I can't begin to describe the battle that rages against writing the summaries of these Bible studies. Since we began in 2001, there is constant opposition to getting these published. Some are personal, some are technological, and I won't go into all of them now, but it gives me great confidence and hope in their value in God's kingdom. I pray that some people are impacted and that God is glorified. May the Holy Spirit help me write. Satan does not want these summaries to be made available to folks. He also doesn't want disciples coming together for regular encouragement to live for Jesus Christ, but that's another part of the story. On to our study...
Knock, knock...who's there? The old childhood joke is used to explain a spiritual truth. You don't know who it may be. The fact is, Satan is not in hell. Not yet. His time is coming. Until then, he roams around the Earth like a lion looking for someone to devour. Who else could it be? Well, who is it that is greater than the devil that's in the world? Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ sent us the Holy Spirit to be present with us and reveal Himself to us. He is our Comforter, our Helper, the Light that points to Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! He is the miracle of how God can be both with you and with me at the very same time. He is the only Way we can truly understand the meaning of the Bible and know God's will for our lives. Ah yeah, baby. That's who it's about.
Pergamos. The name means "perverted, unacceptable, inappropriate marriage". This is a very strange 'chicken and egg 'type of story. First, God knew how this story would unfold. The Israelites had already compromised their First Love in Ephesus. As church history progressed, Smyrna represented the persecution that made the church stronger and more devoted to Christ. But the town of Pergamos already had its name, well before John wrote this Revelation passage and before they did what they did to get their condemnation from Jesus. Weird. I don't know why they would name the town that before it even happened. We will have to let that go for now. Until then, let's get into the story and application for us today.
Pergamos is the Worldly Church. Pergamum was the most important city in Asia. It was in modern day Turkey, 80 miles north of Smyrna. It was the great religious center, a "royal city", as described by Sir William Ramsay. It had a huge library. Marc Antony would give this library to Cleopatra, who would move it to Alexandria in Egypt. It was the greatest library ever seen. Pergamum also had a giant healing spa/hospital. This hospital was in use for over 700 years. It's practices were quite Satanic. They would take you below ground into tunnels, where sexy, seductive female voices would whisper mind altering thoughts of positive healing. They would escort you to watch a play on healing. Idols of Greek gods were present. One of these was Dionysius-the god of wine. It had the torso of a man, but the legs of a goat, with cloven hooves and a forked tail. Hmmm...Who does that remind us of? This is where we get our image of Satan in the world. We didn't get that image from the Bible. Side note: Satan has used alcohol to do some major damage in our world. It has ruined many a life. We should take extra care in our responsibilities dealing with alcohol. It is said we bought America from the Indians with alcohol. Also, Hawaii was purchased with alcohol. Satan is the god of licquor.
In the hospital, you would also see the god of Askelpios, a greek god in the image of a serpent. If you weren't healed after all the other antics, they would lock you in the temple at night and set loose a bunch of snakes to crawl all over you, most of which were non-poisonous. They would drag the dead bodies out the back door and not mention these that didn't receive the healing promised them.
Caesar Augustus loved it here. The altar erected in his honor was the biggest altar in the world. Christians were persecuted if they didn't bow down before it and declare Caesar as lord. He was an alcoholic. Once a year, he would visit and get dried out or "healed".
Pergamos represents the time period of 314-590 ad in the progression of the church. Some giants of faith would emerge during this time. One was Antipas, whom we nothing more about. Many more would be martyred after him. Perhaps he was the first in this town.
You'll have to go back to Numbers to catch the story of Balaam, Balak, and especially Balaam's donkey. I love that story. Balaam was a prophet of God, but he became perverted, and lusted after money and reward. Balak convinced him to go to the top of a mountain and curse the Israelites, but when he looked down on the multitudes camped below him, he saw their formation in the shape of the cross. When he opened his mouth, only blessings came out! Still determined to sell them out, he directed Balak to send Moabite women to tempt the young Israelite men. They engaged them with sexual immoralities, mixed with idol worship. Balaam knew God would chasten them. He always addresses sin. We should too. The young men bit hard. They gave themselves to another. Their devotion would be forever divided. Things would never be the same again. Idolatry and fornication entered the church.
