Revelation 2:12-17 - Homiletics

Pergamos: the impure Church.

In studying this letter to the Church at Pergamos, we will arrange our thoughts in two divisions.

I. LET US STUDY THE CHURCH ITSELF . We gather four things concerning.

1 . It is directly under the eye of Christ, and responsible to him. This is a feature common to all the Churches. But it is imperative on us ever to keep this fact in the foreground of our thinking about Church life.

2 . It was in a very peculiar situation. Some three days' journey north of Smyrna, on the banks of the Caicus, in the province of Mysia, was Pergamos situated. £ The ruins of it even now attest its greatness in ancient times, when it stood high on the roll of famous cities. It was the abode of royalty; it was the metropolis of heathen divinity. Our Lord looks at it as the place "where Satan's throne is." Not all its palaces, temples, and towers, not all the prestige of its worship, could hide its iniquity from our Saviour's eye. When we are taught to look at the world's great cities in the light in which Jesus views them, while many are saying, "What a noble city!" we shall say, "Satan's throne is there." Not that the beautiful in art, and the costly in material, and the strong in structure, are not reckoned by Christ at their real value; but that where men worship these things for their own sake, where they are used to hide corruption, and where impurity of motive and of life poison all, material beauty is forgotten in the moral badness. "Man looketh on the outward appearance; the Lord looketh on the heart." We have, however, a further clue to the reason why Pergamos was called "Satan's throne." There paganism reigned supreme; impure, sensuous, licentious worship was observed. Its tutelary deity was AE sculapius. His grave was a place of refuge. His emblem was the serpent. His name was "Saviour." His priests performed charms and incantations; crowds resorted to his temple, where lying miracles of healing were alleged to be performed. The eating of things offered to idols would make it impossible for Christians to enter into the social life of the Pergamenes without a compromise with idolatry; and so fierce was the opposition of the citizens to the Christian faith, that in the early days of the Church, Antipas had to seal his testimony with his blood. Are there not many of our cities of which our Lord would say, "Satan's throne is there"?

3 . This Church was weakening its power of resistance by tolerating mischief within its pale. ( Revelation 2:14 , Revelation 2:15 .) Some held the teaching of Balaam, leading to a compromise with idolatrous rites. Others held the teaching of the Nicolaitans; i.e. there were those in the Church who held false doctrine, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and who, by a time-serving policy, ingratiated themselves into the tolerance, if not into the good will, of the idolaters, while they did not keep themselves from the lusts of the flesh. In a word, instead of the Church being and giving a protest against the world, the world was creeping into the Church, and corrupting it. The Church grievously lowers its position when it endures sin within its pale, and when it retains within it those who, while nominally holding the Christian faith, do not live the Christian life. How can a Church give a bold, unflinching, and powerful testimony for Christ against the world if its own hands are not clean, if it is seen catering for the smiles and pandering to the tastes of those who are "of the earth, earthy"?

4 . This looseness in discipline and life was the more disappointing bemuse of its contrast with the past. Time had been when the Church was known for its staunch adhesion to Christ, and for fidelity even unto death ( Revelation 2:13 ). Of Antipas we know nothing more than is named here. No historic roll, save this, refers to him. But Christ never forgets. To be remembered by him is fame enough. But at that time when Antipas was martyred, the Church itself held fast Christ's Name, and did not deny the faith. So that it is the more saddening to see such a declension. The fact cries aloud to Churches as well as to individuals, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." No prestige of the past can serve for the future or even for the present. It is comparatively useless for Churches to proclaim a past fidelity unless they can show a present one. Nor is it enough to remain nominally true to Christ's Name and doctrine, if looseness of morality, or if conformity to the world, finds a place within. If so much of the wooden and earthy is built up into the fabric of the Church, it will have a sore trial by fire. "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God."

II. LET US SEE HOW THE SAVIOUR APPEARS TO THIS CHURCH , AND WHAT HE SAYS TO IT . We have observed before that our Lord shows himself to the Churches according to what they are. It is remarkably so here.

1 . How does our Lord here represent himself? ( Revelation 2:12 .) As having a sharp, two-edged sword. This indicates:

2 . What does our Lord say?

(a) On the whole Church. Supposing a Church to have evil men within its pale, how can it "repent" of that? There is but one way. If it be wrong to have them, repentance cannot consist in retaining them. They must be "put away" ( 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 .). Discipline is an imperative feature in a Church's life. Without it, any Church imperils its very existence.

(b) On the false ones to repent. The guilt of a hypocrite within the Church is, cateris paribus, greater than that of the worldly without the Church, because committed under the cloak of religion.

(a) The "hidden manna." If the believer will shun the idol feasts, and renounce the luxurious banquets in which the ungodly revel, he shall hereafter feed on richer food, even the "hidden manna." What is this? Surely the Lord Jesus Christ himself. But does not the Christian feed on him here? Yea, indeed. But so much interferes with the enjoyment. Who can enjoy a feast, however rich, with unalloyed delight, when the songs of revelry and lewdness, and the cries of woe and sin, are sounding in the ears, or while earth's impurity and corruption are ever before our eyes? Here our enjoyment of spiritual food is mixed with alloy. But there is a feast provided for us out of sight. Whoever reserves himself wholly for Christ's service here is one of those for whom the hidden feast is reserved.

(b) The "white stone." Among some, white stones were symbolic of happy days; with others, signs of acquittal; in the Olympic games, white stones with the victor's name were given to the victor. A white stone was thus often a mark of honour among the heathen. But from none of these heathen customs do we get our conceptions of our Lord's meaning here. The passage will interpret itself. This white stone is

(a) a token between the victor and Christ;

(b) a token between him and Christ alone;

(c) a token which it was a privilege and honour to possess;

(d) a token the privilege and honour of which were read in the name inscribed upon it.

Surely with these data we can, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, easily see what that secret token may be in heaven, between Christ and the believer, which shall certify to him his special privilege and honour. "I will give to him … upon the stone … a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it" (cf. Revelation 3:12 ). The new name is Christ's own new name— Jesus. No one knows the meaning of this Name but the victor. None but saved ones can possibly read it. They can read it fully when they have overcome. And even then it will require an eternity to understand it; for as the salvation grows from more to more, so will it ever expound the meaning of the great, the infinite Name. Thus as his life as a Christian on earth was a secret between him and his Lord, when in the midst of the struggle; so shall it still be a secret between him and his Lord when, having overcome, he is perfected in heaven. Note: In the presence of this letter, so solemn and yet so gracious, let us remember: