The Book of Revelation - Session 5 of 24 - A Remastered Commentary by Chuck Missler

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well we're studying the book of

revelation

and uh the most important part of that

book we feel is chapters two and three

so we're spending very careful attention

to those

and we are going to be exploring tonight

the third of seven letters

by jesus christ to his churches

a letter to the church at pergamus

and uh it's the fifth of 24 sessions

but just by way of warm-up and review

we're dealing in it's the revelation

notice that it's singular the word in

the greek means the unveiling

of jesus christ

and uh it's the consummation of all

things

it's the only book of the bible that has

the audacity to announce a special

blessing on the reader or the listener

and no other book in the bible has

singles itself out the way this book

does

and there are 404 verses

in the book that include within them 800

more than 800

illusions from the old testament alone

and i mention that because one of the

reasons that may sound strange to our

ears is because most of us

don't know the old testament like we

should the more you understand the old

testament the more comfortable this book

becomes

and it presents the climax of god's plan

for man

as i looked at this slide in the in the

earlier

today i thought gee that's not the way i

want to say it it's not the man it's you

and me

mr and mrs man if you will it's the

climax of god's plan for you and for me

and so it's a very very key book it's

strange

that this book with all that's got going

for it

is the least studied in the least

preached on book from the pulpits of

america

but

one of the things we did last time and i

thought i just mentioned here to put in

perspective we had a little backgrounder

on the olivet discourse

which is that that

famous discourse that was

a response to four disciples coming to

jesus and asking about a second coming

and uh

his his response is recorded in matthew

24 mark 13 and luke 21

and

in each of those

accounts

there's a group of signs that emerge

very prominently within each

presentation

and these list of signs the emergence of

false christ wars

nation against nation kingdom against

kingdom and so forth

famines uh death and martyrs and and

ultimately global chaos those signs are

highlighted in matthew and luke and mark

but they also will become very prominent

to us when we get to revelation chapter

six the same pattern is there then

that's noted by most scholars

but

the matthew accounts familiar to most of

us that have studied prophecy since

matthew took shorthand most of us tend

to lean on matthew's very detailed

account

and for this for 1700 years

scholars have assumed that all those are

talking about the same presentation

and it's called the harmonization of the

gospels among other things

and

it's interesting if we stand back

and

set aside our presuppositions

we notice that luke's account is

actually quite different than matthews

and there that generates a great deal of

confusion in fact when you get to luke

when matthew goes through his

presentation

he mentions those signs and then shall

the abomination of desolation occur and

then and then and then

most of what he talks about comes after

that group of signs but if you look at

what luke says sorry about verse 11 he

says in great earthquakes shall be in

divers places famines pestilences and

fearful signs and great signs shall be

from heaven but i want you to notice

what he says those next four words

but before all these

shall they lay hands on you and

persecute you and delivering you up to

the synagogues and prisons and so forth

most of what luke says focuses on what

occurs before those signs

what matthew talks about occurs after

those signs and therein lies a glimmer

of insight and

they have different emphases

luke says before all these signs

matthew says all these the beginning of

sorrows then shall they etc and they're

talking in reference to this series of

signs false christs wars famines

earthquakes

what's interesting is

that luke's emphasis is before those

signs

matthew's after those signs

and once that you understand that

suddenly the fog begins to lift

if we take luke's account and matthews

and put him side by side verse by verse

we'll discover that they all talk about

wars famines earthquakes and so forth

and they also climax at the end with

some cosmic upheaval and so forth

and the second coming of christ etc

but what luke talks about in most of his

presentation occurs before those signs

and he's talking about the fall of

jerusalem in 70 a.d

and that's well recognized by scholars

in fact

many scholars so focus on that

they take the position that all the rest

of it has already been fulfilled in 70

a.d which is patently not true the only

can the only way you can hold that view

is to allegorize all the rest of it

and

so when matthew talks about

after those signs he then says then

shall be the abomination of desolation a

very specific thing that jesus focuses

on and so forth that all comes after

that and he that ushers in a period of

time that jesus himself labels as the

great tribulation he's quoting from

daniel 12.

and

this is desolation number two in other

words we have two desolations of

jerusalem in view luke is talking about

one earlier

matthew one after those signs two

different ones

and so the first generation

is luke says this generation shall not

pass away to all be fulfilled and it's

38 years later from that point that

jerusalem falls the 38 years being very

significant because that's exactly the

length of the generation that wandered

in the wilderness before kiddish bernie

and all that

so uh

when matthew talks about

this generation will not pass he's

talking about the last generation

and how long is that we don't know

because unless those days are shortened

there should no flesh be saved so it's a

totally different thing altogether

in any case we're we're that's just by

way of summary the main reason i bring

this up in this study is because clearly

the seven letters to seven churches

occur

after the fall of jerusalem because that

fell in 70 a.d and this is these letters

are being written about 95 96 a.d about

20 years later and yet they obviously

occur prior to

these

wars famines earthquakes and so forth

and so uh that'll become even more

significant as we get into more and more

of the prophetic aspects of the seven

letters

but that's all it's interesting as you

reflect on all of this

that luke is writing to gentiles and

he's focusing the gentile christians on

what's coming

and during

when vespasian

and

his son titus were mopping up in the

north

up in tiberias and these various cities

nero had told vespasian to bring war

against the jews and he was doing that

but

about 96

a.d

nero dies

and vespasian ends up getting tangled up

in their rome politics and he ends up

emerging as the emperor of the roman

empire he leaves his son titus to attack

jerusalem in which he does sets the

siege up that causes ultimately

jerusalem to fall

but there's a hiatus in that siege

and eusebius among others points out

that the christians that heard

this presentation knew that when they

were when the armies were coming to get

out of town they did they went to a

place called pella in north petraea and

there are some scholars believe that no

in despite the fact that one million one

hundred thousand were killed in the fall

of jerusalem no christians were because

if they followed jesus directions they

were out of there before the siege

sealed it off

and all that trauma and and that jose we

have a detailed first-hand account of it

all in josephus if you're interested in

reading his stuff on called the wars of

the jews and so on in any case

that's just by way of review from last

time

let's just uh get back to the book of

revelation

to whom was the book given this is many

people don't read the first sentence

it's the revelation of jesus christ

which god gave unto whom

jesus christ in exactly no wonder is

such a treasure

to show unto his servants things which

must shortly come to pass and he sent

and he signified it signified it is a uh

rendering it into signs or semens

and uh one of the things that first got

me excited about the bible as a

my young teens was a lecturer that was

speaking uh a series he pointed out the

whole book of revelations in code but

every code is explained somewhere else

in the bible i thought wow that's

interesting what a treasure hunt indeed

it was that changed my life

but in any case it is signified or

signed and every sign is explained

somewhere most of right in the book

itself many elsewhere that's what takes

takes you from those 400 verses into the

800 of illusions of the old testament

for example

okay but here's the promise that we're

going to claim tonight you and i we're

here together for verse 3 of chapter 1

blessed is he that readeth and they that

hear the words of this prophecy and keep

those things which are written therein

for the time is at hand

in john to the seven churches which are

in asia now this whole book

was sent to seven key churches

seven churches strange why these

churches

because there are over a hundred

churches that were active in those days

why these seven because jesus picked

these seven because of their incredible

appropriateness as we'll discover as we

get into them

not only for that day but through all of

history

john to the seven churches which are in

asia that's the cut that's the province

of asia not asia's we tend to use the

term continentally it's essentially that

region we call turkey

grace unto you and beast from him who

which is which us and which is to come

and the seven spirits which are before

his throne and from jesus christ who is

the faithful witness the first begotten

of the dead the prince of the kings of

the earth unto him that loved us and

washed us from our sins in his own blood

these are a few of

uh uh seven labels that jesus introduces

of himself

and those labels will be identity pieces

throughout the rest of the book and

we'll link that up as we go

in chapter one we have an introduction

we have the salutation and the occasion

where he's on patents

we have a per a a description of jesus

christ the vision of him

the risen christ is described by john as

he sees him

but then we have verse 19 which is very

precious it's the only book i know of in

the bible it gives you its outline

usually when you take a book to study

the first thing you do you want to do is

outline it well john has

done that for you and so we'll take a

look at this

john is told to write three things write

the things which thou hast seen

that's obviously an allusion to the

physical description of christ that

precedes these verses

and the things which are present tense

first is passions these are things which

exist right now

and the things which shall be hereafter

and obviously the vision of christ are

the things he has seen by the time he

gets that verse

the things which are the seven churches

in chapters two and three

and then the things that are after the

seven churches

uh which shall be uh and we'll get into

that of course we get chapter four but

the point is

uh for you and i

the most important part of the entire

book

and it's a fantastic book but the most

important part is chapters two and three

because that affects you and me from

chapter four on i believe we'll be

watching it from the mezzanine okay

but we're going to focus our attention

on these seven churches

at the

then that chapter closes with a couple

of lessons here jesus says the mystery

of the seven stars which i saw in my

right hand the seven golden app stands

the seven stars are the angels of the

seven churches and the seven lampstands

which thou sawest are the seven churches

so here's an example where these idioms

are used earlier in the chapter but

before the chapter closes they're

explained to you

and we're going to find these little

explanations all through the book

most of the critical symbols are

explained for you in the book as we go

others are illusions from the old

testament that are easily

chased down

now these seven churches that's where

why these seven is a key question you

need to

come to grips with

each of the letters has a common phrase

that closes the letter

we find this strange phrase he that hath

an ear let him hear what the spirit says

to the churches

this phrase occurs seven times here of

course with the seven letters it also

occurs seven times elsewhere in the new

testament and i'll let you chase that

down as a treasure hunt but

this tells us there are at least four

levels of application or interpretation

of these letters

the first is local these were real

churches as we get into this

we'll spend a little bit of time on

identifying just where they were what

their problems were what their history

was

they were real local churches these were

not

fictions these are not parables they're

not uh just little idiomatic stories to

get a point across they were real live

churches at the time

but as we learned

we discover these seven letters are

report cards on each of these churches

their seven report cards

and you notice this holy spirit says he

that hath an ear let him hear what the

spirit says to the church says plural

let's not forget as we go through these

that each letter

is applicable to every church i don't

know what church you're going to but i

can tell you there is

there are elements of all seven in your

church

ten percent of this and seventy percent

of that maybe or whatever but the point

is if you understand those seven letters

you can map spiritually the condition of

any church

and uh so that's so they're all we it'll

be easy for us to sit on the sideline

and say oh those guys did this and

didn't do that you know well hey be

careful

because

we may see that same thing going on in

the in the mirror when we shave in the

morning so

that leads us to it says he that hath an

ear and i always ask our aunts how many

of you have earlobes how many brady

loves that okay that it's written to you

personally despite what church you might

belong to he that hath an ear let him

hear what the spirit says the churches

so this there's a personal application

or what could be formerly called a

homiletic application

hopefully you will take away from these

studies

and insight into your own personal

report card before the lord jesus christ

well those three if that was all that

was here that would be plenty that's

rich material that's terrific but there

is a little

icing on the cake there's a fourth level

that frankly

is astonishing

it's absolutely it's the kind of thing

that i won't try to sell you

you need to see it for yourself but i

think what you'll discover is there's a

fourth level a prophetic implication it

turns out that these seven letters

lay out a history

of the church

the book of acts covered about 30 years

book of revelation covers about 2 000

and it lays it all out in advance you'll

be able to figure out where we are

historically in that line as we go

and uh

so

it's a it's it's fun stuff

now we'll discover that each of the

letters have seven elements there's the

name of the church and the name of the

church will be a clue to what that

letter's main theme is each letter each

of the seven has a particular theme a

particular focus some good news some bad

news some exhortation so

the title that jesus uses of himself

is

selected by him

the title he picks is relevant to that

