The Church in Satantown

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

Well, the, the messenger has gone forth with the letter, hasn’t he? And he’s carried it from John, and we’ve seen that he’s taken it to the Church of Ephesus, which we might call the loveless church. Got everything right, but there’s no heart, there’s no love in her for Christ and for the world. And having spoken to Ephesus, the next week he’s traveled north towards the Aegean Coast, and he’s come into Smyrna. And we remember in Smyrna, uh, we saw lots of emperor worship. It was a city which prided itself in worshiping the cult of Rome and the Roman emperor. And we saw that Smyrna was faithful to the end. There was no rebuke. There was no chastisement. There was just a, a warning. More suffering’s coming. Be faithful unto death.

And then the messenger left town, and he headed north, and he headed towards a place called Pergamum, which was the, the capital of East Asia, a very significant Roman city. Uh, whereas Smyrna and Ephesus were somewhat withering at this time, Pergamum was flourishing, and it was flourishing in a number of different ways. Least of all, Pergamum was like the center of East Asian pagan worship. It was built upon a hill, and so as you entered as the messenger, you walked in and you saw a hill with a big acropolis on it, a big fortified place. And upon that acropolis, there were temples, and 2 temples in particular, the Temple of Zeus, which had the Throne of Zeus on it, a huge throne that stuck out upon the horizon. You saw this massive throne with Zeus sitting upon it. And the second one was that of Acupolis, which you’ve probably ne- never heard of, but the Greek god was the god of healing. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen on hospitals, sometimes they have a staff with a snake winding around it. That’s the icon of the Greek god of healing and salvation. And they believed that there was a particular snake that the Greek god was a god over, and this snake provided healing. So when you went up-to the temple. There were serpents everywhere in the temple, but they weren’t poisonous. They were safe, fortunately. Otherwise, it would be kind of a reverse healing temple, right? But they were s- non-poisonous snakes, and, and that also jutted out. And these 2 things altered the life of Pergamum everywhere, and so as you walked up the street, you saw shrines to Zeus, and you saw temple prostitutes on every corner, coming to you and offering you their, his and her, their services in the worship of Zeus, in the worship of God. “Come into me, for this is how our God loves to be worshipped. Come into me. And yes, you will have to pay for it.” And as you walk up, you would smell the incense burning to Zeus, and you would be oppressed by the trade system which, if you wanted to partake in it, you had to enter into their idolatrous love feasts.

So, how this would play out is you would come to do business and the first thing you would do is worship Zeus, and you would bow down to him, and then you would sacrifice meat to him, and then you would share in that meat together, and then having shared in that meat together, you would fornicate together. Celebrating the goodness of the gods of this world, pagan idolatry on every corner.

And in the midst of all of this is a tiny little oppressed church called The first Presbyterian Church of Pergamum. No, just Pergamum. The Church of Pergamum. And you might wanna call her, you know we had the loveless church and we had the persecuted or suffering church, and you might want to call her the compromising church.

And the first thing we see when the letter gets taken into the minister at Pergamum and he stands up to read, the first thing we hear when we’re sitting in Pergamum in the congregation, just like you are now, except for with a lot more hiding, you hear that this letter comes from a warrior king. And so we’re told in verse 12, “These are the words of him who has the sharp, 2edged sword.”

I don’t know if you remember, but a few weeks back, it feels like a lifetime, a few weeks back, when we were in chapter 1 and we went through that image of Christ, one of the things I said to you is that each of these pictures is going to come up again. And to each church and aspect of the person and work of Christ is put into the forefront. It’s not separated, but it’s almost like it’s put in the center of the camera lens and everything else goes a little bit fuzzy. I- the focus is set on the thing that the church really needs to hear, and what Pergamum needs to see, and they’re reminded of, is Christ standing with a sword, a 2edged sword. He is a mighty warrior.

Now, we have, we have many images of Christ in the scriptures, don’t we? We sung about one, Christ the shepherd, and it’s a wonderfully comforting image, isn’t it? There He is, tenderly caring for us and feeding us and giving us what we need and leading us through dark valleys. W- we have pictures of, of Christ as a sufferer, and with sympathy towards us. We have pictures of Christ as a high priest who provides us with salvation and ministers to us. One of the neglected images is the picture of Christ as a warrior, and yet it’s actually one of the more frequent ones. It’s all through the Book of Revelation. I- in Revelation 19, in the most striking terms, He comes forth with a sword, riding upon a horse, striking down His enemies, treading the wine press of God’s wrath.

