Father, we thank You for that amazing truth that Your grace is greater than all of our sin. Lord, You sustain us in every trial. There’s no season that we can walk through where You’re not in control and You’re not showing Yourself to be great and our greatest joy and satisfaction. Lord, so we pray that we would just together as Your church this evening grow up more in what it means to follow Jesus and to lean in and listen to Your Spirit, to believe and enjoy that truth that we’re Your children. Lord, that we would just please You as we worship in Spirit and truth. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, good evening, church. It’s good to be with you. I know we’ve got several families traveling this weekend. I’m missing a few folks, but that’s okay. I’m glad to be here with you. And I’m glad to be continuing on in the book of Revelation.
This week we’re going to consider Jesus’ letter to the church in Pergamum. I’m going to turn there to Revelation 2, verses 12 to 17.
John writes, And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. 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. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them, with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with the new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.
There’s a missionary named James Calvert. And as he was getting close to the Fiji Islands, to where he wanted to evangelize, cannibals, the captain strongly urged him to turn back, saying, you will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages. And Calvert’s reply demonstrates what true commitment, what true devotion is. He replied, we died before we came here. And I think that’s such a powerful little story to really teach us what real devotion, what true commitment is. It’s… It’s a decision we’ve already made to a cause. And in the context of Christianity, it’s a decision when we gave our lives to Christ, what we were already willing to do. And that was whatever. That was whatever Christ would tell us to do. Because Jesus is Lord.
When we interview people to volunteer and work at the pregnancy center, one of the last questions we ask, we don’t qualify why we’re asking it, we just say, define the word commitment. And they always kind of raise their hand. They raise their eyebrows. Like, why are you asking me that question? And they sit there for a minute and they give their version of what they think the word commitment means. But we tell them, we want you to know what commitment is because you’ve got to be committed if you’re here. We believe in our mission. We believe what we’re about. And we only want people here who are as devoted as we are.
Devotion. Commitment. We’ve talked about what kingdom suffering is. We’ve talked about what kingdom labor is. But now Jesus really talks about to the church in Pergamon, what is kingdom devotion? What is kingdom devotion? And are we devoted as Christ would have us be?
He says in verse 12, as He writes to the angel of the church in Pergamon, the words of Him who has the sharp two-edged sword. Now remember, every time Jesus talks to one of these churches, He refers back to a descriptive that He gave John in the first chapter. And that descriptive always makes sense for what He’s saying to each church. And this time, particularly, what He says is He’s the one who has the double-edged sword coming out of His mouth. That two-edged sword is His Word. He says that back in chapter 1, verse 16. And I think it’s important, it’s a critical detail that Jesus says His Word’s a two-edged sword. You ever try to cut a steak with the flat side of a knife?
You look silly if you did. I’ve seen that. It doesn’t work at all. A two-edged sword, it cuts both ways. So if you’re on the battlefield, whichever way that thing is getting swung, you better watch out because it’s dangerous. And it will cut. It will do the thing it intends to do. So Jesus is reminding us up front, His Word is a very powerful, authoritative, I would even say dangerous Word if it came at you. If Jesus was to swing. And Jesus talks a little bit down here that sometimes He’s got to swing if He has to.
And that letter’s to Pergamum. Now Pergamum was the official center in Asia for the imperial cult. I know we talked about last week Smyrna and they were pretty integrated into the imperial cult. That much more in Pergamum. They were actually the capital of Asia Minor of all those Roman provinces. They were the first to build a temple to a living ruler. Augustus granted them permission to make a temple to Him as divine. So this city is even more so liable for Christians and for those living in this ancient Greco-Roman world to clash. Because it would have been high treason for a Christian to refuse to give a pinch of incense to Caesar. You could not. You can worship whatever God, you want to worship was the rule, but you still have to give a pinch of incense to the divine emperor. They also had the right of the sword, which means if they didn’t like, you know, what you liked and they disbelieved what you believed, they didn’t have to send off to Rome to get permission. You know, it’s done for. They also had a great altar to Zeus. They had one altar depicting many Greek gods defeating giants. And that was symbolizing for them civilization. Civilization’s triumph over barbarism. They had a library with 200,000 volumes.
