860 Rev.2.12-17 Pergamum - The Libertine Church
Seven Churches of Revelation • Sermon • Submitted
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- My observation is that the world, at least, in the West is becoming more sharply divided between the left & right side of political opinion
- You can see that people either love or hate Daniel Andrews or Donald Trump
- In a way, our personality type plays a big role in this
- Forgive me if this is simplistic or that I seem to be characterising people, but I think it is fair to say that one side is more rational & things are more black & white to them, while the other side are more on the side of feelings & emotion
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- That is a broad characterisation with which some people may disagree
- I know that there is a great deal of crossover between the two, but you will find that that characterisation, although, a broad brush could be said to hold reasonably true
- I’ll leave it up to you to work out which side, left or right, that characterisation applies to
- If you don’t have too think too hard about which side it applies to, then perhaps you also see the characterisation that I’m seeing
- And if I have upset you about what I said then, I think, you too know full well, which side fits with which characterisation
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- The question we need to ask is this: How do we fit these different people into the Christian framework?
- For starters, the Lord never said that only certain types of personalities can be in His kingdom
- But what He did say - & this is the key – that only those who believe & obey Him will be in His kingdom - this is the only true distinction between people we should be concerned about as His church
36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
- The church has truly messed up what it means to believe
- This verse clearly explains what believing entails
- We may struggle to obey Jesus, but never let is be said that faith can exist without obedience
1. Jesus Knows the Context of Our Situation
1. Jesus Knows the Context of Our Situation
- When Jesus addresses 5 of the 7 churches, He says, “I know your deeds”
- But to 2 churches, He says, “I know where you live”
- That’s not a threat, like some people who angrily say, “watch yourself, I know where you live”
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- No, this is a reminder to this church in Pergamum that Jesus is aware of their situation &, specifically, what they are facing there
** Pergamum is about 20 klm inland from the sea
- You can see in this image, the rough distance inland from the sea
** As we move in closer, you’ll see that there is a granite hill just beside the city
- That granite hill was home to the idolatrous practises of the people
** 3-6 Here are some images of all these amazing temple buildings – which, of course, are all broken down & are only a resemblance of what the former was like
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** 1-2 The city was seat to a temple dedicated to Emperor Trajan (topping all the others)
- Emperor worship flourished in this place more so than it did in the other 7 churches
** The gods all had their temples & images splashed all over the top of that granite hill
- Did you notice all the serpent like images in the Pergamum relics & images – even on their coins
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- We know the serpent as the devil or Satan
- The image of him is also depicted in Revelation 12
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
- As Rome was Satan’s throne in the west, Pergamum was his throne in the east of the Empire - Satan is the spiritual influence behind the elevation of the emperor to a godlike status
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- Jesus is well aware of the temptations & the hostility that these Christians in Pergamum faced
- But for all this, He commends them for holding fast to His name
- Now we are not allowed to meet as a church because of the Coronavirus, but imagine if the gov said that unless you agree to go along with all that they say, you cannot meet period, I wonder how many of us would do our hardest to meet?
Q. How many of us would refuse to renounce Christ & bare the penalty?
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- He mentions one Christian by name – Antipas – whom He calls “My witness, My faithful one” - most translations have “my faithful witness”
- Antipas did not give up his faith in Jesus when the society around about him were pushing him to do so
- His witness was that he refused to deny the Lordship of Christ
Under the Emperor Diocletian, Christian stone-cutters from Rome working in the quarries near Pergamum refused to carve an image of the goddess As-klep-ios and consequently were put to death for being followers of Antipas of Pergamum
- The people of the world don’t understand the reality of a faith like that & most times, nor do they care to
- The reason could be said that, mostly, people want to live & direct their lives into what they want do & don’t want to be told by anyone else, least of all God, what they are to do with their life
- But Antipas was typical of many in this church that suffered the ultimate test of loyalty – in losing His life for Jesus sake
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- Satan’s activities are directed towards spite for God & the destruction of all that God loves
- Satan was eager to get his tentacles into Job
4 Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 5 “However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.” 6 So the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.”
- Demons during the time of Jesus would try to have the person cast themselves into the fire or to be drowned (Mk. 9:22)
- It’s no wonder that Jesus called this place, “where Satan dwells”
2. Having a Concern for the Church, Not Just the Individual
2. Having a Concern for the Church, Not Just the Individual
- I want you to be aware of something which you will find refreshing
- Jesus never asks us to do what we are incapable of doing
- Problem is that our assessment & Jesus’ assessment of ourselves are different
- Many of the things, you might not think possible for you – overcoming some emotional issue, for example, Jesus would says “you can”
- He knows us better than we know ourselves & He will not impose upon us what we are not able to bear - & likewise upon a church
- To the church of Thyatira He says...
