Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:  If we moved in a north-easterly direction from Smyrna and traveled about 55 miles, we would come to the city of Pergamum.

It sat on a high hill, and was a great political and religious center of ancient times.

It was the capital of the Roman province of Asia (forgive my previous error).

Herschel Shanks, editor of BAR, described the city: “The oldest part of the city, the acropolis, is modeled after the one in Athens and includes its own temple dedicated to Athena.

The ruins of the famous Pergamum library are adjacent to that temple.

The library was said to hold 200,000 volumes and, according to Plutarch, was given to Cleopatra as a gift from Mark Antony to make up for her loss after Julius Caesar’s troops burned the Alexandria library.

A… theater (above) on the steep western slope of the acropolis hill contained 80 rows of seats for 10,000 spectators…

 

Though much of the Roman city was dedicated to the healing arts, there were other amenities.

A colonnaded street led from the medical library to a 3,500-seat Roman theater, which is still used [today].

At one time there was also a Roman arena that could seat 50,000.

Legend has it that the arena would sometimes be flooded for fights between crocodiles and hippopotami.”[1]

And in this city there lived a fellowship of Christians.

Let’s visit them this morning…

* *

*I.        **Christ’s credentials*

*“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: Revelation 2:12 (NASB95)*

 

*For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 (NASB95)*

 

Next, He gives His commendation…

 

*II.

**Christ’s commendation*

*‘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.

Revelation 2:13 (NASB95)*

* *

Christ makes note of their situation.

First He mentions…

 

*- The difficulty of where they lived.*

“I know where you dwell.”

He had knowledge of where they lived not so much in the geographic sense but the practical sense.

He had complete insight into what life was like for the Pergamum Christians.

They lived in a place “where Satan’s throne is.”

What is that?

As with so many things in Scripture, scholars have tossed this around for centuries.

*~*~*~*show first photo~*~*~**We do know that in Pergamum there was a very beautiful and famous altar dedicated to the god Zeus.

It was discovered not too long ago and now rests in a Berlin museum.

Some think that’s Satan’s throne.

*~*~*~*show second photo~*~*~**Pergamum was also known for its temple dedicated to Asclepius, the God of healing and medicine.

The mascot for Asclepius worship was the snake (even today the symbol for medicine reflects this).

People would come from all over the Roman Empire for healing by Asclepius, known as the “savior” of Pergamum.

Maybe this was Satan’s throne.

*~*~*~*show third photo~*~*~**Like Smryna, Pergamum was zealous in their worship of the Roman emperor, so much so that they worked hard to become the center of emperor worship, erecting temples for that purpose.

Could this be what Christ was talking about?

Maybe it was all three.

Regardless, the Pergamum Christians lived in a place given over to the things of Satan, a place hostile to the things of God and the people of God.

Second Christ mentions…

 

- *The tragedy of what they had experienced*

One of their own (Antipas, who was probably their pastor) had been killed for his faith.

But that did not deter them.

They held fast to Christ’s name and did not deny Him.

Christ praises the Pergamum Christians for being faithful in the shadow of Satan’s throne and the threat of certain death.

Very commendable.

But, just like Ephesus, for all the good things that could be said, there was a problem.

Christ delivers His condemnation…

* *

*III.

**Christ’s Condemnation*

*‘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.

‘So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Revelation 2:14-15 (NASB95)*

* *

Christ uses an OT figure to explain this New Testament situation.

To understand it we have to go back to the book of Numbers 22.

The Israelites were wandering in the wilderness after failing to enter the Promised Land.

As they neared the territory of Balaak, King of Moab, he got nervous.

He called in a pagan prophet to curse the Israelites so the Moabites would have an assured victory against them.

Three times Balaam tried to curse the Israelites but each time God overruled Him and made blessings come out instead.

Balaam could not help King Balak with cursings, but he did give him counsel: Use your Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men away from their God.

It worked.

They began worshipping their gods and then began committing immoral acts.

The nation almost fell because of it.

The false teaching of Balaam is that of compromise: you can take the things of God and the things of the world and mingle them together.

And within the church at Pergamum there were folks teaching its OK to call yourself a Christian and at the same time associate with all the pagan elements of the city.

It’s OK to worship the false gods in the various temples and eat the meat offered to these gods.

It’s OK to take part in the rituals and rites, many which involved sexual immorality.

This teaching was very similar to that of the Nicolaitans mentioned here and in the letter to Ephesus.

Certainly there are those in the church today (in a loose sense) that teach the Balaamite and Nicolaitan doctrines.

Not too long ago I stumbled by accident upon a supposedly Christian site that advocated open marriages and helped folks find partners.

There are liberal churches all over the place that take tolerance to the extreme and advocate every form of godlessness and immorality you could imagine.

Those things make us cringe and we would never put up with them, even for a moment.

In one sense we are not tolerant of heresy like this, but we are in another.

I mean that with our mouths we preach righteousness, but with our actions and associations we live godlessness.

We say one thing and do another.

We condemn the lost for their sin, and at the same time completely ignore unrighteousness in our own lives and the life of our church.

We are more like Pergamum than we care to admit.

Study after study shows that there is little difference between the behavior of Christians and non-Christians when it comes the moral issues of our day: drinking, abortion, divorce, living together, pornography, etc.

Just in the past few weeks I have been confronted with the worldly and even godless behavior of those in our own fellowship.

Few things tear a pastor up more than that!

One commentator said it well: It amazes me how eagerly today’s church tries to mimic the world.

If the world’s view of the family, women, or homosexuals changes, the church accommodates that change.

The church becomes materialistic because the world is materialistic.

The church becomes preoccupied with entertainment because the world is preoccupied with entertainment.

Today’s church has a tendency to jump on every bandwagon the world parades by us, because Christians today are so eager to identify with the world.

The church is not supposed to be some benevolent, nonthreatening agency whose primary goal is to achieve prestige, popularity, and intellectual acceptance.

Contemporary Christians seem to think that if the world likes us, they’ll like our Savior.

That is not the case (John 15:18).[2]

Could the Scriptures be any clearer?...

* *

*Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

“Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.

“And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 (NASB95)*

 

From the text we discern that this compromise was not indicative of the church as a whole (“you have there some”).

The church for the most part was faithful and had the right doctrine.