Jesus is really among us;
We need to strain to hear his voice and listen.
Because Jesus is extraordinarily concerned about the state of his Church.
We saw the birth and blueprint of the Church in the book of Acts, and the earliest life of the Church; but it doesn’t take long for the Church to get off track; and here in Revelation Jesus is confronting his Church – encouraging the good but rebuking the bad.
And the Church needs to strive to be what Jesus wants the Church to be and to do – not what we want the church to be, not what the world wants the Church to be;
and the Church will only change and become what Jesus wants it to be and to do, as each of us individually and personally take responsibility to hear Jesus’ voice and let it shape our lives and let it shape our life in and contribution to the church so that our Church can become what Jesus wants it to be.
And so we saw Jesus call the Church to Love; we saw Jesus call the Church to be Faithful; and this week has many similarities to last week – its probably not accurate to suggest that each letter has a sharply distinct theme or purpose;
and so we see the common theme of remaining faithful to Christ in the midst of persecution – even martyrdom; but I think the distinctive element of Jesus’ message here is his challenge to worldliness – accommodation to the world’s way of thinking & living – a call for the Church to maintain it’s distinctive identity as it lives in the world; and not to become like the world.
Because as we saw last week, Smyrna presented challenges for Christians who wanted to live as faithful disciples of Jesus;
but in many ways, Pergamum was an even more challenging, hostile, dangerous environment for Christians to live, because the danger that Jesus warned was coming to Smyra – the possibility of dying for one’s faith – had already arrived at Pergamum.
And Jesus knows the danger and the difficulty:
v13 – “I know where you live”
Ephesus – “I know your deeds”; Smyrna: “I know your afflictions”;
Pergamum – “I know where you live”
a reference to the environment in which they live.
Jesus knows the particular challenges of the environment of Pergamum, and the particular hardships tests trials temptation in which his people face there.
and where they live, is the very place where Satan lives; where Satan in fact has his throne.
This could be a reference to the numerous pagan temples – pagan religion a big part of life there;
but probably a reference to the Roman empire: Pergamum was the Roman Administrative center of Asia Minor – and I misspoke last week – I said that Smyrna was the first city to build a temple to the Emperor – I got my ancient cities mixed up – Smyrna was the first city in the region to build a temple to the goddess of Rome; Pergamum was the first city to build a temple to a living Emperor – and it was the center of emperor worship in the region.
and so Emperor worship was a huge part of life – that was simply expected of people who lived in a place like Pergamum – to offer incense to Caesar’s statue, and to confess “Caesar is Lord”;
But of course Christians couldn’t do that;
Because that word – Lord – is the primary designation of the NT writers for Jesus.
Christians confess that Jesus is Lord; that only Jesus is Lord and that he doesn’t share his worship with any other.
and this would make them stand out – as different, as odd, as weird even; because this was a hugely polytheistic culture – and so to worship one god didn’t rule out worshiping a different god;
but Christians are distinct in that their God does not share his worship because he is the only true and living God; and he calls his people to exclusive worship such that if you don’t worship, love, follow, serve, obey only him, then you don’t worship/love/follow/serve/obey him at all.
The exclusive claims of the Christian faith; and the exclusive demands upon the Christian follower to give exclusive allegiance to Jesus as Lord, would make Christians stand out in Pergamum.
And those things make us stand out today. We believe that the God of the bible is the only true and living God; we believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to God and to be saved from eternal wrath; we believe that Jesus gets primary and exclusive allegiance such that he comes above and before all else and all else is subordinated to him and subject to him and in obedience to him and for his glory.
Those aren’t popular things to believe; that’s not a popular way to live.
And it will always be the case that in an “anything goes society” anything goes except the one who refuses to go along with the lie that “anything goes”;
“A soft-centered permissive society can be curiously hard on those who refuse to go along with it”.
And the temptation in the midst of that, as we saw last week, would be to cave – to compromise on those distinctive aspect of the faith that don’t simply go along with the current of worldliness;
to accommodate; to blend in. to adopt the world’s values and truths and ways.
And resisting those pressures and temptations requires that the Church; that Christians; take a stand for the truth; take a stand for Jesus; boldly, firmly, resolutely, courageously – even when taking that stand can or will become very costly to them.
And Jesus commends the Church at Pergamum for the ways in which they’ve taken that stand; resisted the world; and maintained the purity and distinctiveness of the faith, even at great cost to them:
Antipas
But, he challenges them to continue in this path and to be on guard against people in their midst who are walking down the path of accommodation with the world – cozying up to the world – and most likely, dragging others in the church in that same direction.
Worldliness is an ever-present danger to the Church because in this age the church will always live in the world.
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
And Jesus knew where this Church lived; and Jesus knows where we live;
he knows that his church lives in a fallen, evil world where Satan does his evil work; and nothing the church does is going to change the fact that we live in a fallen, evil world – only Jesus’ coming back will change that.
But if the Church wants to make a difference for Jesus in that fallen evil world; it needs to resist becoming like the world.
