His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt reminds the church of what we're to be all about in these last days.

Matt VanderVen: The church, Ephesians 4, equipping saints for the work of the ministry. Our job, role, calling is to be light and to go out and spread light. We come here because we he equips saints for the work of the ministry. We then go out as part of our calling because what's poured in can then be poured out. That's what church has always been about. It's not been a Kumbaya. It's not a social club. It's a place where you come to be filled, fed, equipped, loved, protected. Take that, go out and be the priest you've been called to be.

You are a royal priesthood, a precious people.

Guest (Male): Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore welcomes you to His Perfect Love. Today Pastor Matt Vanderpan resumes his series in Revelation as we continue our look at the Lord's letter to the church in Pergamum. Now this particular church was like many churches today. What started out as a small drip of false teaching has turned into a flood of deceit. They were compromising. The solution to this problem hasn't changed over the last 2,000 years. Let's find out what God's word has to say on the matter. Here is Pastor Matt with today's study in Revelation chapter 2.

Matt VanderVen: How about just five to six years ago? Right right before COVID and or actually even during some of the season of COVID, okay? And after. I remember there was a case that was opened up in Texas where because of the truth of the Bible, it was an offense to some people. So what they started saying is they wanted that judge put an order into the pastors in Texas that you were to mail in your sermons or your services. For us that was awesome because all we did is made a copy of the Bible, Calvary Chapels in Texas, paper clipped it or stapled it and said here you go.

That's our sermon, right? Who knows? Maybe they'll read it and get saved. But for a lot of the other pastors, I I don't know what they were thinking on, but we were all Again, you know Calvary Chapel, we're like-minded believers, but we're all independent. There is no denomination. There's a there's a movement. There's no mothership that we go to that get our we get our orders from. It doesn't work that way. We're each uniquely independent as Calvary Chapels. But we all have one thing in common. We yield to the word of God and we yield to Jesus Christ as the chief shepherd of the church.

That's why we're together. We're like-minded believers as a movement. And so when this was going on, we met together and said what do you think we should do? Well certainly we want to obey the government, so we'll send them our our our sermons because maybe they'll get saved. But what happens when they tell us not to teach the things that the Bible makes very clear like being culturally relevant or being culturally irrelevant if that's what produces holiness or doesn't produce compromise? What do you do then? It was very simple for all of us. We said we teach the word.

We go to jail. Somebody else, another man in here gets up and I've heard me say it before, you walk up these little steps, you stand right here and you keep teaching the Bible, right? And you get taken to prison. Hey, they got hundreds of people here at two services. It's going to take them a while. We'll probably get through this section quicker than when I get through the section. The word's going to go forward. It's written in our bylaws at this church. It's what we do here. And it's not determined on the pastor that stands in here.

It's in the Bible. It's what we do at this fellowship. And we put it in there so that legally every man that stands in this pulpit faithfully must teach the word of God line by line and verse by verse without compromise as a way to protect against the cultural temptation. Because when you stand in this pulpit knowing very well that one day it could mean that I'm going to go to jail or my wife and children could be punished as well or some of you, I need to know I've made my calling and election sure.

And I'm not going to change or water down the gospel to make it culturally relevant. I'm going to stand in the gap and teach the teach the word of the Lord regardless of what the consequences are. We can all talk those things and say those things, but then when you put it in a bylaw, you don't do that, you're fired. And amen and amen. Because then you put your your words in your actions become one. So this is what he's talking about, the compromise of the culture. So I just want us to see that these things are happening today.

They were happening 2,000 years ago. I could give you a thousand more examples. Uh I think we all get what I'm saying, that the culture's changing. I think first service last example I gave is in our area just a few years ago that there was a church that decided they were going to have a Bible study, but they wanted to attract young believers. So this is you know young believers, they get together, maybe the you know we start serving beer or a kegger. Maybe we could turn around and invite them in. What? Are you Come on pastor.

