This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
We need to be praying for our brothers and sisters, and I know
sometimes we don't. We're thinking so much about
here and now, my life and my family, my church, whatever my
community, my city, and we need to be praying for those things.
But we need to ask God to give us a mind to pray for those who
are being persecuted right now. There's more Christians who have
been martyred over the last 50 years and all the history of
martyrdom from the beginning of the Church age.
That's hard to believe. We don't hear about that on the
nightly news. I personally don't watch much of
the news anymore. I can't remember the last time I
was encouraged by watching the news, but there was plenty of
information available online. Whether it's genocide in Nigeria
or persecution in China, Christians are being killed for
their faith. Pastor Clark explains today that
we in the United States are privileged not to face the
intense persecution that other believers deal with.
We bear the responsibility to pray for them continually.
We must be prayerfully supporting our brothers and
sisters now. Here's Pastor Clark in
Revelation Chapter 2 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. And to the Angel of the Church
of Smyrna, right these things, says the 1st 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's about to
throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you
will have tribulation 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I
will give you the crown of life. The Church of Ephesus was a very
good church, but it had one problem.
It had left its first love. It no longer had passion and
zeal and focus on their relationship with Jesus.
And so when we're studying these churches, I don't want you just
to think about the churches back way back then, but think about
the churches that also exist today.
How are we similar in some ways to these very churches we're
studying? And that we we talked last week
about the importance of having our first love restored with the
Lord, that we're close to him, that that we're in love with him
and that we want to follow him and, and seek his face and live
in a way that's pleasing to him. We need the Lord to rekindle
that love moment by moment, don't we?
It's something we have to work at.
It's something we have to be asking the Lord to do in our
hearts because if we don't, we get cold.
All of us. We we drift.
And so Ephesus was a good, good lesson for us.
Jesus said repent and go back and do your first work, lest I
come and remove the lampstand or the light of influence from that
particular local church. Now, Smyrna is a completely
different type of church and when we study these seven
churches, some are really messed up and some are actually being
faithful in the midst of a very, very difficult time of
tribulation. 2 churches that weren't actually even been given
the admonition to repent was Smyrna in the Philadelphia
church in Philadelphia. Those two churches weren't given
the admonition that Ephesus was and some of the others.
But Smyrna, just for a little bit geographical background
here. It's the modern city of Izmir
today, which is a gateway into modern Turkey.
It was a beautiful, splendid city, was actually the most
beautiful city at that particular time, had the highest
population of Jews and and Asia Minor, and it was the only 7,
only one of seven of the churches we're studying that's
actually still in existence today.
It's not called Smyrna anymore, it's called Izmir.
It also was a city that had been destroyed prior to all this
event occurring as we're studying here in Revelation
approximately 7700 years earlier.
This particular city was destroyed and, and the laden
ruins for about 300 years and then it was rebuilt,
reestablished and it became just an amazing city of influence,
gateway city, as I said, into the modern day country of
Turkey. It's the most brief of all the
letters. I when I was starting to study
this, I said, well, boy, I'm, I'm not going to have enough
information here. It's only going to take about 10
minutes. I'm going to have to go into
program this after I got into this.
No way that I run out of information.
It's just amazing all the things that are written down about the
what happened with this particular church.
So even though it's very, very brief, only a few verses, very,
very powerful things to say to us, these believers in verse 9
says, he says, I know your works, your tribulation and
poverty, they were going through really difficult times.
Now for you today, it might be hard for you to wrap your mind
around what that would be like in your situation right now.
All of us have trials in our lives, right?
Some degree of trial and tribulation.
Not one of us here doesn't have something they're they're going
through or thinking through how you going to get past it, how
you going to deal with it, How you going to have the wisdom to
know how to be influenced in the godly way through whatever it is
that you might personally be going through individually.
But the tribulation that these folks were going through is much
more difficult than than what we're going through.
They were basically being assaulted for their faith in
Christ. They were being thrown in
prison. They were being beat.
Many of them died as martyrs for their faith.
They were, because of their faith, not given the opportunity
to earn a living. It would be like the companies
that we work for today, that if they found out we were
Christians, they would say you don't have a job unless you
forsake and curse Christ. That's how tough it was.
And because of that, the people were very poor.
They didn't have much in the material wealth that we have
been given the privilege to experience in our culture, our
country. They were plundered and deprived
of their right to work. And you think about living in
those days. And I tried to think about some
countries that are actually going through that right now as
we speak. And I think of Indonesia.
It's a beautiful, beautiful country, but it's basically
overrun by Muslim rule. If you're found to be a
believer, you will possibly be martyred and killed for your
faith. Sudan, Nigeria, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Iran, many, many of these countries as we speak are going
through these kind of times. So we need to be praying for our
brothers and sisters. And I know sometimes we don't.
