Have you noticed how often a sword is at the center of a story? Young Arthur of King Arthur fame is destined to remove the sword from the stone, signifying he is the future king. The sword “Excalibur” bears the power to protect Arthur from harm. Only when the sword is stolen, does Arthur become vincible.
Luke Skywalker has his “light saber.” Zorro needs his sword to leave his trademark signature “Z.” The Three Musketeers are reduced to a candy bar without their swords.
Dionysius was a fourth century B.C. tyrant of Syracuse. To all appearances, he was very rich and comfortable, with all the luxuries that money and power could afford, beautiful clothing and abundant and delicious food. He even had court flatterers to inflate his ego. One of these flatterers was Damocles. He used to make comments to the king about his wealth and luxurious life. One day when Damocles complimented the king on his abundance and power, Dionysius turned to Damocles and said, “If you think I’m so lucky, how would you like to try out my life?”
Damocles quickly agreed, and so Dionysius ordered everything to be prepared for Damocles to experience what life as Dionysius was like. Damocles was enjoying himself immensely until he noticed a sharp sword hovering over his head, which was suspended from the ceiling by a single horsehair. This, the king explained to Damocles, was what life as ruler was really like.
Damocles was very frightened of living under the sword. He quickly revised his idea of what made up the good life and asked to be excused. He eagerly returned to his poorer but safer life.
In Revelation 2:12-17, the One who speaks to the church at Pergamum is described as having a double-edged sword. According to Revelation 1:16, it comes from his mouth. This imagery is consistently used to refer to the Word of God or the Word of Truth.
The Lord says and John writes:
(12) “Write to the angel of the church in Pergamum: Thus says the one who has the sharp, double-edged sword: (13) I know where you live — where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding on to my name and did not deny your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was put to death among you, where Satan lives. (14) But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. (15) In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. (16) So repent! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
(17) “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it.
The letter to the church at Ephesus said the church is to be marked by love for God and believers. The letter to the church at Smyrna says the church will be marked by suffering as it stays faithful to Christ. The letter to the church at Pergamum emphasizes the church is to be marked by truth inwardly and outwardly. Notice again the three-fold pattern of the message to the church. Christ commends the church (v. 12-13), Christ complains about the church (v. 14-16), and Christ’s conquest for those who obey (v. 17).
I. CHRIST’S COMMENDATION: THEY PRESERVED AND PROPAGATED THE TRUTH (REV. 2:12-13)
(12) “Write to the angel of the church in Pergamum: Thus says the one who has the sharp, double-edged sword: (13) I know where you live — where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding on to my name and did not deny your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was put to death among you, where Satan lives.
Like the previous letters, this letter begins with a description of Jesus: “Thus says the one who has the sharp, double-edged sword.”
The sword is a fitting symbol for Pergamum since the seat of government was located here and the proconsul had the authority to take life if the crime was a capital offense. In fact, one of their members had lost his life because of his devotion to Christ.
Isaiah 49:2, speaking of the Servant of God, which prefigures Christ, says, “He made my words like a sharp sword.” By the way, you can’t understand the book of Revelation if you don’t know your O.T. It’s the key to unlocking the images of this book. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Many suggestions are made about what is meant about the Bible being double-edged, but what is clear is the word of God does act like a sword. It stabs the conscience, wounds the sinful pride, cuts away our shielding of sin, and pierces our defenses. The word of God, whom Paul called the word of the Spirit, will kill sin and falsehood in our life if we will lay ourselves open it.
God’s weapon for opposing error in the church and bringing health is the word of God. There are denominations, churches, and pastors that once were red hot with the flame of evangelism for the lost. They were bastions of truth and their ministers boldly declared the truth to ruler and commoner alike. However, they turned away from the clear teaching of God’s word and today they are “going out of business.” The only hope of survival for Pergamum and Northeast is to remain faithful to the word of God. We must always congregationally and individually seek to live in submission and obedience to the word of God.
Will this be easy? No. Look where Pergamum lives: (13) I know where you live — where Satan’s throne is. Most of the time, the Christian life is described as a journey or pilgrimage. We sing, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” This view helps us keep our priorities straight, but, the word “live” in this text speaks of a permanent dwelling. Do you know someone who “lives” in a loveless marriage or “lives” with a permanent handicap? This is the life of the Christians at Pergamum.
Their abiding condition is where “Satan’s throne is.” They live where Satan exercises unusual power and activity. The temple of Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, was on top of a hill that towered over the city. In fact, many other gods had temples built in Pergamum.