Sadly, in our day and age, the picture of Jesus as your boyfriend has replaced all other pictures. We love a Jesus who is meek and lowly and mild and sits casually with us in a coffee shop, that the concept of a conquering lord is foreign. And it’s not surprising. We don’t live in a battled age. When you live in an age where soldiers on every corner and battles every 5 years is normal, a warrior god is quite normal. But we live such safe, secluded lives, I mean, we don’t even see soldiers barely, right? So it’s a foreign image to us. So some of that is just a reality of our context.

However, it’s a very important image. Christ stands forth with his sword, as in- in his hand, for 2 purposes. Firstly, to destroy. To cut down and destroy all who would oppose him. And, and there is a day coming, isn’t there, when Christ will strike down every foe. Christ will not need your help when he makes war on the nations. In his supreme power, he will overthrow all.

But there’s another way in which the warrior king wields his sword, and that’s in a healing fashion, like a physician. Now, if you go to the doctor and the doctor says to you, “You’ve got a really ugly wound, and it needs to be cut out,” you don’t complain, do you? Well, you might complain when it gets cut out, but you don’t complain that he’s gonna cut it out. You don’t say to him, “Well, well that’s not very loving. You’re going to cut me. I expected you to pat me on the back. I expected you to give me a back rub and make me a cup of coffee and make me feel better. You’ll cut me? What kind of love is that?” Uh, you, of course, you don’t do that.

Well, I went to the doctor. I got an infection in my neck once, many moons ago. My neck swelled up like a balloon. No joke, it was about this big. I almost passed out. I thought I was gonna die. I went to the doctor. It was an enormous infection. And he says to me, “You’re not gonna enjoy this.” I’m like, “Oh, joy.” He goes, “I’ll put some anesthetic in it, but it’s not gonna feel like there’s any in there.” And so he rams a needle right into the center of it, smashes some anesthetic in it, gets a knife, and stabs it. And the aroma, I d- I dare not lie, the aroma of death arose from my neck that made even the nurse quail. And the nurse afterwards was like, “I commend you for not crying too much.” I was in agony. It was horrendous. But what a loving action, because if it wasn’t removed, it would’ve killed me.

And so Christ comes with his sword to a church, not just to destroy foes, but to lance sin and to cut out spiritual cancer that will cause death, so that she would be pure. And he comes forth as the warrior king to the church, and, and as this warrior king addresses this church, we see 3 things.

First, we see a church in compromise, a church in compromise.

You know, church compromise is not a new thing, is it? It’s all throughout the history of the church. I mean, you just go back to the i- the late 18th century. In the late 18th century, there was a wave of geological discoveries. There was a wave of scientific discoveries. And in the late 18th and early 19th century, all of a sudden, the experts discovered the Earth is actually really, really old, like millions of years old. A- and though for thousands of years the church has said, “No, actually it was just made in 6 days,” all of a sudden, the scientists realized it can’t possibly be true because the evidence is right here. And, and god-fearing people said, “Oh, well, I guess we need to reinterpret the Bible, because it doesn’t agree with science. And science has discovered that the Earth is old. Therefore, Genesis 1 must be wrong, or we’re wrong, and we need to reinterpret it again.” And so all of a sudden, the 6 days became 6 ages, or there were big gaps between the days, or it was just a picture to communicate a truth. And all of a sudden, that which the church had held for 1800 years was thrown out the door. We, we compromised.

Why? Well, because the scientists looked at us and called us stupid. They said to us, “Look at these foolish, old-fashioned people. They think the world was made in 6 days. Bah! What ignorant monkeys. Look at us superior human beings who know the truth.” And the church didn’t like being called ignorant, so she bent and she buckled.

And it’s not that different today, is it? In COVID, for thousands upon thousands of years, the church has said, “We meet and we worship ’til death.” because Christ, our king, is worthy of death, and he commands us to worship. And someone said there’s a flu coming. Well, to be fair, they said there’s a death plague coming, and so- so we shut up shop. Why? Well, because if you met, you didn’t love grandma. And if you met, you weren’t kind. And you were being a bad witness, because the world would think you weren’t kind. And so we shut the doors of the church for months. And then even when it was clear, and you were allowed to hop on an airplane and fly with 200 people, but you couldn’t gather with 10 people in a church, what did the church say? “Oh, we must love. We can set aside the commands of God’s word. It’s not that important to meet for worship.” Because we were afraid of what the world would do and say. We were afraid of imprisonment. The Church compromised.

