Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood by Woodrow Kroll

Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood by Woodrow Kroll 1 Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood Today s Radio Study: Woodrow Kroll: Isn t it always true that your light always shines brighter when you re in a darker place? I mean light shines better at night than it does during the daytime. So, if you are a church today, if you belong to a church in a bad neighborhood, thank the Lord for that because you have a light shining in that neighborhood that others do not have. And I think that s what s going on here at the church at Pergamos. Well, now, let s talk about the city first of all; and then we ll talk a bit about the church. This is a town called Pergamos or Pergamum. It can be spelled either way. It s located about 70 miles north of Smyrna, which is the church we talked about yesterday. Remember, I said that Smyrna is the modern city of Izmir. So, this is 70 miles north of this modern city. It s only about 10 miles, maybe 15 miles from the coast of the Aegean Sea. But it does pretty well put this church on the edge of nothing. You know, this is not a seacoast city. This is not near the great city of Ephesus. This is pretty far out there. This is a town that is just infested with idolatry. That s why I call this a church in a bad neighborhood because there are religious groups that have mushroomed in this city. It had a massive altar to Zeus the great Greek god. That massive altar today has been removed; and it is in a museum in Berlin, Germany. But there was an elegant temple there to the god of Athena. Dionysius and Demeter were also worshipped there. So, it was a cult center. It was a tiny church in a tiny town that was just infested with the horrible influences on this church. Small church, small community, large university, a large library. But here is a church that is in a small town with a lot of bad influence. And it s trying to be a light in a dark place. What do you say to a church in a bad neighborhood? You may have a bad neighborhood in your town. There are prostitutes in the neighborhood. There are drug dealers on every corner. It s a rough neighborhood. There s a lot of gang activity. You don t have to be a Las Vegas or a New Orleans or a New York or a town like that. It can be a small town that you live in and find these things to be true. What does Jesus have to say to a church in a town that is in a bad neighborhood? Well, let s find out. Revelation 2 beginning at verse 12: And to the angel [the messenger, the, perhaps, pastor] of the church in Pergamos write, These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan

dwells (Revelation 2:12-13). 2 Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood Now, there s a lot of intrigue in that verse. So, let s kind of unpack it. Jesus says three things about this downtown church in a bad neighborhood. First of all He says, Good job. He wants to commend them. He says, I know your neighborhood. Satan s throne is there. This is enemy territory. You are trying to do Gospel business in enemy territory. It is also the seat of political wickedness. It s the capital of a province in Asia. It s the seat of religious wickedness. Remember I said the altar of Zeus was there? And the health center, the hospital of Asklepios was there. Now, He talks about this being a satanic center. There are just dark dark horrible influences on this little church. But He says, I know your neighborhood. I commend you. I know that you hold fast to My Name. You refused to deny the name of Jesus even when others did. And I know you did not deny the faith. He singles out one particular Christian here by the name of Antipas. We don t know anything about this guy, but Antipas was singled out for special mention. Reportedly, Antipas was roasted slowly in a brass kettle during the persecution under the reign of Emperor Domitian. We don t know how accurate that is. But if it is accurate, it shows you why Jesus points out Antipas as a wonderful example of a person who tried to be a shining light in a very dark neighborhood. So, three things Jesus has to say to this church: Number one is, Good job. I know everything about you. Jesus has said to the church at Pergamos, Good job. But He also has to say, Watch out. Look at verse 14: But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth (Revelation 2:14-16). Now He says, Look, I commend you. I know you re in a tough neighborhood. You ve done a great job. But I want to warn you as well. He says, Watch out, downtown church in a bad neighborhood, watch out. And here s why He says you need to watch out, verse 14, Your church is infiltrated with the doctrine of Balaam, the teaching of Balaam. Now, you remember back in Numbers 22 (22-25 actually), remember the story of Balak who was the king of Moab? Balak tried to get Balaam to put a curse on Israel. In fact, he paid him to put a curse on Israel. But instead, Balaam blessed Israel. Numbers 31:16 says that he advised Israel, however, to commit immorality with the women of Moab. As a result of that, even though he blessed Israel, he told them [that] it s okay to live in immorality. It s okay to participate in pagan rituals. It s okay. So, the bottom line of the teaching of Balaam is this: This is a person who blesses God with his mouth at least one side of it; the other side says, It s okay to have a little sexual indiscretion. It s okay to live in immorality. It s okay for you to have an affair with a person at the office or a neighbor or someone at church. It s okay, as long as you worship God. Basically, what He is saying here is this is a church that was infiltrated by the teaching of Balaam and at the same time was trying to reach out to the community that had infiltrated it.

