The Compromising Church - Letter to Pergamos (Revelation 2:12-17)

Let's turn to Revelation chapter two. And tonight we're gonna look at the church in Pergamos, or depending on your Bible translation, it might say the church in Pergamum. So Pergamos or Pergamum, still same place.

This is known as the compromising church. So if you have the New King James version, it should read above the compromising church. So Jesus is about ready. He's warning them or threatening them. He is about ready to come and fight against this church.

No church wants Jesus fighting against them. That's a battle you're gonna lose, right? So this is pretty serious. And I'll say upfront, I believe this study, this letter almost perfectly describes modern evangelical Christianity.

That evangelicals have the true gospel. They haven't denied the faith, but this compromise or compromise with the world, I think this is the Achilles heel of evangelical Christianity. And I'll get into that more later on.

But we see the strongest warning we've seen yet from Christ, look at verse 16. He says, repent or else I will come to you quickly and fight against them or fight against you with the sword of my mouth.

So in other words, the compromise had become so severe, the church in Pergamos was on the verge of becoming apostate, on the verge of becoming not a true church anymore or on the verge of closing down, however it worked.

So for what it's worth during the Protestant Reformation, I suppose someone could argue at this point, I think it's pretty accurate. The Protestant reformers said that there were three things that make a church a true church.

Number one, the gospel has to be preached. Number two, the sacraments or the ordinances must be administered. So you got that baptism in the Lord's supper. And the third mark of a true church is that church discipline is practiced.

So today, again, within modern evangelical Christianity, you got the true gospel, salvation by faith alone. All these churches for the most part are observing the Lord's supper and baptism. But when it comes to discipline, yeah, it doesn't happen very often.

It's rarely done. So that compromise I think is key back then and even today. But let's look at this Revelation 2, 12 through 17. It says, and to the angel of the church in Pergamos, right? These things says he who has the sharp two edged sword.

I know your works 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 which Antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

But I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold to 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 to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent or else I will come to you quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. And 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. And this white stone apparently back then when somebody was involved in athletics, the people who won the race or who finished the race would receive like a white stone and that was sort of their admission pass to the victory celebration afterwards.

So the idea of getting the white stone is you have eternal life and you have a reward. That's probably what that's a reference to. Something I just noticed that I didn't really pick up on while studying this.

Jesus says, I will fight against them, right? Verse 16, repent or else I will come to you quickly and we'll fight against them. So it seems like Jesus, maybe he won't fight against the whole church but he's gonna fight against this sect within the church, those who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, okay.

So the thing that jumps out at me right away is the reference to the sword. That Jesus has a sharp two-edged sword. Later on in the book of Revelation, we see that the sword proceeds, I think it's in chapter 19, it says the sword proceeds out of Christ's mouth.

So what is this sword? Well, it says here, the sword of my mouth, right? These are the words. The word of God is also called the sword of the spirit. Remember Paul said that? Is that what you were gonna say, Jack?

Yeah, you know what chapter that's in? Okay, Ephesians 6, right? The sword of the spirit. Also the Bible says in Hebrews 4 .12, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any what? Two-edged sword.

Yeah, two-edged sword. So based on what Christ is saying and how they're compromising, the root issue is the church's unwillingness to uphold at least certain teachings of scripture. And if they don't shape up and change this, at least these people within the church, Jesus is going to speak against them.

And whether that leads to the church closing or something bad happening to them, obviously this needs to change. So the message is given to John, to give to the pastor, to read to the church, and then those members of the church, hopefully they'll hear and respond to the message.

So let's go through the verses a little more closely, Revelation 2, starting verse 12, and to the angel of the church in Pergamos write. These things who has the sharp two-edged sword. We'll talk more about that in a moment.

He says in verse 13, I know your works. This is something that keeps getting repeated. Christ says to the church, I know your works. But here he says, where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast to my name.

So the church is praised for their perseverance in light of the fact that where they're living, this is a very difficult area to be a Christian. One of the reasons is because Satan's throne is actually located in Pergamos.

Now, does anybody have any idea what that means? Satan's throne is in this city? Yes. Yeah.

It was just a house. Right, right.

Yeah, the city of Pergamos, I think, was called the city of temples. So there's all these different false religions. It's like a hub for false religions and so many different temples. So there is a temple to Zeus.

Some people believe that Satan's throne was a reference. Actually, one of the altars still exists today. Last time I knew, it was on display in Berlin, Germany. They actually found this ancient, it's this massive structure.

I don't know how they moved it or if they took it apart and rebuilt it, but it's still on display. And the idea is maybe that Satan's throne was a reference to this high altar to Zeus. I mean, that's one theory.

Either way, all sorts of different deities were worshiped here. Another, well, this was the capital of emperor worship, apparently. So the Roman emperor was worshiped here. The temple of Asclepius, who knows about this?

Remember that, have you ever seen an ambulance? Yep, on the back, there's that staff with a snake wrapped around it. So that's the cult of Asclepius. So whether or not that's what Satan's throne is in reference to the altar to Zeus or Asclepius, we don't really know.

But there's a theory that says Satan, his headquarters was actually in the city of Pergamos. Like, this was literally the devil's capital city. So let's turn to the book of Daniel, if you will, Daniel chapter 10.

But even if, let's just say for a moment that Satan's throne was a reference to the altar of Zeus. Let's say the Christians actually called that Satan's throne. It can still be both because Satan, even though something on earth was called that, Satan still, he's real.

Satan works through false religion. Satan is depicted in the Bible as walking to and fro on the earth, right? That's the book of Job. Peter says that he's like a lion, going around seeking whom he may devour.

So the devil is here on the earth somewhere. This is a theory to some degree, but I think there's some evidence we're gonna see this. Each angel or, okay, we have with God, we have Michael the archangel.

He's sort of the top ranking angel in God's heavenly hosts. And then you have Gabriel, another very important angel. The idea is that Satan has the same thing. He has a top ranking angel, maybe Apollyon or Abaddon.

So he has his generals. So the idea is certain cities, certain places of the earth are under the control of Apollyon. So for example, and I'm not saying this was the case, but Ephesus might've been under the control of Apollyon.

And Rome might've been under the control of another demon legion. I'm just sort of making this up, but you see the idea that each angel was in charge of this territory. And they're like governors and Satan's the president.

So his capital city, his Washington DC, so to speak, is actually Pergamos. So that his throne, spiritually speaking, is actually in this city. So that may or may not be what he is referring to, but I think there's some biblical precedent for those types of things going on.

So you're in Daniel chapter 10, look at verse 12. So this is Daniel receiving a vision from an angel, likely the angel Gabriel speaking to him says, or he says, then he said to me, the angel did, do not fear Daniel for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard.

And I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, that's one of God's angels came to help me for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.

Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come. And for the sake of time, skip down to verse 20. Then he said, do you know why I've come to you?

And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed, the prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth. No one upholds me against these except Michael, your prince.

So what do we see here? We see one of God's angels trying to reach Daniel with a message, but he can't quite get to Daniel in a timely manner because he's being opposed by the prince of Persia. The prince of Persia is almost certainly a demon, a fallen angel who is in control of Persia.

I mean, that's what it's saying. And this heavenly angel, Gabriel, couldn't overcome him until reinforcements came in, namely the archangel Michael. So there seems to be this spirit, we know there's spiritual warfare, angels fighting against other angels, how or what that looks like, we're not exactly sure, but that seems to be what is being described.

And then he says, I have to go back and fight with him. And then the prince of Greece is gonna come. So this is like another angel, a demon who's in charge of Greece. Pastor John MacArthur says this about the prince of Greece.

He says, this is an evil angel contesting for the kingdom of Greece. So while it's hard to be absolutely certain about this, it appears that God's angels and the devil's angels are constantly fighting for territory.

And it's generally accepted, Michael the archangel is the most powerful, and he's coming in to help this other angel to overcome the prince of Persia. Now, is that a new thought for some of you, or is this your understanding of how the spiritual world works?

I mean, what would that mean? If that's true, and if that's still the case today, it's like there's a demon in charge of Western Massachusetts or something like that. Again, we wouldn't really know unless God told us, but like I said, there seems to be some precedent for that.

So if that's true, then Pergamos literally would be Satan's capital city. Any questions or comments on that?

What's that? I've never thought of Satan having a headquarters on it.

Satan, I personally believe Satan probably has the headquarters. Remember, Satan is not omnipresent. So it's not like God. He's everywhere all at once. Satan has to be somewhere, right? And he's typically on this earth.

So yeah, that seems to be what's being said here. Okay, moving on, verse 13. So he's complimenting the church, praising them up, even though this is such a difficult city to live in as a Christian, Satan's headquarters.

They're fighting against that. They're remaining faithful, even in light of persecution. So verse 13, he talks about the days of Antipas. Jesus says, he was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

Again, the reference to Satan is in that city. Many commentators believe that Antipas was an elder or the pastor of the church. Tradition says that at one of these pagan temples, there was this large brass ox or bull and it was hollow inside.

