Pergamum: Living in the World, Revelation 2:12-17 (Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 21, 2017)

Transcription

1 Pergamum: Living in the World, Revelation 2:12-17 (Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 21, 2017) 12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The words of him who has the sharp twoedged sword. 13 I know where you dwell, where Satan s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. PRAY We are working our way through the letters of Jesus to the seven churches of Asia (what we call Turkey today they called Asia in antiquity); it s a very famous part of the book of Revelation. It s one of the most accessible parts of Revelation because while each letter is addressed to an actual church that existed two thousand years ago the letters are meant for all churches. Verse 17 says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And I don t think that just means the churches in the book of Revelation, but all churches at all times including ours today. These seven letters have universal application (seven being the number of completion or perfection in the New Testament), and because they do we can learn something we need to know from each one of them. Today, we re looking at the third letter the letter to the church at Pergamum. And I ll show you three things that apply to us just as it applied to the church at Pergamum: first, what Jesus demands from his churches. Second, what keeps his churches from doing it. Third, what Jesus promises to faithful churches. First, what Jesus demands from his churches. When you read the commentaries on the book of Revelation, they ll all point out that in only two of the letters does Jesus give unqualified praise to the churches. He praises without any criticism the churches at Smyrna and the church at Philadelphia. I think I mentioned that last week. That s a true statement as far as it goes, but it s misleading because it gives off the impression that five of the Asiatic churches (including the church at Pergamum) were dead, and only two were alive barely, but hanging on. And that s the way this part of the Bible is often taught seven letters to dead or dying churches. I don t think that s the best way to understand the situation. Look at what Jesus says to the church at Ephesus: I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are ã2017 J.D. Shaw 1

2 not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you... Revelation 2:2-4a. That s a lot of positive comments. In reality, Jesus just has one thing against the church at Ephesus. It s a big thing they don t have the love they had for Jesus at first. Still, it s only one thing that s negative. Similarly, to the church at Pergamum Jesus writes: I know where you dwell, where Satan s throne is [so Jesus recognizes they are living in a tough environment]. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells [even though people are being put to death in Pergamum for their beliefs, they aren t backing off they refuse to deny Jesus. That s pretty good]. 14 But I have a few things against you... Revelation 2:13-14a. Same thing in Thyatira Jesus praises the church there but says he has one thing against them. I think the seven churches of Revelation have gotten a bad rap. Far from a bunch of dead or dying churches, what we see are five churches where Jesus has a lot to praise two churches where there s nothing but praise and only two churches that have serious issues. Now, we live in Oxford, in Mississippi, in the buckle of the Bible belt. We do, praise God, have multiple healthy churches in town. Still, wouldn t you be thrilled if in Oxford out of every seven churches you came across, five were groups that you could recommend without reservation to someone new to town or someone new to Christ? I d be thrilled. The churches in Asia are doing well, in some cases extremely well. Yet Jesus is not content with that. He has criticisms for them. These churches seem to be chugging along pretty well, yet he says, I have this one thing or these two things against you. Now what does that teach us about what Jesus wants from the churches? If you are here this morning and you are a Christian, you claim to be a believer in and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have one unshakable call on your life: the call to holiness. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. 1 Peter 1: Now that word holiness is a notoriously difficult one to define. For a lot of people when they hear the word holy they just hear spiritual, or mystical, or maybe magical. Others might hear holy and think pure, as in don t associate with unholy people or you might get contaminated. Still or others might think of holier-than-thou or self-righteous. The word has been misunderstood in Christian circles for a long time. The best way I know to explain the word holy is through the phrase devoted to God. I think we see this principle of holiness in the sense of devoted to God illustrated most clearly in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the people of God the people of the nation of Israel worshipped God at the tabernacle. The tabernacle proper was actually a big courtyard, and inside the courtyard was a bronze basin of water where the priests could wash their hands and a bronze altar where they could burn the sacrificed animals as an offering to God. In the back of the courtyard was a tent, and inside that tent there was a table where the showbread was ã2017 J.D. Shaw 2

