“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God”
In Ephesus it is “The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” In Smyrna it is: “The words of the first and the last, who died and came back to life.” In Pergamum it is: “The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.”
In the letters to Ephesus and Smyrna, a fundamental principal is laid out before us. Our Lord Jesus desires us not to phileo love Him but agape love Him! When we bring ourselves into His intimate worship, we fellowship into His grace; His glory leads us up into another level of glory! We are engaging the lover of our soul! And He also is the Son of man in Pergamum!
This agape love principle fundamentally penetrates each of the seven church epistles. No, it is not announced in bold flashing, bright lights, but deeply beats in Jesus’ heart for the total Bride of Christ, a Kingdom of believers.
When Jesus says the “words of him” in each of these seven letters, He does not use the Greek word common in our English today. The common English word in Greek is ρημα (rhema) but here the “word” Jesus uses is λογοs (logos) meaning the essence of all the qualities of God. Even here, we see the agape love of God working in behalf of all the churches and to all who are “in Christ Jesus.”
This is the reason Jesus writes these epistle letters to the seven churches; this is the reason He is writing these epistles to us! It will also throb the heart of anyone who hears what the Spirit is saying to the Churches!
All these letters are addressed to the churches with a dual message. First, there is the corporate message to the church itself, then, each letter speaks to individual hearts in all the church!
“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 the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 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 a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’” -Revelation 2:12-15.
“The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.” What is the sharp two-edged
Sword? We take it that it is the written word of God. But the Bible, as we have it today, did not exist when Jesus wrote this message to the seven churches. Paul’s letters were treasured copies written on skin parchment but not widely distributed. So, while God’s word is indeed our Bible, the Holy Spirit uses the “Word” to minister to our hearts as we expose our souls to His Person. In early days of the church, they had the oracles of God. These we were words of God through Old Testament prophets, men like Moses who led the people as God’s representative.
The picture we are given of Pergamum gives us an opportunity to look more closely at the “two edged sword.” It is certainly used in the New Testament as the discerning edge in our soul separating sin from the righteousness of Christ’s Holy creation within us. It is ours through redemption at Spiritual Birth.
But in Pergamum we see the judgment edge of His sword coming out of His mouth. Here, we see His sword as the King of kings and Lord of lords. When we look from this perspective, we see the discerning function of the sword, is in fact, judgment. In believers it is a reproving judgment, a training in righteousness; it is the working of God’s grace. But this is also judgment, it is a discerning judgment into our growth.
Pergamum is the throne of Satan; this can be the working of worldliness into a soul; it is a rejection of the reproving word of God. A rejecting soul must receive the judgment edge of the Lord’s sword; it is eternal separation from God and loss of grace. The Revelation 19:15 picture is final judgment. In Revelation 1:16, it is the Spiritual picture of Jesus who is standing among the candlesticks, holding the stars in His right hand. This is judgment for the believer in the form of sanctification; for the non-believer, it is eternal separation in hell.
The sharp two-edged sword is the work of the Holy Spirit within each person’s individual heart and mind. The Holy Spirit is God’s instrument working within born again believers so that we might follow in the path of His righteousness, producing the glory of God within us. To the believer it is being holy and righteous, being changed from one form of glory to another; to the unbeliever it is damnation.
The “sharp two-edged sword” here is a symbol of God’s person being expressed in an absolute way against the circumstances of Pergamum, believer and unbeliever. God knows, in fine detail, both the circumstances believers live in, as well as, each believer’s response to the wicked worldliness around them. The “sharp two-edged sword” is God’s response to our need in His grace and is the voice of Judgment sending Satan into everlasting fire.
At the time these letters were written, Pergamum was a world destination Greek-Roman city! It was not a port city. It was inland about 16 miles, but it was the healing center of the world. It is famous for the “healing properties” of non-poisonous snakes used for crawling over people for healing. It was a Spirit center, the throne city of Satan!
Pergamum was also the worship center, where the priests gathered for their seminars. The first temple to Julius Cesar was located here. All the major god’s had huge temples here. But it was not only a worship center, it was also the University center of the known world. The world renown library in Alexandria, damaged in Julius Caesar’s war (43BC), was restocked by a collection of about 200,000 parchment rolls from Pergamum as a marriage gift to Cleopatra by Mark Antony in about 48BC.
Pergamum represents in church history the time depicted by Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed turning into the monstrosity of a huge tree where the birds of the air rested on its branches and the beast of the earth lie in its shadow. The “synagogue of Satan” was in Smyrna but the “throne of Satan” was that day in Pergamum.
