October 7, 2001

Revelation 2:12-17

A True Church in an Evil World

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – John Prudy, in Returning God’s Call, writes, The earliest Christian writing said to be by a woman is the diary of Perpetua, a citizen of Carthage. With others who refused to worship the Roman emperor, she was imprisoned during the persecutions of 202-203 A.D. She refused to heed the pleas of her father, who visited her in prison and urged her to compromise her stand. She gave up to her father her newborn son, whom she had been nursing in prison, choosing to surrender her role as mother rather than submit. In her diary she describes her appearances before the governor: [He] said, 'Have pity on your father's grey head; have pity on your infant son; offer sacrifice for the emperor's welfare.' But I answered, 'I will not.' Hilarion asked, 'Are you a Christian?' And I answered, 'I am a Christian.'
2. Context – You know, it’s really easy for us to say that we won’t compromise what we believe, but we don’t really know until we’re placed in the position of choosing between life and faith. The church at Pergamum was in that position. Let’s read what Jesus wrote to her.

1. Scripture Passage

1. Revelation 2:12-17 – from The Message – Write this to Pergamum, to the Angel of the Church. The One with the sharp-biting sword draws from the sheath of his mouth – out come the sword words: "I see where you live, right under the shadow of Satan’s throne. But you continue boldly in my Name; you never once denied my Name, even when the pressure was worst, when they martyred Antipas, my witness who stayed faithful to me on Satan’s turf. But why do you indulge that Balaam crowd? Don’t you remember that Balaam was an enemy agent, seducing Balak and sabotaging Israel’s holy pilgrimage by throwing unholy parties? And why do you put up with the Nicolaitans, who do the same thing? Enough! Don’t give in to them; I’ll be with you soon. I’m fed up and about to cut them to pieces with my sword-sharp words. Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’ll give the sacred manna to every conqueror; I’ll also give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name."
2. Have you ever thought about where you draw the line in your life regarding sin? The church at Pergamum did, but unfortunately it was a little on the wrong side of God’s law. Let’s see exactly what the Christians there were facing.

1. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

1. Jesus begins by commending the church for making good in a bad situation. He says that the city they where live is where Satan’s power is at its strongest. Pergamum served as the headquarters for five different kinds of pagan worship. It was the first city to receive permission to worship the emperor as a god. It was also a major center for the worship of these four supposed "gods": Ascepius (said to provide good health, healing, and eternal life); Demeter (said to provide daily bread, resurrection, and eternal life through the blood of animals); Dionysus (said to provide joy, eternal life, and meaning to life, and to be able to change water into wine); and Zeus (said to be king of kings, lord of lords, and creator of the universe). Pergamum was literally a major stronghold of Satan.
2. But Jesus commends them in the midst of the bad. He commends them for remaining true to His name; in other words, not renouncing Him even though that would make their lives much easier. Jesus says that even the ruthless murder of Antipas didn’t put them off. Tradition has it that Antipas, the first martyr of Asia, was put in a bronze kettle and slowly roasted to death. Bad stuff! Jesus again says that Satan lives in their city. It’s a tough, tough place to be a Christian. Our country is a tough place to be a Christian, but it hasn’t gotten that bad yet!
3. So after reminding the church at Pergamum of their good in the midst of the bad, He has to confront them for the ugly in their church. He says that the church has members who, as verse 14 says, hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. What does that mean? When the Israelites were in the desert, the kings of the Midianites and Moabites hired Balaam the prophet to curse them. Balaam went along with their wishes but was prevented by God from cursing the Israelites. So instead, he advised Balak to send the Midianite women to intermarry with the men of Israel and so seduce them to worship idols. Israel was commanded by God to be a racially pure people in order to keep them spiritually pure. Now, over fourteen hundred years later, the church in Pergamum had members who actively involved in seducing Christians to worship the idols of the city by eating meal sacrificed to idols and by becoming sexually involved with temple prostitutes. Then there were others who were the "freedom folks," the Nicolaitans. Remember them? They were the ones who taught that freedom in Christ means freedom to do whatever you want, including partying at the temples. Not good! Not even bad! Horribly ugly!
4. Jesus is telling them that compromise is not acceptable. As Peterson puts it, Jesus says, Enough! Don’t give in to them; I’ll be with you soon. I’m fed up and about to cut them to pieces with my sword-sharp words. The NIV says, Repent! It’s a command, not an option. The consequence of not repenting is to be destroyed by a single word from Jesus’ mouth. Jesus is saying to them, "Listen! You haven’t renounced me, even when Antipas was brutally murdered! Why do you put up with this stuff?" Compromise is always costly.
5. Illustration – Oswald Chambers, in The Highest Good, wrote, The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. The only thing that can drive us to compromise is our fears. Fulton Oursler wrote, We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow. The only thing that can drive us to compromise is our fears.

