The Church in Pergamum

12“To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write: “He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things: 13“I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. 15So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans likewise. 16Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

Pergamum, a capital city about 100 kilometers north of Smyrna, became a Roman colony around 130 BC. If Ephesus and Smyrna were the commercial heart of Asia, Pergamum was its cultural heart. Today its site is the Turkish town of Bergama.

The city flourished in the age of Alexander the Great’s successors, under the Greek empire. In the third century BC in particular, Attalus I made it the capital of the Attalid dynasty, and since he had ceded his own territory to Rome, Pergamum became the capital of Asia. Under the Roman Empire it was a place where idolatry and emperor worship thrived. With temples raised there to one emperor after another, it became the center of the Roman imperial cult.

With the development of parchment, Pergamum became a city of learning, home to a university and to one of the two greatest libraries in the world, which held two hundred thousand volumes. It also had the Asclepieion, the finest hospital of its day, and so many physicians that the streets were always crowded. Its people were proud of their city, because so many of them were armed with the world’s learning and medical knowledge. The pity is that its architecture, its culture, its schooling in the arts, and its medicine were all bound up with idols and temples, which made them an obstacle to the gospel. Worldly knowledge certainly has its place, but because the gospel cannot be grasped by worldly knowledge, the persecution the church there suffered was all the more severe.

Pergamum is known as the birthplace of Zeus. If Zeus was born there, you can imagine how full of idols the city was. With a shrine to the serpent god, temples for the worship of the Roman emperor, the temple of Zeus, and shrines to every kind of deity, it could fairly be called the headquarters of idol worship. That is why Christ called it the place where Satan’s throne is.

Wherever people turned their heads, there stood the shrine of some idol, and keeping the faith while living in the midst of it all would never have been easy. The people they met and the whole world they lived in were tied to idols, so the church there must have endured great pain and persecution to keep their faith pure. As long as Christians live in this world, they cannot avoid relationships with other people. They must work to provide food, clothing, and shelter, and because of that they have no choice but to live among others.

Even so, those who have received God cannot worship the idols the world serves. And the world could not tolerate that choice. To serve God as Master in such hard surroundings, we must understand the word fully and grasp his will deeply. Only when our hope is set on the Kingdom of God do we cease to fear persecution, and only then can we endure with joy even suffering and being put through the fire. Without such faith, we will abandon our hope of heaven, we will have no choice but to compromise with the world, and in the end we will bow to the power of Satan.

To the church in Pergamum, living in such peril, Jesus Christ said that only with the sword of the word could they discern the evil one and live for the salvation of others.

Revelation 2:12

12“To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write: “He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:

The sword of Christ symbolizes God’s authority and the power of judgment that belongs to the Almighty. The word that comes from God’s mouth is sharp, because it makes no compromise and is never taken back. The word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So no one struck by the sword of Jesus Christ can live, and not even Satan can stand against it.

When Jesus displayed his sharp two-edged sword to the church in Pergamum, he was asking its people not to compromise but to overcome the powers of darkness by the word alone. The only way we can overcome Satan is the word. Those who are not filled with the word have no strength to resist him. Pergamum had fallen so far, and was so steeped in sexual immorality and pleasure, that Christ said Satan’s throne was there. For Christians living in such a place, the moment they let go of the truth, they would have no choice but to take in the city’s ideas.

The church in Pergamum was built on top of “the temple of Serapis,” an Egyptian god. Remarkably, in Pergamum, where Satan’s throne was, God planted a church, called people who had served idols, and caused them to be born again as his own. That a church was founded in the very seat of Satan’s throne was close to a miracle, something only God could do. Yet the church that should have lived by a truth as sharp as a two-edged sword failed to withstand the world’s temptations and slowly fell into corruption.

But even in such surroundings there was one man of faith who stood against the persecutors and died a martyr for his faith. He was Antipas, a pastor of the church in Pergamum. Little is recorded about him, so we cannot know the details, but since Christ calls him his faithful witness, we can tell that he refused to compromise with them and proclaimed nothing but the truth. Under the emperor Domitian he refused emperor worship to the end. So they heated a bull cast in bronze over a fire and put Antipas to a horrible death by burning. That is how he died a martyr.

