This series so far:
The Church of Ephesus: The drifted, forgetful church — Jesus nudges back into line by calling them to their first LOVE.
The Church at Smyrna: The persecuted, worn down church — Jesus comforts and encourages.
TODAY: The Church at Pergamum: The compromising church — Jesus warns & calls to repentance
Pergamum: capital city, high on the landscape, 150K people, grand architecture & design, 2nd largest library in the world, lots of idol worship & withcraft
Jesus sees.
To Ephesus, He was: the one who holds the stars in his right hand, and the one who walks among the gold lampstands.
To Smyrna, He was: the FIRST and the LAST. The one who died, and was raised to life!
To Pergamum, He was: the one with the sharp, two-edged sword.
Jesus corrects.
You don’t have to have perfect conditions to be faithful!
God looks past the outside, He looks at the HEART.
Jesus promises.
False teaching was infiltrating into some at this church, and it was destroying them from the INSIDE.
So they weren’t OUTRIGHT denying Him. They weren’t allowing the WORLD to convince them it wasn’t real, or that Jesus didn’t exist, or to deny Him altogether. They were just allowing selfishness to invade them personally. They were just adding in things that they HAD to know wasn’t right. They were allowing themselves to be deceived.
They weren’t able to BE cursed. But they were able to BRING a curse upon themselves. They were CORRUPTIBLE.
As long as they were obedient to God, they were untouchable. But they were easily swayed and therefore, EASILY destroyed.
If obedience is your only option, are you obedient?
What are you when there are other options?
I think this is the whole point to LIFE, actually. The whole point to God allowing sin in the world right now. We’re LEARNING obedience through the things we’re suffering (like Jesus).
So in Revelation, when Jesus says there are some who espouse the doctrine & teaching of Balaam, he’s saying that corruption & deception has gotten into the Church of Pergamum. AND IT WAS ON PURPOSE. It was by design. Someone was purposefully leading them astray. This wasn’t a drift, a forgetfulness, like the first church. It was a deception. It was a corruption.
They corrupted the holy institution of marriage, AND the system God set up to correct it–sacrifices. And all that idol worship & sexual indulgence caused their relationship w/ Jesus to be
compromised & contaminated.
Same w/ the doctrine of the Nicolaitins. We don’t know a TON about these guys…I wish we did…but I did find that the word "Nicolaitan" is derived from two words which means "to conquer the laity.’ Laity meaning (non-clergy/non pastors of the church). Sin was infecting & corrupting the church.
Listen, we need to FLEE from all forms of sexual immorality and indulgence.
Sex is sacred between a husband & wife.
Any other sexual activity is detrimental. Detrimental to ourselves, to our relationship with our spouse, AND it’s detrimental to our relationship with God. It destroys us, from the insdie out.
Look at Hebrews 13
Hebrews 13:4: Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
Epehsians 5:3-4 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. 4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. 5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
The sin of Pergamum was that they not only tolerated sinful behavior, but that they allowed Balaam into the church…someone was pushing this agenda purposefully, for Jesus to use the concept of Balaam.
There WILL come a time, when your dysfunction WILL outpace your function. There WILL come a reckoning. God doesn’t allow evil to persist forever. He WILL expose secrets.
His promises:
1st - Manna: Manna is a picture of spiritual nourishment.
This church had been eating food that was sacrificed to idols, metaphorically.
It’s been eating leftovers, expired, gross food…spiritually speaking. When you are in sin like that, everything that you try to take in spiritually, has a…funk to it.
2nd - A White Stone
A white rock was used in the court system as a vote of “not guilty.”
A person was given a white stone as proof/evidence of acquittal.When a slave was granted freedom, they would receive a white stone as evidence of emancipation & freedom.
A white stone was also given to a soldier who came back from a victorious battle. As God’s soldiers, we are victorious!
A white stone would often be used as an invitation to a banquet (a special feast) - Written on the stone was the name of the invitee.