The Church in Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17)

Pergamum was the government centre of Asia, which may explain why Jesus appears with a sword (the sword is the symbol of government authority). The city was a cultural centre, possessing a very large library of 200,000 volumes, and in order to help the development of this library the city rulers encouraged the use of a new form of writing material.  One author suggests that if Smyrna can be called the Queen of the Levant for her beauty, Pergamum could be called the Oxford of the Orient because of its focus on education. 

Pergamum was also known as a place of medical cures (the famous Galen lived there), although even they were connected to pagan forms of idolatry, with the god of healing depicted in the form of a serpent. Sadly, it was a pagan city, having the dubious record of being the first city to build a temple in Asia for emperor worship. Unlike the church in Smyrna, whose persecutions involved the Jewish synagogue, the church in Pergamos faced trouble from Gentile sources.The city was located about sixty-five miles from Smyrna, but the spiritual gulf between the churches in Pergamum and Smyrna was much wider.

 

The description of Jesus (v. 12)

Jesus describes himself as holding a ‘sharp two-edged sword’. Unusually, he is depicted as holding it in his mouth and not in his hand (v. 16). Does this picture indicate a threat? The answer is yes because he says in verse 16 that he intends to make war on some people. Sometimes, we find it hard to imagine that Jesus makes threats to anyone. Yet that conclusion would be foolish. All we need to do is consider what happens in the Book of Acts, which Luke informs us is a record of what the ascended Jesus did. We can see that he appeared powerfully to Saul of Tarsus. That story has a happy ending. But what happened with Ananias and Sapphira? They experienced the sword of divine judgement. What happened to Herod who had executed James? He experienced the sword of divine judgement. Jesus, the sovereign Lord, gave the word and judgement came. Later on, what happened to the Corinthians who had abused the Lord’s Supper? Some of them were judged with illness and others even died. They experienced the judgement of Jesus. Here he is giving a warning to the church in Pergamum.

 

We should note that Jesus is here coming to judge one of his churches. We could ask, ‘Why does he not judge the world for its sins?’ The answer is that he will, but first he will judge his church. Peter reminds us: ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?’ (1 Pet. 4:17). Jesus cares about the state of his own kingdom and he will work to keep it pure. This was predicted of him by the prophet Malachi when he said: ‘But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver’ (3:2-3).

The recognition by Jesus (v. 13)

As he does with the other churches, Jesus says what he knows about the church in Pergamum. He knows what their city is like – it is the place where Satan’s throne is. This throne of Satan could be a reference to the civil government which was opposing the church, or it could be a reference to the number of false religions that had their prime sites in the city. It was obviously a dangerous place for his people, and he reminds them that they already had one martyr from their midst.

 

Still, Jesus reveals that he knows the determination that possessed them to adhere to all that belonged to him. He acknowledges that is what they were doing at that moment – he uses the present tense to describe their response. Their response, as with the response of Antipas, had been a verbal one. They did not deny his faith even when pressurised to do so, and they did not deny his faith even when they saw what had happened to Antipas. Jesus stresses the verbal aspect of Antipas’ response when he calls him a witness. If a person goes to court and says nothing, he is not a witness. A witness has to speak.

 

Have you ever heard of the slave girl called Blandina? She suffered martyrdom in Lyons in France in the year 177. She had been arrested with other Christians, including her mistress. Because she was a slave with no suitable rights, she could be tortured by the Roman authorities in order to get her to deny her faith and betray her Christian friends. Despite all the attempts to get her to deny her Saviour, they failed, although they tried very hard. Eventually, the authorities attempted to get her to deny her faith by bringing her and the other Christians to the amphitheatre and torturing her there before the crowds. This went on for days. 

 

For some reason, she was the last selected to die of those Christians, so she had to watch the others being tortured and killed. On the final day, two were left, Blandina and a fifteen-year-old boy called Ponticus. The boy was killed first, but as he suffered she encouraged him. Then Blandina was scourged, placed on a red-hot chair, and then enclosed in a net and thrown to a wild bull who tossed her in the air. Then a soldier plunged his spear into her heart. As one church historian says, ‘Bright indeed will be the crown, amidst the many crowns in heaven, of the constant, humble, patient, enduring Blandina.’ She died, but she maintained her witness. Maybe something similar happened to Antipas, but Jesus was watching, even as he watched Stephen.

