Permissive Pergamum - Rev 2:12-17

On April 26, 1986 at 1:23am, a explosion occurred that shook the earth and rattled homes miles away.

Confused residents climbed out of bed to look out the window and were greeted with a sight that almost defies explanation. A strange blueish glow lighting up the night sky while echos of rumblings continued. Some went outside onto their balconies. Some sought to move toward the site to catch sight of the tragedy that was unfolding.

Some reported after being awoken by the blast that they saw what appeared to be massive column of fire, but not a normal one. it glowed with strange colors. The sky above it was illuminated by light similar to the northern lights, but there was a eerie silence in the air as the fires burned.

What these confused residents didn’t know was that simply being outside and in such near proximity to these strange events was exposing them to lethal doses of radiation. Indeed, many residents went to visit the next day and stood to watch the fires burn, and one person is reported to say “We didn’t know it was killing us”

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am describing the harrowing events that unfolded in and around Chernobyl when the nuclear facility experienced catastrophic failure.

The blast launched unfathomable amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere, and the the area is continues to be contaminated and is estimated to remain uninhabitable for at least 3000 years, and perhaps as many as 20,000 years.

How did this disaster occur? was it a freak accident?

One summary put it this way: this catastrophe didn’t happen overnight—it was the result of small compromises, ignored warnings, and a dangerous culture of permissiveness in Soviet industry and politics.

The laundry list of issues is long but here are just a few highlights:

The reactor had a known design flaw, but the engineers did nothing to correct it, some say because of potential political repercussions.

The explosion occured during a safety test, but under less than idea conditions. The test was rushed, the engineers were tired, they disabled key safety systems and they ignored multiple warnings that the reactor was unstable.

All told, the disaster was entirely preventable, but a chain a small compromises led to catastrophic disaster.

Such stories not only provide for us a cautionary tale for nuclear reactors, but illustrate for us the dangers of compromises in every day life.

Each small compromise may seem to be just that: small. You may feel like you’re getting away with something. But those small compromises begin to have a larger effect, and before you know you have a full-blown disaster on your hands.

Such was the case for the church of Pergamum. Though there were some positive things to commend about the church, they were largely marked by their compromising tolerance of error. Error so significant that Jesus says if they don’t repent he is willing to wage war against them!

How did they get there? It certainly wasn’t over night. Just like the disaster in Chernobyl, It was the result of small compromises, ignored warnings, and a dangerous culture of permissiveness.

Let’s read our text today containing the letter to the church in Pergamum

Revelation 2:12–17 LSB

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: This is what the One who has the sharp two-edged sword says: ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. ‘But I have a few things against you, that you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. ‘So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ‘Therefore repent. But if not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

The City of Pergamum was located north of Smyrna as we continue along in our journey through Asia Minor

Pergamum was a wealthy city, but a city steeped in paganism and idolatry. Temples to Zeus, the Roman cult, and many others marked this city. It was also home to a massive library that some say contained 200,000 volumes, and was second only to the library in Alexandria.

Pergamum was a large city, and an important city to Asia minor in those days. Today it largely lies in ruins, with a small settlement just south of the ancient city.

As we move through this text we are going to follow our familiar pattern, and I should note that I have provided for you a chart of the seven churches. Creating a chart on the seven churches is like a dispensational rite of passage, so you have that now. I hope it is helpful for you as a quick reference guide.

The Familiar pattern: Christ, Condition, Command, Commitment.

Christ: Has the Sharp Two-Edged Sword

Emphatic reminder that Christ is the one speaking and we are to listen.

Two-edged sword. We’ve talk about this description when we were in chapter 1. The imagery of the sword is most commonly used with reference to the Word of God, and when it proceeds from the mouth of Christ there is particularly a judicial element to it.

Rev 19 speaks of Christ coming and his victory over the antichrist with a sword coming from his mouth, rendering judgment.

This already is the kind of letter that makes you sit up straight. It begins ominously with Christ as a ready judge, able and ready to end those who refuse to heed the warnings found in this text.

And yet, Jesus begins with words of commendation. They have done well in persevering in the faith.

Condition: Persevering

Revelation 2:13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.”