IV. What About Us?

1. Jesus is telling us too that compromise is not acceptable. Christian leaders in our country are very fond of ranting against the decline of our values over the past fifty years. Guess what? In Ecclesiastes, we read that there is nothing new under the sun. Our values were never high in the first place! Only God’s transforming power in the human heart has ever made a difference in any society! Translation – the perversions may be getting worse by our standards, but all of them are the same by God’s standards. All compromise is still detestable to Him. All sin is still grossly horrible to Him. So why do we compromise? Why do we persist in our pet sins? I believe it’s because we are not as convinced as God is that sin is evil, that when we sin we are compromising our commitment to God and in effect supporting Satan’s cause.
2. Remember the definition of true worship? "The habitual acknowledgement of God’s worth." So when we habitually acknowledge by our actions and attitudes in our lives that something has greater worth than God does, we are worshiping it. The object of our worship is the real god to us. What are things that we worship as our gods? Our culture has many: sex, pornography, drugs, alcohol, money, cars, homes, stocks, bonds, prestige, power, TV, music, people – any number of things. The problem is that Christians in our country buy into these gods. But what they are really saying is that the true God isn’t able to meet their needs so they need to rely on false gods. That’s what a lot of folks in the church at Pergamum were doing! We don’t have to eat meat sacrificed to idols or sleep with temple prostitutes in order to be like them! All we have to do to be like them is to compromise what we know is true! As individuals, as Christians, we compromise too much! From God’s perspective, any compromise is too much!
3. The church at Pergamum didn’t deny Christ, but they compromised by welcoming the false teaching that worshiping idols and being sexually immoral were okay for Christians. This in spite of the fact that Jesus offered them great reward for overcoming sin and compromise. He said He would give them "hidden manna," spiritual food that would sustain no matter what. He would also give each of them a stone with a new, secret name on it. The significance of this was that stones with writing were often used as a kind of admission ticket. What Jesus is telling them is that integrity would bring admission to His banquet, while compromise and sin bring destruction. The church at Pergamum had a choice. At the base of the hill the city was built on is a small town called Bergama. Christian influence in that town? In name only. They did not heed the warning. Will we?
4. Where do you and I stand in all this? Do we refuse to deny the name of Christ while at the same time indulging ourselves in sin? Sin is the voluntary transgression of God’s known will. So we can sin as much by not doing what He wants us to as by doing what He doesn’t want us to. How do we measure up as individuals? How do we measure up as a church? These are tough questions with no easy answer. There is a simple answer to all this: follow Christ, living a life of integrity and refusing to compromise. That’s the simple answer. The hard part is actually doing it. Are you and I living lives of integrity, with no compromise, as individuals? Are we as a church living a corporate life of integrity? That’s what God is asking us today.
5. Illustration - General Krulak, recently retired Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, spoke on "Integrity," at the annual Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics (JSCOPE), January 27-28, 2000. He said, Integrity as we know it today stands for soundness of moral principle and character -- uprightness -- honesty. Yet there is more .... Integrity is also an ideal .... A goal to strive for, and for a man or woman to "walk in their integrity" is to require constant discipline and usage. The word integrity itself is a martial word that comes to us from an ancient Roman army tradition. During the time of the 12 Caesars, the Roman army would conduct morning inspections. As the inspecting Centurion would come in front of each Legionnaire, the soldier would strike with his right fist the armor breastplate that covered his heart. The armor had to be strongest there in order to protect the heart from the sword thrusts and from arrow strikes. As the soldier struck his armor, he would shout "integritas" (in-teg-ri-tas), which in Latin means material wholeness, completeness and entirety. The inspecting centurion would listen closely for this affirmation and also for the ring that well kept armor would give off. Satisfied that the armor was sound and that the soldier beneath it was protected, he would then move on to the next man. At about the same time, the Praetorians or Imperial Bodyguard were ascending into power and influence. Drawn from the best "politically correct" soldiers of the legions, they received the finest equipment and armor. They no longer had to shout "integritas" (in-teg-ri-tas) to signify that their armor was sound. Instead, as they struck their breastplate, they would shout "Hail Caesar," to signify that their heart belonged to the Imperial personage -- not to their unit -- not to an institution -- not to a code of ideals. They armored themselves to serve the cause of a single man.

V. Conclusion

1. Integrity in times of adversity is the most difficult issue Christians will ever face. Integrity says more about our character than anything else does. Compromise says more about our character flaws than anything else does. We all struggle with it. You do. I do. I want to be a person of incredible integrity. The only way to accomplish that is to grow incredibly close to Jesus. What is the desire of your heart? How do you measure up when it comes to integrity? How do we as a church measure up when it comes to integrity? I don’t pretend to have the answers to those two questions, but I know the One who does. Let’s spend some time in confession, repentance and prayer seeking Jesus, the one who holds all the answers.
2. Now I’ll ask that, once again, we form small groups and pray for each other regarding this issue of integrity. You don’t have to join a group, but if you don’t please pray where you are. When your group is done praying, I ask that a couple of people from your group come up and get the bread and juice for your entire group. Then you can share it together. When we’re all done with our group prayers and communion, we’ll join together in prayer.
3. Let’s pray.