A LETTER FROM THE LORD

2.   REV. 2. 8-11      TO SMYRNA:  A LETTER ABOUT DEPTH

This is such a short letter, written to a church experiencing persecution of the most extreme sort.

It is very challenging to us to read for we perhaps will think that Christ does not say to them the things we might expect – or might want him to say to us if we were experiencing the things they were! This letter challenges ‘the depth’ of our Christian commitment. Just how committed are we?

I. BEING A CITIZEN IN BEAUTIFUL  SMYRNA

THINK ABOUT LIFE IN SMYRNA:

It is very important before you study this letter to hear what your group leader has to tell you about ancient Smyrna. Let all the different aspects of life in Smyrna sink in.  You won’t appreciate the message of this letter until you understand what living in Smyrna was like. Christ knew exactly what it was like: ‘I KNOW...’, he said

Smyrna was a very popular place to live: what made it so attractive to people of the day?

Would you have appreciated living there? What would have appealed to you?

Where might be a modern equivalent of ‘Smyrna’?

Where should Christians live?

Where would you choose to live if you could? What features would you chose to have in the absolutely ideal place to live?

Think about the values that underlie the things you count important

II. BEING A CHRISTIAN IN BEAUTIFUL SMYRNA

THINK ABOUT BEING A CHRISTIAN IN SMYRNA

What do we learn from this letter about what life was like for Christians in Smyrna?

What things made life in beautiful Smyrna so very hard for them?

Why should their lives be characterised by affliction, poverty, slander, suffering in such a beautiful place?

From whom would these things have come?

What sort of ‘affliction’ do you think they experienced?

What ‘slanders’ do you think were spread? By whom? Why?

Why so ‘poor’ in such a rich city?

How do you imagine the Christians there felt about all of this?

How would you react to the things they experienced?

Do any Christians experience similar things today?

What sort of problems tend to get us down, get on top of us? How do you feel about that?

What does a comparison with the Smynan Christians’ problems make you feel?

III.     ADVISE TO CHRISTIANS IN BEAUTIFUL SMYRNA

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WOULD SAY TO CHRISTIANS IN SMYRNA

What would you write to Christians living in Smyrna? What advice would you give? Should they get out? Should they stay?  Why? When?

Are you ‘in a hard place’ and wondering if you should ‘get out’ and move on?

What did Christ have to say to the Christians there?

What comfort and encouragement does he give?

What consolations does he not give?

What challenging exhortation does he bring?

How do you feel they felt when they heard his words?

What promises does he give them?

Of what things does he remind them?

What is the relevance to their circumstances of the way he describes himself (8)?

On what, according to his words, should a Christian’s focus be?

What do you think of that? Is that where a 21st Century Christian’s focus is?

How do you react to this letter from the Lord to Christians having such a difficult time?

THE CHALLENGE:

The challenge of Smyrna to us is a challenge about how serious we are in our Christian commitment and to the depth of our spiritual lives.  We might well get out and live somewhere easier.  We probably would swallow hard at an exhortation to ‘be faithful unto death’! – even when followed by the promise of a crown of life!

Talk together about the depth of current Christianity in our country?

What are the characteristics of ‘depth’ in a Christians life?

Pray together for all those living in the modern equivalents of Smyrna?