church's need

he's got seven to choose from

and he chooses that title of himself

that fits the situation

well we can turn this around as we

understand the title he's using it helps

us draw an inference as to what is the

issue that's really lurking under the

surface with this church

then there's a commendation

he mentions the church

and he mentions the title of himself and

then he starts the report card the first

element is here's the good news

these are things you've done well

well done on this and this and this and

this

but then there's also expression of

concern

you're not doing this this and this

and that leads of course to an

exhortation or a challenge

repent do this do this you follow me

it's a report card

what's interesting to get ahead of the

story a little bit when we do all seven

we'll be able to look back

and conclude that every one of the

churches was surprised

the ones that thought they were doing

well were not doing well the ones that

were doing

thought they were doing poorly were

doing better they thought

and the humbling thing about that is

whatever we perceive of our church is

probably wrong

places that we think we're not doing

well enough we might be doing in the

lord's eyes better than we're giving

ourselves credit for

and on the other hand there's places we

think we're doing pretty well that we

may be overlooking what we really want

so these are sobering issues

each letter has a promise to the

individual overcomer

each one's distinctive but consistent

with the theme of the letter of course

and then we have this closing phrase

heather hathan here let him hear what

the spirit says the churches it's almost

like a a marker at the end of the letter

except it has some strange exceptions

well

we went through the

we're in the third of the first three

and uh we went through ephesus

the name meant the desired one and uh

they were doing well on doctrine they

got rid of people who were heretics but

they

the thing concern was they had lost

their first love what the main theme of

that letter is that jesus desires

devotion not just doctrine

and that's really the theme to the to

the the letter to the ephesians

and then we had the promise of the

overcomer but when we got through all

this we noticed something strange about

the structure of that letter the promise

to the overcomer

was like a ps

it's after the close of the letter

now we're not going to make a big thing

of this now but i want you to notice

this before we get through all seven

because we're going to come back to that

whole

issue of the architecture smyrna the

same thing we went through smyrna means

myrrh suggestive of embalming or death

all the way through that letter is this

uh a cloud of persecution that hung over

smyrna

in fact we noticed something very

interesting about smyrna

that you wouldn't notice unless you've

been outlining this carefully there's a

piece missing

there's a piece missing there is no

concern

it's one of two letters of the seven of

which there is nothing negative said

virtually all the letters are something

good and something bad

two of the letters have nothing bad

about them nothing of concern in other

words an abe report card

and smyrna is one of them

two of the two of the churches

have nothing good said about them

laodicea and one other that will

surprise you

but we're getting ahead of the story so

we're in pergamus the third of the bunch

now we also said these letters have a

prophetic profile ephesus as we examined

it would seem to fit the apostolic

church

very appropriately the church of that

first century

smyrna clearly was the persecuted church

and because it's enduring such

persecution jesus said i'm going to lay

anything else on you just hang in there

it's basically a story

never give up if i can steal my wife's

title to her new book never give up

that's basically the message to smyrna

well what about pergamus let's take a

look at pergamus

pergamus is the city of the serpent

that's spooky

pergamus is the feminine form pergamum

some of your bibles may use is the

neuter form of the same name as both are

used don't let that throw you

pergamos is about 48 miles north of

smyrna

ephesus the first one we studied was the

great political center smyrna was the

great commercial center pergamus is the

great religious center

and uh just by way of summary

and

prior to alexander the great it really

wasn't much it was just a castle on top

of the hill

its foundation goes way back and i won't

take you through all of that

the uh

we'll just keep moving

name is said to be derived from son of

paris and andromeda which made himself

king by killing the king in a single

combat and what have you

but

the

early history about 301 bc antigonus

defeated

at the battle dipsis

in northwest asia minor then was united

to the thracian kingdom of lesimacus

remember when alexander the great died

four generals divided it up this region

fell to lesimacus but

it had an impregnable position so it was

useful as a treasury that makes it start

to become important uh commercially

but one of the generals uh of lessimicus

under him

betrayed himself to his rivals lucas and

so there was some chicanery but in any

case subsequent rulers to this area

established themselves as a major

dominant power in asia minor

bear in mind that's the roman

designation of what we would consider

two-thirds of turkey if you will

and it became a major center for greek

culture

but

they had the perception to ally

themselves very early with rome as rome

begins to rise over the greeks they

allied early with rome they became

extremely wealthy and prosperous as a

result of that

and the official capital of the roman

province of asia for 200 years

but they're they didn't have proximity

to the main trade routes so they

eventually yielded that leadership to

their rival ephesus but these are

important cities all three of them

ephesus smyrna and pergamos in that in

throughout that early history

it's about 48 miles north of smyrna

about 18 miles from the sea the other

two

ones we looked at were harbor situations

this one is not it's in there

there's a city presently in turkey

called bergama

which has a population about forty two

thousand but it was much

larger uh back in the new testament

period about two hundred thousand they

estimate

interestingly enough

zeus

the god zeus is said among the greeks to

have been born there

and to celebrate that there's a huge

huge altar

it's a almost 800 feet above the ground

it i mean on a cliff

protrudes there and uh it was over about

100 by 125 115 feet that's a huge flat

altar up there

it's over 50 feet high and it's set on a

collinated enclosure but all of this is

about 800 feet above the valley floor

very very prominent very very uh

well-known temple to zeus if you will

to give you a feeling of the geography

patmos is the middle of the bottom of

the screen there i put athens and

istanbul on the map just so you get a

reference here athens to the left and

istanbul near the top

but

you can see where ephesus was with

respect to patmos and then north of that

about 38 miles of smyrna and then about

48 miles north of that is pergamus just

to give you a rough feeling of the

geography

and so

one of the

venerated

idols

in pergamus was escalabius

and the caduceus was the official emblem

of the city this you've seen it many

many times with the two head-headed

snakes on a pole

and uh the escalapias is considered the

god of healing among other things

many of the early

records seem to indicate it was even

elevated higher than just that but in

any case that was his main identity

and

i think most scholars recognize that the

legend of escalapus

derives from numbers 21.

we've talked about that before in this

study and remember the brazen serpent

that moses

set up there so

it

it

it really emerged from that

that whole idea of the brazen serpent is

weird but it doesn't make any sense

until it's explained to us by jesus

christ in john chapter 3.

that brass serpent that was made by

moses in numbers 21

was still around in the days of hezekiah

so much so he had to destroy it

we'll take a look at that

back in numbers 21 the lord sent fiery

serpents among the people and they bit

the people and much people israel died

therefore the people came to moses and

said

we have sinned for we have spoken

against the lord against thee

pray unto the lord that he may take away

the serpents from us and moses prayed

for the people

the lord said unto moses make me a fiery

serpent set upon a pole and it shall

come to pass that everyone that is

bitten when he looks upon it shall live

and moses made a serpent of brass put it

upon a pole came to pass that if a

serpent had bitten any man when he

beheld the serpent of brass he lived

now that's very great that was great

saved the lives but you have to stand

back and say that's pretty weird

that's kind of a strange way these

people are dying if they will look at

this pole with the brass serpent on it

they'll be healed like that

now if you're in the old testament

that's you got to scratch your head and

wonder what's going on there

and it's interesting we don't really

understand it until you get to john when

he's being visited by nicodemus

as you may be jesus when he's in the

gospel of john get john 3 when he's when

jesus is being visited by nicodemus at

night

jesus says to nicodemus as moses lifted

up the serpent in the wilderness even so

must the son of man be lifted up that

whosoever believeth in him should not

perish but ever have eternal life

so suddenly we begin to realize why god

did that back in numbers 21 because it

was a sign an anticipatory sign of the

crucifixion of jesus christ

i don't think moses knew that

i think most prophets going through

the centuries may not have understood

why it isn't until you get to john

chapter 3 that jesus

lifts the fog by saying it's a sign

pointing to the cross that's really what

he's saying in fact

not only is that true this very

discussion with nicodemus leads to

the most well-known verse in the entire

bible

what's john 3 16. for god so loved the

world that he gave his only begotten son

whosoever believeth in him should not

perish but of everlasting life

and so that's really there appended to

the explanation of the

numbers 21.

