Revelation – False Teaching & False Promises – 6

Revelation 2:12-17 – 12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. 13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

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Intro: Funny activity where we have a volunteer come up and do something silly, then we jokingly laugh at them. (after one volunteer, I guess that we will not have any or many more volunteers…making the point that we care about how people judge us, and our actions follow based on how we think they will judge us.)

You are going to face judgment for the way you live. (vs 12)

You are going to be judged for anything you do. A lot of people don’t want anything to do with Christ or the church because they feel they are judged by Christians. The thing is, it’s not just Christians who judge. It’s everybody. The world and culture around us is incredibly judgmental, and the ones that scream for tolerance are often the most judgmental. Because if you start living for Christ and his standards of truth and morality, the “non-judgmental” champions of tolerance and inclusion will shout as loud as they can how wrong and evil you are for not believing in and following their way of life.

One of our greatest fears is being judged. We care about how people perceive us. Think about entering middle school or high school for the first time and how scared you were. Why do you worry so much about making a fool of yourself? You get nervous when you have to read out loud. Public speaking is one of the most common phobias people have. Why do you only post the best parts of your life online? It’s because you worry and care about what people think about you…how they’ll judge you. I deal with that in my PhD studies even now. There’s a thing called imposter syndrome. And apparently I’m not the only person who has it, but everybody has this internal thought that I’m not good enough or smart enough and soon I will be exposed for the fraud I really am and everybody will find out.

We all will be judged by how we act. Period. Whose judgment, though, do you fear most? The world or Jesus?

This two-edge sword that is mentioned here is a tool of judgment. It also alludes to the Word of God (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12).

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

God’s Word is the rule by which we are to live. It is only by God’s Word that we know what sin is and know we are sinners (Rom 3:20). It is what rightly and truthfully judges us and is the means by which the world is judged. And Jesus is the Word incarnate, the Word made flesh (Jn 1:14). We see in Isaiah 11:4 that the Messiah will judge “with discipline from His mouth.”[1]

So, with all this in mind, hear what James Hamilton says,

“Whose judgment do you fear? The Christians in John’s audience could avoid the sword of Rome by doing things that would put them in danger of the sword of Jesus. We will all face sit