Mike Bickle emphasizes the message to the church of Smyrna in Revelation 2:8-11, highlighting the importance of faithfulness amidst suffering and persecution. He reassures believers that Jesus, who understands their tribulations, calls them to remain steadfast and fearless, promising them the crown of life for their perseverance. Bickle explains that true wealth is found in spiritual richness rather than material possessions, and encourages the church to trust in God's sovereignty and grace during trials. He reminds them that their suffering is not in vain, as it brings glory to God and strengthens their faith.

Open your Bibles, if you want, to Revelation chapter 2. You might have a different translation. I'm using the New King James. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we ask you for the release of the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Lord, we ask you for impartation of the spirit of glory upon our mind, upon our hearts. Lord, even now, as we open ourselves to you and your word, as we worship through the evening, and even as we sleep tonight, let the spirit of revelation come upon those, and those that are in the night watch. Lord, I ask that the spirit of revelation would touch them, even as they sing through the night. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. We're continuing on our series here on Friday night on the seven churches in the book of Revelation, and understanding dimensions of our intimacy with God through the lens of these letters. Now, when Jesus had one more thing to say to the church, after the cross and the resurrection, he came back 60 years after the day of Pentecost, approximately, about 90 AD, to the island of Patmos, and he visited John, the aged apostle, and he said, I have one more thing to say to my church, in essence, and he gave seven different messages as he was preparing the church for the events that would unfold in the book of Revelation. Now, these seven messages to seven churches were for the church of that generation. They were for seven local churches in Asia. They are for the church throughout history, but they have a particular application for the people that would experience the events that were described in the book of Revelation right after these letters were given to John. Let's read it, Revelation chapter two, verse eight to 11, to the church of Smyrna. Now, all seven churches, most of you know, they are in the Western Asia Minor, which is in modern-day Turkey today. It's Western Turkey. It's the region of Western Turkey today, where all seven of these churches were. To the church, to the angel, or to the messenger of the church in Smyrna, write these things. These things, says the first and the last, who was dead and who came to life, I know your works, I know your tribulation, I know your poverty, and then Jesus pauses, however you really are rich, I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, but they're not really Jews. They are Jews physically, but they're not really Jews, but they are of the synagogue of Satan. Don't fear any of the things that these people will do to you, is what he's saying. The things which you are about to suffer, I mean things that are yet to come in the future. Indeed, he says, I'm gonna tell you straight, you are about to suffer more in the future. Jesus is speaking by the spirit of prophecy to a local church. The devil is about to throw some of your members, your church members, into prison, that you may be tested. Not only are the people thrown into prison tested, but the entire body is tested when the members are thrown into prison, because the threat of trouble comes to everyone when a few are in trouble, as well as just the connectedness in love of the ones in prison causes suffering for the ones that are out of prison. He says, you will have tribulation for 10 days. The Lord says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to be faithful. I want you to be faithful to me in the pressure. Now, if he was a modern day preacher, he would find some way to tell them all the pressure's gonna go away, but Jesus didn't say that. He said, I want you to face it. The trouble's going to increase in the near future, and it's gonna test all of you. And I don't want you to quit. I don't want you to complain. I don't want you to fall into fear, not into accusation, because that's what pressure does many times. It creates a spirit of accusation, and you're the reason why we're under pressure, those kind of accusations. What I want you to do is be faithful. How faithful? How long? Until you die. And if you die prematurely at the hands of persecutors, I will reward you, but I want you faithful until your last breath on the earth. And here's what I'll do. I will give you the crown of life. Now, we'll discuss this in a few moments. This is not the same thing as the gift of eternal life that every born-again believer receives. He's talking about a specific reward given specifically to those that persevere in persecution. It says in verse 11, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Then he gives a second promise. He that overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. Roman numeral one, the primary message. Jesus is addressing a persecuted church, and the reason we care about it, well, there's churches under persecution today in the world, particularly in communist countries or Islamic countries. Jesus is calling them to be