And here we’re faced with a compromise, but first, we see praise. We see praise to a compromising church. He says to them in, in verse 15, “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; yet you hold fast my name. And you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.”

Now, just a quick comment on Antipas. We have no idea who he is. There’s some amazing stories written in, like, the 1200s about who he was. I’m not quite sure how they worked it out. But there’s no evidence, at all, as to who he is. All we know is he was a faithful witness who laid down his life for the Gospel.

But setting that aside, he praises this church, what for? Because they stood firm in the front door. Persecution was barraging them straight through the front door, because they refused to give up the praise and honor of God. Persecution come, they would not give up Christ’s name. Do you see that repetition there? You will not give up the name. The name. It’s the same thing the last Church did, they held to the name, something that the Church faithfully does. The name of Christ is honored and adored, and we do not give her up, no matter what the cost. And so this church had done. And it’s striking, the imagery, he says, “I know where you dwell. I know where you dwell. In Satan town, where the throne of Satan is.” Now, you gotta wonder wha- why is Pergamum the throne of Satan? Well, he’s picking up on the scenery, isn’t he? Because what’s on the top of the hill in Pergamum? An enormous throne to the worship of false gods, and a temple filled with snakes. And, of course, our enemy is who? The serpent. And so, Jesus says to them, “I know the throne of the devil that cow- that stands above you, and I know the serpent who sits upon it.” You see, Z- Zeus is nothing, right? There’s no such thing, it’s just a statue. There’s no such thing as Archepelus. There’s none of these things. It’s all the devil. The devil is behind every false god and every false religion as he seeks to attack the Church of Jesus Christ and malign the glory of God. And so, through the name of Zeus and the temple serpent god, he was attacking the Church of Christ. And Jesus says to them, “I know the context you sit in.” And can I tell you, brothers and sisters, this must have been a wonderful c- wonderful comment, a wonderful encouragement. Jesus knows. And the same is true for you. He knows your workplace. He knows your neighborhood. He knows the pressure. He knows the context that you dwell in. And he says, “And I know you’ve been faithful.” As the temple wardens had made war upon the Church of Pergamum, even to the point of faithful Antipas’ death, they had stood firm. They would not deny the name of Christ, no matter the cost. It’s a wonderful encouragement. They had held vigilance at the front door of persecution without faltering.

I think it’s a challenge for you and I. Would we? I mean, we don’t tend to face that, but would we if the community came through the door with sticks and whips to beat us until we, until we simply said, “God is not my savior.” That’s just 3 words. “Jesus is not Lord.” It’s all it takes, 4 words, and you are scot-free. How many of us would willingly be beaten for the name of Christ?

But we’re called to be prepared, aren’t we? Though we never face it in this life, we must be prepared to lay down our lives for the name of our Lord and our Savior.

And so, he praises a compromising church for what they’re doing well, but then he rebukes them. You see, they had held fast to the name of Christ in the midst of suffering, but they were also holding fast to something else. I wonder if you picked that up when we read through it? In verse 13, “Yet you hold fast my name” And then in verse 14, “I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold” Same word, hold fast, to the teaching of Balaam. Verse 15, “Also you have some who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”

He rebukes them because though they were withstanding the frontal attack with courage, they were failing to guard the back door. They were standing vigilance to persecution, which is one of the devil’s ways of attacking the church, to destroy, but they failed the second form of attack that Satan uses most often, which is deception. And they had allowed him through the back door, through a group of people called the Nicolaitans.

Now, we mentioned them back in Ephesus, and I said to you back then, “You don’t need to worry about them because they’ll come up again.” And so, here they are. Now, the, these 2 groups of people that seem to be mentioned, the Balaam people and the Nicolaitans, are one and the same. So, he uses Balaam as an example, and then he confirms who those are. In the Greek it’s much more clear that they are the same group of people.

