Jesus Owns a Sharp Sword – Revelation 2:12b
Revelation 2:12b write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
As we have been discussing, Jesus addresses 7 specific churches in an individual way and each time He uses a picture or title of himself from Revelation 1 that is different each time. With the church at Pergamum, Jesus will give them a picture of himself as a judge with the Word/Sword. This church was allowing evil to exist and thrive in their midst.
As they were allowing evil to sit and remain in their lives, this church needed the Sword of the Word of God to be put to use among them. Let’s talk about this sword…
“sword” – long sword that is referenced 7x in the New Testament in these specific texts
(Luke 2:35 ; Revelation 1:16 ; 2:12,16 ; 6:8 ; 19:15,21)
This sword was more of an offensive weapon, not a defensive one, and was used against an enemy.
Literally, the meaning here is “Words of Him who “has” (owns) the Word of God”. The point of this picture is that we would see that Christ has final authority in all matters.
Jesus will not allow a church to do whatever it wants without disciplining it and addresses it. Remember this…
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Here is how the Bible describes the Bible in Hebrews 4:12…
1. Living & Active
It breathes, moves and conquers to bring life. The Scripture is ever fresh and never out of date. This word “active” carries the meaning of being “energetic, on the move”. The Scripture awakens the soul and moves us. Luther said, “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me ; it has feet, it runs after me ; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”
2. Sharp and Edgy
The 2 Edges are both sharp indicating the Word of God is never dull in its work.
3. Pierces
It is designed to cut and pierce to the deepest parts of our lives. The Word slays and removes and makes us alive. This means that sometimes we say “Ouch!” as it does it work of slaying the hypocrisy in us.
4. Discerns
“discerning” - Kritikos – to sift our and analyze.
“thoughts” – enthumesis – pondering ; thinking out
The Word then reveals the true thoughts and perspectives in our lives and becomes an authoritative judge of our thoughts and intentions.
Assessment of Pergamum – Revelation 2:13-15
Revelation 2:13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold 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 and
practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
“I know”
Jesus knows everything going on in a church, nothing gets by Him and no one can fool Him - He sees the true reality. As it is with all of the churches in chapters 2-3, Jesus walks in the midst of them all and assesses the spiritual condition. As He stood amongst Pergamum, He took in the key things that were right and wrong inside the church. Let’s look at what was right at Pergamum now.
Jesus’ Affirmation – Revelation 2:13
where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
If you were to go to a church planting conference, one of the speakers would inevitably say these words about a church plant – “Location, location, & location” as the key to church growth. If that is the case, then planting a church in Pergamum would go against that mantra as Jesus describes the city as the place where Satan and his throne dwelt. Pergamum was not a prime place for a new church to grow without opposition.
· Dwelt in City of Satan’s Throne - Revelation 2:13a & 13d
2:13 reveals 2 insightful things about the city of Pergamum that Jesus sets forth. Pergamum was..
(1) Where Satan’s throne is
(2) Where Satan dwells
Keep in mind that Jesus only tells the truth so these words confirm that this was defintitely not an easy city to be a Christ-follower.
“where you dwell” – dwell means permanent residence ; commitment to stay. This is written to refer to the Christians there, and it highlights the reality that they were not going to leave the city, some of them would remain to be a light where great evil dwelt. In the midst of the strong satanic influence, a core of this Christian community were remaining strong in a horrible place. Some of them had not softened their faith at all and were a model for true faith.
“satan’s throne” – What could this mean? Satan’s influential throne was so strong and it seemd as if it was located in Pergamum. Most likely the meaning here is that Rome’s worship of gods and emperors reveals that the whole city was anti-Jesus. The strong arm of Rome was supported by a satanic work in the persecution of those who followed Jesus. Being the capital city, major decisions in regard to its citizens there would flow out of the Roman government who had the power to do whatever it wanted in regard to the persecution of Christians. Every decision made would be one against Christ-followers.
and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you,
It got so bad in Pergamum that at some time in the church’s recent past, someone had lost their life because of their faith in Jesus. A man named Antipas was martyred. He must have been an amazing man of faith as Jesus calls him “my faithful witness”. Those who were hearing this read to them in Pergamum would have been there where Antipas was martyred. They would have been eyewitnesses of that event and it would have greatly impacted them.
It is interesting that the name Antipas means “against all” and it appears that he lived up to the name as he likely stood “against all”, stood alone and strong against the enemies of the church in the city. Early church tradition from Tertullian says that he was put inside a bull made of brass as they lit a fire underneath it and he was basically roasted to death inside it. Whatever fully brought it about, He would not compromise and it cost him his life.
In the midst of that, the church did 2 really important things according to Jesus:
· Hold Fast to Jesus’ Name – Revelation 2:13b
“Hold fast” – this is a phrase reveals their loyalty to Jesus. When we mention a name of someone it always also encompasses their character. It is the same with Jesus. Many in the church in Pergamum stayed strong and faith to the name of Jesus because of Who He Is. They loved His name & wanted to stay identified with Him.
· Did not Deny the Faith of Jesus – Revelation 2:13c
“my faith” – means your faith in me, who I am.