People often think that the church needs to become more like the world in order to win over & change the world; but actually, it’s the distinctiveness of the church – the very thing that the world hates and rejects – that is the only basis of hope for the world.
because what the world needs isn’t more worldliness. more of the world, can’t change the world – anymore that more darkness can’t lighten up a dark room. The church needs to be the Church – the church needs to be light; the church needs to be salt –
salt – preservative – applied to meat to keep it from spoiling; but only good as long as it stays salt because you can’t slap rotting meat on rotting meat and think it’s going to do any good.
“Live in but not of”
In the Old Testament, the people of God – until the exile – were called to be distinct; but along with that call to distinction was a call to separation.
Once the exile came, they were dispersed – no longer separate – and it was hard enough for the Old Testament people of God to maintain their distinct identity as the Holy people of God while they were separate from those other nations – don’t you think it was even harder when they were dispersed among those nations?
And the NC Church is addressed as, a community of exiles. No longer distinct and separate from the world but distinct and dispersed among the world.
And in that context of being the people of God, and the community of God – in the world; we are called to maintain our distinct identity as the people of God; without letting worldliness creep into our lives and into Jesus’ Church.
But that’s exactly what’s happening in the church at Pergamum.
We see that this reality of worldliness isn’t just in the world outside the Church – but it’s crept into the Church – and that’s what Jesus says he has against this Church:
v14 – There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam;
v15 – Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
We saw the Nicolaitans before in the letter to the church in Ephesus – and I didn’t say much specific about them except that they were some type of false teachers – because we don’t know much about them – in fact, all we really know is what we see here in this letter – that they were a different group than those mentioned in v14 – those who hold to the teaching of Balaam – but it seems that the Nicolaitans basically taught & practiced the same things as the Balaamites.
And so what was that? v14 – There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.
That may or may not help clarify things.
This is a story from the Old Testament – from the very popular book of Numbers chapter 22-24 – in which while the people of God were wandering through the wilderness on their journey into the promised land – other nations were starting to take note of them and their numerous population and seeing them as a threat – and so Balak – King of Moab – joins up with the Midianites and hires Balaam, a prophet/sorcerer type guy, to pronounce a curse upon the people of God.
And if you know the story, you know that it didn’t go so well. 3 times Balaam sets out to curse them, but all 3 times he ends up blessing them instead of cursing them because God is sovereign over him and turns his intention to curse into a pronouncement of blessing.
And so Balak fires Balaam; and that seems to be the end of Balaam, but later on in Nubmers 31 we learn that Balaam’s evil advice contributed to the infamous incident at Peor – in which Midianite women seduced Israelite men into idolatry and sexual immorality.
And this incident – similarly to how the Golden Calf incident earlier in Israel’s history became a proverbial example of rebellion and sin – this one became a proverbial example of idolatry and immorality.
Numbers 25 – 1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women,2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. 3 So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
And so we see there the two things mentioned here in Revelation which characterized the teaching of the Balaamites:
Food sacrificed to idols; and sexual immorality.
These were two things that the NT church struggled with and had to navigate through and had to stand firm in;
Idolatry and Sexual Immorality were everywhere;
Such that living in pergamum without the guiding and correcting word of Truth from Jesus (sword) would leave you so lost as to what was good and right that you wouldn’t even know what way was up – you wouldn’t have bearings – you wouldn’t have a compass – you wouldn’t have a sense of normal that was close to normal at all.
And Paul in his first letter to the corinthian church deals with these issues at length, and his advice to them is summed up in this way: “Flee from idolatry”; “Flee from sexual immorality”.
idolatry:
And food sacrificed to idols in the NT was a tricky thing. In some ways, it was a matter of indifference in which Christians could exercise freedom so long as it didn’t cause another brother or sister to stumble – and in this sense, it was in reference to buying and eating meat that had likely been sacrificed to an idol but the Christian buyer wasn’t a part of or specifically aware of that sacrifice.
But, there were times when eating food sacrificed to idols was not simply a matter of indifference and freedom – and that was when eating it was a participation in the worshiping of the idol.
And we already talked about the pressure upon Christians to give honor and worship to the emperor of Rome; but the pressure didn’t end there –
Idol worship was everywhere – and Christians needed truth to be able to recognize & distinguish false gods and false worship from the True God and true worship; and they needed conviction to worship the True God in the true way even when that made them seem very weird to the world around.
And though we may not have as many actual idols in the form of statues; certainly there are false gods all around us – things that the world exalts and honors and bows to and lives for; and in some ways it may be harder to recognize and distinguish these because they don’t have as visible a form – and so we need the truth of God to be able to recongnize & distinguish; and we need the Spirit of God to give us conviction and boldness to worship the true God even when it makes us seem weird to the world around us.
Idolatry was everywhere – and so was sexual immorality – in fact, this was often bound up with and a part of idol worship; but it certainly wasn’t limited to that.
And similarly – they needed God’s truth to teach guide correct them to live lives pleasing to him; and they needed the Spirit to enable them to resist temptation and live with courage and conviction against the trends of the world around them.