3 set out every Sabbath day, there was a lampstand with wicks that burned day and night, and an altar where incense burned. The table and the altars and the lampstand all had various utensils that went with them. So, lots of furnishings and utensils in the Tabernacle. In Exodus 30:29, we read that God tells Moses and his brother Aaron, the leader of Israel and the high priest of Israel, this about those items: You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. In what sense did these furnishings and utensils and bowls become holy after consecration? Did they become magical? Was some electric charge placed in them, so that if you touched them you d get a shock and die? Or were they holy in that if you possessed them then God would be on your side, like a genie in a bottle, and you d have the upper hand wherever you went? No. From time to time in Israel s history people thought those things, but they were wrong. These items were most holy in the sense that they were to be used only to worship God in the tabernacle. They were not to be used for any other purpose. No priest was to ever take the table of the bread of presence home and eat his meals off of it. They weren t supposed to take the lampstand home at night and read from the light of it. These items were devoted to God, only to be used while worshiping him. Now, fast forward to the New Testament. In the book of 2 Timothy, we read the apostle Paul saying this: Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 2 Timothy 2: What s Paul saying there? He s saying, Timothy, you and all the Christians in your church in Ephesus must view yourselves as vessels that are to be used only for God s purposes. Christians now in the new covenant are just like the furnishings in the temple were in the old covenant devoted to God alone. That s what holiness means. Jesus calls his churches to complete and total holiness, and that means this: Jesus demands perfection in his churches. And since churches are made up of people, it teaches us that Jesus is after perfection in his people. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48. Every action we take, every word we speak, every motivation in our hearts, every dollar we spend, and even every thought in our heads is to be devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ. That s what Jesus demands. Now, I know how that must sound to some of you that must sound incredibly depressing. You re thinking, J.D., it s all I can do to get the kids to school and get to work in the morning. I m so tired. And Jesus demands perfection! C mon! I know how it sounds. But there s a verse you need to know about it s Matthew 12:20 and it s about Jesus: A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench. The word translated as bruised can mean extremely damaged when applied to a person s injury it could mean that while the skin may not be cut open, underneath the bone itself is broken. When I think of this verse I think of Laquon Treadwell s leg at the Auburn game. Think about how sensitive and delicate you are if that s you! You are delicate, sensitive, tender you don t want anyone to touch you. If that s you, then Matthew 12:20 says Jesus won t make ã2017 J.D. Shaw 3

4 it any worse. He will be tender with you, even as he demands perfection. Be encouraged. Richard Sibbes, the Puritan pastor who wrote a book called The Bruised Reed wrote this at another place: If Christ be so merciful as not to break me, I will not break myself by despair Second, what keeps his churches from holiness. Pergamum was a prominent Greco-Roman city in Asia Minor, and that meant that they had a radically different understanding of sex than the Jews in Israel would have had. Greeks and Romans lived in a much more sexually permissive society, at least if you were a man. And though not as economically prosperous as Ephesus or Smyrna, the first two cities we ve looked at in our study this month, Pergamum was the Roman capital, the administrative seat of power, for all of Asia. While there were pagan temples in all these cities, Pergamum was the first to build a temple specifically for the worship of the Roman Caesar as god. The imperial cult was especially strong there, and probably this is why Jesus refers to Pergamum as the city where Satan has his throne. So when the Roman government did decide to force the issue and make sure all people in Asia worshipped at the Roman temples and pledge allegiance to Caesar as God (because the persecution of Christians even in the first century was episodic, not constant), the enforcement in Pergamum would have been especially strict. We read in verse 13 that Antipas died as a martyr, and more than one commentator speculates the reason he died was because when he refused to offer sacrifices to Caesar, so the governor had him struck down with a sword. Even when persecutions weren t taking place, if you wanted to be a member of the trade guilds, the trade unions, in Asia, then once a year you had to offer a sacrifice to the emperor at the Roman temple in the city. If you didn t worship Caesar you couldn t practice a trade, and if you couldn t practice a trade you d fall into poverty. Therefore, some in the church in Pergamum understandably were tempted by these circumstances to make things easier on themselves. That gets us to verses 14-15: But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Revelation 2: We have no idea who the Nicolaitans were nor any direct evidence of what they taught. But it must have been closely related to the teaching of Balaam, as Jesus connects the two groups to one another, and we do know about that. Balaam is a historical figure, an Old Testament character from the book of Numbers; you can read about him in Numbers We don t have time this morning to go into the details of that account, but suffice it to say that by the time of the New Testament the name Balaam and his teaching had become synonymous with worldliness. Worldliness means compromising your holiness, your devoted-to-godness, by allowing the world s standards of behavior and success to become your own. It means not resisting the world around you, and instead becoming like the world around you. Worldliness takes something in the world that is true and twists it into something sinful. Here s how it probably happened in Pergamum: a group in the church said, Of course, we must obey God. We must follow him and be faithful to the Scriptures. But the Scriptures were written in Israel, by Jews, and for Jews, and we need to take that into account. We are Greek and ã2017 J.D. Shaw 4

