He Was Dead and He Is Alive.

Jesus tells John to write- 

 

Rev 2:8  And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 

 

He is the FIRST and He is the LAST. He was DEAD and He is ALIVE.

 

I have to take a moment here to include this bit of insight. Why is it important that Jesus is alive after death? Seriously, why? I ask this because most people seem to believe we are ALL alive after we die, right? Ask several people you know if they believe their dead loved ones are in heaven right now? What kind of response do you think you'll get? Yes, yes…yes… it's a common belief now. So again, why is Jesus being alive after dying important? Supposedly all people live after death so Jesus living after dying is no great feat. You may interject that it's important because Jesus lived after dying with His flesh body where others who die are not in their flesh bodies any longer. Jesus could interact with others in their flesh bodies, others can't. These are important truths, but is that all it means to have eternal life and salvation? You get to put your floating self that has been alive since you died back into your body?  If this is what it means WHY aren't we told this part at all? Why doesn't God's word go into great detail on this aspect? Why are we left to wonder about it all? Where are we told in God's word that we get to float out of our bodies after death and are able to visit earth and our loved ones whenever we want, but they won't know it? That we get to watch all their heartache and sorrow, tortures and agonies, dying because we can see it all- oh, and the part about no more tears or sorrow in heaven- that isn't really true, right? Because what person in any form- spirit or body could watch a loved one in pure agony and not feel their heart break? Do you understand what I'm saying? God's word does NOT support our continuing to live on with our ability to think, reason, know, praise after we die. God's word supports death being a sleep. Death is a sleep because it is temporary, just like sleep that isn't death's sleep is temporary. Death is a sleep because we aren't conscious of any thoughts we are having while we sleep. We may dream but dreams are not under our control in any way at all whatsoever, we are not conscious in our dreams. Death is a sleep because the next thing we know after we fall asleep is waking up again. And God's word tells us this…

 

1Th 4:13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 

1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 

1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 

1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 

 

Do you see it? Do you understand? Those that die in Christ, will wake up at the last trump when the Lord descends with a shout. If you are already awake - conscious in spirit form after you've died, then why would you need to be woken up? You KNOW what it means to wake up- you have to be sleeping in order to be woken up. IF you were already conscious why isn't the word of God telling us that the spirit bodies are reunited with their flesh bodies? Why not? WHY NOT?

 

Yes, it may seem I'm caught up on this point because I speak of it so often, but it's truth that so many are BLIND to and want to remain BLIND to so they can placate themselves with the comforting belief that death isn't nothingness, that loved ones are still around them and know things- like they love them and miss them. They want this lie to be truth because it makes them feel good somehow. Instead of finding the greatest comfort in knowing their loved ones DO NOT see them and all their struggles and pains, and the agonies of the entire world, but are sleeping and have no pain - emotional, mental, physical to witness, they focus on their self and the own emotional need for the comfort of still believing the loved one lives on in a better place. They deny completely the reality of death.  They ignore the Bible truth in favor of lies.

 

When I read Jesus saying to John that He is the FIRST and the LAST, that He was DEAD but is ALIVE- it truly is miraculous because He woke from death's sleep and came forth from the grave, His body had seen no corruption, His body had not begun any sort of decay. However, He didn't want to be touched at all until He'd gone to the Father.

 

Joh_20:17  Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

 

He hadn't gone out of His body, His spirit hadn't left His dead body the moment He breathed His last and gone to heaven like people believe happens. He stayed in death's sleep until God raised Him from the grave, waking Him from death's sleep. Jesus interacted with others after waking from death, but it wasn't until He'd gone to heaven to see His Father and returned that He allowed others to touch Him.

 

Truly, Jesus' being DEAD and ALIVE is incredibly miraculous and this death and living after death has only been allotted to a few compared to the many, many, many millions, trillions of people that have lived and died.

 

Continuing on with the vision John was receiving from Jesus-

 

Rev 2:8  And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 

 

Rev 2:9  I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 

Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. 

 

To the second of the seven churches Jesus was leaving messages for-

 

He knows their works, He knows their tribulations, He knows their poverty… yet He knows they are rich. HE knows their blasphemy- those who call themselves Jews but are not, but are of the church of Satan himself!

 

They aren't to fear any of the things they suffer.

 

The devil would put some of them in prison, trying them for ten days (prophecy ten days- ten years?) but they would still be faithful until they died. If they died faithful they would get a crown of life from Jesus.

 

We have to listen, we have to hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. God's people will not be hurt in the second death- they will not be a part of the second death- the death from which there is no life after.

 

*******

 

Now, I want to take something from a previous study and copy it here- please take the time to read it.

 

'seIf, as we talked about already, the seven churches spoken of represent God's people throughout time- the period of time suggested by others who have studied Revelation for the first church- Ephesus is.. 'the period from the resurrection of Christ to the close of the first century, or to the death of the last of the apostles.' And the second church - Smyrna - 'the date of the Smyrna church would be A.D. 100-323.' The big question is….how did they come to this date?

 

Well first let's look at what's said.

 

'And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write...These things saith the first and the last which was dead and is alive'

 

John through the Spirit is writing to the angel of the people of God in Smyrna. The first, the last, which was dead and is alive- this could be none other than- Jesus.

 

'I know thy works and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich'

 

He knows the works- the actions of His people in Smyrna. He also knows their tribulation. He understands what they're going through. Tribulation. If I say I'm going through tribulation am I talking about a little bit of a hard time? No. I'm talking about a very hard time, a time of such suffering, of such affliction it doesn't compare to ordinary upsets. Jesus knows the actions, the works, and He knows of the intense suffering of those people. He also knows of their poverty- their deficiencies, unproductiveness, their lacking, but He also knows they are rich.

 

A conflict? Can one be in poverty and be rich at the same time? They sure can be if we are thinking along the lines of being poor in one thing while rich in another. You can have a person poor in finances and rich in optimism. Jesus knows it all- the suffering the poverty and the riches. We are told in the Bible this--

 

Matthew {19:24} And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

 

With this in mind it's easy to imagine the riches  spoken of here  as something other than monetary riches. 

 

These are  riches of God- heavenly treasure, not an earthly treasure.

 

Matthew {6:20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth

corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Heavenly riches.

 

A person can be rich in heavenly treasures and in extreme poverty upon the earth.

 

Yes, you can be rich in one thing and lacking in another. You can have a richness of love and a poverty of kindness. Jesus knows all of us, the good and the bad in us - His people throughout time.

 

'and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison- that ye may be tried and ye shall have tribulation ten days'

 

Blasphemy- 1. a. A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity. b. The act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of God.

2. An irreverent or impious act, attitude, or utterance in regard to something considered inviolable or sacrosanct.

Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary

 

There are those who claim to be God's but are really from where?

The 'synagogue of Satan.'

Devil worshippers who claim to be God's people.

God knows who those people are, and truly there are those in all ages who are guilty of this- of claiming to be God's people while their lives, their hearts, the truth says otherwise.

 

God doesn't want His people to fear things that will be suffered by them. Again in all ages we face suffering for our faith and yet we are to fear not.

 

The devil will put some of God's people in prison- those people will be tried and have tribulation ten days. Now this is where we have to ask ourselves a question- ten days? In prophecy days can stand for years. Is there any notable ten year period of tribulation for God's people?

 

There is...

'The Diocletianic Persecution (or Great Persecution) was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman empire.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution

 

In 303, Emperor Diocletian and his colleagues Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights and demanding they comply with traditional religious practices. Later edicts targeted the clergy and demanded universal sacrifice, ordering all inhabitants to sacrifice to the gods. The persecution varied in intensity across the empire—weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces. Persecutionary laws were nullified by different emperors at different times, but Constantine and Licinius's Edict of Milan (313) has traditionally marked the end of the persecution.'

 

303 to 313 - ten years!

 

The revelation was-

'the devil shall cast some of you into prison- that ye may be tried and ye shall have tribulation ten days'

 

Ten days- Ten years of GREAT tribulation, great suffering, great persecution.

 

The prophecy goes on to say-

 

'be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death'

 

Be faithful unto death. Telling them what? They would die! God's people, His church, would be persecuted to the death.

 

Faithful unto death. In truth we all throughout time must be faithful unto death, we must be determined to be God's until we die no matter what the cost might be. Faithful unto death.

 

The reward for such faithfulness is a crown of life! The crown of life given for those who receive life eternal in Jesus. The price is well worth the sacrifice to obtain such a priceless gift.

 

We are told once more--

 

'He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches'

 

LISTEN!

 

And the promise-

 

'He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death'

 

Meaning the death that is eternal- the death that comes when the 1000 years in heaven with Jesus are over and evil and sin are wiped out of existence the death of all those who are evil and are destroyed forever- that death will not hurt those who are God's faithful.

 

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years

 

Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

 

Rev 21:8  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

 

May God bless and keep us through the tribulations we have and will have, may we remain faithful unto Him forever. May the second death not hurt any of us as we seek life in Jesus, our Lord and Savior now and forever!

 

Amen'