Dear Pergamum | Dear Church | Trinity Sermons

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

Revelation 1:4–5 Revelation 2:12–17

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.