Jesus' letter to the church in Smyrna, Revelation 2:8-11
Immanuel Sermon Audio
Seven - Smyrna
If you have a bulletin, there's an outline in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along there. What a great way to transition into the book of Revelation as we look this morning in Revelation chapter 2. While you find that in your Bible, let me just say, I guess I have some good news and some bad news this morning. The good news, some of the good news is that it is Mother's Day, we get to celebrate our moms and our grandmas and acknowledge them today. The bad news is that we do not have any reality, television, celebrities here this morning. Sorry to disappoint you. Some of you know what I'm talking about. There is more good news. I did not shave this week. So I thought, you know, they're going to miss out on some of the duck dynasty experience. I just won't shave and I'll try to give them a little more of the duck dynasty experience. More bad news is I didn't quite get it out to Uncle Sizelink this week. But the best news is that whether or not I got my beard long enough or whether or not we have celebrities in the house or you just have to listen to me, we do have the living Word of God that we're going to look at this morning and we do have Jesus Christ in our midst as we look at this letter that he wrote to the church in Smyrna. And we're going to read this passage in a minute. Before we do, I want you to think about birthdays. We recently celebrated a couple of birthdays in our house. M and I have birthdays, six days apart. And so we just celebrated birthdays. And birthdays are an exciting thing, especially when you're a kid. Birthdays are exciting. You get to maybe get some of your friends together. Everybody sort of does things in your honor. Maybe there's a cake or some sort of dessert just for you. And the best part everybody knows about birthdays is presence. This is the one time of the year, maybe other than Christmas when as a kid somebody says what do you want? What is it that you want? We want to get you something that you want. Some of you are saying that's just not the best part when you're a kid. That's still the best part about birthdays is somebody gives you a present. You get these gifts. And Brooke and I had friends in college I was thinking about as I thought about birthdays. It was a group of friends we had. They were from Taiwan. And the friendship worked out really great because we found out as we hung out with these guys and spent time with them that in Taiwan, when it's your birthday, you don't get the presents. You give the presents. And so I said this is fantastic. When it's my birthday, I'm an American. We celebrated American style. You can give me a present. When it's your birthday, I want to be culturally sensitive to you. We'll celebrate at Taiwanese style and you guys give me a present. This is fantastic. But you got to admit that birthdays are an exciting thing. They're a fun thing and it is exciting to get presents. You also have to admit that the way we celebrate birthdays in our culture, not good or bad, just unique, the way we celebrate birthdays has a tendency to reinforce our consumer mindset and our mindset that it's all about me and it's all about what I want and it's all about consuming the things that bring pleasure and enjoyment into my life. And you have to admit, we're going to talk about this all through this series called Seven. You have to admit that our consumer mentality in this country impacts the way we think about church. For good or for bad, right, wrong and different, really nothing you can say other than it does impact the way we think about church. And all of us have this strong tendency to approach church as if it's a product to be consumed and to ask ourselves, what do I want from a church? What do I need my church to do for me? And as we saw last week and as we'll see again this morning and throughout this series, Revelation chapter 2 and Revelation chapter 3 paints a very different picture and presents us with a very different question. Instead of saying, what do I want from my church, these passages force us to ask ourselves the question, what does Jesus want from his church? Those are two completely separate, completely different questions. It's a completely different perspective in saying, what do I want from my church and what does Jesus want from his church? Let me put a map up on the screen. Last week I completely blew by this map, forgot to show it to you. This is the general part of the world where these things took place that we're talking about. You see the Mediterranean Sea, North Africa is right here down below, that's Egypt and the Nile River coming up, Jerusalem over on the right-hand side, Greece and Italy over on the top left, and then we'll zoom in on that red circle. Greece up on the top left, Asia Minor, what we call Turkey, this big landmass on the right, and John, the apostle, as he's writing these letters for Jesus, is on the island of Patmos. He's been imprisoned, he's been exiled for his faithfulness to Jesus Christ. They couldn't shut him up so they just sent him to a deserted island, a prison colony, and there he is on Patmos. Jesus appears, he gives him this vision, the book of Revelation, John writes it down and he sends it. Remember the book of Revelation, for all the debate and argument, there's two really clear chapters at the beginning, chapter two and chapter three. They're letters to real churches, and so last week we saw the letter to the church in Ephesus. No