Revelation 2

CHAPTER 2THEME: The church in the worldEphesus was not only a beautiful city, it was also the chief city of the province of Asia. It was called “the Vanity Fair of Asia.” Pliny called it “the Light of Asia.” It was both the religious and commercial center of that entire area which influenced both East and WestAsia and Europe. When Paul landed at the harbor in Ephesus, he looked down Harbor Boulevard, all in white marble. As he moved toward the center of the city, he saw all sorts of lovely buildings, temples, and gift shops. There was a large market on his right as he went up the boulevard, and ahead of him on the side of a mountain was a theater that seated twenty thousand people. Off to his left was the great amphitheater that seated over one hundred thousand people.

At times there were as many as one to two million people gathered in Ephesus. It was here that Paul had his greatest ministry, and it was here that John later became pastor. This city was first formed around the temple of Diana by the Anatolians who worshiped Diana. The first temple was a wooden structure, built in a low place very near the oceanin fact, the waters lapped at the very base. In time, the Cayster and the little Maeander River brought down so much silt that, by the time of Alexander the Great, it had filled in around the temple. I have never seen any country that washes as much as that valley washes. The river itself is as thick as soup because it is carrying so much soil deposit. When Alexander took the city (by the way, the temple burned on the night Alexander was born), he turned it over to one of his generals, Lysimachus.

Because the silt was coming and the harbor was filling up, Lysimachus moved the people to a higher location, and that is where the ruins of the city can be seen today. It is the city which was there when Paul came. At the site of the old temple, a foundation of charcoal and skins was laid over this low, marshy place, and Alexander the Great led in the construction of a new temple of Diana which became one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was the largest Greek temple ever constructed. In it were over one hundred external columns about fifty-six feet in height, of which thirty-six were hand carved. The doors were of cypress wood; columns and walls were of Parian marble; the staircase was carved out of one vine from Cyprus. The temple served as the bank of Asia and was the depository of vast sums of money. It was an art gallery displaying the masterpieces of Praxiteles, Phidias, Scopas, and Polycletus. Apelles’ famous painting of Alexander was there. Behind a purple curtain was the lewd and crude image of Diana, the goddess of fertility. She was many-breasted, carried a club in one hand and a trident in the other. Horrible is Diana of the Ephesians could be accurately substituted for “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Diana was the most sacred idol of heathenism.

Her temple was four times larger than the Parthenon at Athens, and it was finally destroyed by the Goths in A.D. 256. Of course, it was standing in Paul’s day. If you want to see something of the magnificence of the place, go to Istanbul, to the Hagia Sophia. Those beautiful green columns that are there were taken out of the temple of Diana by Justinian when he built Hagia Sophia. Seeing only these columns gives us some conception of the beauty of the temple of Diana. Around the temple of Diana were performed the grossest forms of immorality. She was worshiped by probably more people than was any other idol. The worshipers indulged in the basest religious rites of sensuality and the wildest bacchanalian orgies that were excessive and vicious. And farther inland, the worship of Diana became nothing more than sex orgies, and her name was changed from Diana to Cybele. Paul came to Ephesus on his third missionary journey to begin a ministry. For two years the Word of God went out from the school of Tyrannus. Of this experience Paul wrote, “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1Co_16:9). Later John, the “apostle of love” and the “son of thunder,” came to Ephesus as a pastor. He was exiled to Patmos, then after about ten years of being exiled and imprisoned, he returned to Ephesus. The Basilica of Saint John, which is located on the highest point there, is built over the traditional burial spot of the apostle John.

Revelation 2:1

CHRIST’S LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN EPHESUSThe Lord Jesus Christ speaks to this church in the midst of crass materialism, degraded animalism, base paganism, and dark heathenism. Note this carefully, because I consider this message to be one of the most important of all. This is my translation: Unto the messenger of the church in Ephesus write; These things saith the One holding the seven stars in His right hand, the One walking (up and down) in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Notice that He holds in His hand the church. It is under His control. He doesn’t have that control now, but He did then. “He walketh” literally means that He is walking up and down. I believe that He is still walking up and down in our day and that He is still judging the church. He has seven words of commendation for this church:

Revelation 2:2

1. “I know thy works.” We need to understand that He is speaking to believers. The Lord Jesus does not ask the lost world for good works. For example, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Tit_3:5). In Rom_4:5 Paul says, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Christ is talking to His own. After you are saved, He wants to talk to you about good works. He has a lot to say about this subject.