and so john 3 16. all of you know what

i'm sure

what you may not realize in second kings

18

again to pass the third year of hosea

the son of elka the king of israel that

hezekiah the son of ahaz king of judah

began to reign

25 years old was he when he began to

reign he reigned 20 and nine years in

jerusalem his mother's name also was

abby the daughter of zechariah and he

did that which was right in the sight of

the lord according to all that david his

father did this is good news because not

all the good kings were he's following a

really bad news guy master and the rest

of it but anyway he removed the high

places

now there's the bad these are

uh idolatrous places he break the images

he cut down the groves these are these

phallic symbols they made out of trees

all the paganism that had prospered

under manasseh his predecessor

and he break in pieces

the brazen serpent that moses had made

for in those days the children of israel

did burn incense to it

in other words this brass serpent that

had occurred that was so prominent

numbers 21 had become a fetish

it probably has a it has a relationship

to them

that the shroud of turin has to some

people today

there's a danger in these things

especially if they're authentic

i don't know if the shroud of turn is

authentic are not as dangerous if it

really is

people will tend to focus on that rather

than the lord jesus christ

what what uh

hezekiah did

he crushed it he wrote it

he says he called it nahushtan which

means a thing of brass

he destroyed it to avoid people

venerating this artifact

it was it was becoming in effect an idol

we've got to be careful interesting

lessons here

well the legend of escalapus is of

course the derivative of that

often uh uh featured

a as a pole with a snake on it

and uh you know i don't know if i made

that clear see a snake is a as a symbol

of sin

a brass brass was the limit the metal

that could sustain heat so brass speaks

of judgment it's idiomatic in the in the

levitical things

the idea of a brazen serpent on a pole

is expression of sin being judged

and jesus christ on that cross was made

sin for us paul tells us so that's where

the idioms tie together but in any case

uh the legend of escalapias is of course

venerated in many many of the ancient

things always a snake on a pole

and

even today it's astonishing how many

american medical association others have

a snake on a pole as a symbol of the

medical profession

and many of the articles will say that

comes from you know the legends of

escalation but that in turn comes from

something even earlier

it comes from

numbers 21. we together so far

it gets worse

and he had been recognized as the son of

us apollo in their in their system and

so forth and

they actually felt he had the power to

avert death

and he was uh represented in by the

anatolians that's the predecessors in

turkey by as a serpent

the greeks later

depict him as holding hermes staff

that's the caduceus many people use that

term to represent either one but

technically a caduceus is one with two

snakes

the caduceus has a two-headed snake on

it

but the greeks using the caduceus

are venerating hermes

hermes is the god of commerce

not medicine

it's always amused by that when i see a

license plate you know with a doctor if

he has a caduceus on it that means he's

commercial right

so

the hermes is the god of commerce

and the caduceus though was the official

emblem of pergamus interestingly enough

and so we have

all kinds of caduces you see around here

they have actually studied 242 logos of

american organizations relating to

health or medicine

and the caduceus or the staff of

escalations are used in most of those

obviously and uh from the 70s to 1970s

through 1980s and this study was kind of

interesting because

professional associations more likely to

use the staff escalator 62 percent while

the commercial organizations about 76

percent use the caduceus

exception is for hospitals 37 percent

use the staff escalators versus 63 for

the caduceus but remember hospitals

usually commercial anyway but it's kind

of interesting so i i'm not sure that's

a i want to hit that too hard but i

thought you got a kick out of that when

you see the two edited snake you're

talking about the god of commerce in

contrast to the god of healing okay

but

they also in in pergamus had health

institutions

which dealt with uh this is presumably

started by hippocrates he uh for about

800 years they featured mostly

psychiatric kinds of things

psychological things uh sleep was

induced by priests and using drugs and

other things

and

it was it was a

obviously a very close mix

of attempts at healing and attempts and

their religious structure

well let's get into the letter to

pergamus

and to the angel of the church at

pergamus wright

now the word pergamus is

a combined combination of two words in

the greek

the per as a prefix

means mixed or objectionable we use it

like pervert or perturbation

it's something that's unanticipated or

different it's it's inappropriate is the

idea

and the the suffix gamos means marriage

you speak of monogamy bigamy polygamy

that suffix refers to marriage so

pergamos means mixed marriage or

objectionable marriage strangely enough

that's not the only read the word pergo

can also mean high so some this also can

mean in the greek a high marriage

like many of these things there's work

plays on words in each direction

but

onto the angel of the church but very

right away we see pergamus

we can suggest that that implies a

inappropriate marriage is going to be in

part of the letter

and then jesus uses of his title next

comes these things saith he which hath

the sharp sword with two edges remember

in the earth chapter one that was one of

the uh

attributions to jesus christ what is the

sharp sword with two edges

the word of god

and that's going to turn out to be the

primary remedy to the situation

that emerges in pergamus

well he starts then he starts with his

report card i know thy works just like

he did several of the other letters i

know thy works jesus knows what we're

doing better than we do

he says i know thy works and where thou

dwellest

even where satan's seat is whoo

is that literal

we do these studies you know i i know

people come up to each other you know

was his seat literally there

i believe it was i'll show you why

see we've got to remember

only god is omnipresent

the angels aren't they're local they

have locality

demons aren't they have look strangely

you think they're spirit beings they can

be anywhere no we learn from the

scripture even demons have boundaries

you river euphrates for certain reasons

and in daniel 10 we get strange glimpses

so there they have locality strangely

enough

in any case satan can't be everywhere at

once

it may seem like that at times because

he's got a lot of help

even where satan see this

and thou hold as fast my name

you know it's interesting every time god

talks about his name it's always

singular

the name itself is elohim it can be a

plural form referring to the trinity

but when god speaks of my name

throughout the bible it's singular let's

say my name's

he has several renderings of his names

we can make lists of those but

the concept of his name is singular his

authority his person

his reality thou hold as fast my name

and has not denied my faith even in

those days when antipas was my faithful

martyr who was slain among you where

satan dwelleth

boy boy boy now who is one of the other

questions who is antipas

we don't know

there are some early church fathers that

uh think there was a specific guy named

antipas in fact there's stories about

him being shut up in a brazen bull and

that was heated up red hot

and he ended his life in as he died in

this ordeal

he was praying and singing songs

until he died until he bartered another

group of authors feel that the word

antipas in the greek means against all

and that may be it's almost like

both may be true in other words he's

against he was he stood alone as the

idea

i wouldn't make too much of his name

because herod had antipas as a name too

so they're probably it was probably not

an uncommon name in those early years

but anyway antipas can mean in the greek

against all and that also apparently

describes the situation because he

obviously was he's getting committed

here as a faithful martyr during these

very days

but the main thing this issue of satan

here's where we could

depart into a whole special study on the

reality of satan and let me just cut

through it quickly because i think for

this audience most of you realize that

satan is real it's not an idiom for evil

in some broad sense he's a person he's

malevolent he's very resourceful

his character he's a murderer from the

beginning jesus says jesus describes him

as a person in john 8 and elsewhere he's

a deceiver we'll encounter him in

revelation 12 and we will study his

shenanigans there from genesis to

revelation in the overview

he's a liar he always was he's from

genesis 3 on

and of course obviously he's a sinner

but that's very confirmed for you in

first john 3 8 and elsewhere

his domain

he has a vast demonic kingdom

that's and we're going to encounter that

also as we get into revelation 12.