So, first of all He says, I want to caution you that your church is infiltrated with the teaching of Balaam. Secondly, He says, I want to caution you, verse 15, because there are those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Now, if that sounds familiar to you, it s because we encountered this doctrine the other day in our study. The Nicolaitans were a heavy shepherding movement. They were a movement where the pastor ruled as the absolute dictator of the church. They were a movement in which the pastor conquered the people. That s what Nicolaitan means, laity conqueror. Probably in this church, there were people who did not exercise their rights as believer priests and just left everything up to the pastor. The pastor took that opportunity, took the ball and ran with that. This was a church that was dominated by a few people: pastors, elders, people who really had the power in the church. Jesus says, I hate that. I don t want that to be the case. Yes, there has to be a leader in the church. And that leader has to be the under-shepherd of God. But that leader is not a dictator. That leader is a person who gets his orders from God just like everybody else does. As a result, He s saying, I don t want your church to be a church dominated by one or two people. I want you to be the church, all of you to be the church. So, He says, I m cautioning you. First of all, I caution you because the doctrine of Balaam has come into your church. Secondly, I caution you because there are some people in your church who hold to the church polity of the Nicolaitans, that the pastor rules everything. Then He says this. And this is a severe caution to the church. He says, I want you to repent or I m coming back to clean house. Now, that s pretty tough stuff from the Lord Jesus. He says, Either you repent or I ll be back to clean house. Now, again, this is a church in a bad neighborhood. This is a church that is doing whatever it can to reach out to the world. But, unfortunately, in its evangelism, it has failed to separate itself from the world it wants to reach. It s a church that s become so much like the world around it that Jesus says, Either you repent of your sin or I have to come and clean house in My church because, remember, judgment always begins at the house of the Lord. In the 21st century, our century, is there any parallel to this in the church today? Is it possible that in the church today there is immorality in the church? Is it possible in the church today that there are one or two people who are making all the decisions for the church? Is it possible that in our churches in the 21st century there are people who reach out to the community and claim to be Christians but are sneaking around behind the Lord s back and living like animals? Is it possible? But you and I are both smart enough to know that it s not only possible, it s happening. This is true in a lot of places today. Maybe you know of cases in your own church where it s true. What Jesus is saying is this, Look, you ve got to step up to the plate and confront sin where sin is found because if you don t confront sin, I have to. 3 Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood

4 Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood Now, I want to show you how prevalent this is in our society today. Just about the time that you thought that the greeting card racks had become full of everything and covered all the bases, somebody found an untapped market. It s the untapped market of the mistress. *There is a line of cards today that is called, The Secret Lover Collection. What the founder of this line of cards says is, This is a line of cards (I m quoting now.) committed to providing a greeting card collection with empathy and understanding, without judgment to lovers involved in secret relationships. So, you can go to the card store and buy your wife a birthday card and your mistress one at the same time. Now, basically, the woman who is behind this collection says that she launched it because she saw a market. There was a need out there for cards for your mistresses. There was a need out there for cards for people that you are sleeping around with and in sin doing so. As a result, this whole industry came into being because this is the way life is today. Now, Jesus is saying to this church, Good job. But He s also saying to this church, Watch out because, if you re doing a good job in being evangelistic that doesn t necessarily mean that, while you reach out to the community, that there aren t problems inside the church that you need to deal with and haven t dealt with yet. Good job and reach out. Tami Weissert: This is definitely a church with challenges inside and out. Some of those negative outside influences have crept in and made trouble inside the church and that always seems to be the tension. So how do we reach the world without giving in to it? WK: There are two basic ways the church has tried to reach out to the world; I think only two. One of them has been the most popular and looks to be the most successful but I think it s a colossal failure and that s accommodation. When we accommodate the message to the mindset and the thinking of the world, I think we always end up accommodating too much and thus we become more like the world than they become like us. The other method of course is to provide an alternative. These people in the church at Pergamum attempted to provide an alternative way of living. They provided hope. They provided a morality that was more akin to the morality of God rather than the morality of men. Like Moses did in Deuteronomy 30, he said, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, chose life so that you and your seed may live. Now the church need not hide its message or wrap it in lattes or anything else. They simply need to offer an alternative to what people have today. TW: Can we talk about the other extreme for a moment, a church with what I m going to call a fortress mentality. They are so guarded, so cautious, that they effectively isolate themselves and then they accomplish little. WK: Yes, and I think that that s as big a problem as the accommodating church. The fortress church that you talk about has few programs and accomplishes very little because they hold themselves up in the church. They re afraid of the world. The happy medium of course is the picture we see in the New Testament church get together, pray, fellowship, absorb huge chunks of God s Word and then go out to the world and win them for Christ. Here s the last thing that Jesus says to this church. Look down at verse 17 of Revelation 2. As He concludes the message to the church of Pergamos, He says this: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone

a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it (Revelation 2:17). What He has to say is this: Number one, Good job. Number two, Watch out. Number three, Buck up. 5 Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood You know, just kind of buck up. Hang on. Downtown church in a bad neighborhood, you overcome your problems. You stay true to Me, and you deal with the problems in your church. You will be a light in a shining place. And to you I m going to give this hidden manna, this bread that the world doesn t know anything about. Don t buckle under the pressure of sexual or social pressures. But instead be strengthened with the power of God s Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That s what Paul told the Ephesians in chapter 3 (v. 16-17). He says, Look. Buck up. You can overcome this. You can deal with this problem and be a light. And when you are, I will give you hidden manna. Notice that s one thing He says, I ll give you a white stone with your name on it. Now, we have tendency to think of stones as something you throw in a pond. Now, why a white stone? Things that are important are gold, like the gold medal at the Olympics or silver or bronze. But a white stone? Remember, this is biblical language here and better than an Olympic medal is the Judgment Seat of Christ before whom every Christian must one day stand. Jesus Christ will judge the things done in our bodies whether they re good or bad. He s specifically saying this to the church at Pergamos: I m going to judge your ministry in your bad neighborhood. But I m also going to judge your sin in your church. So, He says, Get rid of that sin. Repent, so I don t have to come. And you can overcome this. And when you do, I m going to give you a white stone. And it s going to have your name on it. Not a gold medal. Not the Urim and Thummim that had the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on the breastplate of the priest. Stones in the ancient world were often used as a way to render a verdict. So, if the verdict was innocent, white stones were cast into a bag. If the verdict was guilty, black stones were cast into a bag. Now, when He says, I m going to give you a white stone, what He is saying to them is, You take care of the sin in your church and when it comes time to stand before Me at the Judgment Seat of Christ, I ll give you a white stone. I will say you are acquitted of your sins. You have dealt with the sin in the life of your church, and you can be rewarded for the work your church did. Now, just think about what the alternative to that is, you don t deal with the sin in your church. You may have great success as a church now. But when you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, the judge says, I ve bad news for you. Nothing done is rewardable for eternity because there was sin in your life when you did it and you knew it and you didn t repent of it and you didn t take care of it. So, I think there s a lesson for us in the 21st century here. The lesson is good job. If you re a church, a downtown church in a bad neighborhood, hang in there. But don t let the neighborhood seep into the church because if you do, then you are robbing yourself of rewardable activity for all eternity. The bottom line is this: For those who say it s impossible to live a pure life in the midst of a bad

neighborhood, God says, Take a long look at the church at Pergamos. It s a church that had its problems, to be sure. But they dealt with those problems, repented of their sin, and that made their light in a bad neighborhood that much brighter. Don t let anything in your life hinder your light to the world. And nothing hinders light faster than sin. Unless otherwise indicated, scripture references are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 2012 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Back to the Bible P.O. Box 82808 Lincoln, NE 68501 1-800-759-2425 backtothebible.org 6 Pergamum: The Church in a Bad Neighborhood