The Poor Rich Church

This past week I had spent some time contemplating suffering and its purpose. While the Scripture discusses at length why believers suffer and also speaks of suffering as part of God’s will, I found myself drawn to the Book of Revelation chapter two and the little church of Smyrna. If you not familiar with this church, you may recall that the second and third chapters of Revelation include the seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor. Smyrna is the second church that is mentioned and the following passage is all we know of this church and its relationship to the Lord:

“And to the angel, or the messenger, from the church in Smyrna write: the First and the Last who was dead and has come to life says this: I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan, do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”

Only four sentences, but yet so deep in spiritual truth and application. It is important to remember that Smyrna, like the other six churches, is a literal place and these letters were given by the Lord Jesus Christ through the pen of the Apostle John on the isle of Patmos about 96 A.D. We can gather that life for this little church was dangerous for a number of reasons, not the least of which was if you failed to acknowledge Caesar as Lord, you could lose your life. They were also surrounded by pagan worship of many different kinds. But their main source of suffering came from the Jews who were persecuting them for their faith. Jesus actually calls these Jews, “the synagogue of Satan.” Pretty powerful statement. These Jews were persecuting the Christians much the same way the Apostle Paul was before his conversion on the Damascus road.

According to John MacArthur, the Jews had many reasons to inflict punishment on the Christians, “they slandered them for cannibalism, saying they eat flesh and drink blood. They slandered them for lust and immorality because they greeted one another with a holy kiss and held love feasts. They slandered them for home wrecking because one member of a home became a Christian and it brought a sword into the household. They slandered them for atheism because they rejected the worship of emperors and the deities of Rome. They slandered them for rebellion and political disloyalty because they said this is tantamount to mutiny. And the Jews wanting to destroy Christian faith went to the Romans to report the Christians, that they might lose their lives.”

So here you have this picture of a church that is being attacked from all sides by the government and the religious groups around them but the Lord has such precious words for them, doesn’t He? He tells them that He knows them. He knows them! And he sees their tribulation and although they are poor and have been ravaged by these Jewish persecutors, he calls them rich. Why? Because they are so rich spiritually. They have not lost their first love like the church at Ephesus; they are not lukewarm like the Laodiceans. They are the poor rich church because they have what is most important – a right relationship to Christ in the midst of such intense suffering. They had holiness, they had love, they had unity, they had peace and most of all they had a sympathetic Savior telling them that He has seen their suffering and their response and He is ready to reward them with the crown of life.

So what does he tell them after all this? They will suffer more. My first reaction after reading this is why? Haven’t they suffered enough? But Satan is always trying to destroy saving faith. And God is always proving to him and to us that saving faith cannot be destroyed. For whatever reason as a race of people, we seem to listen best and trust the most when we are suffering. I think God often says you will suffer so you can see the power of the One that you have trusted in.

This begs the question, are we overcomers? What is our response to suffering? What is our true relationship to our Lord and Savior? The answers to these questions have eternal consequences.

Psalm 119 Challenge

At a recent women’s ministry meeting it was decided that all of us in the group would spend some time studying Psalm 119. You may be familiar with this Psalm as it is the longest psalm as well as the longest chapter in the Bible. It is referred to in Hebrew by its opening words, "Ashrei temimei derech" ("happy are those whose way is perfect"). It is the prayer of one who delights in and lives by the Torah, the sacred law.

According to Wikipedia, Psalm 119 is one of about a dozen alphabetic acrostic poems in the Bible. Its 176 verses are divided into twenty-two stanzas of eight lines each, and in Hebrew forms an acrostic, with each stanza starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet (alef, bet, etc.). Employed in almost every verse of the psalm is a synonym for the Torah, such as dabar ("word, promise") and mishpatim ("rulings").

The acrostic form and the use of the Torah words constitute the framework for an elaborate prayer. The Torah is held up as a source of blessing and right conduct and the psalmist pledges to dedicate himself to the law. What makes Psalm 119 unique is the way that these requests are continually and explicitly grounded in the gift of the Torah and the psalmist's loyalty to it.

As I researched this background and began thinking about all the marvelous truths that are within this beautiful Psalm, I came to the realization that genuine spirituality and Godliness is always marked by a love for and a delight in God's truth. The two are really inseparable, aren’t they?

Even just a cursory reading of the Bible will quickly showcase this relationship of a believer and his/her love for God’s Word. I Peter 2:1-3 says, “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Jesus said in John 8, "He who is of God hears God's word," and in John chapter 14 he said, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” Paul expressed a believer’s love for God's Word in Romans 7:22 "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." And Job said, "I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food."

So, it is no wonder that the longest chapter in the Bible deals with the believer and his relationship to God’s Word. It is the obedience to God’s Word that brings true happiness. This seems like a simple truth on the surface but I am always amazed at how quickly I fill my own life with things, often good things, which keep me from spending time in the Word.

The Bible is full of verses that speak of God’s faithfulness to us if we seek Him, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9). In Revelation we read, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (3:20). Clearly, God is keeping His half of the equation but sadly, we do not keep our end all too often.

Of course, we need to realize that it is a spiritual battle to be in the Word and second, we need to commit ourselves to the study of God’s Word. This requires much prayer and discipline as we need to strip away things that may be taking our time from the Lord.

For the next several weeks, I am committing to studying Psalm 119 and hope to blog about my findings. If you read this blog regularly, will you also commit to studying this great Psalm with me?

If you do not know where to begin, start by just reading the Psalm repetitively each day and then begin making a list of key words or themes that you see repeating. Kay Arthur has a wonderful method of studying the Bible called the inductive study method. We have used it in our women’s bible study and I highly recommend it. While her approach is quite intense, the tools she provides helps you to customize her method to your liking. You do not have to do everything she says, but doing even one thing, will help you with your study and keep you immersed in the Word.