So, who are these Nicolaitans, and what do they do? Well, we’re told in verse 14 that they teach Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. Now, if you’re not familiar with the Old Testament, you may not remember that this is one of these odd stories that crops up in the Book of Numbers, about Numbers 25. And in Numbers 25, this guy called Balaam just turns up on the scene. Israel’s going through the wilderness, and all of a sudden the camera shifts from Israel over towards Moab. And over at Moab is this king called Balak, and Balak is terrified for obvious reason. Israel’s killing everybody, and he’s next on the hit list. So, he says, “Well, I need some help,” so he calls in the special forces. He sends a message to Balaam, who’s a prophet of that pla- place. And so, as a prophet, he sends him, and he says to him one simple request. “Curse Israel for me, because those who you curse are cursed, and those who you bless are blessed. So, come and curse them, and I’m gonna pay you really well.” And Balaam, if you wanna know anything about Balaam, Balaam is driven by money. It’s all he cares about. And so, he says, “Well, I’ll, I’ll ask God.” God says, “No, you shall not.” Balaam says to God, “Well, these guys are gonna pay me a good whack of cash. Can I go and curse?” “No, you can’t.” Balak sends back again, “Come on. Come, come.” And Balaam goes back to God again in corruption and in love of money, questioning God’s word, rejecting God’s answer, and begging for the right to go and curse the people of God.

Now, he goes and does it, but if you know the story, as he curses God, God turns the curse into a blessing and blesses Israel, and B- but Balak says, “What? What have you done? I’m not giving you any money now. You’re not getting anything. Go back to your hometown.” And the story ends. But if you fast-forward, what you find out later in the book What you find out later in the book is that Balaam didn’t go home. Instead, Balaam said to Balak, “Okay, I can’t curse him, but there’s another way around. We can’t take the front door, but there’s another way around. I mean, all men love adultery. And you know what goes hand-in-hand with adultery? Idol worship. So, let’s send our women.” And so they sent their women. They couldn’t get in the front door. They sent their women through the back door, and lo and behold, Israel committed adultery and worshiped the idols of Moab.

And so what Jesus is pointing to here is exactly what the Nicolaitans are doing. It’s compromise. You see, to be a Christian in Pergamum is to risk losing everything, not just your life. But you can’t trade. You can’t buy. You can’t sell. Why? Because to do so, you have to enter into idol worship. And so the, the Nicolaitan teachers, they came through the back door, and they came up with a solution. “Oh, uh, just, I know it’s hard, but, you know, Paul said that, you know, it doesn’t matter if something’s offered to idols, because idols aren’t real. He says it in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians too. So, it’s a conscience issue. It’s not a huge matter. It doesn’t matter.” And so you can, you can join in their idol feasting. “I mean, you, you worship God in your own heart, but you can just go through the outward motions of idol worship, but deep down, you know you’re worshiping God. And, you know, look, I-I know that you shouldn’t be sleeping around with people, but you’re not really doing it because your heart’s devoted to God, and so you separate the heart and the body, and you just do what you have to do to keep yourself safe. I mean, your family needs you. You can’t afford not to provide. God wants you to provide, you know.” And you can see, you can imagine, couldn’t you, how, how this subtle teaching comes in? And some of the people go, “Well, I don’t wanna lose my home. I don’t want to lose my job. I don’t want to be thought low of. I don’t want my friends to reject me. I’m afraid. And if I just engage just a little bit, maybe I won’t sleep with the prostitutes, but I’ll just spend time with them, you know? You know, it’s not really sin if I’m not fully engaging in it. You know, and it’s, it’s, it’s just a little bit, and, and it’s for a good reason, you know?”

And so, bit by bit, they compromised upon the truth of God. And, and don’t tell me this isn’t present in the church. Okay, sure, we don’t instead, we’re not talking about eating idol food and engaging in idol feasts and committing adultery with different people, but I, I can remember teenagers in church when I was a teenager saying to me, “Uh, it’s not a sin unless you fully consummate.” And so they would do all manner of different things with their girlfriends because it’s only a sin when you do that final last part. That’s compromise. “Oh, you know, we’ve, you know, we don’t want the world to think that we’re misogynistic. We don’t want the world to think that we’re some of those crazy patriarchal type people. Uh, we’re not gonna embrace full-on feminism, but just a soft form. You know, it’s soft egalitarianism. It’s called, it’s called narrow complimentarianism. It’s a stupid name, but we’ll just take a little bit of feminism and add it in, just like a little bit of salt so that when people say to us, “Oh, you’re those misogynistic Chr- Oh, no, we love women in our church. No, we put them and get them doing, oh, everything. Oh, no, no, no, no, we’re no different.” Uh, why? Because I’m afraid, because someone’s gonna look at me and say, “Ah, you’re a misogynist. You hate women.” And the truth is, we love them more than anybody else because we delight to encourage them to fulfill the role God’s given them rather than making them be the breadwinner and the mother and the wife and everything else in between while the husband sits around and does nothing!