This reference to Satan’s throne is fascinating. Some have tried to identify this throne with a variety of idols and temples found in the city. Some point to Zeus, whose massive alter is presently in a museum in Berlin, and contained a large throne. Some point to Asclepius, the god of healing, who was represented by an image of a snake.

Others have rejected these common identifications because Jesus seems to signalling that there is something unique about Pergamum, and every one of the cities we have seen so far and will see all had pagan alters and temples....but only Pergamum is called the place where Satan dwells and has his throne.

It does seem as though the point is that Satan seems to have an especially tight grip on Pergamum, an especially tight stranglehold on the city. His influence would be felt everywhere and the spiritual darkness palpable.

And yet, the church of Pergamum, though in the heart of darkness, has remained strong. They have not abandoned Christ, that have not denied the faith!

Even faced with severe persecution and death, they have held firm. Jesus specifically mentions a man named Antipas who was killed for the sake of Christ. neither the Scriptures nor any other historical document provides for us any additional information on this man. His name means “Against all” and seems like an appropriate name for someone who seemingly died because he stood for Christ and was “against all” of the pagan deities.

What an amazing testimony. Holding firm, even unto death. This, of course, was what Jesus had encouraged the church of Smyrna to do: be faithful unto death.

Here is Antipas and the other Pergamene believers faithfully doing just that! Even as they dwell in the heart of Satan’s territory, the place where Satan’s influence is felt in unusually powerful ways, they stood strong.

There are many individuals throughout history who have modeled this kind of resolute determination to stand for Christ.

I think of Athenasius, who fought against the Arian heresies that plagued the church in the 4th century and gained the nickname “Athenasius against the world” because he was one of the few to take a stand on truth.

I think of Corrie Ten Boom, a dutch Christian who helped hide and rescue Jews during the holocaust and spent 10 months in a Nazi concentration camp. Even though many around her and her family were caving to the Nazi agenda, they stood strong, held firm to the faith, and provided rescue for those fleeing death.

Despite facing intense opposition, these individuals stood strong in their convictions.

The church of Pergamum similary stood strong in the face of attack. Though they dwelt where Satan dwelt, they held their ground.

And yet, all was not well with the church in Pergamum.

Sadly, though this church persevered in their faith, they were also permissive of false teachings

Condition: Permissive

Revelation 2:14 “‘But I have a few things against you, that you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.”

This takes us back to the book of Numbers. You may remember a story of Balak, king of Moab, who wanted to hired Balaam to come curse the Israelites. He refused at first, because God told him not to go. He eventually went, and we have the story of his donkey talking.

Because of the warnings from Yahweh, Balaam refuses to curse Israel, but blesses them instead.

We find in Numbers 25:1-3

Numbers 25:1–3 LSB

And Israel remained at Shittim, and the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. Indeed they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel.

And later we learn in Num 31:16

Numbers 31:16 LSB

“Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the word of Balaam, to act unfaithfully against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.

Balaam, though he had refused to curse Israel for Balak, had apparently advised Balak to corrupt the Israelites from the inside out by offering wives to the Israelite men, who would then be pressured to allow these foreign wives to worship their pagan gods.

And in that, he was successful.

So we find in Rev 2, the teachings of Balaam who put these stumbling blocks in the way. Encouraging eating food sacrificed to idols and committing sexual immorality.

It’s unlikely that this errant group would have identified themselves directly with Balaam, but rather Jesus says they are acting in ways consistent with Balaam, and are thus holding to his teachings.

Eating food sacrificed to idols was a significant part of pagan culture. Nearly all food in the marketplace was sacrificed to an idol before selling it, and one could choose food based on which deity was honored in that food.

Paul wrote in 1 Cor about how there is freedom with food sacrificed to idols because we know that idols aren’t actually really God’s, and yet he warned that you should not eat of it if you conscience would bother you if you ate, or if you were to cause a weaker brother to stumble in eating it. Furthermore, he warned against participating directly in the temple worship by eating food in the pagan temples, and he warned against eating it if you were a guest in someone’s home and they specifically made mention that it was sacrificed to an idol, because it was important for believers to make it clear that they do not participate in the worship of demons.