surprise if a messenger is delivering this letter from Patmos, that's the first city that they would have come to. This morning we look at the letter that Jesus wrote to the church in Smyrna, and then you can look ahead and read ahead, it just moves in a clockwise pattern all around to these seven churches. Now let me remind you of what we talked about last week. Jesus wrote to the church in Ephesus and he warned them about the danger to the church in Ephesus, the danger of a diminishing love. He warned the church in Ephesus about the danger of a diminishing love. Now there's a different letter, there's a different church this morning, he's writing to the church in Smyrna, and here's the big idea before we read this passage. Jesus warns the church in Smyrna about the danger of fearing persecution, the danger of fearing persecution, and notice he doesn't warn them about the danger of persecution. Persecution is not the danger, suffering in general is not the danger. The danger for the believers in Smyrna is that they fear persecution, is that they fear suffering. Now that's the big idea, you follow along in your Bible, we're going to read the letter that Jesus wrote to this church. It begins in Revelation chapter 2, verse 8, it goes all the way to verse 11, this is the word of God, Jesus writing to the church in Smyrna. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna, write, "The words of the first and the last who died and came to life." I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan, 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 into death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has in here let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. Let's pray. Father, as we have asked several times this morning, and as we have prayed this morning, our hope as we sit under the authority of your word is that you would speak to us, that we would understand what Jesus was asking from the church in Smyrna, and that we'd be able to apply it to our lives, to our families, to our church, and that we would understand what it is you want from a manual Baptist church. Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me tell you a story about a man named Graham Stains. Graham Stains was an Australian, an Aussie. That's him on the back right, the older man in the picture, and Graham Stains spent his entire life serving the people of India. Some of you may have heard of the Stains family. He lived in India as a missionary, and his work there focused on the poorest of the poor and people with leprosy in India, people who could not help themselves, people who were not going to get any sort of government assistance or handout or aid, and Graham Stains devoted his life to these people in India, ministering to them, serving them. He met his wife, Gladys, and you can see her on the left, he met Gladys in India, and their three children were all born in India, and the children's names are Esther, Philip, and Timothy. So here's this Australian family, and they sort of come together in India, and they live in India, and they serve in India, they just devote their whole life to these folks. 1999, January 22, the Stains family had some work to do out in one of the villages. It was away from where their home base was, their house, and so Graham and his two boys loaded up in a station wagon, and they drove out to this village to do some of the ministry things that they were busy with all the time. They stayed, and they ministered so late that he didn't think he could safely get back home that evening, and so he said, "Well, we don't really have a place to stay, we don't really know people here, but we've got the old station wagon." And there's plenty of room for dad and a couple of boys in the station wagon, so we'll just sleep tonight in the station wagon, so that's what they did. They just sort of parked in the middle of town and just said, "We'll camp out here, we'll wake up in the morning, son will come up, we'll drive back home, no big deal." Well, that night, a group of Hindu extremists who were not just opposed, but violently opposed to the work that the Stains were doing, since they were doing it in Jesus' name and for Jesus' glory, surrounded the station wagon, chained the doors of the station wagon shut, and set the station wagon on fire. And the next morning, when the vehicle had cooled off, and they were able to remove the chains and open the doors, they found Graham's body huddled, hovered over his boys, all three of them had died in the fire. Immediately after this happened, the news broke that Australians, foreigners, missionaries who were here serving died like this, word got out in India, and people wanted to hear from Gladys. Remember Gladys and Esther were back at home, they weren't in the station wagon, so people wanted to hear from Graham's widow, "What do you think about this? What do you have to say about this?" Here is what Gladys said to the press, "I have only one message for the people of India. I am not bitter, neither am I angry, but I have one great desire that each citizen of this country should establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who gave his life for their sins, let us burn hatred and spread the flame of Christ's love." That's what she said immediately after the incident. A couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months, I'm not sure, some period later, she had the chance to speak in an Indian courtroom, and this is what she said in the courtroom. She said, "It's far from my mind to punish