What Would Jesus Write to Us? | A Sermon On Romans 12:3 & Revelation 1-3

Romans 12:3
Because of the privilege and authority^[c] God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Introduction
This is the last sermon in this series about Jesus’ letters to the 7 churches in Revelation (Rev1-3).  And the message today will be much different than the ones before. This will be a summary of all we’ve heard so far.  But it will also be a chance for you to reflect and pray and ask: What is Jesus saying to me today?

So here’s what I will do.  I’m going to briefly summarize the message of each letter Jesus wrote.  Then, I will suggest a few questions for you to ask yourself.

But what you do in today’s sermon is as important as anything I say.  You need to honestly and prayerfully reflect on these questions for yourself.  Them pray about it to the Lord.  Because Jesus is here.  He walks among us.  And Jesus still speaks.  And we need to have ears to hear and listen to what He says.  Are you ready?

Ephesus
To the church in Ephesus, Jesus praised their hard work, endurance, and refusal to tolerate evil. But He rebuked them for losing their first love and He called them to repent and return to the passion they had at the beginning of their walk with Him.

Now I want you to prayerfully ask yourself a few questions.  This is just between you and Jesus.  

Ask yourself:

1.     Have I let my faith become more about duty, knowledge, or activity than about a genuine love relationship with Jesus?

2.     What specific step could I take this week to rekindle my “first love” for Jesus—whether in prayer, worship, or service?

(Take some time for silent reflection and personal prayer before your continue.)

Pray:  “Lord Jesus, forgive us when our love for You grows cold. Rekindle the passion we once had, that we may serve You not only with our hands and minds but with joyful, devoted love. Draw us back to our first love—You. Amen.”

Smyrna & Philadelphia
What Jesus said to Smyrna was very similar to what He said to Philadelphia.  So we’ll address these two churches together.  Jesus commended both for remaining faithful

despite Smyrna facing terrible persecution and Philadelphia being weak and small.  Jesus encouraged them to continue to remain faithful amidst their trials and they would receive eternal rewards.

Ask yourself:

1. How do I typically respond when life feels hard, unfair, or overwhelming—do I lean into Christ or shrink back in fear or doubt?
2. In what ways might I be underestimating how God can use me, even if I feel weak, small, or insignificant?

(Take some time for silent reflection and personal prayer before your continue.)

Pray:  “Faithful Lord, I’m glad You see us even in our weakness and trials. Strengthen us to endure, to hold fast to Your Word, and to remain faithful to the end. Keep our eyes on the crown of life You have promised. Amen.”

Pergamum & Thyatira
Pergamum and Thyatira also received similar words from the Lord, but more critical.  Pergamum was commended for holding fast to Jesus’ name even in a city full of idolatry.  Jesus commended Thyatira for their love, faith, service, and endurance.  However, Jesus rebuked them both for tolerating sin and false teaching.  He sternly warned them to repent, resist compromise, and remain faithful to God’s Word.

Ask yourself:

1.     Are there areas in my life where I’ve tolerated sin or compromise, excusing what I know is not pleasing to God?

2.     What would it look like for me to take a firm stand for holiness this week, even if it costs me something?

(Take some time for silent reflection and personal prayer before your continue.)

Pray:  “Lord Jesus, You’re Word is sharper than a double-edged sword. Forgive us where we have compromised Your truth or tolerated sin. Give us courage to resist temptation, strength to stand firm, and hearts that remain faithful to You alone. Amen.”

Sardis
The Church in Sardis had a reputation for being alive, but Jesus said they were spiritually dead. Jesus called them to wake up, strengthen what remained, repent, and walk in purity so their names would never be erased from the book of life.  

Ask yourself:

1. Am I more concerned with looking spiritually alive on the outside than truly being alive in Christ on the inside?
2. What step of repentance do I need to take today to walk in purity and integrity with Jesus?

(Take some time for silent reflection and personal prayer before your continue.)

Pray:  “Lord Jesus, awaken us from spiritual slumber. Expose the places where our faith has grown cold, and breathe new life into our hearts. Help us to repent, to walk in purity, and to remain faithful so that our names may be secure in Your book of life. Amen.”

