Jesus’ Letter To The Church In Pergamum: Be Courageous!

Jesus’ Letter To The Church In Pergamum: Be Courageous!

Revelation 2:12-17

We have been working our thru Jesus’ seven letters to the Churches in Asia Minor

Stott's helpful commentary makes the point: The first mark of a true Church is love, suffering, and today Truth.

12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

13 “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. 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. 14 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, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war 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 the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

Pray

V.12 - Jesus has the sword and he intends on using it.

12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

How do we use “our sword” in an age of “just be nice”?

Little boys get suspended if they tussle. They are expected to just be nice.

Mom and Dad come to their child’s rescue refusing for them to simply act like a boy.

We medicate them into zombies forgetting one day they may well need to fight, yes they will be commanded to fight either for their God or their country.

God is good but He is not always nice.

He is not going to be nice with the wicked, nor is he nice when false teachers infiltrate His blood-bought church and prey on His kids. No, no He’s not gonna be nice and if someone breaks into your home tonight you won't be nice either.

This is both a warning and a comfort

Rev. 1:16

In John’s vision of Jesus in chapter 1, the sword symbolized Jesus’ power to judge and conquer his enemies (see also Rev. 19:15).

The Roman proconsul exercised the power of the sword from his judgment seat in Pergamum. He had the power of persecution, but not ultimate power.

Only Christ is the ultimate wielder of absolute power and when he uses his sword it is always based on Truth.

The common theme: The church is under pressure yet they are called to hold fast. To what do we hold fast? Under pressure, this can seem hard to see, harder still to act on.

Example: The tornados - There you were your spouse and all your stuff - if all was being torn away and you could hold to one thing what would it be? Can you see how clear that is in the moment but how hard it is to see in every day?

And so the first three churches have taught us to hold fast to truth in love especially under pressure

The Lord attends His church in Pergamum and commends them for their devotion to Christ in the midst of religious hostility while He calls on gospel compromisers to repent.

The Lord Commends The Church For Standing in Truth (v. 13)

The Lord who knows where you live - v.13a (External pressure)

13 “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. 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.

The Lord walks among his people

They lived in a religious city

The Greco-Roman culture was not devoted to only one god; they worshiped and served many gods and enlisted the aid of any god who could help them.

The Christians Worldview stood completely opposite.

They refused to recognize any god apart from the one true God who had revealed himself in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

The temple of Asklepios (A- skli - pius) was a temple of healing.

The temple had its medical wards, medical school, as well as its priests.

The serpent was connected with one of the ways that the ill was supposedly cured.

The sufferer would lie on the temple floor as tame snakes crawl around and over them.

When the snake touched you it was the god touching you.

Whereas for believers, Serpents were symbols of Satan

There was also an altar to Zeus that was on a hill that jutted out for all to see.

Above all, Pergamum was a center of Caesar worship

They lived in a historic city

When John wrote this had been a capital city for 300 years (29)

The last king of Pergamum, Attalus III, willed his territory to Rome, and Pergamum was made the capital city of the Roman province of Asia.

It was well known not only for its medicine but also its libraries

It had one of the most famous libraries in the world having over 200,000 volumes.

They lived in Satan’s city - v.13

13 “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.

Possible symbolism the capital of “babylon” in the east as Rome was in the West

It was here that Satan had established his official seat or chair of state.

The devil had used his stronghold in the city to make life miserable for the Christians.

The Church is standing in truth -v.13c (in the mist of external pressure)

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.

The Christians in Pergamum are commended, for they have persevered in their devotion to Jesus’ “name” and have not “denied the faith,” even amid such great hostility.

My name & my faith - We hold fast to that which is given to us - come back to this

The guarding of the truth of the gospel is Jesus’ primary concern

Jesus is not only concerned that we love Him and his people and that we should suffer faithfully but that we should believe in Him by holding fast to the truth

“Love becomes sentimentality if it is not strengthened by truth, and truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love.” (44) - Stott

Eph. 4:15-16

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Holding fast despite the cost - Antipas

The faithfulness of those in Pergamum is striking—they persevered even as Antipas sacrificed his life for Jesus’ sake.

Antipas is described as a “faithful witness,” the same description given to Jesus Christ in the first chapter (1:5).