the persons who are responsible for the death of my husband, Graham, and my two children, but it is my desire and hope that they would repent and would be reformed." I don't know about you, but I read those quotes and I think, "How could you say something like that? How could you have the grace in your heart to say something like that in the face of losing your husband and your two sons in the face of giving your entire life to serve the people of a country who didn't know Jesus Christ?" Here is at least part of the answer. The Stains family understood that there was no danger in suffering. None. It's not a danger. It's not something to be afraid of. It's not something to be fretful about. It's not something to worry about. They understood what Jesus wanted to church and Smyrna to understand, and that is simply this, that the danger is that you fear suffering. The danger is that you allow suffering to cause you to fall away from your devotion to Jesus Christ, and so Gladys Stains was able to respond in an unbelievably remarkable way, because she understood the things that Jesus wanted the church and Smyrna to understand, and so let's dig in. Take your Bible, take your outline, and let's begin with this question. When a church is on the brink of persecution, what does Jesus want them to remember? Most of us will never face this kind of persecution, and so if you wanted to generalize it a little bit more, you could say when a church or a Christian or a family is on the brink of suffering, what does Jesus want them to remember? Several things. Number one, Jesus wants suffering saints to remember the gospel. That's the first thing and the most important thing that Jesus wants people who suffer to remember is the gospel. Did you notice how Jesus introduced Himself to the church in Smyrna? It was different than how He introduced Himself to the church and Ephesus, right? Last week we looked at Ephesus, a church that had stopped loving each other. Jesus was very upset about that, and He said to them, "I'm the one basically who holds you in the palm of my hand," and He went on to say, "I'm paraphrasing, I can do with you what I choose. I don't need you, and if you don't shape up, I can get rid of you." That's how Jesus introduced Himself to the church in Ephesus. "I hold you in my hand." Here's how He introduces Himself to these saints in Smyrna who are about to suffer. He says, "The words of the first and the last who died and came to life." That's the gospel message. Jesus is the beginning, Jesus is the end, Jesus died for you, and Jesus came to life for you. You say, "Well, they're about to face some really tough stuff. Don't they need something more deep? Don't they need something a little bit more heady?" That just seems kind of basic. That's basically Jesus singing, "Jesus loves me," or God loves the little children, or some sort of simple, childish thing. All He says is, "I died and I came to life," but what He's saying is, "You're about to suffer and you don't need to be afraid. You have nothing to fear because I died your death and I rose for your life." You understand that the Bible says that all of us are sinners, and last week we talked about the idea that our sin separates us from God. You also understand that the Bible says our sin brings death into our lives, spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death. That may not be a popular message. That may not be a patchy on the back, make you feel special and warm and fuzzy inside, but it's the Bible, spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death because of the sin that's present in our lives. And Jesus is saying, "I have died for you." "I have been raised from the dead by the power of God through the Holy Spirit for you. There is nothing left for you to fear, nothing." The Bible says that Jesus calls every human being to confess their sin, to repent of it, and to put their faith in His life, His death, and His resurrection. If you have never done that, you have never admitted your sin, confessed it, turned from it, and looked to Jesus in faith. The Bible says that your future is death, spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death. And Jesus would save you this morning, turn from your sin, put your faith in me and live, understand and believe and accept that I died for you, and that I came to life for you. And so the first thing Jesus wants him to remember is the very simple, very important gospel message. Here's the second thing Jesus wants him to remember. Jesus wants suffering saints to remember that he knows what they're going through. He knows what they're going through. Verse 9, He says, "I know your tribulation and your poverty. I know it." You read that and you say, "Well, of course he knows it. He knows everything. So he knows what's going on. He knows my heart. He knows my concerns. He knows my circumstances. He knows tomorrow. He knows yesterday. Of course he knows it. And yes, it's true that intellectually he knows it. But the Bible also says that experientially he knows suffering. He knows suffering to a degree that we don't know it. "I know your tribulation. I know your poverty. I know your family problems. I know what it's like to be misunderstood, mocked, lied about, abused, betrayed, lonely. I know what it's like to be tempted. I know what it's like to be in pain. I know what it's like to lose loved ones. I know what it's like to die. He knows what they're going through. Number 3, what does he want them to remember? Jesus wants suffering saints to remember