What's Gotten Into You? Revelation 2:11-17

The Compromising Church: Pergamos

What’s Gotten into You? Revelation 2:12-17

When you were a kid doing kid stuff, I’ll not name the kid stuff you were doing but you know what I’m talking about, did your parents ever say to you during one of the 10 hour lectures; “What got into you?” Of course that never happened to me but I have heard of kids (or adults) going along ok, nothing bad is happening, and then all of the sudden something comes into their head and they just do what they know they’re not supposed to do. And all you can say to them is “what got into you to cause you to do that?”

That is not a question that Jesus really asks the church at Pergamos but Jesus is making the statement that something has gotten into the church that ought not to be there and they must get it out. Today we will be looking at Revelation 2:12-17 which is Jesus’ letter to His church in Pergamos or Pergamum. The church at Pergamos is often known as the compromising church. Let’s pray then we will take a look at the city where the church is located and Jesus’ letter to the church at Pergamos.

Pergamos (Pergamum) was ceded to Rome at the death of their last king in 133 BC and became the capitol city of the Roman Province of Asia or what we call Asia Minor. The city was famous for its library that is said to have contained over 200,000 parchment scrolls. There was a temple there to Asclepius the god of healing whose symbol was snakes entwined around a pole reminiscent of the modern symbol for the medical profession. People came from all over Asia Minor to offer sacrifices to Asclepius in hope of being healed from whatever their ailment was. Zeus had a huge throne-like altar there as well. Zeus was considered the king of the gods who reigned from Mt. Olympus but many considered his thorn to be in Pergamos. There was also a temple to Dionysus (Bacchus) the god of wine and debauchery and a temple to Athena the goddess of wisdom. Whatever one may need in the way or religion could be found in Pergamos. If you needed protection then Zeus was your man, if you needed healing or wisdom or a good time then there was a god for that, kind of like us today with our cell phones; there’s an app for that. But along with all of those temples there was the very first temple to Augustus and Rome. Emperor worship was very strong in Pergamos both because of the temple and because of the power of the Roman government in the city. In most cities if the local government wanted to persecute or even prosecute anyone (Christians in particular) they had to get permission, but not so in Pergamos because it was the capitol city of Asia Minor the seat of power and Emperor worship. I only mentioned a few of the temples there but they have excavated at least 10 separate places of worship to the idols of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians.

With that as our background let’s take a look at Revelation 2:12-17 12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write,‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: 13 “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. 15 Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. 16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” ’[1]

As in all of the seven letters Jesus starts off with a description of Himself and like the last two letters He uses part of the description that John had seen in chapter 1. In chapter 1 verse 16 John saw the vision of Jesus as having a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. Here in chapter 2 He uses the same description. The sword as a weapon was terrifying but as a symbol it denoted power and authority, especially the power and authority to execute judgment. Rome was the overpowering human authority in Pergamos and when Jesus says that He has the sharp two-edged sword He is making it clear that He is the One with all the authority, that the believers in the church at Pergamos need not fear Rome or her power. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus makes it clear that He has been given all the authority in heaven and earth. In John 3:35 Jesus said: 35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.[2] Colossians 2:9-10 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.[3] In Jesus’ high priestly prayer to His Father in John 17:2 He said: 2You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.[4] And in Psalm 8:6 we read: 6You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;You have put all things under his feet,[5] I could continue on with many more references to Jesus having all authority but I think Philippians 2:9-11 will be the perfect one to wrap this up: 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[6] By saying that He is the One with the sharp two-edged sword He is making it clear that He is the One with the true power and in Him all the authority of God is vested.