We're thinking so much about here and now, my life and my
family and my church, whatever, my community, my city.
And we need to be praying for those things.
But we need to ask God to give us a mind to pray for those who
are being persecuted right now. There's more Christians who have
been martyred over the last 50 years and all the history of
martyrdom from the beginning of the Church age.
And it's hard to believe we don't hear about that on the
nightly news. We'll hear about other types of
atrocities, but you don't hear a lot from your local newscaster,
your major television affiliates telling you that Christians are
being martyred in many of these countries, China and other
countries. It's been very, very difficult
to live in as a as a believer. We're still given the privilege
in our country to have freedom of religion.
We have the right to assemble, to worship and to proclaim
Christ in the media. We still have that privilege and
the print, television, radio, we also have the ability to
communicate our faith even in our places of employment.
And that's a privilege I think so often that we take for
granted. John was teaching us this
morning and he said, you know, we should be praying that God
would give us one person in our life this week that we might be
able to share the gospel with and really be thankful that we
have the privilege and we can do that without fear of being in
prison, right? Yet these people in these
countries and the folks in Smyrna, because of the
persecution and because of the rules and the laws of Caesar,
they spoke about their faith in Christ anyway.
They didn't care if they lost their job.
They didn't care if they were thrown into prison or beaten or
even killed for their faith. And as I read that, I say, Lord,
where's my heart and all this? If I was put in a situation
right now, today, tomorrow, next week, where I had to lose my job
because of my stand for Christ, would I be willing to stand up
for my faith? We all say, yeah, we would.
But when we're in that situation, only God knows what
our hearts would actually do, right?
But I believe that God gives us grace in the midst of the times,
of the trials and the tribulations.
We don't have the ability, so to speak, to think I'm tough, I'm a
strong Christian, I can handle anything.
I'll do this. That's foolish.
But to realize, Lord help me, if I'm ever put in a situation like
these folks in Smyrna, that I'll be found faithful to the end,
not relying upon my strength, but upon the strength that only
you can give me. And that's called dying grace.
Many of the martyrs, when they gave their lives for Christ,
they were freaking out up until the moment that they were taken
to the torches. And once they were tied up and
the fire was being lit and being lit, many of them said.
And before they died, there was such a sense of God's presence
and peace that they were excited about what was waiting for them
on the other side of this world. And that's the grace of God
provided for us, I believe, in the time of our most desperate
need. There was one minister at that
time, a very famous church father.
You might have read about him as you studied church history and
approximately 155. His name is Polycarp and he was
a minister, but that later on after these days of Smyrna.
But this persecution continued intensely up until the 3rd
century until Constantine saw this vision in the sky of a
cross. And he said he heard this voice
saying by this you'll conquer. And that's when he became a
Christian and he made Christianity the religion of the
provinces at that time. And so the persecution stopped.
That was a wonderful thing in some ways.
But when the persecution stops, what happens is a church has a
tendency to then become lukewarm and cold.
That's just the way it is. But anyway, Polycarp, he was
given this edict that he had to come into the Colosseum.
It was during the times of The Olympian Games, similar to like
right now what we have going on in Canada.
And it was accustomed that he would have to or Christians,
anybody, they'd have to give allegiance to Caesar, basically
say Caesar is Lord. And there was no way Polycarp
was going to do that. He refused.
And so the crowds are crying out in the Coliseum for Polycarp
because he was very influential at the time.
Everybody knew his faith and how he lived.
And they're all thinking like this guy, he's not going to
stand for his faith when it's going to possibly cost him his
life. This is what he replied whenever
they told him you curse Christ, you make a sacrifice of Caesar
or you die. This is what a polycarp said. 86
years have I served him and he has done me no wrong.
How can I blasphemy my king who saved me and he was burned at
the stake by the Romans and Jews?
How awesome. What an example to us of a hero
in the faith. And so Jesus is encouraging them
as he speaks to his church in Smyrna, He says to them that he
is the 1st and the last who was dead and he came to life.
So he's speaking to those who are facing martyrdom.
He's saying, think about this, they crucified me, they killed
me, but the grave could not hold me.
The grave won't hold you guys either.
If you're believers in Christ, no matter how you die, no matter
what happens in your life, whether it's just your natural
death, old age or disease or a tragedy or maybe for someone day
martyrdom. We don't have to fear or worry
because as Christ has been risen from the dead, we also shall
rise in newness of life. And so he's speaking to them
comfort and he says in verse 10 about the sacrifice that he
made, He said don't fear the things that you're about to
suffer and the deed. The devil's about to throw some
of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have
tribulation for 10 days. What Christ went through for you
and me that the death of the tomb couldn't hold him.