he also is in charge

of the world system

remember when jesus was tempted in his

famous temptations after his 40 days

fasting after his baptism

satan shows jesus somehow all the

nations of the world

and he makes the boast that they're all

given to me and i can give them to

whomever will and i'll give them to you

if you just but if you'll worship me

that would not have been a temptation if

he didn't have claim to them

if i tried to sell you the the

sears tower in chicago

you're not tempted to buy it from me

because you don't think i own it in

order for you to be tempted you have to

believe that hey i really have the deed

and i'll sell it to you for ten grand

you're not tempted because you know i'm

don't in other words in order for you to

be tempted to take my deal you have to

have the confidence that i have the deal

to present you follow me

satan offered all the nations to christ

to give them if he would just be

worshiping and and obviously jesus

declined not because he didn't own him

but he had he was there he was not

willing to take a shortcut around the

cross

but the world system belongs to say we

need to remember that as we look at the

world and we see

pain and suffering and and and evil

we need to remember who the god of this

world is

and know that satan has locality he

can't be everywhere at one time he's not

omnipresent

he has a number of strangers he's

obviously our adversary right

that's what the word satan actually

means first timothy 5 first peter 5.

he's the accuser of the brethren

you know there are prominent

people on public platforms that make

their living

tearing apart members of the body of

christ

over some imagined differences or what

have

you are people i know that are very

prominent whose marketing strategy to be

an accuser of the brethren i know where

that doctrine comes from

despite what differences we might share

with some of those speakers that being

attacked let's recognize that that what

that's what's really happening there

he's the god of this world according to

second corinthians 4 4. he's the prince

of the power of the air and when we get

through the in revelation the seals and

then the trumpets and the bowls the

climactic

element of the climax altogether is

poured out upon the air

we'll explore that when we get there but

that's obviously

it's the satan's seat and then his his

domain

he's the spirit that now works in the

children of disobedience according to

ephesians 2 2. he's the enemy that sowed

the tares in matthew 13 your famous

parable of the

of the four soils

and at least six times he's simply

called the wicked one i didn't bother

the list of those there's he has many

more titles

his man the antichrist has 33 titles in

the old testament 13 the new we'll deal

with that when we get to revelation 13.

