The Seven Lost Churches of Revelation
10/24/2004 - Serving God in Hell
What's the most dangerous place to live in the world? Where would you least like to live? Demographic experts are forever releasing statistics that tell us what city, state, or country has the highest murder rate or kidnapping rate, the most car-jackings or burglaries, as well as other kinds of disasters.
Alaska has the highest accidental death rate of any state in America, five times higher than the next closest state. Every year, on average, eighty-five out of every 1,000 people die an accidental death in Alaska. So if you go to Alaska stay on the cruise ship!
New Orleans and Washington D.C. seem to swap places every year for the distinction of being the murder capital of the United States. Detroit often takes home the honors as America's most dangerous city. And in case you're wondering, in the list I saw, Philadelphia was not even in the top 25. That's comforting.
Colombia, South America, is the kidnapping capital of the world, followed by Mexico with Brazil and Russia tied for third. And one survey I read said that last but not least is the violence and rioting that occur wherever English soccer fans go! Notice that the survey didn't say Eagles' fans. Eagles' fans are well behaved compared to those crazy English soccer fans!
Of course the hands down winner of the most dangerous city in the world goes to Baghdad. Which should come as no surprise. In fact, last week 19 American soldiers refused orders to deliver fuel to a military base near Baghdad claiming that the mission was just too dangerous. "It's a kill zone," they said, "and we're not going!"
And so was the city that we're going to visit today as we continue our series called The Seven Lost Churches of Revelation. It was a kill zone, as dangerous for Christians as Baghdad is for Americans. A nice place to visit perhaps, but you wouldn't want to live there.
It was the city where Satan has his throne, where Satan lives, Jesus says. Lots of people think that Satan lives in hell surrounded by fire and brimstone. But that's not the case. Hell is not Satan's address, at least not now. One day Jesus says Satan will be cast into the lake of fire along with his angels to be tormented forever and ever. But that's one day, not today.
Today Satan is alive and well on planet earth. The apostle Peter describes him as a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. And evidence indicates that there are certain geographic regions in this world that Satan claims as strongholds. And today we're going to look at a church that was serving God in the midst of one of those strongholds, which is why I've called today's teaching, "Serving God in Hell."
If you have a Bible please turn to Revelation 2:12-17 and follow along as I read. "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, 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: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing 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 Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To those who overcome, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give each of them a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it."
The church in Pergamum is the third of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3. All of these churches were in Asia Minor or the country of Turkey today. First, we looked at the church in Ephesus. It was a strong, active church, built on the great foundation of the apostle Paul's teaching. He had started the church about forty years ago. But now it had a problem, a big problem. Over the years it had substituted duty for devotion until it lost it's love for Jesus. It was busy, but it was cold. And we learned that the most important thing we can do is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength.
Then last week we traveled up the Aegean coast about 35 miles and visited the church at Smyrna. Like Pergamum, Smyrna was also not an easy place to live for the Lord. The church there was about to enter a season of testing and persecution. And to them Jesus had no need to say, "Repent." Instead, he called that church to be faithful, even to the point of death. And so last week we asked God to help us to be faithful, especially when life gets real hard.
Now today we climb the coast another 45 miles and enter, at our own risk, the city of Pergamum. Pergamum was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It was majestically located on a cone shaped hill 1,000 feet above the surrounding valley. It was famous as a cultural and intellectual center. The second largest library in the world was located in Pergamum. It contained 250,000 volumes mostly written on vellum an early form of parchment made from animal skins that was invented in Pergamum.
It had a spectacular theater with the steepest steps I've ever climbed in my life that looked out over the valley below. It was a wonderful place to watch a classic Greek play.
The city was known as a center for healing and people came to Pergamum from all over the world to worship the serpent god Asclepios, whose temple was filled with snakes that were supposed to administer healing. Those who wanted to be healed would sit or lay down hoping to be touched by one of the snakes crawling across the temple floor while voices whispered from openings in the ceiling, "You will be healed. All praise to Asclepios who is healing you. Be healed. Glory and honor to Asclepios." And some were healed, and some died from snakebites, while others just went insane.
