The Revelation to Pergamos - Words to the Compromising.
Frank Sosienski was a postman in Louisville, Kentucky, who didn’t want to deliver some of his mail. Perhaps it was the hot summertime, like we’re experiencing now. Maybe the mail was heavy; maybe he wanted to quit his route just a little early each day. In any case, there were eventually complaints about mail not arriving, and they traced the problem back to Frank. When the postal authorities investigated, they found the mail that was missing. Most of it was in Frank’s attic. You see, over a six-year period he stashed away 15 tons of other people’s mail. They discovered over 1200 bags of undelivered mail in Frank Sosienski’s attic.
Question: a mail carrier is supposed to… what? Answer: To deliver the mail. Truth is, a mail carrier who doesn’t deliver the mail hasn’t done a very good job of being what they’re supposed to be or doing what they’re supposed to do.
Now, another question: a Christian is supposed to… what? Well, there are many ways to talk about what a Christian is - what we’re called to do and be. But one pretty good definition is that that a Christian is someone whose faith is in Jesus Christ, and is faithful in serving him.
But that’s not always easy, is it? We can be honest enough with each other to confess that following Jesus, and serving him is not always easy to do. It’s a jungle out there. There are a lot of people who make it difficult to be nice. There’s times we really don’t feel like being forgiving. And there’s situations in business and at work and on campus and at school where… Well, let’s just say we sometimes we may be tempted to be Christian the way Frank Sosienski delivered mail. Let’s let it slide, just this once. What harm could it do?
John, the author of the book of Revelation, was writing from the island of Patmos, where he was exiled. He addressed his writing to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. This was during a time when the Roman Empire figured a good way to unite the people they ruled was to make them worship the Roman emperor. Problem was, the Jews and Christians had been taught that there was only one God, and that worshipping any one or any thing other than God was wrong. Now the Jews had an advantage here -- sort of a "grandfather clause". The Jews had received permission to refrain from worshipping the emperor, because they were seen as an ethnic group. But these Christians --- they were not a specific ethnic group. All kinds of people, from all sorts of nations and races were becoming converts to this new religion, Christianity.
So John writes to these Christians, telling them to "hang in there". We do know that some of these folks tried to find ways to do both -- to do the emperor worship thing and to remain part of the church. You can imagine what family and friends and co-workers and neighbors might have said: "Look, we’re not against religion or anything, but you don’t want to look like some kind of weirdo, do you?" "This emperor stuff is just something you’ve gotta do if you’re going to get ahead." "You’re not going to get invited to this Friday’s orgy." "People aren’t going to hire you if you take this Christian thing too far…."
The letter to the Pergamum believers acknowledges the struggles they were going through and encourages them to stand firm and not compromise their stand.
Let’s read the letter together. - Rev 2:12 - 17.
A Picture of Christ (vs 12)
This letter is the third of 7 recorded letters written to 7 churches. The letters were given to John by Christ, while he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos. Christ introduces himself to the Pergamum believers in vs 12 when he says of himself “These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword”. It is probably fitting to use a sword here since the sword would have been a common implement of death in Pergamum. But here the usage is more likely that it is to be used as an implement of judgment rather than condemnation. Other parts of Scripture use this metaphor also. Heb 4:12 says “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.” God’s word convicts and spurs us onto actions
While here in Revelations, this is God’s word written specifically to the Pergamum church, it is also meant for us all - so let’s pause and ask God to speak to us individually right where we are at today. PRAY
A Picture of the City (vs 12)
Pergamum is the third of the 7 cities located on the Coast and was famous for several reasons.
1. Pergamum was the Roman capital of the province of Asia and was a great administrative centre.
2. It was the site a a great library said to contain more than 200,000 parchment scrolls. In Fact the name Pergamum comes from the same word as Parchment because this is where parchment was first invented. Uptil that time, all writing had been done on papyrus which was made from reeds that grew on the banks of the Nile. The Egyptians had a monopoly on the making of papyrus and a great library of their own at Alexandria. As the story goes, the king of Pergamum, in an attempt to enhance the reputation of his own library, tried to hire away the chief librarian and famous scholar from Alexandria. But the king of Egypt got wind of it, had this poor librarian put into prison to keep him from leaving, and then cut off the supply of papyrus to Pergamum. Well, Pergamum had to do something, so they came up with something new, a process by which the skins of animals could be pressed and treated to retain writing. And that was the invention of parchment...all because of an international incident created over the hiring of a librarian.
