Dear friends,
60 miles north of Ephesus was another church facing tribulation, poverty and slander. It was one of three places that could claim to be the first city of Asia, probably taking its name from the expensive myrrh it was famed for producing. One of John’s proteges lived there, the young Polycarp, who would go on to die a martyr’s death.
Revelation 2:9 records a reaction our SOMA teams in their learning cohorts often have when they visit parts of the Global South. Like Smyrna, many cities have a burgeoning middle class and pockets of extreme affluence, but most of the people we minister with are not from those classes. And yet teams come back saying they have seen great (spiritual) riches where first all they could see was poverty.
My mind is often taken back to two homes in Romania. I visited in 1995 and 1997. One was a pastor’s home, where the church planting father-of-two had to grow his own food to survive, and yet offered a welcome and love that blew me away. The other was a home in Tichilești, Tulcea leper colony. A preventable disease, the colony was gradually dying out, but 1 in 4 had remarkably become joy-filled, born again Christians. We visited a simple shack with the grandson of the resident pastor, whose arms were dishevelled with the effects of his disease, but whose home seemed like a portal to heaven. I kept a photo of that hut on my wall for years. A man who lived a simple peasant life of poverty, and yet was rich indeed.
With John as his scribe, Jesus wrote to this beloved church in Smyrna, his core message: ‘Do not fear’:
‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. ’ [Rev 2:9].
They faced four trials:
- Current tribulation
- Poverty
- Slander (from religious critics)
- The threat of further suffering
We learn that the coming suffering has a spiritual origin. That the devil is behind the trials, tests and tribulations they are about to face.
‘Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.’ [Rev 2:10].
Note: Jesus does not give them this revelation so that they can engage in ‘strategic level spiritual warfare’ against Satan and his foes. He doesn’t tell them to ‘bind the spiritual powers over Smyrna’, or ‘come against the enemy’. He tells them simply to prepare them. We live in an era where the enemy strikes back. But it is an era that is passing. As Jesus said to John and the other disciples before he himself went to the cross:
‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ [Jn 16:33].
In fact, we learn that a quick fix and victory is not in the plan for the Smyrnan disciples at all. The tribulation, poverty, and slander they have faced up to this point will be eclipsed – by death.
Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. [Rev 2:11a].
65 years later that same Polycarp made his way into a Roman arena to face his martyrdom. A voice came to him from heaven, saying: “Be strong, Polycarp.” No one saw who had spoken, but the brothers who were there heard the voice. Just as for Jesus in Gethsemane there was no angelic rescue on the cards, but there was a divine masterplan.
Days before his arrest, Polycarp had been in prayer day and night for the people and churches of the world. While praying, he had a vision of the pillow under his head in flames. Like Paul in Acts 21:14, he took this as a prophetic preparation that he would die for his faith – burnt alive. When men came to arrest him he could have escaped but he refused saying, “God’s will be done.” He asked for an hour to pray, and arranged food for his captors while they waited. They agreed, and he stood and prayed, so full of the grace of God, that he could not stop for two hours.
The proconsul believed the Christians to be ‘atheists’ as they did not believe in and worship the Roman gods. He tried to persuade Polycarp to apostatise, saying, “Have respect for your old age, swear by the fortune of Caesar. Repent, and say, ‘Down with the Atheists!’” But Polycarp looked at the baying crowd, and gestured towards them, “Down with the Atheists!”
When the Proconsul urged him again to reproach Christ, and be set free, Polycarp famously responded: “86 years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”
Such faith is still evident around the world today. Many people we meet with SOMA have lived that faith out.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to attend the SOMA International board meeting. We met in Kigali, Rwanda just after the Global Anglican Futures Conference, to which we were invited guests. To my surprise (and the surprise of many in the English delegation) it was the most charismatic conference I had been to in years, full of miraculous stories of God breaking through around the communion, as well as passionate worship.
One speaker, Yassir Eric, was a convert from Islam. He shared how his parents had buried an empty coffin and had a full funeral service for him in their Sudanese village when he was converted. As he left the village he visited the site. In his grief he felt a hand on his shoulder comforting him. Then a voice spoke from behind:
‘Why are you looking in your grave. You are not there, I am not in my grave either. Follow me.’
Yassir is now an Anglican Bishop. He has told his story of conversion in the video below. It’s well worth the watch. A key element was a South Sudanese university student who was the only Christian in the school. Zechariah sat next to Yassir, but Yassir hated him for his culture, tribe and religion, and ‘caused him lots of problems,’ beating him daily.
But he couldn’t help but see that Zechariah was ‘so nice and so smart’ and ‘morally the best one in the class’ even when abused and picked on by his muslim classmates. ‘You insult him, he says nice things to you. You do bad things to him, he is not hitting back.’ Having thought that Christians were evil and immoral this was a challenge to him.
It got under Yassir’s skin and he decided with his friends that it was necessary to kill Zechariah. To ‘clean the school from unbelievers.’ They attacked him, beat him in the woods and left him to die. Zechariah never came back to school.
But 25 years later Yassir was teaching in Cairo. A battered grey haired south Sudanese man came up to him and asked his family name. The man started to cry. Yassir saw the man’s broken arm and leg, and the injuries in his face, where he had damaged him, his eye that could no longer see but did not recognise him at all, until he said my name is Zechariah. A silent moment passed where Yassir did not know what to say, until Zechariah moved his broken arm, took out his bible and showed him Yassir’s name on the front page. ‘Yassir, because you hated me so much, you persecuted me so much, I always prayed for you.’
In Revelation 2 Jesus teaches us that the devil may be behind persecutions, problems and strife. But we should ‘Fear Not’. And if those problems come to us in the form of a person, as they did for Zechariah, we should have great confidence.
‘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.’ [Rev 2:11b].
Polycarp was burnt to death for not worshipping the Emperor in 156AD. Before he was burnt he told his captors:
‘You threaten with a fire that burns only briefly and after only a little while is extinguished, for you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment, which is reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Come, do what you wish.’ [Martyrdom of Polycarp, 11].
Tertullian, the early Christian writer who mentions Polycarp as a disciple of John, exclaimed that, ‘the blood of the martyrs is seed.’ Just as Jesus had predicted in Revelation 2 some at Smyrna had to be ‘faithful unto death’. They received a ‘crown of life.’
Zechariah interceded for Yassir for 25 years, and now Yassir carries the burning torch of faith.
Dear friends, we need to remember that the Lamb Wins. That we are a ‘Jesus-Christ- died-for-our-sins-and-was-resurrected’ people. In this world we will have troubles, but take heart, He has overcome the world. Are we holding on to now, or living for a crown in glory? And in whatever spiritual battle you may be facing, do you need to hear the words, ‘Fear Not… I have overcome the world.’
Read More in this Series
The Lamb Wins Whole Series Catch Up : Introduction: Chp 1: Hope is Here | Chp 2: First, Love: Ephesus | Chp 3: Fear Not: Smyrna | Chp 4: I Know: Pergamum | Chp 5: Tolerate This: Thyatira | Chp 6: Wake Up: Sardis | Chp 7: Hold On: Philadelphia
Your name is like honey 