Antipas was certain that God is alive, and he knew that once he put off this body all his suffering would come to an end. He believed that an eternal world was waiting for him if he relied on God to the last, and because of that faith he never denied Christ.

Two kinds of people live in this world: those who believe there is a world after death, and those who live content with the present and believe that everything ends when they die. Those who believe there is no life after death will see with their own eyes, the moment they leave the body, that heaven and hell are real.

In everything he created, and in our conscience and our faith, God has hidden wisdom so that we may know him. So everyone who looks at the intricate works of creation ends up acknowledging God, whether they mean to or not. We cannot know whether today will be our end or whether our last day is ten years away, but we must believe that after death there is a Kingdom where we will live forever. Knowing this, Antipas willingly gave himself up to martyrdom at the hands of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

If Satan threatened to kill you as he killed Antipas unless you denied Christ, what would you choose? Perhaps you will say that such a thing could never happen in a world like ours, and ask why I use so harsh an illustration. But we must not forget that the same Satan who tempted Adam is still going about today, looking for people to take with him to hell. In countries without freedom of religion, Christians are being persecuted even now, and they are holding to their faith at the cost of their lives.

To push many people into hell, Satan is corrupting pastors even today and, through them, feeding wormwood to their flocks. More than that, he uses the world’s culture and the weakness of the human heart, prowling about like a roaring lion to lead people down to hell. So you must hold the word of truth, sharp as a two-edged sword, and you must live it out.

Daniel 3:19

19Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the form of his appearance was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

Daniel’s three friends came from the royal family and the nobility of Judah. They refused to bow to the golden image to the very end, at the risk of their lives, because they had resolved never to compromise with what was unrighteous. However fiercely the king of Babylon threatened to throw them into the burning fiery furnace, they could not betray God.

The Hebrew names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Even when Nebuchadnezzar, who held the power of the world, threatened to throw them into the fiery furnace, they believed that God was almighty and able to deliver them. Yet they declared that even if he did not deliver them from the fire, they would not bow to the golden image. They believed that whether he saved them or not, God was always the same. In the end, the place they were bound for once they left the body was the arms of God, and that left them without fear. It was likely the same for Antipas: like these three friends, he could not even imagine betraying God, and so he accepted death.

Job, a man of faith, also suffered as his great wealth, his children, his authority, and his honor slipped away one by one, and with them the comfortable life he had known. Yet as he watched the world’s power drain away, he came to see how much grace he had received until then and how abundant his life had been. So he gave thanks to God from his heart. He looked past his present suffering and trusted the God who had blessed him with life in his glory in the eternal Kingdom. This is how Antipas, Daniel, and his three friends were able to choose martyrdom. If you hold the same faith they held, you will receive the blessing they received. God will remember your faith, and you will be one he holds up with pride before your descendants.

Though they had a pastor like Antipas who died a martyr, the church in Pergamum made easy compromises with the world and failed to drive out the Nicolaitans. Compare them with the church in Ephesus, which argued the Nicolaitans out so that they could gain no foothold, and you can see how far short Pergamum fell. Because its people were not armed with the word, they could not rightly discern the spirits, and in the end they drew the reproof of Jesus Christ.

At that time the church in Pergamum was under pressure to confess Caesar as Lord in the emperor’s temple. Caesar was the title given to every Roman emperor. Anyone who would not deny Jesus Christ and confess Caesar as a god faced the whip and torture, and one by one the church’s members gave way.

Our own country, Korea, went through the same trial under Japanese colonial rule, when many pastors and Christians were forced to bow at Shinto shrines. Many more pastors and Christians died as martyrs for their faith, yet the torture they endured was a pain beyond anything human strength can bear. Of course, overcoming by faith is what we ought to do. But rather than condemn the pastors and church members who bowed at the shrines, it would matter more that we make our own faith firm, so that we would not deny Christ if we were ever put in their place.

If wicked people came into our church and threatened to kill us right here unless we denied Christ, how many of us do you think would keep the faith? It is a question I put to you each time I preach on the seven churches, but I hope you will take a moment to look at yourselves and help the brother or sister in the faith beside you to hold a steadfast faith.