You're like no, there's actually fellowship at this church. I do not want you to self-identify yourself if you're here this morning. You know who you are. You know you attended the Bible study. You shared it with me. I'm sharing it with you. And this was happening right on the West Shore, a church that was doing this, having Bible studies, and they were turning around and talking about uh God while opening the Bible with a with a couple of pints of you know beer because after all we need to be culturally sensitive. We want to reach the culture, right?

So doesn't the uh means justify the end or the end justify the means? I hope every one of you here this morning is going absolutely not or in the words of Paul, certainly not. But this is what's happening and it it's happening in our day and if we're we're sitting here, I think sometimes in a Calvary Chapel if you're here and you're going line by line and verse by verse, sometimes I think we get so uh we're so protected from that kind of stuff that we don't even think those things are happening in other churches.

Can't even imagine that that stuff is happening today. And some of you that have come out of other churches recently, you know what it is. And you've said it and you've come in here and said man you guys wow. We we're this is Praise the Lord. The word's going forward. So please look with me at this point in verse 12 as we are going to go line by line. I I just want us to understand how easy it is to let the culture come into the church and us think it's okay. After all, didn't it happen to Corinth?

They wanted to be so loving that they disregarded sexual morality. I'm not saying that there wasn't a a leader or a guy or whatever who had failed. Okay, he repents, you get him right. Perfect. That's reconciliation. That's what the Bible teaches. Fine. You're talking about a whole church that while that kind of sexual morality is going on, we don't want to hurt someone's feelings. Let's compromise and let the sin go on. He says that even it was so bad even the Gentiles among you don't do these things. Paul wrote to that church. So it's been going on for thousands of years, compromise.

It's just it's just Satan's very insidious in how he does it. Verse 12, and to the angel of the church in Pergamum so right, these things says He who has a sharp two-edged sword. So it's interesting. He says to the Angelos, that's the Greek, right? For pastor, leader, church. It's actually Excuse me. Let me correct myself. It is the Greek word for messenger. That is what that word means. I believe he's speaking to the pastor of the church, the leader of the church. Uh that word was used for John the Baptist as well, okay? So it also has been used for supernatural angel.

So it can mean any of the above, but I believe he's talking to the church as I certainly don't think he 's writing to a human through um John, write these things down so I can send it back up to heaven to the you know to the supernatural beings in heaven. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. He's writing to the leaders of the church. And the Here's what he says. These are the words of Him who has a sharp double-edged sword, okay? Familiar to what we read in chapter 1, I believe it was verse 16 when he just when John sees him and out of him comes this 5-ft thyracion sword that would literally been known and has been known to literally take and swing because it would come down so sharply it could from a man's head to his groin divide him vertically into just That's the kind of destruction we're talking about.

That's this sword. And again as with the other two letters, this isn't John's message to the believers in Pergamum. It was the message from Jesus Christ. It's not Pastor Matt's message here this morning. The depiction of Jesus holding a sharp two-edged sword refers to the Lord's readiness to bring judgment. Now I bring this up specifically because you've been with us for the last two Sundays, many of you. So you know we've started at Ephesus, the church that left their love, their first love Jesus. We saw it at Pergamum, right? The church that was facing terrible persecution, affliction unto death.

Well Jesus appeared to each one of them different, but there's the pattern. He's appearing to them and he uses certain words to describe himself and his characteristics to each one of those churches. Just look at it for a minute. Ephesus, back to chapter 2, right? To the angel of the church of Ephesus right, the things that He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, He who walks in the midst of seven golden lampstands, right? He speaks He's talking about Jesus who's sovereign, holding the pastor in His right hand. He walks in the midst of His church.

What is he doing? He's reminding the body it's all about Jesus and the relationship with him. Why is that so significant for Ephesus? Because what was their sin or what was their issue that Jesus Christ is trying to correct? They had left their what? First love, relationship. So what does he start with? Relationship. He's in the midst of the church. He's holding the pastor in His hand. He's saying pay attention church. I know what you're doing. I can read your minds. I am watching everything. Then the next church, Smyrna. We read this last week, right?

