Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon
series called Dear Church, where we're looking
at some of the letters that open the book of
Revelation and what Jesus has to say to the ancient
churches and to our church today. Today we're
looking at the church in Pergamum, a church that
was attacked from the outside and stood their
ground, but then was compromised from the inside.
So we're going to look at what that compromise
looks like and what some of the compromises might
look like for our church today. Today's scripture
reading is Revelation 1, verses 4 to 5. and Revelations
2, verses 12 to 17. John, to the seven churches
in the province of Asia, grace and peace to you
from him who is, and who was, and who is to come,
and from the seven spirits before his throne,
and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of
the kings of the earth. To the angel of the church
in Pergamum write, These are the words of him
who has a sharp double -edged sword. I know where
you live, where Satan has his throne, yet you
remain true to my name. You do not renounce your
faith in me. not even in the days of Antipas,
my faithful witness, who was put to death in
your city, where Satan lives. Nevertheless, I
have a few things against you. There are some
among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam,
who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to
sin, so that they ate food sacrificed to idols
and committed... sexual immorality. Likewise,
you also have those who hold to the teaching
of the Nicolaitans. Repent, therefore, otherwise
I will soon come to you and will fight against
them with the sword of my mouth. Whoever has
ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To the one who is victorious, I will
give some of the hidden manna. I will also give
that person a white stone with a new name written
on it, known only to the one who receives it.
The word of the Lord. Let me tell you about a
story that's maybe a little more familiar to
you. The legend of the Trojan horse. As the story
goes, the Greeks were for 10 years trying to
conquer the city of Troy to no avail. They couldn't
break through the gates. Their army was exhausted.
The morale was very, very low. And one day the
Greeks just disappeared. The only thing that
they left behind them on the beach was a gigantic
wooden horse. And the people of Troy assumed
this was a gift for them, some kind of a tribute.
for their victory over the Greeks. And so they
wheeled the horse into the city behind the city
walls and gates. But late that night, when everybody
else was sleeping, a little hidden door in the
belly of the horse opened it up and out climbed
a few Greek soldiers. And they ran and opened
up the city gates. And then the whole Greek army
came streaming in, and by morning, the city of
Troy was in flames. And they had been defeated,
not by some massive battle at the gates. They
were defeated because they had invited the enemy
to come right inside. Now, throughout history,
the church has also had to face enemies. of many
sorts and and sometimes the church gets attacked
head -on by its enemy for example last week we
heard about a church called the in a city called
smyrna and they were attacked head -on there
was persecution there was violence there was
bloodshed there was execution people were dying
but today we're going to hear about a different
church located in a different city, a city called
Pergamum, or sometimes it's called Pergamos.
And in order to conquer this church, right, the
enemy had to use a different strategy, not intimidation,
but infiltration. Okay, so this fall we're doing
this teaching series called Dear Church. And
we're looking at these ancient letters that were
written nearly 2 ,000 years ago to a bunch of
churches throughout Asia Minor. Now, some of
the letters that were written were letters of
great comfort, like the one we read last week,
the letter to the church in Smyrna. They were
being persecuted, so the letter was to comfort
them. And other letters are meant to be a challenge
to the church. And that's where we find ourselves
today. You see, some of these letters you might
have a really hard time relating to. Like last
week, for example, you could have said, well,
I've never been persecuted. I've never been attacked
or suffered for my faith. I just can't relate
with what those people were going through. But
today, we can all relate. Because the church,
you and I, here in Mississauga, face the very
same challenge that the church in Pergamum faces
so long ago. It's not death by the sword, but
it's death by compromise. Not enduring violent
persecution, but resisting cultural accommodation.
I've given you some sermon notes today. I think
this is actually really important for us all
to hear, so I encourage you to follow along so
we remember this reading. Pergamum was a capital
city, the capital city of Asia, the Roman province
of Asia. It was not an easy place to be a Christian.