If you decide to study Psalm 119 along with me, please comment and let me know what God is teaching you.

Pondering the Pearly Gates

As the 21st chapter of the Book Revelation opens, we read that God will create a new heaven and a new earth. The old earth and the old heaven have passed away after the White Throne judgment which takes place after the second coming of Christ. These events are described in chapters 19 and 20 if you would like to read about them. Toward the middle of chapter 21, the Apostle John, who is the author of the Book, provides great detail regarding the physical attributes of the New Jerusalem. He describes the gates of the city in verse 21, “The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and each individual gate was of one pearl.” I have to admit, upon first reading this verse it is hard to imagine an entire gate composed of one pearl but that is what the text says and we know nothing is impossible with God who spoke creation into existence back in Genesis. What I wanted to discuss, however, is not the physical dimensions of the gates but why God chose a pearl as the material.

The preceding verses tell us that the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones, including jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst. God could have chosen any one of these materials for the gates but he chose a pearl. Why?

Of course, the Scripture does not tell us specifically why God chose any of the jewels he did when he created this city but I heard one commentator say that he believed God selected the pearl for the gates because an oyster has to suffer affliction in order to create the pearl. He compared this process with the suffering of Christ upon the cross as the means by which believers enter heaven.

I have to confess that I always believed a pearl was formed from a grain of sand entering the oyster but this notion is false. According to Wikipedia and several other sites that I researched on this topic, a pearl is indeed formed when an oyster or mollusk is either invaded or injured, “Pearls are formed inside the shell of certain mollusks as a defense mechanism to a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside its shell, or an attack from outside, injuring the mantle tissue. The mollusk creates a pearl sac to seal off the irritation. The mantle of the mollusk deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite. The combination of aragonite and conchiolin is called nacre, which makes up mother-of-pearl. The commonly held belief that a grain of sand acts as the irritant is in fact rarely the case. Typical stimuli include organic material, parasites, or even damage that displaces mantle tissue to another part of the animal's body. These small particles or organisms enter the animal when the shell valves are open for feeding or respiration.”

This fact of biology is quite stunning in lieu of the cross. The mollusk creates one of the most precious and treasured jewels on the face of the earth when it is attacked and injured. Our Savior when falsely accused, beaten and nailed on a cross, shed his precious blood to enable the unjust to enter heaven. Heaven therefore, is attained through suffering and travail; through redemption and blood; through the anguish of the cross. A pearl is made through a little animal that is wounded. So, it stands to reason that we enter the new heaven through a gate made of pearl.

To be honest, the concept gives me chills. It just continues to underscore the fact that nothing in the Word of God is there by chance or without precise purpose. It also emphasizes the law of human nature that anything that has true value in this life and the next is only achieved through sacrifice. It is sacrifice which produces beauty, splendor and magnificence. I think this is where our comparison of the oyster and Jesus diverts. The oyster is doing what is natural to preserve its life and in the process a wonderful little treasure is created. Jesus Christ willfully gave up his body to be beaten and sacrificed to attain eternal life for anyone that puts their faith and trust in Him for the forgiveness of sin (I John 5:11-13). He sits at the right hand of the Father now making intercession for those of us that have trusted Him as our personal Savior (Romans 8:34). If you do not know Him, please get to know Him today so you can one day enter through the gates of pearl into the Holy City whose builder and maker is God.

“The best moment of a Christian's life is his last one, because it is the one that is nearest heaven.” - Charles Spurgeon

Salvation Signified in a Name

For the past six months I have been listening to David Jeremiah’s radio series on the Book of Revelation. This past week he preached on Revelation chapter 19 which details the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It may surprise you to know that there are more than 700 different names for Jesus in the Bible! The number is staggering at first glance, but as we come to the Marriage Supper it is interesting to notice that Jesus refers to Himself as the Lamb. He could have chosen 699 other names but He chose this one. Why? David Jeremiah believes He selected this name because it is how every believer comes to know Jesus at first introduction.

As I thought about this concept over the past several days, it may be the most plausible explanation I have heard on this subject. For you see when we first encounter Jesus personally it is as the Lamb slain for our sins. Although He is also Creator of the universe, the Prince of Peace, the Bread of Life and the True Vine, if we do not know Him first as our sacrificial Lamb, the other names hold no significance. In fact, I would suggest that it would be impossible to know Jesus by His other names unless He is our Lamb first.

The Biblical significance of the title is rendered in the context of earlier lamb symbolism contained in the Old Testament. It was the blood of a lamb in Exodus 12 that protected and saved the Israelites during the first Passover. This link is made explicit in 1 Corinthians 5:7 as Paul declares Christians are saved by Christ as their true paschal lamb. It is also worth noting that the first words John the Baptist utters upon seeing Jesus is, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

So, it is not hard to understand why this title is the one Jesus uses at the Marriage Supper which will take place at the end of the seven year Tribulation period just prior to Christ’s return to the earth to rule with His saints for 1,000 years. It is here that all believers will be ushered into a love feast with their Messiah. It will be a glorious consummation beyond the comprehension of the human mind. The Lamb will sit down to eat with those His blood has redeemed.

What a tremendous picture to contemplate! What a divine reality to allow to permeate our minds and shape our daily walk. He is first and foremost our Lamb and He will be our Lamb when we sit at His table.

Do you know the Lamb? If not, you can know Him today. It is no coincidence that the name Jesus means “God saves.” This was His mission when he came to earth – to save sinners. Romans 10:9-10 declares that if a person shall “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Please do not delay your decision one more day. The Lamb is waiting to be your eternal Passover.

“From Heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride; With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.” - Samuel J. Stone