In Eph_2:8-10 we read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Paul could write to Titus, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Tit_1:16). Someone has said, “The Christian ought to be like a good watchall gold, open-faced, well-regulated, dependable, and filled with good works.” The Lord Jesus is saying to the church in Ephesus, as Paul had said, “…be filled with the [Holy] Spirit” (Eph_5:18). And Paul went on to tell them what they could do as Spirit-filled believers. And now the Lord Jesus commends them for their good works. 2. “I know …thy labour.” What is the difference between work and labor? The word labor carries a meaning of weariness. In the Gospel record it says that Jesus became wearied with His journey. That was the weariness which Ephesian believers experienced. They suffered weariness in their labor for Him. 3. “I know …thy patience.” Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. 4. “How thou canst not bear them which are evil.” They would not endure evil men. 5. “Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” They tested everyone who came to Ephesus claiming to be an apostle. They would ask them if they had seen the resurrected Christ, and they soon found out whether or not they were really apostles. If they were not, they asked them to leave town. The Lord Jesus commended them for testing men, and I feel this is more needed today than it was even then. 6. “Hast borne …for my name’s sake hast laboured.” For His name’s sake they were bearing the Cross. They preached Christ. They believed in the virgin birth of Christ; they believed in His deity; they believed in His sacrificial death and resurrection. And they paid a price for their belief. 7. “And hast not fainted.” More accurately, it is “hast not grown weary.” What does He mean by this? Earlier He said that they had grown weary, and now He says they have not grown weary. Well, this is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith. I can illustrate it by what Dwight L. Moody once said when he came home exhausted after a campaign and his family begged him not to go to the next campaign. He said to them, “I grow weary in the work but not of the work.” There is a lot of difference. You can get weary in the work of Christ, but it is tragic if you get weary of the work of Christ. These seven words of commendation, which the Lord Jesus gave to the local church at Ephesus, also apply to the period of church history between Pentecost and A.D. 100, which the Ephesian church represents. Now He has one word of condemnation:

Revelation 2:4

Nevertheless I have against thee that thou art leaving thy best love. They had lost that intense and enthusiastic devotion to the person of Christ. It is difficult for us to sense the state to which the Holy Spirit had brought this church. He had brought the believers in Ephesus into an intimate and personal relationship to Jesus Christ. He had brought them to the place where they could say to the Lord, “We love you.” This may seem like a very unimportant thing to us today, but their love for the Lord was very important to Christ. He was saying to the Ephesians, “You are leaving your best love.” They hadn’t quite departed from that love, but they were on the way.

It is difficult for us in this cold, skeptical, cynical, and indifferent day in which we live to understand this. The world has intruded into the church to such an extent that it is hard for us to conceive of the intense, enthusiastic devotion the early church gave to the person of Christ. The early church first went off the track not in their doctrine but in their personal relationship to Jesus Christ. Ephesus was a great city, and it had many attractions that were beginning to draw believers away from their first love for Jesus Christ. This was the church that became so potent in its evangelism in that area of about twenty-five million people that even the Roman emperors and the nobility of that day had an opportunity to hear the gospel. In that area there was such a mighty moving of the Spirit of God that it has probably never been duplicated since. Every now and then we meet someone or read about someone who has had that close personal relationship with Christ. David Brainard, the missionary to Indians in this country, was such a man. He suffered from what was then called consumption (we know it as tuberculosis). He would travel to the Indians by horseback, and sometimes he would have a convulsion, vomit blood, become unconscious, and fall off his horse. He would lie in the snow, and when that happened, his horse learned to stay right there. When he regained consciousness, he would crawl back onto his horse and be on his way to preach to the Indians. As he went, he would cry out, “Lord Jesus, I’ve failed You, but You know that I love You.” He had that close, intimate relationship with Christ. My friend, that personal relationship is all-important in our day, also. We are so involved in methodsI am rather amused at some of the Band-Aid courses which are being offeredand they are making Band-Aid believers. Generally, the course is some little legal system that gives you certain rules to follow and certain psychological patterns to observe which will enable you to solve all your problems. They try to teach you how to get along with yourself (that’s a pretty big order!), with your neighbors, and especially with your wife. All of those relationships are very important, and a great many people think that if they can follow a few rules, they will have the key to a successful Christian life. My friend, let me put it in a nutshell by asking one question: Do you love Jesus Christ?

I don’t care what your system is, what your denomination is, what your program is, what little set of rules you follow, they will all come to naught if you don’t love Him. Although some systems are better than others, almost any system will work if you love Christ. An intimate relationship with Christ will make all of your relationships and all of your Christian service a joy. The story is told in New England about two girls who worked in a cotton mill. They were friends, but when one of them quit working there, they lost touch with each other. Finally, they met one day on the street. The working girl asked her friend. “Are you still working?” “No,” she said, “I got married!” When that girl worked in the mill, she watched the clock, and every evening when five o’clock came, she had her coat on and was on her way out. It was hard work, and she didn’t like it. Now she is married and she says that she has quit working. Well, if you could look at her life, you wouldn’t think she had quit working. She gets up earlier than ever before to prepare breakfast for her husband and to pack his lunch. Then she throws her arms around him as she tells him good-bye. All day long she is busy cleaning house and washing clothes and caring for two little brats who are two little angels to her because they are hers. Then when five o’clock comes, she doesn’t put on her coat and leave; she starts cooking dinner. About six o’clock here comes her husband.

