7: Apostasy in Pergamum

This week, we move on to a city called Pergamum. According to legend, Pergamum was founded by the son of Hercules. Yes, Kevin Serbo’s son, Telephus. Just as a side note, but as an introduction to the passage in Revelations we’re going to read, we have to understand the legends that surround this city’s mythology to understand what in the world John was writing about. Contextually, without understanding what the people of the city were born and raised with, all of what John writes is a little crazy and left wing. Telephus who founded the city of Pergamum was Hercules’ son. Now imagine, if you will, that Telephus, because his grandfather, a king, was afraid that the boy will rule in his place one day (which is natural because people die) had his mother, the princess sold into slavery and the infant put into a boat setting for sail to the other side of the world. Just like Oedipus Rex, Telephus comes to another place and becomes betrothed to his mother. His mother was the slave/adopted daughter of another king. He saves the city from Achilles, because Paris and Helen were somehow friends of Telephus because he was an impressive warrior, duh, son of Hercules. Long story short, his mother was going to be his wife. Hercules stops that from happening with some lightning. He then goes off to find Achilles because the last time he saw him, he got hurt and his new wife, not his mom, but the queen of the Amazons, Hiera didn’t want a limp husband so Achilles spear could heal him. He sacks Troy, saves Helen, his friend and then becomes king. In the middle of that craziness, Pergamum is born and further, we see on the Acropolis of Pergamum, more temples dedicated to gods than we see banks on Wall Street. I promise this will all become very relevant in a second. Looking at this second picture here on the right, you’ll see 10 different temples. Don’t worry, the lower part of the city also has a lot of temples too. Now on this left side, those stair looking things, are the ruins of a large theatre. Let’s call it a mega church where the god Asklepion’s altar resided. I told you that Telephus was limp because he was speared by Achilles. Well, they built an outdoor theatre on the side of a mountain for sick people to come and make sacrifices to be healed. Now that you know that, let’s get into the text. ¹² “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged 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. Revelations 2:12-13 Again, just like last week and the week before, these are letters from Jesus to the churches. They are very specific letters and the churches in these cities were going to be aware, without a doubt in their minds that Jesus is the author and John is just delivering the message. I just want to reference the sharp two-edged sword. I know we skipped Revelations 1, but this is what John writes about his experience with Jesus when he first got these visions: “In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” (Revelations 1:16). Lesson for us is simple—when Jesus comes back, he’s not coming back a homeless man. When Jesus comes back, there’s going to be a sword coming out of his mouth and you won’t even be able to look at him. I want to take this fantastic imagery away for a second and get down to the more implicit idea that is present through this statement. Some of us, we can’t imagine what that means, that sword comes out of Jesus’ mouth. When Jesus comes, he’s not coming to save us. Do you see that here? Absolutely not, he’s coming to finish us. This is what the writer of the Hebrews says about the “word of God”—“ For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12). Yeah. It’s going to blow up your spot. You see what Jesus is saying here? He is saying that you’re not going to be able to hide… anything, whether that be your strength, your feelings, your sins, your intentions, your thoughts or your actions. It’s just going to be cut wide open for everybody to see the insides and the guts oozing out from the inside out. This is what you have to understand about this sword, if you want to talk about it figuratively (I say this because some of you doubt that this will happen, but as for me, I’m sort of a literal/figurative type of guy): It is a sword with two edges; it turns and cuts every way. There is the edge of the law against the transgressors of that dispensation, and the edge of the gospel against the despisers of that dispensation; there is an edge to make a wound, and an edge to open a festered wound in order to its healing. There is no escaping the edge of this sword: if you turn aside to the right hand, it has an edge on that side; if on the left hand, you fall upon the edge of the sword on that side; it turns every way. Verse 13. John calls Pergamum “Satan’s throne” probably because there are more altars and temples dedicated to gods in that city than there are people to worship them all. Just think about the theatre of Asklepius if you’re not sure. This is important now because this has broad stroking applications for us in the 21^st century. Antipas, who is referenced in this passage was martyred by people of other religions because they thought HE was demon possessed. Essentially, it was a culture war. He