Messages to the Church Revealed (Pergamos) ...

The revelations of Jesus Christ as our God, not just our human companion who walked among us began in this book John wrote with a powerful description of Christ walking amidst the candlesticks that represent His church.  As the messages are conveyed, a particular aspect of that original description is revealed as being relevant to the church who He has a message for.  In this case, it was to the third church on the list of seven, entitled Pergamos.  Historically the city of Pergamum located in Asia Minor or what is now modern day Turkey was renowned for its temples of worship to Greek and Roman deities.  It is said to have built a hospital run by priests who allowed snakes to slither over you at night in order to gain the divine blessing of healing.  It also is reported to have had a great bronze altar constructed for human sacrifice to the Greek god Zeus, where its victims were tied and placed inside, and slowly roasted to death with a fire built under the belly of the bronze bull.  In short, this was not a city known for tolerance, dissent, or the worship of the true God.  And yet, a church took root in this place, and grew to the point of membership in the seven that Christ would relay His messages to.

John relays the message of Christ to this church beginning in chapter 2 and verse 12 saying … “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;”  You will recall the sharp two-edged sword proceeded from mouth of Christ in that earlier passage.  It is and remains the words of Christ that has the power to cleave us from our slavery to selfishness, or see us cut away from the presence of our God.  Our following of Christ, our submission to Christ, in order that we may be remade by Christ, is the basis of our salvation.  The law, and the prophets, and even the scriptures, without Christ are meaningless.  This was a truth that saw the Pharisees relinquish their claim on the true religion of our God, and the Christian church rise up in its place.  What was once His church was cut away by a refusal to embrace Christ, and what had now arisen needed to be cleaved of self by that symbolic two-edged sword.

John continues in verse 13 saying … “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”  Jesus begins by once again stating He is fully aware of the status of the church at Pergamos.  He knows how His Holy Spirit has been poured out there and what works have been done as a result.  In this case it is the strength of the faith of these people, despite their location and even despite persecution.  Jesus makes 2 references to this city as being where the seat of Satan is, and where Satan dwells.  One could interpret this as being a reference to the altar or throne of Zeus as being the seat of Satan where he is master of the house, and obviously comfortable living there.  The practice of human sacrifice alone is the height of Satan’s religion as he takes from God the thing most precious to God.  Children being sacrificed represent even more of a triumph for Satan, as they are more innocent having had less time to embrace the choices of self-slavery that lead to more ripples of pain.  So the literal ideas of this kind of practice being where Satan is seated is certainly a valid interpretation.  However, it may miss the deeper picture.

The seat of Satan is not constrained to an ancient bronze bull where humanity was sacrificed.  It may also lie in our hearts, where we refuse to yield our human control over to a Savior who longs to free us from the pain and death we embrace.  The place where Satan is comfortable to dwell is not only constrained to a temple built for a pagan god, but is a temple of our bodies that we have customized by a history of self-indulgence where service to self is the highest form of religion and most deeply learned behavior.  We can no more tear down our worship of self, than the stones could remove themselves from the old temple of Zeus.  Both places must be torn down by an outside force.  It is Christ who can tear down our internal altars to self, and remake our bodies as temples of service to others instead of repositories of slavery to self.  It is in our submission to His words and teachings and example of pure love to others we find relief from the pain of our chosen existence.  The lesson here is that even though the surroundings might be considered the heart of darkness and evil, even there salvation from Christ can be found.  It is not our surroundings that determine our proximity to God, it is our willingness to be His, and submit ourselves to Him.  It does not matter where we submit to God, only that we do.

