“Revealing Revelations - III
The Church of Pergamum (The indulgent church)
September 13, 2009
Revelation 2:12-17
The city of Pergamum (or Pergamos in the KJV) was the center of an imperial cult. There were many cults and religions here – but ‘Gnosticism’ probably influenced them all – including the church. We’ll talk about that more in a little bit. The name of the city means “Fortress”. It was made famous for its library of 200,000 scrolls. Pergamum popularized writing on goatskin sheets and it was also known for its Altar of Zeus and its large theater.
1. Christ’s Greeting:
12 "And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ’These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword…’
This greeting is a little different from the first two greetings. To the church is Ephesus and Smyrna the greeting was a kind of “Hi! Howareya!” This greeting included the threat of Christ’s wrath for their actions. Jesus was not messing around. He comes right to the point. He reminds this church that He has a sword that cuts both ways. The sword is a Rhomphaia, a large, long sword which came crashing down on its opponent. There was no slice and dice to this sword. There was no fancy kata to it. It was destruction. It cut right to the bone quickly with no messing around. The implication is that Jesus Christ was and is able to bring judgment on his church. The introduction to His talk includes a reference to take warning.
I think that’s good advice for us as we study these Scriptures. It calls for introspection. We ought to do that every so often – shouldn’t we? Listen:
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves…”
2 Cor 13:5
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1
The Christian needs to be alert and on his toe. There are a lot of false prophets and preachers and teachers out there. Most of them probably are sincere and think they know the truth – but the lie has slipped into almost all religions and denominations today. Gnosticism has infiltrated even our modern day doctrines and theology. We need to test the spirits; test the theology; test the teacher – and even test ourselves to see if we have not been corrupted in our thinking.
2. The Commendation
13 "I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
These words have kind of a two edged sword effect to them. I like the truth that Jesus knows my works. He said we can’t even give a glass of water in his name without it being noticed and reward one day. I like that! He says He know where we live. He knows that we are faithful. Plus minus plus.
Jesus understood the opposition this church faced by being so close to Satan’s power. Jesus takes this into account with the Church of Pergamum. Christ acknowledges their location. He understands where they – and we -are at.
The church thrives under persecution. The last Emperor to persecute these Christians was Galerius, who died an excruciating death. His body rotted from the inside out while he was still alive. Days before his death, he recanted his orders of Christian persecution and then died. Following his rule was Constantine. As a new, novice, enthusiastic Christian, He made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. Being a new Christian, he was willing to make compromises to the pagans. He allowed mass conversions, and allowed pagan priests to become Christian priests. His attitude was “can’t we all just get along?” As ruler he wanted peace – not strife. Rather than being ‘intolerant’ toward false doctrine – he wanted tolerance. That’s one of the problems with many churches and Christians today. They are tolerant toward evil and sin. They want to be inclusive. So Constantine, because he had the power, gather the masses together, read them the “sinner prayer’ and saved them. They said the words. We are saved solely by grace. So what’s the problem?
The problem was many of these conversions were more convenient - than real. Pagan practices were just repackaged with Christian names, keeping many of the older rites. An example is Easter. The name is pagan in origin, but in order to help pagans feel more at home with the “Resurrection Sunday”, the name Easter remained. Other, practices such as bunny rabbits, white dresses and eggs also stayed and were packaged for Christian consumption.
The power behind Pergamos (or Pergamum) was Satan. Jesus refers to the city as “Satan’s throne”. There are several opinions what this could mean. Pergamos had the temple of Zeus. Zeus, the Greek god and Marduk the Babylonian god are, by most accounts, the same god with a different name. The meanings are the same, just different names according to Heroditus, the Greek historian. The goddess Ashtora of the Philistines, Isis of Egypt and Artemis of the Greeks are essentially the same god, but with different names. The source behind this deception is Satan himself. He was the demonic spiritual powerhouse behind this evil in Pergamum.