Laodicea
Laodicea was lukewarm—neither hot nor cold.  They were proud of their wealth, yet spiritually poor, blind, and naked. Jesus urged them to repent, seek true riches in Him, and open the door so He could come in and fellowship with them.  

Ask yourself:

1. Am I relying too much on my own comfort, resources, or success instead of depending fully on Jesus?
2. In what ways might my faith have grown lukewarm—lacking passion, zeal, or wholehearted obedience?

(Take some time for silent reflection and personal prayer before your continue.)

Pray:  “Lord Jesus, forgive us for the times we have been lukewarm or self-sufficient. Open our eyes to our true need for You. Give us zeal to repent and hearts eager to welcome You in, so we may share in Your fellowship and find true riches in Your presence. Amen.”

Closing Invitation
As we close this message and time of reflection today,  I remind you of Christ’s words from Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

Jesus is here, knocking at the door of your heart.  Won’t you open the door to Christ?  Won’t you let Him truly be in charge of your life?  Repent of your sin and He will save you.  Let Him take control and He will welcome you into His Kingdom.

Smyrna - Faithful Through Suffering | A Sermon on Revelation 2:8-11

Is it real or is it cake?
We're going to start off with a game today—because, well, I just think it'll be fun.

In the following pictures several different item, some items are real and some are made of cake?  Can you tell which is real and which is cake?

Which apples are real and which are cake?

Which oranges are real and which are cake?

Which shoe is real and which is cake?

And now I'll show you the answers:

Introduction
The cake picture game ties right in with the sermon. Revelation, the book we’re studying, is a divine vision that helps us see that things in this world are not always what they seem.

Sometimes you think something’s real—but it’s cake. And sometimes you think it’s fake—but it’s real.

We can’t always believe everything we see, hear, or are told. There's more going on beneath the surface.

Even when it comes to the news, there’s always bias—on both sides. Everyone has a point of view. We try to be objective, but there’s always a lens through which we see things.

Scripture tells us that we don’t wrestle with flesh and blood alone—we’re in the middle of spiritual warfare. Revelation pulls back the curtain to show what’s really going on. What we see with our eyes isn’t the full story.

Revelation was given to the apostle John around A.D. 95–96 to encourage Christians facing severe persecution under Emperor Domitian.  These believers were suffering terribly, and Jesus was saying: There’s more going on here than what you see. Don’t give up hope. God is doing something big—something eternal.

In Revelation 1:19, Jesus says, “Write down what you have seen—both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen.”

So, this vision includes current events (for them), as well as future ones. And when we say “future,” we need to remember: that just means anything after A.D. 95—some of which may have already happened long ago from our perspective.

Of course, Revelation also includes things yet to come. But the danger is thinking it’s all about us or about the end times. It’s not just a code to crack. It’s a message for all God’s people through all time.

Let’s read Revelation 2:8–11, the message to the church in Smyrna.

Revelation 2:8-11
⁸ “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive:

⁹ “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan. ¹⁰ Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.

¹¹ “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.

This is the Message from the One
The people of Smyrna were suffering. The Christians in Smyrna were suffering. They needed hope so that they could endure. And Jesus reminds us, he he starts to offer them hope by reminding them who he is. 

This is what he says. He says, "This is the message from the one who is the first and the last. The one who was dead but now alive." And so He's reminding them in a subtle way, Jesus is the first and the last. 

They are suffering. It is real suffering. But He wants them to think of this in the context of eternity. What they are suffering is happening right now. But this is in within the context of eternity. 

Jesus also suffered. Remember, it was an awful suffering that He had to go through in the passion. Being tortured, being betrayed, being crucified, awful torture. It was the worst form of torture and pain you could inflict upon the human body to be nailed to a wooden cross until you die. Jesus experienced that suffering. 

And yet, Jesus was the first and the last. In other words, Jesus existed before time and he will always exist. That's a mind blowing expanse of time to think of. And yet in this one moment he experienced suffering. That doesn't take away the fact that He suffered, but it puts it in a broader scheme, a broader scale.  