There was one of note, who did just this.  Though little is known from history about the martyr to the faith mentioned as Antipas (obviously not Herod), what is clear from this reference by Christ is that Antipas valued his Christ more than his life.  Tradition or speculation might allow us to believe Antipas died inside that bronze altar, broiled alive for his refusal to sacrifice first to the Roman Emperor before resuming his normal preferred style of worship.  Or perhaps, there was a conspiracy to have him eliminated by the priests who ran the snake hospital, when merely the words of Christ and his healing power were freely given to those in need in that place.  The contrast of healing freely given by the followers of Christ, and the means required and filthy practices of the priests of snakes would have been abundantly clear to the people in need.  In any case, Antipas was killed, because he would not add to his claims of belief an acknowledgement of other gods besides the only true God Jesus Christ.  Antipas would not lie to save his own life, nor would he engage in common practices to shield his true beliefs and allow him to continue to witness and work the ministry for the community.  Instead Antipas thought it a better witness to live in the truth of Jesus Christ alone, and forego his human life in the clear faith of what would be a later life with Christ.  Notice too, Jesus does not declare that since Antipas died, that he is now with Him in paradise.  It was not an instant reward Antipas received, he would sleep until the return of the Lord, but he would once again know the joy of reunion with the Christ he was willing to die for.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the church of Pergamos had clearly resulted in the strengthening of the faith, and the clinging to the name of Christ.  However the message was not all one of encouragement, but also a challenge of what lay ahead.  John continues in verse 14 … “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.”  Within the church, not just outside of it, a section of its members had embraced the idea that freedom was intended for them to be free to gratify self, no longer restricted by the tenets of the law or Jewish traditions.  These members believed forgiveness was granted ahead of their sin, and that restriction itself was no longer binding.  Satan was up to his old tricks, and was sticking with what works.  Balaam had counseled Balak of old to destroy Israel from within, by enticing them with prostitutes and temple feasts of food dedicated to idols.  The symbolic eating of this food, drinking of this wine, and engaging in gluttony and promiscuity had succeeded in drawing the Israelites away from the worship of the true God.  The strategy was once again at work, this time within the Christian faith at Pergamos.  Notice it was not adultery named in this warning, but rather fornication.

Those members as yet unmarried in Pergamos held to the idea that since they were still unwed, they could have intimate relations of a sexual nature with anyone they pleased.  The law itself does not address pre-marital sex after all, it only addresses marital fidelity once the commitment is made.  And both Peter and Paul had revelations that we were no longer bound to the traditions of dietary purity as determined in living a Kosher lifestyle.  However, the counsel of God on our dietary habits was noted as early as the distinction in the number of animals that entered the ark of Noah, 7 clean, only 2 unclean.  Gluttony was more the problem, as both it and promiscuity, reveal a slavery to self that results from a heart that has not yet submitted the things most precious to it, to Christ.  We fear the removal of cherished sins from our lives by the reforming power of Christ.  This is because we do not see the damage these cherished sins are causing us and our victims.  We destroy our own self-worth and kill it in others as we treat what should be sacrosanct as common place.  Thus intimacy is destroyed, and replaced only with an insatiable need for self-gratification.  Our sexual experience is warped to one of self-service, not service to the one we love.  Our diet is gratified any cost, and our bodies suffer from our indulgence and lack of better choices.

This phenomenon was within the church of Pergamos in that day, as it is in our own.  How often we reason that sexual fidelity is only needed after marriage.  How often we reason that what we eat and drink does not matter anymore.  And how often we bear the consequences of the pain we embrace in our choices, sometimes blaming God later for the diseases our choices have resulted in.  In our quest for self-gratification we live lives of mediocrity instead of lives of excellence.  We have relationships that are at best mundane instead of marriages that bring a sense of fulfillment and purpose no one could ever take away.  Our potential to live a real life is denied by our stubborn refusal to let go the chains that are binding us to our pain.  But as we give ALL of ourselves to Christ, what is removed from our lives is the deception of living “good enough” and an awakening to a life of infinite potential.  Our relationships can be founded on what it means to truly love another and in so doing we begin to see each other as God sees us.  We begin to value each other as God values us.  And our lives become real lives, not merely an existence that hardly matters.  We, like the member of Pergamos, need to hear the message of Christ and abandon the deception of self-indulgence.

John continues in verse 15 … “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”  Again notice, Christ does not hate the people referred to as the Nicolaitans, but only their doctrines and beliefs and deeds as noted earlier.  The chief doctrine of the Nicolaitans which had already invaded the church at Pergamos and our own, was not dissimilar of that of Balaam; a perversion of our freedom into freedom TO sin, instead of freedom FROM sin.  In the case of the Nicolaitans in this instance it extends sexual promiscuity not only before marriage but after it.  Consent from a partner to allow sexual exploration outside of marriage does not constitute consent from God.  The two-edged sword of His word reveals that monogamy is not outdated by “modern” thinking.  It is instead insurance to preserve intimacy between 2 people in order that they may truly “know” each other, serve each other, and uplift and strengthen each other as dates all the way back to Adam and Eve.  We are better as a combined unit, than we are alone.  We complement each other, and help strengthen each other in the Lord.  But when we forsake the unity we find in monogamy, we find ourselves alone, and thus weakened against what the enemy places in front of us.  Marriage itself is not a defense against our enemy, but a faithful marriage based in Christ, founded in submission to Him, can provide a strong deterrent to the evils we would have encountered alone.  It is why Adam and Eve were counseled even in perfection to remain together, a truth no less meaningful for us today.  And a truth forsaken by those who embraced the ideas of cheap grace of the Nicolaitans who preferred pre-ordained forgiveness over reform and an abandonment of the pain of self-slavery.

