Sermon Cloud

Pergamum was devoted to worship. They were outward worshippers. But they worshipped something or someone besides Jesus Christ as God, and so it was a city acclaimed for its ostentatious idolatry. We are all worshippers. We all sacrifice our time, talents and treasure to worship someone or something. We worship what we believe will satisfy us, give us love, worth, acceptance and a purpose in life. We are no different that the Pergamenians and as we look closer at this city, we will see our city and our hearts under the same influence as them.

The city of Pergamum worshipped Athena, the goddess of knowledge, and her statue and temple was placed next to the second largest library in the world. It is believed to have held over 200,000 manuscripts. The city took great pride in their library and many sacrificed everything to Athena and spent their lives gaining their worth in the amount of manuscripts they had read at this library.

The College Area is Pergamum. If you drive past SDSU on the 8, you will see a modern day acropolis built on a hill much like Pergamum. The pride of College Area is the fifth largest university in all of California and the largest in San Diego. 35,000 students gather to worship Athena, where the promises of the future are wrapped around the complete dedication to the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, culture, crafts and learning. Just as Pergamum found its identity in its library, we find our identity in our university. Our city worships Athena.

Do you worship Athena? Is education the answer to all your problems, the world’s problems and the future’s problems? Are you putting off work and the real world with a pursuit of more degrees, more majors, more minors and more certifications? Do you believe a complete person is a person who is cultural, skilled and that learning is our ultimate purpose? I implore you to examine your heart and see if Athena reigns there. Are you making unnecessary and untimely sacrifices to worship Athena? Are you sacrificing growing up, getting a job, getting married, serving the church, prayer, time in the word, money you don’t have, or reaching the lost in order to worship Athena and gain more knowledge? Are you choosing school over someone God would have you marry? Are you choosing school over someone you have married? Are you straining relationships to feed your idol?

I must remind you that knowledge and wisdom are not evil in themselves. The question is, are you worshipping them? Are you taking a good thing and changing it into a god thing? That is idolatry. The Bible itself tells us to seek wisdom and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we are not to worship it as Christ. Some of you are not in a proper position to pursue more knowledge.

It is a heart issue. Some of you should grow up and go to school and some of you should grow up and get out of school. Check your heart, and have your community check your heart.

Athena was not the lone goddess in this city though, and she is not the lone idol in ours. Spend any amount of time with students or others in our city and you will hear the worship of the goddess named Dionysus. Perhaps there is no other idol that gets more vocal praise and support in College Area than the goddess of vines and wines. Just as her temple was located near a theatre made for the gathering and entertainment, today her temple resides almost anywhere people are coming together to party and celebrate. She promises a release from the strain of worshipping Athena or other idols but leaves you just as empty and may lead you into other painful decisions.

The College Area is filled with drunkenness. Not just merely getting tipsy, but getting so hammered that you forget whom you slept with, where you are, and what you are doing. It is easy to compare ourselves to the drunkards and be filled with religious pride that we are not idolizing Dionysus. But be careful that you do idolize her by finding your identity in not worshipping her—meaning having pride in what you do or don’t do instead of what Jesus has done. Christians can worship this god by breaking the law and drinking before twenty-one. They can worship this god by making sure everyone knows that they have the liberty to drink as a Christian, and arguing with every Christian that chooses not to drink. They can worship this god by not drinking and making everyone feel crappy or lesser for enjoying alcohol as a gift from God to enjoy and not worship. Check your heart. It is not just drunken frat guys who are sacrificing themselves to Dionysus.

Do you worship Dionysus? Do you need alcohol to have fun, be social or comfortable in social settings? Do you need alcohol to relax, relieve stress, or go to sleep? Do you drink until you are drunk, sick, or often have hangovers? Does drinking cause you to break the law? Do you drink underage, drive drunk, or become unruly, rebellious, and prone to sin? Does the amount you drink cause you to sin? Become more lustful, angry, proud, etc.?

Do you unknowingly worship Dionysus? Do you choose who is a saved by who drinks or doesn’t drink? Do you boast about not drinking and look down on those who do? Do you drink at every opportunity to let others know you have the liberty to drink? Do you get in religious debates about whether or not Christians should be at liberty to drink and pridefully defend your side?