3. Probably more significant to us than the library was Pergamum’s spiritual state. We have mentioned before the practice of emperor worship. Well the very first temple erected in honor of a living emperor was built in - guess where - Pergamum in 29 BC to Caesar Augustus. For this reason Pergamos was given the special honor of being called "Neokoros," which means "temple warden. The pressure to conform to worship of the emperor would have been significant in Pergamum.
4. Lastly, as with all other cities of it’s day, Pergamum had a serious fetish with other gods and had at least 4 great temples that we know of - one for each of the 4 greatest gods of the Greeks. They had a temple for (1) Zeus. He was supposed to be the head of all gods. (2) Dinoysisus, the god of wine and drama. (3) Athena, the goddess of Wisdom in art and war. (4) Aesculapius, the god of healing. It is interesting that the symbol for Aesculapius was a snake - Who knows what the symbol for the medical fraternity even today features? A prominent part of this worship of other Gods was a massive alter build on a hill overlooking the city. It was the altar to Zeus and was 30m square and about 4 stories high!!!
This wasn’t a very Christ honouring city and even Christ testifies to this fact Vs 13 he says “I know where you live—where Satan has his throne.” We don’t really know what Christ was referring to by Satan’s throne. It may have been the fact that there was a great altar to Zeus. It may have been that here Rome was idolised and the emporer worshipped. It was symbolic of the fact that Satan exercised real power. Many of us feel as though we live in situations like the people of Pergamum. We live beneath the throne of Satan. The world’s hatred and men’s evil deeds affect our lives. Drug deals that go down in the local parks, Homosexuality and prostitution rife, financial and political corruption in all levels of government – all those things affect us. It used to be someone else’s town where the murder occured. It used to be someone else’s teenager who got pregnant. Now it’s close to home and we can’t run from it. We are living where Satan rules. And to complicate matters, the lines between good and evil have become blur. Life is filled with gray areas. There appear to be no black and white decisions. Technology, science, psychology, and sociology have caused our generation to questioned morality and tolerance. Sin is protected by political correctness. Fornication has become an alternative lifestyle. Our motto has become ‘if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with.’
A Picture of the Church - Things that were right (vs 13)
But even in Pergamum, great as it was, evil as it was, there was a church and Christ writes to it to commend it. He writes in vs 13 “I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives”.
He commended them first for holding fast to his name. The Greek here carries the idea of seizing the name and holding fast to it. They would not trade His name for anything or link it with the pagan gods of Pergamum. They refused to budge the views on his person. They held firmly to that truth.
Secondly he commended them becasue they did not renounce their faith even in the midst of persecution. We don’t know much about Antipas, but tradition has it that he was roasted in a brazen bull. It seems clear that at some time in the past, persecution had touched these people personally, but they remained firm.
Despite the evil times in which we live, we have the opportunity every day to uphold Jesus’ name and his standards. Are we faithful in doing this? Do we stand up against blasphemy of his name in the cribroom? Do we refuse to accept the commonly held views about Christianity and Jesus?
A Picture of the Church - Things that were wrong (vs 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.
It was not all peaches and cream in the Pergamum church. Because just as now there was some who want to blur black and white together to make grey - in Pergamum there were those also.
Balaamism
First of all they had some of their members held to the teaching of Balaam. Note that the church as a whole did not believe in this doctrine, but they did continue in fellowship with those that did.
What is Balaamism?
You can read about Balaam in Numbers 23-24. Balaam was a prophet who had been hired by Balak, the King of Moab, to curse Israel, but when he tried to do so he found he could not. Every time he tried to curse them, God would not let him curse his people. So, in order to achieve the end for which he had been hired, he paid beautiful maidens from Moab and Midian to parade before the young men of Israel, tempting them into sexual immorality. Since these women were worshipers of idols, by that means he introduced idol worship into the tribes of Israel. Thus he corrupted and enticed them into sin.