They particularly had a shrine to a god of healing and people would travel from all around to come to this god for healing. So you get a picture of Pergamum as being some very well-to-do people. We’ve got our big library, we’ve got our words, we’ve got our healer. Okay, we’re the ones who really have the most important temple for healing. We’re, you know, the living Caesar, the ruler of the known world. We’ve got our Greek gods. They’re very much so, in their minds, in the know. We’re the capital city. It’s in that place that you have to be a Christian. The thing is, if you’re in that place and you’ve got to be a Christian, you know, you better mean it. You’ve got to mean it. It’s not going to be easy otherwise.
I read a story just yesterday about a man and a woman from Gaza and they became Christians. And he had a great job at a bank, but they felt led for him to leave that job and they started to work for a Bible society. Of course, it’s very dangerous. You know, Gaza is practically all Muslim. And I was reading, you know, the Christian population in Gaza, I think even today is declining. But after a while, they started to notice people were following them. They started getting threats. And then one night, she got a call from her husband that he was in their hands. And that was it. She never saw her husband again.
It’s devotion.
It’s commitment.
It’s saying to Jesus, Jesus, anywhere you call me to go, anywhere, anything you tell me to do, am I really devoted? I think Revelation, it begs us to ask ourselves that question.
Are we longing to live in this world where, you know, culture is mostly harmonious? So yeah, maybe, somebody somewhere doesn’t like it, but I don’t have to take too big of a stand for Christ. Because that’s not biblical.
The first thing Jesus reveals to us is kingdom devotion is really only kingdom devotion if we’re willing to be so in the face of outward hostility. Outward hostility.
In verse 13, Jesus says, I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.
And he says that they’ve been faithful in the days of Antipas, who was killed. And it’s where Satan dwells. And it’s interesting what Jesus doesn’t say. Jesus doesn’t say, I know where you dwell. I know it’s really hard. You live in that place where the imperial cult is well known. And that would have been like, yeah, we do. And it’s tough because of the imperial cult. That’s not what Jesus says. He doesn’t say, oh, I know it’s so hard because you’ve got like temples to Zeus there. And people, you know, are into all kinds. Kind of weird cultic pagan practices. That’s not what he says. He doesn’t say, oh, I know culture there is just rampant with immorality and, you know, philosophies of the time. That’s not what Jesus says. Jesus says, I know where you dwell. I know where you live. And it’s where Satan’s throne is.
So Jesus has not given us a possibility that anyone is under the lordship of more than two different lords. It’s him as Jesus, king in his kingdom, or it’s the enemy and it’s his kingdom. I think for Jesus, it’s that black and white. Think about in Ephesians when Paul says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that’s now at work in the sons of disobedience. So Jesus doesn’t give us room here to say or to simply say, well, that just so happens to be the religion that, you know, they practice in their part of the world or, well, you know, different ideologies about who you can love and gender. That just happens to be the cultural mood of our time and it’ll be something different. There are all these multiple ways and these different religions, these different ways of life and everybody’s just trying to figure it out, out there so we can’t be too, you know, forceful with what we believe. We don’t want to be considered hate mongers, right? Jesus doesn’t give us that choice.
Jesus says it’s one of two things. It’s my kingdom, it’s my lordship, or you’re under the lordship of Satan and all the different ways that he’s manifesting his kingdom in the world. We talked about this a little bit last week as Jesus started talking about the enemy last week in Smyrna. The enemy’s not trying to get everyone to, you know, paint their faces black and, you know, get surgically implanted fangs and get horns in their head and be like, devil worshipers. That’s not what he’s looking for. He’s just looking for people in a great variety of ways to have lives that don’t include worship to Jesus Christ. So it’s that plain and simple.