let's talk a little bit about spiritual

geography

there is locality of satan and his

demons he is not omnipresent

they are territorial study daniel 10 and

we'll see that

when you get to revelation 9 revelation

16. they are they're concerned even in

the book of job even satan himself

subject to restrictions they can't do

anything they like

god has put them under constraints

and anything that happens to you has to

be father filtered if you're a christian

now something else about his geography

you know we all understand that the

nimrod

the first world dictator founded babel

which becomes babylon

what most people don't realize is that

when cyrus conquered the babylon the

priests and their initiates and their

treasures

set up shop in pergamus they got out of

there

and as

rome rises uh they go to

they get known as the trusted

mysteries and they set up shop in rome

so the centroid of of idolatry and false

worship goes from babylon to pergamos to

rome that's the migration

jesus

says hold hold fast my name to the

church there

that's all name is always singular

and i want to underscore this whole area

of the third commandment

most of us don't understand what god

says in the ten commandments when he

says thou shalt not take the name of the

lord thy god in vain

he is not talking about vocabulary

that commandment in my opinion has

nothing to do with the swearing or foul

language in that sense

it has to do with ambassadorship

and the instruction to this church is to

hold fast my name the instruction to you

and i is to hold fast his name let's try

to understand what that may mean

so here's the concern that jesus has for

these people he says

he gave him the good news and he says

but i have a few things against thee

because thou hast there them that hold

the doctrine of balaam we'll come to

that

who taught balak to cast a dumbling

block before the children of israel to

eat things sacrificed unto idols and to

commit fornication

so thou hast also them that hold the

doctrine of the nicolaitans which thing

i hate

and repent or else i will come unto me

quickly and will fight against them with

the sword of my mouth in other words

with the word of god well

here we have one of those cases we're

going to run into several of them

where jesus uses

a reference from the old testament

to make a point

and for us to understand the point he's

really making we need to understand what

is this all about who was balaam who was

balak what's he talking about so let's

take a look at the prophet balaam he's a

strange character

he is a strange character he's a prophet

but he's not jewish

i believe he was a gentile

he's called in joshua 13 a soothsayer is

that called a prophet he calls himself a

prophet he's a soothsayer

he's from

mesopotamia turns out in deuteronomy 23

in fact specifically he's from the river

euphrates in the area called aram so

he's in a sense what we might think of

as an iraqi he might have even been from

babylon doesn't say that specifically

but could be

so he's a strange character

now he is

by he is hired by the king of israel's

enemies the moabites balak is the king

of the moabites and he's hired balaam to

curse israel

god tells balaam not to go

shall i go god says no

he asked him again shall i go no

shall i go well go if you have to

so he goes and god's upset about him

going

somehow balaam didn't get the message

see one thing we should always be

sensitive to what god may permit and

what he may prefer are maybe two

different things

gee will god allow me to get a new van i

don't know

does he want you to have one that's more

the question

can a christian dance can a christian

drink beer

hey the question is what do what does

god prefer you to do under the whatever

the circumstances are

so balaam on his way there

his donkey keeps bumping the side of the

this bridge

on the trail

and he beats the donkey three times

until the donkey turns and chews him out

the donkey speaks to balaam that got his

attention

that got his attention it's a weird

weird story

but baylor was a weird guy

but then the angel

the reason that the the donkey wouldn't

go forward the donkey could see the

angels blocking the way balaam couldn't

when the angel is revealed and to be

they don't realize he's in deep yogurt

here

and so

but then he's but then the angel says go

but

don't say any more than i let you say

speak

so he goes to balak hires himself out

that's one of these doing it for money

balak wants him to curse israel he

refuses

he has his moment because in in numbers

23 and 24 where there's this interaction

with balaam and

balak

the king of moab wants him to curse

israel

and balaam won't do it

because god he will not

say things to be like that god didn't

tell him to say

say gee he's doing all right here

in fact he has a very strange prophecy

there in number 24 where he talks about

a star

out of jacob and some people

presume that that may have some

relationship to the so-called christmas

star or whatever in bethlehem but that's

all conjecture

it's not that crisp or clear frankly

but what's not obvious until you read

the rest of the story

in numbers 31 some chapters later

what apparently balaam did do

he taught the king he couldn't he

wouldn't curse israel because god didn't

let him do that but he tipped balak

off on how to get israel defeated

he in effect said get your good-looking

single girls

and have them camp around the outside of

the camp of israel

entice these young men into fornication

and marriage and whatever else

and that and that was prohibited in the

torah

they were not to me they were not only

keep separate they were specifically the

torah says you're not supposed to marry

a moabite

they did

that caused god's displeasure that

brought judgment on the land and so

forth but

balaam's role in all this he was the one

that taught

israel's enemies on how to get israel

corrupted

get the picture

okay

so

we have

three references to balaam in the new

testament

in revelation we here we saw the

doctrine of balaam

this whole idea of spiritual unchastity

marriage with the world is the theme

here in this whole letter

ii peter 2 uses the expression the way

of balaam

apparently referring to the fact that he

was a hireling he was making a market

for his gift if you will he sold his his

gift of prophecy for money for the way

of balaam and jude 11 also makes a

reference to that the error of balaam

sacrificing eternal riches for temporal

gain now we made his spinning hairs here

these are the three phrases that occur

in the new testament and they're

probably essentially the same thing

slight

nuances of emphasis in the different

ones we'll move on

after all that he says he that hath an

ear let him hear what the spirit saith

under the churches

then we have the promise the overcomer

you know what's strange about this here

again you notice the promise the

overcomer comes after the letter closes

it's sort of like a ps

jesus says 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

boy

this is now the hidden manna is pretty

easy stuff

um now what does the word manna mean

what is it

we find it's like a coriander seed you

know in exodus 16 where it was given to

israel for a sustenance for 40 years

um

some commentators when they read the

prophecy overcomer you're gonna boy if

you do what god wants you here he'll

give you a hidden manna and they say

same to you i

you want manna this this stuff

same thing every day six days now the

sixth day there's twice as much because

they wouldn't get it on the seventh you

know essentially the sabbath was

instituted in exodus 16 that's four

chapters before the law was given by the

way it's interesting issue but

the word manna means what is it what is

this stuff

40 years

they had mana

for breakfast

for lunch

for dinner

manna biscuits

man of muffins

mana pancakes

manna waffles

manicotti

served of course with manushevitz i

suppose

now we may make fun of it and so forth

it was collected for six days only it

wasn't available on the seventh which

tells you the sabbath was in effect

long before the law was given

it's described poetically throughout the

bible it's called the food from heaven

and the bread of the mighty in psalm 78

all through there the bread of heaven in

psalm 105

but the capstone to what jesus is really

talking about comes from john 6

because most of that chapter is the

famous i am the bread of life discourse

so if you want to understand the hidden

manna that promise what it really means

that's easy john 6 take a read it it'll

be it'd be crystal clear we're talking

about jesus christ himself and he

describes it very graphically there

now before before i get back let me just

go back here get one other thing

i'll give him a white stone and in the

stone a new name written which no man

knows saving he that receiveth this is

the one area in the entire book

that most scholars have no idea what it

might mean all kinds of conjectures

and i won't take you through them all

because they're just conjectures

the one that is still a conjecture but

the one that appeals to me apparently

the roman practice

was

to give you a white stone with your name

on it which was a which would give you

food and access to the games

that was what they had like a ticket to

the coliseum it was it was one with the

government you had that stone you would

get some bread and you would get to see

the games that was it had your name on

it that was it was like your identity

didn't have driver's licenses or you

know the same idea so uh the white stone

with the name written on and so forth

may be idiomatically taken from that

practice but that's conjecture we don't

have any good records on any of that but

anyway that man we've talked about

so okay we had smyrna went through all

of that last time

now we've gone through pergamos

the name means mixed marriage the title