These people in Smyrna were suffering. But Jesus is saying this is upon a grand scale that you can't even comprehend.  And there's going to be a time 10 billion years from now after you've been in glory in eternity for 10 billions of 10 billions of 10 billions of years. This moment of suffering is going to be forgotten.  It's not going to seem as bad. 

And Jesus also says He is the one who was dead but now is alive. And this is another reminder. Jesus went through suffering.  He even died and yet he is now alive. And this is an important thing to remind the people in Smyrna because some of them may die in the suffering but they are going if they follow Jesus just as He is alive they also are going to be alive again. we realize.

I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich!
He says, "I know about your suffering and your poverty, but you are rich."  Again, this is part of how Revelation turns everything upside down. Because because when they looked at their situation, the church in Smyrna was suffering. They were being persecuted and they were poor. 

Their poverty wasn't their fault. It's not like they made a bad decision and invested in the wrong stock or the economy went south and they lost all their money. They were poor because of persecution.

So here's the situation in Smyrna in the first century.  There was not such a great distinction between Jewish people and Christian people as there is today.  In the first century most Christians were Jewish people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah.  And so Jewish people and Christian people were in the same community and they worshiped together and they worked together. They did business with one another. 

But many of the Jewish people began to resent Christian people and thought they were heretics because they believed in Jesus Christ.  And it wasn't just a theological dispute. They actually thought, "We can turn them into the Roman authorities and say that they are not legitimate Jewish people, but they're heretics, that they're atheists, that they don't believe in the Roman gods, and that they're doing all kinds of bad things."  And they would turn Christians in and the Roman government would take Christian's property, take their businesses, take their money, and oftentimes the authorities would give some of it to their Jewish neighbors. This was a great betrayal that was happening. So Christians in Smyrna weren't poor because they'd made bad decisions. They were poor because they were persecuted.  People they formerly thought of as friends and neighbors were persecuting them. And yet Jesus says, "You you are suffering and are impoverished, but actually you are rich."  He turns it all upside down. 

How can this be? How can they are rich when they have no money, and their homes have been taken from them and nobody will do business with them anymore because they are Christians?

Remember what Jesus said.  He said, "Don't store up treasures on earth where rust corrupts it and moths eat it and where thieves break in and steal it.  Don't store up treasures on earth. Store up treasures in heaven where neither rust nor moth nor thieves can destroy it. Where your treasure is, there your heart  will be also." 

And so what Jesus is saying here is that because they have suffered for the sake of God's kingdom and for Jesus Christ, they have made their bank accounts on earth may be empty but a their bank accounts in heaven are busting at the seams. Their suffering on earth is creating great deposits in heaven.

A lot of people would say, "Well, so what? There's still suffering on earth."  But the idea within the Christian faith is we need to be focused on eternity and not on just what's happening right now. Because Jesus is the beginning and the end. And eternity spans from before time began till after time ends. It goes on forever. And the suffering that we experience in this life or the wealth that we experience in this life or the poverty, it lasts but an instantand then it is gone. But what remains for us in eternity is forever.

There are Christians in our world who are poor now whom we look at and feel pity for but in eternity  they will be the richest people we know and that will last forever. There are many Christians who seem so wealthy now, who will be impoverished for eternity because they focused on what happena in this little tiny span of time we call life and didn't focus on eternity.

We need to be sure that we are investing in our heavenly wealth and less focused on our earthly wealth. And I want to point out that the poverty that Jesus is talking about here is not poverty that comes from making poor financial decisions, right?  Because we spent our money on things and didn't manage it well in this life.  That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about people who are poor because they've suffered persecution.

The Synagogue of Satan
Verse 9b – “ I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan.”

Again Jesus is saying what you see is not all that there is.  There were many people living alongside these Christians who said that they were God's people. "We are God's people because we follow the Bible. We go to synagogue every Sunday. We worship God."

Yet their actions actually opposed Jesus Christ.  They were not God's people. They were actually Satan's people because they were opposing Jesus, opposing God's plan of salvation, opposing people who were trying to turn back to God through Jesus Christ.

