Letter To The Church At Pergamum: The Church Near Satan's Throne Series

I was at the gym last night, on the stair-stepper enjoying a good work out. All the workout machines in the area point one direction, and so looking forward in front of me there are always many televisions all lined up one by one. I counted them last night and I counted 20 tvs. All of them on different channels, one playing music videos, one liberal news, one conservative news, one basketball, one home remodeling, and on and on it went.

The allurements are many in America, one was playing music videos with half naked women, shirtless men, throwing around money, guzzling booze, every channel was showing advertisements for food, pizzas, tacos, cinnamon rolls, and I’m there on my stair stepper trying to get in shape, trying to think holy thoughts, and it’s tough.

And it reminded how it is sometimes difficult to be a Christian in our society. Of all the channels on all the tvs, not one of those channels was playing Christian content.

And I realized this is how our lives are in Michigan, in the USA, we are constantly bombarded by all these messages, blaring on the tvs, billboards, radio, films, friends, workplaces, and we have to somehow in all this mess, stay true to Jesus Christ, holy, spotless and blameless, ready for eternal life. That is the challenge we face in our day and age.

And it’s very similar to the situation that the church at Pergamum faced in the first century. Jesus spoke these words to them,

From Revelation 2:12-17: “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: “This is the message from the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. 13 I know where you live, there where Satan has his throne. You are true to me, and you did not abandon your faith in me even during the time when Antipas, my faithful witness, was killed there where Satan lives. 14 But there are a few things I have against you: there are some among you who follow the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak how to lead the people of Israel into sin by persuading them to eat food that had been offered to idols and to practice sexual immorality. 15 In the same way you have people among you who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Now turn from your sins! If you don't, I will come to you soon and fight against those people with the sword that comes out of my mouth.

17 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches! To those who win the victory I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give each of them a white stone on which is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it."

The city of Pergamum in the ancient world was a city seated on a hill, a tall hill, and this place was like the capital of Asia minor. It was a big city. It was a powerful city. It had a steep colosseum, where they would have circuses and gladiator fights, this colosseum could seat 10,000 people.

The library of Pergamum held an astonishing 200,000 books.

As far as the worship of Greek gods went in the Roman empire, Pergamum had temples to all the Greek gods, Athena, Dionysus, Demeter, Asklepios and Zeus, the king of the gods.

Or if you wanted to declare your worship to emperor of the roman empire, you would go to the temple at the heights of Pergamum, where you could worship Trajan.

We don’t have an official record as to who planted the church in Pergamum. But it is recorded in the book of Acts that the apostle Paul passed through Pergamum on his second missionary journey.

The small church at Pergamum found itself in the capital of Asia minor, in the capital for worship to pagan gods in the region. Christians in this area were often regarded as atheists, because they refused to worship the gods of the romans. So they were charged with being atheists, with having no gods.

So they would be brought before the roman governor of the area, and in Pergamum at the roman governors mansion there was a statue of a roman soldier with a drawn sword. Imagine walking past that to your court date. The roman governor had the power of the sword, to decide your case with having your head cut off. Plain and simple, that was the danger, and the early church in this area was being severely persecuted.

Understanding all these details, we can see why Jesus says what he says to the church at Pergamum.

He says, “This is the message from the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you live, there where Satan has his throne. You are true to me, and you did not abandon your faith in me even during the time when Antipas, my faithful witness, was killed there where Satan lives.”