 

We can deny the faith in several ways, for example, by believing wrong doctrines or doing wrong practices. But the easiest way to deny it is by not professing it.

 

The rebuke and threat of Jesus (vv. 14-16)

Yet there were some things wrong in the church in Pergamum. Their errors were not connected to their witness to those outside the church, but to what they were prepared to allow within the church. The error was connected to worship in the pagan temples which basically were places of gross immorality. Balaam the prophet had told Balak the king of Moab that the way to weaken the Israelites was to get them to participate in immorality. Balak did this, and severe judgment was sent on the Israelites (Numbers 22-24). Probably, the error of the Nicolaitans was connected to a similar tolerance of pagan worship.

 

The problem of attending meals in pagan temples was one that inevitably affected the early Christians. For example, a man, who wanted to thank a god for some help he imagined that he had received, could hold a special dinner in acknowledgement of that god’s help. Naturally, he would ask his neighbours along, even if they were Christians. He would not expect them to limit their involvement to the food, and neither would the Christians. He and they all knew what to expect and how to participate.

 

Some in the church were teaching that Christians could go and take part in the occasion. It would not be difficult to apply the belief that the action of someone’s body did not matter (as we read about in 1 John, probably written about the same time). The problem for them was that Jesus thought that it did matter, and that it mattered so much that he was prepared to use his sword against those who were teaching such ideas.

The reality was, that while Satan had not got through the front door by persecution, he had got through another door by false teaching. The church was guilty of two sins. First, some of them were guilty of compromising the clear standards of Jesus. They may have had their excuses. It may have been a response to the persecution they had faced, or they may have wanted to remain on good terms with the city’s guilds which were connected to the temples. In the process, they had compromised their faith in Jesus by giving the impression that it was not sinful to take part in these rituals. The second sin was committed by all the church, and it was toleration of the minority’s behaviour. Why they did this is not said. 

Jesus gave them the opportunity of immediate repentance. That was the only response that would prevent his judgement. It would not be enough just to stop the wrong actions. One can do that without repentance. Repentance, by definition, requires recognising the wrong action as sin. Moreover, repentance is an emotional response from the heart, from a broken heart.

 

The reward of Jesus (v. 17)

The reward contains two details: eating of the hidden manna and receiving a white stone. So what does he mean by them?

 

Manna was the bread sent from heaven in a miraculous way as provision for the children of Israel as they travelled through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan. This heavenly provision was a picture of Jesus as the bread of life (John 6). So Jesus here could be saying to the believers in Pergamum that he would supply their spiritual needs. 

 

Some manna was kept in the ark of the covenant, and from that point of view could be regarded as hidden. Yet it could also be regarded as hidden in that no one knew where the original manna was kept – it was hidden, but it appeared when needed. In a far higher sense, spiritual provision is hidden in heaven and is sent to believers when required. 

 

Jesus promises this to the overcomer, which suggests that he is referring to what happens at the end of life and therefore to what will happen in heaven. He is stating that one of the activities of heaven will be to feed on himself and all the resources that are found in him. 

 

The reference to the white stone is open to several suggestions, but three have applications in the context. A white stone was used in a courtroom when declaring a person innocent. The Christians in Pergamum may have seen a black stone of condemnation used against Antipas when he was arrested and condemned to die. They also knew that each of them faced that possibility from the authorities. In contrast, there was coming an event when they would be handed a white stone from the judge, as it were, and that would be at the judgement seat of Christ. As the Shorter Catechism says, on that day believers ‘will be openly acknowledged and acquitted’ by the Lord. The prospect of that declaration would be an encouragement to them should they face a false earthly trial and condemnation. 

 

The second possibility is connected to the practice of using a white stone with a name on it as an invitation to a celebration meal or to a festivity. The celebration that Jesus has in mind is not a temporary occasion such as would have been held in Pergamum. Instead it was an endless festivity, attended by a number impossible to count, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Yet the stone would make it a very personal event for each guest, because a new name would be on it. 