It seems that whatever the church in pergamum was doing, it was tolerating those who were advocating some violation of Paul’s teaching, and possibly were encouraging eating food in the temples.

Not only that, but they were encouraging sexual immorality. We don’t necessarily know what this looked like, exactly, but many of these pagan temples had cult prostitutes and worship of these false gods involved various forms of sexual immorality. It’s possible that there were some who were claiming they had freedom to participate in these things.

I think of 1 Cor 5, where a man was involved in an immoral relationship with his step-mother and the church was permitting it.

It seems here that sexual immorality was actually being encouraged, not just allowed!

There are few things that will destroy a church faster than a permissive attitude toward sexual immorality.

Satan knows that when outside pressure fails to break a church, his next best option is to break then down from within.

It wasn’t just the teaching of Balaam, as if that wasn’t bad enough, but then there were those Nicolaitans.

Revelation 2:15 “‘So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”

We talked about the Nicolaitans back with the letter to Ephesus. The Ephesian church was commended for hating the works of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus says “I also hate”

We noted that we don’t know exactly the error of the Nicolaitans. That detail has not been preserved for us. We know Jesus hates them. It seems that it is at least conceptually related to the teaching of Balaam, because the text says “you have some who in the same way hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans”

That phrase has made some to describe this teaching in almost identical terms as the teaching of Balaam. I struggle with that because if there were that closely related, they probably wouldn’t have their own label. There had to be something distinct about this group.

Nevertheless, the church was permissive toward these errant groups!

How does a church get to a place where they are tolerating idolatry and sexual immorality?

This does not occur over night. Small compromises along the way that would allow for this.

Small churches can face the danger of wanting to welcome anyone in who claims to in agreement with them because we want to grow, and we want more people exposed to truth. Soon those individuals begin advocating for slightly wrong things and the church allows it because they have a relationship with these people now and they don’t want to damage that. Eventually the influence grows and it may actually cause numerical harm to a church to put him out. I’m aware of a church where this happened. A man was advocating false doctrine, but many in the church personally liked the man so they didn’t want to put him out of the church. When he was finally put out, others left the church as well.

Larger churches can face the danger of simply not being aware of the things that being taught and advocated in the church because the leadership can only interact with so many people on a regular basis and cannot possibly be there for everything.

Sometimes the error is found when family of the pastor or close friends of those in leadership are the ones in error. The leaders don’t want to address the sin because its awkward and could cause a scene. The people in the church don’t want to rock the boat, so they turn a blind eye.

These are all relatively small compromises in the early stages, but once you compromise in one area, you set a precedent and are forced to compromise again and again or else someone will accuse you of preferential treatment. And so you the permissive culture of the church grows.

These are just a few ways that a permissive culture can grow. Small things left unaddressed lead to catastrophic issues down the line.

Church discipline is always kind of a touchy topic. Some people have experienced unbiblical discipline. Some churches fail to practice any form of it at all. Historically, there have been many individuals who have said that if a church does not actively practice church discipline when the need for it arises, then it isn’t a biblical church. As challenging as this may be, we cannot allow sin and false doctrine to go unaddressed in our churches.

So Christ issues his warning

Command: Repent!

Therefore repent!

I love the brevity and simplicity here. Jesus essentially just says, Stop it!

Stop it! I always get a kick out of that Bob Newhart sketch where he is counseling a woman with a variety of issues and his advice is just “Just stop it!”

Jesus’ rebuke is swift and simple. Stop allowing this false teaching in your midst!

Stop this culture of permissiveness.

The concept of repentance is that of a change of mind that leads to a change of action.

We change our minds. You thought you were going the right direction, but you come to realize that you aren’t. You change your mind about your course, so you turn around and begin to go in a new direction.

The church had a permissive culture and Jesus says that you must stop, you must turn, you must address these errors in your midst!

I find it interesting that even though Ephesus was a loveless church, their zeal for truth was their strong suit. Here, Pergamum had the perseverance that Smyrna was encouraged to pursue, but failed to maintain their zeal for truth.

And Jesus says, repent, and if you don’t, you will have Me to contend with.