Asclepius was the god of healing. Pergamum had a huge medical facility and people came from around the world to pay money to get healed. Today, many believe all of our healing will come from modern medicine. There are many at SDSU and out of SDSU who believe that our problems will be fixed by a pill, surgery, pop psychology from some other doctor. Sin and emotional wounds are treated, covered or pushed away by a trip to the doctor. The answer to widespread genital herpes is not chastity but instead modern medicine. We worship modern medicine as the answer to all of our problems.

SDSU is often called STDSU because it has the highest STD rate per capita of any school in the entire nation. Our solution is modern medicine and not the heart that keeps sleeping around with others.

Again we can make this an idol by ignoring medicine, doctors and forget that Jesus heals through miracles and by common grace through modern medicine. The book of Luke and the book of Acts were written by Luke who was Paul’s doctor. Check your heart. If you have a crippling illness but refuse to see a doctor, you may in your pride be sacrificing your health to worship Asclepius, the very god you say you hate.

Do you worship Asclepius? Do you think Dr. Phil can fix all your problems? Do you think a pill, a plan, a diet, or modern medicine is the answer to all of your problems? Do you think no Christian should ever go to the doctor for any reason but should only pray?

Demeter was known as the goddess of the fruits of the earth. Pergamum not only worshipped the goddess of fruits of the earth and in turn worshipped food, they also worshipped with food, sacrificing food to idols and then eating that food. Walk around SDSU and you will see a different worship of food. While gluttony still infects the College Area and many look for satisfaction and identity being wrapped up in gluttony. They eat to ease pain, sleep, or entertainment. The primary worship of food in College Area is not found in eating food but in not eating food, in counting every calorie and worshipping what you don’t eat as a god. Letting food created for your enjoyment wreck you with guilt and shame because it contained sugar or flavor. Don’t beat yourself up for eating something besides a carrot. It is tragic that Demeter is worshipped to the extent that bulimia and anorexia is normal in college. Plumbing in sorority homes is notorious for being replaced much more often that any other home. These women worship Demeter and their bodies, and vomit in their sinks. The burning acid from the stomach rots through the piping and needs to be replaced. I saw this last year managing houses in the U-District. These were actual Christian homes and I replaced more than one sink pipe due to holes that had formed through what seemed to be new and strong pipes.

Do you worship Demeter as a glutton? Do you drown sorrows with food? Do you eat so much that you have physical pain? Does exercise sound like a swear word? Does a bag of Doritos and your video game console sound like heaven? Are you unhealthy and your doctor would recommend exercise and weight loss?

Do you worship Demeter for body image? Are you always trying to lose ten pounds? Do you feel guilty for eating? Do you constantly compare yourself to girls in magazines, on TV or movies? Do you always feel like you need to work out? Do you think losing a few more pounds will rescue you? Do you talk about how fat you are in front of people and wait for their approval to say you are skinny instead of looking for Christ’s approval? Does the amount of calories, sugar, fat calories or other numbers on the packaging sway how you feel about yourself? Do you let the gym, protein powder and muscles dictate all your decisions? Are you unhealthy and your doctor would recommend less exercise and weight gain?

Pergamum was also one of the first to support imperial worship. They worshipped Caesar and other Roman officials as Lord. Just like today, they thought that their best life and hope would be found in politicians and politics. Take a walk at SDSU on any given day and you will be greeted by students gladly sacrificing their time, talent and energy to the worship of a political agenda, idea or leader. Many are fighting for the next politician to save the world and many of you give far more thought and energy to politics than to Jesus. Many of you still hold the belief that our savior will come with a new politician or political idea. Check your heart for setting up temples for imperial worship.

Do you think Obama being or not being president is the answer to our country’s problems? Do you make sure to watch political talk shows and talk radios and feel like your political ideology will save the world?

