You all thought she was going to preach didn't you?
Trying to get me fired is what you all trying to do. I know what's up. I am thankful to and I'm thankful for my wife She always does such a good job up here and she's done a good job helping with that Pioneers Club We're thankful for Jenny Michaels and the work she does there and how many other people help in the distribution of those Thanksgiving Boxes so this week stand up if you help with that. We thank you very much. Stand up Judy. You can stand up Oh, that's okay. You help. All right. Well, let's give these folks a big hand, huh? And you know, we all have a lot to be thankful for, don't we? And as we approach Thanksgiving we do want A first of all give thanks and praise to God because we do have so much to be thankful for and I love this time of Year, you know, I almost wanted to start out today by saying Merry Christmas Because I don't know why but it seems like Christmas somehow gets in front of Thanksgiving every year I don't know how that happens, but you know, you turn you turn on the television and you look at all the You know, commercials and so forth and it always looks like you know They're jumping to Christmas before Thanksgiving even gets here and You know an argument could be made that Thanksgiving is the most Christian holiday that we celebrate Here in the United States and I am very thankful. I'm thankful for this church thankful for all of you This is a wonderful place to serve and you all have been such a tremendous blessing to me and my family And I know Mike feels the same way as do all the staff here I'm just very thankful for all of you and we are very blessed. We're very blessed people and You know, it's really not like it's really not like this everywhere We are very blessed to live where we live to be born where we were born And it's something that we should not that we cannot Take for granted. We are very blessed people. We're going to be looking at a people in the Bible today Who in one respect are not that blessed at least in the way that we typically think about blessing let's look at The book of Revelation we've been doing a series of sermons on the seven churches and the book of Revelation beginning with chapter 12 We're going to our chapter two beginning with verse 12. We're going to be looking at the church of Pergamum and we have already looked at the church in Ephesus and the church of Smurna and this morning We're going to be looking at the church of of Pergamum and one of the things that that I want us to see is I want us to see and Pay attention to how Christ is revealed to the church at Pergamum now in each of these churches We've had a special glimpse about Jesus Christ and one of the things that you see is that Christ is revealed to each of these churches in a very specific and very particular way and That is that he is revealed as the person as the one who meets the particular need of the church and That's something important for us to grasp in each case Christ is revealed in such a way that it's personal to the church that he is speaking to and so that so what that tells us is that Christ is meeting a particular need He's revealed in a way that he meets a particular need of each of these churches and here we have really one of I think one of the most Surprising if not shocking revelations of Jesus Christ and it says to the in verse 12 to the angel of the church and Pergamum right these are the words of him who has a sharp double edge sword now that's that if I think that might strike you as it does me as Kind of a strange description of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is here described as he was earlier in chapter one as the one who has a sharp two-edge sword coming out of his mouth now it'd be one thing if this sword was in somebody's hand But he's described in chapter one of having this sharp two-edge sword coming out of his mouth and the language there It's very infatic. It says these are the words of him who has the sword the sharp one the two-edge one and so it's very infatic here that what Jesus wants to do is to look at this sword. I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Crouching tiger hidden dragon. Have you seen that movie? Any kung fu fans in here besides me Yeah, look at those a couple of ladies-wise that movie. Wow. All right cool Well Well, then we can hang out can't we? You know, you know, they're they're I don't know if you know this or not. They're actually two kinds of hanging out. Did you know that? They're you know, there's there's the cool hang You know, that's when you get to hang out with people you really enjoy being with and then there's the mercy hang You know about the mercy hang That's when you hang out with people you don't really want to be hanging out with that's what we call a mercy hang now That's a little inside information Yeah, but those two ladies back there be a cool hang watching cunk watching kung fu movies, but anyways uh In that movie when they show uh the sword The camera pans from the tip of that sword all the way across slowly So that you get to see this wonderful magnificent sword that actually entails a great history with it Of conquest and conquering and warfare. It's a 400-year-old sword And I think what Christ is doing here is he wants us to use our imagination a little bit And pan as it were with our eyes The sword That he wields this wonderful magnificent sword that carries with it if you will the some total of the history of redemption This is the sword of the Lord and the sword in Romans time pointed to the supreme authority of the one who possessed it And so what this is a picture of is is a picture of Christ in his supreme Authority that is in his kingly office and it presents Christ in a in a in a biblical way That if you study the Bible you'll see that Christ is is oftentimes presented as the great warrior king He is the one that wields this sword this magnificent sword And what a sign of this is his ultimate authority his kingly authority He is the warrior king. He is the one with The two-edged sharp sword and It's as if as we saw in this morning, right? What do we say in this morning? You remember? Yeah The Lord is our warrior and what is the Lord as our warrior? He is what? mighty in battle See that's the Lord we serve You know this is not this is not the picture of the Lord that I think is current today in the 21st century Isn't it? You see the the idea it's almost too violent for Isn't it you know for for the kind of mentality That we have in the 21st century the way that we normally picture the Lord is I think sometimes not a biblical picture of Christ This is the biblical picture of Christ that he is The warrior king that he is the one that has ultimate control and ultimate authority and ultimate power over life and death
