Letter three. To the Church in Pergamum.
Reading Revelation 1:9-11 & 2:12-17
We have seen over the last couple of weeks that the Apostle John was told by Jesus to write to the seven major Churches in Asia. We have already looked at the first two, the letter to Ephesus and the letter to Smyrna. Today we will look at the third letter, to the Church in Pergamum.
Pergamum was just like Smyrna and Ephesus in a lot of ways. It was a large city about 65 miles north of Smyrna. This was the ancient capital of Asia and was built on a hill 1000ft above the surrounding area.
Unlike Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum was not a port as it was 20 miles form the sea.
It had been an important town in the area for about 500 years before this letter was written, and the last ruler of the area was King Attalus the third, who died in 138 BC.
Attalus had little interest in ruling Pergamon, and gave most of his time to studying medicine, botany, and gardening. He had no children or heirs of his own, and in his will he left the kingdom to the Roman Republic. After his death the town was taken over by the Romans and continued to be one of the chief cities of the area.
It was particularly famous for four things. The first was it's altar to the Greek god Zeus, the god of the sky and ruler of all the other Greek gods.
It wasn’t a tiny little table, it was a huge building.
The Romans accepted Zeus without question as he was also a Roman god but was known by them as Jupiter.
The second thing that made it famous was it's huge library. King Attalus the first had made the city the artistic and literary capital of the entire middle east in competition with the library in Alexandria in Egypt. At the time that our letter was written the library in Pergamum was reported to house over two hundred thousand books and scrolls. This was a massive amount of books to have in those days.
The third thing that made it famous was it's massive temple to the goddess Athena which was built near the top of the hill, close to the altar to Zeus.
And the fourth thing which brought fame to Pergamum was the invention of parchment, made of calf skin. This was made necessary because of a shortage of papyrus.
There was also a temple built to honour the Emperor Augustus, as Emperor worship was also rife in this area as well as in Smyrna. While yet another temple was built in honour of the god Asclepius, the snake god of healing.
Asclepius was born as a mortal and was taught to be a surgeon. He was made a god and became immortal for all he had done for medicine.
He was later killed by the god Zeus for raising the dead back to life.
This god Asclepius gave Pergamum a reputation similar to that of Lourdes today.
People would make pilgrimages to the town to see if the god would heal them. The people were very superstitious and would worship any god if they thought some harm may come to them if they didn't. Or if they thought that they would gain from it in any way.
It appears from all of this that the anti-christ could be more plainly seen here than Christ.
Now that's the history lesson over lets get back to the text.
You may have noticed that this letter starts a bit differently than the last two. Here we see Jesus describing Himself as the "one with the sharp double edged sword"
Ephesians 6:17 mentions this sword,
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
and again in Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The sword is seen as a symbol of divine judgment and this is what Jesus is reminding the Church in Pergamum about. He is reminding them that they will be judged on all that they have done when they reach heaven.
Then Jesus goes on to say "I know where you live"
Now this isn't a threat, it's not a case of "watch yourself, I've got a big sword and I'm going to get you, I know where you live big man! No, He says this because His knowledge of the Churches depends on His presence among them. He knows them because He walks among them. His knowledge extends beyond the good works that we saw in Ephesus and even beyond the suffering we saw in Smyrna.
His knowledge extends to the very environment that they live in. He knows that they are surrounded on all sides by the pressures that the pagan world puts on them. They are constantly being bombarded by pagan cults and strange doctrines, and He knows that they feel almost besieged.
The church was sited in a city which has been described as a strong centre of paganism. A spiritual battle was being fought here and Jesus acknowledges this by the strange statement "where Satan has his throne"
This phrase most likely refers to the altar of Zeus, which was shaped like a throne. Nevertheless it seems to be a fair statement that Satan appeared to rule the city with the exception of the small band of Christians.
Jesus commends them in verse 13 where He says "you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith."
This is particularly important as the names of Saviour, Lord and God incarnate were being used by the people of the city to refer to the Emperor Augustus as well as Asclepius and Zeus.
This must have been very difficult for the Christians there who it appears had argued about the use of these names for anyone other than Jesus.But Jesus says to the Church "I have a few things against you"
One of these was the fact that they allowed people to be part of the Church who followed false teaching and doctrines. They held to the teaching of Balaam. Balaam had been called by Balak the Moabite to curse his enemies Israel. But instead of cursing them he blessed them in God's name.