She is right there at the door to throw her arms around him and tell him how much she has missed him that day. When a man comes home in the evening, opens the door, and hears a voice from upstairs or from the rear of the house calling, “Is that you?”, he knows the honeymoon is over. But this girl is in love. Her husband’s workday is over, but hers has only just gotten started. She serves dinner to her husband and feeds the children. Then she washes the dishes, puts the children to bedand that’s not easyand works around getting things ready for her husband for the next day.

I tell you, she is weary when she finally gets into bedbut she’s not working anymore, she says! Why? Because she is in love. That’s the difference. My friend, when your home life and your church life become a burden, there is something wrong with your relationship with Christ. When you get that straightened out, other things will straighten out also. This is the reason the Lord Jesus said to the Ephesian believers, “You are getting away from your first love, your best love.” What is the solution for them?

Revelation 2:5

“Remember.” That is the first thing they were to do. Memory is a marvelous thing. Someone has said that God has given us memories so we can have roses in December. Well, here in California we have short memories so we have roses all year-round. But memory is a wonderful thing. Someone else has said that memory is a luxury that only a good man can enjoy. My friend, do you remember when you were converted? Do you remember what a thrill it was and what the Lord Jesus meant to you? Have you become cold and indifferent to Him? Are you in a backslidden condition? Remember. Remember where you once were. You can get back to that same place. “And repent.” Believe me, Christians need to repent. We need to break the shell of self-sufficiency, the crust of conceit, the shield of sophistication, the veneer of vanity, get rid of the false face of “piosity,” and stop this business of everlastingly polishing our halo as if we were some great saint. Repent! Repentance means to turn back to Him, and it is the message for believers. How dare the church tell an unsaved man to repent. What he needs to do is to turn to Christ for salvation.

When he turns to Christ, he will turn from his sinas the Thessalonians “…turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven …” (1Th_1:9-10). But the church needs to repent, and that is the message they do not want to hear today. Remember, repent, and return unto Him. “Or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove the candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Christ says that He will remove your lampstand. Oh, how many churches in our day have been practically closed. Once the crowds came, but they don’t come anymore because the Word of God is no longer being taught. My friend, Christ is still watching the lamps, and He doesn’t mind trimming the wicks or even using the snuffer when they refuse to give light.

Revelation 2:6

Nicolaitans is a compound word. Nikao means “to conquer,” and laos means “the people.” We get our word laity from that. It is difficult to identify who the Nicolaitans were. Some scholars think that they were a priestly order which was beginning to take shape and attempt to rule over the people. Another theory is that there is no way to identify this group in any of the early or late churches. The third explanation is that there was a man by the name of Nicolaus of Antioch, who apostatized from the truth and formed an Antinomian Gnostic cult which taught (among other doctrines) that one must indulge in sin in order to understand it.

They gave themselves over to sensuality with the explanation that such sins did not touch the spirit. That “Nicolaitans” refers to this cult is probably the best explanation. The church in Ephesus hated it. A little later on we will see that the church in Pergamos [Pergamum] tolerated it.

Revelation 2:7

“He that hath an ear.” This is what I call a “blood-tipped ear,” which was the requirement for the Old Testament priests. Not everyone can hear the Word of God. Oh, I know they can hear the audible sound, but they miss the message. The Lord Jesus uses the phrase to alert dull ears. We learn from the Gospel records that He often used that expression. He said that they have ears to hear but they hear not. Now He speaks to those with spiritual perception. “Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” “The Spirit” is the Holy Spirit, the Teacher of the church. “To him that overcometh” refers to genuine believers, and we can overcome only through the blood of the Lamb. “Will I give to eat of the tree of life.” You will recall that man was forbidden to eat of the Tree of Life after the Fall, as recorded in Gen_3:22-24. But in heaven the “no trespassing” sign will be taken down, and all of us will be given the privilege of eating of the Tree of Life. I don’t know what kind of fruit it has, but I believe it will enable us really to live it up. Most of us don’t know much about living yet. We have sort of a vegetable existence down here, but we will have a good fruit existence up therewe’ll eat of the Tree of Life. We are going to live as we have never lived before. “The paradise of God” means the garden of God. Heaven is a garden of green primarily and is not just a place with streets of gold. The church of Ephesus represents the church at its best, the apostolic church.

Revelation 2:8

CHRIST’S LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN SMYRNASmyrna is the martyr church, the church that suffered martyrdom for Christ. The word Smyrna means “myrrh” and carries the meaning of suffering. The city of Smyrna is still in existence in our day. It has a Turkish name, Izmir, which may lead you astray, but it is the same city. It has been continuously inhabited from the time it was founded. I have been there; in fact, we stay in Izmir when we visit the sites of the early churches in that area. It is a commercial city. There are those who have told us that Izmir will soon be larger than Istanbul. It will certainly be a larger commercial center. There is a tremendous population there. The modern city covers so much of the ruins of ancient Smyrna that you are apt to miss the beauty which was there. I have taken some pictures of it and use them as slides in an illustrated message. I try to point out the beauty of that harbor. It is very large and one of the most beautiful harbors that I have seen. In fact, Smyrna was one of the loveliest cities of Asia. It was called a flower, an ornament, and it has been called the crown of all Asia. The acropolis is located on Mount Pagos.