fearless and faithful. He says, I don't want you yielding to the spirit of fear. I want you to resist the spirit of fear because the devil's gonna try to put it on you, and even people will put it on you. Resist the spirit of fear and embrace the grace for faithfulness because here's the good news, is that when the trouble increases, the glory of God in the congregation also increases. I'll give you the verse, 1 Peter 4, 17. I don't have it in the notes. It says that when you suffer, the spirit of glory comes on you, which enables you to endure the trouble in a way that you don't imagine you will be able to. I'll give you the verse again, 1 Peter 4, 17. When you suffer, the spirit of glory comes on you in an increased way. Now this letter is written to people just like you and me, weak and broken people that are prone to fear and discouragement. Don't think they were the super saints. There are no such thing as super saints. All God has from Adam to the end is weak and broken people that he empowers. The testimony of history is that millions of believers have stayed true under testing. Why? Because there's a spirit of glory that increases on them, but they do not have until the suffering starts. So people think of the future and they think of trouble and fear might strike them. And what this letter is meant to encourage is faith that everything that we do and everything that Jesus commands us to do is the same thing as a promise of enabling. Every command is a promise that he will enable us to fulfill it. When the Lord says something as consuming and all-embracing as bridle your tongue, there is an anointing and a promise to be able to fulfill that if the command is given. So when he says, be faithful and do not fear, those are the two big exhortations, don't yield to the spirit of fear and take hold of the grace of faithfulness, the grace of peace, the shalom of God is the answer to the spirit of fear. This is a promise that it's within the reach of every single believer. Now he says to this church that he's going to give them the crown of life. The reward is going to greatly outweigh the sacrifice and the suffering. He says, I promise you when it's over, what I will give you for faithfulness is far greater. There's no way to compare it. Now you hear the testimony all the time. Well, you've heard it said, well, you never know what you will do if somebody said I'm gonna take your life till the day that you get there. I don't believe that. I believe we can have the assurance now that under the threat of death, we could stand true. I don't believe we have to live. I don't know. We'll see when I get there. I don't believe that. I am absolutely confident in the grace of God. Somebody put a gun to my head. I'm confident in the grace of God. I would not hesitate in proclaiming my loyalty to Jesus, not because it's heroic, because the grace of God is able to do that. And he's shown true to millions of people through history under the threat of death. And many have died and many ended up not dying, but they stayed true. So don't have this kind of pseudo psychology that you never know till you get there. It's not that I'm a good follower. It's that he's a good leader. It's not that I'm a good learner. He's a good teacher. Honestly, it's our confidence in his leadership and his teaching ability. That's why we can make it. I don't have confidence in my ability to learn. I'm a slow learner. He's a good teacher. This is true. Paragraph, Roman numeral two, the church of Smyrna. Just a statement or two. It was a large harbor city, very prosperous city on the harbor in Western, what would be today, Western Turkey on the coast, on the Aegean Sea. Paragraph B, now all the citizens of the city were required to worship at the pagan temples. And the city had many temples in it. Once a year, everybody was required at least once a year. Of course, they encouraged much more participation than that, but they would go through the town house by house and require everybody to burn incense at the altar of Caesar or to claim that Caesar was God, the emperor was God. And of course, the Christians refused it. And they were considered criminals of the state because to not honor Caesar was the same as not being a noble citizen. They said, well, if you won't honor Caesar, maybe you will yield to a hostile army that would come in. If you're not loyal to our city, then why are we allowing you to be a member here? They'd say, no, it's not about we're gonna betray our city under an attack from a foreign army. It's that there was a Jewish man who died and raised from the dead. They said, that's foolishness. We don't buy that. We require you to show your loyalty to this city and to the Roman empire because of the threat of invading armies to the people asking, requiring the loyalty. It was military security. It was financial security to the Christians resisting. And it was spiritual, but there was a massive disconnect between the two and many lost their life because of it. They were burned to the stake or they were thrown to the wild beast. Now in Smyrna, particularly, there was a large influential Jewish population that claimed to love the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to honor the Torah, the Old Testament. The Old Testament law, Jesus said they're liars. They don't honor the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They're Jewish physically only. They do not honor the word of