believed what he believed and he held those beliefs faithfully, and he was thrown into an altar shaped like a bull and martyred for not being more wishy-washy. What’s happening now-a-days? That’s right, regular Christians are being persecuted by their right wing brothers and sisters for being too hippie; and the left wing atheists are persecuting them for being Christian. They want to force you into extremes of hatred and ignorance, rather than love and care. It might be easier for us to align ourselves with people who talk a lot and taken positions at polar opposites, but they’re both wrong. We need to believe that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again because we are sinners that cannot save ourselves no matter how hard we try. This is what it means when he is at Satan’s altar and still holding on to the faith. We could easily do one or the other, but it costs us more being the Christ followers who live by actions and not dialogue. It’s a good thing that the Christians here in this city stuck to their guns. They could have easily decided not to do so. Jesus knows the struggles and difficulties we face every single day. So, knowing this, we keeping moving in our faith because while we fail, we are trying to face life in difficult situations. You see what’s happening here is that Jesus is readjusting the bar at which he sees the Christians here. Which probably means that he knows that they are sacrificing something to be where they are and it might not be glamorous or awesome, but it is not going unnoticed. Let’s keep reading. 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. (Revelations 2:14-16) The filthiness of the spirit and the filthiness of the flesh often go together. Corrupt doctrines and a corrupt worship often lead to a corrupt conversation. The church, by an impure worship, drew people into impure practices, as Balaam did the Israelites. He essentially seduced people and compromised himself for personal gain. The point is that if you’re going to do something in faith, then do it the right way. This idea has gotten us in trouble at times. It gets us into trouble because it’s so much easier not to do it at all or be bothered by it. (Ex. Not shady business practices—you make less profits, but you’re doing it the right way). I told you before how many temples and altars were there in Pergamum right? Well, now imagine yourself being a Christian and then being told that this food you’re eating was gathered from the temple of so and so—that it was a sacrifice. The Bible tells us not to ask where food comes from; but if we’re told where it comes from and what it was for, we cannot in good conscience eat it. No, don’t get into an organic versus hormonal argument with me. They were just eating the food, knowing that it had been sacrificed to some other lower case g-god. Then there’s the piece about sexual immorality. So just imagine here, being a Christian and going to a whore house. Or going to another temple to practice temple prostitution and calling yourself a Christian. I got another one, condoning that your wife prostitute herself with other people in the church. Vice versa, allowing your husband go whore himself with another person’s wife. This is the dichotomy here. On the one hand, they are not extremists and they are at least calling themselves Christians. On the other hand, they’re living into what they say they believe. Verse 16. Jesus is calling us/them into repentance, “Therefore repent.” Repentance is the duty of saints as well as sinners; it is a gospel duty. It is the duty of churches—that those who sin together should repent together. I want you to understand this. There is no way that we will ever be perfect, that we can ever really be “whole” in this life time. Also, it’s harder and harder to be a Christian in good faith, meaning that compromise is so much easier and abandoning faith is even easier than that. However, God isn’t dumb, He knows that we will try and fail. But HE doesn’t want you to fail and give up. He wants you, if you do fail, to get up and repent and keep it moving. That’s the beauty of this faith we share. We’re not trying to earn it, it’s already been earned. God already paid the price, there’s no pressure. We just need to get it through our head that it’s not about our performance or non-performance but our intent while trying to live in the name of Jesus. Last part of the letter to Pergamum. 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.’ The hidden manna is the fruits of the Spirit. It’s the comfort of God coming down from heaven into the soul of our lives when we just can’t stand anymore. It is hidden because the joy that’s present from it is not experienced by anybody except the Christ follower. The white stone, with a new name engraved upon it. This white stone is absolution from the guilt of sin, alluding to the ancient custom of giving a white stone to those acquitted on trial and a black stone to those condemned. The new name is the name of adoption: adopted persons took the name of the family into which they were adopted. None can read the evidence of a man’s adoption but himself; he cannot always read it, but if he persevere he shall have both the evidence of sonship and the inheritance.