Friday, November 10, 2006
Revelation 2:12-17 ~ David McCary
Revelation 2:12-17
Pergamum
Review: Each book begins with a part of the description of Jesus
Ephesus: Who holds 7 stars and walks amidst 7 lampstands
Mssg: “I know your works” – He is there amidst them
Warning: “Remove your lampstand” – He holds the messengers, He holds the future of their church.
Blessing: “Eat the tree of life in the paradise of God” –
As He walks among the lampstands, so they will walk among the trees of the garden.
Smyrna: First and Last, Died and came to Life again.
Mssg: “Do not be afraid” – He is and was and shall be – He is in control.
Blessing: “Not hurt by the second death” – He already took control of that second death.
Pergamum:
Read letter
Pray
Read Gary’s letter from newsletter.
Vs. 12
Jesus’ description - “The words of Him who has the sharp two-edged sword”
Ephesians 6:17 – “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Hebrews 4:12-13
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Vs. 13a
Jesus’ description of Pergamum: “I know where you dwell – where Satan’s throne is.”
1 John 5:19
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
THE CITY
· Capital of province of Asia
· Famous library – 200,000 volumes of parchment
· Parchment invented there
o Latin: “Pergamena Charta” – “Paper of Pergamum”
· Worship center of Aesculapias
o Roman god of healing
o Medical wards and schools
o Nickname was “saviour’
o Emblem was serpent
o Temple filled with tame snakes
o Sick would sleep and let snakes slide over and around them for healing
o “OLD SERPENT, THE DEVIL AND SATAN”
· Worship of Zeus
o Greek god of sky & weather
o Chief greek god
o Ruler over mortals and immortals
o Seated on throne with lighting bolt scepter
o Alter in Pergamum stood 1,000’ high – rising behind town
o 800’ up a ledge juts out from mountain – with altar for Zeus
o Altar was 90’ square x 20’ high.
o Smoked all day long with sacrifices
o Dominated city – pillar of cloud at day, fire by night
· Emperor worship as intense as in Smyrna
· Bacchus/Dionysus – god of wine and intoxication
o His festival was celebrated on March 16 and 17. The Bacchanalia, orgies in honor of Dionysus, were introduced in Rome around 200 BCE. These infamous celebrations, notorious for their sexual and criminal character, got so out of hand that they were forbidden by the Roman Senate in 186 BCE.
§ FORBIDDEN BY THE ROMANS!!!
ORANGE COUNTY
· Library = education & information, knowledge
· Aesculapias = Healing, superstition, witchcraft, hocus-pocus
o Applied kinesiology
· Zeus = power of ruling over the things of this world (seeking power)
· Emperor = Celebrity worship
· Bacchus = Worship of consumption & possession
· Dionysus = Worship of sexuality
Vs 13b
Antipas:
· Not a lot known
· One legend – roasted to death
· Believed to be 1st Christian martyr in Asia Minor
· Must have been shocking for the church there
· Strong impulse to panic – but they held fast.
· Word for “witness” and “martyr” are the same – “martus” (mar-toos)
· Originally it meat one who says “this is true, and I know it”
· So many “witnesses” paid for their testimony with their life, the context changed.
· To witness for Christ was to suffer for Christ (Gathering exercise)
· Antipas kept the faith
· Jesus gives him a title here
§ Faithful Witness
o REVELATION 1:5 – “and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness…”
· To suffer with Christ, in the end, is to share in His glory.
They kept the faith even though they were surrounded by Satan’s offerings.
They still believed in Jesus …
…but was that all they believed in?
Vs. 14-15
Balaam – Who taught Balak (King of Moab) all the ways to put stumbling blocks in Israel’s path.
Numbers 31:15-16
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord's people.”
INCLUDING:
· Food sacrificed to idols
· Sexual immorality (sexual purity was truly a Christian invention to the world)
These are the things the people of Pergamum were doing.
Demonstrating by action what they believed in.
Nicolaitins – heretics (Ephesus hated, Pergamum is tolerating)
Other heresies:
Arianism:
Arius taught that God the Father and the Son were not co-eternal, seeing the pre-incarnate Jesus as a divine being but nonetheless created by (and consequently inferior to) the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist. In English-language works, it is sometimes said that Arians believe that Jesus is or was a "creature"; in this context, the word is being used in its original sense of "created being".
JESUS IS NOT GOD.
Gnosticism:
A synthesis of Christianity, Judaism, Greek philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the mystery cults of the Mediterranean), which flourished during the 2nd and 3rd centuries
Being specially receptive to mystical or esoteric experiences of direct participation with the divine.
The sufficient cause of salvation is this 'knowledge of' the divine.
Commonly identified with a process of inward 'knowing' or self-exploration.