In the midst of real satanic activity, there were some who really stayed true.
“where satan dwells” – it is the same word as earlier meaning that this was a place where satan’s presence was quite active.
This was not a place where Christian faith was lived out in comfort.
Deep Christian conviction in regard to matters of evil
is highly valued by Jesus.
What Jesus had Against them – Revelation 2:14-15
Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold 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 and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
The name Pergamos from which the name Pergamum is derived means “married”. While this church had people of strong faith, it had some who had compromised and “married” their faith to both Christ and the world. Jesus earlier said you could not do this…Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
They wanted to live both – faith in Jesus and love of the world. While the Pergamum had embraced good doctrine, they had also at the same time embraced the ways of the world.
They became a compromising church!
· Compromised Theology and practice
Biblical growth will only come with good health. A church might increase in numbers, but that is not the sole criteria for health. Always, Biblical growth is tied to strong theology accompanied with the faithful practice of living out that doctrine.
As Jesus assessed Pergamum, He found 2 glaring places where compromise had been allowed in the church’s teaching and it was affecting the health of the church.
Compromise – bottomline, compromise surrendering the truth for a lie. It is either subtle or blatant.
While the majority of the church were still faithful, some in the church had allowed the ways of the world and some of the pagan cult influences to get settled among them. They would worship Jesus on Sunday only to then visit the temples in the city during the week to worship there. In time, those worshipers brought the pagan lifestyle into the church.
Here we have Christ-followers in the same church where some gave their lives in death and others compromised and embraced the world’s system.
Jesus condemns the church for tolerating
a religion that promotes immorality.
This kind of compromise greatly affects everyone.
As Jesus stands amongst the church, He sees they allowed 2 outside teachings to become a part of the biblical teaching and practice within the church. This is a real problem in a church and it is a real issue in the American church.
Remember what Jesus said, we cannot serve two masters for one will love or hate. Far too many think both of these can be done and they ignore this statement from Jesus…
Matthew 5:19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
There is a grave failure found in some churches and with some pastors,
where they think one can separate or downplay Theology and Practice.
You can’t separate them though as we have to follow Christ alone when issue of faith and the world’s ways conflict. It was not so in Pergamum. Here is what they were caught up in and had embraced.
1. Teaching of Balaam
Doctrine of Balaam
The doctrine of Balaam is when someone combines both idolatry with immorality at the same time. It is the idolatry that will eventually become the justification for the practice of sexual immorality. This doctrine of Balaam was embraced often throughout history, yet the Bible strongly condemned this in several places.
2 Peter 2:15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
Jude 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.
**You cannot ever separate Immorality from Idolatry – when you have one, you have the other always.**
When doctrine gets corrupted; you will always find along the way that there is a corruption of morality. They go hand in hand together. The church at Pergamum had allowed a permissive freedom of idolatry and sexuality to be present in the chruch.
The story of Balaam is found in Numbers 22-25.
The Moabite King Balak was worried about the God of Israel doing to them what had been done to the Ammorite people and this led Balak to seek help from the false prophet Balaam. They wanted him to curse Israel so that the Moabite people would be safe and in turn Balak would give Balaam great wealth for His services. He attempts the cursing four times and each time the curses ended up being blessings. When he sees that his attempts to curse Israel have failed and he will not win, Balaam decides:
“If I can’t be successful at bringing a curse on them, then the logical next step is to try and corrupt them with sin.”
When this did not work, Balaam advised Balak to “make friends w/ Israel” and if he could work this out, it would result into the getting of Israel to embrace the ways of the Moabite people in every kind of way. This would lead to great corruption. See Numbers 25:1 ; 31:16.
Israel should have be on their guard, but they were not and the men became involved with the people of Moab. Eventually the men started going into the city, going to the feasts, eating the food, then worshiping the idols, then committing sexual immorality with the Moabite women.
They wedded with the world in order to gain the pleasures of the world.
Balaam’s doctrine is the uniting of wickedness and the world. In the same church you had people who were willing to die for their faith and then you had another group who embraced the name of Jesus but lived just like their evil worldly culture, practicing everything that happened in the culture.
The meat sacrificed to these Roman idols was served at their banquets, as this happened, it often included sexual immorality with it. The issue wasn’t necessarily the eating of meat, but it was what the eating of the meat led to, where it put the people, which was joining in with the idolatrous feasts & sexual sin.
While you and I have to live in this corrupt world,
we must never allow the ways of the world
to take up residence in our hearts.
So the Balaamites encouraged both idolatry and immorality and this mindset and teaching had been allowed to get a foothold in the church at Pergamum. Some held this belief and it had been allowed to continue with no one doing anything about it.
This was rampant in just about every city where the church was established as the Roman god system dominated every city. Paul told us this…Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Jesus condemnation shows
that you cannot separate theology from practice.
Good theology results in godly practice.
Bad theology results in immoral practice.
“practice sexual immorality”... The word for “immorality” here is where we get our English “pornography.” The Greek meaning is any kind of sexual immorality of any kind.
Satan is after our sexual purity always desiring to turn our purity into immorality.