The goddess Hera also had a temple in Pergamum. Her temple is popular in the College Area. Hera, the wife of Zeus, gave herself to him in spite of his poor leadership, lack of real manhood, and being a complete adulterer. She continues to entice her worshippers to do anything to marry anyone and do everything to stay individualistic in that marriage. Her worshippers will do anything for a relationship and pursue intimacy rooted in selfishness. She leads her worshippers down an endless path of one unsatisfying relationship after another. Hera hated Zeus and even though her own marriage was miserable, she promised that marriage and children would bring satisfaction to our life. Her followers today are always thinking a relationship will bring joy. Like Hera, who married a miserable dude named Zeus, Hera worshipped the idea of marriage and married Zeus regardless of him being a cheater. Women today are still worshipping this idol of a boyfriend or man. Hera worshiped the idea of a husband and married a cheater. She was also a mom overwhelmed with selfishness. She married selfishly because Zeus was popular and good looking and thought she was hot. She did not care that he was not a one-woman man and did not care if he loved Jesus, so she had a husband who constantly cheated on her. In her selfishness she did not lovingly parent her children and care for Zeus but was enslaved to jealousy. She spent more time worrying about her image and murdering Zeus’ other girlfriends than she did with her children.

Hera is a selfish, foolish goddess who reminds us that if you are selfish and foolish before marriage you will be selfish and foolish in marriage. Hera carried her sin into marriage and motherhood and many of you will carry this sin into marriage and motherhood.

Revelations 2:14-15, Numbers 25:1-4

Perhaps it was the goddess of Hera that led John to speak of the teaching of Balaam. Balaam taught Balak to have God’s people fall by enticing and seducing them with his people. Balaam was a prophet who had to speak the words of the Lord but wanted still to get the money of Balak. While he feared the Lord enough to speak what He told him to speak, he did not love the Lord and his people enough to not sell out to Balak. The church in Pergamum is filled with men and women who are casually dating non-Christians. They are sleeping with non-Christians, marrying non-Christians and accepting their gods as gods. They are not taking relationships seriously and getting the counsel of their community through prayer and humility but are instead hanging out with any cute guy or girl that comes near them. They are following the goddess Hera’s advice on relationships instead of the Lord Jesus Christ’s.

Are you worshipping Hera and following the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolatians? Do you not want to put the hard work of repentance, forgiveness and service into your marriage? Do you think a spouse will fulfill your dreams and give you an identity? Do you think a spouse should serve you as god? Do you think a spouse will rescue you from your misery? Do you think children will rescue you from misery? Do you think kids are a burden and not a blessing? Do you cringe at the idea of marriage and children? Do you view relationships or children as a hindrance to your personal goals? Do you think someone else should raise your children? Are looks of first importance when thinking of a spouse? Are you constantly telling people of how most your friends are of the opposite sex?

Girls beware of guys with lots of girl friends. You don’t want to be like Hera marrying a loser who spends more time dating his friends that happen to be girls than you. Guys beware of girls with lots of guy friends. Chances are this girl gets her worth and identity from the attention all these guys give her and not from Christ.

Lindsey does not have guy friends that she hangs out with and I don’t have girl friends that I hang out with. Why? Because guys don’t want friends that are girls, they want a girl. And girls don’t want friends that are guys, they want a guy. Don’t be naïve and don’t practice for having an unhealthy marriage.

Are you looking for someone to serve you or serve with you in a gospel-centered marriage? Are you looking for hot or looking for a legacy? Women do you want your sons to grow up like him? Why hang out with him? Men do you want your daughters to grow up like her? Why date her?

The church in Pergamum was following the teaching of Balaam. They are arrogant and make excuses to hang out with the opposite sex to just be friends. Single people, you need to stop believing that you are going to save people by dating them. This destroyed the nation of Israel, destroyed the church in Pergamum and is destroying the church today. How arrogant, foolish and prideful to think you are the lone guy or girl who can casually date or hang out with non Christians from the opposite sex and not be compromised. It leads to the teaching of the Nicolatians that all gods are one or that we all have the same belief anyway. If he or she does not love Jesus do not date them. Period.

