Antipas: A Faithful Witness, Martyred for His Faith Summer Sermon Series “God Uses People Like Me” Kenwood Baptist Church Pastor David Palmer August 6, 2017

TEXT: Revelation 2:12-17

Good morning, Kenwood. We continue this morning in our summer equipping series that looks at the body of Christ and asks the question: “How God can use people just like you and me?” My heart is full already this morning at seeing our church being used by God all week. We had over a hundred children come to soccer camp, and 70% of those children were from the community. I think that's awesome. We had non-Christian neighbors in our neighborhood come, and I think it was the first Christian event they had ever been to. I remember after the first night, the evening closed with the explicit prayer in the Name of Jesus, and I wondered if my neighbor was offended in any way, but he just reached his hand to me and said, “Thank you for inviting us.” The next day, when players from FC Cincinnati came and gave a very articulate and compelling testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ, I saw friends who didn't know Christ and all these children and parents standing there hearing the gospel presented. I believe with all my heart that they wouldn't have come here to our backfield. The fact that we were out in a public space, in an open community space, they were willing to come, and yet the gospel was presented. I thought, “I wonder what they’re thinking.” One came up to me afterwards and said, “You know, those guys were right! Jesus is looking down on us,” and I thought, “That's a great start. You can really build on that.” I believe that God is leading our church and building us in increasing our capacity and desire and appetite for sharing Christ with our neighbors and friends. That is a very exciting thing about Kenwood and it fits very well with our summer series.

This morning, we turn to an important topic, another minor character in the New Testament, a man who is mentioned only a single time, in one passage—in Revelation 2, a man named Antipas. He was described as a faithful witness, a man who was martyred for his faith. The European-based Center for Religious Studies Research Institute published a report that said that 90,000 Christians were killed for their faith last year. That means 250 a day; that means

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five in the space of this sermon. Six hundred million Christians were prevented or blocked from practicing their faith, so persecution is very real. Yet, as we look at Antipas, I have been most challenged looking at what we know of his life, his story, the situation in which he lost his life. The death of Antipas actually challenges all of us to really live for Christ. That's the mystery of Antipas’ martyrdom and all who suffer for the Name of Christ, that those who die for the Name of Christ challenge all the rest of us to really live for Him, and that is where we are headed this morning. When you think of people in your life that really challenge you, it's often this way: the people who go through intense suffering often challenge our own pursuit of comfort and ease. We all pursue our own comfort and ease, whether it's the angle of the seat were sitting in, or the frustration we express when the seat warmers don't work on our car in the winter season. Those who suffer for their faith challenge us and expose the folly of looking just for this world and help us also to scale down our concerns. People who go through intense hardship inspire our own perseverance and courage. Faithful witness in a hostile environment ends up making us bolder for Christ. We will discover this in the case of Antipas. Keep your Bible open to Revelation 2.

Revelation 2:12-17 is a portion of the opening chapters of this Revelation of Jesus that is an unveiling of who He is as the true Lord of the world, the one with all power in the universe. The early chapters of Revelation are a set of letters addressed by the exalted Jesus to His Bride, the church in the world. There is historical context, specificity, to each of these, and Antipas’ story takes place within the context of a letter to the church at Pergamum. In Revelation2:12, the Lord speaks: “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of Him who has the sharp two-edged sword.’” That’s an image of from Revelation 1 of Jesus with His authoritative Word and power, and He addresses the church gathered in Pergamum. This is the church of which Antipas was a part. Pergamum was a spectacular city in the first century. The Hungarian artist, Balage Baloche, has reproduced what Pergamum looked like in the time of the New Testament. It was a spectacular city; it was the leading city; it was the capital city of the Roman province of Asia; it was a very wealthy city. I know there are many

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doctors and medical students here, and in the foreground of this image was one of the leading centers of healing in the ancient world. It was a spa complex. We haven't invented that. It had a place where you could go, a theater—as if you need a theater in a hospital—so people could relax. The foreground area was dedicated to Asclepius, the god of healing. As you move forward towards the city, you'll see the institutions of any pagan city: large theaters, open-air forums, marketplaces, and towering in the distance, 1300 feet up above the city, was the Acropolis area. It was modeled on the Acropolis of Athens.

