7 - Week 4
March 1, 2009
Twisted Truth
Revelation 2:12 - 17

Good morning, take your Bible’s and open up to Revelation 2.12-17. We are continuing our study on Seven Deadly Viruses. In the book of Revelation, Jesus dictates a letter to John the apostle that is to be delivered to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Each of these churches was infected with what I call a "spiritual virus". It was some problem that had infected the church and if not corrected would eventually kill the church. The first letter was to the church in Ephesus, and they were infected with the Faded love virus. They were doing great things but their love for God had faded. And that great church eventually died because of it. The second church was the church at Smyrna. And they overcame the virus of unfaithfulness. They were persecuted, but they remained faithful to Christ. And because they overcame this virus, this church is the only church of the seven that is still alive today! Today I want us to take a look at a third church, the church at Pergamum. Let read about this church (Rev 2.12-13)

City of Pergamum

If you were looking on a map, Pergamum would sit 150 miles north of Ephesus. It was not located on the shoreline, it did sit on any major trade routes, it wasn’t known for it strong economy. But it had one thing that made it unique and set it apart from all the other cities – it was the capital city of Asia. It had been Asia’s capital since 133 BC and when it came under Roman rule, it retained it status as the Roman capital of the region. Today it is known as the Turkish village of Bergama (55 thousand people living there), but then – it was the prominent city of Pergamum and had about 150,000 living there in it’s prime. Travelers said that you could see the city from miles away because it was built up high on a hill towering over the surrounding plains. It was impressive, intimidating, powerful. It was the center of Greek and Roman culture – scholars, philosophers, doctors- the powerful and educated lived there. It was a mix pot of ideas and education. Pergamum bragged about having the largest Library in the known world at the time, over 200,000 written volumes. The Pergamese people are credited for inventing parchment and the name "parchment" is derived from Pergamum. The city was filled with temples of the Greek Gods. But there was something special about this city. It was the First city to build a temple devoted to the worship of a Roman Emperor. The first one was built in 29 BC in honor of the Emperor Augustus. Later two other temples were built for other Emperors. And so the city came to be known as the place where the throne of Rome was worshipped.

Now we do not have any idea how the church of Pergamum was birthed. Most likely people from Ephesus came and started the church there. But imagine living as a Christian in that city. Living under the constant pressure to worship the Emperor or be put to death. Living in a very liberal, godless culture of ideas that rejects the gospel. That was the environment of this church. It was a hostile place - hostility in the realm of government and hostility in the realm of ideology. And Jesus speaks to them.

 

"These are the words of him who has the sharp, double edged sword. I know where you live…."

Those words aren’t very encouraging! I have a double edged sword and I know where you live! Not every encouraging. [I explain what that means in a minute, let’s keep going]. "I know where you live, where Satan has his throne." Jesus saying, "Listen, I know that you live in a very hostile place. It is the very throne room of Satan. Throne always relates to authority or government, so this is the city where Satan has his base of authority, it’s the capitol city of a wicked Roman government where the Emperor is worshipped as a god! I know where you live! And Jesus affirms what they have done.

"Yet you have remained true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in our city…"(v13)

This church stood strong under intense persecution. They did not give way to fear, they didn’t renounce their faith. They didn’t bend their knee to worship the Emperor. We don’t know a lot about this man named Antipas. This is then only place where he is mentioned in the Bible, but most scholars believe that he was a leader in the church – maybe the pastor – and he was killed for his faith in Christ. Tradition tells us that he was publicly cooked alive in a brass bull because he would not renounce the name of Christ. The word "witness" is the Greek word "martus" where we get the word martyr. He was faithful, even to the end. And the church was faithful too! They would not give into intimidation. When they faced an all out attack, they stood their ground for Christ! Amazing!

But as good as that was, Jesus noticed that they had a virus that was threatening to kill them. He noticed a problem. (Rev 2.14-15)

Twisted Truth (v14-15)

While this church was standing firm against the threat of the government and had remained faithful to Christ, they were tolerating false teachers. The phrase "you have people there" indicates that these false teachers weren’t teaching in some other city, they weren’t hanging out in the pagan temples, they weren’t on the steps of the library or hanging out with the philosophers, they were in the church! And the problem is that while the church had stood their ground against the threatening pressure of the government to worship the Emperor, they had turned a blind eye to false teaching that was creeping in the back door of their church and gaining a foothold. And Jesus calls out two of these false teachings: the teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

To understand the "teaching of Balaam" you have to go back into the Old Testament. The Israelites had moved into Moabite territory and the King of Moab, name Balak was very nervous. He had seen how God had gone before them defeating their enemies and he didn’t like them moving into the neighborhood. So he sent for a prophet named Balaam to come to him and he offered him a large sum of money if he would put a curse of the Israelites, so that he could defeat them. But instead of cursing the Israelites, Balaam blesses them – he declares that God is with them and they cannot be stopped. Balak doesn’t like that and sends him home. But in a small verse Numbers 31.16 "They were the ones that followed Balaam’s advice as were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor so that a plague struck the Lord’s people." While Balaam didn’t curse the Israelites, he advised Balak that the way to defeat them wasn’t through military force, but to get the Moabite women to seduce them and to get them to worship other gods, and this would turn their hearts away from the Lord and they would fall under God’s judgment. And that is exactly what happened. The Israelite men were seduced, the worshiped other gods, God’s judgment fell on them and 24,000 men died as a result. Now get this, in this church there were preaching Balaam’s message. They claimed to be spiritual people, godly people. The claimed to be a prophet or teacher. But they were teaching that it was Ok to worship in the pagan temples, it’s OK to participate in sexual immorality, and the end result would be to turn their hearts away from the Lord. They were preaching an open-minded, morally loose, culturally acceptable message that was going to destroy their witness for Christ. And if they followed that message, they would loose their distinctiveness in the culture, and lose their devotion to God. Very dangerous stuff.