We’re all governed, we’re all controlled by the one spirit or the other. Is the spirit of Jesus ruling and reigning in your heart? Is his kingdom the kingdom for which you live? Because here’s the thing about the spirit of Jesus. There’s no spirit ruling and reigning in you. The spirit of God is not at peace with the spirit of this age, the spirit of Satan. Nor is it true that the spirit of Satan and the spirit of this age is at peace with Jesus.
Which means if you really stand for Christ’s kingdom, you’ve got to plant, you know, both feet right where you stand and say, here I stand, I can do no other. There is no compromise. There is no approving. There is no backing off. I believe what I believe because it’s true. So, you know, you drive around town and you see the coexist sticker on the back of people’s cars. Coexist. And it’s got all the different religious symbols. It’s an impossibility for Christians according to Jesus. It’s an impossibility. There’s just two kingdoms. There’s two kingdoms. Now we learn the lesson from these Christians in Pergamum. You stand with Christ in the face of all adversity regardless of religion that’s against you, government, cultural moods. If you’re truly devoted to Christ, it’s the only way. It’s the only way. And that devotion, what Jesus is saying here is it’s really costly. And it was really costly for this man named Antipas. Now, who’s he? We have no idea outside of this verse. We don’t know who he is. All we can assume from this is that there was this great persecution happening at this time and it was terrible and he kind of became the face of this persecution. It’s thought that he was the very first martyr under Roman rule, Antipas. It’s also legend, tradition holds that he was slow-roasted in a brazen bull at the request of Domitian, the emperor.
It cost Antipas everything to be devoted to Christ.
It cost him everything. Everything.
Are we devoted? Are we so devoted to Jesus’ kingdom?
It’s a question of who gets the
last word, I guess, but it’s a question of who gets the loudest word. Jesus is saying, my word is a two-edged sword.
I’m speaking my word to you as my people, the ones for whom I have bled and died. And then the enemy is speaking his word, which one are we going to listen to? Which one will we succumb to?
It’s, you know, I think, real easy to get hot and bothered on a Sunday and amen that, yes, Jesus, all the way. But what happens on Monday? What happens on Monday? Are we really so bold for our faith when the Spirit moves us to share Christ with someone who perhaps is going to be hostile to it? Do we really want to share Christ when we know it’s unpopular? Do we want to really, really expose ourselves as good old-fashioned, you know, Bible-believing Christians in a world that finds that to be antiquated or silly or anti-intellectual?
And again, I know we talked about it, and some of this, I think, as I said, Jesus repeats it over and over again because we need to hear it. We can’t assume, we can’t assume, oh, that’s never going to happen to me. I’ll never live in that time where things are that bad like they are in the Middle East. I’m not saying we should hope for it. You know, I think sometimes we think, well, if I was a real Christian, I’d be on the other side of the world, and, you know, I would just be wondering every night, am I going to perish? Am I going to die tonight? Jesus hasn’t called us to do that. And you can leave it to the wisdom of God about where I live, but here I am in my context. Lord, I’m making the decision in my heart. I’m going to be faithful to You no matter what comes. No matter what comes.
D.L. Moody, you know, obviously, founder of the Moody Bible Institute, there’s a famous quote where someone asks him, you know, Mr. Moody, you know, do you have the grace to be a martyr? And Mr. Moody replies, no, I have not, but if God wanted me to be one, He would give me a martyr’s grace. And there is a grace to be a martyr. And I don’t think that any of us can stand in our own seat and be like, yeah, I could totally do that for Jesus. Because if I’m being honest, I totally could not do that for Jesus. God, I need Your grace just as I needed Your grace to receive You when I, you know, became a Christian. I need Your grace for waking up in the morning and having the right attitude with my wife. And just as much as I need grace for, you know, loving my wife, my children, or whatever You’re calling me to do in life, Jesus, it would be Your grace and Your grace alone that would keep me in the hardest parts in the hardest time. And He does. And He does. How much do we read about Paul? You know, say, pray that you be strengthened according to the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Pray for boldness. Paul says, I can’t be who I’m supposed to be to go and proclaim the Gospel among the Gentiles. What? If you’re not praying for me. So friends, we’ve got to be on our knees, I think, daily, having this mindset. I think if we’re, you know, we’re just kind of on cruise control in the Christian life and assuming everything’s fine, it can’t be that way. Paul says what? Be alert. Be awake. These kinds of things, if they catch you off guard, they’ll knock you out. They’ll knock you over. But Paul says, be alert. Be awake. Be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you. Be seasoned. So are you ready to speak up for your faith?