Boys, if you want to marry you need to love Jesus. Repent of your porn and other disgusting addictions, get a job, move out of your mommy’s house, pray your tail off and pursue a woman who loves Jesus. Girls, you need to love Jesus, pray your braids off and allow the community to speak into your life about which guys you should let talk to you. Seriously. Don’t give your heart to every dirt-bag wearing cheap cologne and holding flowers. If he is not holding flowers or wearing cheap cologne than you need to especially run because he isn’t even trying.

Casual dating is casually practicing for divorce. We practice giving our hearts away, getting them trampled on and taking them back broken and bruised. We do this until it is normal and then we take the same pattern into marriage and are shocked when it ends in divorce. Divorce rates are the same in the church as outside of the church because we prepare for marriage the same way. Not through prayer, counsel, devotion to Jesus and time spent with community but by casually dating on a whim.

Question for the singles out there—Does he or she love the church? Living in community, speaks highly of the church, serves the church, humbly submits to the church? If he isn’t faithful, loving and committed to Christ’s bride, then he won’t be faithful, loving and committed to his bride. Also, don’t you make this decision by letting his church tell you if he or she is in love with the church? You already think he or she walks on water because they sent a text picture of a California burrito stain shaped like a heart.

Is he a one-woman man? Is she a one-man woman? Does she check out every guy and flirt with every guy and talk about dating every guy or is she lovingly dating Jesus. She talks about Jesus, is devoted to Jesus and finds her beauty and identity in Jesus.

Is he a one-woman man? Caring for the church, loving the church, serving and committed to the church? Or is he attending a couple churches, a couple college ministries, and taking from every Christian organization and never giving or committing to one. If he does this with Christ’s bride, he will do this with you.

Is he the flirt guy, the porn guy, the never-has-a-girlfriend-but-always-has-a-date guy? The let’s-never-talk-about-marriage guy? If your guy never talks about marriage, then you might want to dump him and save your heart for a man committed to protecting it for life and not playing with it for a while.

If you are this guy, you need to repent. You need to fall in love with the church before you fall in love with a girl. Serve the church, commit to a church, become a member of a church, instead of dating a church. Covenant with God’s family and not flirt with it.

You need to be a one-woman man and that one woman is either your wife or your future wife. Pray for a wife, save your self for a wife, and pursue a woman who is like-minded and loves Jesus.

Revelation 2:13a

Pergamum also had an altar to Zeus. Everything flowed out of the lies of worshipping Zeus. “The throne of Satan.” These idols and other religions are satanic. Like Zeus was the leader and head of all these gods and goddesses, Satan himself is the father of lies and his many demons promise salvation and happiness from a multitude of other idols. You must see that if you answered yes to any of these questions of idolatry, your idolatry is satanic. Some of you might be saying, “So what? I have a little problem with this sin or that sin.” You worship Satan. He has set up thrones and temples and altars in your heart. They may be disguised as work, school, marriage, food, or something else but they are satanic and when you sacrifice and devote your time, treasure and talents to anything but Jesus Christ you worship Satan.

Pergamum was an idol factory that was a physical representation of the very state of our hearts. We build temples to these gods and goddesses and we store them in our hearts. We worship and protect them as if they will save us and we fight against those who come near them. We are an idolatrous people. Idolatry is taking created things and worshipping them as Creator God. It is foolishness but we press on living it. We take good things like knowledge or food and we turn them into god things, sacrificing our time, treasure and talent to pleasing these idols.

Pergamum was a large, respected, wealthy city with much for the world to admire. It had elaborate statues, temples, altars and more that were built with the finest of care and detail. Today Pergamum is in ruins. Jesus Christ will come with a double-edged sword and slay every idol once and for all. The idols in your heart will be in ruins. The question is, will you work with Christ to ruin these idols or will you protect them and be slain with them?

Revelation 2:13a

Jesus knew the state of Pergamum and he knows our situation in the College Area. He knows we are surrounded by idols and he knows which idols have temples in our hearts. He knows the lies being spread by these idols and the pressure to listen to these lies and conform to the world and bow down to Satan. He knows which idols you are fighting to protect and which ones you long to have removed. Christ is making war against these idols and he will slay them and reign over them for all eternity. The question is, will you be slain while protecting your idols or will you join Jesus in slaying them with him?

