January 28, 2024
The Church in Pergamum
Revelation 2:12-17
If we had to choose a single word to describe each church that we have looked at so far in the book of the Revelation I think it would be fair to say Ephesus would be best described as the loveless church and Smyrna as the persecuted church. If we did the same with the church we will be looking at this morning, I think the church at Pergamum would definitely be known as the compromising church. Compromise can sometimes be a wonderful thing. It’s a great thing in relationships and marriages because it helps us to work through conflict and it can help us develop trust and strengthen those relationships. Even when it comes to cooking, some great things have come from compromise. Just think of the argument that resulted in the turducken. There must have been three boys who couldn’t agree what they wanted to eat, one said turkey― another said duck ― and the last one said chicken, then Mom said let’s compromise, and voila ― the turducken was born. However there are times when compromise doesn’t work. The greatest of these times is when the church compromises with the truth of God’s Word. That's the type of compromise that had slowly snuck its way into the church at Pergamum. The church didn’t do anything bad, they had also been applauded because they chose to stand for Christ in a city that was very hostile to the followers of Jesus. How did a church who made such a courageous stand for Jesus end up compromising in the end? That’s what we are looking at this morning. We will see what we can learn from this letter to the church in Pergamum in order to make sure we don't find ourselves in the same situation.
The Church did not compromise their mission. - Revelation 2:12-13
Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword: I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.
The letter starts with Jesus introducing Himself in a very interesting way and it is almost polar opposite to the beautiful reveal that we get to see in the letter to the church in Smyrna. Jesus starts this letter by revealing Himself to Pergamum in a much more jarring way as He declares that He is the one with the two-edged sword. We will see the reason for such a harsh revelation when Jesus reprimands the church. As usual Jesus doesn’t start these letters with correction but rather He starts His address to the church with a compliment. This church was located in the political capital of Asia Minor. It was a large town that had everything you could want. They had what you could call a hospital, they had religious temples to Caesar Augustus, and the throne-shaped altar to Zeus the savior. It had everything the pagan residents could want for the body, soul, and mind. For Christians it was a very hostile environment. Jesus refers to the city as Satan's throne. Some think this is because the altar to Zeus was located on a hill that loomed over the city. It was shaped like a throne and others think it was because it was the center of Emperor worship in Asia Minor. Either way it was hostile to Christians and Jesus declared it Satan’s city. The persecution had gotten so bad for the church that one of their more prominent members had been executed in a brutal fashion for his faith. Amidst all of this, the church remained loyal to Christ. How did this actually look played out in their community? We can see that when the pressure to bow down to the Emperor grew due to the temple to Augustus Caesar, the church refused to declare that Caesar was lord, just like the church at Smyrna and that is why they were labeled as loyal. Jesus mentioned that they refused to deny Him, and He mentions that Antipas was a “faithful witness”. Both of these phrases refer to the idea that this church refused to remain silent in the midst of their community. No matter the cost they were going to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to an evil world who was deceived by Satan.
We see that their faith was greater than their fear. How can we see that happen in our own lives? It starts with prayer. Praying Psalms 139:23-24 and Psalms 19:14 is a great way to start. We start by asking God to examine our thoughts, to see if there is anything that displeases Him, and ask Him to have our thoughts line up with Him. Lies will always be against God and His Word. When God starts to point out lies we are holding on to in our minds and causing us to fear, we need to confess those lies to Him, and repent from the fact that we held to those lies instead of His truth. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us the next step is that we need to capture our thoughts that don’t line up with God’s Word and replace them with God’s truth. We go to His Word, or better yet, we commit to memorize His Word so it will be right there when these thoughts consume us. We also need to know that these attacks are not from God, but rather from our enemy. Since they are from the enemy, we can do exactly what Jesus did when He was confronted with the lies of the enemy. When He was tempted in the wilderness, we can quote God’s Word to remind Satan that he was defeated once and for all on the cross and by the resurrection. We can do this by quoting Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:10, Romans 16:20, Revelation 12:10, Colossians 2:15, just to name a few. Satan is a defeated foe who is doing everything he can to stop the Gospel and God’s Church from going out and carrying out our mission. He's been trying for 2,000 years and the Gospel is still being proclaimed to all nations despite the consequences of their actions. Don’t let Satan consider your life a victory!
Going back to the church at Pergamum ― how did a church who was so loyal to Christ that they overcame their fear, even when they were facing death, still be referred to as the compromising church? It was because when Satan knew he couldn’t win with a full frontal attack, he decided to attack the church from the inside.