Jesus also says, be wise as serpents, you know, innocent as doves. So I don’t think that means I can bust up in my workplace and say, hey everybody, I’m a Christian and I know that y’all don’t like Christ at this organization, so take that high. Like, God’s not calling us to be, you know, obnoxious about it. There’s wisdom to it, but at the same time, if we’re following Christ, there’s going to be conflict. And I have to say, Jesus, I’m yours, whatever conflict that may, you know, create. But I don’t want to go look for trouble. And I think social media is probably one of the biggest avenues because social media, people think this is the place where I don’t have to honor my commitment to Christ, right? I can be as nasty and ugly as I want to be on social media and for some reason, it doesn’t matter. Friends, if people are on social media and they’re giving their opinions, you’re free to give your opinion, but there’s this thing called speaking the truth in love. And so if you’re going to engage, I think with, you know, your family, come Thanksgiving in a few weeks or with your friends or on social media, speak the truth and speak it firmly, but do so in a spirit of love. What is it to speak the truth of Christ without the love of Christ? We might as well keep our mouths shut. So, outward hostility, but here’s the second thing I want you to see. Kingdom devotion in the face of outward hostility. Secondly, Jesus talks about in the face of inward betrayal and disloyalty.
Are you devoted to the kingdom when you’re faced with inward betrayal and disloyalty?
Verse 14, Jesus says, but I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that it might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. So just to recap that story, what’s Jesus talking about there? Well, back in Numbers, Israel was, you know, they’d come up out of Egypt and they’re traveling around and God’s blessings on them and they can wipe out whoever they fight. Right? Because God’s with them. And so the king of the Moabites, Balak, he recognizes, uh-oh, these Israelites, if they come against us, the Moabites, we’re going to die. So what does Balak do? He goes to Balaam, this soothsayer, this type of prophet and diviner, and he says, hey, I’m going to pay you money and you’re going to go and curse the Israelites for me. Well, of course, you know, Balaam goes to curse the Israelites, but three times God doesn’t let him. Rather, he pronounces, he pronounces a blessing on Israel instead of a curse. And Balak is so mad that Balaam has done this. But we discover after this, Balaam gives advice to the Moabites. Hey, if you really want to trip the Israelites up, you’re not going to be able to do that from an outward attack. You’re going to have to destroy them from the inside.
We read in Numbers 25,
while Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to sacrifice to their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to the Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. And Moses said to the judges of Israel, each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal Peor. So you see what happens. They can’t win from the outside. So they have these women go to essentially make themselves sexually available to the men and draw them away from the God of Israel and lead them to worship their God in these ceremonies and festivals. And what’s wrong with that? Well, here’s what’s wrong with that. The covenant that God made, what God made with Israel was you’re going to be different from all the other nations on the face of the earth. You’re going to be different because I’m a different God. You’re going to be holy because I’m a holy God. You’re going to act different. You’re going to think different. You’re going to treat one another different. It’s the law that Moses got on the mountain, right?
But they compromised. Their fidelity to God was compromised in that they tried to worship both the God of Israel and the Baals that all the other nations tried to worship. And they ate with them at the table and they participated in their festivals and in their ceremonies. And God said, it’s not going to happen. God says, I’m not going to put up with it.
Import that all the way back on the church of Pergamon. This is what Jesus is doing. He’s telling this story.
