Week 3: Smyrna

Principle text: Revelation 2:8–11 Letter to the Church in Smyrna

Read Revelation 1 and 2, with careful attention to 2:8–11.

Read Isaiah 44:6. What title is used for Jesus by Isaiah and by John?

Read and compare James 1:12 with the letter to the church in Smyrna.

Read Revelation 20:6; 21:5–8. What promise of Jesus to the church in Smyrna is fufillled in these texts?

1. Meditate on Jesus being “the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life.” What encouragement do you receive from these truths about Jesus?
2. Recall a time when following Jesus cost you something. What did you learn about God and about yourself during this time?
3. Jesus tells the church that he knows their affliction and poverty. How are you encouraged by Jesus’s knowing and understanding your suffering and trials (read Isaiah 53:3–5) and what hope does Jesus give us in our suffering (see Romans 8:18 and 2 Corinthians 4:16–17)?
4. Pastor Zach reminds us that the presence of pressure or trials does not equal the absence of God. In times of intense pressure or suffering in your life, what spiritual practices help you connect with the presence of God? What truths, promises of God, or Bible verses help you endure?
5. Jesus tells the church in Smyrna that they are rich. Take inventory of your spiritual riches in Christ (See Ephesians 1:3–14 and James 2:5). How do these riches and the reward of the crown of life compare with the costs the world demands for following Jesus?