God. They are liars. And these were the ones that were pointing out to the Roman authorities, these Christian converts. History tells us from this part of the world, they would go to the Roman authorities and say, that guy's a Christian and actually turn them in and point them out. They were aggressively, openly hostile to the Christians. The Jews were particularly. Now that wasn't true of every city, but in this one city, it was particularly true. And Jesus understood that in a very special way because he understood the rejection of his own country. Roman number three, the revelation of Jesus himself. In each of the seven letters, Jesus highlights some of the glory he revealed from Revelation 1. In Revelation 1, verse 12 to 20, Jesus appeared in his glory. And then each of the seven letters, he takes one or two of the facets of his glory from Revelation 1. He applies it to the unique circumstance of that church. So Jesus said, I'm the first and the last. I'm the one who was dead and I'm the one who came to life. Now he applies this particularly to a persecuted church. And we will draw on this verse, Revelation 2.8, as persecution increases before the coming of the Lord. And again, other parts of the world, it's happening right now in Islamic nations and in communist nations. So we don't wanna talk about persecution as though it's future because our precious brothers and sisters would say, wait a second, what do you mean future? Aren't we in this together? It's now. But Revelation 2.8 will be a source of strength and the release of the glory of God to our spirit when we tap into this revelation of Jesus. He says, I'm the first and the last. In other words, he's the first, he's at the beginning. He's the source of all blessing. Now they were losing their money. I mean, they really were losing money. It wasn't a hypothetical. Not only were some were losing their lives, but the majority of them, they were losing their businesses. I mean, it's a prosperous city. Smyrna was a very prosperous city. And they undoubtedly, many were doing well until they confessed Jesus. They lost business opportunities. They were losing their property. And they were going, Lord, and he said, I am the first, I am the source of everything you have. Trust me, it's in my hands. I know what you're losing and I know what I'm going to give you in return. I am the first. I am the source of everything good you have that is being threatened with loss. He goes, but not only am I the first, I'm the last. I'm the only one that knows the end of the story. You don't know it, your persecutors don't know it. I'm at the end of the story. And I'm telling you from the advantage point of seeing its conclusion, you're in good hands. There's no guesswork with me. I have all the power. I'm the first. I'm the source of everything you have. And all that you lost, I can give it to you again. And I'm at the end of the story and I know how it ends. And I love you and I'm with you. I love the song that Misty sings. I know the end of the story and this is not the end of the story. Just about to break out and start singing it but I'm afraid that I'd lose you. Another one of the songs, something bigger is going on. There's something bigger. He knows the end of the story. There's a big story that you're a part of. And he's at the end of it, looking back, telling you with certainty that he has the ability to promise you it will end right. Because he has the power and authority to determine the end. Paragraph B. He goes on to the next description of his glory. He said, I was dead and I came to life. Now this is intense. He's saying, I'm the first so therefore I have to be God. I'm before all things. It's a paradox that he could be the first. In other words, the eternal God before everything else he was. Yet he's a man. How can somebody who is the first, how can someone who is God be man? And he says, not only do I know the last, when I died, he goes, I suffered through the pain of what you're going through. When he says, when he makes a statement, I was dead, he's saying, I am human and I suffered through it. It hurt me like it hurts you, I do understand. He's not just saying, I died and I had victory. He's saying, I know the pain of the process of death. I am watching, I understand, I will not forsake you. I went through it and the good news, I came out with victory. I know the way through death, I did it. I rose from the jaws of death, I broke its power. The power is in my hands and you're in my hands. When he says, I came to life, there's no demonic power, there's no physical power, nothing could constrain me and hold me back, nothing, nothing. Absolutely nothing in the life of a person that submits to the Lord. Let's go to Roman number four, top of page two. Now he uses this, well, let's read verse nine. His affirmation for faithfulness for the church of Smyrna. He goes, I know your works, I know, which is their labors and ministry. I know how hard you work, I know your tribulation. I know how much pressure you're in and I know your poverty. I know how much you've lost. I'll say that again. He goes, I know your works, I know how hard, how much labor you've done. Because they go, I worked all this time and then they came and I lost it all. He goes, I know, I know your works. I know how hard you've worked for me. I know the tribulation, I know the pressure you're in and I know your poverty. I know the loss that you've suffered, I