In verse 13 we run into a textual variance. In the texts used to translate the KJV and the NKJV which I read from a moment ago Jesus makes the statement that He knows their works. In older probably more accurate originals that is not found, it simply reads “I know where you live”. If you have an NIV or an ESV or almost any of the new translations that use the better earlier originals that is what your copy of God’s word says. I bring this up because a couple of weeks ago we had a similar situation and I was asked about it and had to go back and do some research to get a good answer. Either way the variance does not affect the message we find here. Jesus knows His church. If He is pointing out their works then He has no complaint about them but we already know that He knows them. Then He goes on to say that He knows where they dwell, where Satan’s throne is. He knows they live in a dangerous place and He does not tell them to get out of town to protect themselves. Let me see if I can give you a good answer as to what is meant by “Satan’s throne”. He could be talking about the temple to Asclepius the god of healing because his symbol was the snake and Satan is the serpent in Revelation 12 and 20. Or He could be talking about the altar to Zeus which was a huge throne shaped construction. After all Zeus was the king of the gods and some believed his throne was actually in Pergamos. Those are viable possibilities but since Pergamos is the capitol of the Romans province of Asia and since the Proconsul of Rome had its home or base of operation there and since Emperor worship was not only strong but enforced in Pergamos I tend to think that Jesus is talking about the enforcement of Emperor worship when He speaks about Satan’s throne. Since the temptation in the garden and the fall of man Satan has been working to set up false religions and false governments and here in Pergamos he has set up both in one. And we know that the danger of disobeying the throne’s orders was real to the believers in Pergamos because at least one of their own, probably their pastor or bishop, Antipas, had been martyred, he was a faithful witness of Christ and he was killed most likely in the presence of the church. Jesus is commending this church because even in the face of death they did not deny their faith in Christ. Their zeal was strong in serving Christ even living right there where the force of Satan was strongest in all of Asia Minor. They did not falter even in the face of death.

We have seen Jesus’ description of Himself as having the sharp two-edged sword describing His ultimate power and authority. And we have seen Jesus commend a church that was facing death in the stronghold of Satan yet maintaining their faith in Him and now we come to a complaint or two that Jesus has against the church in Pergamos. Verses 14-15 14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. 15 Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. I’m not going to go back through the entire story of Balaam. Most of you remember the part about the talking donkey and the fact that Balak, the king of Moab, wanted Balaam to curse the people of Israel because he was afraid they would take over his kingdom. Balak offered to pay Balaam to curse them but Balaam, who was a true prophet of God even if he was an evil person, admitted that he could only speak what God told him. To make a long story short he blessed Israel 4 times instead of cursing them. Sometime during all of this it appears that Balaam gave Balak the idea to destroy Israel from within. The Midianites and the Moabites (they lived together) invited the men of Israel to come to their feasts and when they did they partook of the sacrifices to the false gods and even worshiped the false gods with the women of Midian, their sexual activity was a part of worshiping the false gods. You can read about all of that in Numbers 22-25 and in 31:16 after a battle with Midian we read this: 16 Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.[7] That explains the reference of Balaam. Then Jesus goes from there to basically say that the Nicolaitans teach the same thing and there are those in the congregation who are following after them. Balaam taught Israel to compromise and the Nicolaitans are doing the same thing in Pergamos.

This is where we get to the part where Jesus is saying, this is my paraphrase, “what has gotten into you?” You are bold, you have zeal for the faith and you stood strong in the face of persecution, even to the point of watching one of your own killed and now you have begun to worship false gods? They had compromised themselves and convinced themselves that they could still worship God, they could be faithful to Him, and be like the rest of Pergamos. What is wrong with a little meat that has been offered to idols here and there? There is a big party going on over at the temple to Bacchus, wine and carousing, it will just be for the fun of it, we won’t really worship that false god and we will be accepted by the rest of the city. Do we really have to be that different? Something had crept into the church in Pergamos that had caused them to compromise on their fidelity to Christ. We know that Jesus has already stated that He knew where they lived. He had no problem with the church being in Pergamos, He had a problem with Pergamos being in the church.

