VII: Letters to the Church

For the Conquerors

by Jessica Klootwyk

“Can Jesus Trust Me With Persecution?”

I wish you could have been there with me because the atmosphere in the room that day is very hard to describe. It was serious and weighty and heavy, but also sweet and hopeful, and even joyfull at times. There were 21 of us in the room: 19 Indian pastors, my translator and I. We just finished a full day of sharing together. Each of the pastors shared how he and his family were persecuted since my last visit, then we all encouraged him with Scriptures and prayed for him.

A typical story went something like this (I’m paraphrasing and summarizing of course):

“We were holding a prayer meeting in our house, when some young men showed up and started to film the service with their phones. More men kept arriving and soon our house was surrounded by a mob shouting false accusations against us. Then the local police arrived to “investigate” but they were working together with the mob in a coordinated effort. They searched the house for Bibles and ministry materials, collected our phones, and took me to jail where I spent 3 months without being charged. The mob beat my wife and destroyed our property, so she and the children have been hiding with relatives in a different region ever since. We haven’t seen them since but we are able to call and message each other. Our house was destroyed and we can’t go back. In jail, I found other brothers and kept praying and worshipping and sharing our faith despite daily beatings until our brothers posted bail and we were released. The Lord gave me this song to help me while I was in jail…”

At this point they would usually sing the song they wrote in jail to Jesus which helped express the mix of emotions they felt through all the pain, stress, and worry, as well as their faith and gratitude to Jesus and resolve to remain faithful to him and the ministry He has called them to.

The 19 pastors in the room that day had a total of 96 pending court cases among them. They continue to make disciples and shepherd their church members but in smaller groups, meeting at night, without singing out loud, changing houses frequently and constantly dodging surveillance. Collectively our partners in northern India are experiencing increasing persecution, but still planted 169 new churches in 2024.

It sounds like stories from the Book of Acts or possibly a report from the church in Smyrna, doesn’t it? The letter to Smyrna was written to help encourage believers facing hardships and persecution for their faith, but it could have been written to our brothers and sisters in northern India who are both poor and persecuted. Would you please lift up these 19 Indian pastors and thousands of persecuted believers in India today?

They asked us to pray for their families and for the churches to meet again, but most of all, they asked to be found faithful to Jesus in the suffering He entrusted them with. They wanted everyone to know God can trust them with persecution in their life and they are not going to quit living in the way of Jesus even if the earthly rewards of living such a life are taken away.

What about us?

Persecution is not a hypothetical, it is real, painful and costly. It is also something Jesus promised to his disciples, something very familiar to the early church, many saints in history, and part-and-parcel of following Jesus in many places around the world today. In fact, more believers are being persecuted around the world today than at any time in history.

Living in the way of Jesus includes the promise of rejection, opposition, and, yes, even persecution from the world around us, so we would do well not to skip over such passages, but instead “count the cost” and consider for ourselves how we might respond when (not if) it happens to us. How much trouble can Jesus trust us with?

Outreach Team

by The Outreach Team

Going Through It

This week, we are looking at Jesus’ verdict of the church in Smyrna in Revelation 2:8. This church seems small and relatively poor in material wealth, but they are having enough of an impact to attract abuse from the surrounding Jews who reject Christ. They seem to be holding the line amidst their struggles, which the Lord commends them for. He even lays into their oppressors, labeling them the synagogue of Satan.

The Lord then forewarns them of an impending trial where they will suffer for a specified amount of time. Wrongful imprisonment and life-threatening persecution will overtake them for ten days. The Lord offers no way of escape or any way to mitigate loss. Instead, he states, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” The Lord gave them foreknowledge of future suffering. There has to be some fear and anxiety.

There is a fear of pain, a fear of loss, a fear of suffering that can be incredibly powerful. When it becomes clear that we’re going through, not around, we naturally tend to despair. We don’t need to be afraid! The Lord has brought us through all kinds of stuff thus far. Each of us have a list of hard things God helped us through. I remember clearly the time when the Lord took me through the worst period of pain in my life.

For those who don’t know, I have something like Cerebral Palsy, and it makes controlling my legs tricky. I had my last surgery to lengthen my hamstrings when I was fourteen. The surgery went smoothly enough, but upon waking from anesthesia, my spasticity kicked in, and my legs tightened up as they always do. I got to feel the sensation of my legs pulling themselves apart.