that they have nothing to fear. They have nothing to fear. Verse 10, "Do not fear what you're about to suffer." It's amazing in the Bible how many times we are told to fear God. And on the flip side of that how many other things we're told not to fear. And what's remarkable is that we usually get that flipped and flopped backwards. And we fear and we worry about all kinds of stupid stuff and we don't fear God. And there's a simple reminder. If you fear me, if you understand that I've died and I've come to life, you don't have to be afraid. That's what he wants him to remember. What does he promise them? What does Jesus promise a suffering church or on parentheses on your outline? It also says what does he not promise a suffering church? And let's begin with this. Jesus does not promise deliverance. And I'm speaking from an earthly perspective here. He does not promise the church in Smyrna or the church in Odessa, Texas deliverance in an earthly sense. Verse 10 says this, "And imagine as we read verse 10 that you've never heard it, that you're a member of the church in Smyrna and you're hearing it for the very first time and you hear this, do not fear what you are about to suffer." You stop right there. Do not fear what you're about to suffer. What do you think would come next? Or what do you hope would come next? Maybe you would think Jesus would say, "Look, don't fear what you're about to suffer. It's not going to be that bad. It's going to be okay. I know what's going on. You don't have anything to really worry about. It's going to seem like it's not going to be that big of a deal. It's okay. Don't worry about it. Don't you know that God never gives you more than you can handle? Jesus doesn't say that here. He doesn't say it anywhere. This is what he does say. Do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil, so this is going to be satanically inspired persecution. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison. Right there, maybe if you're in Smyrna, you're thinking, "Well, maybe I won't be in the sun. I'm going to turn my neighbor in. I'm going to hope they take this guy. At least have a chance that I'm not going to be thrown into prison. He's going to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and for 10 days, you will have tribulation." And maybe at that point, you stop right there. Maybe you say, "Okay, yes, God does give us more than we can handle." And I acknowledge that it makes us rely on him and depend on him, but Jesus said it's only going to be 10 days. Anybody can do 10 days. We're going to county. We're going to put on the orange jumpsuit. You're going to be there for a week and a half, and then we're all coming home and we're going to have a big celebration. Don't fear. Jesus says, "I don't need to be afraid about it. You're going to suffer some of you, not all of you. Some of you are going to be thrown into prison, and you're going to be there 10 days. I can do this." And then Jesus says this, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." So at the end of 10 days, you're not going home. You're going to the cemetery. Some of you are going to suffer. You're going to be in prison for 10 days. Hold on. Be faithful unto the point of death. I will not deliver you from this. Be faithful to the point of death, and then he has the audacity to say this, "Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life." Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. That leads to what Jesus does promise a suffering church. He does not promise deliverance. He does promise life. I will give you the crown of life. Verse 11, "He who has a near, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, the one who conquers, or the one who overcomes, or the one who is faithful, will not be hurt by the second death." Sort of a bittersweet promise from Jesus. Be faithful unto death, and then I'm going to give you life. And as Americans who don't like to suffer, we say, "That's okay. I'll just take the life up front, please." Jesus says, "No, that's not how it's going to go down. Be faithful unto death, and then I give you the crown of life." And if you overcome, if you're faithful, if you persevere, you will not be hurt by the second death. Kind of like the promises Jesus made in Matthew 10, verse 28, "Do not fear those who killed the body, but cannot kill the soul." Kind of like a promise Jesus made in Mark, or Luke, chapter 12, "Do not fear those who killed the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. Another promise in John is similar, "Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." Death and life being contrasted. And here Jesus says to this church, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." So he promises them life. Now we're going to end with one more question and kind of bring this full circle, but let me tell you one more story before we get to that last question. I want you to understand, and I put the map up there for a reason this week, I want you to understand this is a real letter that Jesus really wrote to a real church made up of real people. It's not just something that's in the Bible that's been passed down for a long time, that some guy named John was bored on an island and he sat down and did some creative writing. This is a real letter from Jesus to a real church made up of real people. And basically what you have is Jesus coming to visit John on the island of Patmos, giving John these words to write down, dictating these letters. John writes them down and he sends them to this