And what they did is they took the pastor of the church and put him inside the bull, closed it up, and then lit a fire underneath it and basically cooked him to death. Now, again, that's tradition. Even if that's not true, even if it's exaggerated, still the threat of death can still lead people to kind of drop out of church and deny Christ in order to save their own skin.

So the church is commended that even in light of this extreme persecution, you have not denied the faith. But Jesus says, I still have a few things against you. So he says this in verse 14. So he says, there are people in the church, so it wouldn't be everybody, but there are people in the church who hold to, number one, the doctrine of Balaam, and then number two, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.

And Jesus said, what does he say about this teaching, this belief? I hate it. Okay, so very strong words from Christ. So let's start by addressing the doctrine of Balaam first. So who was Balaam? So this is in the book of Numbers.

We did a study, what, a year or two ago from Numbers chapters 22 through 24. Balaam was basically a false prophet for hire. And he said, he's an interesting character because he actually said a lot of the right things, but he ended up leading the Israelites into immorality.

Even though he couldn't curse them, God wouldn't allow him to do that, but he sort of found a backdoor way of leading them to be cursed, getting them to sin so that God would then judge them. And yes, he was rebuked by his donkey.

Now, it's almost for sure that the church members didn't talk like, hey, let's study the doctrine of Balaam. Like almost for sure, they didn't call it that. This is what Jesus is comparing them to. It's like the way you think and the way you teach and behave, like it's compared to Balaam.

So we know that based on what Jesus says, this has something to do with idol worship and sexual immorality. So somehow the doctrine of Balaam ties in with those things. So we sort of have to read in between the lines a little bit.

It appears as though some people in the church at Pergamos, maybe they frequented some of these pagan temples. So sexual immorality was sometimes part of the pagan worship. So maybe church members were going there, feasting, maybe staying afterwards for whatever was happening later on.

So I try to make application today. Okay, whatever they were involved in back then, what would that look like today? If a church had some people that were of the doctrine of Balaam, what would that look like right now?

It would be like, yeah, you have an idea?

Well, encouraged them to intermarry with the Israelites so that their women would lead them astray. Yeah. And so I wonder if at that time it was, they were marrying unbelievers who were leading them astray as well.

So it wasn't necessarily Jews marrying outside of Judaism, but Christians marrying Zeus worshipers and Artemis worshipers.

I think that's a good possibility. So what that would look like today is, we know that Christians should only marry other Christians. And yet still, sometimes Christians marry unbelievers. Like it happens.

But it would be like if a church just had a contingency of the church that was like, okay with this and saying it's totally fine. And maybe they were teaching that, hey, that's no problem. Or if it's not that specifically, I mean, I think of Leveret.

We have an idol's temple right here in town, right? We have the Buddhist Peace Pagoda. So the Doctor of Balaam would be like to me, if we had 30 of the church that was like living with their boyfriend, living with their girlfriend, they were going up and getting involved in the, they're meditating up at the Buddhist temple and like, hey, the leadership here was like, hey, whatever, don't worry about it.

And nothing was being done about it. I mean, to me, that is maybe a comparison of what that would have been like. There are some churches where that stuff happens and you try to admonish people and encourage them to make the right decisions, but sometimes churches just accept it and this is the way it is.

But when that is going on and it's open and it's clear a church won't do anything, that could be seen as like the Doctrine of Balaam. But again, we don't know exactly what was happening. Any other ideas?

But again, idolatry, eating meat, sacrifice to idols, you know, intermarrying. So sexual immorality, idolatry, it has something to do with those things. So now this other doctrine, the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans, I think it's probably along the same lines that, hey, we believe in Jesus, but at the same time we're getting mixed up in all these sinful activities.

Now, the sect in the church that held to the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans, they probably did view themselves as Nicolaitans. There's a theory that they followed a man named Nicholas and his teaching was essentially, yeah, a license, a license to sin.

So the Doctrine of Balaam, church members probably didn't call it that, but the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans, they might've actually identified with this man, Nicholas. So we talked about this a few weeks ago, how if you envision Christianity as the straight and narrow path, you wanna be walking that path and you can kind of veer off to one side or the other, and there's a ditch on both sides of the road.

One ditch is called legalism and the other ditch is called license. So legalism is when you have a system where you're teaching salvation by works. So you get to heaven based on how well you're performing.

Are you keeping the law? Are you obeying Moses? And then churches that are legalistic end up making a whole bunch of rules that aren't even in the Bible and they judge people according to these rules more than what scripture says.

