191. The Hidden Manna: Christ's Better Feast

Hello everyone and welcome back to the broadcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 191 the letter to Pergamum part 4. Well, hello everybody and welcome back to the broadcast. My name is Kendall and I'm so glad that you are here because this is it.

This is part 4 this is the final episode of our long journey through the town and through the church at Pergamum and The back half of this letter is the most Surgical letter that Christ has written that he's dictated to a suffering church.

Christ’s Sword and the Promise to the Overcomer

Now if you were with us last week then you know exactly where we left things off and you will know that we left them off at the very edge of the Blade that is coming out of Jesus's mouth. Because last week we watched the two-edged sword of Jesus Do something that?

Should have made the entire congregation in Pergamum go pale. We watched the sword turn from the first half of the letter. The sword had been pointed out at Rome and the people who were persecuting this this little beleaguered church at the Empire at the executioner's axe at the at the Magistrate in the city that was that had the power of life and death over this little flock of people.

But then last week we watched that blade spin Clean around in the mouth of Christ and it come to rest for the very first time against the throats of some of the people who are claiming to be Christians against the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans who had sort of set up shop inside this local church and they had been teaching the saints that a man could hold fast to the name of Jesus in one hand and yet the cup of demons in another and We heard the King speak the very hardest word.

That a loving Lord ever has to speak and that's repent. Or else I'm gonna be coming to you quickly and I'm gonna make war on you with my sword the sword that's coming out of my mouth now. That's a terrifying place to leave the church and that's thank God where Jesus doesn't leave this letter.

Because he never ever Leaves his people Cowering under the blade and waiting for the call to repent but nothing of hope coming after it and last week I promised you that that the very same mouth that was speaking this threat Against these open threats that are in his church is also the same mouth that's gonna be speaking a promise to the faithful people the ones who were beleaguered in the city the ones who are actually Holding fast against the teachings of the Nicolaitans and the bullet and the Balaam attends, however, you pronounce that.

And that promise that Jesus gives is not just any promise. It's the single strangest the single richest. The most staggering promise perhaps in even all of the seven letters to the seven churches. Jesus promises this little church if they will hold fast to Christ and not hold to the Doctrines of the Nicolaitans and the people who follow Balaam if they will hold fast to those things and Jesus promises them hidden manna.

That the world has never tasted a white stone with a name upon it that no one else can know and no one else can take away a Brand new name that not one living soul in the face of the earth is allowed to read except for the one who receives it.

Those are promises that that we have gonna have to unpack tonight. We're gonna have to understand what it means because Those aren't intuitive for us as Western 21st century Americas. Why is Jesus gonna give this church?

He's being persecuted. He's being he's being drowned under the pain and the suffering of both the Romans and the Jewish Church and even from within from this rival faction called the Nicolaitans and the Balaamites.

How is this little church going to be blessed by Christ and overcome all of this? And he says I'm gonna give you bread from heaven and I'm gonna give you a white stone. What does that even mean? Well tonight?

We're gonna finally talk about exactly what that is. We're gonna talk about what is carved onto the face of that rock tonight we're gonna feast on the hidden manna and we're and we're gonna unpack all of this and watch how all of this is exploding with wilderness imagery in such a way that swallows the entire book of Revelation up and Shows us how the fall of the Empire is even coming through this wilderness language.

So Buckle up because this is gonna be a really really good exit to the book to the letter to the Church of Pergamon and It's gonna give us insight into the rest of the book as well. Now before we do that I need to do some housekeeping matters for the channel because first and foremost I'm thankful for you the simple fact that you are here on the final episode of a deep dive miniseries into this one little obscure first century city and church listening to me talk about Greek words and Old Testament witnesses and History that that goes down into the weeds of it.

Well that tells me everything that I need to know about who you are and I'm thankful for who you are. You're not here for fluff and spiritual cotton candy. You're here because you're hungry for the meat of the word and you want to see the king of kings and the Lord of lords who he actually is you want to see him seated on his throne raining now and Causing his church to spread in Dominion in America and beyond.