Nicolaitans were a different group, they followed a leader Nicolous but they preached the same message – "You can live however you want and God doesn’t care". And their teaching was leading people’s hearts away from the lord and into all kinds of perverted and self-destructive practices.

You see, the real problem was that the church was giving these guys a pass. They were tolerating false teachers among them. They were not defending the truth that had been entrusted to them. And the gospel was in danger of being lost all together. Just like the ancient Israelites, they were not going to be defeated militarily, but they were allowing false teachers to draw their hearts away from the Lord.

Truth Twisters

All through the Bible, there are warnings about false teachers. Jesus warned his disciples: Mt 7.15-16 - "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. These false teachers don’t come to you with a sign around their neck that says, "False Teacher". They’re not dressed up in a red suit carrying a pitchfork. Jesus said they come in "sheep’s clothing". They look like a shepherd; they look godly; they look spiritual; they look real. But it’s all exterior. On the inside, they are ferocious wolves – on the inside they are manipulators, controllers, users. And Jesus said you can recognize them by the fruit of their life. Just watch them, watch their actions, motives, character, measure their message carefully and you will see them for who they are!

The Apostle Paul said we can expect the number of false teachers to increase as time goes on. The closer we get to Christ’s return the more and more false teacher there will be.

2 Tim 4.3-4 – "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

They may talk about Jesus. They may talk about God’s love. They may talk about tolerance, and embracing different view points. They may talk about not being narrow-minded and being open to new things. They talked about embracing everybody. It all sounded good, but it is false teaching.

I don’t want you to be offended, but I believe that most Christians don’t take false teaching very seriously. "They believe what they want, I believe what I want." Many people, when choosing a church, don’t even stop to consider if the doctrine of that church is right or accurate. We are drawn to a worship style, like the building, or we like the preacher, programs. But what is the core teaching of that church? We may not think that false teaching is a big deal, but God thinks it’s a huge deal!

 

 

 

Revelation 2.16

Jesus is saying, "If you don’t deal with this, then I’m going to." Sword stands of judgment, sword also stands for the truth of God’s Word. Heb 4.12 Scriptures are "living and active, shaper than a double edged sword" – it cuts to the heart, it divides truth from falsehood. Eph 6 Word of God is called the "sword of the spirit". Not talking about an actual sword, but the scriptures separate truth from error. So the sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus represents God’s truth and that truth will expose what is false and prove what is good. False teaching is a big deal to God. Let me tell you why.

False teachers distort God’s Character.

Imagine if someone came to your children and told your kids things about you that were lies. Said you didn’t love them. Said that you were not going to provide for them. Said that they couldn’t trust you anymore. How would that make you feel? Would there be any anger well up in you? Would you not want to protect your kids for that? And there are lots of people out there giving out false imagines of who God is! God is distant. God doesn’t care. God is only after you money. God wants to ruin your life. God doesn’t even exists. False teaching is a big deal to God because they are painting a wrong view of him.

False teachers confuse people.

You may hear someone teach from the Bible a truth, but a false teacher will take that same Bible and teacher something completely different. Confusion. Ezekiel in the Old Testament described this - "Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says'-when the LORD has not spoken." Ezekiel 22. 29 They will turn things upside down. Isaiah 5.20

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

They lead people away from God.

The end result of false teaching is that people veer away from God. Because of Balaam’s influence, the Israelites wandered far from God and they faced a steep penalty.

I don’t know if the people in Pergamum were just naïve and didn’t know what was going on, or if they didn’t know the truth enough to discern what was being taught was wrong, or if they were thinking they needed to be opened to new ideas. But Jesus was giving them a strong warning.

So let me ask you. Are you able to discern false teaching when it comes your way? Do you examine what is taught? Do you weight it carefully? Are you kids able to discern between what the Bible teaches and other opinions? I used to work in a bank, and we were taught to know the true currency so well, that when a false currency was passed by us, we would immediately know the difference! Do you know the essence of the gospel?

Bedrock Truth

I want to show you the real currency of the gospel. I Corinthians. This the simplest, clearest statement of truth in the Bible. [Read I Corinthians 15.1-6] The gospel is simply this: God loves you, God has a plan for your life. But there is a problem, we are separated from God because of our own actions. We have sinned against him. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. But God loved you so much that he sent Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for your sins. Jesus "died for our sins"

Promise (2.17)

Lots of ideas: best explanation is rooted in ancient Greek custom, most likely practiced in Peragamum. Greeks would offer citizens free bread to certain festivals and a white stone, as a admission ticket to entertainment events and even banquet feasts. Jesus takes that local practice and uses it for an ultimate meaning.

If you overcome this virus of twisted truth, if you hold fast to my truth and stand your ground against false teachers, I will give you a great reward. You will be with me in heaven. I’ll give you heavenly food to eat; I’ll give you a "ticket" to heaven; I’ll give you a new name; I’ll make you a new person.

Manna
White stone