And so this is a picture of Christ now. Why is that important? Well, it's important because of where these people live Remember we said that we can be grateful we can be thankful because of where we live But this idea and this picture may not be The one that's most appropriate for us as people who live in the United States of America and in Florida and so forth They're in suburbia But this is a picture that was very important for these people who lived in Pergamum And notice where it says they live these are the words of him who is the sharp double-edged sword I know where you live You see the Lord knows where you live beloved. He knows where we are And you know, it's interesting that all the rest to all the rest of these churches He uses different language here when he goes in to commend them. He usually says I know your deeds But here he says I know where you live
God knows where We live he knows where these deer saints Live and he says I know where you live where Satan Has his throne Yet you remain true to my name you did not renounce your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness Who was put the death in your city where Where Satan lives
Now, you know, this is a A remarkable statement, isn't it? It's a surprising statement It's a shocking statement. It's hard to imagine a more shocking statement that the church In Pergamum lived where Satan lived Indeed where Satan had his throne And of course scholars Commentate on this passage trying to figure out why They have this designation of living where Satan lives and there's all kinds of Rumors out there as it were that one of the reasons why It was said that they live where Satan lived is because There was if you came into the city of Pergamum There was this Acropolis that was a thousand feet high and at the very top of this acropolis was an altar on a platform Surrounded by colonnades that was dedicated to the god Zeus And sacrifices were made to the god Zeus there All day long and all night long by a constantly changing guard of priests who would make offerings To and and this would go on day and night others think that it was because of another Kind of religious ceremony there that Where the god of healing What that is symbolized by a serpent and we're familiar with that in our own medical profession, right? And that you know people thought that they could get healing from serpents But the chief reason why most expositives think this was the scene of Satan This was where the throne of Satan was is because this was the This was the center of the imperial cult of Emperor worship Where people were forced to confess that Caesar is Lord You see and of course this would be a problem for Christians wouldn't it For whom their confession is Jesus is Lord in fact, what does Paul say right Paul says if you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth That Jesus is raised from the dead, you know, it's our confession is that Jesus is Lord not that Caesar is Lord or anyone else is Lord but that Jesus is Lord and those two things are polar opposites and the point is this that in the midst of these polar opposites and Pergamum You can imagine for yourself how difficult life is in that kind of a situation
That these people didn't get up every day and wonder whether or not they were going to experience conflict or experience Persecution or suffer for the name of Christ But that but this was the very place if you will where it appeared that Satan lived This was the very place you see where the throne of Satan was But you know as I thought about that I wonder You know that yeah, I can see how that Would be a hard place to live And a dangerous place to live for Christians
But you know I thought There's something about that that that's not all bad There's a certain clarity that comes with that kind of living isn't there Where we are reminded About the cosmic battle Between God and Satan Where we are reminded about You know these very clear lines of good and evil Right there's something there's a lot of clarity about living in a place like that living where Satan lives If you will living where Satan has his throne And I thought you know I can think of something more terrible than living where Satan lives And that's living where Satan is absent
I wonder you know where does Satan live today Where will we find him does he come to a veto Does he have a winter home here is he one of the snowbirds
Does he come down on vacation? Does he visit the attractions?
I wonder or are we are is what we are doing so insignificant for the kingdom of heaven's sake you see that Satan Is absent from us here see that we'd be more terrible wouldn't it than living where Satan lives To be more terrible to live where he doesn't live Where he wouldn't live where he wouldn't waste his time on the people of God or the church there Because what they are doing might be so insignificant as to be meaningless to his mission To me that's a more terrible place to live Than living where Satan lives and living where Satan has his throne
I thought about something else too is that you know one of the one of the chief symptoms I think of living where Satan live would be that people would be in denial of his existence and of his being there This is a one one thing more terrible than living where Satan lives is to is to live where Satan is absent Another thing more terrible is to live where people are in denial that Satan is living there And wouldn't it make sense that the people who are most under his power would be the people who least realize it?
