Sermons & Studies

TEXT: REVELATIONS 2:12-17
INTRODUCTION
On the circuit route of post,
The church of Pergamum
Was the third city on the route,
Right after the city of Ephesus and Smyrna.
Pergamum was the capital city of the 
Roman province of Asia
Just as Honolulu is the capital city of
The state of Hawaii.
The city of Pergamum was famous in
The ancient world for three things,
These all posted hazards and
Created hardship for the
Little band of Christians in Pergamum.

1.Pergamum was famous
for its altar to Zeus.
The chief god of the Greco-Roman hierarchy of gods.
On a most prominent hillside of Pergamum,
This altar to Zeus stood
90’ square and 40’ high.
It was swamped with idolatry activities day and night.
This alter was so famous that
The German government in the 19th century
Sent an archeological expedition
To search for this altar
The team actually unearthed a large part
Of the altar with exquisite carvings
And it is still in a museum in Berlin.

2. Pergamum was famous for its temple of Aesculapius,
the god of healing in the ancient world. 
His symbol was a snake
And you can still see this symbol
Used among the medical professionals today
Healing was supposedly effected 
By having the patient sleeping in the temple overnight.
If one of the many snakes inside the temple
Slithered over a patient,
The patient was supposed to have been
Visited by a god.

3. Pergamum is the center of  emperor worship.
The city of Pergamum had a 
Long lasting devotion to Rome.
In 29 B.C., Pergamum built
The very first temple in the entire Roman Empire 
To worship ceasar as a god. 
By the end of the 1st century,
Pergamum had three temples devoted to Emperor worship.
The zeal of enforcing this worship
Brought persecution upon the Pergamum Christians
Even to the point of martyrdom.

This was how Anthipas lost his life
Witnessing for Christ.
With all these going on,
No wonder Pergamum was “where Satan’s throne is.”
Amidst such difficulties, 
How then should one retain
The marks of a disciple of Jesus Christ?
What distinctions will distinguish him or her
Amidst the drowning tides of this world?

In Jesus Christ’ letter to the church of Pergamum,
The marks of a disciple are:

1.Holding fast to the Lord’s name.
2.Faithfully witnessing for Jesus Christ
1.HOLDING FAST TO THE LORD’S NAME = YOU DID NOT DENY MY FAITH.
In the Bible, this holding fast to the Lord’s name
is called “confessing Christ”
There are 4 implications of this confessing.
1.We must confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
I John 4:14
We have seen and testified
That the father has sent His son
To be the savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God
God abides in him,
And he in God.
This is so important that 
It is not enough to have a 
General, vague notion of a benevolent God.
Even faith in one God is not adequate
To save a person
One must trust in Jesus Christ as personal savior and Lord  
As 1.John 2:23 clearly stated,
No one who denies the son, 
has the father.
Whoever confesses the son
Has the father also.

2.We must confess that Jesus Christ is the word incarnate.
I John 4:1-3 tells that many heresies have emerged.
Amidst all these,
The golden rule of the truth is this:
That we must confess that Jesus Christ
 is the son of God.
By this you know the spirit of God;
Every spirit that confesses 
That Jesus Christ has come in the flesh 
Is from God,
And every spirit that does not confess
Jesus is not from God. 
This is the spirit of the antichrist,
Which you heard was coming 
and now is in the world already.

3.That we must confess that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.
In the book of Acts,
The earliest evangelistic outreach
Was towards the Jews and the God fearers.
The Jews were already believing in one God.
The God-fearers were the non-Jewish people
who worshiped the
God of the Jews faith and
Embraced the OT values.
Yet it was necessary to share the Good news of Jesus Christ with them.
This is because, as the apostles declared in
Acts 4:12…
There is salvation in no one else, 
For there is no other name under heaven
Given among men
By which we must be saved.
This confession of Jesus Christ as the son of God
As God incarnate
As the only way of salvation
Is so basic for the Christian faith
That the early Christians laid down their lives for it.
If Jesus Christ did not proclaim himself 
The son of God,
There would be no crucifixion

If Stephen did not proclaim Jesus Christ 
As the savior
He would not have been stoned to death.
If Peter did no proclaim Jesus 
As the only way to God,
He would not be beaten and imprisoned.
If James did not proclaim Jesus Christ as
God’s chosen one,
He would not have been beheaded.,
If Paul did not proclaim the
Necessity of trusting in Jesus Christ, 
The Jews would not have persecuted him.
If Antipas did not witness for Christ,
He would not have been killed.
The word “martyr” is a translation 
Of the Greek word for “witness”
But because in the early centuries of Christianity 
That many of the Christians were so faithful
In witnessing for their faith in Christ
That they were put to death for their witnessing,
The word “martyr” has changed its meaning
and developed its current definition.
Confessing Jesus Christ is of such paramount importance 
In our walk of faith.

The Bible gives three reasons:

1.Confessing Jesus Christ 
is essential for establishing 
a relationship with God.
1.John 2:23 made this very clear:
No one who denies the son,
Has the father
Whoever confesses the son,
Has the father also.

2.Confessing Jesus Christ
 is essential for entering into salvation:
Romans 10:9
If you confess with your mouth,
that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart, 
that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.

3. Only those believers who are willing to confess 
Jesus Christ as Lord before people at any cost
will be admitted into heaven.
Jesus Christ himself made this very clear
In both Matthew 10:32 and Luke 12:8 
He said :
So Everyone acknowledges me before men,
I also will acknowledge before my father
Who is in heaven.
But whoever denies me before men,
I will also deny before my Father 
Who is in heaven.
Of course, this denial of Christ
Before man refers not to temporary wavering
Or backsliding, 
Like Peter was once guilty of,
But those who through fear, 
Shame, neglect, delay or love of the world
Decline to confess Christ as savior
Until it is too late.

Confessing Jesus Christ is so important,
Especially in the hard, persecuting years of the early church
That this idea of confessing Christ is embodied 
In an early Christian hymn quoted by Paul in 
2 Timothy 2:12
If we have died with him,
We will also live with him;
If we endure, 
We will also reign with him;
If we deny him, he will also deny us.

ILLUSTRATION
In Conclusion,
By the grace of God,
Many of us
May never be required to
Witness our faith in Jesus Christ
To the point of laying down our lives
For out faith.
Though the experience of modern day missionaries, 
Such as Grace Burnham,
Whose missionary husband Martin 
Was killed while being held hostage 
By Muslim extremists in the Philippines, 
Is a grim reminder
That there are still places in the world
Where confessing Jesus Christ 
May mean the paying of the
Ultimate price.
So very often for most of us,
We are being placed “where satan’s throne is.”
We may feel hard-pressuring by the 
Power of the adversary.
Or the malignant attack of the disease.
We may be pressured by a 
Oppressing supervisor,
Or a difficult spouse, 
Or even an ungrateful, heart-breaking child
We may feel abandoned by God.
We may ask, like the Psalmist in Psalm 4:2
How Long? How Long?
Yet Jesus Christ said,
“I know where you dwell,
where Satan’s throne is.”
I know your plights. 
I know your hardships,
I hear your cry for help.
I see your tears.
I know where you dwell.
I have a purpose in all this.
Just like I had a purpose for Antispas
To witness for me – where Satan dwells.
I have chosen you
I have placed you where Satan’s throne is
My purpose is stated in Phillipians 2:15-16a.
“That you may be blameless and innocent,
children of God without blemish
in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation,
among whom you shine 
as lights in the world.
Holding fast to the world of life.
Dear Brothers and sisters in Christ,
You may feel trapped in where Satan’s throne is
But the Lord Jesus Christ has a purpose for you:
Now is the time to arise and shine!