A computer-generated reconstruction of Pergamum in the first century takes us up to this top area. At the top area of the Acropolis there are many different pagan temples. There was a theater with 10,000 seat capacity and had the steepest seating incline of any theater in the ancient world. The top of the area around Pergamum was filled with temples, the most important of them are these two: Pergamum had the first temple explicitly dedicated to the worship of the Roman Emperor and the Roman goddess Fortuna. It was the center of the Imperial cult in this region. The summit of the area of Pergamum also had an expansive, large altar dedicated to Zeus. You can see it is that square structure in the foreground. In Revelation 2:13 the Lord says: “I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.” For some of us, it really catches us off guard to hear Satan's throne is in my backyard. “Maybe I

should move to Finneytown!” That's not a desirable thing, and yet the imagery here of Satan's

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throne is related to these very real structures, the temple for the Imperial cult and, most probably this structure here, the great altar of Zeus that stood on the top of that 1300 foot summit. The altar of Zeus was 60 feet wide, 60 feet deep, with a monumental staircase going in. The monumental altar dedicated to Zeus, that stood on top of the city, was a center of civic pride. It was an expression of the religion of the day. It was worship required to acknowledge Zeus as supreme in his Greek name, Jupiter by his Roman name. It was an altar in which sacrifice continuously burned. It was an altar where you asserted your civic participation in society and said: “These are the gods we pay homage to, who guarantee protection, economic prosperity, military success,” and it was a very public test of loyalty in the society in a very large and public space. The altar of Zeus was so well preserved that when the German archaeologist Carl Humamm excavated, he said: “These stones are so spectacular, I’m going to take them home,” and he took them with him to Germany, and in the archaeological museum in Berlin, Germany, the altar of Zeus is the prize possession of the collection of classical antiquity even to this day.

This is the image of a very wealthy, prosperous society, but a society that required of you acknowledgment of the powers that be, that demanded and insisted on your participation on these terms: Acknowledge Zeus as the highest authority; offer incense for the protection and preservation of the Emperor—men who claimed to be like God. I have had good soccer on my mind in a new way this week with the kids and the camp. Many of us went to the game last night. I was prepping myself for the game, and I was looking at some of the greatest goals in soccer this year. You know that when you watch one video, you get prompted to watch another video. The next video in line was “Christian Rinaldo's greatest goals of all time.” The thing that was jarring to me was the subtitle of the video. The question was: “Is he human?” This guy is so good at soccer that you just might worship him. That's not so far in our day from what's being demanded of the Christians living in this setting. As different as it might seem, as far away as it might feel, the reality is that the church always, always exists in a world that will demand your highest allegiance. It will demand it. It's not optional. The world around you will claim your affections, will claim to offer you prosperity, security, health, wealth, the ability to flourish if you just give it your highest loyalty. The church always exists in a culture like this but needs to say, “Excuse me, my highest loyalty is already given away. My highest loyalty actually belongs rightly to Jesus Christ.” The church always exists in a world that thinks that we can have peace and prosperity without reference to Christ, and the church exists in the world as a worshiping community saying, “No, all authority in heaven and on earth rightly belongs to Jesus Christ. In fact, the real place of security is to be the center of God's will; in fact, Jesus Christ is the King of the world, and He's the one who rightly demands, deserves, requires our highest loyalty, and when we give that to Him with joy and gladness, we are blessed.” We exist in the world in possession of real good news of a real King whose rule extends to the uttermost parts of the

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earth. That loyalty, that confession, will always be tested, now and then. Revelation 2:13 takes us inside a moment, a season of testing and trial, that faces the church of Pergamum. Revelation 2:13 says: “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.” Again, that imagery of demonic power, oppressive power, insisting on our ultimate loyalty, guaranteeing success economically and earthly pleasures. The church existed in that world, in that setting, and was pushed and pressed, and Jesus commends this church for not denying the Name of Christ. Yet, we see in this verse that for some, Antipas and others like him, not denying Christ cost him his life. The Apostle Peter writes to Christians in this same region in the letters written near the end of his earthly pilgrimage. In 1 Peter 4:12, he says: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” We somehow picked up along the way that we should never suffer. We somehow picked up along the way that sharing Christ should always be welcomed with open arms. We have radically underestimated the power of evil in the world and the summons the gospel issues. Peter says, don't be surprised, and in 1 Peter 4:12: “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:14: “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” Peter, writing to the Christians in the same region, says in 1 Peter 4:15-16: “But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that Name.” That name of Christ, that name Christian, is so precious to us. It publicly places before the eyes of this world the identity of the real King of the world. It summons to all who hear the voice of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to whom we rightly belong, and when we hold fast the name of Christ, even when it's costly, the name of Christ is spread throughout the land.