5 Roman Gentiles we are believers in Jesus, but we are different from those folks in Israel. We think what the Bible says about sex is culturally bound. Those teachings were never meant to apply to all people at all times. And if the Jewish writers of the Scriptures knew what life was like in Pergamum, well they would have never said that sex was only to be had between a man and a woman inside of marriage. There are too many temptations in Pergamum, too many temple prostitutes, too many available women. So we need to reinterpret the Scriptures in light of our time and place, and give ourselves a break. After all, we know in our hearts we belong to Jesus. Does that sound familiar to you? If you re conversant at all with the current debates in our society surrounding Christianity and sexuality, it should, because that s the precise argument so many are putting forward today to try and normalize what in the past would have been universally viewed as deviant sexual practices. When it came to idolatry, another group in the church in Pergumum said, Of course, we can t practice idolatry. That s sin. But is it really idolatry if once a year you offer a pinch of incense to the statue of Caesar at the Roman temple? No educated person really believes Caesar is a god. It s just a form, it s just a meaningless ritual that no one takes seriously. No one s heart is really in it. So is it worth being shut out of prosperity and not being able to provide for your family by taking a stand on this issue? Go ahead and offer the sacrifice to Caesar, because you know in your heart you still belong to Jesus. That s the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, and you can see how tempting it would have been. It was worldliness. And of course it was true that the temptation to sexual immorality was greater in Pergamum than in Jerusalem, and it was true that nobody really thought Caesar was god when they worshipped him. But the worldliness twisted the truth into sinfulness. Worldliness is like carbon monoxide poisoning. The dangerous thing about carbon monoxide poisoning is that you don t know when it happens to you. You re clueless, because carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless. You just breathe it in and get sicker and sicker until you ultimately succumb. Now how in Oxford are we tempted to worldliness? Too often, preachers make the mistake of condemning other people s sins when they preach. What I tried to do last week was think through my own life and how worldliness has often crept in. So if you hear one of forms of worldliness and think, Oh, J.D. s talking about me, I m not. I m talking about me, but you and I are just more alike than you knew. Sex we ve already talked about. Second, money. Worldliness and money go hand in hand. Money gives us the ability to get very comfortable in the world, with newer and nicer and bigger houses, cars, clothes, vacations, and hunting trips. And there s nothing wrong with those things; it is true that money is a blessing from God. But it turns into worldliness when we find our significance and our security in money instead of God. Further, money can give us access to certain people, certain people that we perceive as successful and important, and cause us to ignore or maybe even despise the poor and powerless in our community. Third, entertainment. I think it goes without saying that someone devoted to God needs to be careful not to watch crude forms of entertainment, entertainment with a lot of sexual and violent ã2017 J.D. Shaw 5

6 content. But even when entertainment is deemed wholesome, if we find ourselves spending hours and hours each week watching sports, Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime, or hours watching Chip and Joanne renovate more and more houses, then we can find ourselves distracted from what is most important our love for God and our love for one another. Too much entertainment, even if it is wholesome, makes me cranky and lazy, and unwilling to get off the couch and serve the people around me. Fourth, competition. Sports can be a really good thing teaching kids how to function as a team and a work ethic, teaching physical education and leadership skills. That s true. But when you are a fan who can t be happy if his favorite team loses, or if you re screaming at the other dads at the little league game, or mad at your kid because he didn t play well, that s worldliness. It s all gotten twisted up. For those of you adults who still play organized sports, watch out that competition doesn t get the best of you. Ask any Oxford Park Commission referee which games are the least fun for them to officiate, they ll all say it s the church league games. It s the church teams that get the most mad, that complain the most about calls, that act the worst. Fifth, politics. Of course politics is important, and voting is a civic duty. That s true. But if you think someone is by definition an idiot because they either voted for Donald Trump or did not vote for Donald Trump, or because they voted for Hillary Clinton or did not vote for Hillary Clinton, if that s one of the main lens you use to evaluate people, then worldliness has crept into your life. If you think this news source can be completely trusted but these sources over here report nothing but lies, you re choking on the carbon monoxide and you don t realize it. Sixth, social media. Social media can be a fun way to keep in touch with people in your life. That s true. I m not on social media much now, but I know that when I did post stuff I wasn t posting an accurate view of my life. I wasn t posting about my failures or how I was mean to my wife a few hours earlier. I was posting only the good stuff about me, or my family, or the church. I was creating an image of myself that I wanted everyone to see, and not what was really going on. I think everyone else was doing the same thing, and so often I would get off of social media feeling very anxious and even depressed this person did this with their family, I can t afford to do that. Or this person did this fun thing with his friends, and I obviously don t have the friends this person does. The whole point of the Christian life is to distinguish us from the world around us. To be different; to be salt and light. But worldliness works its way into a Christian s life, twisting what is true, until instead of being different from the world around us we become identical. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people s feet. Matthew 5:13. If you allow any of those good things I listed earlier to come into your life in those twisted ways, then you re no different from the world and to that Jesus says, What good are you?. You re worthless as a Christian witness. So what can we do about our worldliness? Third, what Jesus promises to faithful churches. Let s read verse 17: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Revelation 2:17. Jesus promises two things to those ã2017 J.D. Shaw 6