It was filled with shrines and pagan temples,
and it was in Pergamum where emperor worship
was, I think, invented and was certainly expected
of everyone who lived there. And so when Christians
refused to bow the knee to all these gods, guess
what happened? A frontal attack, persecution,
and violence, and even death. But here is the
thing. It didn't work. The church didn't fold,
didn't bend, it didn't cave in. In fact, Jesus
says in this letter, he says, you did not renounce
your faith. Even in those days of Antipas, my
faithful witness who was put to death in your
city, and he even calls the city, the city where
Satan lives. Now, we don't know much about Antipas,
but we know that Jesus calls him a faithful witness.
The Greek word for witness there is martyrios,
where we get our word martyr. So Antipas died
for the Christian faith in Pergamum. It probably
went a little something like this. He was hauled
before the Roman authorities. They told him to
deny Jesus, to recant his faith. He refused to
do so, and so he was executed. Actually... I
did a little looking at this, and tradition says
that Antipas was executed using a horrible means
of torture and execution called the brazen bull.
And it's actually, you could call it the Trojan
bull, because what it was, it was a life -size
bull made of brass or bronze, but it was hollow.
And so what you would do is you would take the
victims and you would put them inside the bowl
and lock them in. And then you would light a
fire underneath the bowl and they would literally
be roasted alive inside. And there were these
little flutes that went up to the bull's nostrils.
And so the smoke would kind of breathe out of
the bull's nostrils. And it would actually make
your screams sound kind of like music or kind
of like the lowing of a cow or something like
that. It was meant to intimidate. It was meant
to terrify the Christians in Pergamum. And yet
they held firm. So when Satan couldn't destroy
the church from the outside, he tried a different
tactic. Plan B, the Trojan horse. Hey, if you
can't crush them from the outside, why not compromise
them from the inside? This is an age -old strategy
that has been used very effectively before. And
you probably heard this and didn't recognize
the story. But you know when Jesus says, hey,
I hold this against you. And then he goes on,
he starts talking about Balaam and Balak. Some
of you were like, I have no idea who those people
are. I don't know this story. Others of you were
like, oh yeah, I kind of remember this story.
Let me tell it to you. The Bible says that over
a thousand years before this took place, evil
prophet by the name of Balaam. He was kind of
a prophet for hire. What he would do is if you
paid him enough money, Balaam would go and try
to manipulate or control the gods in your favor
for you or against your enemies against them.
And all you had to do was pay Balaam the right
amount of money and the right price, and he would
manipulate the gods for you. So one day, the
king of Moab, whose name was Balak, so it's kind
of confusing, Balak, gave Balaam a big bag of
money. And he said, here's what I want you to
do. I want you to control and curse the God of
Israel, curse these Israelites, because they're
getting way too close to our kingdom. And frankly,
I'm a little bit scared of them. And so Balaam
came and he did his thing. But here's the funny
thing was what he discovered is he couldn't.
control the god of israel like he could control
other gods and so in fact what happened was the
god of israel started to control him so balaam
would open up his mouth and he would try to pronounce
a curse over israel but the only thing that came
out of his mouth was blessings instead and so
balak was like hey that's not what i'm paying
you all this money for you come on you better
do it again i think he offered him even more
money and they basically went around from mountain
to mountain and And where again and again, Balaam
was trying to pronounce curses on Israel, trying
to control Israel's God. But every single time,
the same thing happened. Blessings came out,
blessings came out, blessings came out. And so
Balaam said to Balak, look, this isn't working.
But let me tell you another way we can get this
done. Not with a frontal assault, but with a
Trojan horse. Here's what you do, he said. Take
some of the beautiful Moabite women that I see
running around your camp and just have them go
into the Israelite camp. They'll open the doors
wide open. They'll let them in. And have these
women seduce. the Israelites and sleep with them
and then have them introduce them to their idols
and to their gods and invite them to take part
in their religion. And that, I tell you, Balak,
that will lead to their downfall. And he was
right. It worked. Israel fell into sexual immorality
and idolatry, so much so that God had no choice
but to punish them. He inflicted a plague upon
them. 20 ,000, 30 ,000 people apparently died.
But you see, that was the plan, right? Don't
fight them, seduce them. And if you can't curse
them, compromise them. If you can't crush them
from the outside, corrupt them from the inside.
inside. And that is the story Jesus wants us
to be thinking about because that is exactly
what was going on in Pergamum according to Jesus.