We must be very careful of this. It happens in other forms. You know, we don’t wanna be seen to be a legalistic church, do we? And so we don’t use church discipline. Oh, I wouldn’t wanna be seen as being harsh. I want to be seen as loving, so I wouldn’t want to rebuke people or chastise people in sin. Or, you know, people will think we’re, we’re old and fuddy-duddy if we sing old hymns and psalms and use old tunes. That’s We wouldn’t want that. People will think we’re old-fashioned! We wanna be hip. We want to be cool! And so we need the latest music, and we need smoke machines and laser lights because we’re afraid, and so we compromise.

Brothers and sisters, we must guard against compromise. Let me give you one of the most striking illustrations of this in our age. Probably the strongest example of this in the modern church is what you do on Sunday. For 1,900 years, the church has believed in a Christian Sabbath and practiced it. And all of the shops have been shut, and only works of necessity were encouraged, and mercy, and all of a sudden, the tide began to shift. Non-Christians didn’t want to be bound by God’s laws, and truth be told, neither did Christians. And so they said what? “Well, it’s not quite a Christian Sabbath. You know, that’s Old Testament stuff. As long as I go to church, that’s enough.” And then it became, “As long as I go to church once a day, that’s enough, once a Sunday.” And then it became, “Well, realistically, it’s my day anyway.” And all of a sudden, the Sabbath was completely thrown out. compromised on the truth of God’s word.

And ultimately, this is a question of will we honor Christ’s word or our own?

Now, there’s a sense in which we can say we are here because we were not willing to compromise on God’s word, right? Well, the challenge for us, brothers and sisters, is how long will we hold the line? Not just on one issue, but on every issue. You know, es- people will often say, won’t they? I heard this during COVID. I’ve heard it on other issues. People will say, “This is not the hill to die on, so this is not the hill to die on! There’s more important hills!”

Brothers and sisters, every hill is a hill to die on if it’s a hill written in the word of God. And we cannot allow ourselves to fold on a single issue, because if you give way in one, you will give way in them all, and the proof’s in the pudding! It’s called a slippery slope, and everywhere you see churches decimated by Pergamum compromise. You see, liberal churches didn’t wake up one day and say, “You know what? We should have gay ministers.” I once read an article of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and they were celebrating the ordination of women, and they said, “First, we got deacons. Then we got elders. Then we got ministers.” You see, they opened up the door a little bit and then just kept pushing.

We must be men and women of the truth. We must be like Eric Liddell. You remember that? Chariots of Fire movie? The story of Eric Liddell, the runner, who in the Paris Olympics, I think it was 1924, he was, he was set to win the 100-meter sprint, incredible runner. Everyone expected him to win, and then they set the heats on the Sabbath. And so, Eric Liddell said, “Well, I’m sorry. I’m going to church.” And he walked down to church, and he worshiped, and he rested. And he went to church in the evening, and he worshiped, and he skipped out. And he gave up the hopes of the 100 meter. He was disqualified.

Now, how many of you have said, “Oh, oh, this would’ve been an opportunity to be a witness of a Christian winning in God’s strength”? He gave it up. He gave it up for the sake of Christ, because he loved God’s word more than he loved all of the fame and acclaim of this world.

And so, we see a church in compromise. But we also see a ch- a church with a call to repentance. And so, Jesus says to them, “Therefore” Verse 16, “Therefore, repent. If not, I will come and make war with the sword of my mouth. I will come and make war with the sword of my mouth.”

