" Pergamum: Hold to Truth" Revelation 2:12-17 Sunday, July 13, 2014

- Last time we looked at the church of Smyrna hearing the call of the Lord Jesus to face persecution & suffering without fear & with faithfulness.

- Today, we see another church which held fast to the truth of Christ in persecution, but which tolerated sin & evil in her midst, Pergamum.

- Pergamum's leadership allowed sinful immoral behavior to continue unaddressed in their congregation, sins which ultimately hinder the gospel's effectiveness.

- What happens when one rotten apple is in a barrel of good apples? Do the good apples make the rotten apple good?

- No, they cannot. What happens then is just the opposite.

- The rotten apple begins to affect those closest to it. The rot inside comes out & takes hold.

- Eventually, the entire barrel is spoiled because of the one rotten apple which wasn't removed.

- That is why Christ was so concerned for Pergamum. They had a few bad apples which threatened to destroy the whole barrel.

- What he wants each one to learn is this: When I hold truly to Christ, I will hold only His truth.

- Pergamum was 80 km north of Smyrna & 24 km in land from the Aegean Sea.

- Built on a thousand foot hill overlooking the whole countryside, Pergamum was a hotbed of idolatry.

- At the city's summit stood its acropolis where there was a huge altar constructed to honor Zeus, thus our Lord's reference to Satan's throne.

- The city also boasted a beautiful Temple to Athena.  Also highly important to Pergamum were Dionysus, god of wine, & Asclepius, god of healing, whose symbol was the serpent.

- The city was also a center of the Imperial cult of Caesar. In fact, Pergamum was granted the right to build a temple in honor of the Emperor Augustus a full three years before Smyrna build their Imperial Temple.

- The Roman proconsul of that city also had the rare "right of the sword" which was the power to sentence & carry out executions highlighting Roman authority which Christ declared he is above as wielder of the sharp double-edged sword.

- Pergamum was a city at war & the Christian church there was under siege in the arena of ideas which conflicted with & contradicted the truth of Christ.

- How did the church of Pergamum demonstrate their loyalty to Christ?

- "I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, & you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells." Rev 2:13 (ESV)

- They held fast to Jesus Christ even through persecution that resulted in death among them, Antipas in particular.

- Most likely, his death was at the order of the Roman proconsul for not offering incense to Caesar & declaring Caesar as Lord.

- What flaw did Christ point out in the church of Pergamum?

- "But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols & practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans." (Rev 2:14-15, ESV)

- Their flaw was their lenience, i.e., they tolerated a few bad apples in their barrel.

- I mentioned a few weeks ago that Nicolaitan means destroyer of the people, but what have they to do with Balaam?

- Balaam's story is in the book of Numbers chapters 22-24 in the Old Testament.

- There we read that Balak, king of Moab, called upon Balaam to curse Israel, but each time he opened his mouth only blessing came out.

- So Balaam came up with another plan: he told Balak that the young Moabite women should seduce the Israelite men & invite them to participate in their immoral & idolatrous feasts knowing that this would anger God.

- The Nicolaitans taught that Christian liberty means freedom not only from sin but freedom to sin.

- Earlier in Revelation, Christ praised the church of Ephesus for hating this teaching & its practices, but Christ called Pergamum to repent of tolerating these things among their members.

- Throughout the Bible, God calls his people to be holy, both Israel & the new people of God, the church.

- He does not expect too much, only what is necessary. As Jesus said, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

- How do sexual immorality & eating food offered to idols compromise the faith?

- We just noted that God expects his people to be holy.

- Sexual immorality & eating food offered idols compromises the holiness to which the church is called because they deny Christ's Lordship over our lives & make us out to be liars.

- Idolatry denies Christ. If & when we deny Christ we make ourselves liars.

- Sexual immorality disobeys Christ. If & when we disobey Christ we also make ourselves liars.

- As the apostle John wrote, "Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, & the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4)

- & "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father & the Son." (1 John 2:22)

- Christ is deeply concerned that his church has a balance of love & truth.

- Quite often over the centuries the church has struggled with balancing truth & love.

- We must not separate the two, they need to be held together in balance.

- As the late John Stott wrote, "Love becomes sentimental if it is not strengthened by truth, & truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love" (Stott, What Christ Thinks, 51-52).