These are the words of Him who is the first and last who died and came to life again. Why oh why would He present himself that way? Certainly the Alpha and Omega, we talked about it last week. He is the first. He's an eternal God. He is the last. He reigns. He's resurrected from the dead. If you were about to face death or 10 year or 10 days in prison, who knows coming to you like the oppression and persecution, the affliction was going to be so fast that he says hey, hold on and be faithful unto death, right?

Verse 10 in chapter 2. That's what he That's what he tells him to do. Don't you want to know you have a God you're serving that's eternal, that even if you face death, that in a blink of an eye you close your eyes and open your eyes and you'll be with Him in paradise? You want that kind of security and guarantee and encouragement. So Jesus appears to them that way. Makes all the sense in the world because they're facing persecution. But now there's a church uh Pergamum or Pergamum, and He appears to them, but He appears to them and the way He comes to them is what?

With a sharp two-edged sword. Because what are they guilty of and they don't even Many of them aren't even One embracing doctrines that are not the gospel, His word. Number one. Number two, what else is He doing What else are they doing? They're becoming culturally relevant and compromising with the existing culture around them because as I already described to you, Pergamum was idolatries are us. It was all pagan. It was a whole pagan city. I mean towers they were building. I mean 800 ft, all about worshipping humanism, man, we can do anything, intellectualism. We're the smartest.

We got all the parchments back to Alexandria, the philosophers. We got it all. We don't need God. And that was creeping into the church. So how does He appear to them? Let us not miss how He begins. These are the words of Him, Jesus who has a sharp double-edged sword. What is He telling this church? I am coming and ready for what? Judgment. Because that's what they need. That's what this church needs. You know what friends? We need to hear this this morning. That's real love. Oh pastor, you're you're That's harsh, man. Is it to let somebody steep and you know wallow in their sin?

When you really love somebody, you come to them and you want to pull them out of the sin. You don't leave them in it. Jesus loves them unconditionally. And it doesn't matter Many of them Obviously He's talking to a church. They're believers, but they lost their way. They began following all these other things instead of Jesus. And because of that, it was pulling them away from Him. He doesn't just say hey, you know what man? I'm going to let you go. He He's the 99 to go after the one. He's such a good loving God.

So He identifies himself clearly right at the out. Now maybe you and I wouldn't want this identification from Jesus. Maybe we'll I'll take one of the other um uh pictures of Jesus as He's He's coming. They're literal, but you know the word the Lord words here is is a great I think uh warning, right? Uh this morning this this depiction of Jesus holding a sharp two-edged sword refers to the Lord's readiness to bring judgment. Certainly we know that Jesus is communicating to this church of Pergamum a need to repent, get right with Jesus, turn from compromise with the pagan culture, the false doctrines, and begin to serve Jesus in His church and to live holy as He has called us to be holy.

Now verse 13, He continues His I know your works. We looked at that Greek word last week for Smyrna. We know that means deeds, actions. We We understand exactly what He's saying there. He can read our minds. He can see the things we are doing. He is not indifferent or ignorant to it. He's numbered every one of the hairs on our heads. He says and where you dwell, He says I know you're living in this pagan city. I know the circumstances are grave. It's heavy. It's not like you're in this perfect place. No, I get it.

You're literally living living in a city of Satan where Satan's overcome and overwhelmed that city with such pagan idolatry, demonic things going on, temples, you know emperor worship, all of it. Does Jesus say well then, you know what? That's a good excuse. That's a good excuse that you can be allowed to be culturally compromised. No. Why? Because Jesus is bigger than any of our circumstances. He's bigger than the culture. As a matter of fact the church Ephesians 4, equipping saints for the work of the ministry. Our job, role, calling is to be light and to go out and spread light.