It’s not easy to live the Christian life in Norman. We have challenges, but there are areas far more difficult. Imagine being a Christian in a Muslim country in the Middle East or communist China. In western India, hostile Hindus have burned hundreds of churches and killed many Christians because of a rumor of a Hindu leader being killed by Christians. What must it be like to be a Christian in secularized western Europe?
Despite the difficulty of remaining faithful to their Christian witness, the church at Pergamum stayed true. One of their own had lost his life because of his faithfulness to Christ. Jesus says, Yet you are holding on to my name and did not deny your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was put to death among you, where Satan lives. We don’t know anything about Antipas or why he was martyred. All we know is he had the courage to sacrifice his life in order to remain faithful to Christ. Jesus refers to him affectionately with the Congregational Medal of Honor in heaven, “my faithful witness.”
Antipas no doubt gave to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but when he was asked to give to Caesar the things that only belong to Christ, he refused. At his baptism, he acknowledged Jesus was Lord and Savior. He couldn’t give that acknowledgement to Caesar or any other authority. In that day, to refuse to acknowledge the Caesar of Rome as God and Savior was an act of treason and could cost a Christian his life. Maybe this is what happened to Antipas.
We are not paying with blood to be a faithful Christian but there is a price to pay for being faithful. Here’s the problem as I see it in our day. We think we know Jesus. Many of us can tell the story of Christmas and Easter. We know He was born a virgin and later died on the cross for our sin. However, our understanding of Him is not so compelling that we would die for Him. For too many Christians, Jesus is a lifestyle choice. How else do you explain the unchanged lives of people who claim to be Christians? They smoke and drink and curse to the same degree as their lost co-worker. They hate and refuse to forgive. They are stingy with their money to the church but certainly are generous with their hobbies. You can’t be sure you’re going to get excellent, honest service just because someone has a fish symbol representing their business.
I’m saying Antipas knew the real Jesus. The real Jesus is worth dying for, and for some, it means sacrificing your old way of life to be a different person. A Christian and a church who are going to propagate and preserve the truth of the word of God may have to die to desire to be popular with its community. Norman, Oklahoma does not like to be told its sexual ethics are wrong, it has made a god of education and sports, and its politics have corrupted this community. The real Jesus is worth a Christian making sacrifices to live and tell the truth of God. Does your life reveal that you know the real Jesus?
Have you read Rudyard Kipling’s poem Mulholland’s Contract? Mulholland cares for the cattle in the bottom of the ship. A violent storm comes, and the cattle begin to break free of restraint and put Mulholland’s life at risk. He prays to God to spare his life and he will answer the call to be a minister. He’s knocked out and hurt but survives. As he is recovering, he has a conversation about his contract with the Lord:
An' I spoke to God of our Contract, an' He says to my prayer:
"I never puts on My ministers no more than they can bear.
So back you go to the cattle-boats an' preach My Gospel there.
"For human life is chancy at any kind of trade,
But most of all, as well you know, when the steers are mad-afraid;
So you go back to the cattle-boats an' preach 'em as I've said.
"They must quit drinkin' an' swearin', they mustn't knife on a blow,
They must quit gamblin' their wages, and you must preach it so;
For now those boats are more like Hell than anything else I know."
I didn't want to do it, for I knew what I should get,
An' I wanted to preach Religion, handsome an' out of the wet,
But the Word of the Lord were lain on me, an' I done what I was set.
Mulholland goes back to the ship and preaches just as instructed by the Lord. It is every bit as difficult as he imagined. He is abused but he keeps preaching and witnessing. He was faithful to his calling to preserve and propagate the truth.
II. CHRIST’S COMPLAINT: THEY PERMITTED ERROR AND EVIL (REV. 2:14-16)
(14) But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. (15) In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. (16) So repent! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
The story of King Balak and the prophet Balaam is found in Numbers 22-25. King Balak is frightened of the Israelites as they journey to the Promised Land after the Exodus from Egypt. God’s power and protection is upon Israel. They defeat great armies in battle. King Balak pays Balaam to pronounce a curse on Israel. Four times Balaam attempts to do this but God intervenes and instead Balaam pronounces a blessing on Israel. Balak is not getting his money’s worth! What can he do? Balaam suggests the women of Moab invite the men of Israel to join them in the worship of pagan gods. It involved feasting and sexual immorality. In this way, Israel will invite their own destruction at the hands of God. This is what happened.
Pergamum is compromising sexually like the Israelites did with the women of Moab. If the devil can’t crush the church with persecution, he will compromise the church with immorality and doctrinal error. If the devil can’t beat the church, he will join it!
