0976. The Overcomers at Smyrna

The Overcomers at Smyrna

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death" (Rev_2:11)

It will help us in studying the Smyrna overcomers, to once more follow the same line as we followed in the Church at Ephesus.

1. The vision of Christ as He presents Himself to Smyrna. "These things saith The First and The Last, which was dead and is alive." This vision of Christ was particularly encouraging to the saints in Smyrna because they were suffering great tribulation and standing in jeopardy of their lives at every moment.

Christ seems to tell them that He too was hated even unto the death. Around His Cross the enemy centered his attack; the mob passed by, wagging their heads against Him; the assembly of the wicked enclosed Him.

Finally Christ sounded forth His victorious cry, "It is finished." Then He commended His spirit unto the Father and yielded up the ghost.

Three days later Christ came forth from the grave bearing in His hand the keys of death and of hades. It is this Christ Who comforts Smyrna's persecuted saints with the words: "I was dead but am alive again."

2. A vision of Smyrna's drift from the simplicities of the Gospel. Paul wrote to Galatia, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him who called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel."

That was Smyrna's fault–"There were those among them who troubled them perverting the Gospel of Christ."

Against these the Holy Spirit gives strong warning to the Church at Galatia, a warning applicable to Smyrna:

"But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

"As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal_1:8-9).

3. A vision of the Smyrna overcomers. There are two distinct thoughts just here.

(1) They are overcomers because they stood true to God against the encroachments of Judaistic teaching, the "other gospel" that had crept into the Church at Smyrna.

They overcame in that they were not caught in the drift away from the faith. Many around them, concerning the faith, had made shipwreck, of these there were such as Hymenaeus and Alexander (see 1Ti_1:20), who were delivered unto satan that they might learn not to blaspheme. They found no part in the overcomer's reward.

(2) They are overcomers because they stood the storm of persecution and "were faithful unto death." That is, they paid for their faith with their lives; they were ready to be "offered up," to be martyrs unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. A vision of the overcomer's reward. "He that overcometh shall in no wise be hurt of the second death." If, under Ephesus, our minds went back to Eden they now go back again. This time we go back to hear the sentence of death pronounced upon Adam. However, as we stand with the dying of Smyrna we have no dread of the greatest sting of all that lay in that old Adamic sentence. The sting of death has been taken away.

If under Ephesus, our minds went forward to the Tree of Life in the new Paradise of God, they now go forward again. Only, this time, we stand about the Great White Throne and we see the dead small and great standing before God and being judged according to their works. Then the judged are cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. In the day of that great assize, the Smyrna overcomers will realize the value of their victorious faith–they shall not be hurt of the second death.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR