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The Five-Fold Podcast
Five-Fold ministry for today. In this podcast we will attempt to determine biblical timelines as they correlate with current events. We will examine the offices of the Five-Fold ministry and gain biblical direction for the world today.
The Five-Fold Podcast
The Church of Pergamus and the Call to Overcome Today's Spiritual Idolatry
Embark on a journey through time and spirituality as we dissect the ancient message to the church of Pergamus with the sharp insight only the Five Fold Podcast can provide. Join me, Michael Weedman, as I wield the powerful truths found in Revelation 2:11-17, illuminating the potent imagery of Jesus and His unquestionable authority. Witness how the courageous Antipas stood against the pervasive idolatry of his era, inspiring a conversation on the troubling doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans and the pressing necessity of repentance for the faithful.
Stepping into the city of Pergamos, we peel back layers of history to reveal a battleground of the sacred and the profane, where ancient pagan practices clashed with the enduring Gospel message. We uncover how such practices have subtly influenced modern religious institutions and draw stark parallels to the "great whore of Babylon," provoking a reflection on the Gospel's transformative power and the rewards that await the steadfast. Tune in for an episode that doesn't just recount history, but challenges the listener to consider the profound relevance of these timeless truths in today's spiritual landscape.
What is up everybody? Welcome to tonight's episode of the five fold podcast. I'm your host, michael Weidman, and I'm excited for tonight we're going to continue on a revelation church study. We are on the third church. Don't go anywhere. Hey, good evening and welcome to this episode of the five fold podcast. I'm your host, michael Weidman, and I would like to say thank you for taking the time and joining us tonight on the podcast.
Speaker 1:The five fold podcast focuses on the five fold ministry and the importance of that ministry in today's society. We believe that there is still a need for apostles, for prophets, for pastors, for teachers, for evangelists. They haven't ceased. They're still in operation today and necessary for the success of today's church. So join with us as we dive into this episode of the five fold podcast. And welcome back tonight to this episode of the five fold podcast. I appreciate you taking the time to drop in and listen to my faithful listeners. I love you all. I appreciate you guys and all your support.
Speaker 1:Um, we are, as we've been doing for the last few weeks, as you know, going over the churches of revelation, and so we are in church number three, um, and that is found in the book of revelation, chapter two versus number 11, I believe it's through 17. Yes To through 17. This is what the word of God says. It's verse 12. I'm sorry To the angel of the church of Pergamos. Right, these things say of he which had the sharp sword with two edges I know thy works where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is, and hold his fast. My name has not denied my faith, even in those days where in Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balaak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. So hast thou them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaotans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith under the churches. To him that overcomeeth, well, I give to eat of the hidden manna and we'll give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveeth it. So this is the message to the church at Pergamus. Now, the name Pergamus, remember, we talked last week about. I'm gonna bring up the name, what it means, and then I'm gonna talk about some other things in the letter to the church. So the name Pergamus means married to power, to be married to power.
Speaker 1:Jesus introduces himself to the church at Pergamus in this way. He says he that these things say it, he that wright half I get my words out he that half the sharp sword with two edges. Now it's very interesting to me that God says this. He introduces himself. Jesus introduces himself in this way to the people at Pergamus If you read down further and we'll get into their curse here in a minute. But if you read down further, he says he that have an ear, let him hear what the spirit sayeth under the church. When he tells them to repent, he says or else I will come unto thee quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Speaker 1:Now what Jesus is saying when he's introducing himself, I want you to remind them that I'm the one who holds the sharp sword with two edges, that the word of God is me. It's me, that word that is sharper than a two-edged sword that divides and cuts and brings in correction and brings in all of the things of the spirit. That is me, is what Jesus is saying. I'm the one that holds the sword, I'm the one that brings out the sword of the spirit of God. Now we remember in John one, when John is introducing his book, he tells us that in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. And verse 14 of John, chapter one, says and that word was made flesh and we dwelt among him, or he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as of the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. What Jesus is doing to the church at Pergamus when he is introducing himself in this letter, as he is reminding them, I am the word. Everything that precedeth out of my mouth is what has preceded out of the father's mouth. I'm the expression, I am the word of the spirit of God. It is I who holds this sharp, two-edged sword that cuts and divides. It is me. Let's go forward.
Speaker 1:The church of Pergamus was just north of what is modern Bergma, turkey, bergma, turkey. It was established during the first century, early first century, and Pergamus is believed by many to be one of the oldest Christian communities of the Asian minors. Not much is said in the scripture about Antipas. You can go back and you can try to look, but not much is said about Antipas. But in this scripture, in verse 13, jesus says Antipas, who was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. Antipas was a member of the body of believers at Pergamus Church. History says that it was from the establishment of the church that he was one of the established saints of the church of Pergamus.
Speaker 1:According to Eastern Orthodox history, antipas stood against the idolatry of Rome and Greek mythology that was rooted deep within the city and we'll get a little bit more into what was in the city with that, that of Pergamos, and where the Church of Pergamos laid Before his death. Now again, this is according to Church history, to Eastern Orthodox history. Before his death, he was told by the others Antipas, the whole world is against thee. The whole world is against you. And he replied to that then I am against the whole world. So you've got this man named Antipas, who Jesus himself says was my faithful martyr. He's told by the others look, you've got to change. You've got to change your ways. You've got to quit being so bold preaching about this. You've got to quit being so bold talking about Jesus and you've got to quit trying to convert people. You've got to quit trying to do all this stuff. And they told him and said the whole world is against you. To which he replied then I am against the whole world Church.
Speaker 1:We've got to get that mindset within us that, no matter what's going on around us, no matter how many people are telling us, we've got to calm it down. We've got to take it back at a couple notches. We've got to stop doing what we're doing. We've got to stop trying to reach people. We've got to stop trying to preach the truth. We've got to stop trying. It doesn't matter. The whole world can be against me. Because if that's the fact, then guess what? I'm against the whole world because I'd rather stand before God on judgment day and never have a friend in my life, never had anyone else in my life, but stand before God on judgment day and him look at me and say you did it, good job, well done, my good and faithful servant. Then the stand before God a man who had friends galore, a man who had all the world on his side, and for Jesus to look at me and to say I never knew you.
Speaker 1:We've got to get this whole Americanized church concept out of our mind. Not everybody's going to love you. Matter of fact, jesus said that they're going to hate you for my Gospels, for my name's sake. They're going to hate you. They're going to deliver you prisons. They're going to arrest you. They're going to torture you and some of you will die. That's not common preached anymore in the church ranks, but we'll move forward from that before anybody gets their feelings hurt.
Speaker 1:Tonight Jesus said this. He said I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. Jesus was referring to the vast temples dedicated to false gods and goddesses of Roman Greece. Nearly every Roman or Greek deity had a temple in Pergamos. I'm going to just go through some of these temples real quick. It's not going to be all of them. Almost every Roman and Greek god and goddess had a temple in Pergamos. Here's a few of them. They had the temple of Zeus. You guys probably know who Zeus was.
Speaker 1:According to this Greek and Roman mythology, he was supposed to be the father of all the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. They had the temple of diagnosis, which was the god of wine and rebellion. Now, this temple was much like a modern day nightclub, or probably a better referring or reference to this would be like a swingers club. The parties that were held there, the immoral acts that were done in these temples Matter of fact, these parties would sometimes be so evil that people would lose their lives in these parties. They had the temple of Demetri, which was the goddess of food and crops. So, in other words, if your crops and your foods weren't grown right, you'd come give an offering to Demetria and then she would hopefully grant you blessings over your crops and your foods. You had the temple of Askelp Leapon Pion oh Lord, have mercy, forgive me, askelpion, or something like that. You're gonna have to look this up for yourself, because I'm having a hard time pronouncing this tonight.
Speaker 1:For some reason, the god of their god of healing is what he was the priests in these temples. Here's what would happen the priests in these temples would cause the people who came in for healing to go into a trance. They would put them to sleep and then, while they were asleep, they would release snakes to crawl and slither upon all these people, and while they crawled and slithered upon all of them, that's whenever they would heal the people. Now, it reminds you a lot of the story of Moses, right, whenever Moses and the children of Israel were in the wilderness and there was a staff, there were snakes. They were being punished and the snakes were biting people and killing people. And God told Moses when he prayed about it. They told him to lift up the staff of the snake and whoever looks upon the snake will be healed. So, greeks and Romans, they're great mimickers. They're great mimickers, okay, just keep that in mind. So, actually, if you look today at the common medical symbol, it is the staff with the wings and it has two snakes wrapped around it.
Speaker 1:Now, the question was asked the other night in Bible study. Hey, I thought that dated back to Moses. That was referring to Moses and that's why we have what we have today as far as the snakes going around the staff. But here's the thing God didn't tell Moses to raise a staff and then snakes curled around it. Now, god told Moses to raise up in a bronze state snake, an actual snake, a statue of a snake, and that's what people looked upon, this modern medical symbol with the snakes wrapped around it.
Speaker 1:That dates back to this time to the Greek God they called Asclepon, I believe is how you pronounce it. They had a temple to Athena. We all know who Athena was. Right, that's supposed to be the goddess of wisdom and military tactic. The temple.
Speaker 1:And this next one. This is one of the most interesting ones to me, because I believe a lot of people say that they believe the temple of Zeus is what God was referring to when he said the seat of Satan, where Satan sits. But I believe it might have been this one. This is my thought. Again, this is not scripture. It could have been the seat of Zeus, it really doesn't matter. But what matters is that we know that this was a very evil city. This was a very paganistic. Witchcraft was abound, evil was abound, idolatry was abound. It was an evil city, all right.
Speaker 1:So this last temple that I'm gonna bring up is the temple of the imperial occult. Now, this is where you would go if you were a good little Roman and you wanted to deny all over the religions and you wanted to swear your allegiance to Caesar and you wanted to swear your allegiance to Rome. This is the center of the Roman imp. Now here's something I wanna bring up and a lot of people might hate me for this, but I really do believe that the Roman church and maybe we'll get into this a little later on in the book of Revelation the Roman church is the great horror Babylon. I believe that it is the system, the Roman Catholic church. I believe that it is that that is the great horror Babylon. The Romans didn't quit their what's the word I'm looking for? The Romans didn't quit their tactics, they just or they didn't quit what they were doing, they just changed their tactics. Now, instead of going to Pergamos, to the temple of the imperial occult, you just go onto the Vatican city and you never mind, we'll move on from that. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:So let's see, there were some positive attributes pointed out by Jesus with this. You know they had held onto the name of Jesus, they had not denied their faith. But Jesus said and here's what gets me about this Jesus didn't say the other churches, let's say, like our first church, ephesians right, he says I have somewhat against thee. Okay, you're doing good, but there's this little thing that I have against you, right? Jesus doesn't say that in Pergamos. He says I have a few things against you. Now there's a couple more things going on. That we need to address is what Jesus is saying. So what are these? What is this list stacked up against Pergamos?
Speaker 1:Now, number one they had those that held to the doctrine of Balaam, who caused many of the children of Israel to stumble and caused them to eat meats offered unto idols and commit fornication. They also had those which held on to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus said. Which thing I hate? And again, I said this when we were talking about the Church of Ephesians If Jesus says he hates something, then you and I had better make sure that we hate that too. I'm just saying we had better be sure that we hate that too. Now, this is the second time in these letters that Jesus has mentioned the doctrine of the deeds, or the deeds of Nicolaitans, which is. So we have to ask ourselves and I talked a little bit about it when talking about Ephesians but what exactly is that? The doctrine of the Nicolaitans and the doctrine of Balaam go hand in hand.
Speaker 1:The Nicolaitans preached a gospel that required no change of heart or mind on the part of the center, a do as thou wilt doctrine, a doctrine that allowed a person to live with one foot in the world and one foot in the church. This is not the gospel. Jesus did not call us to have one foot in the world and one foot in the church. When Paul said to the Greeks I'm a Greek. To the Romans, I'm a Roman. Right, when I go here, I become all things to all men.
Speaker 1:That's not what Paul was talking about. Paul wasn't saying you know, when I go to the bar, I drink because I want to win souls. That's not what Paul was saying. Paul said shall we abide and send God? Forbid to abstain from even the appearance of evil. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what Paul preached? So the gospel is not I become all things to all men. I have one foot in the world and out in the church. I have one foot in hell and one foot in heaven. I'm halfway there.
Speaker 1:That's not what the gospel is. The gospel is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who did not come to leave us as we were, but he came to change us. God hates that mindset. He said I hate the deeds and the doctrines of the Nicolaitans. Jesus may love the sinner he absolutely loves the sinner, but he calls them to change. There has to be a change in us when we come to Christ. We are called to change.
Speaker 1:So I'm about running out of time, so I'm going to go ahead and get into the promise that God gave to the church at Pergamus. The promise of the Lord is this to him that overcomeeth will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, save he that restored it or received with it. To him that overcomeeth will I give the tea of the hidden manna. There are things in the spirit that God has prepared for us. If we will overcome, if we will stay faithful, if we will continue, we will hold on to his name, we will hold on to his faith and we will not bow in need to this world and the sinful things of this world, and that includes idolatry and that includes fornication and that includes all of the such.
Speaker 1:Hey, I want to say thank you for joining us tonight on the Five Fold Podcast. I pray that you've been blessed and that you have enjoyed what you have heard. Join us every week as we release new content concerning the Five Fold Ministry and their place in today's church. You don't want to miss this. The Five Fold Podcast.
