Rev 2:12-17
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Week 4
A Battle for the Mind
In the 1930s one Hitler was beginning his ramp up his internal power to what would be World War II, he had to exert all dominance and control in German life. This included the church in Germany. The church was run by the government.
Reinhold Krause was the man who was put in charge of the German church. He gave a rousing speech to 20,000 German Christians and he said that the German church must once, and for all divest itself of every hint of Jewishness, the Old Testament would be first… the New Testament must also be revised and present a Jesus “corresponding with the demands of national socialism”
Krause also mocked the theology of the Rabbi Paul with scapegoats inferiority complex and then he mocked the symbol of the cross, a ridiculous, debilitating remnant of Judaism, unacceptable to national socialist!” Furthermore, he demanded that every German pastor must make an oath of personal allegiance to Hitler…
Now there was immediate backlash against this speech and German Christians were outraged, but within a few years, Bibles were replaced with Mine Kompf and crosses with the Swastika
What is my point:
Although we know the outcome of what happened in Germany during World War II, there’s always this pressure on the church to compromise its truth
And this was really obvious pressure!
Where we face this slow cultural pressure
And this is the pressure that we find on The Church in Pergamum…It is a battle for the Mind
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
Why does Jesus use this type of language?
First we have to remember back to Revelation 1: 16
In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Jesus is Pictured right up front with a sword in his mouth and then he is introduced to the church in Pergamum with a sharp two edge sword…
the way that Jesus defeats all evil is with this sword that comes out of his mouth…
I hope I dont ruin the story… but Jesus defeats evil…And the book of Revelation reveals to us how Jesus does this over time
English Standard Version (Chapter 19)
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
The entire picture of the book of Revelation is the God who wins battles with this sword that comes from his mouth
I love what happens in John 6, Jesus is speaking with his disciples giving them some hard truths and here is what happens
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
Peter says: Jesus, no you have the words of Eternal life! We are not going anywhere
Jesus words are full of truth and he is going to go to this church and call them on their duplicity!
The first fill in I have for you today:
The truth of Jesus effortlessly cuts through our deceit
The truth of Jesus effortlessly cuts through our deceit
Now the Sword also has another meaning
Well the city of Pergamum had been given the right of “the sword” In fact it was one of the few cities in the Roman empire that had been given that right so they could carry out the death penalty…
So why does the “prince of peace” use such language? Because the church in Pergamum was locked in a fierce battle
This really is the same battle we engage in today…It is a battle for the mind…It is a battle for ideas
This is essentially the drama that we are locked into with the presidential elections! It is a battle over ideas…and the one who convinces the most people of their ideas gets power!
See ideas matter because power follows…
This war that the church was engaged in was not a battle with people and weapons, it was a battle over truth …And the church was interested in a very different kind of power than the world
Jesus was serious that the church ought to fight this battle faithfully, that’s why he ended up telling the church what we will read…
“I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”
So this battle has two fronts:
The outside world: Ideas that conflict with God’s revelation in Jesus were bombarding the church…Everything from the way they did business, the persecution that came to the church, or the religious world…Everything was against the church
But the Second and more dangerous threat…
The inside threat: These same thoughts that conflict with God’s revelation of Jesus made it into the church and were pressuring others from the inside
“ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
So Jesus says I know you, Jesus knows his church, the chief revelation of Jesus is that he is the one standing in the middle of his church…He is the one among the lampstands…He knows them better than they know themselves
He knows that this church is standing firm to the threat of the outside…They even had a guy killed named Antipas who was killed because he refused to deny Jesus!
But he also knows that internally this church has some problems…Internally the church has begun to compromise…
They were starting to follow their culture…They were starting to say things like, well you can worship Jesus and do this Emperor worship stuff thats fine
Now if you want a good example of this…Unfortunately this is the church in America
Where at one point, because of the innovations of the America Church it became prominent and influential around the world, now because a compromise of theology the rest of the church around the world has said, we can not tolerate this!
I never want to stand up here and talk poorly about other churches but I do want to share with you some general statistics.