John continues in verse 16 … “Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”  The warning to both of these groups within the church, is to repent.  The first and foremost priority of our Lord, is ALWAYS our redemption.  It is not condemnation that is presented first, but instead always redemption.  Condemnation is what we bring upon ourselves when we refuse the course of redemption.  It is automatic, it is the default of a lack of action, or refusal to embrace redemption.  The people who embrace these ideas are warned and counseled to repent in order to find redemption.  If they do not, Christ does not abandon them, but does come quickly and fight against them with the words and sword of His mouth.  Those who finally and fully refuse redemption will be cut away from the presence of our God.  This is not His preferred course of action, but it is not one He will refuse to take.  Those who will not abandon the ideas of placing self first through submission to Christ, will find themselves cut away from the body of His church.  The two ideas of God are in a conflict we cannot win.  If we place self first, we find Christ last, and eventually do not even want Him around at all.  But if we repent and submit to Christ, He can remake how we think, and what we want, and thus what we do.  Christ remains there for us.  He awaits our repentance, and thus our invitation for Him to remake our lives and free us from our chains to self.  There can be only one God, it is not us, it is Christ.

John concludes this message of Christ to Pergamos and us in verse 17 … “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”  Here the Holy Spirit joins His promise to we who listen to the word of Christ to His church, or to us.  What must be overcome again is our propensity to serve self, exhibited in our gluttony and disregard for the results of eating and drinking whatever we want.  We must overcome our propensity to desire sexual gratification before or after marriage as degenerating only to self-gratification instead of service to only one other.  And these ideas can only be overcome thru repentance to Christ, and full submission of our diet, and of our sexuality to Him alone.  When we do this, we are promised “hidden manna”.  We are promised food that originates in heaven and is provided to us as we have need.  Remember that manna could not be stored any longer than the day it was needed, except on Sabbath.  “Hidden”, means it may not be immediately seen as to where it comes from, but the only source of Manna was always and remains only heaven, from the provision of our Lord.  In effect, He tells us we need not worry about starvation, we are intended for far more than that.

But the promise does not end with merely an assurance that our temporal physical needs will be met.  As is always the case of gifts from our Lord, He has so much more for us than just that.  Here He reveals that our identity itself is to be a gift from Him.  A “new name” is to be chosen and written in white stone (purity) and “given” (not earned), to we who know what it means to be remade by Christ.  Even our names, or how we are known, is to be changed and made pure by Christ.  Our very identity is to be made new.  This revelation of who we are is to be shared only to each of us by Christ Himself.  It is not something others will know, only us.  This reminds us, that intimacy is not just something that originates or is intended in a marriage.  It is something that Christ wants with each of us.  Intimacy is important because it starts first between us and God.  Only then can we begin to experience what it means with another.  Intimacy requires commitment, and a personal one-on-one focus between ourselves and in this case God.  It is through this close and intimate bond that Jesus picks our new name, and reveals it written in a white stone, only to us.  That is how close our God wishes to be with us.  He wishes to know us in a way that no one else can.  He wishes for us to know Him in a way that is unique to us, in effect, a way for us to know Him, like no one else can.

This kind of desired intimacy is not something that is unique to our generation.  But since creation each of us has been so uniquely created that the pattern does not repeat or have a duplicate in all of time or space.  This is the level of personal intimacy God has with each of us, as He has made each of us that level of unique and special to Him.  Our God is not looking for group think, and group values, and group praise – instead He is looking for a deeply personal, deeply intimate relationship with each and every one of us.  We praise Him in secret and He values and accepts our gratitude.  He needs no public display of what is in our hearts, but rather values what our hearts truly offer.  Antipas knew that intimacy and was willing to die rather than see it corrupted.  The destruction of intimacy through promiscuity was not only intended to ruin our relationships here on this earth, it was intended to ruin intimacy between us and our God.  Monogamy was not meant to be a restriction, it was meant to be the ultimate revelation of how personal we are to our God.  It is a recognition of our uniqueness and His desire to be intimate with each of us.  Monogamy in our earthly relationship can be a reflection of the intimacy we share with God, directed at each other.  And thus through submission to Christ, our marriages can become something way more than they are today.  They can become a source of strength, service, and fulfillment that no one could ever take away.  In this message to Pergamos, is revealed how Christ values His intimacy with us, and how a unit of 3, is so much better than the solitude of one.

And the messages were not over yet …