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I hope you learn from this. I hope you share this so other people can learn. There's no expectation on my part. If you want to great if you don't want to great. Amen. Glory be to God with that as Always.

I have one more thing a huge Thanks to our channel partner wrath and grace who handles the post-production as I said who does this show? Incredibly after this episode go and check them out at wrath and grace calm look around support the tremendous kingdom work that they're doing.

Look at their app. Look at their website. Look at their sermons. Look at their their specials that they've done. It's all tremendous kingdom work. So I highly recommend it to you and with that last week We read the entire letter of the Church of Pergamum from top to bottom and tonight we're gonna read it again.

But I do want to just set the table with the fact that we're only gonna be covering one verse. We're gonna be camping out there verse 17 and we're gonna be picking up Where the sword of Jesus leaves off so this is what the text says.

He who has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to him who overcomes. I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone.

Which no one knows but he who receives it revelation 217 these three promises are the ones that I want to talk about tonight and we're gonna begin that by talking about part one the hidden manna. Now I want you to look at how Jesus opens up the very conclusion of this letter and he opens it up with promises after He aims the sword at the false believers in the church.

He gives promises to those who are the true believers in the church and he gives him three promises. And he doesn't just launch straight into rewards. He stops for a moment and he reaches out and he grabs them by the collar and he says he who has an ear to Hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Hey true believer. Who's not falling into the sins of the Nicolaitans and the belay and the Balaamites and all of that? Listen up because I've got something to tell you that little line closes out every single one of the seven letters.

It's what Jesus says to all of them. He was an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the seven churches and it's the hinge that swings the whole Thing from the threat that Jesus is giving to the to the fake Christians in that Town to the gift that he's gonna give to the true Christians.

So the ones who were really truly bought and paid for by him with his blood written on their hearts. This is Jesus leaning in close to his people and saying I want you to listen to me. Because this isn't an ancient mail or letter addressed to a dead people in a in a dead time.

This isn't a history lecture that Jesus is giving to them. This is him saying if you have an ear on the side of your head then listen because this is for you. Pull up close. Listen to what I've got to say dear brother and sister in Pergamum because it's really important and then After Jesus has laid the sword down that was aimed at the Nicolaitans and the Balaamites.

Then the king turns his hand over he opens it up and out comes the rewards that he's gonna give to his people who faithfully persevered this trial and all of these Temptations and all of the different attacks that's coming from Rome the Jews and and the internal groups.

He's gonna give them three rewards. He's gonna give three of them and here's what I want you to see before we even look at one of them every single one of these promises these rewards is a deliberately loaded point-blank answer a response to something in the city of Pergamum that they had been peddling as false Gospels on every single Street corner every part about this is aimed Deliberately at Pergamum the manna the the white stone all of it.

Because the king doesn't hand out random door prizes he's going right down the line and he's Outbidding every single cheap and every single hollow and every single counterfeit promise that the city of Pergamum was laying on the table for those who would capitulate and worship the idols and Jesus is gonna respond with gifts that actually undermine the city, but Before I put that first promise out there before we talk about that I have to put you back inside the problem for a second because the Promise isn't gonna land until you feel the full weight of where it's actually occurring and what it's actually answering.

So come with me one more time down off the Acropolis. Imagine that you're coming into the lower city. You've left the temple of Zeus. You've left the theater. You've left the Acropolis. You've left all of that and you've come down into the lower city where actual people live.

We're the people of the church more than likely lived and I want you to imagine. Let's just say for instance It's Thursday evening in Pergamum and you are a Christian. You're a leather worker. You have a wife at home.

You have children that you're trying to feed and the only reason that there's any bread on your table. Is that you have a stall? Down at the marketplace where people can come and buy your leather works a Stall where you are in the marketplace.

You're in the Agora. You're the one who's who's selling products to actual people and what goes along with that. In order for you to have a stall in order for you to actually be able to sell in the city.