There were many people in the world today who claim to be religious and outwardly look religious, but they were not.  Today in our world just because someone goes to church or says they are Christian doesn't mean they are a true follower of Christ.  Everything is not necessarily as it appears. We have to ask the question: Do they really follow Jesus?  Do these people who claim to be religious truly follow Jesus live the way He calls us to live?  Do they sacrifice the way He calls us to sacrifice?  

Many who claim to be a follower of Christ actually oppose Christ and His Kingdom by their actions.

“Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer.” Why Not?
Jesus told Christians in Smyrna not to be afraid of what they are about to suffer. What He said to them applies to us too.  We need not be afraid of suffering.  And here’s why.

First, Jesus Has Already Overcome Suffering and Death
Remember who Jesus is – He is the one who “was dead and now is alive forever.”  We will live forever too if we follow Him. If we are faithful to Him in a kingdom where there is no more suffering and no more death.  So we don't need to fear suffering because Jesus has already overcome it.  Have faith!

Second, Jesus Is With Us During Our Suffering
We don't go through it alone. Remember Jesus is the one who walks among the lampstands (Rev. 2:1). In other words, He is walking among us. He is with us as we suffer and He holds the leaders of the church in his right hand.  He cares about us. He is with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. And actually, contrary to what we usually think, suffering is a benefit to us. It is a chance for us to draw closer to Christ. It is a chance for us to deposit wealth in our eternal bank account. It is a chance for us to experience Christ walking with us in a very real and intimate way.

Third, Eternal Glory Awaits the Faithful
Jesus said in Revelation 2:10, "Be faithful even to the point of death, and it will give you and I will give you the crown of life." 

Recently, I was sick. I had to go to a clinic up in Varnell. It was just seemed like it was just a cold, but it wasn't going away. And I felt terrible. Had no energy, sore throat. I got there and they did the evaluation on me and said, 'All right, we know what's wrong with you. We've got some medicine that will help make you better.  We can either give you some pills and it'll take a couple of days or we can give you a shot and it'll go to work right away. Which one do you want?"

And I thought, give me the shot! And some people would say, "Well, why would you do that? I'd rather take the pills." Well, one thing I don't really like taking pills. They're annoying. You have to remember to take them. But a shot hurts. And it's that needle. And a lot of people are really scared of those needles. And I don't like them either. And yeah, it does hurt when they stick it in your in your arm. 

But my thinking is that pain, it lasts for a few seconds and then the medicine goes to work right away and I start to feel better. I can take a little pain for a few seconds. Now, that seems like a a silly example and I don't want to belittle the suffering we face.  But when you put earthly suffering in the scheme of eternity, then our suffering becomes so so small.  It's here for a moment and then gone.

Suffering is temporary, but our reward from suffering is eternal.  Jesus promises a crown of life, eternal victory, honor, joy for those who endure suffering and remain faithful. And when our faithfulness leads to more suffering, it means that we will have even more rewards in heaven.

Closing
There is always more going on than meets the eye.  God is working behind the scenes.  We must learn to trust Him and to look with spiritual eyes and listen with spiritual ears.  God is in control.  And the Kingdom of Heaven is eternal and it is breaking into our world.  And Jesus is with us.

As we close, I want to share a responsive reading to remind us to listen and hear what the Spirit says to us today.

Responsive Reading

All:  The Spirit of Christ walks among us and speaks to our hearts.  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.

Leader:  Even when I feel alone, I am never forsaken.
People:  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.

Leader:  Even when the world seems dark, God’s light is still shining.
People:  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.

Leader:  Even when I don’t see the way forward, God is already making one.
People:  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.

Leader:  Even when I am weak, His power is made perfect.
People:  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.

Leader:  Even when I see only loss, God is working for redemption.
People:  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.

Leader:  Even when I feel unworthy, I am called and dearly loved.
People:  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.

All:  There’s more going on than meets the eye.  We must look with spiritual eyes and listen with spiritual ears—not just physical ones. Behind the scenes, God is doing more than we realize.  Let anyone with ears to hear listen to the Spirit and understand.