere, you are going to, as he says in the next verse, escape the second death. The crown of life is the ultimate reward of perseverance in following Christ to the end. It is not a perseverance that we work up in ourselves, but a perseverance that God gives to us because he indeed preserves us.

In Revelation 4, you find the 24 elders, which represent God’s people throughout history. Those 24 elders bow down at the throne and cast their crowns. I do not think it is a literal crown. The point, I think, is simply this: We are in heaven not because of anything we have done but because of what Christ has done. We have persevered to the end because the Lord Jesus preserved us. The Lord Jesus empowered us to persevere to the end.

He expands on this in v. 11: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. You must interpret that in light of the crown of life. The second death is the eternal spiritual death, the eternal separation from God under God’s judgement, eternally and for ever.

These people who are delivered from the second death, those who are secure in Christ, those who are in Christ, those who go to glory—they are going to avoid the second death. When you think about that, we can endure anything if we escape the everlasting judgement of God. That puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?

People speak about the fact that “this is hell.” There is a sense in which, for the Christian, yes, this life is hell. But if you are not a Christian, this is heaven. To live for ever under the judgement of God, separated from God—what a horrible, horrible fate.

This church in Smyrna could persevere because their eternal destiny was secured. The Lord would honour them. He would bring them in because of his grace in ensuring their perseverance.

He exhorts them—he exhorts us—to hear: “Let him who has an ear to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” What the Lord is saying to us is, “Yes, if you serve the Lord, you will experience persecution.”

I doubt that we will ever—at least in my lifetime—experience what the church in North Korea is experiencing. But let us think about our brothers and sisters in North Korea. When we pray each week for the persecuted church, realise there are many Smyrna churches in this world. May God give us compassion to pray for them, that they will persevere to the end, that they will not turn away from the faith.

There is a wonderful story of a man who was a bishop in Smyrna just shortly after this letter was written. His name was Polycarp. He was 86 years of age, and he was being threatened that if he did not pledge allegiance to Caesar, he would be burned alive. He said to them, “For eighty years I have served the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?”

He knew he had the crown of life. The crown of life empowers us to face the last enemy, which is death, because Jesus Christ has conquered. Therefore, as the text says, we can overcome.

AMEN