Title Let's Be Like Antipas/Rev 2:13
Content Let's be like Antipas/Rev 2:13
“Even when Antipas, my faithful witness, is slain among you, in the dwelling place of Satan… .” (Revelation 2:13)
Today we meet a man at the church in Pergamum. This is Andiva. A good church must have good members. Because good believers make good churches. Antipas was a good member of the Pergamum church. In Greek, the name Antiva means “one who opposes all things.”
What were you against? It meant that he was against everything except God and Jesus. Andiva was a person who lived her life against everything. How hard and difficult is it? But he lived that way. At that time, Rome was the era of emperor worship, which worshiped Caesar, the emperor, as a god. In the Bible, Caesar appears as Caesar. One day, a Roman official objected to worshiping the emperor as a god, and ordered Antiva, who served God, to stand in front of the emperor's statue.
“Andivaya, bow down to the image of the Roman emperor.” Andiva answered. “The King of kings and Lord of lords is but Jesus Christ, and I will not bow down to anyone but Jesus.” When the Roman official was enraged and shouted, “Do you not know that the whole world is against you?” Antipas said. “Then I confess against the whole world that Jesus is Lord of lords.” The Roman officials, enraged at this, put Antipas in a heated brass furnace and brutally killed them. Although Antipas was martyred, he did not deny Jesus. Jesus acknowledged Antipas. “Even when Antipas was slain among you, in the dwelling place of Satan, you did not forsake your faith in me.”
We must become saints like Antipas. A dead fish, no matter how large, is washed away by the river. But small live killifish swim up the river. This world is a dead world, and the way the people of the world go is the way of death. But we are living creatures, wriggling to the new life of Jesus Christ. No matter how difficult and difficult the road may be, let's walk the way of the Lord, the way of the cross.