In fact, the early city that goes back to about 2000 B.C., a Hittite city at that time, was built around the slope of Mount Pagos. Later Alexander the Great had a great deal to do with building it into the beautiful city that it became. There were wide boulevards along the slopes of Mount Pagos. Smyrna was called the crown city because the acropolis was encircled with flowers, a hedge, and myrtle trees. The city was adorned with noble buildings and beautiful templesa temple of Zeus, a temple of Cybele (Diana), a temple of Aphrodite, a temple of Apollo, and a temple of Asclepius. Smyrna had a theater and an odeum, that is, a music centerit was the home of music.

Also it had a stadium, and it was at that stadium that Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and student of the apostle John, was martyred, burned alive in A.D. 155. In Christian literature, Smyrna means “suffering.” The Lord Jesus, in His letter addressed to the church there, said that He knew their sufferings and their poverty. He had no word of condemnation for them or for the church at Philadelphia. They were the churches that heard no word of condemnation from Him, and it is interesting that these two cities, Smyrna and Philadelphia, are the only two which have had a continuous existence. Their lampstand has really been moved, but there are a few Christians in Izmir. Although they are under cover, they have made indirect contact with us when we have been there. They do not come out in the open because Christians are persecuted even today in modern Turkey. As Ephesus represents the apostolic church, so Smyrna represents the martyr church which covers the period from about A.D. 100 to approximately A.D. 314, from the death of the apostle John to the Edict of Toleration by Constantine, which was given in A.D. 313 and ended the persecution of Christiansnot only in Smyrna but all over the Roman Empire. Now here we have the Lord Jesus addressing the church at Smyrna. It is His briefest message, and it is all commendatoryeverything He has to say to them is praise. And to the messenger of the church in Smyrna, write, These things saith the first and the last, who became dead, and lived. This verse is a reference to chapter 1, verses Rev_1:17-18, which says, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” The Lord chose from the vision of Himself that particular figure which was fitting for each church. To the church in Smyrna the Lord describes Himself as “the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.” “The first and the last” means that there was nothing before Him and there will be nothing to follow Him. He has the final disposition of all things. The persecuted believers needed to know that He was the One in charge and that the persecution was in the planning and purpose of God. “Who became dead, and lived” has a real message for martyrs. His experience with death identified Him with the five million who were martyred during this period. (According to Fox’s Book of Martyrs, five million believers died for Christ during this period.) Christ was triumphant over death and can save to the uttermost those who are enduring persecution and martyrdom. He has something further to say to them

Revelation 2:9

There are seven things in this church which the Lord commended:

1. “Tribulation” is mentioned first. The word works is not in the best manuscripts. I prefer to leave it out, but if you want to include it, fine. Remember, this is not the Great Tribulation; it means simply trouble. Since the awful persecution of the church by the Roman emperors is not called the Great Tribulation, surely our small sufferings are not the Great Tribulation. But the church in Smyrna endured much tribulation, and they suffered for the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. “Poverty” denotes the lack of material possessions. The early church was made up largely of the poorer classes. When the wealthy believed in Christ, their property was confiscated because of their faith. “But thou art rich” denotes the spiritual wealth of the churchthey were blessed with all spiritual blessings. Notice the contrast to the rich church in Laodicea. To that church He said, “You think you are rich, but you are really poor and don’t know it.” When I am a visiting conference speaker in churches across the land, pastors like to tell me about the millionaire or persons of prominence whom they have in their congregation. Well, the martyr church couldn’t brag about that. They had in their congregation slaves, ex-slaves, runaway slaves, freed slaves, poor people, and those who had lost whatever money they had when they became Christians.
3. “The blasphemy of them which say they are Jews …but are the synagogue of Satan.” The implication is that the Jews in Smyrna who had come to Christ were Jews inwardly as well as outwardly. In Rom_9:6 Paul says that not all Israel is Israel. It is his religion that makes a Jew a real Jew. His religion is the thing that identifies him. Speaking of them nationally, the Lord said that their father was “…a Syrian ready to perish …” (Deu_26:5). But Smyrna was a city of culture in which many Jews had discarded their belief in the Old Testament.