Hmm it makes sense to me That here's this this master deceiver This masquerader This one who quotes himself as an angel of light as a minister of righteousness if you will and It makes sense to me that the people who are most under his power would be the people who least realize it
Let me ask you a question Are you aware of Satan's presence? You know, we're getting ready to go into the season of Advent and I Last year when I preached My Christmas sermon I had mentioned that You know The people always talk about putting Christ back in Christmas Remember that we're here every year, don't we? Let's put Christ back in Christmas. Why don't we put Christ back in Christmas Christ back in Christmas That seems to be the mantra on talk radio It seems to be the mantra of all the conservative talk shows and so forth and so on you know, let's get Christ back in Christmas Well, I'm all for that I'm all for getting Christ back in Christmas, but you know what? We might better put Satan back in Christmas too Hmm You know if you if you if you if you sing some of the old Christmas carols If you look at some of the old Christian hymns What you will find is is that there is a frequent reference and a frequent message About the centrality of Satan as well as the centrality of Christ And I think quite frankly what we have done is we have excised we have redacted We have edited out all the references to the enemy all the references to the devil and all the references to Satan Because by and large we are in denial and I would submit to you That to live in the absence of Satan or to live in denial of Satan is more horrible and more terrible and more frightening than living where he actually lives Yeah, we thought about that before Satan plays a fairly large role in the Bible and if we're honest We will recognize That he is as Martin Luther used to say one of our chief enemies one of the three enemies of the Christian faith the world the flesh and the devil It's time to put the devil back as public enemy number one
It's time to realize that he is there to oppose the work of God in our lives our personal lives
That he is a serious fall
That even though he may not live in the city in which we live We know and we recognize that if we have the spirit of God in us Then he is our antagonist He is our enemy He is the one that comes and seeks to kill And to steal And to destroy And anyone who is a true Christian anyone who has a credible profession of faith in Christ anyone who is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ Know something about the attacks and the assault Of Satan against their souls he wishes to take your soul We know that about our personal lives. We know that about our marriages too. Don't we
It's Satan wishes to destroy your marriage
He wishes to tear it apart Even if he doesn't live in the same city in which we live We do know this that he makes it his business to tear our marriages apart and to he makes it his business too Doesn't he to destroy our families to destroy our children and he makes it his business to destroy the church Where there is a true church state Satan stands in opposition to it It's public enemy number
They live where Satan lived and then he says nevertheless I have a few things against you You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balam who taught Balak To entice it is realized to sin by eating food sacrifice to idols by committing such an immorality Likewise You also have those who hold to the teachings of the Nicolayetans You see not only do they live where Satan lived But in the midst of the church the church was tolerating sin It was compromising with respect to sin You see that's that's really Bulls it right down for us don't we as John Piper would say you know there are two enemies of our souls Sin and Satan But sin is worse than Satan Because the only way that Satan can get to our souls the only way that Satan calls us harm the only way that Satan can really destroy us Is by sin by enticing us And seducing us to sin
Those are the two enemies sin and Satan and sin is worse than Satan He who has An ear You know when I was growing up I have my mother here by the way So I'm about tell a story here, that's it. This is my mom back there. You can look back say hi mom
Well, when I was growing up my father had his chair. Is that the way it was in your household? Did your father? Did your father have a chair? And that chair was positioned in the father's corner of our living room where my father would sit And my father would come home at night and even get the paper and he'd start doing the crossword puzzle and he would start reading the paper and so forth and You could you could talk to my father my mother would be calling for my father from the kitchen You know people would be saying just about it. You know trying to get his attention or whatever and it was as if my father could not hear you You know what I'm talking about Now how be it if you went to the farthest corner of the house and you began to whisper about my father He would say what did you say? We're all kind of like that, aren't we? What do we call that? Select the wives know what that is. What do we call that wives? Selective hearing
Selective hearing That's what we have isn't it He has an ear Let him hear what the spirit says To the church you know one way to look at the churches as a giant ear if you will
were to be ears to hear what The spirit is saying to the churches Beloved Christ has written these seven churches Personal letters and he has written us in that regard through his spirit letters to us these are two us
You know what Jesus is saying is That we would have ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the churches
That means that we should listen That we should not practice selective hearing This is not about hearing what we want to hear and disregarding what we don't want to hear this morning This is about the spirit speaking to you Listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches to him who overcomes. I will give some hidden mana You see why do you need to eat the food sacrifice to idols? When the Lord himself has promised to feed us of himself and give us the bread of life
And I will write him a new name on a white stone A name written on it known only to him Who receives it? Christ has called us to be faithful to remain true to his name To not renounce our faith and for those who overcome he has promised to give us The bread of heaven the hidden mana and a white stone With a new name Heavenly Father, we do thank you That you are mindful of your church And Lord we do ask that you would help us to be mindful of your church as well
We pray, O God, that you would Help us to take both Satan and sin seriously
And Lord that we would be faithful And resisting both of them
We pray, Lord, that you would indeed give us the strength, give us the power To live lives that glorify you That make us a threat to the kingdom of this world
And that make us Part of the building of your kingdom here on this earth. May your kingdom come on earth as it isn't heaven. We ask this in Jesus name