Preached by Barry Unwin, benefice service @ Hanley Swan, 29 Sept 2019
‘To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live – where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city – where Satan lives.
14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: 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. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. (Revelation 2:12-17)
A couple of days ago I heard a really inspiring story of how God provides for his people. It came from Mizoram, one of the poorest regions of India, a place where God is growing his church remarkably through an idea known as “a handful of rice.”
Simply put, the women of the churches commit to setting aside a handful of rice from every meal they prepare for their families. The rice is then resold by the church and raises over $1m a year to fund thousands of church workers and even overseas missionaries. When people are faithful, God provides.
And he goes on providing, even when life is at its toughest. And life doesn’t get much tougher for Christians than it did in 1st century Pergamum. So you may want to have that passage from Revelation in front of you, and let’s start back in v12, where Jesus writes,
‘To the angel of the church in Pergamum…”
Now Pergamum is the modern-day town of Bergama in the Izmir province of Turkey. But there’s been a town there for nearly 3000 years. Until about 40BC it was a thriving university town, until the Roman governor Mark Antony decided to donate it’s vast library – some 200,000 scrolls – to a certain Egyptian Queen by the name of Cleopatra. How romantic.
By the end of the 1st century, the town was mainly known for its temple, or as v13 describes it,
where Satan has his throne”.
Originally dedicated to Zeus, the great throne-like altar at the heart of the temple, had become a place where sacrifices were offered to the Roman emperors.
The Pergamum Altar, Pergamum Museum, Berlin
Incidentally, if you want to visit the temple today, it’s now in a museum in Berlin – some German archaeologists took in there before WW1, and it is really impressive – -But its also really sinister, because when Hitler’s architect Albert Speer was looking for inspiration for the Nazi showground at Nuremburg, he based it on the Pergamum temple, where Satan has his throne.
Zeppelin Stand, Parade Ground, Nuremburg
So Pergamum isn’t the most pleasant place for a Christian to be living and working. The emperor cult was strong –and of course the Christians weren’t prepared to worship the emperor – so they were persecuted. And it got pretty extreme – v13 at least one church member – Antipas – has already been martyred. And the others are probably wondering, “Who’s next?”
So what can this tale of persecution teach us for today? Well there’s three big ideas here which I hope and pray will help us be fruitful Christians.
1)When we stand firm Jesus is proud of us
What’s the worst thing about hardship? Isn’t it that we often feel like we’re facing it, Completely alone. That’s how the Christians felt in Pergamum. Isolated. Alone. Forgotten about. And that’s why Jesus launches straight in in v13 and says,
I know where you live”.
It’s his way of saying he knows everything about what we’re going through. He sees us in our good times and our bad. He sees us when we’re healthy and full of life, and also when we’re ill and sick of life. Jesus knows us better than anyone alive or dead. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And he still loves us. Isn’t that amazing?
I know where you live” ….
and I love what he says next, v13,
You remained true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me”.
He knows exactly what they’re going through – and he’s proud of the way they’re persevering.
Those of you who are parents – there are times when our kids drive us crazy aren’t there? But there are other times when they do something, and it makes you very, very, proud of them. My daughter flew off to Madagascar last summer. All on her own, and spent a month working at a mission hospital out there. And she coped with the language issues and the funny food and some occasionally horrific accommodation, quite brilliantly. And I’m so proud of her for doing that. And that’s how Jesus feels about his church in Pergamum. He’s proud of their resilience, of their stubborn determination to keep going no matter what. And that means he’s proud of us too when we stand firm!
We don’t often think of God speaking in those terms do we? That he might be proud of us. And that’s often because we worry so much about the times we know he’s ashamed of us. But we’ve got to balance those sad times, against the times we get it right and when that happens, our loving God is thrilled. When we stand firm, Jesus is proud of us!
But that doesn’t mean everything is fine in Pergamum. They’re under tremendous pressure to compromise.
2)The pressure to compromise
Look what Jesus says next, v14,
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: 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. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”
What’s Jesus saying? That in amongst this body of faithful Christians there are some rotten apples. And the rottenness is all about compromise.
First there are people who are compromised sexually. That’s all the stuff about Balaam and Balak. You remember our Old Testament reading (excerpts from Numbers 22-25)? When God lead his people out of Egypt and through the wilderness they eventually reached the borders of Moab, And king Balak of Moab was terrified. So he paid a local prophet called Balaam to curse the Israelites. Except that every time Balaam tries to curse them, God intervenes to make him bless instead. So eventually, Balak sacks Balaam and goes looking for another way to deal with the Israelites. And eventually he realises that rather than trying to overcome God, he should undermine God’s people instead. And so we read that
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods.” (Numbers 25:1-3)
And the same thing is going on in Pergamum. Some of the men – I’m presuming its men– were participating in temple orgies and having sex with temple prostitutes. Now I don’t suppose anyone here is doing that. But cult prostitution isn’t the only way sex can lead us into compromise. Whether its pornography, sexy novels, or just sex or an emotional affair with someone you’re not married to, the devil uses sexual temptation to compromise us.