The church in America is on the decline
But that doesn’t tell the whole story…
If you look at denominations individually then what you see is that since the year 2000 Mainline denominations are down 20-60% depending on which one you are looking at…That almost to the date correlates to when these denominations compromised a biblical sexual ethic
If you look at denominations that have held true to Biblical standards then they are actually growing in the last 20 years!
And literally down to the denomination, the churches that are growing are the churches that are refusing to compromise on that area…But the churches that are in decline are compromising on Biblical truth!
God can’t bless that!
Now compromise itself is not a bad thing…Fight with your spouse? Compromise…work it out..
Need a solution with a colleague…compromise…work it out…
But when it comes down to the Bible, That is God’s revelation to us, we are unqualified to change it or compromise it…Only God can do that
Truth is Truth and it unchanging, We can not make the Bible mold the what we want it to say…
But see, just like the other churches we have been reading about and discovering the city of Pergamum was hugely influential in the church
Jesus says that Pergamum is where Satan has his throne, What does that mean?
Pergamum was located on a hill and behind the city sat an even taller mountain where there were many temples to Roman gods…It would have looked like it was perched on a throne…
Remember we said that this was a city where the battle was over ideas…
This was the only town with the internet…
They had a library with over 200,000 parchment scrolls…In fact the name Pergamum derives from the word parchment
The city was enamored with ideas, and was the throne of Satan…Why? There were many reasons…
Like some of the other cities of the time, they demanded that their people worship Cesar or pay the price…
But there was another reason…In the mountain there was a temple to the God Asklepios…
Asklepios was the god of healing…The symbol was snakes…Now does that sound familiar?
Why would Jesus say the throne of Satan and be referring to snakes?
Well look at Genesis 3…Who deceived Adam and eve with the promise of knowledge? A serpent…Satan…
In order to be healed at the temple of Asklepios you’d spend the night in a chamber and let snakes crawl over your body…
I think I’d rather die…
Pic on Powerpoint
Next time you see an Ambulance look for this symbol…It is Asklepios’s Staff that is still to this day the symbol of healing…Isn’t that crazy???
Now remember the church held firm to the outside world…The church even had a martyr that Jesus mentioned by name..
But internally the conflict was brewing…
But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Now this was the compromise
Because he loves truth, Jesus is truth, he only speaks truth and the church is supposed to be his mouth-piece to the world…The church is supposed to have truth to tell! And this church slowly gets caught up in the lies of the world…
This is the story that Jesus is referencing… The story of Balaam and Balak:
Balaam was a sorcerer from modern day Jordan, and by the way, Archaeologist have dug up something they call The Deir Alla Inscription in 1967 that actually has a bunch of writings about Balaam “the sorcerer ”
So Balak is the king of Moab and when God’s people leave Egypt they have to go through Moab…And when you are the king of Moab you do not want 2 million people coming to your boarder that is a threat…its an invading force so he sends for Balaam to curse them…
And Balaam tries to curse them but he can’t the Lord wont allow it
Because God’s protection is on his people
So he tells the king…I can’t curse these people Yahweh wont allow it…But you know what…Go send your women out to the men to entice them sexually and then they will begin to worship your gods….Israel will curse itself
And that is exactly what happened!
Israel Practiced a bit of Moab culture and essentially brought ruin on themselves
Jesus is intolerant to ideas that oppose him because they are false…and falsehood equals bondage
It is interesting that Jesus points out that this church holds on to the teachings of two groups…Balaam and the Nicolaitans
Balaam told the king of Moab in the Old Testament book of Numbers, you can’t fight and win the Israelites militarily, and you don’t really need to…
Entice them with your women and then get them to worship the gods of Moab
Balaam taught the king of Moab…Get them to compromise truth and it will slowly kill them from the inside…
So there was someone within the church teaching that it was okay to have sex outside of marriage…and to eat food sacrificed to idols…
And why does Jesus mention Balaam and the Nicolaitans?
They essentially mean the same thing
In Greek the root is Nikan means conqueror or lord…
Laos means of the people
Hebrew
Baal means lord
Am means people
So it is Jesus way of talking to the Jews and gentiles to say these false gods are imprisoning your mind…they are conquering you!
