YET YOU ARE RICH!
Revelation 2:8-11
“These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.”
In Isaiah 44:6, God says, “I am the first and I am the last, and apart from me there is no God.” Him who is the First and the Last is the everlasting God. Here in the message to Smyrna, Jesus claimed that title and tells Smyrna that what they were about to hear are the words of the everlasting God. On top of that, he also claimed to be the One who had died and came to life again.
Jesus the Everlasting God tells the church in Smyrna that despite all that they were going through, YET they are rich! This is from the perspective of heaven; from an understanding of the sum of all life, the First and the Last.
Jesus, who died and came to life again, tells the church in Smyrna to not be afraid of what they were about to suffer. He encourages them to be faithful even to the point of death.
Finally he reminds the church in Smyrna, and all Christians (whoever has ears, let them hear), that the one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not the prosperity gospel; it is not about blessing the life before the first death; the real focus is on the second death. This is not to say that Jesus desires us to be poor, afflicted, imprisoned and persecuted, like the church in Smyrna. It is that these are not the signs of whether we are rich (blessed) or not. True blessedness is found in those who are faithful.
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.”