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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Genesis Review

Old Testament Review – Genesis Part 3

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This week we moved on in our review of Genesis with only a few major events.

We further discussed the time period between the flood and Abram, with Peleg being a thumbtack on the map of human history – when the peoples of the earth were divided into the new language groups God generated and went out establishing new lands which would eventually become nations. This is where we brought of Job who, almost certainly was alive at that dispersion and helped settle the land of Uz. As such, we covered lightly covered Job and how, contrary to what many believe, he likely lived the whole of his life just after the dispersion at the Tower of Babel and died years before Noah did. Then Noah died two years before Abram was born.

We then addressed a few of the high points of Abram-Abraham’s life before introducing Isaac and Jacob which is where we will pick up next week.

All in all, we covered many of the major events and people from 2417 B.C. – 2006 B.C.. This leaves us only 1,606 more years of Old Testament history to cover, 479 of which will bring us to the end of Genesis and begin Exodus with the birth and call of Moses.

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The Work of Love

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Last week we closed with the three steps of obedience Jesus gave to the Ephesian church. This week as we wrap up this Ephesian letter in Revelation 2, we are going to bear down on the fact that Jesus referred to loving Him with all their heart, as a WORK.

The word “work” in association with virtually ANYTHING in a Christian’s life is today treated with a great deal of skepticism and opposition due to an unreasonable amount of misunderstanding regarding it.

Works are NOT a means to obtain righteousness, justification or the Holy Spirit -Paul makes this clear in Galatians, BUT works are ALWAYS a result of a relationship of knowing and trusting Jesus – as fruit produced by a branch connected to their vine. That “fruit” is also referred to as “works” throughout the New Testament so much that it is hard to see how people miss it, but they do!

But like it or not, agree with it or not, Jesus Himself calls possessing and walking in agape love for Him a work. Plain and simple.

It is this we addressed in some detail this morning! May the Lord grant you the ability to hear with ears attuned to the Holy Spirit and thereby, sheer up an arena of life that is often much neglected by Christians.

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