- As the New Testament instructs, we are to love in truth & speak truth in love.

- When we don't deal with bad apples we are not acting out of places of loving truth or truthful love.

- Why do we tolerate compromise? Is it love that motivates such compromise? Do we not want anyone to be hurt or offended? Are we afraid to give correction when it is required? Is it because we don't want to stir up trouble or upset the pot?

- I think the answer to all these questions is, yes.

- Yes, we love those who compromise despite their sin. Yes, we do not want people to be hurt or offended. Yes, we are afraid to give correction when it is required. Yes, it is because we do not want to stir up trouble or upset the pot.

- We are afraid to take action which might appear to damage the church, but our lack of action does far worse damage.

- Christ condemns such inaction.  No matter how loving the motive, any lack of action offends Christ because sin & immorality compromise the faith.

- How are we like Pergamum?

- We live in a society that is at war much like the first century church of Pergamum.

- The Christian church of today is also under siege in the arena of ideas which conflict with & contradict the truth of Christ.

- We've been hearing for years that there is no such thing as absolute truth, but that claim becomes an absolute in itself so it's self-defeating.

- To say there is no such thing as absolute truth is a false truth claim.

- We've also been hearing for years that truth is relative, but how can truth be relative when it is based on facts?

- If truth is based on facts it cannot be relative.

- Something is either true or false. A fact cannot be both true & false at the same time.

- Such is the ridiculous nature of these ideas which dominate our culture & lead many astray into lost places, overlooking pits of meaninglessness & despair, a type of living hell.

- Without truth, life, liberty, love ...everything is meaningless.

- It is these types of ideas which can gain a foothold in the church today causing many of us to justify behaviors & make compromises which Christ condemns such as sexual immorality & eating food offered to idols as in Pergamum.

- What did Christ say was the source of such flawed thinking?

- The Lord Jesus said, "I know where you live, where Satan's throne is… ...where Satan lives." (Verse 13)

- Satan is the source of error, of all thinking based on deception & lies.

- Although a powerful enemy, he is a defeated enemy, but the prince of this world, the mighty prince of the power of the air, refuses to admit defeat.

- Everywhere that there is honor & glory given other than to Christ Jesus is a place where Satan's spirit of antichrist is at work.

- What is the solution the Lord Jesus gives?

- He said, Therefore repent. (Verse 16)

- The Lord Jesus instructs each one of us to change our minds about compromise no matter how big or small.

- He wants us to change our minds about empty worldly philosophies & false religions.

- He wants us to stop living in the moment, stop living for today, stop justifying sinful behavior, & stop lying to ourselves.

- He wants us to hand over everything in our lives that doesn't quite fit or doesn't fit at all with his truth.

- When I hold truly to Christ, I will hold only His truth.

- What happens if there is no repentance?

- The Lord said, I will come & war against them with the sword of my mouth, verse 16.

- Christ himself will expose sin with truth, his truth, the only truth.

- All will be laid bare before him to whom we must give account, Hebrews 4:13.

- How can we separate ourselves from sin?

- We need to let go of everything that doesn't fit together with the truth of Christ.

- Every compromise that waters down the gospel does not honor Christ & must be abandoned for we will not escape his judgment.

- We must evaluate & examine our lives then ruthlessly eliminate everything which dishonors & robs glory from Christ.

- The best measure for such an exercise is the Word, his truth.

- When I hold truly to Christ, I will hold only his truth.

- What is Christ's reward for those who conquer?

- "To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, & I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it" (verse 17).

- The hidden manna signifies the Lord Jesus, the bread of life & the eternal life which he gives.

- Some of the manna which God gave Israel in the desert was saved & kept in the temple hidden behind the curtain which was seen by only the High Priest once a year.

- The white stone may represent the Urim & Thummim stones used by the High Priest when seeking divine guidance.

- Both the stone & the manna represent the privileges of the High Priest which God will give to all his faithful people.

- The new name signifies the intimate, private, personal fellowship that every believer will have with Christ in paradise.

- We are not a herd, simply part of a collective, but personally saved & called by name by the Lord Jesus.

- Christ's life, Christ's guidance, & Christ's name will mark forever those who conquer.

- When I hold truly to Christ, I will hold only his truth.