Sermon: "Pergamum: Steadfast but in Peril" by Randy Roberts 
Part 5: Letters from the Edge of Eternity

Prayer: Shirley Ponder

Pastoral Welcome: Rob Mohr

Children’s Feature: Jackie Bishop

Scripture Reading Revelation 2:12–13, 17, TNIV Ryan and
(Pew Bible, page 1827) Emily Becker

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERMON

The centrality of Jesus in the church and the centrality of his call to ethical living must be the core doctrines of any true Bible-believing church.  John Stott posits that these two core propositions were central to the letter to the church at Pergamum, the letter we study today.  If he is correct – and I believe he is – then there are some questions we must ask.

First, how central is Jesus to all that we do in the church today?  Is he the central reality of our faith?  Does anyone who attends our church know that?  Does every doctrine we hold either lead to him or come from him?  At the core, can we truly say that our relationship with Jesus is central and that all the rest is commentary?  Being able to answer such questions in the affirmative does not necessarily change a church’s doctrines (though it could); rather, it places them in their proper perspective.

The second set of questions we have to ask deal with ethical (holy) living.  Does our church issue a clear call to holy and godly living?  Does our walk with Jesus make a difference in the way we live our everyday lives?  Can the people with whom we come in contact each day – our families, our roommates, our colleagues at work, our neighbors – tell that we “have been with Jesus?"

We cannot escape the fundamental nature of these two issues.  Remember that the church at Ephesus was called to repent because, even though it was doctrinally pure, it had lost its first love.  The church at Pergamum, however, is in peril, not over having “lost that loving feeling,” but because it is tolerating and compromising (or, at least, in danger of doing so).

Ours is an age where tolerance is a chief virtue.  This certainly has its positive benefits.  On the negative side, however, is the temptation to tolerate anything; to live and act as though nothing falls outside the boundaries.  Our temptation, then, resonates with that which the church at Pergamum faced.

So what did Jesus say to that church?  “Repent!” (Revelation 2:16).  Another way to say it would be:  “Change!  Draw some boundaries!  Set some limits regarding what you will put up with and tolerate!”

In so doing, we just have to make certain that we are drawing the boundaries around the right things.  Remember Rupert Meldenius’ words from the seventeenth century? “Preserve unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials and charity in all things.”  What are the essentials?  The centrality of Jesus and all that he stands for, including his call to ethical living.   “These fundamental truths cannot be compromised” (John Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church, p. 46).

Yours for a courageous church.

Randy Roberts
Senior Pastor

MEDITATIONS

You don’t have convictions unless you have been tested. – Crawford W. Loritts, Jr.
Immorality is the cumulative product of small indulgences and minuscule compromises, the immediate consequences of which were, at the time, indiscernible. – Randy Alcorn

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