24 ‘But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you. 25 ‘Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.
- Jesus asked of them only what He understood they were able to bear within their current situation – He says that He will place no other burden upon them
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- Confronted with the word of Jesus may, at times, seem overwhelming
- Here, Jesus says that He has a few things against this church
- In the church at Pergamum, there is something that Jesus is definitely not happy with – it has to do with false teaching
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- He commended the church at Ephesus for resisting false teaching but here, in Pergamum, He has to challenge those who push it & those who tolerate it
- The problem we face today is, in the fact, that tolerance has become a virtue & people who go out of their way to appear tolerate, do so because they want to gain people’s approval
- They want to be seen as a “tolerant” & hence a virtuous person
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- There are some distinctions here that are important
1. Tolerance is a virtue when you are dealing with the young in age or young in faith
- Jesus showed great tolerance to “sinners” – yes, because He loves all, but unless they repent that tolerance will end
- Never forget that we live in an age of grace & that grace toward the sinner runs out at the 2nd coming of Jesus or the death of the sinner, whichever comes first
2. Tolerance ought to be shown when there are no “thus says the Lord”
- If there are no Scriptural injunctions against something, then there should be freedom & tolerance
- When deciding on the colour of curtains in a church or of the carpet, for example, then we ought to be flexible
- We should never go into the trenches & fight & war over matters in which the Bible is silent
3. Tolerance ought to be allowed when there is genuine ambiguity in the Scriptures
Q. Does Jesus come before or after the Great Tribulation?
- That might not mean much to you, but there has been some terrible accusations levelled against those who do not come into agreement with them
4. Tolerance is not to be shown when it comes to the integrity of the Gospel
- The apostolic Gospel is the way into the kingdom of God – the kingdom that is said to resemble, in one of Jesus’ parables, a precious pearl where a person would sell everything they have, just to secure that pearl
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- Here in the church at Pergamum were Christians who are too willing to look good to their culture
- They are more interested in being commended by the world than they are in being commended by Jesus
- We ought to be constantly reminded of this Scripture from
38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
- Look at that closely – it comes off the back of the call to discipleship – of taking up your cross & following Jesus
- Let me highlight the statement here – “whoever is ashamed of Me & MY WORDS”
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- People have tried to sidestep the reality of Jesus’ words by appeal to the fact that it was different times back then
- It is true that they were in different times, in a different culture & in a different geographical location
- But people haven’t changed
- People still need to work for a living; women are still having children; nations are still going to war; pandemics & illness are still our lot; People still love, hate, are rude; are kind; they can display every kind of deceit, cunning & evil; they can be lovers of the truth
- This is every bit the same, as in Jesus’ time
- Nothing has changed in that regard – nothing at all
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- There is still male & female – the gender God assigned to you in the womb
- There is still marriage as God in Genesis & Jesus in the Gospels defined it
- We have been deceived by a world that has Satan as its teacher
- He is the master deceiver & it is his plan to destroy the individual & to destroy the church
- But God knows this & it is God who allows & limits his activity
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- God has a purpose for the redemption of His world & it is His purpose to allow us to live within a fallen world, but out of that perilous situation to rise to the fore as God displays the power of His love in Jesus Christ
- In spite of the confusion in the world & in spite of the hurt, God takes His people through it all, to glorify the name of Jesus & to make His ways known to the nations
46 “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
- Don’t get hung up on the word perfect – it means to be complete & mature & it has a reference here to loving as God loves
- After all, when we were still sinners, Christ died for us
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- Some Christians in the church at Pergamum have adopted this cultic teaching of the Nicolatians & the Balaamites
- They are blending the worship of Jesus with the worship of the gods
- Like Balaam, they are encouraging the rest of the church to join in with them in their syncretism – that means the blending of religions
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- Balaam was the soothsayer from Mesopotamia
- When Israel were coming into the land of Moab, the Moabite King, Balak, promised Balaam a lot of money to come & curse Israel
- As it turned out, God did not allow him to do that & he ended up giving them a blessing instead
- But Balaam counselled Balak on how he could trip up Israel & cause their fall
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- He encouraged them to get the women to entice the Israelite men into a pagan feast where sacred prostitution was part of the ritual & worship of the gods
16 “Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord.
