Roche Coleman Ministries: The Infusion Broadcast

Dr. Roche Coleman: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It's a beautiful passage of scripture. And it's something that as believers we must make certain that we meditate upon and understand that we will endure persecution.

And many of you walked in this morning and you feel that you've been squeezed, that you have been pressed, and you feel that you've been crushed under the tyranny of this world. But I'm here to let you know God has not forgotten you. God offers you words of comfort.

Guest (Male): This is the Infusion Broadcast brought to you by the Roche Coleman Ministries. Dr. Coleman is doing an in-depth study on the book of Revelation, and we hope you'll join us over the next few weeks.

Today, he takes us to God's message as John recorded it to the church of Smyrna. Through these messages, Dr. Coleman has been highlighting the divine characteristics of God and how these messages apply to us personally as well as to the church, the body of Christ. His message today is titled, "God Sustains Us Through Tribulations." Let's go to it now.

Dr. Roche Coleman: We're in Revelation chapter 2 and we are looking at the disciplined church. That's going to be the church at Smyrna, the disciplined church. I want you to turn there with me. Revelation chapter 2, beginning at verse 8: "And the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead and has come to life, says this: I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

"Do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death."

Father, we love you. We thank you for today, for your mercy and for your grace. And Lord, I ask that you speak to us today. Remove anything that would attempt to distract us, Lord God, from receiving from you. And Lord, for that, we will be certain to give you praise and glory. We thank you. we love you. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Rise up, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered. And let those who hate you flee before your presence. Amen.

We begin with the church at Ephesus in Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey, where these seven churches were strategically located. We noted that Ephesus was more prominent, hosting about 300,000 people there in that city. But then if you see, it was strategically located for commerce.

It was where Artemis' temple was there, and we see the replica of it. Artemis was also known as Diana, but the multi-breasted god known for her fertility. And it was many who believed in Ephesus that she was the one who helped protect women in childbirth, even helped in birth.

And so there were those who were there in that province who were worshipping. And as a result of that, Revelation 2 and 4, the Bible lets us know that Ephesus was the detached church. They were no longer loving God at the level they had. They left their first love.

Now the angel is writing and speaking to the second church, which is none other than Smyrna. Smyrna also is in this Roman province as well. Smyrna does not receive a rebuke, but simply a reminder. They're distinct from the church at Ephesus.

The church at Smyrna is a church that is doing what God has called it to do. But the Spirit of the Lord reminds them through John, who has been exiled on the Isle of Patmos. He is there for the testimony, chapter 1 tells us, of Jesus Christ and for his witness. And while he's there, the Spirit of God speaks to him and he records these words that are going to be given to those who are residing there in Smyrna.

The first thing we're going to see, point one here, is that there's going to be a message given to the church, and it's the assessment of the Christians who reside in Smyrna. Smyrna again, we see, is in this Roman province. And so they are residing in a context where Roman influence is very heavy.

As a matter of fact, out of ten of the cities who wanted to receive a level of recognition, Smyrna wins the right when they build this temple to Tiberius. This temple was in honor of none other than one of the Roman leaders there. And so they receive a level of recognition. They are called Smyrna, that is, the city Nicorus, meaning servants of the temple.

And we're going to see why this is going to be important as we go through the message. But our Lord is going to warn them and inform them first who is giving this message in verse 8. I love how he does this because he identifies himself in the initial writing of this verse. He says the first and the last. I love this.

Those words are words that we find not first in John's writings here in Revelation, but we find them in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 41 verse 4, when the Lord is informing the nations who he is, he lets them know. He says, "I am the first and the last." This is important because when God describes himself as the first and the last, he is informing them that he is eternal.

It speaks of one of the key characteristics of God. God has no beginning nor end. There's no theogony for God. God was not created like we were. God has always existed. And so he's speaking of his eternality.

But not only of his eternality, he speaks also of his immutability. Our God does not change. Anybody glad that God does not change? God's character remains constant. His faithfulness, his love, his compassion, his kindness—they are constant. They are fixed. Programs change, but the character of our God, it does not change.

And as he's writing here, he reminding the people he's writing to: God is eternal, he's immutable. And I love Malachi 3 and 6. He says he's a God that does not change. Beautiful.

And the people are going to need these words of blessing and comfort because they are up against it where they residing. After he tells them that he's the first and the last, he goes on and he says, "Who was dead and has come to life." Verse 8b. This is a direct reference to none other than Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the one we recall who was the son of God, who came in the fullness of time according to the book of Philippians when Paul write to the church at Philippi. And he lets them know that Jesus came at the appropriate time. But he would die a sacrificial death, an atoning death, who purred one in the place of another. He's our substitute, Mark 10:45 lets us know.

And when he dies this death, he does not stay dead. And this is what I love. He's the one who has come back to life. This is why I hate to see a cross and have a Christ on the cross, because my Christ is not still on the cross. My Christ was dead, he was buried, but he rose again. And that is important that we remember that fact.