And today we might not see the big deal about the food thing, but what we have to understand about this world is that there is no neutral territory
I think the best bible verse ever on this is Romans 12:2 and it is your next fill in
Do not be conformed to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2)
Do not be conformed to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2)
See the argument of the town of Pergamum at that time was that the body is essentially a collection of human biological material…What you do with your body doesn’t really matter, Ultimately you will be liberated from your body…so what you do with your body doesn’t really matter…. its your soul that matters and makes a difference
See this is the same lie that crept into the Israelites at the hands of Balaam…
It was the lie that said you can go to the temple prostitute and involve your body…but leave your soul outside…
It’s the lie that says you can engage in the feast to another god but it doesn’t matter because you don’t really believe it…
It’s the lie that says I what is most important in life is doing what I want…
It is the lie that says, the most impotrant thing is to embrace myself and getting what I want! No Deny yourself
So when we are confronted with this and we are all the time…
The Prolific Author Dallas Willard says:
“The mind sets the stage for the will to choose” (Romans 8:5)
“The mind sets the stage for the will to choose” (Romans 8:5)
In other words we will eventually do what we fill our brains with!
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
what we set our minds on matters!
The acts of the flesh often find an ally in our own negligence
The acts of the flesh often find an ally in our own negligence
Areas where we are often negligent…
Time: Lets spend our time well and give the first of our time to the lord…
Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well
Thoughts: We must be careful because when we let our thoughts run wild that is a recipe for disaster
John 1 tells us that words become flesh…Thoughts turn to words…words turn to action
2 Corinthians 10:5b… we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Fellowship: Hebrews 10: 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
When we are faced with acts of the flesh we often do not think of the transformative power of fellowship. Fellowship is not tea’s or shooting trips…that’s just fun…Many times we confuse the two. Dietrich Bonheoffer I think defines fellowship the best when he says, when your bear with one another, you become a brother…Fellowship ought to refine you, challenge you and hold you accountable.
Temptations
A temptation is a corruption of something that is a natural desire. So why are temptations so tempting? Because it seems good at first…
This is what God told Cain before he killed his brother Able…
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
We do not need to be neglect in temptations…When they arise…we need to simply walk the other direction…
Then look what happens…
Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Listen to the words of Jesus here… Repent therefore! Other translations say…Repent then!
I mean that is an entire sentence…
Repent then…
Change your mind…Jesus says: I will come make war with my church…In otherwords…I will come speak truth to you
And for some people…You wont be able to stand when God speaks truth
And for others, it will be the most Joyous day of your life
And I love this statement, because it is ultimately good news…Jesus will fight for his church..
There is this tendency for people to think…I belong to Jesus…What can harm me now? I’ve been baptized…I’ve been saved…gone to church my whole life…
But you see this is a misunderstanding of God’s grace….
God does not protect us when we willfully choose to disobey! We can get hurt
God’s grace is designed for your transformation, not as cover so you can sin and then ask for forgiveness over and over again
So
Grace thrives in repentance…
And I’ve got news for you, if you have to keep asking Jesus for forgiveness for the same stuff then there probably isn’t any repentance actually happening…
Jesus says to the one who actually repents…
I will give hidden manna: The idea of hidden Mana is that the “heavenly feast” that will happen, The wedding feast of the lamb will include Mana
So what he is saying is that
Then he says
I will give you a white stone with a new name…This could mean all sorts of things because in Pergamum white stones were used for all kinds of things…
-Jury’s used them to vote not guilty
-Venues passed them out as admission tickets to large events
-And the one that makes a lot of sense to me is something called Tessra Hospitalis…Before friends would part they would inscribe their name on a white stone, divide it in half and give it to the other person…It became the symbol that they would be friends as long as the stone existed.
What Jesus is saying, when you truly repent…When you leave all of your junk behind…I will give you this white stone with a new name…
So your past no longer defines you…
Where the devil constantly accuses us before the father…and says look at that filth…look at that pathetic person…
Jesus says I will give you a new name…
Response:
Maybe you’re here and you need
When you repent
…You are declared not guilty, Because he took your punishment
When you repent
…Jesus welcomes you into his everlasting kingdom
when you repent
…Jesus is your personal friend and everlasting companion in life….He gives you his character…You are no longer your past
Accept Jesus