We read about that in the the Gospels during our daily Bible
reading. I mean, they sealed that tomb
up. They sent the soldiers there
because they heard, hey, this guy, supposedly he's, they say
he's going to raise. We've heard them say this about
him. He said this about himself.
So this would be on the safe side.
Get down and really seal that tomb.
I mean, a huge rock was, was pushed in front of it.
How in the world you'd ever get that thing off would be a
miracle in itself. But the seal, it made it
impossible to do anything with that.
I mean, that was a done deal. And yet that sealed tomb, that
big stone couldn't hold him, could it?
He walked out the third day and he was seen by over 500
witnesses. He was alive from the dead.
So he's encouraging them to be faithful and death.
Don't, don't fear. He's exhorting them.
Be faithful until death. And he says you'll be crowned
with the reward of life. And you think about the trials.
He says, I know your works, your tribulation, your poverty.
Sometimes we think about trials. Why do we have them?
We all go through them. But there's nothing like trials
to purify us, is there? There's nothing like difficulty
in life to get us on our face and say, Lord, help me.
And that's humility. When a trial comes, God allows
it because he knows it's going to bring us closer to him.
Now we're freaking out. We don't like it.
We want it to go away as quickly as possible.
He understands our frame, our weakness.
But he says don't be afraid that the trying of your faith works.
Patience, try. Your faith will make you like
me, and you'll shine like pure gold.
If we're going to be glorified together with him, the apostle
Peter tells us, we also have to suffer with him.
And we always have to remember all of us, that in the midst of
the trials and the struggles of life, God is with us, isn't he?
He always is with us. He promises He'll never leave us
or forsake us. Sometimes we feel like, God,
where are you? I felt like that at times.
I'm sure you have too. You're going through something.
You're like, Lord, where are you in all this?
But he's there, He's always there.
He promises never to leave us. He walks through it with us.
I like what Psalm 32 says. He says, behold, the eye of the
Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy
to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive and in
falling. Our soul waits for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield for our heart shall rejoice in
him because we have trusted in his holy name.
Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us just as we hope in you.
He says that in these trials, in the midst of these trials,
they're rich. And James says in chapter 2,
verse 5, listen my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the
poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom
which He promised to them who love him?
I think about the Christians in Haiti.
You've seen him on TV, haven't you?
They have lost everything. They didn't have anything to
begin with. One of the most poor countries
in the world. They have this horrendous
earthquake that wipes out over 200,000 people.
Many of them lost their children, their spouses, their
loved ones, their friends, and I was blown away to see them
assembling together, raising their hands and worshipping God.
Poor, inheriting the Kingdom of God.
He speaks about the adversary, the devil, and he is a real
being. He is interested in destroying
all of our lives. The Bible tells us the devil has
come to seek and to kill and to rob and to destroy.
He is involved in this world every day to keep it from
knowing the truth of Jesus Christ.
He is sending his emissaries out all the time to prevent you and
me from growing in the grace and the knowledge of God.
He wants us to be stunted, immature Christians.
He wants us to live without our inheritance in this world, not
experiencing the Kingdom of God within.
He'll do everything he can to destroy your faith.
The Lord allows him to work. That's the mystery.
And the purposes of God are sometimes very, very complex for
our human frail minds to understand.
But the Bible tells us that God's ways aren't our ways.
Neither are his thoughts. Our thoughts, for his ways are
so much higher than our ways, and His thoughts so much higher
than ours. There's a purpose in all these
things, and God is ultimately glorified.
And one day this enemy of our souls and the enemy of the
Kingdom of God will be one day in that final judgment, pass
into the lake of fire forever and ever, never to bother or
hassle anyone again. But he's always working to
trouble the church. His big focus is to destroy the
Church of Jesus Christ. The good news is Jesus Christ
says I will build my church and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it. The enemy can take everybody
out, but it can't stop the work of God moving on.
And many of these people had given their lives in this day
and Smyrna for the sake of the gospel, but it hasn't stopped
the movement of the gospel. 2000 years later.
He speaks about these people that are enemies of God and
they're tools of the devil. It says these folks say they are
Jews and they are not two different kind of Jews.
Jews that have a heart for Messiah, Jews who are waiting.
Jews even at the time of Christ crucifixion were sensitive, even
though they couldn't understand that he at this time was the one
they were waiting for. They had a vulnerable, a
vulnerability of softness. Many of them eventually did come
to believe on Christ because the early church was made-up
primarily of Jews and they carried the worship of the
synagogue right into the New Testament.
Many of the symbolism and the pictures and the art and the
design of the priestly garments and robes were carried through
from the Jewish temple. It's interesting as we're
reading right now in Exodus, isn't it the, the, the specific
detail on how God wanted that Tabernacle built, the colors,
the, the length of the, the material that was used, the
embroidery and the, the symbolism, the type at this,
this mind blowing of the, of the beauty of, of God and, and his
Kingdom, his church. But there were obviously as
there is today, not any Jews but Gentiles who cannot stand the
gospel of Christ and they are the enemies of the gospel.
