Revelation Study Series 4 - God's Mysterious Plan Fulfilled Series

Revelation Study Series 4 - God's Mysterious Plan Fulfilled

10.31.21

Message…

Revelation 2:12-17b

12 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the One with the sharp two-edged sword:

13 “I know that you live in the city where satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to Me. You refused to deny Me even when Antipas, My faithful witness, was martyred among you there in satan’s city.

14 “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin.

15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching.

16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

17b “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what He is saying to the churches. ...

*Pic of Pergamum Altar

This was dedicated to Zeus as well as other false gods.

Actual altar, not a replica.

It’s believed that Antipas, killed for his faith...was placed in a large brass pot the shape of a bull and burned to death in boiling oil. Probably in the center of this altar.

You can see this altar, not in Pergamum. It was moved piece by piece in the early 1900’s and reconstructed in Berlin...where it is still today.

Adolf Hitler used this as an inspiration for his construction of the Zeppelin Field Stadium in Nuremberg.

*Pic of Zeppelin Nuremberg

Here in the center was Hitler’s podium instead of the altar where he gave his many speeches that would ultimately cost 55 million their lives in WWII, including 6 million Jews.

*Pic of Pergamum Today

Pergamum was the capital of Asia in its day. A beautiful city situated on a hill 1,000’ above the surrounding countryside.

The Lord commended the Pergamum believers for their faithfulness and their stand for Him. They were living in difficult times, in a difficult place.

The Lord called Pergamum “satan’s city”. This city was filled with pagan practices, and false worship.

“Pergamum” - “marriage and elevation” -Revelation, pg. 37, Tim Lehaye

The Pergamum church married itself to political power, pagan practices, and elevated church hierarchy.

Like the church in Smyrna they worshipped the Roman emperor as a god, along with other false gods.

There was a temple built for the Greek god, Zeus...god of the sky. Another temple for the goddess Athena.

And, another temple for a god they called Dionysius...

“...Dionysius...the god of wine, the goat-god. He is depicted with horns, but with his upper part as a man and his lower part as a goat, with cloven feet and a tail.” This is where we get our modern visual image of satan’s appearance.

With all the pagan and occult worship that went on there, satan’s presence and influence was strong.

(There are parts of our world today, parts of our very own country...that I would say satan has a stronghold...LA, Hollywood, Vegas, New Orleans as examples.)

The Lord praised the believers for their faithfulness, under tough times, persecution...they stood strong! But He also rebuked them…

If we had to sum up in one word what the church looked like in Pergamum...it would be the word, “compromise”.

Revelation 2:14

14 “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin.

“tolerate” - “allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of...without interference.” You go along with it! You allow it to go on!

In the OT the book of Numbers tells us of a ruler of the Moabites named Balak (Numbers 22-31)...and a man named Balaam who was a sorcerer.

Balak sent men with money to hire Balaam to curse the Israelites who had been traveling through their land.

God warned Balaam to not go with the men, but Balaam motivated and blinded by the money desired to go with them. Eventually the Lord told Balaam to go for it was clear that is what his heart wanted.

There is a very comical scene as Balaam sets out on his donkey. At one point his donkey came to a halt, and then changed directions.

In the path of the donkey, unbeknownst to Balaam was the angel of the Lord with a sword drawn in His hand. The donkey could see the angel of the Lord...Balaam could not.

After beating his donkey, but still nowhere for the donkey to go because of the angel of the Lord...the donkey just fell down.