The Letter to Pergamum Revelation 2:12-17

Question of the day: When you sit before the judge what will He say?

Read v12

Angel;

human messenger

Pergamum;

Severe persecution all the way to death.

A center of idol worship. They were literally in a battle with another Roman city to have the most temples to pagan gods, which included the emperor.

Pergamum’s wealth was rivaled only by Ephesus itself.

2 edge sword;

What is the sword? Is it the Word? The wisdom of God? Is it the Scripture? Is it the Spirit? Is it an actual sword?

It’s a tool of destruction both physically and spiritually, the mechanism (or what the “blade” is forged from) doesn’t really matter. It appears the authorities in Pergamum have the sword, Jesus is setting them straight.

Declaring His authority as the one who has the power to destroy

referencing 1:16 back to Jesus original claim of deity and authority. He keeps reminding them who’s speaking.

Read v13

Where Satan has his throne; I don’t think this is metaphorical, because Jesus reiterates it at the end of the verse “where Satan lives”. Satan is not omnipresent, or omniscient, he is not everywhere and he’s not all knowing. Every moment of the day Satan is somewhere in time and space. He’s not eternal, He’s a created being.

Pergamum was literally where the chief demon himself resided.

AND THEY WERE STILL FAITHFUL TO WHO DECLARE THEIR FAITH IN CHRIST

Read v14-15

There is a ton of background info, I’m going to read the text, you won’t understand it… just like I didn’t when I first read it. Then I’ll give you the keys.

Who is Balaam?

Who is Balak?

What was the teaching of Balaam?

There is a story in Numbers 24 about a king who wanted a pagan prophet to curse Israel so that they would not take his land. Balak was the king Balaam was the prophet. Balak paid Balaam a certain sum of money to curse Israel but every time Balaam went to curse Israel he would bless them instead. 2 Peter tells us that it was Balaam’s greed that drove him to curse God’s people but he couldn’t.

However Balak still got his money’s worth. See Balaam told Balak to entice the Israelite

to marry women from his nation and that doing this would drive the Israelite men into the open arms of their pagan gods. And he was right. Balaam taught Balak that the Israelite men were weak to women and that they could be pulled away from their god through sexual immorality.

What does this story from 1300 years before John was writing have to do with Pergamum?

How many of you know that Satan’s tricks aren’t new?

There were some in the church that were enticing others to sin in greed and lust and they were succeeding. But it wasn’t just that… Balak didn’t just want the Israelite men to sin against their God he wanted to use their sin to cause them to abandon their God.

This was the teaching of the Nicolaitans, who we’ll learn about in another letter.

Read v16

Repent; change you thinking; change you mind; change your attitude about this; change you thinking in a way that results in a changed life

OR ELSE

Or else, I will come down there… There are plenty of places in the scripture that Paul tells us to take leaders out of their position if they are leading the body astray, but don’t be fooled. If there are leaders in the church, or members in the church for that matter, that are leading others away from Christ, know this, that Christ himself is their foe.

The weapon he uses is the destruction that flows from His mouth. The same Word that created all things and breathed life into all living beings becomes the enemy of anyone who leads a man away from God.

Read v17

Whoever

Trinitarian agreement

To the one who is victorious: I will come back this

Hidden manna: The manna is what God gave the Israelites to eat to sustain them during their 40 years of wandering.

Jesus says, I am the true bread, my flesh is the manna that comes down from heaven. But it is not like the manna the Israelites ate because they became hungry again, no this manna, this bread, is an eternal sustaining from the flesh of Christ himself. The hidden manna, just like the tree of life, is eternal life.

John 6:46–51 NIV

No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

White stone: This white stone is something they knew very well. Starting in Athens with broken clay pieces then adopted by the Romans with stones. It was a form of voting.

We are getting a new building, imagine that Hogan wanted to get grey carpet, I wanted brown, and Sam wanted to keep what was in there. If we were in first century Rome we would all take a broken piece of a pot, scratch the color we were voting for, put it in a container and then they would be poured out and the votes counted.

The stones were similar except that they were used only to determine yes or no. Particularly when someone was on trial for exile or death. They had two stones, one black and one white. Black for guilty, white for innocent.

Think of the audience here, first of all John, who’s been exiled to Patmos, think of that day surrounded by the judges and the pot is poured out, black stones. Condemned to be exiled.

Think of those who saw the judgement of Antipas the member of the church who was executed for his faith. The pot goes around, the stones are collected, it’s turned over…BLACK STONES.

There will be a day; When we stand before God and all of our sins will be stacked against us and Satan will be accusing us and we will have no defense, nothing to say. And Christ will stand before His father and cast His vote, the only vote that matters, and for the one who is victorious He will cast a white stone. He will declare, innocent!

That stone won’t just declare your innocence but it carries with it a new name. A good name.

Let’s go back, to the one who is victorious, how does a man become victorious?

1 Corinthians 15:55–58 NIV

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

2 Corinthians 2:13–15 NIV

I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

These are the teachings of Paul, teachings that Pergamum would have been well aware of. Their victory is in Christ Jesus! How does one become victorious in their loyalty to Christ? Remember that’s what Satan was gunning for, the sin is just a tool to get you there. Do you run from the teachings of Balaam, from sexual immorality and idols? More than that run to Christ because in Him is victory. Without Christ this is all just legalism and legalism isn’t victory.