Pergamos: The Church That Married The World (Revelation 2:12-17)

The city of Pergamos, the next stop in our look at the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, was the capital city of Asia Minor (present day Turkey). The city was known for its political power, intellectual achievements, and, like the other cities, a hub of pagan worship. It was also a wealthy city that had given itself over to luxury and fashion. Pergamos was the home of a vast library of over 200,00 volumes. That does not sound like a huge number in light of vast libraries today, such as the British Library in London, where in 1848, Karl Marx, who never held a steady job in his life, wrote the "Communist Manifesto", a treatise on economics that ended with the death or imprisonment of over 100,000,00 people in the last century , or the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., which possesses copies of every book ever written in the history of the United States. Pergamos possessed information that was handwritten on papyrus and parchment. Pergamos was where parchment was invented. It was a type of writing material developed from animal skins that proved to be far stronger than papyrus, which was made from reeds. The New Testament was first written on parchment, and no doubt, the original copies, or AUTOGRAPHA, were preserved carefully for years afterwards in order that the successive copies were accurate, preserving what God had said to the prophets and apostles (John 17:17; Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21). Regardless of what the critics say, we have the authentic Word of God in our possession.

Like other cities of the Roman Empire, Pergamos had its share of temples dedicated to the gods of Greece and Rome. One particular temple was dedicated to Aesculapius, the god of healing and medicine. His temple was filled with snakes (snakes...why did it have to be snakes?) and when someone needed healing, they would go to the temple, lie down on the floor and spend the night there. If a snake crawled across them during their stay, they considered themselves healed. There were also three temples that had been erected for the purpose of emperor worship. As mentioned in the previous message, every Roman citizen was required once a year to walk into one of these temples, place a pinch of incense on an altar and openly declare, "Caesar is Lord". Of course, Christians refused to utter this confession and severe persecution broke out against them as a result. There was only ONE Lord, and it was Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9-10). Caesar and Christ could not co-exist on the same throne. You could only be loyal to one (Luke 16:13). Those who chose Christ were considered enemies of Rome and were more often than not put to death for taking this stand.

The Christians in Pergamos were in desperate need of a word from the LORD, and He responded. When Jesus came to them, He came as One having, "the sharp sword with two edges". This is a clear picture of the Word of God (Ephesians 6:12; Hebrews 4:12). Jesus came to them declaring that He has a word for them from God. The church itself was doctrinally sound yet had a major problem that needed to be addressed and confronted, and that was the danger of compromise at the expense of their testimony. Jesus called them back to the right path. Within these verses is a word for the last days church. There is always the danger that we can drift away from the standards of God. We may hold the right doctrines but can still drift into compromise with the world around us. The letter to Pergamos, like the others, can be viewed as practical, that is, real letters to real churches in a real world. These letters also prophetically symbolize the history of the church. Pergamos is seen as a reference to the period between AD 313-590, when the church intermingled with the world system, producing a "marriage" that has reaped bitter consequences and tarnished the message of redemption solely through Jesus Christ. There is also a personal word for the church today. We would be amiss if we did not take what the Scriptures say to heart and allow them to steer us back into full and uncompromising devotion to the LORD and the commission that He gave us (Matthew 28: 18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:8) to tell others about Him.

The Lord Jesus starts out by giving the church of Pergamos words of commendation. He knows that they dwell in a city, "where Satan's throne is". Pergamos was a city chosen by the prince of darkness to be his headquarters on earth. I want to pause here and correct a misconception about Satan. Some people believe that he or will be the "ruler of hell". The devil has never been in hell. He fears that place more than any lost individual ever has, and when he is finally cast there (Revelation 20:10), it will spell his final doom, and he knows it. For now, he has been given some leeway by the Sovereign choice of God. Satan is referred to in Scripture as both "the god of this world" and "the prince of the power of the air" (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2). Right now, he is active in this world and has seats of power in cities such as New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Moscow, or any of a thousand other places. This is becoming more obvious as the days draw closer to the return of the LORD. Jesus knew that the believers in Pergamos were living in a tough place, and He had a word just for them. He knows your situation as well. He is "a very present help in times of trouble", and you are no exception (Psalm 46:1; Hebrews 4:15-16,13:5).