Although they said they were Jews, when a Jew gives up his religion, there is a question whether or not he is a Jew. In Germany many tried to do that, by the way. Down through the years there has been only a remnant of these people who have truly been God’s people. 4. “Fear none of those things” is the encouragement of the Lord to His own in the midst of persecutions. This is the second time in this book that the Lord has offered this encouragement. History tells us that multitudes went to their death singing praises to God. 5. “The devil [Satan] shall cast some of you into prison.” We are going to look at this fearful creature later on, but Christ labels him as being responsible for the suffering of the saints in Smyrna. You and I tend to blame the immediate person or circumstance which serves as Satan’s tool, but the Lord Jesus goes back to the root trouble. I would like to insert a personal word at this point. I could classify and pigeonhole everything that has come into my life as God’s judgment or God’s chastisement, but when I began experiencing so many physical problems, I was puzzled. Then quite a few people began writing to say, “I believe Satan is responsible for the things that are happening to you.” And I decided this must be the explanation for the many physical problems that afflicted me. 6. “Ye shall have tribulation ten days.” There were ten intense periods of persecution by ten Roman emperors (these dates are approximate): Nero64-68 (Paul was beheaded under his reign) Domitian95-96 (John was exiled during that period) Trajan104-117 (Ignatius was burned at the stake) Marcus Aurelius161-180 (Polycarp was martyred) Severus200-211 Maximinius235-237 Decius250-253 Valerian257-260 Aurelian270-275 Diocletian303-313 (the worst emperor of all). 7. “Be thou faithful unto death"and they were. They were martyrs for Him. He promises them “a crown of life.” Remember that He is addressing the believers who lived in Smyrna, the crown city. It is interesting that to them He is saying that He will give crownsnot crowns of flowersor of anything else perishablebut crowns that will be eternal. The Lord has special crowns for those who suffer. I know many wonderful saints who are going to get that crown some day. My friend, if you are suffering at this moment and you have wondered if He cares, He has something good for you in eternity. You will get something that no one else will be getting, except others in your condition. God’s Word says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (Jas_1:12). That crown of life means that you are really going to live it up someday. What a glorious prospect that is for invalids and those on beds of pain today.

Revelation 2:11

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Have you heard Him today? Is He speaking to you? “The second death.” Dwight L. Moody put it like this: “He who is born once will die twice; he who is born twice will die once.” And if the Rapture occurs during his lifetime, he won’t even have to die that one time. The “second death” is the death which no believer will experience. The first death concerns the body. The second death concerns the soul and the spirit; it is eternal separation from God. No believer will have to undergo that.

Revelation 2:12

CHRIST’S LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMUMIn our King James text this city is called Pergamos, but in Turkey it is called Pergamum, and I assume that is the correct spelling. The church in Pergamum is representative of church history during the period of approximately A.D. 314 to A.D. 590. I call it paganism unlimited because during this time the world entered into the church and it began to move away from the person of Christ. This letter was Christ’s message to the local church at Pergamum, of course, but it also has this historical significance. First, let me give you the location of Pergamum. Izmir is the great city where tourists go because the airport and the hotels are there. You go about sixty-five miles south to reach Ephesus and about seventy miles north to reach Pergamum. These three were the royal cities, and they vied one with another. Smyrna (Izmir) was the great commercial center, Ephesus was the great political center, and Pergamum was the great religious center. Pergamum was the capital of the kingdom of Pergamum. The acropolis still stands there, and the ruins of the great temples and the city are on top of it. It was a city in Mysia, labeled by Pliny “by far the most illustrious of Asia.” It is one of the most beautiful spots in Asia Minor. Sir William Ramsay says that it was the one city that deserved to be called a royal city. In it was a temple built to Caesar Augustus, which made it a royal city. Augustus came to this beautiful area when the climate got cold in Rome.

There was a healing spa there. It was not the commercial city that Smyrna was because it was not a seacoast town and it was off the great trade routes which came out of the Orient. But it was a fortified, stronghold city, built to withstand the enemy. It was built on a mountain, and the acropolis dominated the whole region of the broad plain of the Caicus. The original city was built between the two rivers which flowed into the Caicus and entirely surrounded this huge rocky hill, this promontory that stood out there alone. To visit it makes quite an impression.

First you see that great mountain standing there, and you see the ruins on top. Not only did Pergamum boast great temples, but it also had the greatest library of the pagan world. It was a library of over two hundred thousand volumes. In fact, the city got its name from the parchment (pergamena) which was used. This great library was the one which Marc Antony gave to his girl friend, Cleopatra. She lugged it off to Alexandria in Egypt, and that library was considered the greatest library the world has ever seenand it originally came from Pergamum. If you are ever in Istanbul and go into Hagia Sophia, you will see there a great alabaster vase, taller than I am and a thing of beauty, which was brought there from Pergamum. Of course, the city of Pergamum was rifled and denuded by the enemy when they finally took the city and destroyed it. “To the angel of the church in Pergamos.” This letter was addressed, as were other letters, to the angel or messenger of the church, which was probably the one we would call the pastor. “These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges” means the Word of God. The Word of God has the answer to man’s need and man’s sin, which in Pergamum was false religion. It was a city that emphasized religion, and the only way it could be reached would be by the Word of God.