Despite being in the fortress of Satan’s operation, the church did not deny faith in Christ. Pergamum still had faithful saints willing to die for Christ. Antipas was an early model of faithful saints, faithful to the Lord despite the condition of the church and the price of faithfulness.
The lesson to us is to be faithful no matter what. It doesn’t matter what the country is doing, what religions are doing, what the church is doing. Stand up for Christ anyway! Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone – if you have to.
3. Condemnation
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.
Unlike Ephesus, Pergamum was willing to indulge the ways of the world into their system. Balaam was a prophet hired by the king of Moab, Balak, to find a way to destroy Israel. Israel was entering his land on the way to the Promised Land – and he was scared. So he hired Balaam to curse these people. But he was unable to curse them because each time he tried- a blessing came out!
But Balaam was no saint. Balaam suggested intermarriage with the Moabites, eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality as the method to destroy Israel. This is the doctrine of Balaam, to combine the things of God with the ways of the world. This was happening in Pergamum, the church was permitting practices of the pagan Greeks to be introduced into the church.
Do you think that happens to churches today? Sometimes there is no difference between the church and a social club. The actions of the members are the same. Paganism and huminanism and worldlyism infiltrate the church – and instead of ‘holy’ it becomes “wholly”. It no longer strives to be the spotless bride of Christ. It no longer strives for purity – but popularity.
These pagan groups would later be known as the Gnostics. Today, a great example of Gnosticism is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Many Christians are embracing a novel with a different Jesus. The Jesus of Gnosticism was married to Mary Magdalene, a Temple prostitute, and had a child named Sarah. Dan Brown presents this as fact, and many who might call themselves Christians are embracing this book. The same was occurring here in this Church in Revelation.
This proto-Gnostic group was teaching sexual freedom. The Greeks at their various temples had Temple prostitutes. This church allowed those who taught sexual promiscuity to be part of the leadership. These very issues plague the church today, and again some churches teach the permissibility of sexual freedom, including gay rights, marriage and sexual liberty.
It’s nothing new. Some call it Gnosticism. Gnosticism was built on the Greek philosophy that taught matter was evil and the Spirit was good. Christian Gnostics said since matter was evil, God could not really dwell in a human body. He only appeared in human form and only appeared to suffer. It was all an illusion.
The Gnostics supposedly had knowledge of God that was exclusive. They considered themselves superior to the average Christian. The Gnostics taught that man is composed of body, soul, and spirit. The body and the soul are man’s earthly existence, and were considered evil. Enclosed in mans soul, is the spirit, a divine substance of man. This “spirit” was asleep and ignorant and needed to be awakened. It could only be liberated by special knowledge. That would be called by the modern term ‘illumination’ – or maybe “Christ-consciousness”.
Ethical behavior among the Gnostics were on two ends of the spectrum. Some tried to separate themselves from all earthly evil in order to avoid contamination. Other Gnostics were libertarians. In other words, they considered themselves free to do anything they desired or conceive of. This exclusive spiritual knowledge meant their having the freedom to participate in all sorts of indulgences. Since they had received divine knowledge and were enlightened, it didn’t matter how they lived in the body, because the flesh was evil. It didn’t matter. Sexual immorality, homosexuality, and deviate thing you wanted to do was okay – because all flesh was evil anyway. Only the spirit was pure.
Salvation to the Gnostics came by knowledge and experience. Those who did not have this knowledge (esoteric truth) were associated with ignorance. The ‘enlightened ones’ received direct revelation from the ‘spirit’ - which was more important than the Word of God.
Whenever anyone tells me, “God told me to do this or that” - I’m a little skeptical. People have been saying that for a long time to excuse ungodliness. I want to check everything out by the Bible. I think that is one of the reasons God gave us the Bible – so we could check ourselves and anyone or anything else by it. That is why the Bible is so attacked and why people try to tear it down first thing. It’s our standard of right and wrong. Get rid of the bible and people can’t check to see if something is truth or not.