Gnostics generally taught the belief that Jesus did not have a physical body, but rather his apparent physical body was an illusion, and hence his crucifixion was not bodily.
JESUS WAS NOT REALLY A MAN.
MAN CAN ACHIEVE GODHOOD.
Tolerance
“Why argue about things
“Why can’t we all just get along?”
PLURALISM: The belief that no single explanatory system or view of reality can account for all the phenomena of life. – Unitarian Universalists, American media, many modern “Christian” churches.
2 Timothy 4:1-3
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-- with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Why does this happen?
The idolatry of man – that we know better than god.
Where does this threat come from?
Matthew 13:31-32
He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
Matthew 13:36-39
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
Where God’s Word is planted – where his people take root – there Satan plants his children also.
This is why it is so important to choose wisely the spiritual leaders (pastors) you follow.
Hebrews 13:7
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
What is the faith of your leadership?
You are called by God to imitate them!
Vs. 16
The Warning: He will do battle against the hypocrites and apostates with the Sword of His Word.
When Jesus comes to battle against people, do you want to be caught up in a group of “bad guys”?
Teenage warning – watch who you hang out with.
Accountability – holding your leaders to more.
Revelation 19:19-21
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
The Bible is NOT “just a book”
Vs. 17
Blessing: His Word – which can save you or destroy you – contains the promises we hold dear to.
· Hidden Manna
o Manna fed the Israelites physical needs while wandering in the wilderness
o Why did they wander for 40 years?
· So that an entire generation would pass away
· God fed their physical needs through their life in the “wilderness”
o God promises to feed our spiritual needs (hidden, not physical) through this life.
· White Stone/New Name
o Ticket to heaven, new name, new creation
§ God promises to reward our faithfulness with eternal life with Him.
Pergamum and Orange County
The church in Pergamum and the church in Orange County
How will we respond to the warning of Christ – that we may receive the promises of Christ?
Choose wisely who we follow.
Choose wisely who we worship with.
Make sure you’re all worshiping the same God!
Luke 8:11-15
"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
The Word of God is either the Sword that protects you - or the blade that ruins you.
· Read, study, know your Bible
· Hold fast to the promises of Christ.
He is coming again…
And this battle, this life – is but a passing breath of wind.
If you do not know Christ – He will take you as you are tonight.
The promises in His Word can become His promises to you.
If you already know Jesus Christ as your Lord and God…
His Word will either protect you – or ruin you.
The choice is yours to make.
BENEDICTION:
1 Peter 5:8-11
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Pergamum
Review: Each book begins with a part of the description of Jesus
Ephesus: Who holds 7 stars and walks amidst 7 lampstands
Mssg: “I know your works” – He is there amidst them
Warning: “Remove your lampstand” – He holds the messengers, He holds the future of their church.
Blessing: “Eat the tree of life in the paradise of God” –
As He walks among the lampstands, so they will walk among the trees of the garden.
Smyrna: First and Last, Died and came to Life again.
Mssg: “Do not be afraid” – He is and was and shall be – He is in control.
Blessing: “Not hurt by the second death” – He already took control of that second death.
Pergamum:
Read letter
Pray
Read Gary’s letter from newsletter.
Vs. 12
Jesus’ description - “The words of Him who has the sharp two-edged sword”
Ephesians 6:17 – “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Hebrews 4:12-13
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Vs. 13a
Jesus’ description of Pergamum: “I know where you dwell – where Satan’s throne is.”
1 John 5:19
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
THE CITY
· Capital of province of Asia
· Famous library – 200,000 volumes of parchment
· Parchment invented there
o Latin: “Pergamena Charta” – “Paper of Pergamum”
· Worship center of Aesculapias
o Roman god of healing
o Medical wards and schools
o Nickname was “saviour’
o Emblem was serpent
o Temple filled with tame snakes
o Sick would sleep and let snakes slide over and around them for healing
o “OLD SERPENT, THE DEVIL AND SATAN”
· Worship of Zeus
o Greek god of sky & weather
o Chief greek god
o Ruler over mortals and immortals
o Seated on throne with lighting bolt scepter
o Alter in Pergamum stood 1,000’ high – rising behind town
o 800’ up a ledge juts out from mountain – with altar for Zeus
o Altar was 90’ square x 20’ high.
o Smoked all day long with sacrifices
o Dominated city – pillar of cloud at day, fire by night
· Emperor worship as intense as in Smyrna
· Bacchus/Dionysus – god of wine and intoxication
o His festival was celebrated on March 16 and 17. The Bacchanalia, orgies in honor of Dionysus, were introduced in Rome around 200 BCE. These infamous celebrations, notorious for their sexual and criminal character, got so out of hand that they were forbidden by the Roman Senate in 186 BCE.
§ FORBIDDEN BY THE ROMANS!!!
