Each chapter of Revelation has its focus on Jesus Christ. It must, for that’s what the book is about! As we study the book of Revelation, we see one of the primary purposes of satanic activity is to shift attention away from Jesus Christ and His Word. Satan’s agenda is to divert the message of a church or dissolve it. When Satan accomplishes his desires, the Word is not heard! The church could no longer be Christ’ light to the world.
When you think of the most-evil place in the world to live, where would it be? Imagine living in a city that Jesus says is the place where the throne of Satan resides. It’s a place that would be hard to live for Jesus.
The inland city of Pergamos was located about fifty-five miles north of Smyrna, along the fertile valley of the Caicus River. It was built on the southern slope of a hill that rises almost one thousand feet from the surrounding plain that provided both breathtaking scenery and the city to be militarily defendable. Today the modern city of Bergama sits at the foot of this hill.
Pergamos (means citadel in Greek). The word Pergamos has the same root words from which the English words bigamy & polygamy words come from.
Unlike the two previous cities we have encountered in our studies of the seven churches, Pergamos was of little commercial significance. The city was rather a religious and secular culture center.
Pergamos was famous for its literary character and idolatry. Since the Egyptians, who controlled the production of papyrus, would not give Pergamos the paper to build a rival library, the people of Pergamos perfected the art of preparing animal skins for writing. Our word “parchment” is derived from the Latin word pergamena, Pergamos.
The city of Pergamos had three primary religious philosophies when this letter was written. Within the city you would have found art galleries, gymnasiums, great sports arenas, a 50,000-seat stadium, and a library housing 200,000 volumes, second only to the library at Alexandria, Egypt .
But it wasn’t the arts, academics or athletics which drew most visitors to the city of Pergamos, it was its religious culture. Greeks and Romans would visit this city to worship the Pergamos’ deities and seek healing. Pergamos was home to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing who was symbolized by a serpent, which is still the symbol of medicine.
Asclepios temple in Pergamos was the nearest concept to modern day hospitals and people from all over the Roman Empire came to Pergamos for relief from their afflictions. Asclepios was called “Asclepios the Savior” The city had large Aescalapium temple; with an immense housing area, library, healing rooms, and baths.
Also overlooking the city was the giant altar of Zeus a throne of stone rising 40 feet into the air which was used to present sacrifices to Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. This altar looked like a throne carved into the side of the mountain. Zeus was the god of kings, one of his symbols was a bull. (This symbol will be applied later.)
Finally, the Romans also demanded emperor worship. All subjects were to hear, and proclaim Caesar lord god. The rule was enforced through “jus gladi”. The right of the sword. Which means power of life or death.
Pergamos practiced tiered city zoning. The poor lived at the foot of the mountain; the next level was the business district; above that the rich lived in their villas; finally at the top were the important public buildings and temples.
Any way you look at it, the devil had used his stronghold in this city to make life miserable for the Christians. But God had a light in the city and to that congregation Jesus said…
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: 13 “I know your works, and 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 in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” Revelation 2:12-13
In verse 12, Jesus emphasizes to the believers of Pergamos that He has the sharp, double-edged sword. Through-out the book of Revelation the sword symbolizes God’s Word. When Jesus spoke of Himself and the two-edge sword, he was assuring that He, not Caesar, holds the power of life and death.
This word brought comfort to those who were faithful to Jesus.
Verse 13 mentions one member of the congregation, a faithful witness known as Antipas who made the great sacrifice of being put to death.
We know very little about “Antipas.” His name … “Antipas” … means “against all.” Antipas was apparently a representative of the kind of Christians that made up this congregation. Church and historical tradition holds that Antipas was roasted to death.
Antipas was brought before the Roman court and commanded to swear out loud that Caesar is God. Antipas cried boldly, “Jesus alone is God!” A Roman official said, “Antipas, don’t you know that the whole world is against you?” He replied, “Then Antipas is against the whole world!” Antipas was ordered to be put into a large, hollow, brass bull, and a fire was built under it. He was cooked to death because he refused to renounce his faith in Jesus or bow down and worship the emperor.
While some believers could have buckled in the face of such pressure, Christ complimented the believers who did not renounce their faith.
Also in verse 13, Jesus notes the presence of Satan in the city where these believers lived twice.
An application to take away from verses 12 and 13 is that many within Christianity look for an easy place to live and raise a family, where people are more sympathetic to Christianity. But the truth is that Christianity does not guarantee that we will have convenience or an easy life on earth.
The lesson from the Pergamos believers is that the Christian life is not an escape. Believers might need to stand alone in a critical moment in life. There will always be some people that will need go to the point of death for Jesus.
Herein lies the ironic account of this Church. Even though they were strong in resisting the huge external threats, they were weak in the internal threats to their faith. In all those outside distractions they kept faithful to the name of Christ and held their faith in Jesus as Lord. But according to verses 14 and 15, they tolerated distorted teachings along with Scripture within the Church.
The believers in Pergamos allowed some people among them to propitiate wrong teachings. Jude 1:3-4 wrote about the value of good teaching “3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Criticism vs 14-15
“But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold 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. 15 Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.” – Revelation 2:14-15
The church at Pergamos had the opposite problem of the Ephesian church. Rather than testing and rejecting false teachers, they had accepted people who held to the teaching of Balaam and Nicolaitan.
