Sermon Tone Analysis

A Worldly Church

Revelation 2:12–17 (ESV)

12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

13 “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.

Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

16 Therefore repent.

If not, I will come to you soon and 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 the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

Big Idea: Jesus commends his church for persevering in faithfulness in spite of persecution

but warns them not to compromise with an idolatrous and immoral culture.

Introduction

The message to the church in Pergamum is the third in the series of messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2–3.

the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor for somewhere between 250 and 300 years.

The word “Pergamos” literally means parchment.

religious center where the pagan cults worshiping

this was the first city in the ancient Roman world to build a temple to Caesar.

The emperor worship had reached the point of cultic form.

He was no longer seen as a political or military leader

but he was seen as a god.

Further years indicated that they built further temples, and so the city had perhaps several temples of worship for Caesar.

It came then the capital of Caesar worship.

That city which was more given over to that than any other city in ancient Roman territory.

They had developed along with Caesar worship, of course, all of these other pagan forms of worship.

And as long as you worshiped Caesar, you could worship somebody else.

What made it tough for Christians was they didn’t worship Caesar at all.

They worshiped Christ and Him alone and refused on the one day a year when you had to burn incense to Caesar to do it, and

therefore lost their citizenry rights and lost their lives in some cases.

That would have been intensified in Pergamos because

it was the capital city for Caesar worship, and probably it was required more than just one day a year in this city, and that’s what precipitates the fatality that occurs in this city to one of the members of the church.

Here is the first negative introduction because this is a church that is facing judgment.

Jesus commends the church at Pergamum for enduring persecution in a very idolatrous and immoral environment

but faults it for compromising

with false teaching that promotes the ungodly lifestyle of the prevailing culture.

this letter is written to a compromising church.

This church is beginning to be linked inseparably to the world.

And this church has decided that it can maintain some kind of Christian credibility and also associate itself with the sins of the past.

Pergamos is a picture of any church that courts the world, any church that marries paganism in any form.

Jesus Has the Sword of Judgment

Revelation 2:12 (ESV)

12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

This “sharp two-edged sword” is probably an image of judgment.

Rather than envisioning Jesus with a sword-shaped tongue,

we should probably understand this to mean that

Jesus will speak decisive words of judgment.

The sword was certainly used in judgment in the Roman world, so this introduction contains a threatening image.

judging and moving fast from side to side and wreaking havoc as it moves.

It is an instrument of judgment falling on those who are deserving of that judgment.

John’s audience knows that Rome wields the sword of judgment,

but the authority of Jesus and the sword of judgment that comes from his mouth will strike down the idolatry of Rome.

Whose judgment do you fear?

The Christians in John’s audience could avoid the sword of Rome by doing things that would put them in danger of the sword of Jesus.

We will all face situations where what the world judges to be right conflicts with what Jesus judges to be right.

Whose sword do you respect in that moment?

The sword of the world and the judgment the world might inflict, or the sharp two-edged sword in the mouth of the Son of man?

Faithfulness in Pergamum

Revelation 2:13 (ESV)

13 “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.

Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

The church is in a very bad neighborhood.

Satan’s got his operations all over the world but he’s got his throne in Pergamum.

That’s quite an amazing statement.

Make no mistake Satan’s throne is not in hell, it’s in this world.

This is the field of his operation.

Hell is the place of his incarceration, this is the place of his operation.

His power was unleashed from this city and some in the Pergamos church had fallen victim to Satan

ask lep ios

In the city of Pergamos was a medical school.

And this was a famous place of medicine.

Mingled into their medicine, of course, was a lot of superstition.

And the emblem or the idol of Asklepios was a snake.

If you have ever seen the medical symbol, you will notice that in the middle of a medical symbol winding its way around the pole is a snake … that is the ancient god Asklepios, the god of healing.

When you went to the temple of Asklepios you went there to be healed.

In the temple harmless snakes slithered all over the temple floor.

And in order to be healed you had to go in there and lie down and stay there.

You slept on the temple floor and while you slept the defused multiplicity of the deity of Asklepios crawled over your body and infused you with his healing power.

Satanic?

Yes.

Right from the old serpent himself.

you hear that Asklepios was there, the serpent god, that sounds Satanic.

When you know that Zeus was there and big upon the hill looming over the whole place was an altar to this false god, you know that Satan was there.

And when you know they were worshiping the Caesars, you know that Satan was there.

And when you put it all together, certainly this is Satan’s throne.

Where is the Altar of Zeus today?

The famous Altar of Zeus, which was originally in the Acropolis, was taken to Germany in 1897 and it is presently on exhibition at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

These Christians in Pergamum were holding up well in the satanic stronghold in which they lived, but as we see from ensuing verses,

they needed to repent of their toleration of false teaching.[2]

Between these references to Satan’s throne and dwelling in Pergamum,

Jesus commends the church because, in spite of the bad influence of their neighborhood, he says, “Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you” (2:13).

In spite of their proximity to Satan’s throne, they “hold fast” to the name of Jesus.

There was a true church here, there was a growing church here, there was a real church there, a saved church, waging an uncompromising war right at the throne of Satan.

They were doing well enough to be commended.

“I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is and you hold fast My name and did not deny My faith.”

They were true, true faith is not fragile, it is indestructible.

It survives everything, even the onslaughts of hell.

You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city.

Antipas experienced the power of Rome to execute.

Perhaps because of his refusal to worship the Roman emperor.