know it. However, I got good news for you because I'm at the end of the story and you're not. You are rich. You have gold you know not of. It will absolutely overwhelm you with joy when you see it. That's what Peter says in 1 Peter 1, 6. He goes, rejoice greatly because our testings will result in gold. He goes, you are rich. Now here's my desire. As much as I embrace the first part, the works, the tribulation. Now it's not poverty for the sake of poverty. It's poverty because of their conviction of obedience. It was poverty because of persecution in this case. I wanna have insight now in this age to the wealth that I have. I don't want to live in obedience with wondering if it's really working in God's eyes. A lot of people just by a religious spirit and the spirit of fear, they will live what seems like obedience and a lot of it is, but they're doing it out of fear more than out of revelation and conviction. He says, you are rich. I like to take that little phrase and say, Lord, stamp that on my heart now. I wanna feel rich in my spirit, meaning rich in God in the age to come. I don't want to live in doubt and uncertainty about the transaction that's really happening between my heart and yours. It's not humility to be in doubt about the Lord's reward on your life. And I don't know the specific dimension of the Lord's reward on my life, but I tell you, I care about having conviction and revelation that my life in his eyes is rich and I'm getting richer and richer as the years go on. It gives me power to love in my heart. Jesus stood in front of them, well, in front of John saying, tell them they're rich. Tell them that they don't know how great the exchange really is. They've given up their weakness in a spirit of obedience and love and I'm giving them wealth they can never lose because of it. Again, I don't wanna proceed in my Christian life unsure of this. The Lord wants us to go forward with a conviction that it matters and he remembers and that he really is going to meet us with wealth in the age to come. He says, I know the blasphemy of those who say they're Jews and they're not. They're really of the synagogue of Satan. I wanna focus on one word that's mentioned twice. He said, I know, the word know. Now this is at the very essence of intimacy with God that he knows what we feel and that we know how he feels. That's at the very core of intimacy with God. In each one of these letters, Jesus is careful to tell them, I want you to know that I know. I see how you feel and I want you to know how I feel. And in each one of the letters, he tells them how he feels. It's not enough just to be caught up in the duty. I wanna know that he knows what I'm feeling. Lord, I'm wanting to obey you because I love you. Lord, I'm sacrificing because I love you. Do you know? Yes, I know your labors. I know it, I see it. Can you, do you know what I'm feeling? I'm doing this, I feel like giving up, but if I know that you know that I'm seeking to love you, it changes everything. And he says, go tell him. I know, I know their labor. I know how hard they're working for me when nobody can see. I know their pressure, the tribulation. I know how much they've lost and I know the poverty. I mean, I know how much pressure they're in and tribulation and poverty. I know how much they've lost. And I know, I know that there are religious people that claim to know the word of God that are standing against them. And I know it, I see it. But trust me, he's telling them, I don't believe their story against you. Because these were, it's not so important to me that they're Jewish, but they were people who were claiming to be in covenant with God, who knew the word of God, who loved the word of God. And they were the ones resisting these believers. And the Lord says, I got the whole picture, I see it. I know it. Well, paragraph B, he says, I know your poverty. Now they were losing business opportunities. Now, some of you have lost business opportunities because of convictions before any great persecution happened in the land, just out of righteousness. And sometimes that troubles believers. They're like, Lord, this is a bad deal. I thought if I obeyed you, somehow I would end up with more money in the deal. And the Lord says, you will, on the other side. You will end up with more money, but you won't always end up with more money on this side. And a lot of believers have a kind of built-in, 21st century Western mindset that obedience always leads to more money if God's in it. Well, the Lord says, I know your poverty. I know you're poor because you're obeying me. And it's a very strong mindset in the 21st century Western world, even in the kingdom of God. If it is God, it must produce more money. And I've had people say to me over the years when the Lord has a great financial blessing, it must be God because the money's increasing. And some of those situations, it really was the hand of God, but not always because money increases. That is more of a secular paradigm than a biblical paradigm. There are times where the money increases in the will of God, and there's times they were in the perfect will of God and the money decreased. See, the opposite was happening to the Laodiceans. They were rich, chapter three, verse 17. He goes, you don't realize it. You got a lot of money. You think my blessings on you. You are poor. When you stand before me, you will have very little on the last day. Whoa, wait, how can