And the meaning holds true. Jesus is saying, I’m so glad that you’re sacrificing for me. I’m so glad you’re suffering for me. You’re devoted in the face of our, our hostility. But here’s the problem, church at Pergamon. You’re willing to let these people live among you, carry the label of Christian over their lives, but yet they don’t have a cross on their back. You’re willing to let people come to your church and fellowship with you, call themselves Christian, yet they have no problem with sexual immorality. They have no problem with fusing their worship of the one true God and of Jesus with Zeus and with Athena and with all these gods. You have no problem with them saying, oh yes, I’m devoted to Christ, but they’re also devoted to Caesar and giving him a pinch too. They’re trying to have both worlds. And Jesus is saying, it’s just not going to happen in my church.
One commentator notes, if the problem with Ephesus was they were all truth and no love, the problem with Pergamon is they’re all love and no truth. Just, you know, let everyone be what everyone wants to be. And that’s such a dangerous,
toxic, unbiblical, wicked thought that we can somehow come to this conclusion that as Christians, we’re not supposed to judge one another. You’ve heard that so many times. Don’t judge me. Don’t judge me. Don’t judge me. We just went through Corinthians and what did Paul say? Okay. Judge one another, purge the evil person from among you, the one that persists in sin. He says elsewhere, rebuke him in front of the whole church. He says in Ephesians, expose the works of darkness. If there’s anything that God tells us to do in the New Testament, it’s that we have to love Jesus by loving his body. And loving his body is not just, you know, hey, you’re sick. I’m going to bring you some soup. That’s great. You know, I love soup when I’m sick. Or, hey, let me come over and help you in your need. Or, hey, you got a hard time. Let me pray for you. All these very positive ways we help one another. Sometimes loving Jesus is loving the body in like a really hard place and saying, brother, sister, we got to sit down and talk because you can’t say you’re a Christian and do that. You can’t say you’re a Christian and believe that. It just can’t happen. So a lot of times love, truly loving God and loving people is reactive in the willingness to sit down and say that has got to stop. You don’t get to carry the label Christ follower if you don’t have his cross over your shoulder on your back, dying to your selfish desires, dying to your desire to be liked and approved of, desiring every pleasure and lifestyle you see around you in the world. What we have to be willing to do is say, Jesus, I want to look just like you. I want your body. I want to look just like you. And I’m standing here in the church the best I can to represent that, help others do that. And, hey, I’m open to, you know, getting smacked in the back of the head when I do something wrong. Right. No one gets to be above reproof. That’s not how that’s not how holiness works. And so this is a problem, too, when we come to church with a very individualistic mindset, because if Christian Christianity, your Christian life is you, you know, and Jesus. And we got this. Thing going on. You’ve got a problem because you’re blocking out the means by which God so often helps you grow. And it’s through the love, care, prayer, rebuke and discipline. Right. Of brothers and sisters around you.
And it’s nothing new under the sun. If the church in Pergamum is dealing with this 2000 years ago, why do we think that we wouldn’t have to? To deal with this just as much. And we are. And we are. I think that time would fail me to list all the ways in which you and I have to really guard, you know, the inside of our church and guard, you know, the purity of what we believe, what we do. Again, that very popular mantra, you know, love is love. Doesn’t matter. You know, love is acceptance. So whoever you say you are, whatever you do, the moment I say that’s wrong, all of a sudden I’m a hater. Right. And it’s a very effective tactic to kind of dumb people down into ever speaking the truth in someone else’s life. We could talk about how, you know, gender, that issue has bled into the church. Many churches, denominations saying that’s great. That’s OK. Let’s celebrate what the world celebrates. Let’s celebrate marriage being something other than a man and a woman. I’m reminded. I’m reminded on a regular basis, just conversations I have the other week with people who proclaim to be Christians and have been Christians their whole life. How far just the institution of marriage is from everyone’s minds. I mean, the idea of sleeping together, that’s so common, not out in the world. It’s incredibly common inside the walls of the church. It’s incredibly common for men to have, you know, struggles with pornography. And I think it’s come to this point where it’s like, yeah, we all do it. We know it’s wrong, but it’s there. I think we’ve lost this mentality that Jesus is saying is you all should love me and love one another so much. You can’t put up with sin. You can’t put up with it. So if we have sin in our lives and we’re not really willing to expel it, if we see sin in the lives of our brothers and sisters and we’re really not willing to address it, we have to really ask the question, at that point, how devoted am I to this person, Jesus?