I would say organizations like the ACLU.
They are dead set against our freedoms as Christians and the
message that we proclaim the person we believe in and trust
in his Lord and Savior. Many, many people today on the
liberal side of the agenda that are pushing all these teachings
of of really ungodliness are against what we do here and what
we do as churches in these last days, standing on the Scriptures
and teaching the word of God and so.
Because of the large population of Jews in Smyrna, the
Christians were really overrun by all these people that wanted
to destroy them. It was a tough place to be a
Christian in. They were the main enemies of
the gospel. Verse 10 he says to them again,
don't fear these things which you are about to suffer.
Luke chapter 12, verse 4, Jesus says to the disciples, My
friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that
have no more that they can do, but fear the one who has the
power to cast 1 into hell. So Christ himself reminding us
that we're not to fear what man can do to us.
You know, there's this element of fear that we all have, a fear
of disease, fear of failure, fear of financial ruin, fear of
losing jobs. We all, we all struggle with a
certain type of fear, but a fear of knowing that you're in the
jail cell tonight. This is your last night on
earth. And you know, tomorrow you're
going to be thrown to the lions or you're going to have your
head cut off because of your faith.
And you're probably walking around pacing in the cell
saying, Lord, I really believe you.
But I really have to go through this.
Is there another way out of this?
You know, would you mind if I just, you know, I really believe
in you, but would you mind if I just told him I didn't?
I'm sure those things would go through all of our minds and our
hearts, especially when our families, maybe we're at home
and we knew that we wouldn't see them again until the next life.
The struggle of having to wait for the Lord to bring everything
to a final culmination in the last day.
But I think about martyrs. I think about Stephen, the first
martyr in the New Testament in Acts Chapter 7.
This is what happened after he's being accused of treason and
he's speaking out and proclaiming the gospel with all
his heart, all his mind, all his soul is strength.
Such conviction and fervor and love in his heart for the people
he's speaking to. He's speaking to them about who
Jesus is and what he did for them.
It says that people were so angry they clenched their teeth.
They just like, let me add them, let me get rid of them, just
like they wanted to get rid of Christ.
And it says, but he being full of the Holy Spirit.
And that's the key, guys. No matter what we're going
through in life, the struggles, the fears, the anxieties, the
pressures at work or home or wherever, when we are filled
with the Holy Spirit, we're overcomers.
But when we're filled with our own vanity and pride and our own
fear, we're basket cases. Stephen's full of the Holy
Spirit. He gazes into heaven and God
gives him a vision. He sees the glory of God and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
I love that Christ stood up. He it says right now he's seated
at the right hand of Father ever living to make intercession for
us his Saints day and night. He's praying for us all the
time. But there's a limit, isn't
there? What he's going to allow to
happen to his kids. And so he sees what's going on
with Steven and he couldn't help but to stand up.
And one day he's going to stand up and not only stand up, but
come back and put all things in order, and he's going to destroy
wickedness from the face of the earth, and no one will ever
raise their hand and one of his children again.
What a day that'll be, huh? When are Jesus?
We shall see when we look into his face, the one who saved us
by his grace, the old song, What a day, glorious day that will
be. And so Jesus, he stands in the
right hand of the Father. And Stephen says, look, I see
the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right
hand of God. Thanks for being with us today
here on Living Waters of Grace. We're in the Book of Revelation,
and we find it fascinating how influential and involved the
angels are in this book. They bring about whatever it is
that God has instructed them to do, but it's through their
actions that much of the judgements come on the earth.
The angels are in submission to God as their authority, but He
utilizes them in unique ways throughout this book.
Like angels have a specific purpose from God, you have a
unique purpose and plan too. God wants to use you in your
life as a testimony to others and to bring others who are
currently lost into the fold of God.
God would love more than anything for all who are willing
to come to Him for salvation, but He wants it to be their
choice, not a forced situation. This is the way God works, not
forcing himself on anyone, but giving each person free will.
If you're interested in learning about this choice that's free
and that it's a gift, go to calvarychapelonline.com and
click on the About Us tab and then find the link for what we
believe. We'd love to be a help and a
resource for you as you walk through what it means to be a
follower of Jesus. If you find the contact tab on
our website, you can get in touch with us or submit a prayer
request. We'd love to hear from you.
That's all for today's edition and Revelation, but there's much
more that Pastor Clark plans to share with us from this
culminating book of the Bible. Stay tuned for that and make
sure to mention this radio program to others.
Invite them to tune into Grace FM 91.7 FM.
They can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.
This has been Living Waters of Grace.