TEMPTED
Revelation 2:12-17
The Worldly Church – 312 AD to 600 AD
Previous parts of this series are in The Bride folder.
Last time we looked at the trials of the church at Pergamos, the one our Lord called the seat of Satan. From this city idol worship was spread all across Asia, and the church was being tempted to fall under its influence. But Jesus had the answer.
Rev 2:16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
The answer is the same one He gave to the believers at Ephesus whom He also warned that He would come quickly; repent. Once again He used the same word (tachu; suddenly with surprise; without warning). Actually a better translation is I will soon come to you, which infers that I will “come against” you. And the “you” He was targeting were those who not only followed the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans but also those who allowed them to remain a part of the congregation, and His weapon is His Word; the truth.
We can all clearly picture the Word of God coming in judgment but it goes much deeper than that. We have such a loving Saviour that it is His desire that “none” be lost; no not one (John 18:9). So His love reaches out with His Word to all those who oppose Him and the ones who tolerate them. It is the Word of God that first convicts of sin, then provides an invitation to a relationship with God by His love, and when that invitation is accepted it provides assurance of salvation. Jesus will “fight” (polemeesoo; make war against or battle – literally and figuratively) against those who oppose Him with His Word; the Word of Truth and the Word of Love.
Rev 2:17 “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 writtenwhich no one knows except him who receives it.
Once again we see that word “hear” (akousatoo; understand). We as Christians are “called” to decide in favor of God’s truth, but we are not forced to decide in favor of it. It is always the truth but it does not become our truth unless we are willing to hear it and accept it. Understanding the truth of God’s word is the key to overcoming (nikoonti; conquering, prevailing or getting the victory); overcoming our broken relationship with God and overcoming misplaced loyalty to the world around us. It’s our faith that grasps that truth.
1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
But when we worship — put our faith in — something other than God, confusion sets in and we get robbed of our own identity as a son or daughter of God. Some view worshiping something other than God as bowing to an idol. Well that’s certainly valid but what about worshiping the “situation as normal” or “not rocking the boat.” Isn’t allowing the world to compromise our values because it’s “comfortable” also worshiping something other than God?
The believers at Pergamos had for years allowed themselves to enjoy the “social” comfort of the world around them. The years of persecution were gone and life was reasonably comfortable; live and let live. However, Jesus didn’t see it that way. For Him it was a compromise, a way of avoiding the glaring difference between the world and the church; just holding to His name and our faith isn’t enough. I love the way that He made His point as He closed this letter — right to the bottom line in words they could not misunderstand.
I will give some of the hidden manna to eat — In the exodus (Ex 16:11-15) God gave Israel manna to eat every day and a pot of it was put into the Ark of the Covenant along with the Ten Commandments (stone tablets) and Aaron’s rod. Over the centuries the Rabbis passed along a legend that when Solomon’s Temple was destroyed it was believed that the prophet Jeremiah hid the pot of manna in Mount Sinai and that when the Messiah came the pot would be discovered again. To the Jew to “eat of the hidden manna” meant the blessings of the Messianic Age. To the Christian it meant entering into the blessings of the new kingdom in Christ.
In Psalm 78:24-25 Asaph called manna the “grain of heaven” and the “bread of angels.” The message from Jesus was that although you can’t sit and eat meat that was sacrificed to idols (become intimate with the world and its system); if you withdraw from the practice (overcome) you will enjoy the blessings of heaven.
No matter how you view it, the message is clear. Manna was a type of Christ, something hidden but to be revealed later. Today He has been revealed to us and we celebrate that fact when we view the bread of the sacrament as not only His body but the bread of life:
John 6:31-35 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
I will give him a white stone — In the Roman world in which they lived the believers in Pergamos were well aware of the meaning of the black and white stones used in the courts of law; condemnation or acquittal. When someone was acquitted they were given a white stone and on that stone was a new name; they were absolved of the crime. It was also the custom in Pergamos for its citizens to wear stones or amulets around their necks with the name of some god written on the back; known only to them. It was to bring them strength and power over others with different gods. In other words if they had the god’s name they believed they could control the power of that god for their benefit.
Jesus said He would give those who overcome a white stone, one that also represents a new status. However, the word He used for “new” was not neos, which means new in time but “the same as before.” He used kainon, which means not only new in point of time but also new in quality; nothing like it has ever been made before.
