Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Revelation 2:12-17

Theme: The Lord of Glory has a message for the church today: “The Church cannot adopt the mores of a secular society and remain true to Scriptural principles of morality.”

Tony Campolo is an American sociologist, pastor, author.

In a 1995 article in Discipleship Magazine he wrote: “Christianity is clearly at risk in America today.

But the ACLU and the PC police are not our greatest enemies.

Today, as always, the greatest danger to those who would follow Jesus is not overt persecution by society, but subtle seduction by its values.

Compromise with the culture has always had more potential for annihilating true faith than has intellectual skepticism or the threat of being thrown to the lions.”

The Church at Pergamum faced both issues.

It had experienced persecution.

Jesus acknowledges, “ ... Antipas, my faithful witness, ... was put to death in your city,” (vs.

13).

But the Church at Pergamum was also facing the subtle seduction that Campolo refers to.

In many ways the Church was thoroughly faithful, but in other ways the Church had thoroughly compromised.

Weather it involves our personal Christian convictions, or a congregations of Christians, compromise is dangerous territory for the believer.

Charles Spurgeon nailed it when he said, “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong.

It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”

The seduction is surprisingly easy.

It does not take pace as an obvious frontal assault from rival religious or philosophical beliefs.

If that were the case we could easily resist their attack.

Instead, the seduction comes from the constant pressure on the believer’s life to adopt society’s course and custom as the church’s agenda: To adopt society’s means and schemes for success as the church’s pattern for success.

There are even those believers who encourage the church to compromise the moral mandates of the bible in order to become more appealing to a degenerate society.

This is the great sin of the church at Pergamum — compromise with a fallen society.

Let’s look at Christ’s message to this church.

I. THE CHURCH AT PERGAMUM WAS A CHURCH WHICH HAD BEEN FAITHFUL AT GREAT COST

“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 to death in your city—where Satan lives.”

(Revelation 2:13, NIV84)

1. it was difficult being a Christian in Pergamum

2. two reasons why it was difficult

A. THE DEMANDS OF THE STATE SOMETIMES MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO BE A CHRISTIAN

1. Pergamum was one of the very first cities of Asia to openly and eagerly embrace worship of the Roman Emperor

a. two decades before Christ was born, the city fathers at Pergamum had dedicated a temple to Caesar Augustus and Roma, the goddess of Rome

b. to be a good citizen meant giving your loyalty and worship to Cesar and Rome’s patron goddess

2. by the time a church had been established in Pergamum, emperor worship had become a test of good and loyal citizenship

a. refusal to take part in the official cult was considered high treason

b. to be a true believer in Pergamum meant that you had to be willing to defy the state

c. the Christian cannot serve two masters

1) Jesus is very explicit about this

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

... .”

(Luke 16:13, NASB95)

d. the problem is that a fallen world does not recognize our Master, it does not recognize God’s agenda, nor does not understand our commitment to the Lordship of Christ

3. in a country which was founded by Pilgrims searching for religious freedom, the increasing secularization of the state and our courts is making it more and more difficult to be a Christian in the public arena

ILLUS.

One of the biggest clubs states and communities are using against Christians these days are Public-accommodation Laws.

Theses are laws, primarily aimed at businesses, that preclude a business owner’s discrimination against customers.

These are the laws being used to force Christian business owners such as bakers and florists to participate in same-sex weddings even though doing so conflicts with the business owner’s religious convictions about marriage.

Public-accommodations laws serve important purposes.

However, they — like other laws — must yield to the individual freedoms that the First Amendment guarantees.

That includes the freedom not to participate in ceremonies that violate one’s religious beliefs.

4. the demands of the state sometimes make it difficult to be a faithful Christian

a. be a faithful Christian anyway

B. THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE CULTURE SOMETIMES MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO BE A CHRISTIAN

1. Pergamum was not a great commercial center like Ephesus or Smyrna

2. it was, however, a seat of higher learning

a. the city was well known for its school of medicine and its great library which contained over 200,000 books

b. it was a city of culture, refinement and intellectualism

3. and if you don’t know it, culture, refinement and intellectualism are often hostile to the Christian faith

ILLUS. A. W. Tozer writes, “ ... the sons of this world nevertheless manage to make it tough for the children of God in a thousand cruel ways.”

a. you don’t believe that to be true?

1) just stand up for traditional marriage in a Miss USA pageant and see if the sons of this world don’t make it tough on you

b. you don’t believe that to be true?

1) just stand up for chastity and sexual purity in almost any college lecture hall, and see if the sons of this world don’t make it tough on you

4. we live in a society which has adopted “tolerance” as its most sacred virtue

a. and yet, because of our insistence on biblical morality and ethics we are often labeled as “intolerant”

1) the cultured of our society say that almost any kind of sexual deviance, and sexual licence must be tolerated as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone

2) the intelligentsia of our society tell us that homosexuality is normal and a healthy expression of sexuality and should not disqualify a gay man or woman from serving as pastors or ministers

3) the sophisticated or our society tell us that faith is fine as long as it is personal and does not carry over into the public arena of life

b.

if these are the sort of things we must accept in order to be considered “tolerant” then label me as intolerant!

5. the deceitfulness of the culture sometimes makes it difficult to be a Christian

a. be faithful anyway

C. JESUS COMMENDS THE CHRISTIANS AT PERGAMUM FOR THEIR PAST FAITHFULNESS

“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, ... .”

(Revelation 2:13, NIV84)

1. in spite of the circumstances the believers at Pergamum had remained true to the name of Jesus

a. even after the martyrdom of Antipas

2. undoubtedly the pressure upon these believers to abandon Christ and turn back to their pagan ways was severe

a. they remained true by not “renouncing their faith” even when persecution erupted and one of the church’s member was martyred

3. in spite of all they had suffered as a church, they had not surrendered one article of fundamental truth and had not deviated from the faith

4. the church at Pergamum was unshaken and unshakable

a. these believers were dependable and loyal to their convictions

b. faithfulness is a virtue Christ commends us for

5.

The Church at Pergamum Was a Church Which Had Been Faithful at Great Cost

II.

THE CHURCH AT PERGAMUM WAS A CHURCH WHICH HAD GROWN FAINT-HEARTED IN ITS STAND AGAINST IMMORALITY

“Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.”

(Revelation 2:14, NIV84)

1. although the Pergamum Christians had held fast to Jesus’ name and did not renounce their faith in him even under the pressure of threatened persecution, they allowed cultural mores to influence them

a. here is the great threat facing the church today ... that the world will influence us more than we will influence the world

ILLUS.

Tony Campolo is exactly right ... “Compromise with the culture has always had more potential for annihilating true faith than has intellectual skepticism or the threat of being thrown to the lions.”

2. the early Christians had one great advantage over us

a. back then it was clear that the surrounding culture was groping in the darkness of paganism

b. but today we have grown accustomed to thinking of ourselves as a part of the "Christian West," living in a "Christian nation"

ILLUS.

Dr. Al Mohler recently said in an on-line interview that the vestiges of cultural Christianity are so ingrained in our society that it has had an inoculating affect upon many who simply assume that they are Christian even though there is no spiritual evidence in their life that they are.

The result is that 80% of Americans profess Christianity as their religion even though they’ve never confessed Christ as their Savior.

c. the consequence is a moral life, among most Americans, that is more pagan than biblical