ORANGE COUNTY
· Library = education & information, knowledge
· Aesculapias = Healing, superstition, witchcraft, hocus-pocus
o Applied kinesiology
· Zeus = power of ruling over the things of this world (seeking power)
· Emperor = Celebrity worship
· Bacchus = Worship of consumption & possession
· Dionysus = Worship of sexuality
Vs 13b
Antipas:
· Not a lot known
· One legend – roasted to death
· Believed to be 1st Christian martyr in Asia Minor
· Must have been shocking for the church there
· Strong impulse to panic – but they held fast.
· Word for “witness” and “martyr” are the same – “martus” (mar-toos)
· Originally it meat one who says “this is true, and I know it”
· So many “witnesses” paid for their testimony with their life, the context changed.
· To witness for Christ was to suffer for Christ (Gathering exercise)
· Antipas kept the faith
· Jesus gives him a title here
§ Faithful Witness
o REVELATION 1:5 – “and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness…”
· To suffer with Christ, in the end, is to share in His glory.
They kept the faith even though they were surrounded by Satan’s offerings.
They still believed in Jesus …
…but was that all they believed in?
Vs. 14-15
Balaam – Who taught Balak (King of Moab) all the ways to put stumbling blocks in Israel’s path.
Numbers 31:15-16
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord's people.”
INCLUDING:
· Food sacrificed to idols
· Sexual immorality (sexual purity was truly a Christian invention to the world)
These are the things the people of Pergamum were doing.
Demonstrating by action what they believed in.
Nicolaitins – heretics (Ephesus hated, Pergamum is tolerating)
Other heresies:
Arianism:
Arius taught that God the Father and the Son were not co-eternal, seeing the pre-incarnate Jesus as a divine being but nonetheless created by (and consequently inferior to) the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist. In English-language works, it is sometimes said that Arians believe that Jesus is or was a "creature"; in this context, the word is being used in its original sense of "created being".
JESUS IS NOT GOD.
Gnosticism:
A synthesis of Christianity, Judaism, Greek philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the mystery cults of the Mediterranean), which flourished during the 2nd and 3rd centuries
Being specially receptive to mystical or esoteric experiences of direct participation with the divine.
The sufficient cause of salvation is this 'knowledge of' the divine.
Commonly identified with a process of inward 'knowing' or self-exploration.
Gnostics generally taught the belief that Jesus did not have a physical body, but rather his apparent physical body was an illusion, and hence his crucifixion was not bodily.
JESUS WAS NOT REALLY A MAN.
MAN CAN ACHIEVE GODHOOD.
Tolerance
“Why argue about things
“Why can’t we all just get along?”
PLURALISM: The belief that no single explanatory system or view of reality can account for all the phenomena of life. – Unitarian Universalists, American media, many modern “Christian” churches.
2 Timothy 4:1-3
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-- with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Why does this happen?
The idolatry of man – that we know better than god.
Where does this threat come from?
Matthew 13:31-32
He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
Matthew 13:36-39
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
Where God’s Word is planted – where his people take root – there Satan plants his children also.
This is why it is so important to choose wisely the spiritual leaders (pastors) you follow.
Hebrews 13:7
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
What is the faith of your leadership?
You are called by God to imitate them!
Vs. 16
The Warning: He will do battle against the hypocrites and apostates with the Sword of His Word.
When Jesus comes to battle against people, do you want to be caught up in a group of “bad guys”?
Teenage warning – watch who you hang out with.
Accountability – holding your leaders to more.
Revelation 19:19-21
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
The Bible is NOT “just a book”
Vs. 17
Blessing: His Word – which can save you or destroy you – contains the promises we hold dear to.
· Hidden Manna
o Manna fed the Israelites physical needs while wandering in the wilderness
o Why did they wander for 40 years?
· So that an entire generation would pass away
· God fed their physical needs through their life in the “wilderness”
o God promises to feed our spiritual needs (hidden, not physical) through this life.
· White Stone/New Name
o Ticket to heaven, new name, new creation
§ God promises to reward our faithfulness with eternal life with Him.
Pergamum and Orange County
The church in Pergamum and the church in Orange County
How will we respond to the warning of Christ – that we may receive the promises of Christ?
Choose wisely who we follow.
Choose wisely who we worship with.
Make sure you’re all worshiping the same God!
Luke 8:11-15
"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
The Word of God is either the Sword that protects you - or the blade that ruins you.
· Read, study, know your Bible
· Hold fast to the promises of Christ.
He is coming again…
And this battle, this life – is but a passing breath of wind.
If you do not know Christ – He will take you as you are tonight.
The promises in His Word can become His promises to you.
If you already know Jesus Christ as your Lord and God…
His Word will either protect you – or ruin you.
The choice is yours to make.
BENEDICTION:
1 Peter 5:8-11
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
