Letter 3
7 Letters to the 7 Churches • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Well you have probably guessed it
Last week was letter number 2
To the church at Smyrna
If you will recall from last week
This is a church who believed the right stuff and had the passion and excitement to go along with their doctrine
They were on fire for Jesus
And because of that they were facing eminence persecution
They were being persecuted for their relationship with Jesus
With this letter Jesus wants to encourage them
10 ‘Do not fear what you are 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 until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Remember to stay faithful even in the midst of persecution
Remember to stay focused on Jesus
For those of us who are not currently being persecuted this serves as a reminder to pray for the persecuted church
I found some stats on the persecuted church from Open Doors
in the past yr 2110 churches were attacked
in the last yr i believe around the world 5621 Christians were killed for their faith in Jesus
that is about 15 per day
5014 were killed in Nigeria
North Korea is still number 1 on the list of countries where Christians face the most persecution
Who wants to go and plant a church
Church we can be praying for countries around the world we can pray for believers around the world that they would have courage and faith in the midst of persecution
This morning we look to the church of Pergamum
12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: 13 ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. 15 ‘So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 ‘Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. 17 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’
As you can see this particular letter follows the same structure of the first one
Intro Commendation, then to what you have done wrong, How to fix it and a challenge
As we have look into this letter like all the letter there are things that we see in ourselves and things we can take and apply to our own personal lives and to the life of the church
So lets dive right in
12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:
This letter is to the church at Pergamum
Pergamum was the official capital city of the Roman province
It was home to the great alter to Zeus
Like the other cities this city was also given permission to build temples
This city was given permission to build a temple dedicated to worship a living emperor
Like the previous city not friendly to the Christian church
Then like the other letters we go right into a description of Jesus
This one is no so pleasent as the others have been
The One who has the sharp two edged sword
The sword is about absolute authority and judgement
The double sword
Jesus was going execute absolute judgement and authority on the entire earth
This isn’t such a heart warming description of Jesus this is about business of judgement and holding accountable
Jesus is going to separate those who are followers of Him from those who are not followers of him
And church that is the one who is giving you the letter
13 ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
Jesus knows where you are at
Jesus knows that because of where the church is planted you have most likely faced persecution
Jesus knows!
In the face of that persecution
In the face of the difficulty of where you are
Church you have remained faithful
You didn’t deny me
You stayed strong even during the most difficult days
We don’t know a lot about Anitpas from what I could find
There is specualtion that he was the pastor of the church or even possibly a church leader
From what I could find tradition says that he was roasted inside a brass bull during the reign of Domitian
Jesus describes him as a faithful witness
Who was killed where satan lives
This is what I found in my study
Danny Akin’s Exalting Jesus in Revelation
“This is the major problem behind Revelation as a whole and was the core of Pergamum religion. Pergamum was obsessed with a love of the state. Patriotism had crossed the line into idolatry. To not line up enthusiastically with the preeminence and politics of the state was to fail to be a good citizen. Those who failed to join in were dangerous and had to be opposed. Only Caesar is Lord, not this so-called Christ. Christians could follow Him if they wanted, but society expected that they would not let their Christian convictions get in the way of their public duty to obey the government. Privatized faith is fine. Faith displayed in the public square is not welcomed.”
This was a church that remained faithful to a point
Church the message to us this morning
is that we are to remain faithful no matter where we are
If we plant a church in the most welcoming county in the world vs planting a church in North Korea
We are to remain faithful
No matter the situation let us remain faithful
14 ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. 15 ‘So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
But
You have done well in the midst but
You have done good in remaining faithful during some difficult situations but
Some of you have given into some false teaching
Particularly the teaching of balaam the teaching of balak
The teachings of Balaam and Balak were wrong because they were not God
We saw in the Old Testament that the people were enticed to sacrifice things to other gods and began to worship other gods
Notice what Jesus has against this church
They have compromised
Some have held to the teachings of Jesus and remained faithful
Others have compromised and given int to following after other Gods or idols
Danny Akin
“They attempted to serve God but in the process allowed the prevailing cultural norms to shape both their thinking and their lifestyles”
Church following Jesus will look different from what this world will look like
Let me be clear church what do you more like
The world or the Jesus
Pergamum meant married throughly married
This was a church that was throughly married to the world
They had allowed comprise to come into the church through being married to the world
They were concerned with surviving in the community and being welcomed by the community rather than Jesus
Some had started to follow the Nicolatians
The church at Ephesus had rejected them
This was a church that had some giving into idol worship and doing what The Lord hated
This was a church where there was little difference between them and the rest of the community around them
Church we should look so much different than the world than the community around us
Because we are
David Levy has this to say about compromise
“Compromise has been a cancer in the church from its inception”
Exalting Jesus in Revelation The Church that Compromises the Truth (Revelation 2:12–17)
“A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-Christians of our day, ‘Thou shalt not disagree,’ and a new set of Beatitudes too, ‘Blessed are they that tolerate everything for they shall not be made accountable.’ ”—A. W. Tozer
Church no matter where we are we are to be faithful to Jesus and Jesus alone
Church no matter where you are planted you need to be growing in Christ
Do not give in to the compromise of following other teachings
Do not give into the watering down of scripture
Hold fast to the teachings of Jesus
Then Jesus gives them this direction
16 ‘Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.
Therefore repent
Turn from following the false teachings
You have been confronted with what you are doing wrong
Now you are to repent of that wrong doing and return to Jesus
And if you do not repent then Jesus is coming for you quickly
We don’t like that part for sure
We like the slow loving Jesus
Here Jesus is an accountable quick Jesus
We like the just give me more time just give me one more chance
God has told you want you are doing wrong
God has given what to do
And if you don’t then He will come for you quickly
And He will make war against you with His sword of His Mouth which is the word of God
Which is truth itself
If you want to start teaching wrong truth or lies then Jesus will come quickly and make war with you using Truth Himself!
So church repent from teaching the false things
Repent from compromising the teaching because you are afraid it will offend someone
Repent
And finally
17 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’
If you are here this morning then hear this
I love the endings to the letters
It is the Spirit of God through John writing this
That carries some weight
The hidden manna tot he one who overcomes
To the one who repents and returns to Jesus and removes the idol worship in their life
To the one who repents and returns to the right teaching and right interpretation of scripture and leaves the false teaching and the watering down of scripture
God will give you the nourishment you need
To the one who overcomes and returns to Jesus
He will write your name on a white stone
The white stone was used as admission into the community feast
Or the name was written on the white stone and put into a jar and the judge would draw out the name in matters of acquittal
Which makes sense
When you repent and return to Jesus
Jesus acquits you of your sin
Jesus welcomes you into the feast in Heaven
It is for those who overcome which is to repent and return to Jesus
Church the message this morning is to remain faithful where you are
It is to not compromise the teaching of Scripture
Do not give in to the world
Remain steadfast to the teachings of Jesus
CLOSING
As we move to our time of invitation this morning
It is just that
I would invite you to the front to speak with someone if you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior
I would invite you to the front to repent if you find yourself like Pergamum compromising the teaching of Jesus
Maybe there is another decision you need to make this morning
Now is that time
The altar is open