You know, there are certainly a great number of issues, I think, on which faithful Christians can have, you know, mild disagreements, you know. But at the end of it, if we all have the same spirit, we should be rallying around the same Jesus, the same gospel, the same Bible, and we would defend that, you know, life or death, whether it’s outside in the world or protecting the purity, the integrity of the body of Christ in here, in here. That’s where the fight starts. We fight for the integrity of the truth of who God is so that we can be a light. Because what good is the church, friends, if we don’t have our light? You remember this kind of this theme that’s going throughout Revelation of the lampstand. Jesus said, if you’re not going to be a church, I’m just going to take your lampstand away. Because who needs a lamp with no light? That’s just in the way, right? That’s just a piece of metal standing there. Our light is the purity of the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ and the Bible, His scriptures, His truths, and how the Spirit is bringing that about in our lives as we grow up together in Christ Jesus.
Jesus says, My word is a two-edged sword. It’s a two-edged sword. Do you think that there is a religion? Do you think that there is a philosophy? Do you think there is a culture whose word can dull Jesus’ blade?
No. No.
Is Jesus kind and patient enough to allow churches to sometimes wallow in their sin to give them a chance to repent? Yes.
But here, see what Jesus says if we don’t repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. So Jesus says, repent. Jesus doesn’t want to do it, but Jesus says, Hey, guess what? If you’re going to challenge me, I will meet that challenge. So notice then what that means. If Jesus is using this kind of language to say, if you manipulate doctrine, if you think purity of life, ethics, morals don’t matter according to God’s word, it’s not just wrong. Like, well, that’s wrong. You shouldn’t do that. Jesus is telling us it’s an actual open declaration of war against God. Jesus says, if you do it, I’m coming at you with the sword of my mouth. Jesus declares war on those who would corrupt the gospel, the truth of it, what it means to follow him and him alone.
So I want to say to us here, it’s a blessed thing. Is it not a is it not a blessed thing to think about God in heaven before the ages began? And yet he sought fit to save you. Paul says that God predestined before the ages began. Like you were you were in the heart of God before the ages began. And God knew he was going to send his son to suffer for your sins. For your sake, a sinner. And yet we have the nerve and the gall to spit on it and throw it away by twisting it and making it live in submission to the mind, the whims, the desires of man.
Friends, friends, see what treasure you’ve been given in Christ Jesus. See what a blessed thing it is to be called a child of the living God. Live for it and defend it. This is the this is the book of Jude. If you’ve never read the book of Jude, it’s like it’s not it’s like one page. It’s not many. It’s not many verses. But Jude starts that letter up by saying, I was going to write to you about this. Our common salvation. But then he says, but I had to write to you to contend for the faith which was once delivered to you. So it’s not it’s not a new thing. It’s something we have to do. How for how long? Till Jesus comes back. Because until Jesus comes back, there’s always going to be a force of evil at work. Not just attacking the church from the outside. But trying to manipulate and pervert it from within.
Jesus does not want your partial allegiance. Jesus does not want your partial worship. It’s not going to happen. He’s not going to take it. Jesus calls us to all of life discipleship. Or he says, you go your way. You be a part of that kingdom.