The word “witness” (martys) didn’t yet have the technical meaning “martyr,” one who gives his or her life for the sake of the gospel.

They had not denied their faith by yielding to the pressure of burning incense to the emperor and declaring “Caesar is Lord.”

Not even in the days of Antipas,15 who was put to death in their city, did they renounce their faith.

Little else is known of this early martyr apart from this reference in Revelation only that he held fast for the sake of the name.

The Lord commends but then without taking a breathi issues a BUT

The Lord Confronts The Church For Compromising the Truth (v. 14-15)

The truth about the Nicolaitans and Balaamites - v.14

14 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, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Balaamites - These are two different ways of describing the same people.

Number 22-24 - Balam was a prophet who was supposed to curse Israel but God would not let him and he ended up blessing them

Ballam devised another plan to bring a curse on Israel by tempting them to immorality. He would invite the Jewish men to come to the pagan feast so the Moabite women would seduce them.

Balaam know God would get angry and judge them.

So Balaam became a prototype of all corrupt teachers who lead believers into fatally compromising their faith for the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Nicolaitans

Some believe this is Nicolaus, one of the first “deacons” from Acts 6:5.

If this is true, Nicolaus must have later departed from the faith he confessed.

They taught a doctrine of compromise That took a more tolerant attitude toward pagan society and religion.” (Sound familiar?)

The cultural background for this is the fact that sexual “freedom” was not considered a serious sin by the Greeks and Romans.

Remember in Acts 15, at the Jerusalem council where they were dealing with the tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers, they decide to encourage Gentile to abstain from sexual immorality.

This played out in the context of the pagan feasts in the various temples.

Ex: You are a nurse and the holiday party is at a strip club. Is it ok to go? Is it ok, since it's a holiday, to participate?

The Nic’s say sure, you're free in Christ!

Truth must Confront compromising

14 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, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

The church in Pergamum apparently had the opposite problem of the Ephesian church.

Rather than testing and rejecting false teachers, they had uncritically accepted people who hold to the teaching of Balaam. (niceology)

The message is a message of tolerance couched in Grace.

Christ responds vehemently, I will have none of this.

“You have some”

The distinction between you and them is important here.

These Balaam-like teachers, these Nicolaitans are not truly part of the people of God, even though they have succeeded in infiltrating the congregation.

These may have been nice, faithful givers teaching a GG!

Compromising for gain (The Them)

There is mega money to be made by compromising gospel truth for positive thinking.

Idolatry has always been big business

In any case by, they sought to fit in with the trade guilds and social context of the city by joining in such activities. And they didn’t merely do what was wrong but also propagated their view by instructing others.

The Complaint is against both them who teach and those you who tolerate them within the church.

Truth must Confront indifference (The you) -v.16

​​16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with ethe sword of my mouth.

The call is for biblical church discipline.

This is a wholesale failure of the church today where nice has thrown out holiness and the church has not only tolerated corruption from within but has soiled her reputation with the very community we are called to live in truth.

The call is to discipline those we love

The call is to remove the predators from the flock.

Prov 6:16-19

16 There are six things that the Lord hates,

seven that are an abomination to him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that make haste to run to evil,

19 a false witness who breathes out lies,

and one who sows discord among brothers.

The entire church is summoned to repent for a sin of which only a few were actually guilty.

In other words, we repent of things we did we shouldn’t have but we must also repent of things we failed to do but should have.

The sin of the Ephesians was harsh intolerance; the sin of the Pergamum church was tolerance and an unbiblical view of Christian freedom.

What are the central truths worth standing for?

The Truth about Christ

Rupert Meldenius “ We must preserve unity in the essentials, liberty in the non-essentials and charity in all things.”

My name - Jesus’ name is the revelation of who he is.

Hold to his person and His work - We hold to his life, death & Ressurection

To hold to His name means we hold fast to the truth He is both Lord and Savior.

My Faith

“Faith in me” - Intellectual assent is insufficient, you must put your trust in me. You must trust My word for your life

This is why Lordship and Saviorhood cannot be separated for to trust him is to trust him with everything in this life and the next.

The faith gets into the content of what’s believed.

The Truth about holiness

The Christian faith is concerned about

The person and work of Jesus Christ

Our lives lived in such a way as to reflect Jesus Christ

Paul commanded believers to not keep company with people who profess Christ but live immorally. (1 cor. 5:11)

Do you see how the church in Pergamum by tolerating these false teachers were themselves partnering with immorality?