What was the message of John, Jesus, disciples, while they were upon this earth? Repent, for the kingdom of God has come. Now, you do realize this call to repentance isn’t written to the world, is it? It’s written to the church, “Repent. Turn from your evil back to your Savior.” It’s an invitation to 3 groups of people. It’s an invitation to the false teachers, because if they won’t repent, Christ will come and destroy them. And we’re gonna see this very graphically in the Church of Thyatira. It’s an invitation to those, the group of the some that it says, the some that have held fast. It’s an, it’s an invitation to them to repent and come back. But it’s also an invitation to the church. Why? Because the church has failed to guard the back door, and the church has failed to discipline and remove false teachers. They have not guarded against error. And so, Christ is calling them to repent, to guard against falsehood, and to remove it from the church.

And that’s gonna be costly business. I mean, they’re already small. You imagine if you’ve gotta cut off a third of the church. It’s not gonna be good for the tithes. That’s right. It’s not gonna be good for fellowship Sunday. I mean, maybe the false teacher brings the best donuts. They don’t want him gone.

Christ is calling them back to faithfulness. And here’s the point. Here’s the scary thing. What Jesus is telling them is, “Repent, purify the church, or I will.” And this is a perennial message to the church. Whenever there is sin, whenever there is error, whenever there is falsehood, Christ comes to the church with a sword in his hand, and he says, “Cleanse out the old lump. Cut off the hand, the foot. Pluck out the eye.” And this applies individually and corporately as a church, “Put sin to death, or I will come and do it.”

And of course, one of the fabulous examples of this is Corinth, right? Falsely celebrating the Lord’s supper, and Paul says, “This is why you’re dying.” That’s a terrify- terrifying thought, isn’t it? Because you are forsaking God’s sacrament, God is putting you to death. That’s the point.

Brothers and sisters, we must faithfully hold to the truth and be swift to put it to death, or Christ himself will come and kill it for us. Why? Because He loves us far too much to allow us to be corrupted by sin and false teaching. And there’s no use crying out, “Please be gentle.” You know, you know the child with the prickle in their foot? This is, at least this is how it works in my home, because they don’t let me do it ’cause I’m way too savage, so it’s always Mum. “Mum! Mum! I’ve got a prickle.” And Mum says what? “Get me the needle.” And the child goes, “I’d rather the prickle stay there, actually.” “No, please, Mum. Please, no. Does it have to, the prickle?” “I’ve gotta get the prickle out.” “Please be gentle.” But here’s the thing. If she’s gentle, the prickle’s not coming out. And so Christ comes with a sword, and we There’s no use saying, “Please be gentle, Jesus. Please be meek. Please be soft.” He says, “I’ve come with a sword for a reason. You refuse to repent, so I’ll cut it off myself.”

Brothers and sisters, let us be people marked by the fruit of repentance. Of all the people in the world, we should be the quickest and easiest to fall upon our knees and say, “It was me. It was me. I’m a sinner. I’m broken. I stuffed it up again.” Why? Because forgiveness is free. We’ve tasted of the salvation of God, and we’ve looked to Christ and seen all that we need, and so we look at Him and we see forgiveness offered, and we just go, “Let’s do it again. Let’s do it again.” Don’t cling to your sin, but cling to the cross of Christ.

But we also see here not just a Church in compromise and a call to repentance, we see a promise of hope, a promise of hope. He says to the Church, “To the one who conquers” Now, what that means is to the one who repents and holds fast to the truth. “To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

What’s going on here? What’s with this hidden manna? What’s with this white stone with a name on it? Like, maybe you’re not terribly excited about some manna and a stone.

On a Wednesday, Brother John and I were talking after the prayer meeting about being saved, and I was telling him of the fact that when I got W- I There was a part of me that didn’t want to come to the Lord, because I was terrified of losing my friends. I was terrified of the cost. You know, I had 4 or 5 what I thought were good mates who were just booze-heads and druggies, and, and I didn’t wanna give them up. And I didn’t wanna pay the cost of coming to Jesus. I wanted Jesus, and I wanted my friends. And, and I tried for a while, but I quickly found that Christ and alcoholics can’t hold hands. And so I had to leave them behind, and it hurt. They’d been long-time friends. It hurt. And I thought to myself, “Well, I guess I’ll just have to be friendless, with the exception of my wife, of course, for the rest of my life.” And I was saying to John, “Isn’t it striking? Here I sit in a prayer meeting with 20 people, and they’re all friends. And they’re all far better friends than the friends I had.” And then I can think of friends in Gisborne and Wyndham, friends in American Samoa, friends in Fiji, friends all around the world, people that love me. Have I lost? No. That which Jesus said came true. Jesus said, “Anyone who leaves brother, father, mother, property, anything for my name will receive one hundredfold, with persecution in this life and in the next.” A- and you see, the Church of Pergamum was being called to give up. They were being called to give up livelihoods, food, feast, adultery. They were being called to give up fellowship, friendship, to be isolated, to be hated and scorned. And of course, what would’ve been their fear? What’s the very thing that motivated compromise, right? “I’m afraid to give up what I have, because I love the things of this world more than I love Christ, and I don’t wanna give it up. Like me, I wanna hold both hands together.” And Christ tells them, “I will repay.” Christ is no man’s beggar. No one will get to glory and be able to say, “Jesus, you owe me. I gave up everything for you.” No, everyone will arrive and say, “I have infinitely more than I deserved. Whatever I gave away, he has replaced tenfold and more so.”

