Lord, we do just return thanks to You for Thy presence this morning, for the blessedness, Lord, of being in Your presence—the reality of that.
Lord, as we continue, as we open Your Word and consider the application it has upon our lives in this day and time, we look to You to breathe upon this time, Lord, in a very fresh and living way.
Lord, we desire to be in fellowship with these words of life, that we would have an ear to really hear and know what You are saying to us in these days. Lord, do bless this time. We submit ourselves unto You. We look unto You and acknowledge that it is all from Thy hand.
Oh, Lord, we thank You for that precious Holy Spirit. Do breathe upon us. Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As we continue this morning, considering some lessons from church history, the letter we would like to consider is the letter to the Church in Pergamum. It is found in Revelation 2:12-17. Some translations call this the Church of Pergamos. I use the New American Standard, so it is Pergamum. It is the same thing, depending on what you have, so I will probably use the words interchangeably.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:
“I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.
Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make 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 him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.”
I would like for us to consider two other Scriptures in relation to this letter. The first is Matthew 13, where the Lord shares a series of parables. We have the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13:31-32.
He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;
and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree,
so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
Now, as we look at this parable, we know that in normal life the mustard seed, when it grows, is a small plant. But in this parable there is an abnormal condition. Instead of being a small plant, it has grown into a great tree. In that great tree, the birds of the air—which are referred to as the enemy in another part of this chapter—come and make their home. They dwell there. There is a nest there.
We know from Daniel 4 that the great tree there refers to the nation of Babylon, how it had spread its branches and people came and dwelt beneath them. So, in this parable, we see how what the Lord intended for His church had become abnormal. The Lord called the church to be the little flock.
The mustard seed grows into a plant. A helpful exposition of this is found in Brother Nee’s book The King and the Kingdom, on this chapter. He touches on a couple of interesting points: a plant has its roots right on the surface, but a tree has roots that go deep into the ground.
As we read in Revelation 2, the church in Pergamum is described as dwelling where Satan’s throne is. They were not pilgrims and sojourners; they were dwelling. Some of the things we want to consider today are how what the Lord originally intended for His church became abnormal.
There is another passage I would like for us to consider, in 2 Timothy 2. You remember in 1 Timothy, when Paul referred to the house of God, how did he refer to that house? He referred to the house of God as the pillar and support of the truth.
But when he comes to this second letter, the house is described in a different way:
Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware,
and some to honor and some to dishonor.
Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master,