To the Faithful in Pergamum Pt. 2

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Today we finish Jesus’ letter to the saints in Pergamum.

There are two groups of people in this church. They are addressed as “you” and “some among you”.

Those addressed as “you” are the faithful in Pergamum.

Those addressed as “some” are the unfaithful.

This letter is unique in that Jesus calls not upon the unfaithful, but upon the faithful to repent!

The repentance is a call for the faithful to judge the sin of lasciviousness in those who were unfaithful in their assembly.

To cross reference this same situation we also read from Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5 and 1 Corinthians 11. Not all of these refer to the same sin, but rather the fact that sin in the church needs to be addressed.

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Old Testament Review – Exodus Part 1

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We left off last week with the death of Joseph at 110 years old in 1805B.C. and the prediction of Moses’ birth 278 years later in 1527 B.C.
Our re-trek through Exodus-Deuteronomy will largely be about major and foundational truths which are first established in these books.
As you know Exodus, means “departure” making the primary focus of the book about Israel’s departure from Egypt, which begins with Moses in their generations. So it is that Exodus begins with a listing of the tribes who came to Egypt with Jacob and then immediately goes into Egypt’s oppression of Israel.
This introduces our first big lesson which has a very universal impact on our understanding of scripture, God and His dealings with nations – including His Own people. And it is something which God specifically spoke to Abraham about many years prior.
So this week we BEGIN Exodus, but focus largely upon Genesis 15 and Exodus 12:40-42 and that is entirely because Israel’s oppression in mentioned right out the gate in chapter 1.
This lesson MAY seem unnecessary to many, but it really does address some major theological content which establishes first principles for many issues people run into throughout scripture.

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Pergamum

To the Faithful in Pergamum

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Pergamum was another city which was under heavy persecution. Though a brother named Antipas had been horribly martyred by the mentally sick, megalomaniac Emperor Domitian of Rome, this seems to be a single example rather than a trend in this city.

In this letter, Jesus refers to Himself as the One Who has the sharp double-edged sword. This is important in regard to the contents of this letter.

Jesus referred to Pergamum as a place where satan’s rule was well established and felt – so much so, that He said it was where satan lived. That is quite the statement – even if it was metaphorical, it is not a good or safe reality!

Jesus makes all of His statements in this letter to those in the church who were faithful. He praises their loyalty and devotion to Him, their unwavering faith in Him and acknowledge the conditions under which they lived.

He then addressed the faithful ABOUT a sub-group in their assemblies who were being carried away by the false teachings of the Nicolaitans which Jesus compared to the instruction of Balaam to King Balak.

His next words TO THE FAITHFUL, which we will address next week was “Therefore repent!”

I think where this letter goes may surprise many, and it is a clear lens through which we can know and understand our Messiah, so I encourage you to also follow next weeks lesson.

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Genesis Overview Part 4

Old Testament Review – Genesis Part 4

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This week we made it our aim to finish Genesis and just barely, we did!

To start off, we backed up just a little, as we often do, in order to pick up a few stray, but important points I’d left unaddressed from last week. These regarded God’s name El Shaddai and Abram being renamed to Abraham.

We then hit most of those highlights of the remainder of Genesis beginning in chapter 23 on to 10. We touched upon Eliezer, Isaac & Rebekah, Esau, Jacob & Leah / Rachel and then finished with our focus really on Joseph.

We didn’t really touch on Joseph’s brothers since in many ways, this early in Genesis they were largely more peripheral to the main points.

Lots of good stuff here in terms of teachings, principles and life lessons.

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Be Faithful and do not Fear

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This week we are looking at the letter Jesus wrote addressing the saints in Smyrna.

He introduces Himself as the first and the last, and the One Who died, but came to life. This introduction seems to set the pace for all He addresses with this church, which is our first big takeaway.

In the person of Jesus is the answer to their need. It isn’t in an event, a doctrine… it isn’t even in avoiding the dangers mentioned. The answer is in drawing closer to Christ and knowing Him more completely which will result in them being faithful to Him unto the end, and not walking in fear of what the devil was going to do.

What the devil was going to do was a secondary theme this morning. Jesus was warning this church to be faithful until the end. Never once did Jesus tell them that to avoid their poverty they needed to give more and increase their faith. Not once did He tell them they needed to bind the devil, and curse his work so that he could not advance his plan. Jesus affirms that the devil was GOING to through some of them into prison and some were going to die – BE FAITHFUL UNTIL THE END.

This runs contrary to what many teach today, but there it is. If there had been a way to avoid it by “taking authority by faith” this was the time to mention it and Jesus said NOTHING about it.

Just Be faithful & DO NOT FEAR! THAT was the expression of faith Jesus was looking for in these precious saints. Sometimes faith is found where you are not looking!

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