What Balaam was to the O.T. Israelites, the Nicolaitans were to the church at Pergamum. They were perverting the teaching of grace and freedom. Maybe it went something like, “Christ has redeemed us from the law. We are now under grace. We may continue in sin so that God’s grace may be poured out on us for the world to see.” They taught that God’s grace gave them license to sin. This contradicts the truth that Jesus is your only Sovereign and we are to be holy as He is holy.
Maybe they went with a friend to worship Zeus or the emperor. They argued they needed to stay engaged in the culture in order to be an influence on the culture. How are you going to witness to worshipers of Zeus if you don’t go with them and seek to understand them? Maybe they said they needed to stay involved in the trade guilds and their worship of false gods so they could make money. This money could be given to support the ministries of the church. They loved Jesus on Sunday but pursued other gods on Monday.
This is religious promiscuity. They look like a Christian. They talk like a Christian. They mean to be a Christian, but they still join in all the things of this world. They participate in their course and vulgar speech. They cheat their boss and customers to make a buck. This person only has sex with one boyfriend or girlfriend at a time. They don’t sleep around. That would be wrong! The praise of others means more to them than the praise of Jesus. Their contentment comes from the gods of this world rather than the Lord Jesus.
Recently a major denomination agreed to split over the issue of sexual ethics. One group takes serious the Bible’s clear teaching on homosexuality and all the attending issues like same sex marriage and transgenderism. The other group elevates societal standards above the authority of the Bible. They view opposition as hatred, discrimination, and homophobia. At one time, this denomination was the largest non-Catholic group in the U.S. How did such a wonderful, missionary church get to such a divide? For decades they refused to confront and remove error and evil within the body. We must not lose sight of this lesson.
How do we avoid falling into tolerating error and evil? One word “repent.” Henry Blackaby said this is one of the most beautiful words in the Christian lexicon. I don’t think I’d ever thought of it that way, but I agree it is one of the most beautiful words. It is the gate that opens for us to know and love Jesus more than we do now. It is the key to us being more Christlike and a blessing to others.
The Bible is primarily two languages: Hebrew and Greek. Each language has a word translated “repent.” The Hebrew word most often translated repent means “to turn around.” It means to change the way you live, go a different direction. The book of Hosea uses this word often. Hosea is the story of a preacher whose wife left him and was passed around from man to man in the community. He rescues her and says she is to change her ways and become faithful only to him. She was to live a different life.
The Greek word is similar. It means to change the way you think. I’m done living that way. I now will live God’s way. What once was acceptable or tolerated is no longer acceptable and tolerable. It is so big that I must no longer live that way.
Before I was repentant, I asked only, “What will it do for me?” That was all I wanted to know. Then the Holy Spirit convicted me of wrong. I was stricken with guilt. I want to change. You can know if you are really dealing with repentance if you start asking a different question, “What will it do for Jesus?” The answer to those two questions is vastly different.
Jesus calls the whole church to repentance not just the guilty ones. The whole church is to be concerned with holiness and unfaithfulness. He goes on to say that if you won’t discipline yourself, I will discipline you. Northeast, one of the things which is to be included in your regular prayers is for your church to experience seasons of deep, soul-searching repentance. Pray for your pastor’s repentance, your staff’s repentance, your deacon’s repentance. Pray for the church to repent. We want a church so tender-hearted to sin and to Jesus that He doesn’t have to come and discipline us.
If I saw another man trying to steal my wife away, I would put a stop to it. I will not share her with another man. Neither will Jesus share His church with other gods. It’s a precarious place to call yourself a Christian but love other gods.
How do you start? How do you change? Take your Bible and pray for God to give you a repentant will. Read your Bible and listen for God to speak. Obey what He says. You do that regularly and there will be times when the sword pierces, wounds, and does a surgery of healing.
CHRIST’S COMMENDATION: THEY PRESERVED AND PROPAGATED THE TRUTH (REV. 2:12-13)
CHRIST’S COMPLAINT: THEY PERMITTED ERROR AND EVIL (REV. 2:14-16)
III. CHRIST’S CONQUEST: THE TRUTH SHALL TRIUMPH (REV. 2:17).
(17) “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it.
For me the best explanation of the manna is a reference to Jesus Christ. He called himself the Bread of Life, an obvious reference to the manna of the Exodus. He satisfies our spiritual hunger; but, it is “hidden” manna. This may refer to the golden jar in the Ark of the Covenant that contained manna. The “hidden” quality may mean our rewards look beyond the earth to heaven. All of the rewards in each letter are for later. Denying ourselves now the temporal indulgences of present false lovers will be rewarded with something far richer in the future when we gather around the marriage feast of the Lamb. Joseph, in Genesis, said no to the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife and later his reward was greater than he could have ever imagined as he became the ruler of Egypt behind Pharaoh. It may be painful and difficult to turn down invitation of the world to live our life by its standards, priorities and values; but, what God has for a reward to those who conquer will make it more than worth it.