Revelation 2:13b

Some of you are wondering to what extreme we are to crush these idols. To what extreme do we risk our jobs, family, grades, etc. to crush our idols? Our example is Christ and Antipas. Some of you are thinking you don’t understand the pressure from my work to date guys at work. You don’t understand the pressure from my roommates to make out with girls. You don’t understand that my whole family worships alcohol—we get drunk together as a family, that is what we do. I have to be skinny or I can’t get a boyfriend so no eating for me. I have to eat to drown my sorrows, that is how I was raised. You don’t understand men in my family don’t settle down and marry, we play with girl’s hearts. Women in my family don’t raise their children, we all send them to daycare professionals.

You don’t understand if I crush this idol; people at work might not love me! If I crush this idol, people at school might not include me. I could be hated. Antipas was killed! Antipas was not just killed but history tells us he was slowly roasted alive! We need to have the same passion for Christ as Antipas. Persecution is not an excuse to worship idols.

Unpopularity, difficulty or peer pressure is not an excuse to comfort your idols. How faithful are we to be? Ask Antipas.

Revelation 2:16

What extreme is Christ taking with your idols? Christ is coming to make war with your idols and is calling his church to make war with him. Some of us want to make treaties with our idols. We even encourage others in the church to just not feed the idol or ignore the idol or that their idol is not that ugly, in fact I have a home for the same idol in my heart. Some of us are enablers for idolatry, always playing down the danger and disgust of idolatry. Stop enabling and MAKE WAR! Stop comforting your idols and make war. This is life and death. Satan wants to set his throne in the center of your heart and to steal, kill, and destroy you. Death is his goal and the lies feeding idolatry are his strategy. Stop encouraging and protecting idols and put them to death. Christ will not come back thinking your idolatry is cute and excited about how you lovingly comforted others in their idolatry. He is coming to make war with idolatry. His weapon is the truth of God’s word. It is lies that our hearts believe that feed our idols and it is the truth that will crush them and free us from idolatry. All sin starts with exchanging the truth for a lie and repentance starts with us exchanging a lie for the truth. Truth will set you free.

Revelation 2:17a

Worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of worshipping these idols. Turn from you idolatry and worship Jesus as Lord. Jesus alone can satisfy you, change you and save you. Jesus alone gives you worth and value. Education, beer, significant others, politics, and anything else that promises to save you are demonic liars. Don’t believe the lies. Believe Christ. Pergamum and its idols lie in ruins, and sadly, many from that church and city are dead with their souls in ruins for all of eternity. The lie that Pergamum was told was that life would be best if they fed their idols and now Pergamum is a city in ruins. College Area and Kaleo SDSU will look no different if we do not believe in the gospel and spread the gospel.

Revelation 2:17b, Psalm 49:15

We are under the power of Sheol, of Satan, of Zeus. But we have been rescued from this power. We do not have to live a life enslaved to our idols any longer. Christ has paid our ransom. You may be owned by one or another of these idols, you may feel enslaved and indebted and know that you owe your idol your life. But God has rescued us from this power. He paid our ransom on the cross and has set us free. How great it is to have a Savior, a Rescuer, a God who pays our ransom. He paid our ransom with his blood and now we no longer need to live under the power of Satan but can live under the gracious reign of Jesus! Some of these idols may have really hit home for you. Some of you may feel overwhelmed because you said yes to every question of idolatry. Some of you are enablers and you don’t even see what the big deal is. It is a huge deal. Some of us know that we should be slain along with our idols! But the good news is that Christ has paid our ransom for all of our sin. He has freed us from every idol. Don’t you see that Christ was slain and now we are acquitted from our idolatry. Don’t focus on your idol. Repent of it. Crush it. And instead fix your eyes on Jesus. Live free of idolatry. You are free to worship Jesus Christ alone as God, and if the son has set you free, you are free indeed. Repent therefore of worshipping these false idols and worship Jesus alone.

Every one of us deserves a black stone and is guilty of idolatry. But Christ took the black stone and if we repent and put our faith in him we will receive the white stone, acquitted from our error and with Christ for eternity. Amen.