As a result of this some of the Israelite men started to indulge in sexual immorality with the Moabite women and went with them and sacrificed to their gods.
According to Numbers 31 verse 16 it was Moabite women who acted on the advice of Balaam and used sexual immorality to entice the Hebrew people away from God.
Now we see Israelite men doing exactly the same with Moabite women yet again. The sin that these people committed was that of eating food that had been sacrificed to idols and committing sexual immorality.
The call on the Church is the same as the call to the Church in Ephesus. CLICK
"Repent, otherwise I will come to you and fight against them with the sword of my mouth"
In the first letter we saw that love was an important mark of an effective Church.
In the second letter we saw that suffering was an important mark of an effective Church.
Now we see something different, Jesus is now saying that Truth is also a mark of an effective Church. The Scriptures often hold love and truth as equally balanced. Some Christians try so hard to make love the most important of these that they sometimes forget the sacredness of revealed truth.
But Christian love on it’s own can become sentimental if it is not strengthened by truth, while truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love.
Jesus promised His disciples that if they followed His word then they would know the truth and that the truth would set them free.
It's very plain that Jesus loves the truth, He speaks the truth and of course He IS the truth. So how can any follower of Jesus be indifferent to the truth.
At Pergamum it appears that most of the Christians were continuing to walk in the truth. Only a few had decided to leave the narrow path and wandered into the roads of speculation and
error. Jesus was obviously very upset by these people but He is also upset with the rest of the Christians.
He is upset with them because they allow this distortion of the truth to continue in the Church.
Even the good Christians didn't appear to be bothered about the fact that the very basic truths of their beliefs were being challenged by these people.
It appeared to not bother them that Jesus was being dishonoured by their behaviour.
Repent therefore, says Jesus.
Every true and genuine Christian will recognise that it is essential to know that the word of God is Truth. The Bible is Truth. We can never compromise on this truth, we can never water it down to make it more palatable or easier to accept.
There are many people around, both Christian and non-Christian, who will do this. They will take verses or even single words out of context so that it appears that the Bible condones and agrees with their actions.
Romans 1:26
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. :In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
1 Corinthians 6:9
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
The Christian faith is essentially concerned with the person and works of Jesus Christ on the one hand, and the lifestyle that is expected of His followers on the other.
Christianity exalts Christ and promotes holiness.
For a Christian to deny Christ or to surrender their lives to unholy acts is the same as giving in to the enemy.
These two things are central to the whole Christian faith. The Lordship of Christ and the recognition that we should lead holy lives.
Jesus says to the church Repent! Therefore.
He goes on in verse 17 to tell the Church "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. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it."
The hidden manna refers to the fact that God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness by providing manna for them to eat. In the case of the Church in Pergamum He is promising that He will also look after them and provide for them. Not necessarily with food but with whatever they need to carry on.
These people who overcome the temptation to compromise, these people who remain faithful to Christ, will also receive a white stone with a new name written on it.
The use of a white stone had several meanings in those days. For instance if you were on trial before a court you would be given a black stone if you were found guilty and a white one if found innocent. If this is the meaning then it could be related to the promise given to the Church in Smyrna where they were promised that they would not be hurt by the second death.
Another use of a white stone was when two people wanted to seal a friendship. they would break a stone in two and each kept a half which meant that each had full access to the other's home. An extension of this custom was the use of a stone as an entrance ticket to a feast or party.
How we interpret the use of a white stone in the context of Revelation depends on what new name Jesus intends putting on it. If it was the name of the Christian it was given to, then it may indicate entrance into the kingdom of God, as with the friend's house.
On the other hand if the new name on the stone was the name of God then it could suggest a new and hidden relationship with the Lord. A special relationship not shared with others.
None of this however affects the main meaning of this letter, which is that the Church, both 2000 years ago as well as today and in the future, must be totally sure that we hold on to the truth of the bible.That we never let it be watered down by anyone who wants to justify their own beliefs.
The Bible IS the inspired Word of God.
In it is everything we need to understand salvation, for growth in our Christian lives, and for the attainment of holy lifestyles. Nothing should ever be added to or taken away from these Scriptures, nothing NEEDS to be added to or taken away from them.
Revelation 22:19 tells us this
And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Lets hope that this Church here can never be accused of compromising God’s word. Lets pray that we will always seek the truth of God’s word, the Bible. Let’s pray for those who have decided to compromise God’s word to suit their own needs and chosen lifestyles.
Amen