A second gift that the victorious receive is white stone with a new name written on it. The judge would use a white stone to declare the accused innocent. Also, stones were used for an invitation to a grand feast by a leading citizen of the community. The stone may have been broken and the other half kept by the host. They would be matched to grant entrance to the great banquet.
Isaiah 62, says God’s people will be given God’s name. He takes away their old name of sin and reproach and gives them His name, a new name. What is this name in Isaiah? “Beloved, loved of the Lord.” This stood for Jesus. He signs His name to the stone of acquittal. Jesus casts the deciding vote on the great day of judgment. Grants you admission to the marriage feast of the Lamb.
His name means His righteousness is yours. His place of security is your place of security. He is God’s Son; we are God’s sons and daughters. His inheritance is your inheritance. This is His pledge of love and marriage. What’s promised is more of Jesus. In Phil. 3:8, Paul said when he compared his great learning, Jewish privileges as the people of God, his ambitious advancement as a Jewish rabbi to the privilege of knowing Jesus better, he considered all those accomplishments as literally a pile of manure!
There are few things I love more than being a grandfather. I was caught by surprise by the joy of it. I’d give away almost everything in my life to just be grandpa to my eleven grandkids. Paul would say to me if you had to choose between that and knowing Jesus, I can’t hardly say this, it’s like a pile of manure to what you will have in Jesus. That may not be saying much to you, but that is huge for me. This being true means I’ve got to have more of Jesus today. It means this week I’ve got to have more of Jesus. I’ve got to have more Bread. I’ve got to have that stone. How could I ever choose error or compromise over Jesus?
The church is to be marked by faithfulness to the truth. What will this take? Love for Christ. This is seen in my resistance of Satan’s corrupting influence toward evil and error.
CONCLUSION
In 1981, a surprising foreign film won best picture of the year. It was about Eric Liddel, a Scottish missionary who ran to please God, and Harold Abrams, a Jew who ran for acceptance among Cambridge society. The movie was Chariots of Fire.
What made the story memorable and brought it to the world’s attention 57 years after the 1924 Olympics was the young Scottish Christian’s willingness to give up a chance to win an Olympic gold medal rather than give up his conscience in honoring the Lord’s Day. In the movie, the British Olympic Committee pressured the young man to give in this one time for King and country. Liddell made it clear that he put another King first in obedience.
Toward the end of the movie, Harold Abrams, runs the 100 meters. He says he has been afraid of losing but now he is afraid of winning. He has only 10 seconds to prove the reason for his existence and then he’s not sure he will. This is the outcome when you live for the world.
After the Olympics in which Eric Liddell won a gold medal in the 400 meters and set a world record, he packs his bags for China as a missionary. Later he is imprisoned by the Japanese and dies in the prison camp in 1945.
There have been lots of Olympic champions since the summer of 1924, but few, if any, are as well known as this Scotsman who competed in only one Olympics and won a gold medal in the 400 meters and a bronze in the 200 meters. Why has his story been made into several books, a movie and two documentaries? He was marked by faithfulness to Christ.
Jesus doesn’t claim to be a good man. He doesn’t claim to be a great moral teacher or philosopher. He doesn’t claim to be an inspiration for mankind. Jesus claims to be your God and your Savior.
He says with authority you are a sinner and deserve eternal punishment. Nevertheless, He loves you. He loves you enough to take your punishment for sin on the cross and by dying and rising from the grave to offer you forgiveness. To receive this forgiveness, you must repent and yield control of your life to Him. He is God and your Savior.
You think the pandemic has disrupted your life? You need to know up front that things are going to change when you come to Jesus as Savior and God. Some of the changes you will like, and some of the changes will be like surgery with a sword; but, you’ll be eternally grateful. Pray this prayer with me….
I want to send you a series of Bible studies to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus. Just ask for them and you will receive one a week for the next five weeks.
1. About.com:Ancient/Classical History/Q. Sword of Damocles
PRAYER
Father, thank you for the truth. It saved us and continuous to change us. Some who have joined us are living where Satan’s throne is. Empower them to be faithful, to recognize and reject the devil’s deception or intimidation. Other’s have had the darkness lifted and see that they really love other things more than Jesus. Give them a repentant heart. Bring about a sharp break with sin.
Jesus, bless our spiritual leaders with the gift of repentance. Pour into their hearts a yearning for more of Jesus in their lives. So fill them that it overflows and fills our church with love for Jesus. Use your Word to cut away our sin and leave us a holy people. You do this for us, and we will testify to church and community of Your goodness. Amen.