If even one of us were martyred, the fear among those left behind would be great. When the whole church stands together as one against the power of Satan, rather than each of us suffering alone, we can still endure by faith. The real question is this: if you were alone and wicked people held a gun to your child’s head and told you to deny Christ, could you still tell your children that we must keep the faith even if it costs us our lives?

When Jesus was bearing the cross and suffering under the whip to atone for sin, Peter saw what was happening and in the end betrayed him. The Peter we know did act rashly at times, but he was not the kind of man to turn his back on Jesus. Yet the fear of death that human beings feel can make them betray even Jesus. We may say now that we could never deny the Lord, but no one can be sure of themselves until they have stood in that place.

So what we must do is give our utmost, at this very moment, to keep the faith, and, for the salvation of the brothers and sisters beside us, to walk in humble faith. We must believe Christ’s promise that those who believe in him will live even though they die, and that whoever lives and believes in him will never die, and hold a faith that does not fall, however relentlessly Satan attacks.

Thankfully, because we still live in the body, we have the chance to repent and the chance to be martyred. Those who are martyred this way may die in the body, but their souls will live forever in the Kingdom of God, and that is why he said that whoever believes will never die. There will be many temptations and much persecution in this world, but if we keep the faith to the end, we are already living as those who have been raised, and so we become the people of God who will never die.

Revelation 2:14

14But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

The church in Pergamum had watched Antipas die a martyr to keep the faith, and still it made no effort to drive out those who taught and followed the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The teaching of Balaam lays a snare for God’s people, making them offer sacrifices before idols and eat what has been sacrificed to them. It makes them give their hearts to wealth and commit the sin of adultery with idols. To abandon God, the one true God, and follow the teaching of Balaam is a sign that the heart has already been lost to Satan.

The leaders who had learned the word from Jesus taught them never to commit adultery with idols, never to let wealth steal their hearts, and to live by the word alone. But rather than endure persecution to keep their faith, the church in Pergamum wanted to live comfortably, free of suffering, and that desire led them to worship Caesar. By worshiping Caesar they hoped to stay safe in the world, while still attending church in the hope of being saved. Theirs was a double-minded faith.

Numbers 22 tells how Balak, king of Moab, watched Israel win victory after victory and was afraid. So he offered great riches to Balaam, who loved the wages of wrongdoing, and asked him to curse Israel. Balaam took the money and stood before the altar to curse Israel, but God would not allow it. Balaam strove endlessly to curse Israel so that he could keep his promise to King Balak. But God’s mighty hand compelled him, and all he could do was pronounce blessing after blessing on Israel.

Balaam was a man who had heard the voice of God, and he had even heard his donkey say that an angel was blocking the way. But greed had blinded him, and he wanted to curse Israel just as King Balak asked. Yet because God, who blessed Israel, stopped his curse, Balaam never once managed to curse Israel.

Reading Numbers, you might take Balaam for a friend of Israel, since every prayer he offered seems to bless it. But look at how Balaam met his death at the hands of the Israelites, and you see that his prayers of blessing, in which he only pretended with his lips to bless Israel, were not faith of any kind. Friends, you must never do what God has told you not to do, and the word he has told you to proclaim, you must proclaim even if it costs you your life.

Balaam disobeyed God’s word because he grew greedy for the riches King Balak offered, and in the end he died a miserable death. And yet how heartbreaking it is that some in the church follow this teaching of Balaam. Followers of Nicolaus the deacon, who had gone astray, had worked their way into church after church and labored zealously to water down the truth. The church in Ephesus saw through these people, but it spent so much effort arguing with them that it lost its first love. Those in Pergamum, on the other hand, did not know the word well, and because of that they stumbled over what these people taught.

If church members think that prospering in the world is what blessing means, and come to church praying only about their worldly problems, they are false believers like Balaam, with no part in God. The people of Israel, who had come through so many hardships, began winning one victory after another under God’s guidance, and then they forgot to give thanks. Then, just as Balaam enticed them, they worshiped idols like the Gentiles, committed sexual immorality, and fell into corruption.