Revelation 2:13

“Where thou dwellest.” The Lord commends this church for three very definite things. First, He takes note of their circumstances. He knew that these believers were living in a very difficult place. And, my friend, the Lord takes note of our circumstances. Sometimes we are inclined to condemn someone who is caught in a certain set of circumstances, but if we were in the same position, we might act in an even worse way than he is acting. “Even where Satan’s seat [throne] is” reveals that religion was big business in Pergamum and that Satan’s headquarters were there. This ought to settle the question for those who think that Satan is in hell at the present time. He has never yet been in hell because hell hasn’t opened up for business yet. Satan will not be in hell until much later, as we shall see in chapter 20. At the present, Satan is loose and is the prince of this world, controlling kingdoms and going up and down the earth as a roaring lion, hunting for whom he may devour (see 1Pe_5:8). But he does have headquarters, and Christ said they were in Pergamum at that time.

Since those days, I think that he has moved his headquarters around to different places. I used to get the impression that he had moved them to Los Angeles, and he may have done so because that is another great religious center of every kind of cult and “ism” and schism. The reason our Lord said that Satan’s throne was in Pergamum was because of the heathen temples there. Of course, all of this is in ruins today. There are markers and some reconstruction going on there now. But in John’s day it was Satan’s throne. As you enter the gate of the city, you see that the first temple to your right is the imposing temple of Athena. Directly above it is the great library.

You would see the great temple of Caesar Augustus and Hadrian’s great temple, which covers quite a bit of territory. There are other things that are quite interesting. There is the great altar to Zeus with an idol on it near the palace of the king. It is a very impressive spot, and some folk believe that it was the throne of Satan. Well, I think that it is included but that Satan’s throne is a combination of all of these. There are two other areas which are especially outstanding. One of them is the temple of Dionysius. I crawled down the side of that mountain to get pictures of the ruins of the temple of Dionysius, which is beside the ruins of the theater there. Some folk asked me why I did that. Well, Dionysius is the same as Bacchus, the god of wine, the goat-god. He is depicted with horns, but with his upper part as a man and his lower part as a goat, with cloven feet and a tail.

In our day that is the modern idea of Satan, but the notion that Satan has horns, cloven feet, and a forked tail did not come from the Bible. Where did it come from? Well, it came from the temple of Dionysius, the god Bacchus, the god of wine or alcohol. My friend, we ought to be proud that we are Americans, but we also need to bow our heads in shame. Do you know how we got this country in which we live? We got it from the Indians (and I guess they got it from someone else), but the way we got it was not by bullets but by alcohol.

Also Hawaii was taken away from the Hawaiians by giving them liquor. Alcohol has taken more territory than anything else. Satan is the god of liquor all right! Then the other outstanding temple was of the god Asklepios. Down from that great promontory was the greatest hospital of the ancient world. It was the Mayo Clinic of that day. It was, first of all, a temple to Asklepios. If you are looking at the Greek god Asklepios, it is a man, but when you see the Anatolian or Oriental Asklepios, it is a serpent. There in Pergamum it was a serpent. I have pictures which I took of that great marble pillar which stands like an obelisk now but apparently was a pillar in the temple of Asklepios. The construction of the temple was unusual in that it was round. There they used every means of healing imaginable. They used both medicine and psychologyand about everything else. Put yourself in this situation: you go down long tunnels, and above are holes that look like airholes for ventilation but are not. As you walk along these tunnels, sexy voices come down through the holes, saying to you, “You are going to get well. You are going to feel better. You are going to be healed.” (Does that have a modern ring?) You go down to the hot baths where you are given a massage. There is a little theater there where they give plays of healing. If they haven’t healed you by now, as a last resort they put you in that temple at night and turn loose the nonpoisonous snakes which crawl over you. (That is known as the shock treatment in our day!) If they don’t heal you, they will drive you crazy, that’s for sure.

They have a back door where they take out the dead. They don’t mention the ones they don’t heal; they speak only of those who recover. Caesar Augustus loved to go there. He wasn’t exactly sick; he was an alcoholic. They just dried him out every year when he would come over. This was a great place, and for seven hundred years it was a hospital that people came to from all over the world. May I say to you, healing was satanic in those days. There is no question about the fact that there were good men there who used medicine, but basically, it was satanic. It was where Satan’s throne was. That is important to see. Now here is another word of commendation to the believers at Pergamum, “thou holdest fast my name.” They were faithful in their defense of the deity of Christ. As we have noted, the church at Pergamum is representative of the church in general during the years of A.D. 314 to approximately A.D. 590. Actually, it was an age that produced great giants of the faith. When the Arian heresy (which denied the deity of Christ) arose, Athanasius from North Africa was the great defender of the faith, and because of him the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 condemned Arianism. And another man was Augustine, who answered the Pelagian heresy which denied original sin and the total corruption of human nature and also denied irresistible grace. These are two giants during this period who stood unshakably for the great doctrines of the faith. “And hast not denied my faith” refers to the body of true doctrine which is believed by Christians. “Even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr.” Antipas was a martyr about whom we know nothing at all. He apparently was the first one at Pergamum, and there was a great company of martyrs who followed him. So far Christ has had only words of commendation for the church at Pergamum, but now He condemns two things which were in that church