Listen, he's saying to them, listen, Satan couldn't
crush you. Even in the days of Antipas, Satan
could not crush you. But now he's corrupting
you. And in Pergamum, There were several Trojan
horses, if you will, subtle ways that the enemy
was trying to sneak inside the walls of the church
and bring compromise. Let me share a few of them
with you this morning, a few examples. The first
was what you might call the religious compromise.
You see, in Pergamum, there were temples everywhere,
like I said. You know, there were gods everywhere.
But the most famous... structure in Pergamum
was this one here. It's now in Berlin, in the
Pergamum Museum in Berlin. But it was called
the Great Altar of Zeus. And this thing stood
on top of the city, right on the Acropolis of
Pergamum. And it could very well be that when
Jesus said, hey, in Pergamum is where Satan has
his throne, that he was actually referring to
this particular structure. Because if you look
at it, it does kind of look like a ginormous
throne. So imagine, if you will, you're a small,
struggling church. And every single day, all
these gods and shrines are around you. But up
there on the mountain, You're in the shadow every
day of this looming great altar of Zeus. The
temptation, I think, would surely be for you
to, yes, you still worship Jesus, but my goodness,
look at the greatness of this God. You would
worship other gods along with Jesus. Just go
along to get along and just kind of blend in
a little bit religiously. We, you and I, we face
that same temptation today for sure. Not to deny
Jesus outright, but to say, sure, sure, yeah,
Jesus is Lord, but there are other spiritualities
too. And there's lots of good things about other
religions. In fact, you know, don't all religions
basically... Say the same thing. And so what
we do is we blend Christianity with self -help,
spirituality, and other religious beliefs because
that Trojan horse whispers, say, sure, sure,
sure, sure, follow Jesus, but don't be so exclusive.
Don't be so absolute. Look at some of the other
things you can give your life to, right? That's
the religious compromise. But the second Trojan
horse in Pergamum was what you might call the
intellectual. Oh, my goodness. I spelled intellectual
wrong. How does that? That sounds horrible. Intellectual.
That lets you know how intellectual I am. Pergamum
was not just a city of temples. It was also a
city of books. In fact, this is amazing history.
There's so much to learn in the Bible. But in
Pergamum was a massive library, second only to
the great library of Alexandria in Egypt. There
were something like 200 ,000 scrolls in the library
of Pergamum. In fact, the story goes that the
library in Alexandria in Egypt was actually...
that Pergamum's library was gonna get bigger
than theirs and steal their claim to fame. And
so Egypt stopped selling papyrus to Pergamum
so they couldn't keep creating more and more
books. But you know what Pergamum did? Pergamum
came up with this new technology, this new idea.
They said, well, we don't need your papyrus.
We'll start writing books on animal skins and
sheep skins. And so what was invented was parchment.
Parchment was invented in Pergamum. The Latin
word for parchment is pergamentum because it
was created in Pergamum, right? So anyways, Pergamum
was the center of scholarship and education and
learning and thinkers. And so the temptation
would always have been, oh, we have to be able
to converse with people intellectually. We have
to make... Christianity sound more palatable
and fit in with a lot of the worldly wisdom.
And I think you know what I mean when I say this,
because even today. We try, I think, to make
ourselves sound smarter, try to make the gospel
sound more enlightened. You know, we read the
Bible and we say, oh yeah, but surely we don't
believe everything that is in here. In fact,
you know, in many ways, Jesus was just a very
good man, a great teacher and a healer. And actually
the cross was more of a metaphor than anything
else. And the intellectual Trojan horse does
that to you and to me. It says, hey, listen,
if you want. people take you seriously. Make
yourself sound a bit more philosophical, right?
More intellectual, right? Don't be so simple.
The gospel is so foolish. Pretty it up. There's
a third compromise that they would have faced
in Pergamum, the scientific compromise. Pergamum
was also famous for what was called the Asclepion.
Now, the Asclepion was like part hospital. part
temple, part spa, right? People would come from
around the world to be treated for illnesses
at the Asclepion. Think of the Mayo Clinic or
something like that, right? They traveled to
come here. It was named after the Greek god Asclepius,
who was the god of medicine. In fact, he went
by the nickname, the Savior. Asclepius, the Savior.