And so, he promises them 2 things in this hope. He promises them hidden manna. Hidden manna is the picture of a relational feasting provision from God. See, they were being called to give up idol worship, which meant giving up feast, giving up all of the celebrations of the age in order to be one of God’s. And Christ says to them, “Look, in exchange for your meager sacrificed idol meat, I will give you hidden manna.” In other words, the best of the best. “I will give you something that will satisfy you forever,” and it’s pictured for us in the table, isn’t it? For a day is coming when we will eat and drink with Christ in paradise, and so every week, we say to ourselves, “The hidden manna is coming. The hidden manna is coming.”

But he’s also promised a white stone. Now, there is so much debate about what this white stone is. It’s about 14 different options you can pick from, and trust me, I checked about 15 commentaries and they all disagree, but I think here’s the point. You see, i- in their society, much like in the 1700s, there was, there was a way of voting where you would go up to a box and you’d throw a white stone or a black stone in. So someone wants to join the guild, you have to get a white stone from everyone that’s in the guild. If you want a promotion, you’ve gotta get a white stone. And so, someone can blackball you. You’ve heard the saying of blackballing someone? That’s where this comes from. You throw a black ball in, you throw a black stone in, and then they don’t get in. You block them. And so, for those who were Christians, what happens? They get blackballed at every turn, and Christ says to them, “I’m gonna give you a white stone, and it’s gonna have a name on it, and that name is mine.” It will have the name of the Lord on it, and you will hold a white stone with an eternal name upon it that can never be taken away. “Whatever it’s cost you to follow me, I will replace. I will reward. I will give.”

And Eric Liddell learned that, didn’t he? He gave up his 100-meter dash. Do you know what happened? He ran the 400-meter, something he hadn’t trained for, and got gold. And yet if he hadn’t have gotten gold, he still would’ve been a gainer anyway.

Brothers and sisters, the, the Church of Christ will never miss out on anything. Christ will give her all she needs, and so we see this warrior king coming to a compromising church and, and saying to her, “Repent, and I will reward. I will give you what you want. I will give you what you need. I will bestow richly upon you.”

Brothers and sisters, the, the church is called in Timothy, it’s called the buttress, the pillar and the buttress of truth. The pillar and the buttress of truth. The job of the Church of Christ is to maintain the truth of Christ in a changing and terrifying culture. Now, those words were written to Timothy. And then Paul goes on to tell him that days are coming when men with tingling ears will reject the truth, and want nothing to do with it, and they will preach what is pleasant to their ears but poison to their hearts. And, and that’s exactly what’s happening in Pergamum.

And so I think this encourages us to do 2 things. Firstly, to be on guard against falsehood, to be on guard against error, to be on guard against anything that is not in line with God’s Word. But the flip of that, the only way you can do that, is if you do the second thing, which is to delight in and know the truth of God’s Word. If you don’t know God’s Word, you will be blown around with every wind. You’ll be like a boat in the ocean without a rudder. Wherever the wind blows, that’s where the boat’s going. So take up the Word and read it. Don’t miss an opportunity to sit under the preaching of God’s Word. Give yourself to reading the scriptures, talking about the scriptures, sharing the scriptures. As Paul would say, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Not by the renewal of your emotions, but the renewal of your mind. And in so doing, you’ll be able to spot error. And in so doing, you, like Antipas, may be able to lay your life down for the sake of God and his truth.

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