Revelation 2:8-11

Image 9-14-24 at 1.34 PM

Revelation
The Lamb of God: On His Throne And Among His People
Jesus, Give Us Eyes to See
Revelation 2:8-11

 

➢ Read Revelation 2:8-11 and answer the following questions:

  • How does the church in Smyrna differ from the church in Ephesus?
  • Does this text encourage you, challenge you, strengthen you, or terrify you?
  • What can you do as a valuable member of our church body to help GCC be more like Smyrna than Ephesus?

➢ Identify the paradoxical statements in this text. Do you ever wonder if you have it wrong when it seems that all the world (or most of it) believes differently than you do?

➢ Why do you believe the way that you do? What can you do to help unbelievers understand and believe the truth?

➢ Take time to discuss the three points of application. Scripture is under each point at the end of the study notes.

  1. Make sure that your treasure is in heaven, not on earth
  2. Address your fears by fearing God rather than man 
  3. Strengthen your faith by saturating your heart and mind with Scripture

Extra Notes

Isaiah 53:2 . . . he (Jesus) had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Yahweh, Jesus – both, the first and the last

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.”

Isaiah 41:4 Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?

I, the Yahweh, the first,

and with the last; I am he.

Isaiah 44:6 Thus says the Yahweh, the King of Israel

and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:

I am the first and I am the last;

besides me there is no god.

Isaiah 48:12 “Listen to me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I called!

I am he; I am the first,

and I am the last.

History Repeating Itself All Over Again

Jesus to the Jewish leaders in John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

What it means to conquer

From the Greek word nikao – translated conquers in Revelation 2:8, and overcome(s) in 1 John 5:4-5

Revelation 2:11 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.”

1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Application from the Sermon

1. Make sure that your treasure is in heaven, not on earth

Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

2. Address your fears by fearing God rather than man

Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

3. Strengthen your faith by saturating your heart and mind with Scripture

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.