Why is it so important? Because we find comfort, we find blessings in the fact that Christ didn't stay on a cross, that he was there temporarily but God raised him from the dead. And because he was raised, we have also been raised in Christ Jesus. Anybody glad about that?

He was dead. He's come back to life. And now he is reminding those at Smyrna, those at Impact of the Woodlands, those who are listening to this message no matter where you may be, what continent you may be on. He's reminding us that he knows the tribulation that we are enduring.

One of the things that you'll see with Smyrna that is so important to this context is that in this Roman province, the people were enduring persecution and tribulation. They found themselves residing in a region where there was a heavy Greek and Roman influence from their gods and their deities.

As a matter of fact, the Christians were so distinct and unique in their worship that Polycarp writes—the church father, the bishop there in Smyrna—that many people believed the Christians were atheists. Polycarp himself was being pressured to submit and to say Caesar is Lord. And he refused. And as a result, they built a pyre and he's burned at the pyre.

He's burned for his faith and his commitment. John, when he's writing, he understood some of the persecution that went on under Domitian and other Nero and other Roman emperors. And he's writing to the saints and he's reminding them. He says, "God says I know your tribulation and your poverty."

They understood the persecution that was going on. And some of you walked in today and you say, "Maybe I have never been to Smyrna, don't know where it is, never been to Ephesus either, but I am enduring some persecution." Some of you walked in and you feel that you are under the tyranny of persecution maybe because of your faith, because of your allegiance to holiness, your desire to walk morally, your desire to live for God, your desire to study his word, to meditate upon it, your desire to have convictions. And you find yourself sometimes under persecution.

I'm here to tell you, God is offering words of blessing and comfort for you during your time of persecution. The saints at Smyrna were enduring this. Interesting word that he used here for tribulation. *Thlipsis* is the word that is the root word that we get tribulation.

And as he's talking about the trial that people are enduring, he's talking about somebody that is experiencing a level of hostility, some type of oppression, some type of rejection. It is creating anxiety. It is causing distress.

If you look back in the Old Testament, theologically the word that is connected to the use of the word in the Greek in the New Testament is *tsar*. And in Genesis chapter 41, and you recall the story of Joseph—the Joseph narratives, I love this—because when Joseph found himself incarcerated falsely, it was because of his brothers.

And after all of the things that Joseph go through, he finds himself in the pit. He goes from the pit to Potiphar's. From Potiphar's he goes to what? Prison. But Joseph eventually find himself in prison and it is there where he's elevated. And the brothers eventually have to come down and face Joseph. I love this. It's beautiful. Stay with me, stay with me.

The brothers get there. And when they see Joseph and they find out who he is, the brothers realize the distress the text says in Genesis 41, *tsar*, that they caused Joseph. They remembered and they say, "Remember the distress of our brother? And he tried to get us to not put him in the pit. He tried to get us not to sell him. But this is what we did and we caused him distress." And they say, "And now we are enduring distress."

Distress, also known as tribulation in Revelation 2, is what the Christians are enduring. Distress sometimes feels like it is overbearing. And if you've ever been in a place of distress, you know what I'm talking about. You feel like, "Lord, I'm not going to be able to make it through this distress."

And there's a vivid imagery that the Old Testament used to talk about distress sometimes, and it is in the form of the vine. The vine was very important for Israel because it produced the grapes. And the grapes is where they got their wine.

But the one thing about the vine is this: the vine first had to go through a period of pruning. Leviticus 25 and 3 describe the right way of pruning. John chapter 15, 1 and 2, he talks about the pruning process. But the pruning was done to increase the grape growth.

But not only did the pruning happen, something second happened. Was that there was the extraction of the grapes. The grapes had to be extracted from the vine. And once the grapes were extracted from the vine, number three, they were placed in the vats of the winepress.

And it was in the vats of the winepress that the grapes were squeezed. They were pressed. And then they were crushed. But it was not until the grapes endured being squeezed, being pressed and crushed until you would receive the wine from those grapes that was going to be beneficial not only for the drinking, but also even sometimes used as an antibiotic for disinfecting.

And I want to let you know that as believers, sometime we have to go through the winepress. We have to be placed in the vat. And we have to be squeezed. We have to be crushed and we have to be pressed. Because then God get the best from us that he can use for his glory. This is what tribulation is all about. Smyrna, the saints, are being pressed.

How do you know? Because he says they are enduring tribulation. And then he says, "You are also in poverty." Remember if you are a Christian in a Roman province, you're not giving allegiance to Caesar as Lord, then you are also under the boot of the Romans.

They are taxing you at a different rate. They are confiscating your property. They are denying you the right to meet and to gather as a congregation, as congregants, and to fellowship in the Lord's name. And all of this is happening. And so now they find themselves under the boot of not only tribulation—distress—but also now they're poor.

They don't have the access, the resources. And it's terrible on these individuals who are going through. And the angel is writing and John is writing to them and letting them know. He says, "I want you to understand that the one who was dead but is now alive, he recognize and he sees your tribulation, he sees your poverty, but he wants you to know also that you are rich."