So that's legalism. Legalism is not a big problem today. Most churches today that go one side or the other, they're going to this other ditch. And that's what the Nicolaitans had fallen into, this teaching of license.

Here's how you can remember it. Yeah, just think of a license to sin or license is licentious living. So apparently there was a man named Nicholas. Let's turn to the book of Acts chapter six for a moment.

If you remember in the book of Acts, the apostles were burdened with all of this work, feeding the widows, and they just couldn't keep up with it all. So after there was a complaint, they decided it was recommended that they ordain what?

We would say today they chose deacons. This is what we would call them or servants. Acts chapter six, starting in verse one, says now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.

Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.

And if you look down, it talks about in verse five, Philip, yeah, Nicholas is one of them in verse six, or excuse me, verse five. You see the name Nicholas? So Nicholas was one of the men chosen to be deacons in the early church.

So because of that position, he had a place of prominence. And the idea is eventually he went bad and became apostate and the Nicolaitans were really following this deacon of the early church. That's a theory we don't know for sure, but there are some writings in church history that indicate that.

So again, those who are of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans fell into this ditch called license. And this still happens today. I said, this is a letter, the letter to Pergamos. This really does apply to modern evangelical Christianity because it's so common to find people that they received Christ at some point in their life.

They have Jesus in their heart, they would say, but at the same time, they're just doing things that are like openly against the commandments and living however they want. But again, this is called license.

One commentator says this, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was a heresy in the church of Pergamos and the early church father, Irenaeus, he wrote that Nicholas, who was made a deacon in Acts 6, was a false believer who later became apostate.

Because of his credentials, he was able to lead the church astray. Like Balaam, he led the people into immorality and wickedness. The Nicolaitans, followers of Nicholas, were involved in immorality and assaulted the church with sensual temptations.

Their teaching perverted grace and replaced liberty with license. So this is a very common thing today and it happened back then. And I can say, because I've grown up as an evangelical, I've been around evangelicalism my whole life.

I know the attitudes that are out there. I follow Christian news. You know, this is the prevailing attitude within a large segment of the church. The idea that we're not under law, we're under grace, so don't judge me, you know, I can just do whatever.

And then if somebody says something about my behavior, you know, they're the bad guy, they're just a Pharisee, they're judgmental, and I'm a good guy because I'm just walking in grace. But they're not really walking in grace, they're walking in licentiousness.

So liberty is exchanged for really lawless behavior. Okay, any questions or comments on this?

Yeah, Larry. Well, I'm just thinking about it. I mean, when we're away from here, and away from one another, we may have secrets that only we think we know. We're the only ones who know, you know, perhaps not even our spouse.

I mean, God knows, because Hebrews 4 .13, everything is open and laid bare to Him whom we must give an account. But, you know, so it's very easy to live in licentiousness, because I've been there.

Yeah, but understand, it's true, let's face it. Every believer has their temptations. Every believer has those besetting sins. For some people, it might be one thing, for someone else, it might be something different.

So nobody is without sin. This is talking about a group of people, and this isn't to say, well, if it's secret, if it's private, then it doesn't matter. I mean, I'm not saying that. But this is something that was like, it was out in the open.

It would be like 30 of the church was going out to the bar, going home with people, everyone knew it, it was just common, and nothing was being done about it. I mean, that's the type of thing that was happening in the church at Pergamos.

It was all out in the open, and they may have even have had biblical arguments of why it was okay. So that's a little different from the private sinner. And that's what brought the wrath, if you wanna say it that way, the threat of judgment from Christ.

So yes, Paul, in Romans 6, 14, he says, we're not under law, we're under grace. But Paul also said in Romans 6, 1 and 2, shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? And he said, well, certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? But typically, what people do is, with this doctrine of the Nicolaitans, they will emphasize the teaching of God's love and God's grace. So highlight that, that's up here, that's the most important thing, and then de-emphasize God's holiness and his justice and judgment.

So you hear people today, and I've preached on this more times than I can probably count recently, where people say, you know, God only has one law, and that's the law of love. So as long as you love God and love your neighbor, then you're good.

God isn't concerned about all these other things, except that loving God has a definition. I mean, Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And love your neighbor as yourself comes from the Old Testament law, which meant you don't lie to them, you don't commit adultery with their spouse, you don't steal, so you can't detach that from its definition in God's law.