is the word of god it deals with the

word of god

and both the commendation and the

concerns and the exhortation deals with

this whole idea of spiritual

uh

morality

avoiding spiritual immorality

spiritual chastity if i can use that

term

so

admonitory to all churches

well ephesus

was the idea of ephesus was you had

devotion not just doctrine that made

sense

smyrna the main message to smyrna was to

endure persecution

you'll be tried for 10

days and so forth

for pergamos it's to purify your

ambassadorship

hold fast to my name was his admonition

that'll become clear as i get go go a

little further here

the other application is to us

personally let's talk how do we apply

these personally

well the whole story of ephesus was

neglected priorities they were sound on

doctrine but they were short on devotion

god wants

devotion not just doctrine

smyrna of course the whole issue there

was satanic opposition

satan was at work

persecuting the church

and jesus message them would just hang

in there pergamos

is spiritual compromise

spiritual compromise that's exactly what

bail

balaam taught balak to take advantage of

and israel compromised itself

with with the sexual immorality in the

in the sexual sense but also the

spiritual morality by taking on the

idols of these girls in other words the

guys would uh uh get tangled up with

these girls get married and adopt the

the

gods of the moabites and that was what

caused god to bring a judgment upon

israel

the promise is the overcomer evidence

eat of the tree of life smyrna will be

not heard of the second death again it's

death death death through that one

and we have the man of stone and name

promised here who is the overcomers the

question

well

everybody it's easy to get on a

legalistic trip here if you're not

careful you might put in your notes

first john 5 verses 4 and 5 where john

the writer of the book of revelation

writes to you

what the overcomer who the overcomer is

in first john 5 he says for whatsoever

is born of god overcometh of the world

and this is the victory that covertly

cometh the world even our faith

who is he that overcometh the world but

he that believeth that jesus is the son

of god

so these overcomer promises are to those

are to people of faith

and so again faith is the issue let's

not forget that as we go forward

well we've talked about local the local

head monitoring personnel let's get to

this controversial one and the fog may

lift on the whole thing for you

you need to understand a little bit more

about the babylonian legend

tamez was the

posthumous sun

between nimrod and simaramas presumably

he's associated with the sun god

he was thought to die at the winter

solstice you know as the days get

shorter and shorter and shorter when the

days get the shortest he's thought the

sun god is thought to have died and then

he's resurrected if you will in the days

that follow as the days start getting

longer again so they they're very

sensitive the day's getting shorter the

sun god dies there's a death and

resurrection theme of all of this

they celebrated all of this the night

that he dies they burned a yule log the

word yule in chaldean means infant

they burn this log in the fireplace and

then the next morning they replace it

with a trimmed tree

that sound familiar

it's injected if you which every time

you get around christmas time be sure

you do a study in the first half half a

dozen verses of

jeremiah 10. if nothing else it'll pull

you on a guilt trip for a while it'd be

kind of fun

so um also the mistletoe the wassel bowl

all these things that we'd think of

coming from a

of a british you know british tradition

actually has its roots in pagan rome

which has its roots in babylon

now

nimrod founded the original babylonian

religion obviously

he's virtually identical to phaethon or

escalators in some accounts

and uh developing the worship of his

widow simaramas and his posthumous son

thomas

he's called semoramus and thomas in

babylonian it's asteroid and tamus of

phoenicia he's the isis of horus of

egypt he's the aphrodite heroes of eros

of greece and venus and cupid of rome

these are simply latin or greek labels

to the original chaldean you follow me

and all of this if you want there's two

great the classic study here is

alexander hislop's book the two babylons

we'll be talking more about this when we

get to revelation 17 and 18. but there's

a contemporary book that's even better

and that is dave hunt's book a woman

rides the beast every serious christian

i think should get dave hunt's book a

woman rides the beast we have some

differences of views on some things i'll

tell you about that when we get there

not that

critical but he's done a thorough job at

documenting the background of what we're

going to get into here

this priesthood from babylon started to

migrate when cyrus conquered babylon the

the the priesthood and the initiates

set up shop in pergamus

and as the centroid of power eventually

shifts to rome as as the roman romans

supersede the greeks

this same religious system

adopts latin labels and forms the

foundation of what you and i think of as

pagan rome if you study pagan rome

before the third before the third fourth

century

it's just a latin packaging of the

babylonian system

the title pontifus maximus

was a title that the high priest of the

babylonian religion

picked up when they moved from babylon

to pergamus it's first used in pergamus

and

gh pembers studies confirm all that

and so obviously as

as the system gets migrates to rome

the appointment of each caesar inc it

was many titles that he took on one of

them was the head of the church which

which was politifix maximus it was the

head of the babylonian religion

and this all gets codified in 378 uh

when the damascus of the bishop of rome

completes the absorption of the

babylonian system into the roman church

now you if you're going to do take your

bible seriously you're going to want to

do some background on the history of

rome

it gets founded in about 753 bc

in in

in

somewhere in the

4th and 3rd centuries bc they subdue it

italy

they conquer carthage in 264 to 146 bc

then greece and asia minor falls the

following century

and then we get to spain gaul britain

and the two times

and uh

very graphically portrayed among other

things if you've seen the movie

gladiator they do a great job marcus

it's actually the days of marcus

aurelius

but i checked that out by the way

komodus commodious commodus who took

over marcus was killed in the arena it's

very interesting

anyway in 63 bc they conquered judea

and when at their peak they span from

the atlantic to the euphrates and from

the north sea to the african desert

now the population is estimated maybe to

be 120 million that might be a little

low

but

along the way of course we get into

caesar worship augustus when he takes

over

this is uh after mark anthony you know

the the whole uh

octavian take it wins that battle and

takes on the name augustus

he also inaugurates emperor worship

and part of what he's trying to do here

is to tie the empire together

in in in trying to enlist a common

sentiment was is the thought

and though even though pergamus was not

the seat of primary authority

it ends up becoming one of the major

centers for emperor worship the first

temple

that was dedicated to emperor worship

was erected at pergamus at 27 bc this is

all obviously ahead of the new testament

period but it's important for this

background

so pergamus is not only pagan in the

traditional pagan sense it's also

uh

pushing

this idea of emperor worship

and uh by the time you get to the

espacion i'll give you a profile here in

a minute

and his successors it became a global

test of loyalty to the caesar

to offer incense to a statue of the

emperor

that was like a loyalty oath all you had

to do is put a pinch of material in the

in the offer and you'd get a certificate

for another year that you're loyal to

the empire the station

enforce that

so anyway when you get to about 44 bc

julius caesar

is assassinated

and that's then we have augustus and

it's in augustus's reign that christ was

born obviously

and

it's he's succeeded by tiberius christ

was crucified and tiberius is reigned

just to give you a rough feeling here

then we get to caligula

and there is an incident that's going to

be important to us as we study

it during caligula's reign he's a tough

guy

but he instructs his general in

jerusalem to put an idol of himself in

the holy of holies

and petronius refuses to do that because

he knows that will lead to a major

explosion as it did back in 137 bc and

i'll come back to that

caligula orders petronas killed for

failing to follow the instructions

caligula happens to die two weeks later

the message of collegue's death gets to

petronas before the order of his

execution so he gets off the hook

interestingly enough

but it's interesting to see god

intervene in a way of not letting the

abomination of desolation take place

which is what it would have done that's

going to happen when

it should happen

so then we have claudius then we have

nero very infamous of course he's the

one that burned rome and got tried to

blame the christians on it he's the one

that executed paul

and the senate of course orders his

death and the

very very painful death but he

he

takes the

commits suicide rather than endure that

then we have when nero

dies

vespasian's down in judea with his son

with orders to attack jerusalem but nero

dies

from 68 to 69 galba otho and vitellius

in succession

take over for a short while but it's

just turbulence vespasian finally takes

over the empire in 69 leaving his son

titus in um

to

attack jerusalem

and of course titus does destroy

jerusalem in 70 a.d

but in that hiatus the christians get

out because christ warned them to in

luke chapter 21.