we have such, so much money flowing in our midst? So though sometimes the Lord will use financial blessing, it's not a sure thermometer every time. It's the word of God we go by. There are many prosperous people that are spiritually poor, and there's many people that are physically, financially poor that are spiritually rich in God. There's more to it than the amount of money. So when the guy says, I obeyed God, and I gave money, or I refused to deal out a conviction, but it's five years later, and I'm not ahead. Well, quit reading your self-help Western world books and start reading your Bible. You won't always be ahead in this age because you do right. Many times you will lose in this age because you do right. And the Lord says, but forever you will gain, and that's what we're supposed to be tapping into, eternity, not only into natural blessings to measure our relationship with God. Paragraph C, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Now, this verse doesn't seem that real in the Western world. Well, Lord, most of us, we're going hard for God. We're not, it's not that tough. And there are times in history, the pockets of times where this doesn't seem to be as intense as other times, but I'm getting ready for it to be the norm for righteousness to be resisted at a higher level than it is being right now in the Western world. Or maybe our righteousness isn't that different than what everyone else is doing, and maybe it's just blending in, and it's not really what we think it is. Well, I won't go there, but it's worth asking the question. Paragraph D, there will be persecution in the end times that affects finances. Paragraph E, however, now it seems like I'm gonna say exactly the opposite because it's not all one or all the other. There will be tremendous transfer of wealth in the end times even in the midst of financial boycotts and sanctions that the Antichrist puts upon believers across the world. God will show his ownership over the gold and the silver in the time when he shakes all the nations, and he brings the nations to himself under the title of the desire of all nations. The desire of all nations in this passage is Jesus, and this is talking about the great harvest. And at the time of the great harvest, God's gonna flex his muscles, and he's going to show the nations the gold has really been his all along. Well, what is it gonna be, financial trouble or supernatural prosperity? I believe it's both. Both of them will be happening simultaneous. Who? Who gets the financial difficulty and who gets the supernatural prosperity? I believe it will be under the lordship of Jesus in different seasons. Many times it will be the same person at different seasons. What the Lord wants us to do is trust him, and trust him as being the first, the one who supplies the source, and the last, the one whose perfect wisdom knows how to administrate it. And it's not just that he's the first and the last, that he's the one that gave his blessing and he knows how to administrate it. He says, I died. I went through it. I know what you're going through. Trust me. I know what you need. I really do. I'm not overlooking you. We have to trust in the Jesus of verse eight, paragraph F. He says, you're rich. Where I talked about that, the idea of being rich in God is a principle that Jesus talked about over and over in the gospels. It's not often mentioned in context of the Western world. We mostly talk about being rich in our bank accounts. Jesus talked often about being rich in God. We need to unashamedly be committed to being rich in God, to being great in God. You can see it and say it either way. I remember in my 20s. I'm 52 now. Some years ago, there was a time where I determined that it was God's destiny for me and every believer in his invitation for me to be great in God and to be rich in God. That was his invitation. But I could only get there through the doorway of the Sermon on the Mount. There was no other way to be great in God in the age to come or to be rich in God in the age to come. No other way except through the doorway of the Sermon on the Mount. I remember I made a fierce determination in the grace of God. I'm gonna be great in God. I'm gonna be rich in God. And I'm not gonna be ashamed of it. I'm going for it unashamedly. And I set it as my life goal. I said, I'll do whatever I need to do on this side because that's my goal when I stand before you. For you to look at my life and to see my decisions as great and that you would reward me in your presence in a way that you would understand that would be great. And I felt the Lord smile over me. Every since that time, every time I think this thing, this idea, I feel his smile. I feel him saying, I really will if you'll go all the way. This is what my heart is. Now, lest we get out of balance. Paragraph G, poverty in itself is not a sign of spirituality. I made a commitment to the Lord. I want the Lord to give me billions of dollars. I wanna live simple. I don't wanna use the billions on my personal life. I want supernatural prosperity, but I've committed to live simply. I don't believe poverty is a sign of spirituality. I believe giving is a sign of spirituality, not poverty. And if I live simple because of a conviction to give and a grace to give, that is the wisdom of God. But some people, they don't improve their mind. They don't do hard work. They don't have any vision, and they just live spinning in circles in