Balaam probably encouraged the idea that since Israel was God’s covenant people, they could do as they pleased. At Pergamum there were some who held that one could be a Christian and live like the world. They were not the slightest bit concerned with worshipping the emperor and offering incence to him or with eating food offered to idols, or even participating in the sexual orgies which were such a part of the pagan worship. They were Christians in name even though they lived in the world and acted no different. This was a dangerous doctrine then and it remains so today. Vance Havner said "There have never been more Balaamites in our churches than now. We call them ’worldly’ Christians." The Balaamites in our churches today see nothing wrong with the practice of pornography and fornication among Christians. They are those who accept young people living together without marriage. They happily watch movies which have sex and violence in them and take along others with them. They compromise the Christian stand to the detriment of those ensnared in the sin they accept.
Nicolaitans
The second group condemned by Christ is the Nicolaitans. Though it is difficult to know exactly who these people were it appears they claimed to have a special relationship to God. They professed to be the beneficiaries of intimate revelations that were not given to others, and that they therefore had an inside track with God. The special knowledge they possessed gave them freedom from the law and so they happily participated in sexual pleasures and eating food offered to idols. They presumed to take the place of the priesthood in Judaism, and carried that error into the Christian church.
Probably both of these false teachings worked together. One appealed to physical lust, and the other to the ambition for power exercised in a religious way. It is seen still today in the supremacy of pastors who are lifted up above the laity. They are men who claim to have more intimate relationships with God, and thus are regarded as better than the rest of the people.
The problem was that some of the Christians at Pergamum were being corrupted. They were trying to be accepting and tolerant, but this opened the door to corruption. Now there is a dilemna here. We know that the company we keep is very important and that if we are not careful that which is bad can easily rub off on us. When you garden in white gloves, you expect the gloves to get dirty, not the soil to get glovey. So to we should expect that we will get dirty when we hang around dirty people. That is not to say we should cut all ties with unsaved people, because how else would they be saved, but we need to be on our guard so that we don’t become corrupted ourselves by our association with them.
Living in Satan’s town was no excuse for the Pergamum Christians and living in a sinful world is no excuse for us. Do we happily live in the greyness of today’s society or do we maintain that there is a difference between black and white, good and bad, right and wrong? We need to keep our standards high and constantly be on the look out for Satan’s desire for us to compromise our high standards. An old Nazarene Evangelist was once reported to have prayed the following prayer every morning. “O Lord, give me a backbone as big as a saw log and ribs like the sleepers under the church floor. Put iron shoes on my feet and galvanized breeches on my body. Give me a rhinoceros hide for skin and hang up a wagon-load of determination in the gable-end of my soul. Help me to sign the contract to fight the devil as long as I’ve got a tooth - and then gum him until I die.”
We need to be as faithful as this old codger - continually fighting Satan and his attempts to corrupt us.
Picture of the Remedy (vs 16)
For those of us who are compromising our stand today - Christ has a remedy for us . 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
This command is written in the aorist imperative tense which means that it is a command to repent immediately. We are not encouraged to linger in Satan’s ways, but to repent, change our mind, actions and attitude immediately for Christ will not be patient with us and will not linger coming to fight against us. The Balaamites and Nicolaitians were to repent immediately of their deeds and the church was to repent of its failure to deal with the problem in the first place. God was calling them to no longer compromise on what was true, condone what was ungodly or crave anything that wasn’t pure
The consequence for not repenting is that we will face God’s word - his sword - this time in judgment and condemnation. His word is a powerful opponent - it calmed storms, healed sick people, drove out demons. Our Lord’s admonitions are never mere suggestions. They are to be taken seriously, and acted upon with speed and determination. If we are living in compromise today, Christ is telling us to pull up our socks and repent - QUICKLY.
Picture of the Promise (vs 17)
As is typical of these letters, Christ ends with a promise to those who heed his warnings and respond in repentance. To him who has an ear and hears 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.