7 who conquer worldliness and take on holiness: 1) hidden manna and 2) knowledge of a new name. First, hidden manna. What s manna? Manna was the food, the bread-like substance, with which God fed the people of Israel while they wandered in the wilderness for forty years after they left Egypt. And like the word Balaam, manna took on a symbolic significance in New Testament times. It came to represent the ways God could satisfy the spiritual hunger, not just the physical, of his people. For a long time, from high school to college and even into my first year or so as a pastor, I thought the basic message of the Bible to Christians was deny yourself and try harder. So, you re tempted by lust? Try harder. You want to spend all your money on yourself? Try harder. You just have to fight, you just have to resist, and if you do that long enough you will be a good person, God will be proud of you, and you can claim the victory. Now, there is no question the Bible calls us to resist temptation, but that s not the whole story. Self-denial for the sake of self-denial is not what the Bible teaches. That s not a Christian virtue. Instead, we deny ourselves of certain things so that we can have more of others. The point of the Christian life is not that we resist sin and deny ourselves so we can be good people. Rather, the Bible recognizes that all of us have spiritual hungers. We want to feel like we are significant and that we matter. We want to be valued. We want to be able to fight and stand for a just cause. And that s why we are tempted to worldliness. We crave all those things, and the world offers us some version of them, so we chase after them and feed off of them. And Jesus says, I made you to have those spiritual hungers. I have made you for significance. I have made you to matter. But the only spiritual food you can feed yourself that won t ultimately destroy you is me. Jesus says in John 6:35: Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Jesus says, You want to feel like you matter? Do not allow worldliness to come into your life. Fight it off, so you can have more of me. I am the true manna. I am the true bread of heaven. One of my favorite hymns has a line that says, Bread of heaven, feed me til I want no more. But what does that mean? Second promise: a new name. A lot of people read verse 17 and think it says that at the end of time Jesus will re-name them, give them a new name. And I would have thought that was the case until I sat down and really studied this. Most of the scholars think Jesus here is talking about a new name for himself that he will reveal to those who conquer. The Greek reads better that way, and then there s Revelation 3:12: The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. What s the significance of knowing Jesus new name? Jesus is saying, If you remain faithful in this life, then one day you will know me. And knowing me face-to-face in heaven will be worth all the effort you put forth into your holiness on earth. It will transform you. ã2017 J.D. Shaw 7

8 Getting to know people you really admire brings vitality into your life. Just think about if you re a girl and you meet some new boy and you really want him to ask you out and he does think about how much energy that brings you. You feel like you can do anything when that happens. There s a spring in your step and a new confidence in your speech. And sometimes the experience of meeting someone new makes you feel like you can change yourself. Twenty years ago the movie As Good As It Gets came out, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. I can t believe it s been twenty years. But if you remember that movie, Jack Nicholson plays a writer who is extremely obsessive-compulsive and, also, a first-class jerk. But he falls in love with Helen Hunt, his waitress at the restaurant where he eats the same thing for breakfast every day. He finally manages to ask her out and they go to dinner and of course during the meal he insults her. And she tells him, Pay me a compliment, or I m walking out. And he thinks and then he says, You make me want to be a better man. By the end of the movie they are together. I remember seeing Siskel and Ebert review that movie after it came out, and Gene Siskel said he couldn t buy that movie because no one could believe that those two characters could have a successful relationship. I remember thinking back then that was awful cynical of Siskel to say that, but now I know he s right. Helen Hunt would make Jack Nicholson want to be a better man for six months, but after a while the spell would wear off and he d go right back to being like he was. That s just the way it always works in human relationships. But not with Jesus. Jesus is so wonderful, his excellencies are so manifold and diverse, his mercies are so new every morning, he never gets boring, that if you have a relationship with him you really will want to be a better man, or woman. He really can change you. In 1 John 3 we read, But when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Jesus is saying to the church at Pergamum, If you will remain faithful in your pursuit of holiness, I will reveal myself to you and you will be changed. And because every single Christian is as unique as a snowflake, as unique as a fingerprint, therefore you will know me like no one else. My name, my new name, will be only for you. This is the promise for those who remains faithful. And of course we know that we know we can faithful to Jesus now only because he was faithful to us first in the past. Jesus did for you what you could never do for yourself. We are supposed to be perfect, because Jesus demands it from us. But we are not, and we never will be. Yet it s ok, because that s why Jesus came. Out of tremendous love and mercy Jesus lived the life you should have lived, a life of perfect holiness and devotion to God. And on the cross he died in your place for your sins, for all your imperfections, so that you could be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ did it all for you, and all you have to do is trust him for his grace every day. In Jesus we have past grace, present grace, and future grace all pushing us on toward holiness. Trust in the promises of Jesus and resist the world, so you can grow in the holiness that can satisfy you and make you truly happy. PRAY ã2017 J.D. Shaw 8