At the same time, the practice of the Nicolaitans was also being accepted by the church. This is a development of a priesthood that claims authority over its people. Jesus said He hated that, by the way. They returned to rituals by clergy and gave license to immorality. It is a mistake to think the Church has the authority to decide what is right and wrong. The true church is made of believers in Jesus. We are to be lights of the world. The Word of God is our authority. We identify with Jesus in this life. May we be careful to avoid the things Jesus hates. It's the same in our marriages too, right? Avoid the things she doesn't like. Do the things she likes to do. That should help.
Jesus wanted them to repent. The greek word is "metanoeson". I like the Bush Paraphrase Interpretation Pronunciation: "Meet and Know His Son". It means "change of mind". I need the Holy Spirit to help me in this. The pre-requisite to really pull this off is to have already met and currently know God's Son, Jesus. Repentance is for the saved person, not the unsaved. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. That's a gift from God, if you think about it. We've been saved from the effects and power of sin and hell. He wants to renew our minds into the conformity of His Son. Agree to cooperate by saying 'goodbye' to your previous passions, habits, and lifestyles. He wants you! (I can picture His finger coming out of the poster.)
May we have ears to hear today. This is to him who overcomes. That's the definition of a true Christian. We are not overcomers ourselves, but we overcome by the blood of the Lamb! The victory was won by Christ, not us. The hidden manna speaks of the person and death of Jesus and is revealed in the Word of God. Jesus said He was the true bread from heaven. The believer is to feed on Jesus for spiritual growth. The white stone would've been familiar in John's time. It was given by judges to people to be found innocent. If guilty, they would be given a black stone. This might be where we got our term "black balled" from. Another meaning is striking a deeper cord with me. It was customary for intimate, best friends to give each other white stones or ivory as tokens of friendship and affection. On the stones, would be written symbols or special names. Now, for some reason, we've always thought Jesus was going to give us a new name, but the Bible doesn't say that. It says He will write a name on there that only we know. Since this is all about the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and the Bible is full of His wonderful, many different names, I like to believe that He is going to reveal a special aspect of a new name for Him that has a deep, intimate meaning to us. It's about Him, not us. May He write His special name on that stone to you over time as you grow in Him.
Let's go back and pick up another deep truth in this passage. Last week, I was mistaken when it was noted that Constantine was a good thing for the Christians. He was trying to get elected as Emperor. Emperors were worshipped in his time. He wanted the fame and fortune. Meanwhile the Christians were getting slaughtered by the Romans. He calculated a way to get votes by getting the Christians on his side. He claimed to have had a vision of Christ and converted to Christianity. He thought God wanted him to conquer the world in the name of Christ. The Christians jumped at the opportunity to have a Christian in office and voted him in. He declared an end to the killings and persecution in 314ad with the Edict of Toleration. Funny thing is, the church was growing and getting stronger during persecution, but grew much weaker when relief was ordered. Was Constantine genuine? It doesn't seem probable. This is where the Christian church married into government. Rome made Christianity the official religion. Fornication and idolatry were still thriving. They had abandoned the purity of Christ. Their devotion was divided. The pagan holidays were merged into Christian holidays. They melded into the rituals of clergy, including pointed hats, robes, incense, etc. It was a perverted, inappropriate marriage. Satan had tried to kill the church in Smyrna for 200 years. It didn't work. He changed tactics. He got them to merge church and state.
What is the application? Be genuine. Be a real, devoted disciple of Jesus Christ. You only have so much passion to go around. Be courageous enough to leave behind any other passions that distract from your devotion to Jesus. This is directly tied into making and keeping Jesus as our First Love. Leave the many hours on the computer, television, or internet. Leave the endless onslaught of media. Place the Word of God as the authority in your life. We are not our own anymore. He paid a high price to buy us with His blood. Remember, He promises a blessing to anyone who reads these words of Revelation, keeps them, and puts them into practice.