Look at the text. Don't miss this in the text. So often we have measured ourselves and our status and our place in life based upon our economics. We've spent so much of our lives trying to acquire and to accumulate. We spend waking hours in the library studying and trying to prepare, trying to get to another level financially because we have been told in this world that we should acquire things: homes, assets, investments, retirement accounts, recreational vehicles. We want to travel and we've attached... we've been clawing and accumulating these things.

Only once we acquire them, we begin to realize—the light begins to come on—and we realize it's not as satisfying as I thought it would be. I remember being young saying, "I'll be glad when I can buy my car for cash. I want to be able to walk in the dealership and operate from a position of strength and not from a position of weakness, where I walk in and they negotiate... no, I want to be able to walk in and say, 'How much is it? Let's negotiate this price. This is what I'm going to pay.' I mean, just pay cash for that bad boy. Not in there for, 'Okay, we can get these payments down here.' And you know they're pencil-whipping you at the same time, taking advantage of you."

I said, "Man, I hate this. This is just wrong." But then you start realizing that the things that you want to acquire, they just don't satisfy. The angel says, "Smyrna, you're poor financially. Items confiscated. But I want to let you know, you are rich."

Why did he tell them they were rich? He said they were rich simply because of their spiritual capacity, not because of their financial status, not because of what their profit and loss says. Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, he says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal."

He says, "Don't store it up on this earth." He said, "Because let me tell you something, somebody will steal it." You know how it is. Once you acquire things, you've got to get a lock for the lock. And then once you have something that someone has to manage, you've got to get a manager to manage the manager. And you have to watch them because they feed the fees.

And then you're like, "I have to watch everybody." And you realize everyone is stealing. And then don't mention my good uncle, Uncle Sam. He's going to come in and take 20 percent of capital gain, 27 percent and go up to 33 if you let him. Help me, Holy Ghost. Y'all have compassion on me.

He said they would steal it. He said, but—contrastive conjunction, verse 20 Matthew 6—store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Ooh, I like that. He said not in time, he said but your treasure should really be in eternity.

This is not an excuse for being lazy and indifferent and not simply working and utilizing a skill and a gift in God has given you in time. Oh no. But it's about priority. Our priority should be as we are working and as we are acquiring things in time, we recognize we use them for the glory of God. We use them to make disciples of Jesus Christ to impact the world for time and eternity.

We realize the things that we have, they are not for ourselves alone, but they are for the glory of our God that we serve. The homes that we have are not just to be showpieces, decorated fine and then nobody can walk through or enjoy. But it is to be there so we can have fellowship, small group at your house. And so that we can eat some pizza on that nice white rug and we can fellowship around the word of God.

Somebody said, "I wish he would eat some pizza on my rug." I love this. He's letting them know, "He said I understand where you are. He said I understand your tribulation and your persecution. He said but you've got to remember that don't measure your success based upon your portfolio but measured how your treasures are in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in nor steals."

He says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." It's a beautiful passage of scripture and it's something that as believers we must make certain that we meditate upon and understand that we will endure persecution. And many of you walked in this morning and you feel that you've been squeezed, that you have been pressed, and you feel that you've been crushed under the tyranny of this world. But I'm here to let you know God has not forgotten you. God offers you words of blessing and comfort.

Some of you walked in right now and you say, "Boy, if you could look at my neck, you see the boot on the... the footprint. This world is having me down." But I want to let you know God is with you. God is there to keep and to comfort you through your tribulations. God has not forgotten, and that's the beauty of our Lord. He does not forsake, nor does he leave us.

He says you're rich. And he said the blaspheming by those who say they are Jews and not, but are a synagogue of Satan. I love how he put this in here because he understood the tribulation that those in Smyrna are receiving are from those Jews who detest Christianity, from those Roman citizens who detest Christianity.

And it's those who are blaspheming the name of our Lord. Blaspheming is very simple. Let me put it to you this way: to blaspheme is to do the opposite of to bless and to give honor to the name of our Lord. Going back to Exodus chapter 20 and verse 7, if you recall our Lord took Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai. It was there he gave them the law. And when he gave them the law, one of the first things he said was that you should reverence the name of the Lord and use it as holy.

Guest (Male): I'm sure we can relate to the church at Smyrna as we all face rejections and persecution to various degrees. Yet we're to be alert and vigilant, not compromising but taking our stand for godly values and principles as best we can. And God does promise to sustain us through these situations.

Friend, I hope that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have any questions about the matter, would you give us a call at 346-386-4621? You could also write to us at info@rochecolemanministries.org or visit us online at rochecolemanministries.org to leave a message or prayer request for us.

If you're in the Houston or surrounding areas, please stop by the Impact Church of the Woodlands where Dr. Coleman serves as the senior pastor. Worship times on Sundays are 8:00 and 10:45 a.m. and the church is located at 5401 Place, The Woodlands, Texas 77381. We hope you'll stop by this weekend.

Our impact thought for today is, "Jesus walked among the churches to encourage Christians to endure the tests and persecution from Satan. Let's remain faithful. We're not alone. God walks with us each step of the way."