12 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword: 13 “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.

14 “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. 15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching.  16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

17 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it. Revelation 2:12-17 New Living Translation.

Jesus told John to tell the Christians in Pergamum that He 'knew where they lived'! (vs 13). It's like someone saying “I know your address”. But it shows us too that Jesus also knew the hard times they were having because of where they lived! In fact, He says to them, 'you're living in the same town Satan lives in, and where he's set up his headquarters'.

Pergamum was home to many of the false religions of those days. It was also one of the cities where the Roman emperors were most worshipped. Many of these emperors behaved like anti-Christs. So it seemed that Satan had a real grip on the city – and that led to hard times for the Christians. What was one of the methods Satan used to harm the Christians? (vs 13).

We see that he stirs up people to attack Christians, sometimes with words, at other times with weapons. But he has another method too which we see in verses 14 -15. What is that?

He also uses people to teach wrong things to try and seduce Christians into immorality, both spiritual and physical. The incident in Israel's history of the man named Balaam is told in great detail in Numbers 22 to 25, so it was obviously something God wanted us to be aware of. There were people in Pergamum (called Nicolaitans) who were trying to get the Christians to take part in promiscuity just as Balaam had done to the people of Israel.

What about us today? We live in a world that's been flooded with the message that we should be free to have sex wherever and whenever we want. Even pornography (which used to be kept to backstreets) has become a major industry. But how does Jesus call us to respond to these siren songs of the world? (vs 16-17).

And there's a word of comfort for us here too. Where do you live? Do you ever get lonely? Do people ever try and influence you to doing things Satan would love? Take heart - Jesus knows where you live! He knows what difficulties or temptations you face. Ask Him to help you to stand firm and not be overcome by the enemy.