Zions CRY Shofar NEWS
and Prophetic Commentary
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Page date  August, 2001
Updated  June 2007












  

Letter to the church in Smyrna
Revelation Chapter 2, verses 7 thru 11

I know your afflictions & poverty, but you're rich!
I know the phonies slander you, those devils. Don't fear them.
You'll be persecuted for 10 days.
Be faithful & I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:8

Verse 7
In this verse is a promise and a challenge for anyone in all
churches of all times who will hear. Jesus has a special reward
for every  person who overcomes. So be an overcomer.

QUESTION: Who is an overcomer? 
A person who overcomes and conquers and gains victory. 

QUESTION: What is it the this person is to overcome? 
Everything that pulls his heart and love away from Christ and
attaches it to the world. Whether that be possessions, pleasures,
or whatever it is that taken the believers first love for Christ.
This the believer must overcome.

This promise is made to the church, and then notice the promise
is made to the individual believer. All believers are to hear the
messages to the churches. A church as a whole may go astray, but
it is the believer who must personally overcome. Let him who has
an ear hear what the spirit is saying, and let him heed and do
what the spirit says. Look at the promises that God gives to 
the overcomer.

1. The overcomer shall be allowed to eat of the tree of life.
The tree that gives eternal life.  The tree of life was first
seen in the Garden of Eden. Adam lost his right to eat of it
because of sin and disobedience. He was banished from the garden
and cut off from eating of the tree. So now, the tree of life is
given to the faithful and victorious follower of Christ, but it
is not guaranteed. Only some have a right to it.

The tree may be taken away
Revelation 22:14-19

So if we do not stay on the winning side, if we draw back & refuse
to repent, or if we fail to accept Christ's provision for victory,
the result will be perdition or eternal loss. There is no middle
ground. We either overcome or we are overcome. Unless we are
overcomers, keeping our faith in Jesus, pressing on, we are not
Christians at all.

That is a pretty strong statement!
Quoted from "The Ultimate Victory" by Stanley Horton.
The commentary in the Full Life Study Bible says this. 
We either overcome sin, the world, and Satan, or we are overcome
by them and are ultimately cast in the lake of fire. 
There is no intermediate group.

The MESSAGE of SMYRNA

INTRODUCTION 

The name Smyrna means bitter. It received its name from myrrh,
one of its chief commercial products. Myrrh was a gum like resin
taken from a shrub and very bitter.

It was used in making perfume, embalming and for relieving and
dulling pain. It was a proud city, proud of its culture, beauty,
its wealth, and social life. Everyone tried to climb the social
ladder a step further than his neighbor. Once again sounds like
our society. The town of Smyrna was persecuting the church
severely.  The city had a large number of Jews who were pretty
influential in city politics.

Many of the early converts to Christ were Jews, and the reaction
of the Jews was severe. They did all they could to influence the
city officials to stamp out the church. The Christian believers
felt they could not worship and participate in the festivals to
the god and goddesses of that day. They were marked. In some
cases jobs were lost, and social life in the city was severed.
Mockery, abuse, scorn, and persecution were applied. 

With this in mind lets go on. 

The church is sometimes called on to suffer terrible persecution.
And this was true in Smyrna. The church was faithful to Christ and
His mission. The church was standing fast for the truth against
all attacks. It was a church in which nothing was wrong, of any
major significance. It was one of the few churches Christ did not
have to warn. Smyrna is the picture of what a church should be:
a dynamic witness for Jesus Christ through all circumstances no
matter the trial or temptation. The church at Smyrna was a picture
of a church that loves the Lord enough to stand up for Him even
when the community attacks it's witness. 

Verses 8-9
This letter is addressed to the minister. Remember the Greek word
for angel is messenger. In this case Smyrna which is a persecuted
church the minister is to take the lead in standing fast against
persecution.  The minister is to stand forth for Christ and lead
his people to stand for Christ. He is not to buckle under and
deny Christ, and he is to lead his people to do the same,
no matter how severe the persecution may be. Even if it means
martyrdom. The minister and his people are to do Christ says in
this letter. Look how he starts out his letter. 

Jesus Christ reminds them that He is the first and the last.
He is the One supremeauthority and ruler over life.

Government officials may think they hold authority over life, but
they do not. Those that afflict and cause trouble for others had
better take heed. They shall be judged if they take the authority
over human life in their own hands. Jesus is always in charge of
what happens to us. He controls all things. He will work all
things for our good. Next he says that He is the one who was dead
and is alive again. He triumphed over death.  His message to the
church at Smyrna was that no matter what they experienced it was
a passing episode. Then he commends them for four things.

1. You have bore up under terrible tribulation. Which means
affliction trials and persecution. They were also holding up under
the attacks of refusing to deny Christ. They were faithful to
Christ despite all the ridicule, mockery and abuse.

2. They bore up under poverty. Many were forced out of their jobs
and their property confiscated. Rome had a law that said the state
had to be the first loyalty of a citizen. 

3. The church was spiritually wealthy. Outwardly they were poor,
inwardly they were rich toward the Lord. they were filled with 
God's presence.

4. The church bore up under all kinds of slander. The slander came
mostly from the jews of the city. The jews were the one's who
caused so much trouble against the church. Look what he says about
these Jews.  He says they profess to be Jews, but they are not.
They are the synagogue of satan. The Jews are God's appointed
people, but many failed to believe and follow God. They even 
killed God's Son, their Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ.
They were not worshipers of God but of Satan.

This is a strong message to every church. We are either an assembly
of God, of the true and living God, or of Satan. We are a true
church if we proclaim and stand up for Christ in the midst of an
evil and corrupt world, a world that slanders those who live
righteous and godly lives.


FEAR * NOT - Verse 10 & 11



Verse 10
The afflictions and persecutions these believers in Smyrna caused
them to fear. Jesus tells them not to be afraid of what they were
going to suffer. He didn't give them any false hope of peace and
prosperity. The persecution would get worse. Some would be cast
into prison and experience severe testing. Some would die for
their faith. 

They would be able to face the future if they would keep two
things in mind

1. Their suffering would come to an end afer 10 days and physical
death could not rob them of the life they had received in Christ.
10 days was a figure of speech. Their suffering would be a short
time. Physical death could not rob them of the life they had
received in Christ. A crown of life would be waiting for them.
This crown of life is the eternal life in Christ. Satan was
behind all of this, he didn't want them to be Christians

In the second & 3rd centuries at least 10 periods of persecution
occurred under the Roman emperors. Millions of Christians were
burned at the stake, thrown to hungry lions, tortured and killed
in many terrible ways. But death & the forces of Satan were not
able to stop the spread of the gospel & the growth of the church.

By the time Emperor Constantine (306-337) A.D. the Christian
population was so great that he made Christianity the official
religion of the Roman Empire. Persecution ceased but this new
found freedom didn't bring spiritual growth. Except for revivals
here and there, spiritual decline became the rule.

Verse 11
Here is a promise to the overcomers. We shall receive a crown of
life. The Spirit is reminding all the churches that there is
something far worse than physical death. A second death, a final
separation forever from God's plan, his promises. His love, mercy
and grace.  There will be no fellowship with God or anyone else.
Those in the lake of fire will be filled with hate for themselves
and for all who helped send them there. On the other hand those
who keep the faith never need fear that second death.

The implication here is that if one does not overcome or stay on
the winning side, the result will be the second death, the
lake of fire.

Matthew 25:41
Jesus points out that the lake of fire was not
prepared for people but for the devil and his angels.
But those who refuse to repent, those who rebel, and those
who turn away in unbelief will share satan's doom.

Then He will also say to those on His left,
'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has
been prepared for the devil and his angels'

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Holy Spirit says to the
churches. It is the duty of every believer and every church to
hear this message. 

LISTEN! OBEY!  or end up here in HELL FOREVER!



THIS IS THE JUDGMENT
that the Light has come into the world, 
and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, 
for their deeds were evil.  

GOD so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
Eternal LIFE. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

He who believes in Him is not judged;
he who does not believe has been judged already, 
because he has not believed in the name of the only 
begotten Son of God.  John 3:16-19