There is a fascinating exchange of letters that is preserved between the Roman governor in this region, a certain man named Pliny, and the Roman Emperor. It's fantastic. Pliny writes to the Roman Emperor: “We have a big problem here in this region. The big problem we have is that attendance is down at the pagan temples.” Can you imagine? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the

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Governor of Ohio said, “I don’t know what to do, but we risked balancing the budget on this whole casino strategy. Nobody is going. Everybody is in church. What should we do about it?” Wouldn’t it be fantastic if businesses that had their economic model built on exploitation and degradation of humanity were coming up short and going bankrupt? Wouldn’t you love to see that? And when they meet for their board meetings, they would say, “I don't know. People used to go for this stuff. Let’s do some market analysis, let’s track people and trace their movements around the city to see why they aren’t going, why they aren’t spending. Where are they? We could clip metal bands or insert chips and track their movements.” Lo and behold, everybody's ending up at church! I’d like to hear that. Wouldn’t you? That's basically what Pliny says to the Roman emperor: “Nobody is coming any more. They’re all in church.” So the Roman governor says, “Well, I came up with this method. I interrogated people to find out if they were Christians. Those who confessed, I gave a second and third interrogation. I threatened them with punishment. Those who persisted saying, ‘Yes, I worship Jesus Christ. I give Him my highest loyalty, my highest affection,’ I executed. That was that. I had no doubt that whatever the nature of their creed, at least I could say they were stubborn.” They were killed. Pliny goes on to say: “I also received an anonymous document publishing the names of many people said to be Christians. I ignored that, because we just don't deal with anonymous documents.” So, Pliny says, “I came up with a test to force people to offer prayers and incense and pour out wine before your image, and I've learned that no one who is truly a Christian can be forced to do these things. All who worship your image and the statutes of the gods and cursed the name of Christ, I let them go.” This test of loyalty was played out in this area, and many like Antipas said, “I cannot do that. I cannot offer incense to the Emperor; I cannot honor him as God; I cannot curse the name of Jesus Christ my Savior.” Antipas refused and lost his life. According to early Christian tradition, Antipas had been a leader of the church of Pergamum. He was commissioned for this role by John the apostle, himself. The traditional account says that he was killed in the year A.D. 92 by being burned to death in a bronze bowl-shaped altar. The chief accusation against him was that he had been so successful in casting out demons from people. That is all we know, but it is enough to challenge both the church then and the church now.

The exalted Jesus speaks of the church of Pergamum, and He says in Revelation 2:14, in light of Antipas’ faithfulness: “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,” You may recall from our fall series that we spent a couple of weeks looking at the exchange of Balak and Balaam and how the Moabite king Balak summoned the professional curser Balaam to issue curses against God's people, and yet he poured forth blessing instead. It was a fantastic portion of the narrative, and when he was unsuccessful in cursing, he instead set a trap for

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God's people to compromise their faith with idolatry and immorality. Revelation 2:15 says: “So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” This is a reference to a certain group that is mentioned only twice in Revelation. As far as we can tell, the Nicolaitans were a group of people who said in effect: “You can participate in the culture. You can make the appearance that you're doing it, but just don't believe it in your heart.” The Nicolaitans were a group that was saying: “You can come up with a way to fully participate in the paganism around you and appear to deny Christ, but just stay true to Him in your heart.”

Jesus says He hates that, because He sees into us. God's people in Pergamum and today were tempted to compromise in public ways or private ways, and so Jesus issues a summons, and the summons is driven by the example of Antipas and those like him who did not compromise, whose death actually challenges all of us to truly live. Jesus teaches the church at Pergamum and us today. He says in Revelation 2:16: “Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of My mouth.” “Repent, turn the direction that you're going; turn around from cultural compromise. If you don't, I will make war against you Myself,” Jesus says. He then challenges the church with that repeated refrain: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” This is just like the ending of many of Jesus' parables: “He who was an ear, let him hear.” Jesus wants to teach His people this morning. He want to teach us and challenge us. He wants to challenge us to reorient our perspective on this topic. Revelation changes our perspective. It purifies our imagination, and Jesus challenges us with the example of Antipas at the center of this challenge. How does the death of this man and others like him really challenge us? I think it challenges us this morning in at least three significant ways.