You had to be a member of the guild that guild. Let's imagine on this very Thursday night in the city of Pergamum ad 64. That guild is holding its monthly dinner for all of its business owners who are connected to it and What you have to do is you have to go into that guild and participate or else you lose your License to be able to sell in the city.

And let's say that you go into that guild meeting you stand in the doorway and you know the room. You know the people there's this long table where where people are meeting together. They're eating good meat.

There's there's there's good wine and drink and everything that you could ever Afford that you can never afford on your own that your children haven't tasted all of that stuff is there. There's wine that's flowing freely.

There's friends that you know there men who've sweated alongside of you for 20 years in various different Shops that are adjacent to yours men who vouch for your work who've sent business to you from their business.

Men who know your character and right there at the head of the table among all of this partying and festive culture is a bronze idol which is the guild patron God and a little dish right in front of that God with glowing coals and Every single man in that room is expected to walk up to that bronze idol.

To walk up to that little glowing plate of coals and to take a pinch of incense Between his two fingers and to let it fall down on the flame. For just three seconds of activity that pinch is supposed to just kiss those coals.

And that is in that moment an act of allegiance to that God. That's an act of worship to that God. That's an act of participating in the guild Idolatry structure that is underpinning the entire city and here's the point if you refuse to do it.

You're not just gonna miss a meal. They're not just gonna take your ribeye steak and your glass of You know whatever Cabernet Sauvignon. You're gonna mark yourself. You're gonna mark yourself as an enemy of the state and as an enemy of the entire structure.

You're gonna say that that I don't belong here. It would almost be like expecting to be a part of a union, but never paying your dues. You can't get representation if you don't pay your dues on the same way you can't belong to this guild this union this ancient version of a union if you don't pinch the incense and by the very next morning The word would have actually spread all throughout the marketplace.

Can you believe what this guy did? He didn't pinch the incense last night is and he doesn't like us. He doesn't like our gods. He's he's gonna bring an omen on us that gods are gonna curse us our sales are gonna go down all of that would have been on their minds and All of that would have been Talked about like you are an enemy of the system.

You're a disloyal one you're the one who thinks that you're too good for our gods and Then almost immediately when that word started scattering around your contracts we're gonna dry up your stall was gonna get much harder to hold because you'd have to hold it at your own personal expense with no backing from the city and one day as You're barely eking out an existence because people don't want to buy from you anymore because you don't like their gods and people don't want.

People don't want to the other merchants don't want to send customers your way because you don't worship their gods. The city hasn't stopped financially supporting you because you don't worship their gods.

So you're eking out your existence there and Then all of a sudden as you're doing that one of the magistrates of the city who remember holds the sword. Rome allowed Pergamum to execute people even Roman citizens, which was totally taboo.

If you're a Roman citizen, you could not be executed for anything except in cities like Pergamum where you Disobeyed the gods then you could be executed even if you're a Roman citizen. So the magistrate comes up to you and wants to have a little quiet conversation with you about Whose name that you actually will and will not swear by and there you stand in your shop trembling Roasting meat from the market in your nose your hungry children's faces in your mind and a man from your own Church a respected man a teacher Leans over to you as you're talking to this magistrate and says hey come over to the side for a second.

Let me talk to you. The magistrate gives you leave and that Christian man says one of the most Reasonable things on the surface that maybe you've ever heard in your entire life. He says listen, man. It's just a pinch of incense.

It doesn't mean anything. We know that it's just a false. God. It doesn't mean anything. God knows your heart and Listen, you're supposed to provide for your family. You're supposed to keep your head down.

You're supposed to you know, Paul says do your best to be at peace with all men, right? So we weird don't draw attention yourself certainly don't draw attention to us you draw attention to us man. They're gonna shut us down.

Just pinch the incense and get on with it. Come on that my friends is the doctrine of Balaam and The doctrines of the Nicolaitans right there. That is the exact same Thing that these Christians and early Pergamum were facing with that's the exact the exact aroma that every meat hanging in the air that every that every Idol that every food sacrifice to idols was was calling for them to sacrifice so that they could maintain some kind of status and It's into that very temptation.

That Jesus says to him who overcomes that Tim who overcomes that Jim who overcomes that syncretism that compromise that that failed hellish logic. Tim who overcomes that I Will give some of the hidden manna.

Now I want you to feel the sheer genius of what Jesus is saying when he tells them to overcome. I want you to feel the irony of it because the entire sin of Pergamum was really if you boiled it down. It's a sin of eating.

That's the beating heart of the entire temptation and with the pinch of altar and all of that. It's if you eat the meal that is sacrificed to idols if you sit down at the demons table. If you fill your belly at the pagan feast, well, then You could be free.

So what does Christ press into the hand of the man who pushes back from that table the man who overcomes that table the man? Who says no, I'm not gonna eat at the table of demons. What does Jesus give to him?

Jesus gives him a better meal. That's why Jesus has offered them offering them hidden manna because he's saying to them listen I know that you're refusing this meal. I'm gonna give you a better meal. Do you see how that that gift is is not empty of a context?

It's actually speaking into the context of Pergamum this meal that they were Invited to feast upon so that they could so they could take the focus off of them. Jesus says no. No, no, if you overcome that I'll give you a better meal.

I'll give you an everlasting meal. I'll give you bread that cannot be taken ever from you. Now the Apostle Paul drew on this exact same thread when he was talking about it in 1st Corinthians chapter 10.

Where he was talking about the church who literally was feasting on Christ drinking from the water of the rock, which was Christ. So what Jesus is saying here could not be more on the nose for what is actually happening in Pergamum.

He's writing to believers who are staring down the very same Idle meat in question and Paul says this you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and drink the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and eat and feast from the table of demons.

You hear what he's saying? There's only two tables in the world. There's the table of Christ and there's a table of demons. There's the cup of Christ and there's the cup of demons and you actually have to pick one.

There is no third table actually there's no quiet little corner booth where you where you get to sit down and eat both of Them at once and be okay in the eyes of God. You can't reach across the aisle.

You you can't adopt the doctrines of Balaam and swear up and down that you still obey to the name of Christ. That line is still sharp today razor-sharp. Because every single time in every single age the doctrine of Balaam comes up it always is a liar.

Jesus says to the man who got up and walked away from the demons table come and sit down at mine. That's what he's saying to everyone in Pergamum. If you leave that if you walk away from that you can sit at my table.

You can feast from my bread. I Was are dead the dead gods can't feed you. And why does he call it hidden manna. Why hidden well? Watch the wilderness Imagery light up again here. I want you to go back into the desert.

When Israel was marching through that wasteland for 40 long years God fed them every single morning with manna. Which is bread that fell right out of the sky six days a week for four entire decades the psalmist calls it the bread of angels and God gave a command and that to fill an omer full of it and to seal it up and to place it inside of the Ark of the Covenant in the very heart of the tabernacle behind the veil in the Holy of Holies in the one room on the face of the earth where no ordinary Israelite would ever set foot as long as he lived at a 40 years of manna falling from heaven.

Moses is commanded by God to seal up one of it in a jar one batch of it in a jar and put it Inside of the Ark of the Covenant where no one would ever see it hidden manna and Then the book of Hebrews chapter 9 Confirms what we're saying here telling us exactly what is sitting inside of that golden box.

It was a golden jar that was holding manna and Stone tablets of the Covenant and Aaron's rod that had budded into almond blossoms Hidden inside of the gold hidden inside of the Ark hidden behind the veil hidden away in the very deepest pocket of the most white hot Manifestation of the presence of God Almighty Himself hidden there was the hidden manna.

And what a beautiful hope That Jesus is actually promising them with that hidden bread. That I'm gonna give you the very bread that comes right out of my presence. Holy bread. Sanctified bread bread that'll feed you like nothing else there's also an Old-jewish tradition that was wrapped up around this that when the Babylonians actually came marching into the city.