titus though aspires to he then becomes

emperor 79 to 80 10 years later

so they're at their zenith now we get to

to mission and to mission the mission is

a bad news he's the worst of the bunch

and very very very very violent very

very systematic

and of course this is when john is

banished to patmos when domitian dies

john is released trajan releases him

and the trade just tried to uphold the

laws but christianity was regarded as

illegal so trade is not a good guy but

he doesn't have the zeal

and the the the the uh violence the

diminishing characterized emission

then hadrian then

is pious it's during anthony's pies they

have the barcock revolt and that's when

jerusalem was leveled plot plowed

underground and a roman city built on

top of it which is all part of your

background if you go to israel

and you get to marcus aurelius which

brings you to the period of the movie

the gladiator in terms of

of length here

but he was the most severe since nero

and this is probably the peak

of roman power

and commodus cometus is the son of

of uh aurelius and he did uh thomas dies

in the arena interestingly enough

and then there's a whole series of what

they call the barrick emperors appointed

by the army of civil war

and then there's a series of others that

tolerate some of them tolerate

christianity they're too busy trying to

scotch tape the end the empire's

starting to come apart

a lot of us alexander severus max menace

we get to phillips and decius valerian

um

some uh that were favorable some of them

are uh serious persecutors

until you finally get to

diocletian

and he's the worst of the bunch

diocletian uh

persecutes christians furiously

and uh he tried to

be especially tortuous to discourage

that whole movement

that's the then you get to this

interesting guy by the constantine who's

widely misunderstood

in 312 a.d he set out to defeat the

forces of accentus his rival the supreme

power and the empire

his father had prospered when he prayed

to the god of the christians

and so he and his extremity resorted to

the same action

we're

we're told that on the next day he saw a

shining cross the sky with the

inscription of it

in hawk signo vince's that is in this

sign thou shalt conquer

whether this really happened or whether

it was a clever press release afterwards

it's up to you to see decide how cynical

you are but in any case he does defeat

make sense at the million bridge

and that he immediately declares his

conversion to christianity

at least that's the way the record says

other record says he was baptized on his

deathbed

so whether he really was converted or

not or whether he just took advantage of

this as a as a public relations thing as

a subject that scholars argue about

but in 325 a.d he he issued his edict of

toleration

that established the freedom of religion

this was a big break for the christians

because up until now christianity had

been an illegal underground movement

he did not make it a state religion he

simply made it legal

he favored christians at court he

exempted christian ministers from taxes

he issued a general exhortation for

subjects to become christians so this is

all the positives

in 320 ex jimmy 3 30 a.d he moved the

capital of the world

to byzantium from rome he had it he had

rome was so

up to its ears in uh pagan

traditions he decided it'd be simpler

just to move the capital of the world

out of there and he moved to a place

called byzantium that then he renamed

constantinople it later gets renamed

istanbul by the by the muslims when they

take over ultimately

but constantine has quite a record where

you're trying to see what he actually he

ceased the gladiator gladiator fights he

stopped that

he reduced the killing of unwelcome

children

he abolished crucifixion as a form of

execution

he repealed the persecution edicts of

his predecessor diocletian

he assumed the headship of the church

he's the one that empaneled the council

of nicea and so forth he advanced

christians to high offices

he declared sunday as a day of worship

now by the way this is widely

misunderstood

there were three major groups of sun

worshipers operative at that time in the

empire

you had the christians that were illegal

they were coming out of the caves

by declaring sunday as a combined day of

worship it was his way of trying to

unify the emperor empire

because he had three different groups of

sun worshipers that could

share that day

the christians could worship on that day

and the big news was the slaves had a

day off that was a big deal they didn't

have a day off

constantine forbid work on sunday and

that made declared as a day of worship

and so

he also reduced slavery in a lot of

different ways

so the marriage was consummated between

the world

and the church

because what happens is after

constantine dies julian takes over and

he is known as julian the apostate

julian calendar same guy

he sought to restore paganism he was not

favorable the christian cause at all

but he is replaced after just a couple

of years

by jovian who reestablished the

christian religion so this attempt at

paganism is just two two years then

jovian takes over and then we get to

theodosius

and he's the one that made christianity

the state religion

that caused forced conversions and

suddenly all the churches were filled

with unregenerate people that were that

had an ambition to rule

that were used to heathenism

and we have now a co-mingling of

christianity or at least the form of it

and the paganism

that was uh operative throughout the

culture

so this is regarded by most scholars of

marriage between the church and the

world

a perverted marriage hedonism was

christianized the pagan temples became

churches

heathen festivals were converted into

christian ones

this

december 25th thing we do we call

christmas is really a derivative of

pagan holidays well they know about the

birth of christ is that it wasn't in the

winter and so on we could i won't go

down all that pagan priests slipped into

the office as christian priests

most of the changes were simply

nomenclature

giving given these christian names to

their previous practices

so what the persecution didn't

accomplish in smyrna

was accomplished in a marriage to the

world if you can't lick him join him

satan changes his strategy trying to

crush

the myrrh the smyrna

didn't work

the blood of the martyrs is the seat of

the church according to the early

fathers

but then making it a legal

estate religion

destroyed it

so we have ephesus

smyrna pergamus thyatiras sardis

philadelphia ephesus the apollo

apostolic church then we go through the

persecuted church

and bergamos is the married church

and next time of course we'll take

thyatira in your next session

what i'd like you to do is read chapters

two and three

i know we've done in other words they're

short just read both chapters so you

have all seven letters refreshed in your

mind

and i want you to analyze that letter to

thyatira it's the longest of the bunch

no i'm not very long

it's from it's only about 10 verses

but analyze the letter

figure out what the good news is and

what the bad news is with thy tyrant

it's a very important letter it's the

longest

it deals with a person called jezebel

is anyone here named jezebel

does anyone here have a dog named nero

see some of these names you wouldn't

even give your dog right

study jezebel it's important first of

all it's a very colorful period

in in in israel's history

she is quite an operator

um

you need to understand jezebel for

several reasons not the least of which

jesus alludes to her with respect to the

church of thyatira so i'll give you a

clue

most of that story will be in first

kings 21. you want to read about a guy

by the name of naboth he had a vineyard

and it's absolutely fascinating to see

how that whole situation is dealt with

because i think it becomes a

foreshadowing of something far larger

far more sinister than you have any idea

so that's your assignment for next time

let's stand for a closing word of prayer

the letter to the church of pergamos

spiritual compromise

the lessons to the church pretty obvious

so we need to

ferret out the paganism

that indwells all of our churches to

some extent

it's easy to be critical of certain ones

let's examine ourselves

it also needs to be very very

operative

in our personal lives

because all of us

find ourselves compromising with the

world

we are to be his ambassadors

how often

do we

compromise our ambassadorship

for the sake

of protecting a job or protecting a deal

or not offending a neighbor or whatever

there are a lot of these gray areas i'm

not saying it's simple

but we need to put the test of

ambassadorship on these decisions

let's buy our hearts father

we thank you

that you have

brought us together and that we have a

divine appointment with you tonight

we thank you father that your kingdom

are no accidents no coincidences that

we're all here right now by your divine

appointment

so father our first prayer is that your

purpose be accomplished in each of our

lives

because we do come before your throne

father acknowledging our sin our sins of

ingratitude

our sins of presumption

oh father how we do presume

we ask you father

to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness that we might

be more effective stewards

of these treasures that you've given us

indeed father we would just pray that

you would increase in each of us

a new sense of responsibility

as your ambassadors

as your representatives

we pray father you would give us

discernment

in the opportunities that you unfold

before us

that in each of these things

we might

be more fruitful stewards and more

pleasing in your sight

as we commit ourselves father

without any reservations

into your hands in the name of yeshua

our lord and savior jesus christ amen

[Music]

you