church. And imagine you're Smyrna, you get the letter from Jesus, a real church gathered in something that resembled kind of what we're doing this morning and somebody stands up and the letter says, "You're going to suffer." Don't be afraid. You are going to suffer, but you don't need to be afraid because Satan's going to throw some of you in jail, you'll be there for 10 days and then we're going to have your funeral. Don't be afraid. What adds an interesting wrinkle to this is that the pastor of the church in Smyrna was a man named Polykarp. I have no idea if that's what Polykarp looked like. That's the best picture he had on the internet. But there he is. He's the pastor of the church in Smyrna. He was mentored and taught by the apostle John. So he's putting all this together. Jesus has something to say to the church in Smyrna. So he says, "John, I want you to write it down." And John gets to the part where he's writing to Smyrna and John is saying, "Oh wait, this is where my boy. My protege is the pastor. Polykarp's in Smyrna." So he says, "All right. I hope you've got some good news for Smyrna. Here's the news for Smyrna and for Polykarp that you write down and send to your boy. You're going to suffer. You're going to be in prison for 10 days. Don't be afraid. Be faithful unto death and I give you the crown of life." So John writes it down. He sends it on its way. They stop an Ephesus, deliver that letter. They move up to Smyrna. They deliver the letter there. Polykarp gets it. He stands up in front of the congregation and he reads it. Kind of a downer, right? Some of us are going to jail and we're not coming back. So they read the letter and then they wait. And you can imagine Jesus sends you mail that says you're going to jail and then you're going to die. You're sort of anxious. When's it coming? You didn't say when this was, is it next week? Is it next month? Well, a week went by nothing. A month went by nothing. A year went by. Nothing. Ten years went by. Imagine the people in the church who died in those first ten years waiting. They never saw anything happen. Twenty years. Thirty years. Forty years. About fifty years after Jesus sent this letter to the church in Smyrna, it happened. The Romans decided that they would target the church in Smyrna where Polykarp was the pastor. And so they arrested poly carp and 10 other people. Now, I have no idea how big the church was in Smyrna, but if it was bigger than ours or smaller than ours, I don't know. Let's just see what 10 people looks like. Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. That's what 11 people from your church look like, who get arrested. So they arrested these guys and they arrested poly carp and they throw them in jail. And we're all there together. And you can imagine the accommodations are not very nice. And they pull poly carp aside because they think he's the pastor, he's the leader. If we get him to break, maybe everyone else will go down with him. Not just the 10 we have in prison, but the folks back at the church who we didn't arrest because the jail's not big enough for all of them. I don't know why. But they say to poly carp, look, all you have to do is say one sentence. And all these people live, all 10 of them live. And they go home to their families. Would you like to go home to your family today? Would you like to go home to your family today? Yes, they all want to go home. Poly carp, all you have to do is this one thing. All you have to do is say, Caesar is Lord. That's it. We're not asking you to burn a Bible. We're not asking you to say terrible things about Jesus. You just have to say one sentence. Caesar is Lord. So you guys can be seated. There they are, 11 of them. And they got poly carp aside and he starts thinking, I know these folks would like to go home. They have kids at home. They have spouses at home. They have jobs at home. They teach Sunday school back at the church. And so I imagine his mind starts going. Maybe he starts thinking about the words of Jesus. Do not fear those who kill the body but who cannot kill the soul. Maybe he starts thinking about Jesus and Luke where he says, do not fear those who kill the body. And after that there is nothing more that they can do. Maybe thinks about something that John the Apostle wrote down in his gospel. Whoever believes in me, though we die yet shall he live. Or maybe is it too far of a stretch of the imagination to think that he thought about the letter that Jesus sent him 50 years earlier? And he starts running through his mind. Be faithful unto death. And I will give you the crown of life. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. So he's thinking and he's praying and here's what he says. For 86 years I have been his servant and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me? That's his answer, all 11 killed, instantly, immediately. No questions, no due process killed. In our human side we listen to that story and we look at all poly carp up there and we think about the 10 who are with him and we say, "Man Jesus you can do anything." Why didn't you send an earthquake like that time you busted Peter out of prison? Why didn't you send an angel to get him out of there? That would have been an easy thing to do. You think about the stains family, Graham and his boys and you say, "Really? To a missionary family who gives their life to live in the filth and the squalor of the poorest parts of India and to serve people who are sick and contagious? You let them go out like that? You could have done