The Church did compromise their teachings. - Revelation 2:14-16
I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Satan’s plan to attack the church was just like the way he attacked the children of Israel in Numbers 22 - 24. He attacked them from the inside, but to see how this happened we need to look at Jesus’ address to His Church. As Jesus starts His admonition to the church He mentions that just some, not all, of the church were adopting the teaching of Balaam, but the problem was they were tolerated. They had gotten a little friendly with the teachings of this world. To understand exactly what was being tolerated, we need to go back and remember the story of the evil prophet Balaam. In Numbers 22- 24 we are told of the King of Moab named Balak, who was very concerned about the Children of Israel who were moving into his territory as they were making their way to the promised land. He found an evil prophet (not a false prophet, just an evil one) named Balaam and bribed him to curse the children of Israel. Balaam said that he would only speak what God told Him to the children of Israel. Balak bribed him three times to curse the children of Israel. All three times Balaam spoke the blessings that God had told him to say (just like he told Balak he would) and Balak got angry and sent him away. Balaam spoke four more prophecies that God had given him, making it seven blessings that God spoke over Israel instead of the one curse that Balak wanted. Remember Balaam was evil and he came up with a way to get the bribe that the King of Moab had promised. Since he couldn’t curse them directly, he instead would appeal to their sensuality and sense of personal satisfaction and it was in that way they would curse themselves. He introduced idolatry and temple prostitution to Israel and convinced them that it was ok to make concessions with those things when they knew that God had commanded them otherwise. When we apply that to the Church, we see there was a group that held and were possibly teaching false teachings that were contrary to God’s Word and were appealing to the sinful hearts of Israel. This is when we see why Jesus revealed Himself the way He did at the beginning of this letter. He says that the Church must repent and take care of the problem with the truth of God’s Word or that He will bring the two-edged sword and cut them out of the church Himself. Jesus knew how detrimental those teachings could be and was very serious about dealing with them.
Satan is just like Balak. That old liar is very concerned that we, the Church, are moving in on his territory as we walk in obedience to God’s commands and His mission for us. He will throw these types of teachings our way to see if he can corrupt us from the inside. Before I talk about how we are called to deal with those people who are teaching those things, we need to talk about how we can make sure we aren’t the ones Jesus is talking about. When we have the attitude that it could never be us that Jesus is talking about removing, it’s in that naivety that we are most vulnerable to being the one that holds onto those false teachings. The internet is full of good sounding quotes from people who claim to be Christians and even from supposed pastors and religious leaders. That's the issue ― false teachers are not 100% false. They will often be smooth talkers who will say things that are appealing to our ears, but it’s that little bit of deceit that they add in that corrupts their entire teachings. In order to make sure we are not supporting false teachings, we must look at their teachings as a whole and then judge them based on scripture as a whole. Why scripture as a whole? It is because these teachers and leaders love to take verses and quote them out of context. You will quickly find that many TV preachers and internet famous leaders fall short when we hold them to the standard of the entirety of God’s Word. One of the hardest truths to learn, especially as a young Christian, is not everyone who says they are a Christian really is and even if someone you know is a Christian is appearing with them, someone whom you might suspect as a false teacher at a conference or on stage at some point, don’t take that as proof that they are a Christian. More and more people are making concessions when it comes to those things, especially when it involves fame and money. If you struggle with this, that's what the Church is here for. You can always come and talk to a Pastor. We are more than willing to share the truth of God’s Word with you when it comes to false teachings and those who espouse them.
What are we to do, if we do find those who are clinging to false teachings and false teachers in our midst? We will go in depth on this subject in the near future. I will use Titus 3:10-11 to tell you to approach them in love and show them their error. If they refuse to repent then come back a second time with others, and if they still won’t repent then it’s time to cut them off from the Church, based upon the authority of God’s Word which they have then twice denied.
The Church was promised God would provide. - Revelation 2:17
Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.
Jesus closes out this letter by letting all born again believers know that they must not just hear this message, but they need to understand it and apply it to their lives. He makes a promise that we can hold onto when we are tempted to compromise any of His commandments. He promises that He will provide “Hidden Manna” to those who are victorious by the Blood of Jesus. This means that when you think that compromising His Word is the only choice you have, you need to understand God will provide in ways you could never have imagined if you are obedient to Him. Just like Philippians 4:19 says, He will provide for all our needs according to His riches in glory. As we saw last week, those riches are His abundant grace and those who have experienced it. We know that God will take care of us and there is no reason for us to ever compromise what He has called us to be as His Church.
As we close out today, we need to understand that there is a balance between what the church of Ephesus did (being too inward focused) and what the church at Pergamum did (being too much like the world) because we cannot shun sinners (1 Corinthians 5:9-13). We also are to stand up for truth (Ephesians 4:25), stand up for righteousness (Proverbs 23:20; Romans 14:22), and stand up for goodness (2 Peter 1:5, Matthew 5:16), whether it’s what others want to hear or not (John 4:16–18; 8:11; Acts 24:24–25). We do so out of love because we know what we have in Jesus and what the world is lacking without Him.