We come here because we He equips saints for the work of the ministry. We then go out as part of our calling because what poured in can then be poured out. That's what church has always been about. It 's not been a Kumbaya. It's not a social club. It's a place where you come to be filled, fed, equipped, loved, protected. Take that, go out and be the priest you've been called to be. You are a royal priesthood, a precious people. And He doesn't apologize for it. He doesn't say well I know we're inadequate. It's in spite of our inadequacy.

He is glorified. Because no matter the darkness, light will cast out darkness. And it has for thousands of years and it will until Jesus comes again. And then ultimately forever. Well as I just read in verse 13, He says I know where you live. I know where Satan's throne is. He He's not indifferent to that. He's not like un knowledgeable. Yet He says you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who has been put to death in your city where Satan lives.

This is important. The Pergamene or Pergamus and Pergamum believers, they lived in a difficult place surrounded by again pagan influences. Yet they held fast to Christ's name and they did not deny Him during difficult times. In a lot of ways He begins with this commendation. This is a good thing. I mean many of us would love to say that that even under death if somebody's taking a sword, a gun or deny Jesus, we'd look at them and say absolutely not. We would think that that would be the ultimate, right? But there was one Christian in Pergamum named Antipas.

He's referenced as a faithful witness. Tradition says and this is church tradition. I want to be careful. It's not extra biblical. It's not biblical. It's extra biblical. We get it from history and narratives. Um Antipas, he was known to be a physician, all right? And he was suspected of uh uh secretly propagating Christ. In other words when he was in the office, he was leading people to Jesus. He was talking about their mind and their body because they came to him for physiological reasons, but guess what else He did. He couldn't help ignoring the soul and the spirit.

So He treated the mind, body, soul and spirit. Boy that sounds smart. How about it? Well they didn't like that. There was members of the back then the Medical Guild, right? The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Physicians today as we would know it. What did they do? They accused Antipas of disloyalty to Caesar. You're not being loyal to the government. Stop spreading disinformation. Let's not get together and talk about these things around a table intellectually, scientifically, and let's agree and disagree and let's talk about these things, but let science move forward and let's have a good positive debate on the matters wherever you come in on that stuff.

Never shut down debate. It brings about ideas. Otherwise you end up with group think. And group think leads ultimately to dictatorship. And dictatorship is nothing more than an evidence of a Nicolaitan or Nicolaitan spirit that He says He hates. So just try in Venezuela, Cuba. I mean I can go on and on. Just look at the governments. Now this isn't saying be rebellious against your government. Somebody's telling us here And those of scriptures says we're not to do that. But when it comes to choosing God and your government, well you already know what the right answer there is.

You choose your government, right? Every one of yous? No, you choose your God. Just Isn't that the example in Acts? Peter, John arrested. Is it for me is it right to not speak the name of Jesus Christ? That's for you to decide, but I will not deny the name of Jesus Christ and I will speak Him. And then what does Peter do? Hey, you know what? Baptize me in the spirit again because I want some some more boldness of faith so I can get into more Christian trouble as it would have been called at the time of Acts, right?

We certainly wouldn't think of it that day way today, but they would have if you were that government. Oh you're creating problems. You're creating all these fights. So what do they do? What do they How do they handle that? This this uh Medical Guild. What do they do? Well you know we agree to disagree and you know as long as you're okay, we're okay. It's amazing how quickly relativism changes when it's not uh when it's not being respected by both parties. Because what ends up happening, they condemn Him to death. How do they condemn Him to death?

Well my gosh, the devil overplays His hand. He was placed inside of a copper bull. Okay, I want you to think about the last time you thought of a copper bull or a golden calf and I want you to think about it being golden. I want you to think of being heated. Where was that? It was when Aaron was down there with the people wanting to worship a God. They're in a pagan city just like here. And what do they do? They make a golden calf, throw it in the fire, and they begin to worship it.