Pergamum was also the location of the great altar of Zeus. It was forty feet high and visible from almost anywhere in the city. And every day smoke would rise from that altar as bulls were sacrificed to Zeus, the supreme Greek God. And every day Christians were reminded that this was not the safest place on earth to live.
But most scholars believe that the main reason that Jesus says, I know where you live - where Satan has his throne, is because of the emperor worship that was practiced there. While Caesar was worshiped in Smyrna and other places, Pergamum, as the capital of Asia Minor, was the center of emperor worship. It was the place where Christian men and women were required by law, under penalty of death, to take a pinch of incense and apply the name "Lord" to Caesar and not to Christ. And to a Christ follower there is nothing more Satanic than that!
It would have been easy to pack up and move out of Pergamum to a place that was much more Christ friendly, like Lancaster County or the Bible Belt. But the Christians in Pergamum didn't move. They stayed there. They stood firm.
And to them Jesus says in verse 13, Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city - where Satan lives.
Not much is known about Antipas. He's not mentioned in the Bible. But early church tradition tells us that Antipas was the very first martyr in Asia. He was placed inside a hollow brass bull and slowly roasted to death. That would make you think twice about wearing a gold cross around your neck or a WWJD bracelet. Yet this church didn't back off. Their light kept shining. This is a church that's serious about their faith. Not many casual Christians here. And Jesus commends them for it.
But there are some problems that need to be addressed in Pergamum. Look at verse 14, Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. 15 Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
This church had the courage to face persecution, but they didn't have the courage to confront compromised teaching. And false teaching can kill a church quicker than martyrdom. Jesus says, "You've got people who are promoting the teaching of Balaam." What's that?
The teaching of Balaam was to mix the Christian faith with pagan, immoral practices. The story of Balaam and his talking donkey is found in Numbers 22-25. Balaam was a prophet who got a little too greedy. He was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites. But every time he opened his mouth to curse them a blessing came out instead.
So Balaam came up with another plan to destroy Israel. He said, "Listen, Balak, I can't curse these people. God won't let me. But here's what you can do. Send some of your prettiest Moabite women to dance in front of the Israelites. That will tempt them. And then you can get them involved worshipping your idols, and performing all the sex acts that go with it. And God will hate it. And he won't put up with it. So he'll destroy Israel for you. That's how you can bring them down." And the plan worked. God did punish Israel. He put 24,000 of them to death, including many of their leaders, for compromising his standards.
And so there were some in Pergamum who were saying, "What's the big deal? We don't need to live any different than those around us. It's too risky. After all, it's what you believe that's important, not how you live. You can claim Jesus is Lord and still hang out at the temple and eat food sacrificed to idols and party away. There's nothing wrong with living' fast and loose. It's your faith that's important, not your lifestyle."
It was a classic case of grace abuse, of taking Christian liberty and turning into license. These believers who had been so strong in the face of persecution were now caving in to the temptations of their culture. They were becoming careless with their character. Blend in and there will be no price to pay.
It's interesting that these very same lifestyle issues were addressed at the Jerusalem Council recorded in the book of Acts, when the apostles concluded that Gentiles didn't have to become Jews in order to become Christians. But they did need to avoid certain things.
In Acts 15:29 they said, You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
The teaching of the Nicolaitans was similar as we looked at a few weeks ago. They were a group named after their founder Nicolas who claimed that you could be a Christ follower and go to orgies and commit immorality and practice idolatry as well. "That's okay. No big deal."
But it is a big deal. It's big enough for Jesus to address it. Because how we live our lives either credits or discredits the power of the gospel. Compromised teaching leads to compromised living, which dilutes our witness to the world and renders us powerless. The very first step to being salt and light in a spiritually thirsty, spiritually dark world is to live authentic Christian lives, lives that are different, lives that are attractive, lives that are set apart. The Bible uses words like godly and holy and pure. How we live matters.