The church in Pergamum was taking in these ideas without discerning them at all. Only by knowing the truth rightly can we judge what is false. Only by knowing the word can we argue heresy out of the church. But because they did not treasure the truth, they failed to understand God’s will, and they wavered and wandered this way and that. Without the two-edged sword we can lose eternal life through falsehood, and so we must discern the spirits and resist falsehood with the word.

Revelation 2:16

16Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Jesus Christ warned those who had fallen into the teaching of the Nicolaitans that if they did not repent, he himself would act against them. To recognize our sin and repent, we must first know the truth. If we do not know the word, we cannot see Satan for what he is, the one leading us to the second death, and we will end up falling into the eternal lake of fire.

A brother in the faith had been put to death, and yet the church in Pergamum went on worshiping idols, eating sacrifices, committing sexual immorality, and indulging in pleasure. It is hard to see how such people could recover their faith. If they do not wake up to Christ’s warning and repent, everything they have gained by chasing a futile world will come under the wrath of God.

Having seen the martyrdom of Antipas, Jesus loved the church in Pergamum. So he told them he would help them if only they repented. But the warning he gave should they refuse, that he would come to them quickly and make war against them with the sword of his mouth, is fearful indeed. The power of Satan cannot overcome Jesus Christ, so Christ can drive it back whenever he will. But once he has judged Satan, his wrath will turn toward those who did not obey, and we must therefore obey with every ounce of strength we have.

Through the faithfulness of Antipas, the church was given an opportunity. You must repent as Antipas did and hold fast to your faith, with the resolve of “If I perish, I perish.” As he was martyred, Antipas must have prayed for the church in Pergamum, pleading earnestly for the salvation of its people. It was because of his prayer that Jesus Christ said he himself would fight against those people and set the church right if they did not repent. One person’s intercession is that precious, and because one person made a sacrifice, we have been given one more chance.

Having heard this much, what are you thinking? I hope you will ask yourself whether you truly set your hope on heaven alone and live by the word, or whether you have learned the word and know it, while your heart and your actions go their own way, untouched by it.

Because Jesus chose the cross rather than the world, we too must set our hope not on the world but on saving souls and on heaven. He came into this world for one purpose, to deal with sin, and therefore we must strive not to sin and must not harbor any other purpose.

The world cannot tell the church and the Christians who walk in the truth from the church and the Christians who do not proclaim it. There is wheat that lives by the word and chaff that holds to the teaching of Balaam, but the world sees them all alike as the church and as Christians. The world cannot discern the spirits, so if the church fails to set an example of faith, the world will distrust Jesus Christ and remain outside salvation. Only when Christians beat their bodies and bring them into submission, living godly and honest lives, will the world be given the chance to hear the word of Jesus Christ.

But if we follow the teaching of Balaam, Jesus, who looks on the heart, will judge us. People can be deceived, but God, who sees what lies within, cannot. So we must always keep our faith with fear and trembling.

Revelation 2:17

17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

To those who overcome he will give a white stone and the hidden manna, and he said that the new name written on the white stone is known to no one but the one who receives it. “The name written on the white stone” is interpreted in many ways, but it is probably Jesus Christ, who accomplished the work of salvation. We are saved because we have believed in Jesus Christ and been brought to righteousness, and when we see the new name written on the white stone, our joy will be beyond words.

The people of old ate manna in the wilderness and still died, but whoever eats the bread of life that came down from heaven will never die. The living stone, the cornerstone, and the white stone all speak of Christ, who atoned for our sins, and only those who are saved can know this. Those who know this precious name of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit and through faith are the saints. And that is the blessing you are receiving now.

Just as Pergamum was full of idolatry, the world today is no less full of it than Pergamum, and it is sinking ever deeper into corruption. But I hope you will live as those whom God has called. You are fighting against a sinful world, against its knowledge and its culture, and against habits that are hard to break, and God will help you to win every time. In this harsh world, God is guarding with his great power and fullness those who resist Satan with the sword of the word.

May you always hold to the truth as you live in this harsh world, a people precious to God. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.