In the sermon 'Fearless and Faithful in Persecution' by Scott Brown, the speaker explores Revelation 2:8-11, focusing on the letter to the church in Smyrna. The sermon highlights the theme of persecution and the call for Christians to be fearless and faithful. Brown explains that persecution serves to strengthen the church, purify believers, and scatter hypocrites. He emphasizes that the church in Smyrna faced poverty, slander, imprisonment, and death but were rich in spiritual wealth. The sermon reassures believers with Christ's assurances, reminding them of His eternal presence and care for His church. Brown also discusses the secular state's lies and the common experience of persecution throughout church history. He challenges the notion that religious liberty is always God's priority, asserting that the gospel is the true focus. The sermon concludes with the call to not fear and to remain faithful, highlighting the eternal reward for those who overcome.

Please open your Bibles to the all-sufficient, holy, inerrant Word of God to Revelation chapter 2 and find verse 8. We'll be reading from 8 to 11. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things says the first and the last who was dead and came to life. I know your works tribulation and poverty But you are rich and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not But are a synagogue of Satan Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer Indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until 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. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for the power and the beauty of your word. Come and feed your flock.

Come and equip the saints. Come, Father, and put the devil to flight. Make the unbeliever believe. Make the believer strong today. Come help the weak and encourage the brokenhearted today.

Father come and fulfill all of your promises in this church today that you would help us to have our eyes fixed on Jesus and his word that he has for us today. Amen. Please be seated. Amen. Please be seated.

It's such a joy to bring this passage of scripture. It seems to be the kind of passage of scripture that has a subject of what's on many people's minds and that is the persecution of the church. And we have this glorious picture of the true church of Jesus Christ that they're not a fearful and fitful people, but rather they are a fearless and a faithful people. God calls his people to to form after the pattern of his word here. And so we're here in the section in Revelation that deals with specific churches, seven churches of Asia.

They are in Turkey and as I've said before, I believe these are representative churches and the things that characterize them are the things that characterize churches from time to time in the history of the church. These are seven churches that are along a mail route in Turkey, starting with the church in Ephesus and then delivered one by one along the way. This is the second letter delivered, the last being Laodicea, the last stop on the mail route. And the opening words of the text tell us who is meant to receive this letter and to the angel of the church in Smyrna right. And so Smyrna is about 40 miles north of Ephesus.

The Carrington's just landed in Smyrna a couple of days ago safely after a good flight on the way home. We first examined the letter to the Church of Ephesus where the Lord confronts the church for practicing a loveless orthodoxy. They had all the works, all the activity, but something was missing and the Lord warns them that he's going to walk out of this church. He's going to remove their lamp stand. It doesn't mean that the Christians don't remain Christians.

It means that he's going to remove himself. He'll no longer be present and the church will eventually lose its power and disappear and that is exactly what happened to this church. And my understanding is that these these letters are universally applicable to all churches and each letter is meant to speak to all churches and the particular things that they experience during their experience. That's why you have these words that are repeated, let him who hear what the Spirit says to the churches. These are admonitions for the churches, all of the churches.

And so when we get to Smyrna, there are two dominant distinctives about this church. And I just want to remind us as we as we read these things about these churches, we should always be thinking about ourselves. How does this apply to me personally? How does this apply to this church? You know, God is bringing these letters to strengthen his church.

But in Smyrna, it was first it was a persecuted church and remarkably nothing negative is said to this church. There are two of them like this Philadelphia is the other. But these words here are designed to help all churches prepare for whatever persecution might come. And in many ways for us at Hope it would be better to handle this text in the midst of real persecution. I don't believe we're really in the midst of real persecution.

We're in the midst of cancel culture. That's very different. And there are elements of persecution in that. But we might be able to hear this text more carefully. We might be able to obey it more faithfully if we were actually living in persecution conditions.

And I take this letter to be for us today to help us prepare for the possibility of that taking place. And The Word of God makes it very clear that persecution strengthens a church. It doesn't destroy it. Persecution does two things. It strengthens the saints, but it also scatters hypocrites.

It exposes weak faith. And So persecution is very helpful to the church. These letters are here to purify and strengthen us as a local church as we exist until the final return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you've seen already there are two very simple commands for this church. That is do not fear, that's the first, and then the second is be faithful, be faithful unto death.

And so this church is a local church and a letter is being sent to it. As we remarked earlier in our studies in Revelation, Revelation is an epistle. It's a letter. It's a letter to church. It's just like the other epistles.

It's like the epistle to the Ephesians. It's like the epistle to the Colossians, except it contains so much figurative and prophetic language that it can be hard to understand sometimes, although the Lord tells us that it's not really hard to understand. It is a revelation, it's not a hiding of things, And so we're here in this great letter to the church in Smyrna. And I think a passage like this can help us to think through any fears that anybody here might have about the future. Lots of things have been happening in the news and all over the world that have caused tremendous concern and I think we're here to help calibrate our thinking about how to think about persecution but really more than anything else what to do because the Lord tells us exactly what to do.

It's no secret what he wants you to do, and he's very kind to bring very clear commands to the church. You don't have to freewheel it. You don't have to follow your emotions. You don't have to figure everything out. They're two really, really simple things that he calls us to do.

And I think this is so glorious and so encouraging, especially, Well, if you are experiencing fear about what might happen, I've been very grateful for this church not having sensed fear in the congregation as a result of all the things that have been going on. But here we are to receive a healthy reminder of what to do. As you can see there's an outline in front of you and I have broken this text up into three sections and I'm just going to walk through these sections. First I want to just highlight Christ's suffering church which is a central matter here. Second, Christ's assurances for the suffering church.

There's so many assurances that he gives. And then thirdly, the commands. These wonderful commands, these life-giving commands to set you free from your fears and to set you on a track of success before the Lord. So let's first of all look at the Suffering Church. Well this Suffering Church exists in a city, a real city that exists today in Smyrna, to the angel of the church in Smyrna.

Smyrna is a beautiful, beautiful port city. I've been there. It's on the coast of the crystal clear of the GNC. It has been called the crown of Asia and it really is a beautiful place with a wonderful climate. The name of the city means myrrh, the aromatic spice, myrrh.

Myrrh was a critical export in Smyrna. And when myrrh is crushed or burned, it spreads a wonderful aroma. And of course it's used in embalming. We know that the wise men brought myrrh to the baby Jesus. Perhaps they brought it from Smyrna.

Sour wine was offered to Christ on the cross, it contained myrrh. And Smyrna was a city supremely dedicated to worshipping the Roman Emperor. In 29 AD there were cities competing for the honor of building a magnificent temple to Tiberius Caesar And Smyrna was so dedicated to its emperor worship, it won the contest and they got to build this magnificent and opulent temple. It was a center of idolatry. You would find temples to all the Greek and Roman gods.

You'd find the temple of Zeus and Aphrodite and Roma and Sybil and whatever else was there. And you find here a church in the midst of a secular state and the attention of the state is on the state and that's exactly what we find here in this situation. Now, when the church finds herself in the midst of a secular state, she finds that the secular state is always trying to convince you to believe in things that aren't real. In Smyrna the secular state tried to convince you that the whole society and the entire society that Zeus and Aphrodite and the Emperor were gods. They wanted you to believe that and the truth is the Emperor is not God and Zeus is not a God and but they tell you that the emperor is a god and you must say it and you must acknowledge him as god.

And so there is persecution against the church. And this kind of persecution that existed in Smyrna is the common kind of persecution. The persecution that the church receives is typically because of what the church won't do. It's not even often just the message of the gospel. It's what the church won't do and the church would not pay homage to Caesar.

Now they could believe the gospel, but they had at the same time pay homage to this fake god, but they refused to say it. And so myrrh was used in the offering to the gods of Smyrna and you would offer a pinch of incense annually, once a year, you just had to do it once a year and say the word, Caesar is Lord. That's all you had to do. You didn't really have to believe it, you just had to do it. And so this is nothing different than what the secular state does today.

The secular state always wants you to believe their lies. And they have many. Maybe you noticed that almost every point in Joe Biden's first executive orders, the moment he became president, they were all lies. Did you notice that? They lie about race and ethnicity, and they make a law to support the lie.

They lie about justice, and they make laws to support the lie. They make lies about manhood and womanhood, and they make laws to support that lie. They make laws about man's power to change the environment and they make laws to support the lie. They lie about abortion and personhood and the sanctity of human life and they make laws to support the lies. I was astonished at the lies on almost every point of these executive orders this last week.

And what this means, it just confirms that they are a classic example of a secular state and administration of lies. And by the way as the governments of the world are trying to tell you the truth about how scary it is to be in a world of COVID-19, the truth is that 42% of all the deaths worldwide were death by abortion. And so there's this massive lie and deception about what is important in the world. But this is just the way the secular state always operates. Don't expect anything different from them.

It was that way in Smyrna, and it's always been that way, and it always will be that way. And so what should we do? Well do not fear and be faithful. So the church in Smyrna is an example of this persecuted church and this is reflective of The experiences in the church generally throughout history, persecution drops in at different times in the world. And today, it has dropped into China and Pakistan and Sudan and Nigeria and Indonesia and Iran and India and many other places.

Millions of Christians live in places of the kind of persecution that we're being experienced here in Smyrna. We're being told that more Christians have died at the hands of their persecutors in the 20th and 21st century than any other time in history and we see these astounding things happening even in America we've had very light light afflictions and persecutions churches in New Mexico being fined for meeting churches in California. One church was fined $340, 000, another $112, 000. Grace Community Church has been fined every single week for the last several weeks, where John MacArthur is. There's a church in Canada, a couple of weeks ago, their elders, all six elders were charged $10, 000, but they've escalated the charges to $1.8 million against the church.

$10.8 million against the church, not $1.8. So there are things going on that are squeezing, they haven't really squeezed us here and we're very grateful for that. Robert Murray McShane writing to a suffering friend he said this, some flowers must be broken or bruised before they emit any fragrance. All the wounds of Christ send out sweetness. All the sorrows of Christians do the same.

And so we find this truth about the Church of Jesus Christ, the more she is persecuted, the more she is purified, the more she bears fruit, and the more satisfied she is in her salvation. So the Word of God tells us that that persecution has a strengthening effect on the church and I have several texts to prove that and I just don't have time to walk through the ones that I think would be so helpful to us but just but just know this that a persecuted church is a strong church and we have to change our thinking about persecution I think you know I was meditating on the situation in Smyrna, and it began to occur to me that religious liberty is not always Jesus Christ's first priority for a church. I'll just say that again. Religious liberty is not always Jesus Christ's perfect will for his church. It's not always his will to give the church freedom from persecution.

On the contrary, God through his Son orchestrates the persecution and the Lord seems to have no interest in securing comprehensive religious liberty for his church. He seems to have no interest in it and the history of the church and the history of this church in Smyrna seems to prove it. And by the way I think it's very clear to us who have sent missionaries into this city of Smyrna, modern-day Izmir, we did not send the Carrington's to Turkey to fight for a religious liberty. We did not send them for that purpose. Now we sent them to preach the gospel into planet church because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.

We sent them to seek and save the lost because it's the truth that sets you free. Religious liberty does not set you free. And so I think we should hold up the Church of Smyrna to just remind ourselves not to make a God out of religious liberty and to do everything in our lives to focus on that matter. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth that sets everyone free, whether they're imprisoned or whether they are free. And so religious freedom is not what Christ is fighting for in the nations.

This is man's objective. And I just want to encourage all of us to be very clear about our objectives and the focus of our lives. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the spread of that glorious gospel That is the Lord Jesus's priority and he does it in free countries and he does it in persecuted among persecuted churches If you pour all of your energies in trying to fight for religious liberty then you you may be fighting against God The Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 18 we covered this just a few months ago 1836 Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight So that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here the kingdom of Jesus Christ is not primarily Functionable in a free society it functions everywhere in prison or out of prison You know I last week I was reading a book, I'll recommend it to you, John Flavel, Triumphing Over Sinful Fear. This is a really good book. If anyone has ever struggled with fear, and I know most of us have and most of us do, this is a wonderful help.

Here's what he said in this book. You must mortify your affections to your liberty and take heed of placing too much esteem upon it. In other words, don't make such a big deal about liberty in your life. He says, as sweet as liberty is, there might be more comfort and sweetness in losing it than in keeping it. The prison doors might lock you in, but they cannot lock the comforter out.

Paul and Silas lost their liberty, but not their comfort. They were never as free as when their feet were in stocks. This is the liberty that sets man free in every circumstance This is the love of Jesus Christ. And so the history of the church really testifies that a Persecuted church is a strong church. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5 verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil falsely against you for my name's sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you you know the Apostle Peter said a very similar thing in 1st Peter chapter 4. In fact, if you read 1st Peter, he addresses persecution in chapter 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5, because this is a common experience of the church. He says, beloved do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings that when his glory is revealed you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified." So the church in Smyrna is a persecuted church.

So the first item that I wanted to cover is this persecuted church. And then second, I'd like to look at Christ's assurances for the suffering church. And I want to identify four assurances that are in this text for the suffering church. And the first assurance is really a reminder that they are cared for. He reminds them what's really happening behind the scenes.

And so he says, enter the angel of the church in Smyrna, right? So the Lord is reminding them either that they have an angel that's watching over them or they have messengers they have they have shepherds who are caring for them either one of those is true as you know I I rather think he's talking about angels In Hebrews we learn that they are ministering spirits sent to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation And then what we need to know is that while Jesus is reigning the angels are Serving you know the angels rescued lot They were with Daniel in the lion's den. When Elisha was being attacked by Angel, by Syria, There were angels all across the mountains full of horses and chariots, chariots of fire all around Elisha. And guess what? The angels were riding the horses.

And so I think he's reminding them that they are cared for. The church has an angel and it's either the angels or it's either the shepherds sent to care for them. You know a long time ago when I had little kids in my house I loved to sing them a song and it goes like this all night all day angels watching over me my Lord Now I lay me down to sleep, angels watching over me." And I would sing over and over again, angels watching, angels watching, angels watching over me. The Lord assures his church that they are being watched. There are the watchers.

More about that later. There's a lot in Revelation about angels. We'll get to that. The second assurance is that he encourages them with the knowledge of the weight that they are bearing. He knows what's happening.

He knows the weight and he says, I know your works, tribulation, and poverty, but you are rich and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Now notice there's a triad. We find these triads all over the book of Revelation and here we have your works, your tribulation, and your poverty. So those those three things and his eye, his eye, he knows, he sees it all. His eyes are like a flame of fire.

He's everlastingly old and wise and he is watching over his church and he's not distant and they're not forgotten. He says that he knows their works, he's mindful of their thoughts and their deeds, he knows exactly what they're doing every day. You're never alone if you know the Lord Jesus Christ. He always knows everything, he's always with you. He said I'll never leave you or forsake you.

But it says here that he also knows the tribulation. This word tribulation, it means pressures. He knows their pressures. The word tribulation just literally means what's a word picture? It's a picture of pressure, something pressing down.

And the word was used really to describe an ancient method of torture where the tortured one would have a heavy weight put on his chest and it would press him down and then a heavier weight that would press further and then a heavier weight until finally he was no longer able to breathe the pressure became so great and it would finally cause the torture to kill him And so the Lord Jesus is identifying weights or pressures. And there are four pressures, there are four weights that are mentioned in this text, four of them. And the first is poverty, the second is blasphemy or slander, the third is imprisonment, and the fourth is death. These are weights. These are pressures on the church.

And I think, you know, every church and every Christian should ask, what weights and pressures are there on me? And What do I do about them? And so the first weight of pressure was poverty. Poverty is a weight. And most likely because they would not participate in the activities surrounding the worship of the gods, that they were put out of the trade guilds, this was very common, and they weren't able to find employment the way that everyone else would.

But this kind of poverty that he's speaking of is a distinctive kind of poverty. There are a couple of different words that describe poverty, Greek words. And this word describes a profound poverty, the kind of poverty where you don't have anything. There's the kind of poverty that's described where you don't have much. That's not this word.

Here, you don't have anything. And he says that he knows their poverty, they had a complete lack of goods. And you know as we're trying to think biblically about our lives and life in this world, we need to recognize that in the Word of God, some of our greatest heroes were in poverty. The book of Hebrews illustrates the poverty of the persecuted in chapter 10 verse 34, But recall the former days in which, after you were eliminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Therefore, do not cast away your confidence." So they lost their possessions. They were plundered. And This seems to be what had happened in Smyrna as well and And many of God's people have been impoverished because of their faith, particularly because of their preaching. Richard Baxter, a pastor in England, was prohibited from preaching by the governing authorities. Baxter refused to stop preaching, just like John Bunyan, the same time zone.

And the authorities came to take his possessions and they took his bed and they took his clothing and they took his cooking utensils and they took his animals and they even took his hay but his wife his wife he had a cagey wife she hid his library and they didn't get to his library but the truth the truth is that the church in Smyrna was facing poverty. But the Lord reminds them about the other side of their poverty. Because in the kingdom of heaven, poor can mean rich as well. He says but you are rich and So the Lord Always comes with compensating Kindnesses that's the way Joel Biki explained it that the Lord compensates by making you rich in spiritual wealth. James 5 reminds us, James 2 5 reminds us, God has not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.

Moses saw the riches of Egypt when he came of age and It says that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he looked to the reward. It's often treasures that keep us from faithfulness. We're afraid to lose what we've been given. In Mark chapter 10 verse 29 Jesus instructs Peter in a moment where he realized that following Jesus might mean poverty And he said, see we've left everything and followed you. And Jesus answered and said, surely I say to you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels who shall not receive a hundred fold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life but many who are first will be last and the last first so the Christians in Smyrna they had an internal and eternal storehouses of riches.

And these riches would go with them wherever they went, even in their poverty. So, you remember what God said to the rich man who built more barns? He said that he was rich toward the things of this world but not rich toward God. So persecution is always challenging the rich. You're challenged with what you have.

And the question is, are you willing to lose it all? You know, Martin Luther wrote a song, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, where he said, let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still, his kingdom is forever. So The first weight was the weight of poverty and then there's the weight of slander in verse 9. Slander or blasphemy. Slander is a weighty pressure and the true church is often being slandered by the false church.

A Greek dictionary tells me that this is the strongest word that relates to personal mockery. So there are, there were slanders that were coming against the church at this time. They were accused of being cannibals, accused of being promiscuous, accused of being anti-family, accused of being atheists and revolutionaries and arsonists. They were blamed for the fire in Rome. That was Nero.

And of course this persecution was coming from the Jews later on the persecution would rise from the Greeks and the Romans. Polycarp would fall in that persecution. Polycarp was a pastor in the Church of Smyrna and it's a remarkable beautiful story. You should read the story of Polycarp. But the devil always wants to ridicule the church.

You know that cultural Marxist organizer, Saul Alinsky, he said, ridicule is man's most potent weapon. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. That's what the devil does to the church. And it shouldn't surprise us that believers are referred to the way that they are referred to. Believers are called all kinds of names.

We are extremists. We are intolerant. We're sexist. We're misogynist. We are racist.

We're homophobic. We're xenophobic. We're bigots. We're cisheteropatriarchalists. We're scapegoated in every possible way.

And get used to it, that's the way it's always been, and don't worry about it. The Lord tells you what to do about it here in this passage of Scripture. So the second weight was the weight of slander and the third weight is the weight of prison. Prison in verse 10. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison.

He says, indeed. In other words, prison is something that is not just a possibility, it's a reality. And of course, I think the language makes it clear that all of them wouldn't be thrown in prison all of them wouldn't be killed for their faith, but there would be some and and Here the devil is given authority to throw some of the Christians in Smyrna in prison You know the Bible has many of our heroes in prison. Joseph, Sampson, Jeremiah, Micaiah, Zedekiah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Peter, James, John, Silas, Paul, Epaphras, Eric, Starkus, and Juni. I read last week that 40% of Chinese pastors have been imprisoned over the last three years.

Yeah, I don't know if you saw this story. I think it made everyone smile. A few months ago, John MacArthur was threatened with six months in jail by LA County, and he was asked if he was worried about being thrown in prison. And he said, my biblical hero apart from the Lord Jesus Christ is the Apostle Paul, and when he went into a town he didn't ask what the hotel was like he asked what the jail was like because he knew that's where he was going to spend his time so I don't mind being a little apostolic so if they want to tuck me into jail I'm open for jail ministry I've done lots of ministries but I haven't had the opportunity to do that one. So bring it on.

Paul Carrington was listening to someone recount that the Apostle Paul always lived under totalitarian regimes. In other words, it wasn't God's will for Paul to live under religious liberty. He grew up in the reign of... He was born under the reign of Augustus Caesar. He grew up in the reign of, he was born under the reign of Augustus Caesar, he grew up in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, he became a working aged man in the reign of Caligula, he became an apostle in the reign of Claudius, and he died in Rome in the reign of Nero.

So it's very clear that the first priority of Jesus Christ and his church is not religious liberty. I think we have all praised God for religious liberty. I think we should pray for more of it. But let's don't hang on to it too tightly. And give our souls to getting distracted over religious liberty.

So he knows the pressure and it's actually a pressure that is fomented by the devil. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison. There is a personal devil. He is an angelic being. And in Revelation chapter 12 verse 17 we learn that the devil is waging war against the saints.

So there really is a sort of a sense of the doctrine of the devil here even in this passage of scripture and there's a vicious enemy and by the way the vicious enemy is not the Democrats. The vicious enemy is something far more dangerous. He's a deceiver, he's immoral, he's a liar, he came to kill and steal and destroy. He makes war against the saints and he hates the truth. This is the force behind what is dangerous in the world and the devil was activating the Jews and the Romans to persecute the church And the purpose is that you may be tested.

In other words, it's persecution is for testing. It tests our mettle. It shows whether we have true faith. It shows whether we've been hypocrites. It shows whether we've been trusting in the world and our riches.

It shows so many things. Suffering is one of the most important tools that God brings to his people to purify them and to help them to be weaned from the things of this world. But he speaks about the duration of this. You'll have tribulation 10 days. Now let me just start this discussion by saying we don't really know exactly what this means.

I mean, is it 10 years? Is it 10 periods? Is it an undefined long period? Is it an undefined short period? Is it a literal 10 days?

I don't know. I think the safest thing to say is that it's an appointed time and it's a limited time. It's appointed by God and it's limited by God. And then the fourth pressure, death. Be faithful until death.

So these pressures, poverty and slander and prison and then now death. Some of them may die. They all won't die but some of them will. And so, you know, this is all in the context of assurances. He knows.

The Lord is saying, I know, I know your poverty. I know your slander. I know your imprisonment. I know that some of you will die." He says, I know that. He's assuring his church that he knows everything about what they're going to experience.

And then the third assurance is that he affirms them that he's everlasting. He says, I am the first and the last. I am the first and the last I am the first and the last meaning he's the ruler of time he contains time he is the containment manager of the universe and you know we use the word containment to describe something that's under control and What we find here is that He holds you in his right hand. He's the first and the last. He's before everything and after everything and everything in between.

So he's encouraging the church that he's really the master planner of all of these things. And he's the governor of everything you've ever experienced or ever will experience from the first moment of your life in the womb to your last breath he's the first and the last and he covers everything in between and I don't know what you're in between is looking like right now, but you do, but know this, the Lord is the first and the last and he's got you covered for everything that's happening right now in between. So this is not unusual terminology in the Bible. It's really taken from the prophet Isaiah. The Lord is quoting Isaiah.

He's quoting Isaiah 41 and 44 and 48. I am the first and the last. So he lasts. Your wealth might not last, your company might not last, your nation might not last, your things might not last, your favor might not last, but Jesus Christ is the first and the last. So he's trying to comfort his people with all these things.

The fourth assurance, he encourages them really with sympathy. He says, I was dead and came to life. I was dead and came to life. He's just told them that some of them will be dead. He says, no I was dead and I came to life.

This is a word of sympathy on the one hand but it's also a word about salvation. His death and resurrection, when you believe you have life. And Jesus Christ came to live and to suffer and die and he gave his life as a sacrifice for sins and he he died and you know often we think that the Lord Jesus has come to fix our problems that you know it means he came to heal my broken heart, he came to deal with my anger, he came to deal with my lust, you know he came to fix me and of course the Spirit of God does these things in many ways But our greatest problem isn't really that we need to be fixed. Our greatest problem is that we have the wrath of God upon us, that we've offended God, that we are sinful through and through, that we have original sin and we deserve to be thrown into hell. But Jesus Christ is saying, no, I will die so that you do not have to die.

