Now we come to Jesus’ short letter
to the church in Pergamum. Once again we turn to MacArthur for background: “Pergamos
[literally] means “citadel” and is the word from which we get parchment—a
writing material developed from animal skin, which apparently was first
developed in that area. Pergamos (modern Bergama [in Turkey]) was built on a 1,000-foot
hill in a broad, fertile plain about 20 miles inland from the Aegean Sea. It
had served as the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor for over 250
years. It was an important religious center for the pagan cults of Athena,
Asklepios, Dionysius (or Bacchus, the god of drunkenness), and Zeus. It was the
first city in Asia to build a temple to Caesar (29 B.C.) and became the capital
of the cult of Caesar worship.”
Re: Satan’s “throne,” he writes “On
the acropolis in Pergamos was a huge, throne-shaped altar to Zeus. In addition,
Asklepios, the god of healing, was the god most associated with Pergamos. His
snake-like form is still the medical symbol today.”
Since the city was such a center for
paganism and Caesar-worship, it’s not surprising that some persecution had occurred,
culminating in the martyrdom of at least one faithful believer named Antipas. According
to church tradition, he was burned to death inside a brass bull. We don’t know
a lot more about him, but our Lord does, and chose to mention him by name, thus
placing that name in his eternal word. If God chose to put my name into his
word, I think I’d prefer it be for this
reason, not because I couldn’t get along with another Christian and was causing strife in the church,
wouldn’t you?
But there was a problem in the church. Today tolerance
is considered the beginning and end of goodness, but our Lord doesn’t think so.
The church there tolerated false teachers, the spiritual heirs of Balaam and
folks who held to the “teaching of the Nicolaitans.” We’ll get to the latter
group in a moment, but Balaam is a name that goes back to the desert-wandering
days of Israel. He was hired by Balak (king of the Moabites) to magically curse
God’s people. That didn’t work: As Balaam said
in frustration, “How can I curse those whom God has not cursed?” He tried multiple
times to curse Israel, but each time the Lord took over his mouth and turned
what he was about to say into a blessing. If you want to read the entire story,
here
it is.
So Balaam tried a different tactic.
He advised
Balak to entice the Israelites into sexual immorality and idolatry, and that
worked a lot better. Israel fell into the trap, indulged in sin, and the Lord judged
them for it. Over 24,000 Israelites died
as a direct result. Yes, if Balaam wanted to harm Israel, that was a lot more effective.
Probably the first set of false teachers mentioned in Revelation weren’t
calling themselves “followers of Balaam,” but as far as our Lord was concerned,
they were his spiritual heirs since they were using basically the same tactics: enticing God's people into sexual sin and thus judgment.
What about these “Nicolaitans”?
MacArthur: “Nicolas means ‘one who conquers the people.’ Irenaeus writes that
Nicolas, who was made a deacon in Ac
6, was a false believer who later became apostate; but because of his
credentials he was able to lead the church astray. And, like Balaam, he led the
people into immorality and wickedness. The Nicolaitans, followers of Nicolas,
were involved in immorality and assaulted the church with sensual temptations.
Clement of Alexander says, ‘They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats,
leading a life of self-indulgence.’ Their teaching perverted grace and replaced
liberty with license.” So apparently they were peddling the same garbage as the
first group.
What was this message? “It’s perfectly
fine for a follower of Jesus to indulge in sexual immorality. Even if it’s a
sin, God will forgive you. Why don’t you go ahead, so that he has a chance to forgive
you even more? Sin isn’t that big a deal.”
The church has always been in more
danger from inside forces than outside ones. Persecution tends to drive us back
to the Lord and encourages us to depend on each other as the Body of Christ
(which is how it’s supposed to work). It wakes us up and tends to restore the
eternal perspective: It’s hard to mistake this world as our home when
persecution ramps up. On the other hand, heresy and false teaching and
temptations to abuse God’s grace are a lot more insidious. It’s a Siren’s call, and we listen to it
to our eternal regret. Although we’re saved by grace, our Lord still has a
sword in his hand, and if we don’t listen to his softer voice in the form of
his Spirit speaking through his word, he’ll get our attention in much less
pleasant ways.
Thankfully, today’s letter ends on a
positive note. Keep in mind that if you’re a true believer, the promises in vs.
17 apply to you. He’ll give you the “hidden manna.” What’s that? What--or
rather who--is our manna? Our
bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. He will give us
himself, which is more precious than anything else we could’ve dreamed of. And
the “white stone with a new name written on it”? White stones were usually used
as an admission pass to a celebration or a party, with the invitee’s name
written on it. Since I’ve placed my faith in Christ, he’s given me an “admission
pass” into his Kingdom with a new name on it. In him, all of us have a new
name, but this one is personal and intimate, like a “pet name” between lovers
or close friends. Jesus said
he calls each of his sheep by name. To a big company or a government bureaucracy
you’re just a number, a set of data in a computer. But he has a name for you
which is utterly unique among all his millions of followers. He’s given this
name to no one else in all creation.
There are plenty of lessons here. I’ll
let you and the Spirit decide how to apply this.
Lord Jesus, thank you so much for
calling me by name, giving me admission into your Kingdom, and giving me a name
you’ve given to no one else. By your grace, please help me to live like one of
yours.
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