We continued our series in Revelation this week and were reminded that life with Jesus is uncomfortable and life with Jesus is glorious. God’s words of encouragement to the church in Smyrna were written to a group of people who were familiar with struggle and injustice. Just like the church in Smyrna, we can be comforted knowing that Jesus is intimately familiar with the struggle of living in a broken world:
Revelation 2:8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. 9 “‘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.
Are there things you will do or experience this week that are difficult? As you open your time of reflection, take some time to bring those things to Jesus in prayer.
Pray: Jesus, you came into the world and endured pain, injustice, and even death on a cross. Your love and grace for us are overwhelming. Thank you for reminding us that you see us and you know us. Encourage and comfort us through your word this week. Help us to make much of you.
Though we, like the church in Smyrna, have all experienced struggle, we confessed this week that we spend much of our time and energy trying to eliminate hard things and ensure our own comfort:
We were built for a life of loving you, loving others, and loving the place you put us. But we determined life was about serving self. We spend much of our days pursuing comfort. Instead of loving others, we fearfully manage life around protecting our reputation. We prefer complacency over honest struggling with sin and brokenness.
The gospel calls us to engage, to lean into the hard, to be present. Where is the Holy Spirit revealing to you the ways you seek comfort over engagement in your life? In your relationships? In your work?
Where in your life are you learning how to hear no or to embrace vulnerability?
Especially for children: Can you think of some things that you don’t like to do, but that are good for you? Ask your parents if they can think of some things that are hard but good for them.
As much as we’d like to think that life with Jesus is a means to being comfortable, Jesus’ message to us, as it was to the church in Smyrna, is that we can expect to be uncomfortable. We can expect to experience real struggle:
Revelation 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. 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. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 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.’
Even as we read those words, do you see what Jesus’ promises his people in the midst of their struggle?
The beginning of verse 10 echos the words from Isaiah 43 in our call to worship:
Isaiah 43:1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
What do these verses tell us about who we are and what Jesus has done? How does that enable us to endure hard things?
Especially for children: How do you you feel knowing that God has promised to always be with you, even when things are hard?
Jesus endured even death on the cross to save us. It is only by God’s grace that we can be faithful and progress through struggle. We look forward to the day when his glory will fill all the earth. All will be Amen and Hallelujah.
Pray: Father, you have called us sons and daughters. Your word tells us that we are a redeemed people. Even now, you are using everything in our lives to make us more like Jesus. Show us the ways we would rather preserve our comfort than live in light of the gospel. Teach us to enage, to lean in, to be vulnerable.
Looking forward to worship next week, take some time to read over our next passage in Revelation. As you read, pray that the gospel would permeate every part of our lives and that our hearts will be opened to receive God’s word.
Revelation 2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star.