- It resulted in judgement against Israel & 24,000 who had been involved were put to death
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- Likewise, here in the church at Pergamum, only those who are following this teaching will be judged by the Lord
- Yet, the whole congregation is spoken to, meaning that the whole congregation is to be concerned for all it’s parts
- The church is a body & if one part suffers all members of the body suffer with it, if one part is honoured then all members are honoured
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Q. If the Gospel of Jesus saves, what happens if that saving message is corrupted & destroyed?
- Not every message saves & here we can see that this teaching & practise will end in condemnation for those who follow it
- It is hard to know exactly what the Nicolaitans are teaching, but it seems to be in line with what the early gnostics taught
- Gnostic comes from the word, “knowledge” & these early cults taught that you had to have some specialist knowledge of the secret things of Jesus to be saved
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- The letters of John were written against this background
- To “know” Jesus was to hold fast to the apostles gospel
- Here is one test that was used to determine if a person was a false teacher in the early “Gnostic” sense
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
- What these early proto-gnostics taught (the earliest of their kind) was that God could not suffer nor come in & dwell in a body
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- Jesus could not have been God in the flesh, they say, because only the spirit is good & associated with God, but the flesh is evil & God could not dwell in evil
- These false teachers held to Greek dualism which says that only the spirit is good but matter is evil
- Since Jesus was matter (had a body) they say He could not have been from God – hence God did not suffer in the flesh
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- That destroys the Gospel which says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…
- That God, in fact, does love us to the point of suffering & death
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
- The problem here in Pergamum is that these false teachers, were, like Balaam, creating a stumbling block to the rest of the church & threatening damnation upon the whole church
- False teaching is like gangrene or a cancer – the only cure is to cut it out
- The Ephesian church was on top of that, the Pergamum church were way too tolerant & opened themselves up to eternal damnation
3. Repentance is the Only Weapon Against Judgement
3. Repentance is the Only Weapon Against Judgement
- Here, the church is in danger of being judged by the Lord
- He will come to them & make war with the sword of His mouth
- That speaks of the Lord’s word of judgement like – “I never knew you, depart from Me you who practise lawlessness”
4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
- This is damnation, not forgiveness to these false teachers & to all in the church who succumb to their ways
- The church is called to be overcomers or conquerors
- We need to conquer our desires to want to look virtuous in the sight of the world – virtuous because we tolerate any wayward belief - even that which contradicts the truth of Christ
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- The world says that there is no truth other than my truth
- Jesus says that He is the way, the truth & the life & that no one comes to the Father, except through Him
- To him who conquers – to him or her who stands against the false teaching – to them, Jesus says, He will give some of the hidden manna, a white stone & a new name
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- The hidden manna indicates the admittance into the wedding supper of the lamb that will be celebrated in glory
- The hidden manna is the small amount of manna placed in a jar & put into the Ark of the Covenant
- The Ark was believed by the Jews to have been hidden by Jeremiah before Jerusalem was destroyed with the hope that it will be revealed at the coming of the Messiah
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- In actual fact, the Lord’s Supper is a foretaste of the coming wedding supper of the Lamb in glory with Jesus saying…
29 “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
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- The white stone was used in judicial hearings where the jurors would cast their vote, guilty or not guilty by casting either a black stone or white stone into a small cauldron or pot
- The black stone for guilty & the white stone for innocent
- Jesus, on His part, will grant to the conquerors, the overcomers a white stone & that speaks here of acquittal – a favourable judgement!
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- The overcomers will also receive also a new name from the Lord
2 The nations will see your righteousness, And all kings your glory; And you will be called by a new name Which the mouth of the Lord will designate.
- A name was very important in biblical days because it set the course of life for a person
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- David sought help from the wealthy but cruel, Nabal, but all he got were insults from him
- Nabal’s wife, Abigail, alert to the coming vengeance from David, pleaded with him to not take vengeance with these words…
25 “Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
- Nabal lived out what his name meant – folly
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- We could talk about Abram’s name being changed to Abraham (father of a multitude); Simon’s name being changed to Peter, meaning “rock”; we could talk about others, but the point is, a new name will be given befitting the character of the overcomer
- The take home from all this today is that we do indeed need to overcome those things, whether it has to do with a struggle within our personality or whether has to do with the pressure from our society
- We have to be overcomers & seek to please Jesus our Lord before all else
Questions:
Questions:
Once in your breakout group, nominate someone to lead the questions through, remembering that we have 10 minutes to discuss both questions.
1. Each Christian has a distinct personality. Sometimes these personalities come into a struggle with some of the teachings of Jesus. Discuss how we are to submit every personality trait to the Lord.
2. Should the church enjoy the different personalities that it contains or think the worse for it? What reasons can you give for your answer?