My whole reality was pain, and all I could do was scream! For two weeks, my entire existence was pain. It supplanted my thoughts and invaded every part of my mind. There was no escaping. It was terrifying. I wordlessly called to the Lord; there were no words. The Lord protected me! He enabled my heart and mind to receive a conviction that this would not be my end. Pain is not annihilation, pain is not oblivion. I couldn’t do much, but I found I could pray, so I did. As the pain slowly receded, The Lord instilled in me a quiet confidence that if he could bring me through that ordeal, anything less is a cakewalk.

Nothing in my life has gotten close to that pain, yet, which is a blessing to be sure. He knew he could get me through it, before it happened. If there’s something worse ahead of me, he can get me through that, too! The Christians in Smyrna had already seen the Lord get them through difficult times. Let our confidence in our Lord grow with each challenge until we see him face to face!

Jonathan Duncan

by Jonathan Duncan

Smyrna means Myrrh

“...a fragrance from life to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:16

When first hearing that the meaning of Smyrna is myrrh, it was one of those details that God was telling me to look at carefully. The ancient port city of Smyrna, a Greek name, became Izmir, a Turkish name, around 1930. Interesting that it still has the same ‘myrrh’ sounding syllable. We know that myrrh comes from a plant whose resin hardens and was used as a medicine, a spice, for embalming, and most of all as a perfume. In Exodus 30:23, liquid myrrh is a main ingredient in the sacred anointing oil used to make holy the priests, tabernacle, altars, the ark of the covenant, and everything consecrated to the service of God. It was a powerful sweet aroma to the LORD.

In the New Testament, we read of the gift of myrrh brought by the Magi to celebrate His royal birth, Matthew 2:11. Of the three gifts, while it was very valuable, it also pointed to Jesus’ sacrificial death. At the crucifixion, He refused the wine mixed with myrrh. After His death, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus brought a 75 pound mixture of myrrh and aloe with which to embalm Jesus’ body before laying Him in the tomb. (John 19:38-42)
Then in this proclamation by the LORD Jesus about the church in Smyrna, we see that these brothers and sisters of ours were a sweet perfume to God. In the poverty and bitter suffering endured, they had a faithful testimony. That faithful testimony was like the perfume of myrrh arising in worship.

Perhaps we should consider how we also endure difficulty, trials, and temptations. Could how we respond be a sweet perfume to our Lord? When everything seems hopeless, full of pain, persecution, and confusion, if we trust and wait, God will receive it as a fragrance of worship. It has been my blessing to see this in the lives of many friends who endured much and were a fragrance of worship in the midst of suffering.

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death. To the other a fragrance from life to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

Reflection:

What would it look like to be ‘myrrh’ the sweet perfume to God in the midst of trial?

If we respond for His glory, how could that bring ‘life’ to those who do not know Him?

Francie Overstreet
EFCC Member

by Francie Overstreet

“I Know.”

Revelation 2:8

One of the first things Jesus said to the church in Smyrna was, “I know your tribulation.” (Rev. 2:8) “I know.” Those two words, spoken by Jesus to the believers in Smyrna, carry so much beauty and weight that it’s hard to quantify. Jesus didn’t survey their pain from a safe celestial distance; He walked the city streets with them, stood shoulder to shoulder with them, and looked them in the eye. Imagine gathering in that tiny house-church, candles flickering against stone walls, and hearing the risen Christ lean in and whisper, “I see you.” That’s a total game changer.

Psychiatrist Curt Thompson calls that the healing power of being seen. In his great book The Soul of Desire, he wrote,

“Our physical brain needs the healing effect of being seen by others and found acceptable even in our most desperate brokenness.”

If a friend’s gaze can quiet the panic inside us, how much more the gaze of Jesus, the first and the last? Jesus locks eyes with persecuted Smyrna, and with anxious you, and says, “I know.”

He knows the abuse you endured that no one else understood.
He knows why the scent of that hospital hallway still tightens your chest.
He knows the sleepless nights you spend wondering if faith will hold.
He knows the Indian pastor sitting in a cell today, for preaching the gospel.

And his "knowing" is never passive. In the Gospels, every time Jesus “sees,” he moves. He sees and then heals a leper, restores a widow’s son, and feeds a hungry crowd. To be seen by Jesus is to be enveloped by active, rescuing compassion. Smyrna’s pressure was real: poverty, prison, public shame, but His presence was more real still, turning crushing myrrh into a fragrant witness.

So, before we try to strategize our way out of the trials and tribulations, allow our Savior’s eyes to settle on us. Dare to believe that your story matters to him, down to the last anxious heartbeat. Curt Thompson is right: being truly seen rewires the brain… and being seen by Christ rewires the soul. Where do you most need to hear Jesus say, “I know”? Name it, and then picture him standing beside you in that very place.

Pastor Ryan Paulson

by Ryan Paulson