Now we come to the letter addressed to Smyrna, the best of all the seven churches. It is the only city – and perhaps there is some significance in this – that still exists even today, renamed Izmir.
Who has not heard of the martyrdom of Polycarp and those famous words? The proconsul, the Roman proconsul, we read, said to him, ‘Deny Christ, say Caesar is Lord. And if you will swear to that, I will set you at liberty.’ Polycarp replied, ‘Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no harm. How then can I now blaspheme my King and Saviour?’ So the proconsul said, ‘I will throw you to the beasts!’ ‘Call them in,’ Polycarp replied, ‘for we are not allowed to change from something better to something worse.’ ‘Scorn the wild beasts and I’ll have you burned alive, if you don’t change your mind.’ Polycarp said in so many words, ‘You threaten me with fire that burns for an hour and is then extinguished, and you know nothing of the eternal fire for the wicked’, and he perished. That was about 60 years after this time. So Smyrna that is so commended for faithfulness to the Lord stood as a faithful church for many years after this letter.
‘These things saith the first and the last.’ Isn’t that appropriate for them? The Creator of the world and the judge of the world, the author and finisher of the faith, the one who came to Calvary so that forgiveness and life would be possible, and the one who will take us home to glory. The first and the last: it is Christ. ‘Which was dead.’ In his human body and personality he truly died. ‘And is alive.’ What a comforting thing to say to Smyrna. Whatever happens to you, you are in the hands of the one who cannot die, the beginner and the ender of all things.