Praise God for his glory and mercy! I am excited about today’s post, and I have been looking forward to covering this particular Church. You know often times sharing the Gospel may seem gloomy or scary, but be encouraged Christ is King. When we look at God’s word we should see our sinfulness and darkness. All scripture points to the cross because there is no good in man. The light (Christ) always exposes the dark and overpowers it. People who want to read the Bible to find out how well they have done are going to be disappointed. Now with that said put on your seatbelt and let’s dive into God’s word!
1. The Church at Pergamum
Revelation 2:13 says, "I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is ....".
I have always heard that we live in the seventh Church age called Laodicea. (We will cover that Church last). I have even preached this, but I will not anymore because I don’t think the Bible supports it. Don’t get me wrong those who preach this are not distorting the doctrine. They are hitting on the failures of the Church in our current day, and that is why I am writing on this subject. Jesus gave John a message to give us. You know what? It is loaded with insight. As you will see today we in America are more like Pergamum than any Church known in scripture.
Warning what you are about to read may make you uncomfortable. The Church at Pergamum represents the Church who is married to the world or compromised. Pergamum or Pergamos in the NKJV served as a capital of the Roman Province of Asia Minor for 250 years. It was an important religious center of the pagans. Now with this considered notice what is written in verse 13 “I know your works”. It doesn’t matter how hard you try you cannot fool God. Today in this country there are Church members who think they are going to get away with evil works, but God knows each one of them. He says in verse 12 he (Christ) “has the sharp two edged sword” and that represents judgment.
Let’s move on in verse 13 “and where you dwell”. So he knows what we do and where we go. Now what is the big deal about this? Here is the deal. These folks in the Church at Pergamos were constantly mingling with pagan worshipers. They compromised Christian living and experimented with worldly pleasures. They allowed themselves to be open to other lifestyles and did not refute or rebuke ungodly living. Now there are many people who say that as long as they are not bothering me what is the worry. You cannot live like the world and honor Christ. The world is the enemy of God (James 4:4). Now notice the next part “where Satan’s throne is”. They compromised themselves to the lowest point. Understand something they were not worshipping Satan. They were partaking in the customs of the Pagans.
In verse 14 we see that they “followed the doctrine of Balaam”. The OT story of Balaam is in Numbers 22-25. In this story Balaam’s plan is to destroy Israel by the Moabite (heathen) women marrying and seducing men of Israel to partake in fornication and idolatrous feasts to weaken and destroy the nation. So this is what the Church at Pergamos is doing. In verse 15 it says they followed the way of the “Nicolaitans, which I hate.” Christ said he hated it! What did the Nicolaitans do? They came from Nicolas who was a sorry deacon appointed in Acts 6 who became an apostate and mislead many in the church to follow the way of Balaam. The Nicolaitans believed in self-indulgence.
Here is the problem. The Church in America mirrors Pergamos. We have comprised ourselves so much that we don’t even know how to have Church. Seriously, most people think Church is suppose to be sing some songs, pray, take up offering, preach, and pray then go home. The Bible does not teach that Church is an event instead it teaches that Church is a living body (Eph 4:16). We have been chasing the American Dream so long that we have distorted Church. We have made it into a social event. We have took out the Holy Spirit and replaced it with committees. We have made deacons into legislative bodies. There is nothing in the Bible that empowers deacons. They have no authority. Paul was an apostle and he said “I know nothing other than Jesus Christ crucified.” Phillip was one of the first seven deacons in the Bible and he was later described in the book of Acts as an evangelist. How many deacons have you seen to be evangelists?
What about the pastors? How many Pastors in America are seeking mega congregations? Seriously, does everything in this country have to be supersized? Don’t get me wrong I want to see People get saved and Churches grow, but not like the American Dream model. David Platt writes in his book the Radical that we spend 10 Billion dollars on Church buildings in America each year. Not only that he says that currently in this country Churches own 230 Billion dollars in real estate. Is God excited about this? Here you go God we have made some great investments for you! Folks this scares me. In the book of Acts when the Church was being formed people sold all they have so that the Church could minister to the world. Today we have mission fields going broke. There are missionary who have to split their time up with service and fundraising because the Church is to busy arguing what to do with the money. Paul credits the Church at Philippi for funding much of his mission work. According to Samaritans Purse every 20 seconds somebody dies because they do not have clean drinking water. Two billion people in the world today live on less than two dollars a day. Just think how many times there has been an argument over Church property and finance or whether this should be remodeled or that. Sad isn’t it. Guess what? I haven’t mentioned us?
What about us? How much money are we wasting? How much more do we need? We have put Christ on hold because we have to chase the American Dream. I hear people say, “well I am just trying to get by”. Yeah living in nice home with a big screen sure is tough. We are never satisfied. We get more and we need more. Christmas takes months to pay for, and some how we keep convincing ourselves we don’t have much! We are destroying our children. We are teaching them that materialism is the most important thing. We can’t work at the Church because we are so tired from where we have to work to pay on all our debts. In America homes have tripled in size but families continue to get smaller. We are not serving Jesus Christ in the manner he deserves. Christ gave the great commission to us four times. He has called us to take the gospel to the entire earth. We have got to quit compromising with the world. Christ offers Pergamos repentance in verse 17 and he has offered it to us also.
Well that is a mouthful for now but I am not through with this subject. I will touch back on it on a later date.
Jesus Saves,
RR
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