Revelation 2,8-11. 2. Last Sunday in Church Year

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Revelation 2,8-11     5518

Vorletzter. Sn. n. Kirchenjahres (26. Trinitatis)  071  

Gregory Thaumaturgus (the Wonder-worker), Bishop of Pontus. ✠ 270 

18. November 2018 

1. О Jesus, Thou Beloved Son of Your Father, for the sake of Your holy wounds keep us in Your love, so that we remain faithful to You in this temporal life.  Amen. (Starck 318) 

2. »Jesus said to the Apostle John: „And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the First and the Last, who was dead and came back to life: I have known your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the blasphemy of those saying that 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 jail, in order to tempt you and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one conquering will never ever be hurt by the second death.’“« 

3. The glorified and ascended Christ Jesus gave the last-living apostle, the beloved John, His apocalypse for the comfort of the Church. During the era of the apostles, the Church experienced varying degrees of trials, persecution and tribulation. Stephen the Deacon was the first martyr (ad 35) in the apostolic era; he was the first of those Christians who would die on account of the blessed name of Jesus Christ. For 300 years, first the Jews and then the Romans spilled Christian blood in the hopes of stemming the inexorable victorious march of the Christian faith. 

4. The Christians in the 21. century still experience varying degrees of persecution and tribulation. Palestinian Christians, who trace their ancestry back to the 1. century Church, face struggles at the hands of occupying Israeli forces. African Christians face slavery or death at the hands of their non-Christian neighbors. Christians throughout Asia and the Middle East also endure trails and persecution for their faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ knows His Church’s tribulation and her poverty.

5. Christians in the United States do not know what true persecution is. Our trials are petty compared to what others face around the world. But when a Christian or a church suffers in Iran or China, we share in their suffering for they are brothers and sisters in the faith. We are one body in Christ. Like the Christian witnesses in Revelation 6, we pray: »O Sovereign Lord, Holy and True, how long before You judge and avenge the blood of those who dwell on the earth?« (Revelation 6,10). 

6. Perhaps we will feel the sharp sting of persecution in this nation. When trials fall upon us, we must recall the exhortation recorded by the beloved John the Apostle: »You will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.« The one who speaks this is Jesus who is the Alpha and the Omega (Α και Ω), the First and the Last, the one who died and is now alive. In John’s day, the στεφανος (wreath/garland) was awarded to the victor in Greco-Roman athletic competitions much like we reward a gold medal in the Olympics. So what is the crown of life that Jesus promises to His people? A: Jesus promises eternal life to all Christians, and this physical and spiritual life is derived and sustained by Christ. So Jesus likens our life as an athletic competition, and in this competition we suffer injury and loss but nevertheless we are crowned the victor for having endured until the end with faith. 

7. Those who have the crown of life will never experience the 2. death. The imagery here is as follows: the 1. life is our life on this earth; the 2. life is eternal life with God; the 1. death is our physical death; the 2. death is eternal separation from God. The crown of life given to us by Jesus assures each Christian: you live on this earth, one day you will die, but you will live again forever. The 2. death with its eternal separation from God will never harm the Christian. Suffering and persecution are not the final words in this fallen world.  We do not cease to exist when we die, Jesus did indeed die but He rose from the grave. He is the first fruits of the glorious resurrected body. Christ’s victory is our victory. His resurrection is our resurrection. Death has no dominion over Him, and therefore death has no dominion over us. Trust in Christ, for He is our Eternal Life. Look unto Christ, for He gives us the crown of everlasting life, which is the crown of His righteousness (2. Timothy 4,8).  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Righteousness Judge; give us the certainty of salvation, so that in this life we are assured of our forgiveness and in the life to come will join all of creation in renewed glory.   Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.     

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.