poverty and somehow equate that with spirituality. Mostly it's aimlessness and laziness. Well, they go to a few prayer meetings, so that kind of makes them feel better about it. You can't go to prayer meetings and dismiss laziness and aimlessness in life. If you're going to them because of your conviction to do the will of God, that's a different thing. We have young people that come around. It's gonna hang out, kind of chill at IHOP for 10 or 20 years and see what happens. Somehow that spiritual, no, no. Have a vision to be a billionaire. Give 99.9% of it away, live simple, fund the gospel, and go to IHOP. There you go. That's what I'm trying to do. Top of page three, Roman numeral five. The reason I'm talking about the money thing is that when you talk about poverty, it gets funny. There's two extremes. There's an unbiblical mindset of poverty, and there's an unbiblical mindset of prosperity, and both of them are in the church. So one looks at the other and says, bah, humbug, and both of them are wrong. Let's be prosperous, but let's abound in giving and live simple, and not everybody's called to do that, but many of us are. Roman numeral five, this church has no correction for compromise, so it's a remarkable thing. Now, there's only two of the seven churches Jesus gave no rebuke to, the Church of Smyrna and the Church of Philadelphia. It's interesting, in paragraph B, these are the two churches in which Jesus said in that city there was a synagogue of Satan. The pressure of this demonic, energized group of people against them actually produced a zeal and a purity because, of course, they had to respond to the Holy Spirit, right, to have that. You know, pressure doesn't gain us anything. It's pressure with a godly response. That's not quite it. It's pressure with a godly response that is consistent to the end. There you go. Now, the Lord gives us some contingency for flesh and weakness where we cry and complain a few times along the way, and then we repent and push delete, that all still works. In the Lord's kingdom, that's still called consistent. How many of you can say, praise the Lord for that? You go, oh, Lord, I quit, blah, blah, blah, blah. A day or two later, you say, I repent, that was so bad, and the Lord says, hey, you know what? You forget it, I'll forget it. You're still consistent. I love the grace of God. But it's not an accident that this demonically energized group of people in the city that were set on their destruction, it's called the synagogue of Satan, they were demonically energized people who claimed to even be in covenant with God and loyal to the word, they were attacking them. It produced, in these two congregations, Smyrna and Philadelphia, because they responded right, that's the key, pressure alone's not enough. We have to respond, and we have to respond consistently. Not perfectly, but consistently, those are different. Both of these churches are the only two that had no correction from the Lord. So, Roman numeral six, exhortation to respond. Now he said, do not fear those things which you're about to suffer. I mean, imagine some guy standing up in the congregation, yay, says the Lord, do not fear, you are about to suffer. We'd all stand up, in the name of Jesus, I bind you. And it's part right, because Jesus went on and said, it is the devil, what? Jesus, it's the devil, well, how can the devil touch me? Because the Lord allows the element of persecution, it's not unmeasured, the devil's still on a leash. The devil can't do everything that he wants. But God allows the devil a certain amount of liberty of action against the saints, to strike against the saints, because God knows it brings purity to the saints and an increase of the gospel. I mean, the theology of this just wouldn't work in a lot of charismatic churches today. Just, Jesus, you need to go to Bible school, is what they might be tempted to say. Of course, they wouldn't, but this just does not work in a whole lot of Bible schools, this theology. Do not fear, and again, the command to live free of fear is the promise of the enabling to do it. And when the 1st Peter 4, 17, Spirit of glory comes on us when we suffer, there is a greater experience of the presence of God when the pressure increases, it's true. We had Brother Yun with us, the man from the underground church in China, of which the book, The Heavenly Man. He went to prison for three years, they broke his legs and beat him, and then he got out of prison, went back in for four years. He wrote the book, The Heavenly Man, about how the Lord visited him in glory, in suffering, and he was just here a couple of weeks ago to testify to us. And he said, in truth, we'd spent some hours talking, he said, I'm not exaggerating. I've never known the presence of God like I did in that cell, never. It was just like resting on me in the most remarkable way. He goes, I certainly don't have that now. Well, you wanna go back into prison? Ooh, well, ouch, ooh, heart, ooh. I love that presence. He said, I love that presence. I didn't press, I didn't press, I don't want anybody to ask me that question, so I said, let's just leave that one alone, you know, let's just leave that right on the table. He says, the devil is about to throw somebody into prison that you may be tested. You'll have tribulation 10 days. Don't quit, don't accuse, don't accuse the people coming against you and don't accuse your own people that opened the door to it