Revelation 2:14

The two items for condemnation were the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. “The doctrine of Balaam” is different from the error of Balaam (see Jud_1:11), which revealed that Balaam thought that God would curse Israel because they were sinners. It is also different from the way of Balaam (see 2Pe_2:15), which was covetousness. But here in the verse before us, it is the doctrine or teaching of Balaam. He taught Balac the way to corrupt Israel by intermarriage with the Moabite women. This introduced into the nation of Israel both idolatry and fornication. And during the historical period which the church at Pergamum represents, the unconverted world came into the church. “The doctrine of the Nicolaitans.” We have seen that the church in Ephesus hated it, but here in Pergamum there were some who were holding that doctrine. Although we do not know exactly what the doctrine was, it probably was a gnostic cult developed by Nicolaus which advocated license in matters of Christians’ conduct and apparently a return to religious rituals by clergy, ignoring the priesthood of all believers. Christ says that He hates it! You see, Christ hates as well as loves. We had better be careful that we are not indulging in the things that He hates.

Revelation 2:16

“Repent.” In other words, the only cure was repentance (metanoeson, “a change of mind”). God’s Word says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9). If they would not repent, the Lord said He would fight against them with the sword of His mouth, which is the Word of God. What a mistake we make if we think that the church has the authority to decide what is right and what is wrong. The true church is made up of believers in Jesus Christ, and they form what Scripture calls the body of Christ. They are to be lights in the world. And if we are going to be lights in this dark world, we need to be careful to identify with the person of Jesus Christ and to recognize, not the church, but the Word of God as our authority.

Revelation 2:17

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” This is to you and me today. “To him that overcometh” is the definition of a genuine Christian. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb. Never are we overcomers, but we overcome by His shed blood. We know that the victory was won by Christ and not by ourselves. “Hidden manna” speaks of the person and the death of Christ as He is revealed in the Word of God. In fact, Jesus said that He Himself was the Bread: “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (Joh_6:32-35). The believer needs to feed on Christthis is a must for spiritual growth.

And, actually, Christ is hidden from view; He is not known or understood in our day. My, how folk misrepresent Him and abuse Him! “I …will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” A white stone suggests that believers are not blackballed in heaven. Trench said, “White is everywhere the color and livery of heaven.” Frankly, this is rather a difficult figure to interpret. But it is helpful to learn that the people of Asia Minor to whom John was writing had a custom of giving to intimate friends a tessera, a cube or rectangular block of stone or ivory, with words or symbols engraved on it. It was a secret, private possession of the one who received it. Well, Christ says that He is going to give to each of His own a stone with a new name engraved upon it. I do not believe that it will be a new name for you and me but that it will be a new name for Him.

I believe that each name will be different because He means something different to each one of us. It will be His personal and intimate name to each of us.

Revelation 2:18

CHRIST’S LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRAThe church at Thyatira is representative of Romanism, which takes us into the Dark Ages from A.D. 590 to approximately A.D. 1000. It was a dark period. When you leave Pergamum, you begin to move inland. Thyatira and the remaining three churches are inland. Thyatira was situated in a very beautiful location. Sir William Ramsay has written this about it: Thyatira was situated in the mouth of a long vale which extends north and south connecting the Hermus and Caicos Valleys. Down the vale a stream flows south to join the Lycus (near whose left bank Thyatira was situated), one of the chief tributaries of the Hermus, while its northern end is divided by only a ridge of small elevation from the Caicos Valley. The valleys of the two rivers, Hermus and Caicos, stretch east and west, opening down from the edge of the great central plateau of Anatolia towards the Ægean Sea. Nature has marked out this road, a very easy path, for the tide of communication which in all civilised times must have been large between the one valley and the other. The railway traverses its whole length now: in ancient times one of the chief routes of Asia Minor traversed it. Thyatira was located in this long vale or pass. Thyatira was a city built for defense. However, most cities built for defense were situated upon an acropolis or a promontory and walls were put around them. But Thyatira was different. It stood in the middle of that vale on a very slight rising ground. Its strength lay in the fact that Rome stationed the elite guard there. Thyatira was built by Lysimachus and again by Seleucus I, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, whose vast realm extended from the Hermus Valley to the Himalayas. It finally fell to the enemy. No city in that area was so completely destroyed and rebuilt as was this city. For this reason, it is very disappointing to visit the ruins of Thyatira in our day. They cover only one very small block. This city became prosperous under the sponsorship of Vespasian, the Roman emperor. It was the headquarters for many ancient guilds: the potters’, tanners’, weavers’, robe makers’, and dyers’ guilds. It was the center of the dyeing industry. This is where the labor unions must have originated! Lydia, the seller of purple, who in Philippi became Paul’s first convert in Europe, came from here (see Act_16:14). That purple color spoken of is what we know today as “Turkey red"and I mean that color is red. The dye was taken from a plant that grows in that area. Apollo, the sun god, was worshiped here as Tyrimnos. This pictures the Son of God in judgment. His eyes are like a flame of fire, searching them out, and His feet are like burnished brass, which represents judgment. Christ is judging this church. However, He has words of commendation for this church. If you think that the Roman church during the Dark Ages is to be condemned wholeheartedly, you need to check up on the history of it. The Lord Jesus says,