What good is a ship fortified? Armed with advanced weaponry. Yet the captain refuses to, you know, stop a mutiny that he knows is forming. What good is it to to have this amazing vessel and you allow it to be polluted and ruined from within? Friends, in the same way, those of us who in the body of Christ, we love Jesus by loving his body. And love is not this. It should be. And it is a lot of times like, hey, how you doing? Praying for you. Let’s get together and study the Bible. Like, that’s great. But sometimes love is.
Man, you’re you’re you’re sinning and you’ve got to stop. You can’t believe that that is new age teaching. That is something outside of biblical doctrine. So are you willing to have those uncomfortable conversations? Paul says, purge the evil person from among you.
So I want to I want to kind of again, I know I kind of try to give a loose framework for this. But you and I can’t. We can’t defend what we don’t know what we’re supposed to be defending. Right. Like, it’s hard to know what you don’t know. This is why it’s so important that each of us have a deep love for God’s word on our own. A deep love for God’s word on our own. I need to know you need to know this is what God’s word says, because if you don’t know, you can’t defend it. So love God’s word. And here’s the next thing. And this is something I’m going to I’m going to be. I think more forceful on with us in the coming months. Friends, we’ve got to be in discipling relationships. I know I’ve floated that term quite a bit. God simply does not intend on us as followers of Jesus, not meaningfully connecting and walking together at a one on one level. He absolutely intends on that. You read the scriptures, you read Paul, you read Timothy, you read Barnabas. You see you see people following Jesus in the context of community. So it’s so unhealthy. If your only connection point with the church is Sunday morning, you need that. I need that. It’s a supplement. It’s a necessary supplement, but it’s not enough. Find a brother or sister who you can walk with throughout the week. Some of you are mature and you should be doing the discipling. And maybe some of us feel like, well, I don’t know that I’m there yet to disciple. Then be discipled and learn. It’s really the means about how God keeps us holy together.
Another great means is great godly books, books written by very godly men who aren’t just, you know, they’ve got thoughts in their head, but who have studied God’s word and can help us in different aspects. So we’re going to start book giveaways actually today. And we’re going to start giving away books periodically that I think are really helpful for you to grow in your faith.
Lastly, know a good doctrinal statement. So we have a doctrinal statement on our way. It’s on our website, the New Hampshire Confession of Faith of 1853. It’s a great confession of faith because it really boils down. We believe this is what the Bible teaches. This is what really matters. It can’t be everything, but it’s a lot of things that matter and matter the most. You should read it. Take time to study it. Look up the verses that are connected with it. I do, you know, family worship with Darcy and Dawson throughout the week. We do our little Charles Spurgeon catechism. And that’s just as much for me, to be honest with you. I read those and I kind of have them memorize these, you know, biblical questions and answers like who is God? You know, what is man? How did man fall? Like what caused man to fall? You know, what state did that bring man in? And it’s this constant refresher of who Jesus is, his gospel. It just reorients me in my place in the body of Christ and the value that I have there, what God’s given me. Do you desire the approval of Christ? Or do you want false unity? I think that’s what a lot of churches today want. Like, we can all just kind of show up and rub shoulders and go home. Like, and that’s, I think it’s false unity. It’s not real. But friends, we’ve got to be real with one another about our sin struggles. We’ve got to be real with one another about where we see each other faltering. If not, we’re not really a church. What do you call that when people just show up, do their own thing and go back home? A club. We call it a country club, right? And if you don’t like that country club, you don’t like it. If you don’t like the country club, you pull your membership and go down the country club down the road. It’s not the body of Christ. The body of Christ is far more vital. It’s far more organic. It’s as vital, as organic as, you know, your arms attached to your torso. And you’ve got to have that heart in there and veins and, I don’t know, anatomy. You know, all the parts of your body. You’ve got to have it all. It’s all there and it’s important. Like, we need one another that much. That much. One more verse here to look at.
17, Jesus says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with the new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Now, in every one of these letters, Jesus says that at the end. He who has an ear, let him hear. He who has an ear, let him hear. Now, I think Jesus says that.