The Balaamites and the Nicolaitans were not a true part of the church, even though they had infiltrated it.
The account of Balaam, the false prophet, and Balak, king of Moab, is told in Numbers chapters 22-24. The false prophet and the king failed in their direct attempt to curse the Israelites. When he could not curse Israel, the false prophet, Balaam told king Balak, “If you cannot curse these people, then corrupt them, then God will have to correct them. If God corrects them then their numbers will diminish and so will their threat to your kingdom.”
So they sent the women over to intermarry with Israeli men, which they did, and eat food that had been offered to the idols. This was strictly prohibited by God.
The teaching of Balaam then encouraged committing sexual immorality. To the believers at Pergamos it probably involved consorting with the temple prostitutes. Paul’s teaching on this subject is clear in 1 Corinthians 5-7. For Christians, sexual relationships are right only within the bonds of marriage.
The doctrine of the Nicolaitans had been quenched in the church in Ephesus, but not here. It is closely related to the teaching of Balaam. No-one knows for sure what the Nicolaitans taught, but there is an overwhelming agreement among Bible scholars that they practiced immoral intimate relationships, polygamy, and religious prostitution.
Both the teaching of Balaam and that of the Nicolaitans were clear errors that were permitted alongside Christianity.
The lesson from verses 14-15 is that these believers were claiming the name of Jesus and had faith. They allowed for the gospel message and immoral conduct to co-exist.
Turn to 2 Timothy 4 and notice the constant charge to the pastor and the church concerning the Word:
1 “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
The application of this message to the church in Pergamos is that believers should never encourage immoral behavior.
Notice this in verse 16, ‘Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”
The distinction between “you” and “them” is important in verses 14 through 16. The Pergamos Church’s lax attitude endangered the integrity of the church. As, I read these last two verses we are studying. I couldn’t help but hear the saying of a mother, “wait till your father comes home.” Mom would give you the business and then the threat of chastening from Pa! Maybe this could be thought of that way? Don’t wait until Jesus comes back to correct this! In Revelation 19:5 we see that Jesus will do that then.
The solution is for the believers to repent of this activity. Biblical repentance means to change your direction or turn from your ways! Turning 180 degrees! I mentioned earlier that the book of Revelation reveals the specifics of Jesus Christ. This verse shows us that He is faithful to forgive and restore. Jesus wants to forgive you, not fight you! The apostle John also wrote, 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Commitment vs 17
“all who have an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To all who overcome I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give them a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except those who receives it.” ’ – Revelation 2:17
In verse 17 there are two objects or symbolic rewards given to those who obey in the Pergamos Church. “Hidden manna and a white stone with a new name inscribed on it.”
Those two images are difficult to interpret,
Although there is unifying interpretive thought: It is white manna and a white stone! The color white is the symbol of purity thoughout the book of Revelation.
The hidden manna and the white stone are two different symbols of eternal life. The manna is a likely referent to Jewish Christians who would refuse to eat meat sacrificed to idols, and the white stone and name is a likely referent to Gentile Christians who refused to participate with pagan culture.
Moses placed a pot of manna in the ark to remind the Israelites of God’s grace and faithfulness in the wilderness Hebrews 9:4, Exodus 16:33. Accordingly, Jewish teaching held that in the messianic era there would be the restoration of the hidden manna. To those at Pergamos who refused the meat that was offered to the pagan gods, they will be fed manna in eternal life.
And until then, just as the manna in the wilderness sustained God’s people physically, the reference is that Jesus is the “Bread of Life” He came to satisfy our soul’s hunger, our soul’s need for Him.
A glimpse into the meaning of the white stone and name is found in the legal courts of that day. It was often that white and black stones were used for registering the verdicts of juries. Black for condemnation and white for acquittal. The scale would side with the most stones in the tray. The symbology of a white stone with their name on it assures the Gentile believers that they are acquitted because of the work of Jesus on the cross.
In another illustration, in the apostle John’s time white stones were also used as admission tickets for colosseum and other public events. It could refer that admission to heaven is absolutely sure for the believer in Christ. The new name…known only to those who receives it, could be the name of Christ Himself, or the believer’s new name given by God.
The letter concludes with the usual, anyone who has an ear…and them who overcomes. The commitment that Jesus makes is that they will eat hidden manna and receive a white stone with a new name.
Three things marked the Pergamos church, they tolerated idolatry, immorality, and infidelity. The overcomer in Jesus who keeps themselves from these will be rewarded, along with their salvation.
Jesus promises the church in Pergamos that He can and will sustain their spirits even in a place like Pergamos … and He still makes that same promise today. Jesus can and will sustain us in any culture or situation.
Jesus not only promises us manna for our souls, He also promises to give us a new name carved into a white stone … meaning that it will never fade away or disappear like it can on papyrus or pergamentum. Believers will be given a name that only Jesus and you know. Jesus had two special names for Antipas: “my witness” and “my faithful one” (Revelation 2:13).
As an overcomer of the world, we have an acquittal from guilt, and admission into the eternal Kingdom of God – and a feast the world will never enjoy, the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The future is great, we are declared innocent, will never hunger, and have a new name, with a personal relationship with Jesus.
So we are to be faithful until Jesus comes.