And somehow Aaron's like I don't know how it happened, man. Right? It wasn't my fingerprints. Meanwhile it was like fingerprints all over like the the the head and the tail was a little skinny or something. You know? And Moses comes down. What happened? Well what did they do to Antipas? They placed Him inside this copper bull. They heated it up to the fire. It was raging and the red bull became hot. And they murdered Him, burned Him alive in a copper bull, almost like a calf. It's almost like He's overplaying the hand. He's showing us what He's doing.

His We We We We know our Bibles. We've seen something like this before. Now what did this church do? I mean certainly like all of us here if you if you saw me taken out and put into a uh copper uh bull which um okay. I mean I don't mind bull riding. I was like get a bull ride. We'll do that at like one of our events, right? We'll get a bull thing here. We'll ride the bull. Okay, fine. But I probably will do that actually just because of this now. But but in seriousness, if you see that happening, right?

Well one I'd ask you to put the fire up and number two number two, what do I expect every one of us to do, right? What what should we all do? Should we just compromise? Should we just give in? No. And they didn't. And to their credit they were faithful. But they let their guard down when it came to worldliness. When it came to worldliness, this is where they let their guard down. Now look at verse 14 because again we read about Antipas. We read about Antipas. He's my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

But I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat, sort of giving us the answer what is this doctrine of Balaam? To eat what? Things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality, okay? So we get a little bit of what's going on here. So what is this teaching of Balaam? Well it's explained in the context within the verse, right? It also helps us that we again 404 verses, 278 of the verses referenced directly to Old Testament scriptures.

So knowing the Old Testament helps us to understand what also He's communicating to us. And if you just looked at Numbers chapter 25 verses 1 through 3 and you're welcome to do that. If you want to hold your finger where you are right now and then we're going to jump to Numbers 31 in a minute, but if you were to read this in context, we see that what He's trying to tell us and I'll get to numbers in a minute was is that Christians in this church were eating food that had been sacrificed to idols, which is what?

Religious compromise. Do you see that? It's it's religious compromise. And then what were they doing? They were committing sexual immorality. What was that? Moral compromise. So we have religious compromise and moral compromise. Now what are Balaam's deceitful and wicked work as we read in Numbers 25 verses 1 through 3? Well in Numbers 25 we find these women of Midian. And what they were doing is they began to seduce the men of Israel to sexual sin, but not just for sexual sin. It wasn't just harlotry for harlotry's sake. It was specifically that they would lead them to sacrifice to the idolatrous pagan gods.

What is Pergamum again? Idolatry or pagans are us. All these temples, Zeus are you know all the things we talked about already, sexual worship, all the things that was going on that were sinful and wrong. Well we have an evidence of that in Numbers 25 that the devil's over the devil played His hand there once already. We were able to read about it. We know the character and what He does. So how did He do that and why did He do that? Well since the God of the pagans were often fertility gods, especially these Midianite women as well as the Moabites, by having them worship that meant they were going to engage in sexual morality, but they were also going to be doing that in worship to these pagan gods.

So what Balaam did or had Him do was tie the two together. That's what Jesus Christ is trying to tell us was happening at Pergamum.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Matt Vanderpan on His Perfect Love. You can hear the study from Revelation again when you visit His Perfect Love.org. That's His Perfect Love.org. We've expanded our podcast too. Look for us on OnePlace.com and most of the major podcast platforms. The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt messages shortly after they're delivered. We can help you get started when you visit His Perfect Love.org. We're thankful for the listeners that come alongside of us with their prayers and financial support. If you're interested in supporting this radio ministry, there's a place to do that at His Perfect Love.org.

Together we can reach people with the love and truth of God in these last days. Pastor Matt loves to hear from His listeners. Even just a quick hello telling Him where you hear the program and how you're blessed by it means a lot. Email us there at the website His Perfect Love.org. And whether you live in or around Mechanicsburg, PA or we'll be visiting the area soon, we'd love to have you join us for a service at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.

You'll find us at 28 North Locus Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to CCHarrisburg.org for more information. Well that'll do it for today, but come back next time when Pastor Matt will again study the book of Revelation with us here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.