2. Teaching of Nicolaitans
The church at Ephesus had responded rightly to the teaching of the Nicolaitans as they hated their teaching. Pergamum was different in that some compromised their faith and tolerated it.
At times, people and churches have made the mistake to love people so much that they ignore the sin.
The doctrine of the Nicolaitans blended Christianity with pagan worldly living just as the doctrine of Balaam did. Jesus here calls out by name the Nicolaitans as false teachers.
People say things like this…
“As long as we are sincere, that is all that counts. The world is just one great brotherhood and we are all one.”
Allow Bad Doctrine – What Happens
When a ‘looseness’ or ‘lessening’ of strong doctrine in a life or church occurs, then a great shift takes place from the authority of Scripture, which is to be our one standard in knowing God and what He desires.
Compromising Biblical Truth
When a person or a church compromises Biblical truth, it always comes from 2 places, which are:
1. Ways/Methods of the World
2. Beliefs or practices of other false religions.
It does not matter which one of the two it is for either one or a combination of both begins the process of distorting what the scripture affirms to be true. Often, the shift is not so dramatic, but nevertheless any shift from scripture is the wrong step.
Compromising Biblical truth always results in this…
Compromise eats away at our view of Biblical truth
and if we allow it, then it will eventually crumble our faith.
When you and I conform to another standard that is not Scripture, it weakens our convictions and we will eventually see a looseness in our morality.
Satan most always ruins the church from within the walls, not from outside.
The history of Christianity reveals that immorality will destroy the church in ways that persecution will never be able to accomplish.
Any toleration of sin in our lives will always lead to a compromise of authentic faith. If the people of God tolerate evil, it rips the very heart of our faith.
The Answer to Compromise – Revelation 2:16
Again, not everyone practiced this, but they tolerated it with others in the church and the appearance is that no one was confronting it. Strongly, Jesus says to them..
· Repent – 2:16a
“repent” – metanaeo – a mind changed that brings a changed life
Jesus takes the compromising of theology and practice very serious and the way that He deals with this is to come call the church to repent of this and if they will not, then He will come and war with those with His Word – the sword.
You don’t just step away from immorality; you have to repent of it, be broken of it.
Tolerance rules in our culture
but it is not to have a place in the church.
James 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
· Reap the Consequences of Unrepentant Heart – 2:16b
Revelation 2:16b If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
“soon” – If they don’t repent, then He will come swiftly and deal with their sin on His terms with the Word.
Q: How does Jesus deal with a church that allows compromise in their midst?
He comes to them and “wars” against them with the Word of God. When this happens, a church will deal with leadership issues because the church has allowed the teaching & practices of the world to have a foothold in their midst.
Jesus makes war against false doctrine.
There is only one thing left for a church who compromises – Judgment with the Words of Jesus.
It is not a good place to be in to find yourself on the wrong side with Christ and His Word.
Jesus is intolerant of tolerance!
therefore…
A church is not to tolerate sin!
Admonition of Jesus – Revelation 2:17
· Hear What the Spirit Says – 2:17a
Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
We are to recognize that the Holy Spirit is speaking to the church. Today we ask,
“Holy Spirit, what are you saying to the church at Pergamum that we need to hear?” Just about every time, compromise begins to take place in our lives by not listening, by not having an ear tuned into the Holy Spirit.
With Pergamum, the Spirit is saying “Don’t buy into the teaching and ways of the world”.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
2 Corinthians 6:4 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
· Heart of a Conqueror – 2:17b
2:17b To the one who conquers I will…
The overcoming here is the overcoming of the value system of the world and the one who conquers will be rewarded from Jesus.
· Heaven – 2:17c-e
Those who will embrace what the Spirit says are those who will receive the blessing from Christ.
(1) Hidden Manna – 2:17c
We get to experience and partake of the bread that the world does not know about. There is a manna that will be our spiritual food of the future.
John 6:48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Exodus 16:31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 35 The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
The “hidden manna” is a reference that symbolizes Jesus as the Bread of Life who came down out of heaven.
(2) White Stone – 2:17d
Over the centuries, there has been much discussion and speculation as to what the “white stone” means.
· Diamond – showing value and precious nature
· White/black stones
a. Matters of Law
In the 1st century both black and white stones were used to indicate guilt or innocence in matters of law. The judge will roll out a black or white stone.
b. Sports
They were given to those who had won a victory in one of the ancient games were given white stones were called “tessera” and they would allow the owner free access to all public entertainment. Jesus allows His victors access to the glories of His heaven!
(3) New Name – 2:17e
This is a promise of the newness that will accompany our life in heaven. It was customary in that day for guests at a dinner to have a white stone placed at their seat. When they were seated, they could look at the stone and underneath would be a private message from the host. It was a way for the host to share an intimate thought with each guest.
In heaven, you will not call me Doak. We get a new name that will be completely unknown until the stone is given to us.
Q: Who gets to name us here on earth? Parents!
Q: Who gets to name us there? Jesus. As He names us it will indicate our true heritage that goes beyond earthly names and lineage.
Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
We get to be named by Jesus!
