The Letter to the Church at Pergamos
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Character: (Revelation 2:12b “These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;”
As we have seen through the last few weeks the devil has sought authority through a different means. He did this through the authority of the church and the marriage with the Roman empire.
The Character aspect that Jesus shares with these churches is not at random, but is a truth that they are dyer need of hearing. At a time when the authority of so many was placed in other things, Jesus reminds them that the thing that comes out of His mouth, His __________________ is the sole source of authority for the believer!
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Jesus knew that His true church would be able to stand on His word! That they needed nothing else, and at a time when “Universal Christianity” set it self up as the authority, and claimed themselves to be the sole __________________ of the Bible, as well as the only means of grace to obtain ________________, that they were going to need this reminder.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994), Pope John Paul II says in the introduction, “(the catechism)… is offered to every individual who wants to know what the Catholic Church believes.”
Article 100 of the Catechism says: “The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that i, to the _______________ and to the Bishops in communion with him.”
We know this to be a direct contradiction to the Scriptures. Jesus is reminded these believers and us, that He is the authority, and that it is His word.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism explains: “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fulness of the means of ____________________ can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone of which Peter is the head that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be full incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God.”
Notice it is not Christ who has the authority to save, but the church, and it is not the Bible in which we learn of His great salvation, but the church…
Article 819 of the New Catholic Catechism: “Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches to ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to Him, and are in themselves, calls to Catholic unity.”
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Salvation belongeth unto the Lord:
Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Commendation: (Revelation 2:13“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.” )
In the midst of all the persecution, the death, the difficulty, even the temptation, He writes to those men and women, who refused to leave the word of God!
I know thy works…
and where thou dwellest...
These saints were called to dwell and stand for Christ in the place were Satan’s seat was and the place that he called home.
In the midst of all of that,
thou holdest fast my name...
and hast not denied my faith...
even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you…
We don’t know a lot about Antipas. This is the only reference to him in the Scriptures. His name means “against all” and between Turtullion and the Marty’s mirror we can peace together why Christ mentioned him here.
Turtullion wrote that Antipas was one of the many brought before Caesar during his visit to Pergamos. All those from the city were brought before Caesar to burn incense and worship him. When Caesar walked by Antipas he refused to do any of it. When asked why, he claimed that he only served and worshiped his Lord Jesus Christ. Caesar replied, “Do you realize then, that all are against you?” To which Antipas replied, “Then I am against all!”
The Martyrs Mirror says that Antipas was burned alive at Pergamos in a red-hot brazen oxen. It says that in his death he would have suffered great pain and anguish, yet he remained steadfast! He was killed in 95 A.D. and Turtullion records that Antipas was the pastor of the church at Purgatory.