One of the saddest news stories I read last year was about one of my church leadership heroes – Bill Hybels, the founder of the hugely influential Willow Creek Church in the USA. Well, last year he brought forward his retirement because of what are admittedly disputed allegations of sexual misconduct. You see the devil knows how to use sex to compromise Christians.
And it’s not just church leaders. For every church leader who falls this way, there are many more church members who fall.
But it’s not just sex that leads Christians into compromise. Jesus also mentioned
those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”
And frustratingly, no one knows what that means. It could be involvement in a secret ritual cult like the Masons, or some sort of Pagan philosophical tradition, but most likely, the word means the “teachings of the ruling elite”. Which is really all about the way the policies and principles of the governing class, the so-called spirit of the age, can infect the church.
I see that a lot as a school governor. We’re expected to have a governor code of conduct. And every year I have an issue in my role as a governor because I won’t sign the full National Governors Association code of conduct. Specifically, I won’t sign the clause that says,
When formally speaking or writing in our governing role we will ensure our comments reflect current organisational policy even if they might be different to our personal views.”
To my mind, that clause could force me– in this multicultural and polysexual age – to speak lies about God or about right and wrong. And I won’t do that.
Now I can see that there’s a good governance principle behind the clause: it’s all about collective responsibility, and not undermining the work the governing body is trying to do. And that’s a good thing, and I will bend over backwards to try to honour that. But I will not have my speech bound by government policy, because Jesus, the creator and sustainer and judge, and saviour, of the whole universe, is more important than any principle of good governance or government policy.
Could our church councils and synods have that problem too?Of course. Any Christian serving in a legally constituted body needs to regularly ask themselves the question,
Whom do I serve?”
Am I first and foremost for the Kingdom of God and its mission to proclaim Jesus to all people in all nations, or am I here to serve the United Kingdom and its charity and property laws? Because the two may one day be mutually exclusive.
Beware the pressure to compromise.
But what if you have compromised? But what if you’ve messed up? Fallen, sinned? I know I have in my own life.
Well Jesus has one simple word for us. V16,
Repent.”
It means turn around. Do a u-turn in life. You see he’s not given up on us. That’s what love means, doesn’t it? And because he hasn’t given up on us, it’s never too late to renew our trust in what our Saviour Jesus has done for us on the cross. You see, ultimately salvation is not about what we do for God, it’s about what God has done for us in Jesus. And because of that, no matter how we’ve gone wrong, there’s always a way back into friendship and relationship with God.
And that’s wonderful news, Because it’s only as we walk with Christ in friendship, it’s only as we stand firm, and don’t compromise, that we discover Jesus has, finally,
3)a wonderful promise for us.
That’s there in v17.
To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it.”
That’s a bit weird isn’t it?
Manna is the food God gave his people every day in the wilderness. He provided everything they needed to survive, and Moses commanded them to take some of that provision – the manna – and place it before the Lord. It was apparently stored in the ark of the Covenant to remind them that God always provides (Exodus 16:32-34) and became known as the hidden manna.
So this is a promise that if we stand firm. If we trust God and don’t compromise, he’ll provide for us. Just like he provided for his people in the wilderness, and for all those Christians in India.
We often talk about funding crises in churches here, and that’s often the outworking of funding crises at home. But the truth is, we are rich. Most of us have more than enough to solve the funding crises in any of our churches. It’s just we spend a lot of what God gives us, on the things that we value more than God.
But when we do trust him with the money he’s given us, then he can do amazing things because he’s the God of the hidden manna. The God who provides for all his people’s needs.
And he’s also the God who can show you who you truly are. That’s the white stone with the new name on it in v17. In the Bible when someone gets a new name, it’s a way of declaring their new purpose in life.
- Abram becomes Abraham which means “father of many.”
- Simon becomes Peter, the rock, on whom the church is built.
- Judah becomes Israel, the one who wrestles with God.
Receiving a new name is all about discovering your true purpose in life.
I wonder what name God has for you. You see he has a purpose for each and every one of us. A purpose which will enable you to live that life of fullness that Jesus promises, St Paul puts it this way,
we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Isn’t that a wonderful promise? It tells us that our lives aren’t random accidents. That we’re each part of a bigger plan. We matter. And the key to discovering how we fit into God’s big plan. The key to discovering purpose and meaning in our lives, is faithfulness. Don’t compromise. Stand firm.
And the same God who was proud of that church in Pergamum As it withstood all the pressure to compromise, will be proud of you, and promises to take care of you, and lead you into a fullness of life that you could never know any other way.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”