I'll suffer so that you do not suffer. I will be slapped so that you won't be slapped for your sins. I will be dishonored so that you won't be dishonored and I will die so that you do not die." So he's comforting them with these realities. One writer said, we should never forget that redemption, the world's greatest blessing, is the fruit of the world's greatest sorrow, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you have these four assurances.

He reminds them that they're being cared for, they have their angels watching over. The second assurances, he encourages them that he knows of the weight that they're bearing, these four weights that they're bearing. And thirdly, he assures them that he is the first and the last and then he assures them that he has sympathy and he was dead and came to life and that will be their legacy as well. So then the Lord turns to commands. So we've seen this picture of the suffering church, we've seen his assurances toward his church And then he brings commands to the church.

These are in verse 10. There are two commands. We've been speaking about them all along. I think they're the theme of the whole section. Do not fear and be faithful.

So what are you supposed to do? Do not fear any of these things which you are about to suffer. Don't fear the poverty, don't fear the prison, don't fear the slander, Don't fear the death. Be free. You can be free in this world.

You don't know what's going to happen. God is orchestrating it. Fear doesn't help in that sense. By the way, John Flavel talks about there are some legitimate kinds of fear and he explains it so beautifully, But that's not the kind of fear he's talking about here. So identify what you're afraid of.

Don't fear those who kill the body. You know, Job said, the thing I feared the most happened to me. You know, we're always dealing with our fears in this world. And so he tells us what to do. Do not fear.

You know, there are things that a healthy, godly fear would lead you to do. Like for example, if you think that perhaps someday your children might be taken away from you, You might really do a good job teaching your children. You might nourish them in the word like never before. You might escalate your intensity if you thought you might lose your children. Have you ever thought about that?

There are a lot of things that could happen, but there are things that you can do now, and that really brings us to the next command. Be faithful. Do the things that God has called you to do. Pray. Read your Bible.

Build up the Church of Jesus Christ, honor your parents, obey the Lord, love your spouse, teach your children, just do the things that God has commanded you to do. He's given you everything you need for life and godliness. So do those things. Do them with all of your heart. Be faithful, be faithful unto death.

Just keep doing the things that God has told you to do. You don't have to invent anything. You don't have to be jerked around by all the news. Just keep doing the things that God has called you to do. Just keep doing them day after day.

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and work with your own hands, and glorify God in your home and in your church and in your work. And just keep doing it and just keep following Jesus Christ and he will take care of you in the way that glorifies him the most. It's astonishing to me how comforting it is to know that we know what to do and God has already given it to us. It is such a blessing. And that's why he says, he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

And then he ends with the promise, he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. Now we turn to the doctrine of hell in this in this text. You have the first death and the second death. The first death is the death of your body. The second death is eternal death, the damnation of your soul in hell.

And he holds that up as a reminder of the danger it is to fear and not to be faithful. And he's answering what will happen when you die. Four times the second death is mentioned in Revelation. In Revelation 20 verse 14, then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, Revelation 21, 8.

And he said, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. I will be his God and he shall be my son, but the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable murderers, sexually immoral, immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death that's the second death and the Christian will never be hurt by the second death because Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. So you will not be hurt by the second death if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved and you trust in his substitutionary atonement. So here we are. The Lord is preparing a church to mix it up with the dragon.

And we shouldn't be unaware of the dangers that are there. But we should also be aware that we have two really important things to do. And that is to throw off fear and to be faithful and just keep doing the things that you've been called to do. So as we're learning to think biblically about everything, regardless of what the world thinks, we're being brought to another very culturally discordant principle and that is suffering is prescribed by God, choreographed by God, meant to strengthen the church and purify it and actually make her happier because she trusts in the Lord. Samuel Rutherford was very helpful to shepherd his church through the persecutions they experienced and he wrote this, oh what I owe to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus.

In other words, it was the file and the hammer were helpful to him. They made him happier. And so it is, so it is with us. So I think the net of this whole thing is do not fear and be faithful. Do the things that God has commanded you to do and keep doing them by faith.

I'll close with Revelation 1 3. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Would you pray with me? Father, your word is very deep. It's very beautiful.

It's very real. It tells us the truth about life. And we're so thankful that you've delivered it to us. Pray that you would use these words to prepare our hearts for whatever might come. We thank you that you're the one that's in control.

And we thank you that you've called us to be a fearless people and faithful. Amen. Thanks for watching!