anything. You're all powerful. Why didn't you save them?" And the answer is what? He did save them. Look what poly carp said. How can I blaspheme my king? Who what? Save me. Past tense. I'm already saved. Poly carp's thinking back and he's saying, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. What do I even need to think about here?" I received words from Jesus the first and the last who died and came to life. Who said, "Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life." Who said, "Overcome and you will not be hurt by the second death." And poly carp looked him in the eye and he said, "I already have salvation. All you can do is kill me. All you can do is lock my head off. All you can do is burn me alive. And Jesus has promised me life." Jesus in this passage is preparing the church in Smyrna and us to suffer. Why? Why would he prepare us to suffer instead of just delivering us from it? Four quick reasons and we'll wrap it up. Number one, God uses your suffering to confirm your faith. John 15, 20, Jesus said, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you." It's a sign of discipleship that you are treated in the same way that Jesus is treated. And so he said, "I'm not going to exempt you from persecution. I'm not going to exempt you from suffering. It's a sign that you're following me." Second, why would he prepare us to suffer? God uses your suffering for his glory. And I did some searching through the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. I just wanted to list out 50 passages here that teach this and point to it. And I just settled on two. 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 1 Peter 5, 10. You can look them up later. The gist of both of them and all the ones I left offer this. When you suffer and the world sees that you love Jesus more than your own skin, God gets glory for that. He uses your suffering to bring glory to Himself. Number three, God uses your suffering for your good. And I hope you're familiar with the great promise of Romans 828 that God uses all things, all circumstances, all situations, good, bad, ugly, in the middle for the good of those who love Him. That doesn't mean it's always going to work out fine for you and you're going to get out of jail and go home to your family. It might mean they keep you in jail for 10 days, then they kill you and we have your funeral. But in Romans 828, the good is that you become more like Jesus Christ. And God says, I will use every situation, every circumstance to conform you more and more and more to the image of my Son, and that is for your good. Lastly, God uses your suffering for the good of others. And I put a verse here, Colossians 124, it's a passage where Paul tells the church in Colossae that he is filling up through his sufferings what is lacking in the sufferings of Jesus. It sounds like a crazy statement at first. You think, well, what is lacking in Jesus and what He suffered on the cross? It's complete, it's finished. He said so himself before he died, it's finished, it's done, it's over. And the answer is nothing is lacking in its power. What Paul is saying, it hasn't been applied to your life. And through my sufferings, Paul says to the church in Colossae, you are coming to know about the sufferings of the one who truly suffered for you and suffered in your place. He used Paul's sufferings for the good of the church in Colossae, and he promises to use your suffering for the good of others, who don't know the good news about Jesus Christ. And that's the letter to the church in Smyrna, not exactly a peppy up, pick you up, make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but something that people like me and people like you need to be reminded of. I'm going to ask you to bow and let's pray together and let's think about what this letter might mean for us as individuals. What would it mean for you and your family? What would it mean for us at a manual Baptist church? Lord, we come to you and we admit that because of the comforts that we enjoy as Americans, that we don't like to suffer, we don't like the thought of persecution. Father, we in this country do everything in our power to not suffer and to not have to think about death and not have to face death. Father, we confess to you that we are sinners. We pray that you would drive home to our hearts, the reality that sin leads to death. We pray that you would help us to see as beautiful the gospel promise that Jesus, the first and the last, died for us and came to life for us. Father, if there are people who are here who have never repented of their sin and made this hope their hope, we pray that today they would turn from their sin, that they would believe the truth about the gospel. Jesus died. Jesus brought back to life. Father, we pray that as a church family we would have no expectation that you keep us from persecution. We have no expectation that you keep us from suffering. Father, but we do pray that you would help us not to fear these things, that we would fear you, that we would love Jesus and that we would not be afraid of anything that may come our way. Father, you're a great God. Jesus is a wonderful Savior and your Spirit is an amazing comforter. And we want to take a few minutes together as a church family to sing and to worship, to give you glory for who you are, to give you glory for all that you've done for us, Father, and to give you glory for the promises that we believe you will keep in our lives. Be honored as we sing. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.