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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Sam Walters

Overcomer

Well, it's a privilege to be here at Advent Hope.

Honestly, honestly, it's a privilege to be here.

Dear Lord, as we come to you this morning, I'm not sure that I've preached so early in the morning before.

But I'm praying, dear Lord, that you send down your spirit to be with us because you're going to be with us at age.

Guide us and lead us into the deeper experiences.

If you have your Bibles, can you turn there with me please?

Revelation chapter 2, reading from verse 12.

Revelation chapter 2, I'm back in the sermon now.

And to the angel of the church in Pergamos writes, These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with 2 edges.

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.

But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

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." I'm super vulnerable with it.

In the back of my mind, I'm conscious that I've got a different accent and sometimes I talk quickly in England, let alone here.

So if I'm going too quickly, this is just me being open and up, if I'm going too quickly, just let me know and I'll try and slow it down.

The letter to Pergamos, which we've just read, is not relevant only to that church in the physical location of Pergamos at that time.

The book of Revelation, when you first look at it in the first 2, 3 chapters, you see these 7 churches which are named and Pergamos is the third 1.

When you start looking in the earlier chapter, chapter 1, and you start looking at the 7 churches, you begin to realize something interesting.

Chapter 1, verse 4, John to the 7 churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is, and which was, and which was to come from the 7 spirits which are before his throne and it starts off by saying John to the 7 churches which are in Asia so so John is writing actually the whole book of Revelation is dedicated actually to the 7 churches.

Verse 11 says, verse 11 says, saying I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

And what thou seest write in a book and seal it and send it on to the 7 churches which are in Asia and unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna and unto Pergamos and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea.

So the whole book is actually dedicated to the 7 churches, but there's a section in chapter 2 which is specifically dedicated to Pergamos, but we realize that because the whole book is dedicated to the 7 churches, that it can't just be about the things that we've just read specifically for the people in that locality and at that time the reason being I'm hoping that you guys are following my logic The reason being is because the book of Revelation contains things which extend way beyond the time period to which Pergamos existed.

Yet, the whole book is dedicated to the 7 churches.

So what's happening in there must extend beyond the geographical location and the time period of that place.

So there's lessons from each of the 7 churches which will be helpful for us today.

Specifically, we know, I don't need to explain it to you, we know that we're living in the time of Laodicea, we know that, we know that, we don't need to go through through that whole thing But I just feel like sometimes the other churches don't get a lot of airtime Do you get me?

So let's just give Pergamos some airtime today, and I think there's some lessons We can learn from Pergamos that can help us in our Christian experience today.

I've looked at a few different sources and what the general theme tends to be, the general theme tends to be that the word Pergamos means elevation or height.

It was a city located on a 300 meter high hill.

I don't know how tall that is in whatever you use, but it's tall.

So it was elevated high and it was filled with different temples to different gods.

It had a huge altar to Zeus, commemorating Pergamon's victory over the invading Gauls.

It had a famous shrine to the temple of Aschupelippus, the serpent god of medicine.

The center of worship for Dionysus, the god of wine.

It had a prominent center of worship for Bacchus and Venus.

A great temple to Athena, temples to the Roman emperors of Augustus, Trajan and Severus.

There was a lot of things going on worship wise in this city called Pergamos.

A lot of things taking place in this city called Pergamos.

When the Persians defeated the Babylonians, you remember that, don't you?

So you know Daniel chapter 2, you've got the statue, head of gold, chest and arms, so you've got Babylon, middle Persia.

When the middle Persians defeated the Babylonians, and you remember the Chaldeans that were in, you showed up every now and again the fact of interpret the genes and they never could have and the Persians made it difficult for the Chaldeans to practice their religion in Babylon So they ran from Babylon and went to this city called Pergamos.

And they continued Babylonian religion in this city called Pergamos.

This was about 50 years after the Persian invasion.

And so they took responsibility for the Babylonian title, sorry, the Babylonian religion, and the king of Pergamos took the title Pontifex Maximus.

Later on, when you see the Romans come through and they get involved with Pergamos, the Romans then start taking on this title Pontifex Maximus.

You see Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar were the first to assume the title and later on this same title was assumed by the popes in AD 380.

So Pergamos then, you kind of see it, depending on when you're reading it, many people see it as this city which was the link between the 2 Babylons.

And under these conditions, under these conditions, we read in Revelation chapter 2, a commendation to a Christian church which was located in a space where it seemed like Satan was just running rampant.

And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with 2 edges, I know thy works.

I know the surrounding culture that you're in.

I know the influences that are taking place in the media and in the culture and just the stream and the current of society in this space that you're in and I know thy works where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and in the midst of those situations in the midst where the current of society is saying 1 way in that situation I'm seeing something you're holding fast my name You've not denied my faith sometimes sometimes In spaces where it seems like Satan has complete control of what's going on.

In spaces where it seems like Satan has a complete influence of the total environment.

Sometimes, in those spaces, God's looking for a people who will hold fast to his name, no matter what the culture says.

Who will hold fast to his name, no matter what the current of society is taking us towards.

That will say, no matter what, here I stand, I can do no other that's what God's looking for and you see this in Pergamos you remember Joseph don't you you remember Joseph he's gone to Egypt and Everything in Egypt is saying go this way.

He ends up in prison because of his faith, but he decides no matter what, I'm holding fast to the things that I know.

There's a call from Pergamos to resist actively, not passively, actively.

A ministry of resistance a ministry of resistance and so Antipas represents a particular time Daniel had to resist eating the king's meat.

Joseph had to resist the advances of Potiphar's wife.

Mordecai had to resist bowing down to Naaman.

I'm realizing and I'm learning that if you're not actively resisting, 1 day you can wake up and find that the seeds of worldliness have overtaken the garden of your soul.

Gardening is a step-by-step, month-by-month process.

If you don't take the weeds out, they'll come up to the concrete to resist to resist Sometimes it's so easy like if you don't actively resist It's so easily you can roll over and in your university experience You can find yourself watching programs at the end of the year that you never would have watched at the beginning of the year if you don't resist.

1 day you wake up and you find yourself doing things that you never would have done 5 years ago if you don't actively resist.

To resist just the current of the tide that's around us.

There's a call from Pergamos To actively resist Jesus gives us a master class in resistance like Jesus is so awesome Honestly, honestly the way he does things is different.

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