And we aren’t in a very different situation now. Sexual immorality is all around us – and we can’t assume as in past times that the culture has even a general sense or basic clue about sexual morality; that God calls us to total purity outside of marriage and total faithfulness inside of marriage; we can’t assume the world knows or upholds what marriage in God’s eyes is – that which occurs between 1 man and 1 woman; or even what God’s gift of sexual intimacy is all about – that it’s not the selfish self-centered pursuing of every feeling or desire or urge a person has but that it is mutual self-giving and other-centered in the context of exclusive commitment;
And if you’re a parent especially, you can’t leave it to the world to teach your kids these truths. You can’t. cause the world is an eager teacher; the world is a zealous discipler. Satan, active behind the curtain of the world, is a master deceiver.
Jesus twice here says refers back to the description of him in chapter 1 by reference to the sword of his mouth; which in the first place is a reference to his Word of Truth which the Church must listen to and live by if it is to live as the Church in this world – that is our standard; that is our guide; no matter how unfashionable or unpopular it may be, that is the truth – the only way to life and joy in this life and the next.
But, it’s int eh second place a warning; because if the Church doesn’t listen to and live by Jesus’ word of truth; then it will feel Jesus’ sword of Judgement.
2nd place – a warning of Jesus’ judgement. Not final end time judgment, but v18 – “I will soon come to you and fight against you with the sword of my mouth”.
“Wage war with you” – these are words of judgment;
And it’s a reminder that in seeking friendship with the world, we make ourselves enemies of Jesus:
Jesus is giving them a choice: you can either fight against sin; or you can fight against him.
James 4:4 – “Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?”
You can either be friends with the world or friends with him; you can either live by his truth and become an enemy of the world; or live by the world’s truth and become an enemy of him.
Which one do you want to choose?
And the specific way this church is to repent – it’s interesting because even though there error is among only some of them – v14 “there are some among you”;
even though the error is among only some of them, the whole church is told to repent; because the church – we’ll see more of this next week – but the church is tolerating, embracing those who hold these serious errors – and so the specific way for this church to repent and avoid Jesus’ judgment is – Church discipline.
Church discipline is an important and necessary way for the Church to maintain it’s holy distinctiveness in the world. Such that since the time of the reformation it has been considered a mark of the true church without which a church can’t be a church. And so, though Church discipline may seem like a harsh or unloving thing; it isn’t that at all but in fact it is one of the primary ways fr the church to maintain it’s friendship with Jesus and avoid worldliness and sin and evil from gaining a foothold within it.
And church discipline is the whole reason we have church membership why we think that it’s important; because church discipline and removing someone from inclusion in the family of God assumes some kind of definable boundaries of who is in that family to begin with.
But not only does he offer a harsher judgment than the world can give; he offers a richer reward than the world could ever give.
Jesus offers two rewards that (as all the rewards) are future rewards – they look ahead to the new heavens and the new earth described in Revelation 21-22;
And they both correspond to the two particular challenges facing the church –
they’re told not to eat food sacrificed to idols; and if they fast from this worldly food of idolatry then they can feast on the heavenly food – the hidden manna – food from heaven that sustained them in the wilderness when there was nothing else around them to sustain them, this food did.
And we get a foretaste of this food in this life – Jesus said that he is the bread from heaven; and he sustains us in our wilderness here; but it’s also a reminder that when we fast from the food the world offers which doesn’t satisfy but only leaves us longing something better and more lasting; we don’t have to feel as though we’ve missed out on something or will have an eternal regret because we will feast upon all the riches of Christ in the next world that satisfy us to overflowing.
And it’s hidden, because the world can’t see it, and we need faith to see it and wait for it.
True sustenance, satisfaction, is never found in the world but only found in Christ.
And they’re told not to indulge in sexual immorality, and if they flee from that, they are promised a white stone, with a new name written on it, known only to the recipient.
(reminder – not literal, symbolic. Literal white stone not too much consolation for someone who has waged war against the world and sacrificed much and refused worldly treasures; but true meaning of white stone can outweigh all of that)
endless theories. OT, immediate context.
Stone – High Priest wore stones with names of 12 tribes inscribed as he entered into presence of God – representing the people before God
Name – 3:12, and everywhere else in revelation – new name is the name of Jesus – and it’s known only to those who receive it because knowing this name is a sign of intimacy
And, probably doesn’t mean a different name, but a fuller revelation of his name. A fuller place of fellowship with the bearer of the name.
ch 14 – new name associated with seeing the face of Jesus
“In glory the conqueror receives a revelation of the sweetness of fellowship with Christ”.
right now in in the new covenant, every believer enjoys that special access and intimacy, but in the new heavens and new earth, we will have even deeper and fuller enjoyment of that.
song on radio about regrets, missed opportunities, unfulfilled wishes; good old days that have passed by;
fear of missing out.
if this world is all there is, have to be ruled by these fears; have to be driven by them – to walk along the futile failed path of trying to suck all you want out of life, out of life; because this life, this world, can’t give you all you want out of this life & this world because you were made for another world.
CS Lewis: “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”