Revelation 2:19

Christ has six words of commendation for the church of the Dark Ages in which were many true believers who had a personal love of Christ which was manifested in works. Works are actually credentials of true believers. James says, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works” (Jas_2:18). The six words of commendation are:

1. “Works” were the credentials of real believers. There were many who lived spotless lives and by their good works “adorned the doctrine.”
2. “Love.” It was a church in which there was love, in spite of the fact that it had gone in for ritualism. There were some wonderful saints of God during that period: Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, John Huss, Savonarola, and Anselm were all men in the Roman church.
3. “Faith.” Though it is placed after works and love in this instance, it is the mainspring that turns the hands of works and love.
4. “Ministry” is service.
5. “Patience” is endurance in those days of darkness.
6. “Thy last works are more than the first.” In this church, works increased rather than diminished. All six virtues are produced within the believer by the Holy Spirit. There is one frightful charge of condemnation:

Revelation 2:20

But I have against you that you tolerate the woman (wife) Jezebel, who calls herself the prophetess, and she teaches and seduces my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. Jezebel had brought paganism into the northern kingdom of Israel. And evidently there was in the local church at Thyatira a woman who had a reputation as a teacher and prophetess who was the counterpart of Jezebel, the consort of Ahab. And concerning the historical period of the Dark Ages which the church at Thyatira represents, pagan practices and idolatry were mingled with Christian works and worship. The papacy was elevated to a place of secular power under Gregory I (A.D. 590), and later by Gregory VII, better known as Hildebrand (A.D. 1073-1085). The introduction of rituals and church doctrine supplanted personal faith in Jesus Christ. Worship of the Virgin and Child and the Mass were made a definite part of the church service. Purgatory became a positive doctrine, and Mass was said for the dead. The spurious documents labeled Donation of Constantine and Decretals of Isidore were circulated to give power and rulership to the pope. As Jezebel killed Naboth and persecuted God’s prophets, so the Roman church instituted the Inquisition during this period. “Seduce” means a fundamental departure from the truth, according to Vincent. Jezebel stands in sharp contrast to Lydia, who came from Thyatira. Jezebel is merely a forerunner of the apostate church, as we shall see in chapter 17.

Revelation 2:21

“Space” is time. The Lord Jesus Christ has patiently dealt with this false system for over a thousand years, and there has been no real change down through the centuries in this system. In fact, Rome boasts that she never changessemper idem, always the same.

Revelation 2:22

“Great tribulation” could refer to the persecution which Rome is enduring under communism. Or it may mean the Great Tribulation into which the apostate church will go. “Their deeds” should be translated her deeds.

Revelation 2:23

“Children” are those who were brought up under this system. “And I will kill her children with death” is translated by Vincent: “Let them be put to death with death,” referring to the second death. “All the churches” refers to the church of all the ages. “The reins” means literally the kidneys and refers to the total psychological makeupthe thoughts, the feelings, the purposes. When He searches the reins and the hearts, it means that He searches our entire beings.

Revelation 2:24

But I say to you, to the rest in Thyatira, who do not hold this doctrine, which are of those who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put upon you none other burden (weight). The church in Thyatira, we know from history, had a very brief existence because it went down with the city when it was captured by the enemy. “The depths of Satan” perhaps refers to a gnostic sect known as the Ophites who worshiped the serpent. They made a parody of Paul’s words. All heresy boasts of superior spiritual perception, and that is what this group did.

Revelation 2:25

Obviously, Christ is beginning to say to His church, “I am coming to take you out, and because of this, you should stand fast for Me.”

Revelation 2:26

The works of Christ are in contrast to the works of Jezebel. The works of Christ are wrought by the Holy Spirit. We overcome by faith and not by effort. “I give power over the nations” was explained by Paul when he wrote to the Corinthian believers: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? …(1Co_6:2).

Revelation 2:27

This is a reference to the millennial reign of Christ in which believers are to share.

Revelation 2:28

Christ is the Bright and Morning Star (see Rev_22:16). Christ’s coming for His own at the Rapture is the hope of the church. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit_2:13).

Revelation 2:29

The children of Jezebel will not hear, but the true children of the Lord Jesus will hear, for the Holy Spirit opens the “blood-tipped ear.”