according to different theories. You know, you caused it, you caused it. If you wouldn't have done this, that wouldn't happen. He says, don't do any of that, be faithful. How long? Until you die, whether you die in the persecution or you die naturally, be faithful till your last breath. And it may result in death. Paragraph A, Jesus wanted them to know, some would face prison, some would face death. In John 16, verse one, Jesus said, I've spoken these things to you so you would not stumble, you wouldn't be offended. He goes, I'm telling you ahead of time about suffering so that when you suffer, you will say, oh, this was always in the plan of God. God didn't lose interest. God didn't lose control of the world. God didn't forget about me. When he liked me and when he appeared to be in control of everything, he told me this was going to happen. Because when the trouble comes, the devil whispers, the Lord forgot you or the Lord's not ruling in the way that you thought he was. And when everything is good, he tells us, I'm gonna let this happen, I'm gonna let you be tested. He speaks it to us ahead of time. Now, the book of Revelation is a powerful statement of love and power from the heart of Jesus that trouble and glory are both coming. That's why it's very important that we take the book of Revelation serious. And of course, the events of the book of Revelation, we are prepared for those events, the glory and the trouble, because there's two categories of events. We're prepared for those events by these seven messages. That's why it's important that we go deep in these messages. B, the persecution was clearly the work of Satan. It was evil man inspired by the devil. Now we think, why? When, how about me, where? I mean, all these unknown. And the element of the unknown, the Lord wants it. We don't know who, we don't know when, we don't know how long. He wants us to have peace, not by having the information, but by having relationship with him in the present tense. Like Lord, like in a year or 10 years, will I suffer for a month or a year? Can you tip me off a little bit? No, I'll tip you off this. I am the first, I'm the source of your blessing. I am the last, I'm at the end of it. And I see the whole thing and you will be blessed. I was dead, I suffered and went through it. I know what the pain is, but I'm alive. I know the way to victory and I have you in my hand. That's what I'll tell you. Oh, come on, Lord, give me some more. He says, no, if you know those four things, you will be equipped to go through this whole thing. Paragraph C, the Lord delivers some from prison like Peter. Peter's in prison twice, two times. You say it's not fair. Twice he's in prison and the door's open. Twice, not once, but then he dies. In his 60s, history says he's crucified upside down, at least what tradition says, but he was martyred. Well, why could Jesus open prison doors with angels twice and then let him be killed? The Lord says, it was within my purpose to allow this to happen. Well, James, it was the opposite. James is in prison and he gets killed like John the Baptist, the greatest man ever born of a woman. They get killed in prison. Paul, he's in prison, then he's delivered, but he's delivered by natural means. Peter was delivered by angelic means. Then Paul's in prison again, then he's out. Then he's back in, then he gets killed. Like, which is it? Are you in or are you out? Who do I wanna be? Peter, James, John the Baptist, Paul? Oh, man, I don't know. They're just, you don't know. Which one is God going to lead in your life or someone that you love? You don't know. The Lord says, just trust me. Verse eight, I am the first. I'm the source of all blessing. I am the last. I know the end of the story. I know where it's going and you will be happy. I was dead. I went through it. I know exactly what you will feel, but I know the way to victory. I'm alive now and I have power in my hand over that which will afflict you. Trust me on those four points. Paragraph D, Jesus allows, we're not gonna finish all this. Just gonna make another point or two. Jesus allows imprisonment of his servants, why? To magnify his testimony through their faithfulness. In other words, Peter says it here, that the genuineness of our faith is magnified. Now, not only does it change us, it purifies us and we get rewarded forever for it. That's a good point in itself. That's a personal thing, but corporately, when Brother Yoon was suffering and many of the, in the underground church in China, the guards and the officials and the people in society in general, they say, the repeated testimony, what is it that you know that we don't know? How come you won't give in? Why won't you give in? Why won't you give in? He's lovely. He's altogether lovely. This is my beloved. What is it that you know about this invisible Jewish man that we don't know? The testimony of our genuineness magnifies the glory of God and many get saved because the nations are in search of something worth dying for. So the Lord says, in love, I'm gonna exhibit you as one that shows forth I am worthy of dying for and many will be moved because that's the cry of everyone's spirit to have something worth dying for. The Lord says, you love me and I love you. And the apostles right here in Acts chapter five, they said it right, they were counted worthy to be used this way because not only does the Lord increase the glory in the person in this age, he increases