Rom 6:1 - The Nic’s proclaimed, were under grace!

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

The travesty was to change the gospel of grace into a license to sin

The Lord Comes to The Church in Truth to Judge (vv. 16-17)

​​16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with ethe sword of my mouth.

This coming can be either or both now and not yet.

He will come to his church to discipline now and he will come then to separate the invisible and visible church

The merciful Call to repentance

Those who follow false teachers will be judged by the words of Jesus (Rev. 2:12, 16) if they don’t repent.

Repent from what to what?

Who’s responsible for the church? For what it teaches and how it loves, lives and serves?

This is why we are elder-led but congregationally ruled.

The answer is a biblical one. We Are!

Elders are undershepherd concerned with truth and the patient, tender care of its people

But discipline begins by taking your brothers and sisters to coffee because you care for them. To lay down your life to save a friend.

We are accountable to Christ for His church. This means meaningful church membership is critical in your life and ours.

We must repent of our indifference to the importance of the church in the mission of God and the life of God’s children.

We must repent of loving selfishly and taking a wishy-washy approach to doctrine.

I love you because he first loved me, and that means I must be willing to pour my life out for you as He did for me!

That love must be a love rooted in Truth

The imminent judgment - v.16

16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Failure to repent will have dire consequences, for Jesus is coming soon and will judge those who persist in sin.

The “soon” coming of Jesus could refer to the second coming or to a coming in history to judge the church.

The sword represents Jesus’ words, penetrating to the deepest level Heb. 4:12-13

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus will judge and destroy by his word those who side with the emperor or any other idol. He will strike down the nations & all false teachers with his sharp sword (Rev. 19:15).

Similarly, those in the church who compromise by giving their allegiance to the emperor or participating in pagan idol feasts or sexual sin will face the judging sword of Jesus.

The victorious reward - v.17

17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

There is a reward at stake!

Just like last week we see persevering as a war, we have been promised victory thru Christ.

Jesus will give “hidden manna” to those who conquer.

Manna, described as bread from heaven (Ps. 78:24), was given as sustenance to Israel in the wilderness (Ex. 16:31, 33, 35).

There was also manna placed in the ark of the covenant

It seems, then, that manna here designates heavenly reward, the eschatological reward for the faithful.

The manna now hidden will be given them at the marriage supper of the Lamb

Rev. 19:9 - consummation celebration

9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

A white stone.

The “white stone” is another way of describing the same reward.

In the ancient world, white stones had a variety of uses. A white stone signified acquittal by a jury, a black stone condemnation.

White stones were used as tickets of admission to public festivals. This meaning fits the context best.

John concludes with a promise to the one who conquers.

This is both a promise and a command, for we must stand firm and conquer to receive the reward.

Those who triumphed in games were given white stones for entry into celebratory banquets.

Those who overcome will enjoy the messianic banquet and stand clean before God forever.

The manna, the white stone, and the new name are various ways of depicting the heavenly reward, the eternal life to be granted to believers.

There again back up far enough to see this recurring message.

No promise of escape only the call to hold fast to Christ and His church and God will supply all we need to persevere and to be victorious if this life and rest for us in the next.

So What?

Will you contend for the truth?

Jude 3

3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

That action is to “contend for the faith.” The verb “contend” (epagōnizomai) comes from the language of athletic competition; in Jewish literature it depicts the “struggle which the pious has to go through in this world.

The command - Contend =struggle

The first three church give us two commands and a context

The context is suffering; pressure from within and without

The command hold on to the Truth & hold on to each other

The call to reject fear but putting on faithfulness; this is a call to be courageous

Do we need to guard the truth today? How do we contend?

Guard who and what you listen to?

Every preacher and teacher

Every radion program and podcast

Be careful to read or listen something with your guard up.

Do you know that Tv program & movies are teaching you and especially your kids

What are your kids studying in school? Do you know?

We are elder-led because we hold the conviction this is the biblical office that protect the truth and proclaims the truth and cares for the people that belong to the Lord.

What are your essentials? Your non-negotiables? Have you created non-essentials to be essential and in doing so let the devil in the back door?

Where do you draw the line with friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, occupations?

V.20

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

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