In Roman law a new status came with a new name, but that was something God instilled long before Rome. When man “overcame” in the Old Testament God rewarded him with a new name that held a very special meaning. He changed Abram (high father) to Abraham (father of many nations) and he changed Jacob from the heel catcher or supplanter to Israel (he will rule as God). We also have been given a white stone and a new name written on it; a whole new status and a whole new self. We have been given Jesus’ own name, a name now hidden from the world but to be revealed to all in the future. In the meantime we, as believers in Christ, have the responsibility to reveal His name to those in our part of His kingdom.
Col 3:10-11 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
So here we have at Pergamos the church that succumbed to the temptation of the world. With persecution generally a thing of the past the Roman emperor Constantine, after seeing a shining cross in the sky and then defeating Maxentius his rival for the empire, established freedom of religion. The Christians responded by forming an alliance with him, which created an unholy relationship (marriage) between church and state. He turned pagan temples into churches but in order not to offend the priests he allowed them to integrate their temple worship with Christianity. It was not a difficult thing to accomplish as the persecution was primarily over and the Christians had become more comfortable in society. Constantine simply found “common ground” and a marriage took place. He even changed the coin of the realm and put Christian symbols on one side and pagan symbols on the other. For the next 300 years the two became a strong political force at the expense of the church. It began a downward slide from which it has never fully recovered.
Jesus made it clear in this letter that His bride must say no to those who would become part of world; those not truly committed to Him. The church must remain separate from the materialistic philosophy of the world for if she marries the world she cannot keep the integrity of her faith. She must not join with the world and adopt its ways, seeking political change when the world seems upside down rather than first and foremost standing for the one and only one who can truly change it. Her charge is to avoid desiring to become a part of the world to make her voice heard; the Doctrine of Balaam.
Now I know I just stepped on some toes — don’t take it personally because Jesus stepped on mine and they still hurt. Am I saying that we are not to stand up for what we believe and use our rights as citizens of this country to vote with our voice and our pen to protect everything this country was founded upon? No! What I am saying is that when we succumb to the temptation to jump in with both feet at the expense of our calling in life it’s a taking the step of the church in Pergamos. Putting our faith in man and his systems is the first step in the wrong direction because our focus will become set on the “things of this world.” It is a slippery slope to the pit of compromise.
We have been called to a higher purpose and our strength is not of this world. We don’t have the same values and when we compromise we are entering into a marriage with the world when we are already betrothed to the King of Kings. We need to remember what happened to the believers in Pergamos when the church and politics got into bed together; the church was the loser. Our focus needs to be on the kingdom and not the world – our passions need to be focused on Jesus and His mission. This is a message to those who are tempted to compromise their loyalty to Christ to gain the favor of the “pagan gods.” Remember what happened to Solomon when the lure of the world became his priority:
1Kings 11:4-8 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. 8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
And we all remember his words at the end:
Eccl 1:12-14 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised. 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
We should never let our social environment shape our lives. Remember what happened to Lot. First he looked and desired the material benefits of the world. Next we saw him camped outside of the city and then we found him living in the city. It was a process that eventually found him melted into the world around him and he became so content among ungodly people that he was no longer a believable witness for God. He had allowed his environment to impact him rather than impacting his environment for God.
Do those who know us see a witness (a martyr) for Jesus or are we just part of the crowd? Lot compromised his life and that of his family to such a point that he was almost useless to God. Remember when he finally came to himself and made a stand against the pagans in the city they didn’t even pay any attention to him. We can’t allow what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah and Pergamos to happen to the bride of Christ.
If we are going to make a difference in the world around us we first have to determine to be different. We cannot allow circumstances or situations force us to compromise. As noted previously, Paul told us not to form binding relationships with unbelievers and that goes for the world in general. We need to be active witnesses for Jesus to the non-believing world around us, but that can’t happen if we compromise our faith for the sake of comfort; avoiding confrontation and persecution. If we do, it is the first step in allowing the world to enter into the church, and like the church at Pergamos we will be more influenced by the world than we are likely to influence it.
Faced with just that kind of pressure Solomon resisted at first and maintained his faith. Then he began tolerating a widespread practice of idolatry (in his own wives) and he became involved in idolatrous worship. Let’s not let that happen to us in this moment in time when the world is seemingly coming apart and there is a strong urge to focus on the world’s solution. We need to remember that we have the “only solution” and not to compromise the power of our witness by focusing on what seems right in the eyes of man. Christ offers Himself and the power of His name as the means for us to overcome the temptation of the world. We have the hidden manna (the influences and comforts of the Holy Spirit) coming down from heaven into our soul every day; manna that is hidden from the world.
Perhaps those in Pergamos forgot God’s words to Solomon; words so important that God appeared in person to deliver them:
2Chron 7:14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Let us not be like the church at Pergamos – the married church. Compromise is the first step to disobedience.