A CRUSHED AND CROWNED CHURCH
Messages from the Book of Revelation • Sermon • Submitted
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A CRUSHED AND CROWNED CHURCH
Rev. 2:8-11
v.8a INTRODUCTION
Smyrna = myrrh - has to be crushed to give off its aroma. Used as burial ointment. Used as incense.
15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16A (NKJV)
V.8B-9 JESUS KNOWS ABOUT THE PROBLEMS
Emperor Worship - Once a year must bow down to the image of the Roman Emperor and say “Caesar is Lord.”
Persecutions of Believers - True believers didn’t do Emperor worship - only one True and Living God, only Jesus is Lord! Results of their unwillingness to compromise in their faith - persecutions:
No Certificate - unemployment, losing all their wealth and property, could not buy or sell anything. Some were killed for their faith! Pastor of the Church, Polycarp, burned alive! Some imprisoned!
Poverty of Believers - but Jesus sees them as rich!! They were rich in Christ!! We are rich in Christ.
ILLUSTRATION OF BEING TRULY RICH IN CHRIST
This will take a couple minutes, but let me relate a true story I'll never forget:
Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.
When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1. We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.
Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.
We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at those teenagers in their new clothes, and I felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20. As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the Pastor drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.
Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like the poorest of the poor. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor. That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed— I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!
We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering. When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."
Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100." We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!
v. 10-11 JESUS KNOWS, AND PROMISES
Crown of Life
No Second Death
They received no condemnation! Only 2 of the 7 churches.
They are the only church of the 7 that are surviving today!
CONCLUSION
Jesus Knows our troubles
Jesus knows our persecutions
Jesus knows our poverty…
but He also
KNOWS our Works…and our faithfulness to Him.
Do we love Him like this church did? Are we willing to be crushed for Him, I hope so..
15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16A (NKJV)