Yeah. I think a lot of the churches that are embracing that love-only-love mentality, I think it also goes back to the other church with the compromising, not compromising, I can't remember what it was, now I've closed my Bible, but where they were accepting things because they didn't want to offend, they didn't want to be seen as the legalistic one.

Right. And so they just kind of let people walk all over them instead of saying, you know, I'm just as much a sinner as you, but this is what God's law says, and I'm not saying I'm innocent of it all, accepting our own sin and still holding all of us to the same standard of God's law.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so again, this isn't to make anyone feel guilty because everybody needs grace, everybody, we all fall short, but this is like an open kind of rebellion that's happening. Paul warned about this, 2 Timothy 3, about men would be lovers of self, unholy, no self-control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness.

So I have Jesus in my heart, but they deny the power of a changed life. And Paul says from such people turn away. And when he says turn away, that means, you know, have no fellowship with them. Or if they're in the church, if they don't repent, they need to be put out of the church.

But it's like Aaron said, you know, churches that do that or preach like that, the churches that are licentious accuse those churches of whatever, legalism, you're too strict, you're too harsh, whatever.

And they have all these people doing whatever, and it's almost, it's like they glory in the fact that we kind of let our people run wild. And there's like a virtue in that for some people. So that's what was happening in the church at Pergamos.

And remember, who's the letter directed to first? To the angel, right? To the pastor, it's like, the pastor needs to hear this first because ultimately, you know, you're the guy who's allowing this and isn't doing anything about it.

So, and remember, Jesus says, I hate it. So verse 16, Jesus says, repent or else I will come to you quickly and I will fight against them. I will fight against the Nicolaitans. I will fight against those who have the doctrine of Balaam.

I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. And then he says to those who have an ear, let them hear. And then he talks about, you will receive the white stone and the new name. So the implication is pretty clear.

The ones who receive the white stone who get eternal life, those who get rewarded in eternity are the ones who are faithful or they're the ones who are living in this rebellion and they repent. So the implication being that those who continue to live that way in an open rebellion, even though they would profess Christ, let's turn to Matthew chapter seven.

Even though they would profess Christ as their savior, Jesus may have something hard to say to them. So if Jesus is fighting against somebody, the sword proceeding out of his mouth, so his words are, these are words of judgment.

Look at Matthew chapter seven, starting in verse 15. And of course, if somebody was teaching this, like Balaam, Balaam was a prophet, right? Was Balaam a true prophet or a false prophet? What did we? Yeah, when studying numbers, it was pretty easy to determine he's a false prophet.

So Matthew seven, verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. So skip down to verse 21. Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

So people in Pergamos, I mean, they had a testimony. They said they believed in Jesus, but not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But what? He who does the will of my father in heaven.

Now, what is the will of God to the Nicolaitans? What's the will of God to those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam? What's God's will for them? Repent, right? Or else I will come and fight against you.

So God's will for these people is repent. Verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

And really the Nicolaitans, we call it license. Another word you could say is lawlessness because God's commandments are, thou shalt not commit adultery, which has a whole bunch of other things that fall underneath that.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. You can't lie. Well, if they're teaching false doctrine, that this is okay, that falls under that commandment. So you see that God's will for them is to repent or else.

So whether or not this meant the church would close up, that God would snuff out the light, we're not sure, but it would signal bad news for the Nicolaitans and these others. So this is the Church of Pergamos, the compromising church, a clear example of what not to do.

So we want to kind of take this to heart. I don't think this is a problem here. I think there's maybe a church, letters to the seven churches that might apply to Morris Corner. I don't believe this is something that would apply here, but this does apply to many churches.

Maybe there's somebody online watching right now or you don't later when they do watch. They are attending a church like this. Maybe some of you have been part of a church like this where it really is a free-for-all and there's no discipline, nothing.

There's no standards. And people will lift that up as an example of grace and love and isn't it wonderful? And I just say one last comment. I drive through New England. I see all the churches with the rainbow out front.

Do you realize that almost all of those churches at some point in their history, they preached the gospel? Might've been 70 years ago, might've been 170 years ago, but at some point, those churches preached the gospel.

They had a standard. And then people started disobeying, whatever, thumbing their nose at the standard. And it was allowed, they compromised a little bit. And then they compromised a little bit more and a little bit more.

And then at some point, the Lord's like, okay, I'm taking away your candlestick. You are no longer a legitimate New Testament church. And as Paul said, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. So once you allow that compromise, it's just gonna spread and spread until you have this, you have the rainbow flag hanging out front.

Now they're not just tolerating sin, they're celebrating sin. So the compromising church to those who have near to hear, let them hear.