There is no way that Valley View will ever accomplish our mission of being a biblical community that helps seekers become fully devoted followers of Christ if we live compromised lives. No way. Not only will we fail to accomplish our mission, but we'll be miserable in the process. We can't have one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world and make any kind of impact for Jesus Christ. And Satan knows that.
The name Pergamum comes from the Greek word gamus, which means "married," and the intensive prefix per which means "thoroughly." "Thoroughly married" is what Pergamum means. And that's what Jesus wants us to be. He wants us to be thoroughly married to him. He's the lover of our soul and no idol, not money, not pleasure, not power, not sex, not a career, nothing is to come between us and him.
Not long ago I read a book by Josh McDowell called Beyond Belief to Convictions . And in that book he makes a strong case for the connection that our behavior has with our beliefs. He illustrates it with a pyramid that looks like this. And using that graphic says, "that our beliefs determine our values which drive our actions that decide our future." How we act visibly on the outside is expression of what we really believe invisibly on the inside.
Now does that mean that we're going to be perfect all the time? No. Absolutely not. Sometimes we'll cave in to the struggle to live upright, moral lives. Sometimes it will dawn on us that we have slipped into some form of idol worship. But when those times come there's always plenty of grace and forgiveness available. But that's a whole lot different than being grace abusers, promoting, and flaunting, and refusing to lay down an idol or give up a lifestyle that displeases our Lord.
Jesus says, "If you don't repent and change what you're teaching and the way you're living I'm going to have to take you out with a sharp, double-edged sword." That's something to be concerned about.
In that culture Roman governors were divided into two classes - those who had the right of the sword and those who did not. Those who had the right of the sword had the power of life and death. At their word a person could be executed on the spot. The governor of Pergamum, because it was the capital of Asia Minor, had the right of the sword and at any moment he could use it against anybody he wanted. No questions asked. But here Jesus reminds us that ultimately he has the right to the sharp, two-edged sword.
In Scripture, the two-edged sword is a symbol of the Word of God, which is to be our standard for how we live our lives. The Word of God sets the boundaries that define the playing field. Just like football games need boundaries and baseball games need foul lines so does my life and so does yours. And if I step over those boundaries I'm going to get in trouble. I'm going to hurt God. I'm going to hurt myself. And I'm going to hurt the people around me. How I live is just as important as what I believe.
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers (1 Timothy 4:16) .
Jesus closes his letter to the church with a three-fold promise to those who overcome. Look at verse 17, To those who overcome, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give each of them a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
Each one of these letters closes with a promise to those who do repent and overcome whatever challenge they're being faced with. Now I have to admit that the rewards here don't sound real exciting. I'm not sure that a piece of bread and a stone with a name on it would motivate me to be roasted alive inside a hollow brass bull. But that's because I probably don't understand the significance of these symbols.
The hidden manna most likely refers to the heavenly bread that God miraculously provided the Israelites while they wandered in the desert for forty years. A pot of that manna was later put into the Ark of the Covenant and kept in the holy of holies in the temple in Jerusalem as a reminder of God's care and provision. Bread is also a symbol of fellowship in the Bible, so it's possible that Jesus is offering a deeper experience of fellowship those who overcome.
Next is a white stone. In the ancient world colored stones were often used in courtroom settings. A jury would cast its votes by tossing white and black stones into a bowl. A black stone meant guilty and a white stone meant innocent. "Those who overcome," Jesus says, "will be given a white stone and declared not guilty of caving in to compromised living."
The stone will have a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. Many believe that this is symbol of special intimacy with Christ, a nickname, a pet name, a term of endearment that Jesus will give to those who overcome. Again it speaks of a special closeness to Jesus.
Whatever these rewards are they are significant and meant to motivate us to resist the temptations of our culture and live out what we believe. "Be careful Valley View," Jesus says, "not to compromise my teaching because compromised teaching leads to compromised living which dilutes my witness to the world. Stay thoroughly married to me and you will be greatly rewarded." Can we do that together? I think we can.