Number one: Antipas’ death exposes the folly of living for this world. Antipas’ death is a judgment of this world against him, and yet his death shows the folly of living for this world. It shows the foolishness of trying to secure earthly affirmation, whether that's in wealth, whether that's in ease, whether that's in comfort, or whether that's just an exponentially high number of friends online. Antipas’ death exposes the folly of living for this world. You can't risk your life for the approbation of this world, because this world didn't recognize its true King. This world is very skilled, and you and I are skilled as we follow uncritically in the paths of this world, of adopting uncritically all of the standards of success that this world deems appropriate. Antipas’ death, though, exposes this folly. His death functions in many of the same ways that the death of Faithful fulfills in John Bunyan's work, The Pilgrim’s Progress. John Bunyan was an uneducated man, a very gifted preacher in the 1600s. He was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. While he

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was in prison, he did like what the Apostle Paul did when he was in prison—using his time well to write half of the letters of the New Testament. So, when John Bunyan was in prison, he wrote his most significant work. The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most read book ever written in the English language. In an important section of Pilgrim’s Progress, as the main character Christian is journeying towards the heavenly city, he has to pass through the city of this world. It has a terrible name. It is called Vanity Fair, I don't know if the magazine got that from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress; certainly it wasn't the other way around. But they have to go through Vanity Fair which is the crazy worldliness that is all around us. As they passed through Vanity Fair, this world puts Christian and Faithful into prison. There is a sham trial, and they are judged. Faithful is killed, and by God's providence, Christian is released and continues his journey. Faithful is put to death, condemned by this world, and Christian bursts into poetry as he sees Faithful taken up by an angelic host right to the heavenly city. Christian says: Brave FAITHFUL, bravely done in word and deed; Judge, witnesses, and jury have, instead Of overcoming thee, but shown their rage: When they are dead, you'll live from age to age. Well, Faithful, you have faithfully professed, Unto thy Lord; with whom you shall be blest, When faithless ones, with all their vain delights, Are crying out under their hellish plights: Sing, Faithful, sing, and let your name survive; For though they kill'd you, you are yet alive! Faithful is killed, and yet lives, and in Pilgrims Progress, a remarkable thing happens as Christian leaves Vanity Fair without his companion Faithful. There is a man on the periphery who sees Faithful condemned to death and realizes, in his death, the folly of this world, and he joins himself to Christian. He is named Hopeful, and he goes with him, and even in his death, the gospel spreads. Antipas’ death exposes the folly of this world.

Number two: Antipas’ death inspires our authentic testimony to Christ. When you see someone stand tall; when you see someone unwilling to deny that they know Christ; when you see someone who was unwilling to just bow a proverbial knee to a professor who is demanding allegiance to a secular, humanist vision of life and reality, and you say: “You know what? I have a higher loyalty. I believe I’m made in the image and likeness of God; I believe the infinite complexity of this world testifies that we are created, that God is our Redeemer as well.” When

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you see someone stand up for Christ, it makes you consider your own authentic testimony, and that authentic testimony should include a costly, sacrificial effort in sharing.

John Piper wrote a book called Let the Nations Be Glad that for me has been a paradigm- changing book about missions. I had always thought that missions was about converting people. In the very beginning of this book, Piper says that actually missions is about leading people to worship God. Worship is the goal. Missions exists because worship isn't, because we are trapped in idolatry, and the gospel comes to set us free to worship the living God. While Pieper was on writing leave to write that book, he hid at Trinity Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. He went off the grid, wrote that book, and was hiding at the seminary. While he was there, he heard that J. Oswald Sanders was speaking in chapel. Oswald Sanders was 89 years old, and he was speaking in chapel, and so Piper snuck out of his hiding writing spot and slipped into the back of the chapel just to hear him speak. Piper said. “What he said served my admiration and desire to be like this man when I'm 89.” Oswald Sanders shared the story at the close of his message. He said: “There was once an evangelist in India who trudged on foot to various villages preaching the gospel. He was a simple man with no education, who loved Jesus with all his heart, and was ready to lay down his life. “He came to a village that didn’t have the gospel. It was late in the day and he was very tired. But he went into the village and lifted his voice and shared the gospel with those gathered in the square. They mocked him, derided him, and drove him out of town. And he was so tired — with no emotional resources left — that he lay down under a tree, utterly discouraged. He went to sleep not knowing if he would ever wake up. They might come kill him, for all he knows. “Suddenly, just after dusk, he is startled and woke up. The whole town seemed to be around him looking at him. He thought he would probably die. One of the leading men in the village said, ‘We came out to see what kind of man you are, and when we saw your blistered feet we knew you were a holy man. We want you to tell us why you were willing to get blistered feet to come talk to us.’ So he preached the gospel.” According to J. Oswald Sanders, the whole village believed. The death of Antipas challenges all of us to check our feet. Where are they blistered and bloodied so that people around us can know?