the reward in the age to come, he magnifies the glory of God so unbelievers see the suffering vessel and they say, what is it that I don't have in life that that man or woman has? And the Lord calls that being a bondservant, being a trophy of his love. And the apostles understood it and they said, worthy to be counted, ones that would be martyred for the lamb. Paragraph E, be faithful unto death. Again, the command is a promise of enabling. God will help the weak of the earth. All of us, there are no super saints. Everybody is weak and broken, Paul, Peter, all of them. It's not how mighty they are. I tell you when the grace of God, I've heard the story over and over. I've talked to a number of persecuted saints through the years and they say the same thing. They go, the grace of God is on your spirit in a way that's so unusual, you get intoxicated by it. You get addicted to it, you want it, you want more of it. And when the persecution lifts, an element of it lifts off of you. The church needs, the church today, a clear New Testament theology of martyrdom. Now, I don't want to glorify martyrdom in a trite way. There's some that talk about martyrdom, but they don't know anybody that's been martyred that they love. So it's kind of more romantic, you know, Hollywood movie stuff. How do we martyr? You hear a lot going on. But they've never met anybody whose life has been crushed, somebody that they loved. And so until we know somebody, but I think we're a little softer on the front end until it touches us. But I believe there is a rejoicing in it, but I think it's better that we openly declare our glory in it after we're experiencing it, not pre, kind of a cavalier kind of, don't, you know, if we lose a little money this week, we get depressed, but we're willing to be a martyr. And so the reason I say that, that we need to establish a theology of martyrdom, but what I'm not interested in is kind of a cavalier, kind of proud, unbroken, kind of, aren't we cool, we're the ones that preach on martyrdom. Because martyrdom is not a joke, it's real. And it really hurts. And I don't mean just physically, it hurts people's hearts and a lot happens, but I'm saying soberly in a measured way, not kind of a just kind of a proud enthusiasm. We need to begin to go forward in this very serious subject and preach about it and teach on it with a spirit of brokenness and a contrite spirit. Here's what's gonna happen. Here's just a point or two about a theology of martyrdom. Revelation 13, verse seven, it says, it was granted and the meaning is by God for the Antichrist to make war with the saints and overcome them. What? What? The Antichrist is given authority by God for three and a half years to overcome the saints and it means physically with martyrdom to kill them. But look at the other passage. Revelation 12, the saints overcome the Antichrist. Now, which is it? Does he overcome us or do we overcome him? He will overcome believers physically, we will overcome him spiritually, we will be victorious in love because we won't back up even one inch under his threats. So in that, we overcome him. We overcome him by having victory in love in the face of his threats. He loses. Let's go to Roman numeral seven, the promise for the overcomers. Two promises, the crown, I'll just say it to you real quick and just end and you can read the notes on your own. He promises the crown of life, we would not be hurt by the second death. Now, I wanna say this, these are not promises that are automatic to every born again believer whether they're faithful under pressure or not because there were a number of believers in the seven churches of Revelation that were not faithful but they were born again and like a church of Ephesus, they were hardworking, they were diligent, they tested false apostles but they had not overcome in love yet. They were still saved, they died that day, they would not have gone to hell, they would have gone to heaven but they had not yet entered into the grace of faithfulness through those pressures. So these are promises given to the body of Christ that are faithful under the prescribed specific pressures that are outlined in these seven different chapters. I mean, these seven different letters. The crown of life is more than being born again and having eternal life. It's a dimension, you can read it on your own. It's a dimension of authority and ruling in the age to come that is related to our faithfulness in this age. Not being hurt by the second death. See, what's gonna happen, what was happening is that their money was hurt by persecution, their body was hurt by persecution, their hearts were hurt by persecution and the persecutors were gloating but there's a great and terrible day coming when all mankind stands before the Father, all stand before Him. The saints have already been evaluated and judged and received the reward but every eye witnesses it and those very persecutors on that terrible and wonderful day when those persecutors that persecuted them, they will suffer harm and I tell you, the awful majesty and the terribleness of that day, it will resound in our spirit as we see the mighty wrath of God poured out in the second death and the mass of humanity is thrown into the lake of fire, the words will resound in our spirit. We lose nothing in this day but only those that stood against the kingdom will lose and that's what Jesus was saying here. Amen. Let's end with that.