The Seven Churches-Pergamum Series

The Seven Churches-Pergamum

Introduction: The first two churches mentioned in Revelation 2—Ephesus and Smyrna—were both located near the sea (at least in the time John wrote this book). With Pergamos/Pergamum, the locations become more inland. There are several commentaries and other resources which describe more about the city of Pergamum itself, and they’ll be worth reading. For this message the main thing is that the Lord had established a church in that city.

Pergamum represents a different situation than neither Ephesus nor Smyrna had to deal with, and the Lord is quick to point out what was wrong, while still praising the believers for what they were doing. Full disclosure: this message is based on a sermon I preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on November 2, 2025 but is not an exact transcription.

Text: Revelation 2:12-17, KJV: 12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; 13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. 14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. 16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

1 The Picture of Jesus

As with both of the other two churches so far, the Lord gives these believers in Pergamum a picture of Himself. Here, and for them, He states He has the “sharp sword with two edges”. Now, something we need to remember is that there were two different types and lengths of swords. Simon Peter had one small sword, maybe a kind of glorified “Bowie” knife or, as a fisherman might use, a boning knife. The blade was maybe 18 inches long, as some have observed. It’s interesting the word for Peter’s sword (the one he used to cut off Malchus’ ear, John 18:10) could be defined as a “dirk (https://biblehub.com/greek/3162.htm)”.

In verse 12, though, the Lord uses a very different word. There, as in Rev. 1:16, He says He is holding a “rhomphaia (https://biblehub.com/greek/4501.htm )” or large sword, like a cutlass or saber. Cutlasses, to look at them humorously, are like the swords pirates use when they’re sword-fighting the other guys. Another definition, from the same source, calls this type of sword one that both cuts and pierces, a sword held in both hands to describe dominance.

There’s another reason the Lord is holding that sword, and we’ll look at that in a moment. Before that, though, we’ll need to look at the words of praise the Lord has for these believers.

2 The Words of Praise

As with the other two churches before, the Lord gives a word of praise to these believers in Pergamum. He started off by saying “I know thy works” and that’s a word of encouragement to me. We may never know what they were doing then, and not many others will be aware of what we’re doing today, but we have that assurance: our Lord knows our works.

And that word of praise and encouragement had to mean something to these believers in Pergamum. Besides Stephen (Acts 7), and James (Acts 12), there weren’t very many martyrs who were named. Paul did confess in Acts 26 that he voted to put believers to death but he didn’t name any of them.

All of those people, the martyrs (those who chose to die for their faith rather than deny their faith) were many miles away, and possibly a good number of years had come and gone. But now, the Lord reminds these believers about Antipas, whom He describes as “My faithful martyr”. We don’t know if he was the first, the most recent, the best well known, none of those things, but we’re sure he never denied Jesus, even though, as some older writers said, “. . , he sealed his testimony with his blood.” Faithful Antipas, we remember even today.

There is something else worth mentioning, and that was the reality that Satan had established a “seat” or throne (see https://biblehub.com/greek/2362.htm) right there in Pergamum. Some have commented that this refers to the various idol temples not only in Pergamum but over most of the world, but there may be something even beyond that. To paraphrase John Phillips in his book “Exploring Revelation” observed that this could be a reference to a sort of headquarters because Satan is a created being and can only be in one place at any given time. Something definitely was happening in Pergamum, and if it involved persecution of believers, Satan was likely behind it.