And they burned down the first temple through the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar and the exile the Prophet Jeremiah the tradition says that the Prophet Jeremiah slipped into the temple and He took away the Ark of the Covenant and the manna along with it and he hid them away in a cave up on top of a mountain and he sealed it and Waited for the day that they would be recovered and reinstalled into the temple.

Now we don't know if this is true or not, it's simply a legend, but The belief was that when the Messiah finally came and God gathered his people home at long last That the hidden manna was gonna come back out into the light.

The bread of the old wilderness was going to feed the people of God once again in the great age of the Messianic Kingdom. The hidden manna was the bread of the Messiah's banquet. It was the food of the world to come.

That was the legend. So when the risen Christ promises the conqueror the hidden manna He's not just offering some crackers as a little pre meal snack. He's offering them the Messianic banquet itself. He's offering them food that will never perish.

He's saying to them if you refuse the table of demons and I will seat you at the banquet table of the age to come the Wedding supper of the lamb the bread that was sealed up in the Ark hidden from Hidden behind the presence of God held back for the day of redemption.

That bread is what I'm gonna give to you. That bread is yours and Here's the part that that really oughta cause us to gasp. The one making the promise is the bread. He's the bread that he's talking about because this very same Jesus who once stood up in the gospel of John chapter 6 and said I am the bread of life.

I Am the living bread that came down from heaven. Do you see what Jesus is saying? I'm the manna That fell from heaven. I'm the bread of life. Your father's ate the manna and the wilderness and they died.

But whoever eats this bread the hidden manna the one who is the bread of life That is Christ. Whoever eats Christ whoever feast upon his flesh will have life. The hidden manna is Not some moldy musty crackers that are stuffed away in a jar somewhere in a cave somewhere that was hidden by Jeremiah.

The hidden manna is not a thing. The hidden manna is a person. The hidden manna is Christ own body himself. So therefore to feast on Jesus is the reward. If you turn away from the table of demons, I'll let you feast on me.

Which why John 6 says if you if you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will have life in my name. But if you don't eat my flesh and you don't eat my blood you will not have life. If you feast at the table of demons you'll die.

But if you feast on Christ you will live. And you don't even have to wait until heaven to get your very first taste of it because every single time that you go to The Lord's table every single week in the Lord's service every single time you take that broken piece of bread into your hand and you Lift that cup up to your lips you're tasting a crumb of the hidden manna that is actually going down into you and And giving you grace.

That's why we believe that the Lord's table every single week in a faithful local church is grace to the believer. We don't believe that it's just a bare memorial we don't believe that it's that it's Jesus's physical body and blood on earth.

No, we go with Calvin who said that it's the spiritual presence of Jesus. That is actually Conferring to you grace ministering to you a hidden manna. That's feeding you and At the table of our Lord Jesus Christ every week just like in the city of Pergamum.

You're getting a down payment on the eschatological feast of the age to come in eternity the whole world out there is gorging itself on the table of demons stuffing its face with whatever the city and the town and the Nation has to offer it walking away empty and starving every single time.

But the people of God Even though their their feast is not lavish like in the time of Daniel remember Daniel said When he looked at all of the rich and lavish food of the king He said if you just give us bread and water will be healthier than that and they were.

The world is feasting on all sorts of delicacies and meats and cheeses and wines and all of it and yet They're starving because they're eating at the table of demons and yet the people of God Take a small little piece of bread and a small little sip of wine and they walk away from the Lord's table more full more nourished more filled than the entire pagan world combined and then You run all of that in one more layer through the lens of 8070 with the temple just days away from Perishing because of Roman flames and Then all of this takes on a new layer that's even deeper and sharper still because the entire old order the veil.

The Ark of the Covenant the temple the entire old apparatus was passing away. I Don't know if you knew this or not. But the temple in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus did not have the Ark of the Covenant inside of it.