Number three: Antipas’ death ultimately teaches us to live for Christ. His death was really an outcome of his living for Christ. On January 8, 1956, , , Ed McAuley, Peter Fleming, and were speared to death on a sandbar called Palm Beach in the Curaray River of . They were trying to reach the Huaorani Indians, for the first time in

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history, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. These five men, called The Ecuador Five, when they learned the language, they made contact with the Indians. Jim Elliot's widow, Elizabeth Elliot, memorialized their story in a book called The Shadow of the Almighty, which has been made into a film. I had the privilege of meeting her as a first-year seminarian, and I saw that she cuts Granny Smith apples just like the rest of us. She is actually a very ordinary, faithful person. As Elizabeth Elliot and others have made the story known about her husband Jim, one of the sons of Nate Saint, , and others actually went back to the Indian tribe and lived with them for decades, and now the Huaorani tribe, their hearts have flooded open to the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the leaders, Gikita, who was part of the killing party said that this question hounded the men, hounded the warriors who killed the missionaries. He said: “Why would these men want to make contact with us?” The question dogged him for years until he learned about another Man, Jesus, who freely allowed His own death to benefit all people. Gikita has come to know Christ and repeatedly asserts that all he wants to do now is go to heaven and live peacefully with the five men who came to tell them about God. These five men challenged a whole generation of people. Just like the death of Antipas, not outside God sovereign purpose, the death of these men actually inspired thousands of others into frontier missions. Steve Saint wrote about these men. He said: “My father and his four friends were not given the privilege of watching their children and grandchildren grow up. I've often wished I could have known my dad as an adult, . . . I have trouble distinguishing what I actually ‘remember’ of him and what I have been told. But I do know that he left me a legacy, and the challenge now is for me to pass it on to my children.”

What was the legacy of this man who died for Christ? Steve said: “Dad strove to find out what life really is. He found identity, purpose, and fulfillment in being obedient to God's call. He tried it, tested it, and committed himself to it. I know that the risk he took, which resulted in his death and consequently his separation from his family, he took not to satisfy his own need for adventure or fame, but in obedience to what he believed was God's directive to him.

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He goes on to say: “I suppose he is best known because he died for his faith, but the legacy he left his children was his willingness first to live for his faith.” Are you ready to live for Jesus Christ this morning? Steve Saint concludes this article on modern-day martyrs by saying:

“God took five common young man of uncommon commitment and used them for His glory. They never had the privilege they so enthusiastically pursued to tell the Huaorani of the God they loved and served. “But for every Huaorani who today follows God's trail (a great picture of discipleship) through the efforts of others, there are a thousand cowodi (that’s the rest of us) who follow God's trail more resolutely because of their example. This success withheld from them in life God multiplied and continues to multiply as a memorial to their obedience and faithfulness.” The death of Antipas, and all like him, actually challenges us to really live for Christ. It challenges us to pursue Him and to be obedient to His call. It challenges us to recognize the folly of this world, to embrace our own authentic testimony to Christ, and to ultimately really live for Him. Can we pursue that together as a community as we receive Jesus’ promise: “To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna and a white stone, with a new name,”—that is, the Name of Christ on it. Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we love You, and we praise You. We praise You that You call us to a radical obedience this morning. We thank You that precious in Your sight is the death of the saints, and we thank You, Lord, for the persecuted church in the world then and now, which challenges us this morning to truly live for You. We give You praise and thanks.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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