Two promises are given...
1) Hidden Manna is promised. You would remember that the manna was given to the people of Israel during their desert wanderings. It was God’s amazing provision and showed his concern and provision for his people. The picture of Manna here was relevant to those who argued that eating food offered to idols was acceptable. “If we were to find food not offered to idols, we would have to pay double the price - We can’t afford to be that fussy they would say.” The Manna, reminded them that God could be trusted to provide for his faithful.
The reference to Manna here, however is more than a reference to physical food. It is the hidden manna - that which can not be seen by man. Jesus called himself the bread of life and contrasted himself with the Manna of old ... Jn 6: 47-52 ... 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
While the manna sustained the physical life for a time, the bread of life, Jesus, came to give life and life abundant. The bread that is Christ is all sufficient for us through all situations, but is only available to us if we repent.
The hidden manna therefore is a promise to those that overcome and refuse to compromise. God Promises to reveal himself and be our spiritual nourishment until that day we can eat with him in heaven.
2) The second promise is for a white stone with a new name on it. White stone was mined at Pergamum and was a commercial product. We are not sure what is meant by this white stone, but there were many customs of the day which may be relevant.
a) Black and White stones were used by juries in courts. If they believed that a person was guilty, they symbolised this by offering their black stone. If they believed they were innocent, they would offer their white stone. The White stone therefore may speak of our innocent status before God once we are forgiven.
b) White stones were also used as medallions in the olympics and other sporting events and were also given to members of a conquering army. The White stone here may therefore be a symbol of our triumph of faith
c) White stones were also used as tokens (tickets if you will) into banquets or feasts or used as placecards at the dinner table. The White stone then would be a ticket ensuring that we could participate in the heavenly banquet with Christ.
d) They were given to a man freed from slavery as proof that he had been made a citizen of the province. The white stone then speaks of our citizenship of heaven.
e) White stones were sometimes carried around as lucky charms - often with a name of a protectorate god. If this was the meaning, the White stone would speak of the assurance we have that Christ would protect us.
What ever the meaning, the white stone spoke of the redeemed position we have through a relationship with Christ. The stone is also important because it has a name on it - a New Name. Names in biblical times were significant as they spoke about the character of a person. New Names were given to many people through the bible with their new name speaking about their character or their role. Abram became Abraham - “Father of many nations;” Sarai became Sarah - “Mother of nations;” Simon became Peter - “The Rock;” James and John became Boanerges - “Sons of Thunder.” The new name given to us will represent our new nature.
We see here the personalness of our relation to Jesus in the world to come. In this world, the individual is often lost in the masses. A specific Israelite was ordinarily lost in the identity of his tribe. Individual Israelites that came out of Egyptian bondage were swallowed up by national distinction. Contemporarily speaking, many a precious individual is lost in the crowd of the assembly to which they belong. Such identity- handicaps will forever be removed in glory!
But with those who repent and become part of God’s family, there will be a closeness to Christ. Jesus will know us personally, and interface with us personally. A sense of Divine acceptance will be realized that will belong alone to you.
Do you not see what powerful incentives Jesus has given the church in Pergamum to repent? History confirms they did not take the word of the Master seriously. And today not much of the ancient city remains. Yet, I cannot help but believe there were some a remnant who heard what the Spirit was saying to the churches. Such people repented, and once again pressed forward to obtain the prize. Today, those triumphant souls are with another of their number, Antipas, who lost his life that he might forever gain it. How blessed the soul who listens to the Lord! Eternal blessings will be realized, and cursing avoided.
So where are we at ... We live in a time and a place where it is so easy to compromise our stand. It is easy for us to get caught in the grey brigade. I’m not talking about those who are old, but those that like the Balaamites and Nicolatians, try to live with one foot in either camp. If we are guilty of living a compromised Christian life, Christ calls us to repent Quickly. The rewards for doing so are that He will sustain us (physically and spiritually) and will give us eternal life signified by a white stone and a new name. Where are we at? Where are you at? Are you compromising? Do you need to repent? Are you assured of your hidden manna, white stone and new name? He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