It didn't have the tables of the two stone tablets. It didn't have the hidden manna when you were to go into the Holy of Holies. There was nothing in there except the cherubim that were standing there carved out of gold.

There was no table there was no Ark of the Covenant. Why. Because it was lost during the siege of the Babylonians and Whether or not Jeremiah actually hit it whether Hezekiah actually hit it. That's another legend.

Or whether it was just burned down by the by the Babylonians never to be found again. Turned into whatever amulets and gold necklaces that they desired to make. Whatever is true about that the temple in Jerusalem Which represented the entire old order didn't even have the Ark of the Covenant inside of it at the time of the first century.

Which meant that it was already hollow. It was already empty. It was already done. Jesus had already come when he when he cleansed the temple and he had put the eviction notice on it. He had put the condemnation notice on it saying that in 40 years.

I'm gonna destroy this building. So when we think about hidden manna We're not thinking about hidden manna that existed inside of the temple in the old order we're thinking about better Manna, we're thinking about the one who is the very Christ who said he's the bread from heaven.

The one who will feed you and nourish you and satisfy you or ever. Not the table of demons that runs straight to Caesar's altars and every other doctrine of Balaam and hell. That's out there the one that runs Straight to Jesus Christ.

That's the table that you should be feasting at. That's the table. Will you we fed? That is the table where you will be nourished and that Brings us to part two the white stone and the new name. All right, here's the next promise.

That I've been waiting two whole episodes to be able to tell you about. This is the strangest sentence I think in all of the seven letters the one with the secret name Is gonna give you a white stone.

Listen, listen to it one more time and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone. Which no one knows but he who receives it. So not only is he gonna give you hidden manna, which we found out is Christ the living bread.

That's gonna nourish you not only that but this Christ is also gonna give you a secret name that's carved into a white stone a Name that not a single living soul on the face of the earth is allowed to even read What in the world is he talking about?

Because this is Confusing and I'm gonna be honest with you. This is one of the most Debated images in the entire book. I mean good men have lined up whole row rows of possible Meanings and backgrounds for what this little white stone actually meant in its original time and place well the Greek word here for stone actually is Cephas which is Peter's name little rock little stone and Cephas in Greek means a small and a smooth stone or a pebble.

It's the kind of thing that you could that you could close your eyes and open them up and you could miss it. It's the thing that you could hold in your fist and and barely know it's there. Now there's a few options for what that kind of stone could be and I want to walk through those options now because every single one of them throws a different color or shade on the meaning of this and Then at the end, I'm gonna hand you what I think is the answer what I think is what Jesus actually is promising.

When he tells them that he's gonna give them a carved name on a stone. Well, let's go through it. The first is the courtroom scene. In the ancient world when a jury rendered a verdict the jurors didn't raise their hands to vote.

Guilty not guilty any of that. They voted with stones. So many scholars will say that this is actually what the white stone is. A black stone in those ancient courtrooms meant that you were condemned and a white stone meant that you were found innocent you were acquitted of your charges and that way a white stone meant you could walk away free and the church remember where Pergamum sat.

Was a church that was not free. We spent an entire episode on this the city. Who was underneath the magistrate the pro-counselors bench the seat of Rome's? Right to bear the sword against even Roman citizens that one single address in the entire ancient Roman world.

Could judge whether or not you were legally innocent or legally guilty legally going to remain alive or judiciously set apart for death. So as this theory goes when the risen Christ presses a white stone Into the one who conquers all of these temptations when he presses that stone into their hand.

Then he's giving them a verdict. That Rome actually can't overturn Rome's court could actually drop the black stone and they could mop off your head. Absolutely. They could they could cut your head off.

They could crucify you they could murder you in any other sinful sadistic way that they had invented. But according to this view Christ has already dropped the white stone before the trial Commences, which means that he's already taken away your guilt.

Which means that ultimately in the light of eternity, you're gonna walk away free. Caesar's bench gets to rule on your body. But Christ has already ruled on the status of your soul and the verdict is already in and it is final.