And you can see from that picture, that's Asclepius.
And he had this snake that was always wound around
the staff that he had. And I don't know if you
guys know, but if you go into a doctor's office
today, you'll often see that medical symbol of
a staff with the snake wound around. And that's
because medicine traces back to Asclepius. And
in fact, I also learned that the word scalpel.
comes from the word Asclepius. So in short, if
you wanted to be healed, you needed to go visit
this serpent savior. Now the temptation, the
Trojan horse, was to look to something other
than Jesus as your savior, right? And today,
aren't we constantly tempted to like put our
hope in a medical breakthrough or some scientific
technology or something new, something that's
going to fix the world, right? But if we just
had the right therapy, if we just had the right
medicine, if we just had the right treatment,
then we can save ourselves. Now, of course, don't
get me wrong. Medicine and science are incredible
gifts from God. But they are not God. And that,
of course, would be the danger. Now, two final,
a couple, three actually more, I think I have,
compromises. we need to pay attention to. There
was, of course, in Pergamum a moral compromise.
Like most Greco -Roman cities, it was a place
of all sorts of sexuality and religion constantly
being intertwined. These festivals, these pagan
festivals often included sexual acts when it
came to worshiping the God. And so if you're
a Christian living in Pergamum and you are invited
to go to one of these feasts, do you go? You
know, there was a group in the church called
the Nicolaitans, and their answer was, yes, of
course you go. You go. Don't feel guilty about
this. Loosen your biblical standards a bit and
go. And again, this sounds so familiar. Today,
we are constantly tempted to give in to cultures,
ethics around sex. The world sees God's vision
for sex and relationships as old -fashioned.
optional, whatever. And so what we end up doing
is we get sucked along with that. We go along
with that. We scroll along with that just like
everyone else does. And like the Nicolans, we
say, oh, come on, lighten up, right? You can
follow Jesus and you can still do all these things.
It's just some fun. It's just one night, right?
It's your body after all. It's not God's body.
Jesus calls his people to be holy. to be this
community that is shaped by his kingdom and not
the culture. Another Trojan horse that snuck
into Pergamum was the economic compromise. You
see, in Pergamum, there were all these unions,
almost like a BIA, the trade guilds, if you will.
There were metal worker guilds and cloth merchant
guilds and bank guilds and baker guilds. And
like the BIA, you kind of participated. You all
got together from time to time and did stuff
together. And if you wanted to keep your job,
and if you wanted to keep your customers, and
if you wanted to keep all your contracts, you
were expected to participate in all these feasts
and get -togethers and the worship of the emperor.
And so many Christians sacrificed their integrity
for financial security. Still common today. right?
The temptation to put our career or to put money
or to put faithfulness to the guilds, our workplace,
ahead of faithfulness to Christ. To stay quiet
about your faith. Don't rock the boat. You might
even engage in unethical business practices because,
hey, you know, you've got bills to pay. I'm sure
God will understand. And here's the last compromise,
of course. If you lived in Pergamum and there
was a big festival coming up to honor one of
the gods, do you Do you go? I already asked that.
The whole city's going, by the way. Your neighbors
are going. Your co -workers from the guilds,
they're going. And if you don't show up, then
people are going to notice, and people might
talk, and they might spread some rumors about
you Christians. And since nobody wants to be
the odd one out, the temptation was always to
compromise just enough to avoid being excluded
or disliked. And I dare say you've probably had
a moment like that too, where you've been tempted
to deny what you believe. You've been tempted
to stay silent about Jesus because you don't
want to be that Christian in your school, in
your class, in your workplace, in your family.
That's what the Trojan horse says. Just stay
quiet, blend in. That way you'll get the world's
approval. So do you see how plan B works? Do
you see how this works now? You just wheel these
Trojan horses into the church, and when no one's
looking, out pops compromise, right? Religious,
intellectual, scientific, moral, economic, social
compromise. These enemies don't storm the gates.
They're not storming the gates of the church
right now, but they sneak in. They've snuck in
already this morning. They've snuck into our
hearts, and pretty soon, like the Moabite women,
the church ends up being married to the world.
In fact, the word Pergamum contains that gam,
pergamum, as in polygamy or big gammy. It's related
to this idea that you can be married to more
than one person. Pergamum shows us what happens
when, oh, yes, I'm united to Christ, but I'm
also married to the world. And Jesus warns him,
you got to stop. You need to deal with that compromise
in your midst or I will, he says. Repent, therefore,
otherwise I will soon come to you and fight against
these people with the sword of my mouth. This
is really important, but you guys know about
200 years after this letter was written, there
were two Roman generals who were competing for
control of the empire. In the west, you had Constantine,
and in the east, you had Maxentius. And tradition
says that on the night before the decisive battle,
Constantine had this vision, right? He saw a
cross in the sky and he saw these words, in hoc
signo vinces, in this sign conquer. And so the
next day, you know what Constantine did? He painted
crosses on all the shields of his soldiers. He
won the battle and he emerged as emperor of Rome
and he declared himself to be a Christian. And
he made Christianity the preferred religion of
the empire. Overnight, the church that had once
been persecuted was suddenly now promoted. Whole
regiments of soldiers were baptized en masse
because conversion was fashionable. It was even
profitable, advantageous. There's a story told
that when Constantine went to meet with 400 bishops
at the Council of Nicaea, he sat on a golden
throne. As the head of the church. And from that
moment on, Christianity became the religion of
the state. And in the process, the church got
married to the world. And pagan temples got turned
into churches. And pagan festivals were given
new Christian names. And priests, the priests
of the old gods, they ran to get baptized as
fast as they could so they wouldn't lose their
jobs. And they used the same temples. And they
used the same incense and the same processions,
but only now these things were Christian, of
course. And even some of the idols, they just
renamed them after different saints and such.
As one commentator put it, Constantine offered
his gold and patronage to the church, and it
eagerly swallowed the bait. sacrificed its conscience
and allegiance to its Lord. And the church and
the world, which had hitherto walked apart, were
locked in each other's arms, a fatal union. This
was the Pergamum moment for the church when the
church stopped standing apart from the world
and actually married the world. And this compromise,
this marriage, it is still a temptation in your
life today. It is still a temptation in my life,
and it is still the temptation in the life of
Trinity Streetsville. And so in closing, what
do we do about that? How do we defend ourselves
against these Trojan horses in our midst that
sneak past the gates of our hearts? Well, Jesus
gives us a clue in his letter. Jesus says, I
will fight against this compromise with, quote,
the sword of my mouth. Not the sword in his hand,
but from his mouth, which means this sword is
his word. The words of Jesus are how compromise
gets exposed. And how repentance happens in our
lives. Jesus' word is like that scalpel. It's
a scalpel. It's sharp and it's precise. And it
cuts away those parts of the church and my life
and your life that do not belong. In other words,
God's word will show us where we have let compromise
sneak in. And God's word will show us how to
turn around and change our ways. It's like a
doorbell cam. Everybody's got doorbell cams these
days. It reveals who is knocking at your door.
know the scriptures and you're reading the scriptures
and you're meditating on the scriptures and memorizing
the scriptures and trying to live in the scriptures
you start to notice when something's off when
something doesn't sound right when you hear a
cultural message and it says just blend in and
the scriptures say no you are the light of the
world a city on a hill cannot be hidden which
means that secondly our defense against the evil
one, is not to camouflage ourselves, not to blend
in. Some creatures defend themselves by blending
in, but not Christians. We stand apart even when
everyone else joins in by saying no to compromise
and saying yes to holiness, by speaking the truth
even when it's not popular, by allowing Jesus,
not the world, to define what is good and what
is true and what's worth giving your life for.
So here's my challenge for you this week. Open
the Bible and begin, if you haven't already,
a practice of getting into God's word. Read it
daily, even just a few words every day. Ask the
spirit of God, say, Lord, where have I compromised?
Where have I invited a Trojan horse into the
gates? And then repent in those areas where you
need to and recommit to faithfulness. If persecution
couldn't crush the church in Pergamum, then compromise
must not corrupt the church in Streetsville.
So may we be a people who stay faithful to Christ
no matter what the cost. So that the world can
see a picture of what living in his kingdom looks
like. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you for listening
to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. This
sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville
in Mississauga, Ontario on September 21st, 2025.