The sweet, fragrant resin of myrrh is only produced when the myrrh tree is repeatedly hacked and deeply wounded with a machete. What an absolute joy it is to welcome you to our church history study today! My name is John Barnett speaking, and I love history because everything happened sometime, and geography because everything happened somewhere.
Bonnie and I have taken over 2,500 people to walk the lands of the Bible, and today we are opening up Revelation chapter 2 to study the convergence of history, geography, and theology. In our class today, we are going to look at the historical reality of Christian persecution, stand in the ruins of Smyrna and Pergamus, and discover how the power of an endless life can conquer our deepest fears.
Here is a preview of the profound historical accounts and eternal truths we will cover in this class:
1. THE WOUNDED TREE & THE TRASH-COMPACTOR CRUCIBLE
Scripture References: Revelation 2:8-9; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5
Summary: Smyrna was the ancient "town of myrrh". Just as myrrh resin only flows when the tree is severely injured, the believers in Smyrna formed a heavily wounded, deeply persecuted church. Jesus addresses them as the “first and the last, who was dead and came to life,” offering them the absolute hope of the resurrection. He tells them He knows their "tribulation"—which is the Greek word thlipsis, meaning to be squashed or crushed like a trash compactor. He reminds them that He has an internal presence rather than external pity, feeling their physical, financial, and emotional pains from the inside out.
2. THE ENGINEER’S PURGE & THE PIECEMEAL BIBLES
Scripture Reference: 2 Timothy 3:12
Summary: We will look at how close Christianity came to complete extinction under the Roman Emperor Diocletian—a highly rational engineer who built massive public works and fixed 50,000 miles of roads. Diocletian realized past persecutions failed because they were unorganized, so he engineered a three-step plan to erase Christianity: execute all pastors, knock down all church buildings, and destroy every copy of the Bible. To survive this purge, underground believers would receive a smuggled Bible and immediately rip it apart—giving Genesis to one family, Exodus to another, and spreading the individual books so the secret police could never seize the entire Word of God at once.
3. THE INCENSE PINCH & POLYCARP’S FAITHFUL VOID
Scripture References: Revelation 2:10-11; Hebrews 7:16; Hebrews 2:15
Summary: Under Emperor Domitian, 25,000 citizens of Smyrna had to line up in the public forum to perform a mandatory civic duty. To obtain a libellus—a one-year certificate of loyalty—they had to take a tiny pinch of incense and sprinkle it over an oil flame in front of an image of the emperor. When the 86-year-old pastor Polycarp reached the front, he loudly declared, "Eighty and six years have I served my Lord Christ. How can I fail Him now?" and was immediately tied to a pole and burned alive. Jesus commands us to be "spiritual preppers" who stop fearing death, because as born-again overcomers, we are kept completely safe from the second death.
4. THE BRASS BULL & THE ONE-STEP RETURN–Revelation 2:12-16; Hebrews 4:12
Next, we travel to Pergamus, a city built on a high Acropolis where Satan had his literal throne (the altar of Zeus, which Adolf Hitler later disassembled and moved to Berlin). This church tolerated the corrupting doctrines of Balaam, compromise, and sexual immorality. We will study the martyrdom of Antipas, who was locked inside a hollow brass bull and cooked alive over a fire because he refused to deny the faith. To this compromising church, Jesus presents Himself with a sharp two-edged sword.
5. THE CANDLE-FINGERS COVENANT & THE GARDEN-HOSE TORTURE–Hebrews 7:16
To show you what this unyielding, first-century faith looks like in modern times, John shares his deeply personal memories of smuggling 25,000 Bibles hidden inside wheat shipments behind the Iron Curtain in 1978 and 1979. He describes his Romanian guide, Boaz, an uneducated, illiterate brother who knew where every secret church was hidden. Boaz’s fingernails were grossly thick, black, and rough because the communist police regularly tied his hands to a bench, drove sharp wooden splinters under his nails, and lit them like candles to make him betray the church. The next year, police beat the soles of his feet with a garden hose until he couldn’t walk for months, yet Boaz stood firm, living out the power of an endless life to deliver God’s Word.
WOLFL-2026-05 – Faith Over Fear (260408AM) – https://youtu.be/zcgGdE_8GbM
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https://youtu.be/zcgGdE_8GbM