Commitment: Will make war with those who don’t repent

This is in many ways a terrifying reality.

Many people want to paint the God of the OT as a mean vindictive God, while Jesus represents the God of the NT, who is soft and gentle and all about love.

I’m here to tell you that the God of the OT is the same God of the NT. We cannot put the NT and OT against each other.

Yes, Jesus is a kind and merciful savior, but there does come a point when justice must be carried out, and if the church won’t exercise the discipline they are called to exercise, then Jesus will do it for them.

He will make war against them with the sword of His mouth.

Those who persist in sin, those who have a permissive attitude toward sin and false doctrine int he church, you will find that you may have avoided the battle in the church, but you will have Christ to contend with in the end.

Is that really worth it?

Brothers and sisters, our commitment must be to truth! It must be to Christ! As hard and as challenging as it may be to address error, you do not want to stand before Christ and answer why you ignored his commands in this area.

Hebrews says that that Our God is a consuming fire, and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God

Christ will make war against those who fail to repent.

A startling warning.

But Christ also offers a blessing to those who heed it:

Commitment: Hidden Manna, White Stone, New Name

Revelation 2:17 “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’”

What’s going on with all these things?

Manna was the food that God provided the Israelites in the wilderness. They wandered for 40 years, and were thus prevented from growing crops, etc. God provided manna.

God preserved some manna in the Ark of the Covenant. The concept of “hidden” manna may be a reference to that, and thus would indicate fellowship with God.

Here it seems that Jesus is saying, hey, you don’t have to eat the food sacrificed to idols. If you refuse to defile yourself in that way, I’m still going to provide for you, just like God provided for the Israelites. Even if you must die, you will find you have everything you need in Christ. He will sustain you, and you will enjoy the food of God in His presence and enjoy fellowship with Him.

The white stone. There is a ton of debate about the white stone. I think the two most likely options for understanding this are as follows:

Some say it was like an invitation and ticket to prestigious events. Often the victor in a contest or Olympic game was given a victory prize that included a white stone. Not only was this a symbol of victory, but it also served as an invitation to and ticket of entrance into a special feast. It’s possible that when Jesus say he will give the overcomer, or the conqueror, a white stone, that he is referring to such a prize and invitation. The white stone is, for lack of a better term, a literal ticket to the heavenly feast.

Others that it was a stone of acquittal. When trials were held, those who presided over the trial and had to cast their vote would do so either with a white stone, signaling that they held the person in question to be innocent, or else a black stone, signaling they held him to be guilty. It’s possible that when Jesus says I will give to the one who overcomes a white stone it is a stone of acquittal. Because of the judicial context of Jesus coming with a sword of judgment, I tend to lean in this direction. The one who repents, the one who turns away from their tolerance of sin and error in the church, they will not face the judgment that Christ promises those who fail to repent. Instead, you are acquitted.

On that stone is a new name.

A new name. The new name may be a reference to

Isaiah 62:2 LSB

The nations will see your righteousness, And all kings your glory; And you will be called by a new name Which the mouth of Yahweh will designate.

And Is 65:15

Isaiah 65:15 LSB

“You will leave your name for a curse to My chosen ones, And Lord Yahweh will put you to death. But My slaves will be called by another name,

In these contexts, the Lord is speaking to corporate Israel, that they will receive a new name. We do, however, find that God gives a new name to many when he calls and commissions them.

Abram became Abraham

Jacob became Israel

Simon became Peter

Saul became Paul

Those who overcome, those who heed the word of the Lord, they receive a new name, something that signifies that you belong to Christ. He will know you by that name, and it will be a special thing between you and Christ alone.

Sometimes I think about people who have special individualize secret handshakes with people they are close to. No one else knows that handshake. There is a special bond between those two people with that specific handshake.

Christ gives a new name to those who overcome, and are known individually by Christ.

What an amazing thing!

The church of Pergamum had issues. Like the engineers in Chernobyl, they had ignored warning signs, made compromises, and it led to catastrophic results. Christ does not want that for you or our church.

We need his grace to lovingly confront sin and idolatry, and if we do, we get fellowship with Christ, a stone of acquittal, and an individualized relationship with Christ through the new name.