Because you and I are really bad at hearing, aren’t we? Like, we’re really good at, like, halfway listening, like, partially. I get in trouble with my wife all the time, right? Because I’m doing something and she’s telling me something. And it’s like, yeah, yeah, okay. And then she said, didn’t I, you heard me say that. Didn’t you hear me say that? I’m like, yeah. Or there’s like some date on the calendar. She’s like, hey, remember, I’m going to such and such tonight. I’m like, you never told me about that. She’s like, yes, I did tell you about that. And it’s on our calendar, right? So we as people are really bad. Maybe that’s just me and y’all. I’ve got it all figured out. But we’re really bad about really hearing. So it’s something, it’s something, I think. Think about this, please. The seven is perfect. Seven is the perfect number. Seven represents wholeness, completeness. Jesus says to us seven times. He who has an ear, let him hear. Think about that. That means you’re going to have to really try to hear against your flesh that’s telling you, don’t pay that much attention. He who has an ear, let him hear. Hear. Hear. But I think it’s that much more important. And this one, because Jesus is particularly talking about how His Word is a Word of power. It’s this dangerous weapon.
The Word of God say that the Word of the Lord stands forever. When time comes to a close,
every culture, every government, every ruler, every culture, right?
Everyone, everything, everything will have passed away and who will still be standing and whose Word will still be true? Jesus.
Jesus says, hear my Word. But much more than that, see the symbolism. Because Jesus says, if you are faithful to the end and you conquer, I will give you some of the hidden manna. Now you remember that story, the people in the wilderness are hungry and they ate the manna. But Jesus says in John chapter 6, in the wilderness, they ate the manna and they died. But Jesus says, I am the bread of life. So Jesus says that He, as the Word, is our food. And if we would be faithful to His Word, it would at the same time be food for our souls that would give us eternal life. Jesus is our hidden manna. Trust Him. Believe Him. Surrender to His Word alone in the face of outward hostility, in the face of inward turmoil.
Jesus says also, if you do, I’ll give you this white stone and it will have a new name written on the stone that no one knows except you. And what’s that mean? Well, in ancient times, people had white stones that they were given as like admission to a banquet or to a festival. Or a victor who would like won a game, he would be given like a white stone as a symbol of his victory.
So how cool is that? Jesus is saying, man, I’m going to give you this white stone and I’m going to give you a white stone and it’s going to be a promise that you get a seat at my table. It’s going to be a promise that you are a conqueror and you’re going to have a new name and my new kingdom. These are the promises Jesus makes to those who conquer, who are loyal, who are devoted to Him and Him alone. So I’m just going to ask you that question again. Of all the talking heads and all the voices in life, whose word is the loudest in your ear? To whose word are you devoted? Are we devoted? Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for Your Word for in it is life and life eternal.
Lord, as we read about the church in Pergamum, we know that we are so, so prone to cower down
when we sense hostility in culture, sense hostility from just those around us. Lord, we want to be quiet. We want just temporal security. We just want to kind of get along. But Lord, help us, help us, Father, to have just the fullness of Christ within, Lord, to know that because Christ, is our Lord, we can endure all things. Jesus is the only one worth living for.
Lord, just help us be faithful and help us to love Your body. Help us to love the church. Help us to, Lord, know full well who You are, what Your Word says, what You expect of us so we can help each other love You well. We can help each other grow. We can protect and guard Your church from weeds that would pop up and this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this. This, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this. So Jesus, we can’t do that alone. We can’t do that at all if not for Your Spirit and Your grace working in us and through us, Lord. So we just pray for unity. We pray for courage. We pray for love and joy that come from You that would overcome all things.
so it’s just kind of fitting I think this morning as well as we’re talking about Jesus being our true food Jesus being our
our life this hidden manna that he gives us we’re going to take communion together as a church so I would just encourage you to take a few moments and pray to the Lord and maybe you need to confess sin or you just need to just be with Jesus and if you
have professed faith in Christ you’ve been baptized and communion is for you so we’ll come back together here in a moment and take communion together