 

Third, a new name points to a change of status – instead of being the unknowns in Pergamum, they would be the well-knowns in heaven. Moreover, this new name would be a secret between Jesus and the guest, which points to the reality that the inhabitants of heaven have intense individual contact with Jesus as well as communal contact. It is also a reminder of the bigness of Jesus since he will be able to engage personally with all of them simultaneously. 

 

So we see that Jesus was promising three things to his people. First, he promised them that they would be declared innocent by him publicly; second, he promised them that all of them will be invited to the eternal feast, the marriage Supper of the Lamb; third, Jesus promises that each overcomer will have an individual, secret relationship with him in heaven.

 

What does the letter to Pergamum say to us? 

 

Jesus wants us to keep focussed

Unlike Smyrna, the church in Pergamum had reacted in a time of persecution by tolerating those who taught compromise, a reminder that churches can respond differently to a crisis. Maybe their eyes were so much on the outside, on resisting the danger from there, that they did not notice what was happening on the inside. This choice made them unlike the church in Ephesus as well because it had not tolerated the false teaching of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:6). Jesus commended the church in Ephesus for that outlook, and he charged the church in Pergamum to have that same attitude. This is a reminder that the Saviour does not approve of wrong doctrines that bring sin into the lives of Christians and into the practices of his churches. Maybe we can be so focussed on what the political world is doing that we might fail to see other issues coming in that can be very dangerous for spiritual life.

 

Jesus is always fair

At the same time, the letter to the church in Pergamum shows that Jesus is careful and fair with his discipline. Unlike the Roman authorities who came down on problems with an iron foot on both the guilty and the innocent, Jesus makes clear that should he come and judge the church he will only deal with those among them who are guilty of teaching and practicing the wrong ideas. Those who loved him and lived holy lives would not be punished by him. 

 

Jesus wants us to be faithful

What does Jesus mean when he says that the Church in Pergamum had not denied the faith? He cannot mean that they held faithfully to the historic creeds of the church because none of them had yet been written. So I wonder if what he means by the faith is the gospel, the statements contained in verses like John 3:16, the message that the church is to convey to the world. In their case, the difference was one word – to say that ‘Jesus is Lord’ or to not say it.

 

Jesus promises a great future

Does this letter say anything about speculation concerning the life of heaven? Because that may not be the same as anticipation. After all, Jesus describes the experience as the hidden manna, and if something is hidden from us, we cannot know what it is. The day of explanation and experience will be when we see the glorified Christ. A description is given of him in Revelation 1, and while we can make an attempt to explain its details, our explanations will inevitably fall short. After all, what is the beatific vision? What does John mean when he says that when we see Jesus we shall be like him? The one thing we can say with certainty is that on that day we will be glad to be an overcomer.

 

A benefit in not being first

Of course, there was one blessing in being the third of the churches that was addressed by Jesus because they would have realised that however they dealt with the false teachers they would have to avoid the mistake made by the church in Ephesus, a mistake that caused them to lose their first love. Surely, the church in Pergamum would pray to the Lord for his help in aiming for restoration of truth, but also a restoration that would be from their hearts, that would keep them from becoming merely cold and clinical about doctrine, that would cause them to value truth as a means of continuing to know the satisfaction that comes from knowing Jesus.

 

Prayer to be better

Do we ever pray to Jesus that he would come and purify his church? It could be a dangerous petition because he might say, ‘Well, I need to begin with you.’ But it is obvious from this letter that Jesus desires a pure church, one which is not ashamed of him and his demands of holiness. That was Paul’s aim when he told the Ephesians that he wanted to present them as a pure church to Christ. 

 

The balm in knowing that Jesus knows

There is something comforting and challenging when Jesus says that he knew where they dwelt, even where Satan’s throne was. It is comforting to know that Jesus is aware of the dilemmas and the dangers connected to those places. He knows how difficult it might be to be in circumstances where no other Christian is found. That’s the comfort. The challenge is that he does not expect us to give in. Indeed he warned the people in Pergamos not to give in. Instead, he wanted them to witness for him where it was most dangerous and demanding.