Does all this sound familiar? Sound a little ‘New Age’ to you? The ‘new age’ is simply the ‘old lie’ of the devil in the garden when he said,
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."Genesis 3:4-5
In other words, Satan was saying God is a liar. “God isn’t telling you the truth. God wants you ignorant. I will open your eyes. I will make you like God.” The new age is just the old lie in a different package. Don’t fall for it.
The Church at Ephesus refused the Nicolaitians to be part of their leadership or teachers. Pergamum not only embraced their doctrines, they allowed them to be part of their leadership. This is what has happened during this church age. The pagan’s world was allowed to be part of the Church. Doctrines contrary to scripture introduced into the Church, became a corruption of the truth.
4. Counsel
16 ’Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
Repent: Gr. Metanoeo, means to change one’s mind, - to repent. Turn around from the direction you are going. What this church needed to do was make a total change. This same counsel applies not only to this church but any church permitting sexual impurity as part of their doctrine. You read in the news frequently where one denomination or another decides to permit homosexuals to be priests or pastors or members. It’s the same old thing happening in our day.
Jesus makes it clear in this Scripture that continual sinning without repentance will bring the judgment of Christ against the offender. During this time, the Church saw the invasions of the Huns, the Vandals and many other problems. Some view these events as fulfilling the words of Christ, in judgment against his church. Whose Church is it? I think I preached a sermon about that a while ago. We decided it’s Christ’s church. The church is His bride. He can do with it as He wishes. And He WILL destroy the church that does not repent!
5. Challenge
17 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The challenge is to wake up and listen! The challenge is to be aware; to be alert; to be alive! Change is coming! Things are going to happen fast! Listen!
6. The Comfort
“To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it." ’
Jesus had a specific promise to those in this age who “overcame”. Manna was the bread from heaven given to Israel in the wilderness. Christ makes the same promise to those living in this church taking him seriously. They would have Christ, the bread of God, (John 6:22-40). Jesus nourishes us. Jesus strengthens us. Jesus makes us alive and keeps us alive. We need to feed upon His flesh and blood. In other words, Jesus needs to be our life.
In the Pergamum Theater, white stones were used as admission to the theater. Here, Christ uses this imagery for admission into the kingdom of God for the overcomer. Jesus is the way to heaven. He is the “ticket”! He said,
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Well, there you have it! Jesus is the only way to heaven – the only way to God the Father. Not Buddha; not Mohammed; not being enlightened; not some church or doctrine. Jesus is the only way. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Your white stone; your ticket into heaven is only through Jesus. That may be exclusionary and intolerant – but that’s the way it is.
And in heaven, we will have a special name only known to Jesus and the believer. I’m known by many names. My nickname was ‘Tiger’ or ‘Tige’ when I was a kid. At work I’m known as ‘Andrew’. At church, ‘Pastor Andy’. There is ‘Dad, Grandpa, Papa, or ‘hey you!’ But think of it! Jesus has a new name for me – and for you! I can hardly wait to find out what it is!
Do you have a new name yet? Everyone who is born again gets one. You can get yours simply by receiving Jesus as your Savior. We have all sinned and fall so far short of what God intended for us. And the result of that is death – spiritual death, physical death – and ultimately, eternal death. We are all born sinners. We have a rebellious nature and by nature we rebel against God and do our own thing. We are all sinners in need of salvation from eternal doom.
The Good News is that we have one. Jesus paid the price for our sins. He died in our place. And if we simply turn to Him, confess our sin, and ask Him to come into our heart – He will. And the result is eternal life with a new name.
This Scripture shows us how special we are. Each of us is known intimately by Jesus. We have a new name –a name known only to Jesus. Jesus loves you and wants you to come to Him. Let Him wrap his arms of love around you. All you have to do is simply pray a prayer like this:
Jesus,
Thank you for loving me so much. Forgive me for resisting you and your love. Forgive me for rebelling against you. Please save me right now. I promise to live for you from this day on. Cleanse me from all that is not right in my life. Send Your Holy Spirit to help me.
In Jesus Name,
