Lead Worship

Looking back at chapter one, John sees a vision of Christ standing in the midst of 7 candlesticks. The 7 candlesticks represent 7 different churches. Each candlestick is given a star which represents a certain messenger.

But John gives 7 descriptions of Jesus.

1. Head and hair are white – maturity, wisdom, and purity.
2. Eyes of fire – All-penetrating, all-knowing, intelegent, power to read secrets and search the hearts of men.
3. Feet as bronze – strength and stability of a judge
4. Voice of a waterfall – when He speaks you will know and won’t have to second guess.
5. Holds 7 stars – He holds closely His messengers. He moves them about by at His command.
6. His mouth has a two-edged sword – The ability to “draw the line in the sand” and force people to either stand with Him or stand against Him.
7. His Face shines light – He shines light on everyone and thing He is near. The closer you come to Him the brighter you become.

Why do I bring this up? Because at the messege concerning the church in Pergamum was addressed from the one who has a sharp two-edged sword. This means that Christ was coming to Pergamum to “draw a line in the sand” and make the church decide who they were going to be for. In fact, all the churches are addressed in one of the 7 descriptions of Christ.

History of Pergamum:
Peramum was a cultural and religous center. It had a large library and university. Their library had over 200 000 books. (Books were hand written so this was a major collection). They also had 4 superior temples made for the gods of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, war, and reason; Ascepius, the god of healing who also had a snake as a part of the healing which is where we get our pharmasucital sign from; Dianysus, the god of wine and merriment; and Zeus. The temple of Zeus was one of the 7 wonders of the world and could be the “great throne of Satan” (verse. 13).

History of Balaam and Balak
Balaam was a prophet of God who was for hire. As the Israelites were making their way across the wilderness, the King Balak asked Balaam to curse Israel. Balaam tried to curse Israel but God told Him that the Israelites were His people and He would not curse them. Balaam returned to Balak and told him that he could not curse Israel. But before leaving, Balaam told Balak a little secret. He said that the men of Israel were weak for lust. And to keep peace with the Israelites all the kind needed to do was convince the women of the city to seduce the Israelite men.

Today, men are being seduced once again. Modesty is no longer being promoted or taught. And the glory of God that has been given to us is no longer being covered. Satan knows this and uses this to weaken God’s men. But a line must be drawn in the sand. Men must give up your lustful appetite.

Are we being weakened by stuff? It might not just be lust (most common towards men). It could be the lust for material things. It could be for things to be different, such as a different husband (most common weakness towards women), or different social status.