When we come to verse 16 we can see that Jesus takes this very seriously in His warning to the church. Revelation 2:16 16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. Have you noticed that Jesus talks a whole lot about repentance? And who is it that He is talking to here? He is talking to the church, He is talking to believers, He is talking to those who have been redeemed with His blood, He is talking to His people or at the very least people who claim to be His. If you ever wonder why I talk so much about repentance it is because God talks so much about repentance. Jesus’ statement appears to be; “No compromise, turn away from looking just like the world and turn back to Me or I will come to you quickly and will fight against you with the sword of My mouth.” There are two things to look at here. First, there are those in the congregation that are sacrificing to idols and performing sexual immorality as an act of worshiping a false god. Second, there are those in the congregation and perhaps the congregation as a whole that have no problem with those practicing pagan religion and enjoying Christian fellowship with the congregation. Let me be honest here, I’m not sure which is worse. Let’s make this a little more modern to get an understanding of what’s at stake. Deacon Joe is known to delve from time to time in pornography. You can call that what you want but it is sexual immorality and a worship of your own personal desires. You know about it and would never do it yourself but since it’s not really hurting anyone then you just compromise yourself and keep your mouth shut. Then you later find out that everyone knows about it and still nothing is done. I can’t really ask who is the guiltier because both Deacon Joe and the congregation are all guilty. What is at stake here? At Ephesus Jesus said He would take away their lampstand but to the church at Pergamos He told them He would come and fight against them with the sword of His mouth. For those practicing the sin and refusing to repent, probably because they are not truly believers, the sword of His mouth is the sword of judgment as we see in Revelation 19:15 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God[8] For believer there are things we can know about the Word of God that proceeds out as the sword of His mouth. The words of Christ can be a comfort or a warning, His words can be strength for us to cast ourselves upon or it can be cutting as we can see in Hebrews 4:12 where it is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. The sword of His mouth comforts the repentant and it destroys the unrepentant. Let that sink in.

I want to go back to the part where He says that if there is no repentance He will come quickly. I’m not going to spend much time here but since Jesus says He will come quickly I think I need to talk a little bit about it. We know from our study in 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles that God is patient. He demonstrates His patience over and over again to both Israel and Judah. However even though He is patient and His patience is perfect we also know that it has its limits. When He says He will come quickly the church at Pergamos should have fallen to their knees in repentance and so should we. When our Lord reveals sin in our lives we should repent immediately, we must keep a short sin account because He does come quickly.

Let’s look at verse 17: 17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” ’[9] We covered the “He who has an ear” last week so I’ll just move on to what the Spirit says to the churches. Those who overcome, those who are the conquerors, Jesus is going to give some of the hidden manna to eat. In John 6 Jesus has just fed a multitude of people. After He left people followed Him not because of Who He was but because they wanted more food. He called them on it and told them not to labor for that which does not last but instead seek the food that endures to everlasting life. Then in verses 32-35 of John 6 we read: 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.[10] Jesus is saying that those who endure, those who when pressed to compromise refuse but remain faithful or who repent when called upon to repent will receive (now get this) Him. He is our total satisfaction, not just for the day but for eternity.

There are a lot of ways to interpret the white stone with a name on it but I think because of time I am just going to tell you the one I believe is correct. When a person was put on trial for a crime and a jury or just a judge pronounced the verdict a stone was used. If the person was guilty a black stone was given to him signifying that the person was found to be at fault. But if the person was found innocent then a white stone was given to him proclaiming him innocent of all charges. Now on this stone that Jesus will give to those who overcome will be a name that no one knows but the one who receives the stone. Today a person’s name is just whatever his parents decided to give him but in ancient times a person’s name was intended to be a description of the person’s character, it illustrated his traits. That is why we often find in the Bible that people have more than one name like Abram was renamed Abraham. This stone declaring the overcomer innocent based on the work of Christ has on it the name given to him by the One who knows him best, His Savior. Those who overcome will be satisfied in Jesus who knows Him best and saved him.

Folks we live in a world that is dangerous. The church in Pergamos faced a physical danger due to their faith but we don’t face that kind of danger; at least not right now. But the danger of compromise is very, very real. We live in a world dedicated to entertainment and personal satisfaction in things of the world. The church is in constant danger of trying to live in the world of holiness and the world of sensual pleasure. The draw of the world is to just be a little bit like the world and you can enjoy the pleasure and still have your religion.

I’m not going to stand up here and name all the ways a person or a church can compromise in this world. Instead I am going to make a twofold statement then ask a question and let you deal with it.

When the church refuses to compromise with the world there is persecution from the world, you will have to fight against the world, but there is purity in the church. When the church compromises there is no persecution but there is impurity in the church and Jesus says He will fight against you with the sword of His mouth. My question is this: Who do you want to fight against, the world that is passing away or the One who has all the power and authority of God? Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 2:12–17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 3:35). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (Col 2:9–10). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 17:1–2). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[5] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ps 8:6). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[6] The New King James Version. (1982). (Php 2:9–11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[7] The New King James Version. (1982). (Nu 31:16–17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[8] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 19:15). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[9] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 2:12–17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[10] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 6:32–35). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.