Smyrna was located 35 miles from Ephesus – a port city – called “The Crown City” or the “Crown of Asia” because it was surrounded by hills that resembled a crown. When the city chose a motto to be imprinted on their coinage, they stamped it, “The Flower Of Asia.” They chose this phrase because Smyrna was considered “First in Size and Beauty.” Smyrna was a planned city most cities of that day just sprang up without design, but its streets were planned down to the last detail. Considered a very religious city with many temples dedicated to the pantheon of gods and goddesses they worshipped, they were a very active in the worship of idols, such as the temple for Athena that was built very early on (600 B.C.) – and also the city built a temple to the goddess Roma in 195 B.C.
There were temples dedicated to Zeus, Cybele, Asklepios, Apollo, Aphrodite and others. In fact, there was a street paved with gold that ran from the temple of Zeus to the temple of Diana for easy access to both. Cesar (emperor) worship was popular as the city was intensely loyal to Rome. Even with all of this, the Jews had a synagogue there as well. The church in Smyrna was likely established between (53 and 56 A.D.) due to God using Paul and others to preach and teach at Ephesus
In Smyrna, terrible persecution was inflicted upon believers by the Roman emperors between the years of (100 A.D. and 312 A.D.) and the city became known as the Martyr city. Not surprising, its main revenue came from the production of Myrrh (Smyrna means Myrrh), which came to be associated with suffering and death (Mark 15:22-23) (John 19:38-40).
It was in this city, fifty years after John’s death, that Polycarp, the pastor of the church in Smyrna, was burned alive at the age of 86 for refusing to bow down and worship Caesar.
Notice how Jesus describes Himself to the Church (Its messenger) of Smyrna [1.] “These things says the “First and the Last” – the declaration of Jesus Christ of Himself, which is declared in (1:17), to imply that He is the eternal God (Micah 5:2) (John 1:1) (John 8:58) (Colossians 1:17). It’s important for the church of Smyrna to hear that Jesus is the “First and the Last” So that they understand that Jesus has already been there, and so they understand that nothing can happen to them except if He allows it to. [2.] “Who was dead, and came to life.” Why would that be important for those in Smryrna to hear? Because if you were suffering persecution for your faith, even to the point of death, you would be encouraged that Jesus has conquered death and that the resurrection was found in Him. This is much like what was said of Jesus Himself in (1:18) (John 11:25-26) (Acts 2:23-24) (Acts 10:39-41) (Romans 1:4) (Hebrews 13:20-21).
It is our Lord who can identify with their (our) sufferings, therefore Jesus can help us through anything we might face (Hebrews 4:15-16). But Smyrna was a crushed church (2:9-10), and it is easy to see that this church was going through intense suffering because of their testimony for the Lord. But notice what Jesus says first – “I know your work’s.” Think about that for a moment, Jesus knows the works we do so we need to do them well (Ephesians 2:10) (1 Corinthians 3:11-15) (Titus 2:14).
They were letting their light shine in a dark world and they were being persecuted for it. The word “tribulation” Gr. “Thlipsis” means pressure, it was used in that day to refer to crushing an object under the weight of very heavy stones, such as stone wheels that were used to crush wheat to separate the kernel from the shell. This church was paying the price for their allegiance to Jesus and this persecution did not come from the pagans alone (2:9), but they were also suffering at the hands of the Jews. The Jews had joined hands with the idolaters in that city to defeat and destroy the Christians by whatever means necessary. Notice though that Jesus calls these false jews “the synagogue of Satan” and accuses them of blaspheme (slander) against these believers. Jesus also knows their “poverty,” being “absolutely destitute,” they had nothing of this world’s goods, probably due to their relationship with the Lord Jesus, and yet they possessed everything. I can imagine how Satan must have mocked these people by temptation or through the lips of the wicked by saying, “Look at you, you are nothing and you have nothing, give up on Jesus, deny Him and prosper!”