I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.
In spite of the influences of our local living space, even if it contains a throne of Satan, we are accountable for the stewardship of God’s life in resurrection power. We need to evaluate those things hindering our first love as it did in Ephesus. Our God is a jealous God who desires us to give to Him what He has already given to us! Are there things in our temple hindering our agape love to Jesus? Things in our own body; things in our church?
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.
Even though we are created new in Christ Jesus, we live in containers of fleshly clay. JESUS died and was raised from the dead for our sakes but while we still live in these fleshly containers, we do groan with the burdens of mortality. But we desire not to shed our mortality, rather, we desire to be more fully clothed with His glorious life so that our “mortality may be swallowed up by His life.”
But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
Balak was king of Moab when Israel was moving in their direction from defeating the Amorites. The people of Moab were in fear of losing everything. Balaam was a spiritual man and Balak sought to pay him to curse Israel.
The Lord blocked Balaam from carrying out a curse. This is the OT story about the man talking with a donkey, the man was Balaam. Balak was not deterred and continued to urge Balaam to curse Israel so as to save his own people from destruction. Balaam told Balak he could obstruct Israel by infiltrating Israel with Moab women. This Balak did and God judged Israel for breaking their relationship with Him by having all those who yoked themselves with Baal of Peor killed by Israeli leadership.
Satan was alive and well in those days as He is today. Satan is the prince of the power of the air and knows those who belong to God. He and his horde of spirits are ever present to rob God’s people of grace by enticing their attention to turn them to things in this world rather than the Spirit filled life made available in Christ Jesus. Worldliness is a constant presence testing the discernment and faithfulness of believers.
So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
The Nicolaitans are defined as church leadership. Those in authority who provide leadership compromising faith, it is seen things over what is unseen. It represents those church obstacles enticing men to follow men rather than rather than growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Himself created within us, within each of us who are created new in Jesus.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
If you are “born again” you’re qualified! You have a spiritual ear but, if you’re like most of us, we are a little skeptical about how this works. We play along and don’t ask questions because we don’t want to reveal our ignorance. We are being vulnerable to worldliness.
When we are fresh out of mama’s womb, we know nothing! All we know is to suck on what ever gets put into our mouth. That’s about it …except for crying, we do know how to do that! We don’t even know how to get up and walk like a lot of animals do.
Our natural instinct is to self-protect; when we are born again our natural self is all we “feel like;” it is what we have to bring to the plate to hit our “spiritual” ball. We have to make ourselves vulnerable when we are talking “spiritually.” We have the spiritual ear but we also have to give ourselves permission; we have to be intentional to let ourselves to hear “spiritually.” It takes an act of our will to discipline and learn to spiritually hear because our natural habit is non-spiritual. Remember, faith is a gift!
This come under the banner of seeking, focused intent, prayer and reading scripture. We must explore our new creation birthed within us. God has performed a miracle in us but it is up to us to walk, to consume His grace, so that we may grow into Spiritual maturity and know the path the Lord will lead us into. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.
To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna,
Here we have it. Just what we need to hear. We are conquerors, overcomers, but we need to exploit it in our own selves and be who we are in Christ Jesus, overcomers! Hidden manna is the rich spiritual food our Lord feed into our soul! He is the bread of Life!
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.
The winners of the different games received a white stone with his name on it. There is an intimacy suggested here which reminds us of the agape love theme which is woven into all these letters. Our personal relationship is a child to Jesus. God is much deeper than we have capacity to know, but here, it is suggested that in our glorified bodies we uniquely enter in such an intimate way only He and the wearer of the white stone will understand!
Pergamum is a very worldly city. It needs the “sharp two-edged sword” cutting both ways. Pergamum needed the judgment of our Lord for its sin but Pergamum also needs the sharp blade edge to separate the bone from the marrow, the righteousness of God from the fleshly habits of the clay in which people currently dwell.
The believers in Pergamum needed to discern between the soul and the Spirit. The new creation in Christ recognizes the light of truth shining into the soul. The worldliness of Pergamum was constantly waring against this light of Jesus. The darkness is already condemned, but hope is still standing, illustrated by the man on the cross next to Jesus.
The “words of Him” is the two-edged sword for both truth and grace. Truth penetrates the soul with grace, producing discernment and glorifying our physical life in Jesus’ resurrection power, glorifying Jesus’ agape love in our hearts.